希爾茲教授

英國牛津大學古典哲學教授

希爾兹教授1979年畢業於美國鮑靈格林州立大學,主修英國文學,其後留校轉研哲學,1981年獲碩士學位後,再赴康奈爾大學深造,分別於1984及1986年獲頒哲學碩士及博士學位。希爾兹教授最初受聘於高比大學(1986–88),1988年轉往科羅拉多大學,從事教研工作凡十六年,曾任助理教授、副教授、教授等職。2004年開始任教於英國牛津大學至今,現為該校古典哲學教授及瑪格麗特夫人學院院士。

希爾兹教授多次獲邀到美國、英國、新西蘭、德國等地訪問講學,曾任牛津大學基督聖體學院訪問學人(1992–93)、耶魯大學訪問教授(2002)、康奈爾大學訪問教授(2007)、坎培拉大學厄斯金訪問教授(2003)、柏林洪堡大學訪問學者及高級學人(2012, 2013)。

希爾兹教授以古代哲學及形上學研究著稱學術界,於心靈哲學、中古哲學、現代哲學、哲學與文學等範疇亦素有研究,已發表專著7種、論文近50篇,包括:《牛津手冊:亞里士多德》(2012)、《古哲學今論》(2011;中譯本2014年面世)、《亞里士多德》(2007;中譯本2013年面世)、《古代哲學》(2002;中譯本2009)、《多元中的秩序:亞里士多德哲學中的同名異義》(1999);他也是《心靈哲學史》(共5冊,即將出版)的主編。

希爾兹教授為第十九位唐君毅訪問教授。他的公開演講以「靈魂的重探:生命系統與其他統一體」為題,探討生命系統如何成為擁有特殊地位的統一體。他亦為本系主持一個為期四週的研究院研討班「亞里士多德之《靈魂論》」,與學生共同研讀由他譯註的《靈魂論》(2014年由Clarendon出版社出版),重點討論形質說在心理學研究中的角色和本質。最後,希爾兹教授會於本系教職員研討會上主講「亞里士多德倫理學中的『至善』:撕裂的善」,分析柏拉圖和亞里士多德關於善之形上學的論爭。

靈魂的重探:生命系統與其他統一體

poster
2013年9月16日(一)
下午四時半
康本國際學術園 二號演講室

我們很容易會這樣想:靈魂這概念已被科學取代。假若如此,那麼在宗教範疇以外,我們便沒有什麼理由爭論靈魂是否存在了:畢竟,許多解釋原本是由靈魂此概念充當,現已均由經驗科學——尤其是生物科學——取代。然而,上述這個推斷,其實是未成熟、甚至是短視的。亞里士多德視靈魂為一個統一原則;當我們反思其形而上的理據時,我們有理由重新審視「生命系統實際上是有特殊地位的統一體」的提議。因此,我們要麼就接受這些系統之統一是原始的,要麼就要設定某些關於特殊地位的原則。在設定這樣的原則之時,我們其實已在回探生命系統是具有靈魂的假設。

The Aristotelian Soul

13 Sept 2013 (Fri) 2:30-5:15 LSK 201
23 Sept 2013 (Mon) 3:30-6:15 YIA 201
27 Sept 2013 (Fri) 2:30-5:15 LSK 201
4 Oct 2013 (Fri) 2:30-5:15 LSK 201

De Anima contains Aristotle’s most mature reflections on the soul and its capacities. Probably composed in his second and last period in Athens, the treatise casts a long shadow: over the last two millennia there have been an estimated eight-hundred commentaries dedicated to it; and it continues to be a subject of non-antiquarian study even today. The abiding interest of Aristotle’s De Anima owes in part to the intrinsic merit of its subject matter: life, the soul and its relation to the body, perception, thought, desire, and human action. Another source of interest derives from the general framework within which Aristotle conducts his investigations into the these topics: De Anima makes full and complex use of Aristotle’s most sophisticated hylomorphism, with the result that it offers a unified framework for assaying phenomena whose close relations tend to be obscured in comparatively piecemeal approaches.

Our goal in this seminar is twofold: we will want to understand Aristotle’s often challenging contentions regarding the soul and its capacities and then to determine whether we ourselves should accept or reject the analyses he offers. Towards these ends, we will divide our discussions into four sections, beginning with an introduction to the problems of the soul, as Aristotle conceives them, and then following with consideration of three waves, or distinct applications, of hylomorphism, to: (i) soul-body relations; (ii) perception (aisthêsis); and (iii) reason (nous).

亞里士多德倫理學中的「至善」:撕裂的善

poster
2013年9月30日(一)
下午四時半
香港中文大學馮景禧樓101室

Aristotle contends that Plato was wrong to postulate the existence of a Form of the Good, which, as characterises it, is meant to be “some good beyond all other good things, something good in its own right (τι καθ’ αὑτὸ εἶναι), which is the cause of the goodness of all good things” (EN 1095a26–28). Yet he himself endorses the existence of some best and highest good (τἀγαθὸν καὶ τὸ ἄριστον; EN1094a17–21), which he conceives as the end of all intentional action. While this is not a contradiction, it brings into sharp relief the question of Aristotle’s own understanding of the summum bonum: does he in fact have a coherent, defensible conception?