Philosophy

This course explores a nuanced understanding of The Pensées of Blaise Pascal while deepening one's knowledge of French Thought and Religion. The course also covers its Reception History, exploring various themes related to Life, Humanity, and Religion, while encouraging students to express their own existential reflections.

This course covers a selection of topics in contemporary philosophical aesthetics, as well as exploring some of the points of contact between aesthetics, ethics, and the philosophy of language. Students consider how to understand some distinctive aesthetic experiences, such as awe, amusement, horror, and the experience of the uncanny. Students discuss the nature of fictional representation and, in particular, examine some of the ways in which a fiction's representational content relies on far more than, e.g., the words on the page or the images on screen. This enables students to consider some questions about the ethics of representation, such as: What is an offensive joke? If I like to make my character do terrible things when I play a video game, does my behavior deserve criticism? How  secure is the distinction between an extremely violent film that trivializes violence and an extremely violent film that implicitly critiques the representation of violence? And when, if ever, does the choice to perform a role amount to an endorsement of the actions we are representing?

The philosophy of economics investigates what distinguishes economics as its own discipline, addressing questions about the distinctiveness of the subject matter and the metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical status of its assumptions and methods. In particular, the course examines the core philosophical commitments from the formative stages of the discipline’s development which endure and continue to undergird modern economic theory. As such, the course emphasizes the classical theory that guided the development of economics as a discipline, with a focus on the divergence—oftentimes drastic and premonitory—from the philosophical commitments of other social sciences, in particular sociology.

The Spring and Autumn Annals is one of the five Classics of Confucianism, and its Ram, Guliang and Zuo Zhuan each have a place in the Thirteen Classics of Confucianism.The "Gong Yang Biography" elaborated on the general meaning of small words, especially the important origin of Confucian political philosophy and historical philosophy, which played an important role in the political life of ancient China.On the other hand, the Biography of Zuo, with its detailed records and colorful prose, is the most important book for the study of the historical facts of the Spring and Autumn Period, as well as one of the best historical and literary works in Chinese history: The Biography of Guliang, with its pure moral principle, is also an important part of Confucianism.This course plans to take the righteous example of "Gong Yang Biography" as a compendium and read the three biographies in pairs. Through the teaching method of combining the classics in history and the classics with history, students will be brought into the doctrinal world of "Spring and Autumn Annals".

First, through the reading and learning of the Spring and Autumn Annals and its three biographies, students can have a preliminary understanding of the text features of the three biographies.Secondly, on the premise of having a general understanding of the historical facts of the Spring and Autumn Period, the students can have a better understanding of the Chinese historical tradition originated in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Confucian ethical thoughts, political philosophy and historical philosophy expounded by the three biographies.

This course introduces the central problems and issues in contemporary philosophy of religion. Among the questions that students will consider are: Are there any persuasive arguments for the existence of God? Is religious belief rational if it is not supported by evidence? Is it reasonable to believe that just one religious tradition is true? The aims of the course are: Help students to engage with some of the most central and enduring problems in philosophy of religion; Enhance students' power of critical analysis, reasoning and independent thought, and ability to bring those powers to bear on important philosophical issues; Familiarise students with some of the most interesting and provocative texts in contemporary work on philosophy of religion.  

This course explores Buddhist philosophical issues and logic that were established during Mahayanic development. Topics include Mahayanic issues such as icchantika and the Mahayanic theory of knowledge. Under the latter, topics such as the concept of Buddha nature, reality, sources of knowledge, sensations, reflexes, conceptions, judgement, inferences, etc. are examined.

This course asks whether the welfare state is justified, how extensive it should be, and what level of inequality and/or poverty is acceptable in a just society. Thus, the course examines the main theories of distributive or social justice in contemporary analytical political philosophy. Distributive justice is about the fair distribution of burdens and benefits in a society and some of the main approaches to this issue that we look at include liberal egalitarianism, libertarianism (left and right), luck egalitarianism, and relational egalitarianism and republicanism. The course also looks at some of the critiques, alternative approaches and applications of these theories, to areas like health and education.

This course examines the social and economic impacts of artificial intelligence (AI), with a focus on ethical considerations, social justice, and both the opportunities and risks associated with AI technologies. Through hands-on, active learning exercises, participants use AI tools to complete practical tasks while developing hybrid critical thinking skills that integrate human judgment with generative AI. The course emphasizes responsible and effective AI use and is assessed through a combination of group projects and individual reflection.

The Zhuangzi 莊子 is an ancient text from the Warring States period (476 – 221 BC) of what is now China. Traditionally ascribed to a single author, Zhuang Zhou, it is now generally regarded as a compilation of many texts, spanning many decades but united by key themes. These themes raise challenges to some fundamental philosophical orthodoxies: the possibility of genuine knowledge, the existence of consistent identifiable standards in morality and reasoning, the power of language to successfully communicate thoughts, the stability of personal identity, even the ontological distinctness of things. This course covers key chapters of this radical and mysterious text and introduces students to some of the philosophical scholarship on it. All texts are read in annotated English translations, but consideration is given to the unique properties of the original language and the difficulties of accurate translation.