Date: 19 June 2010
Project: 1500 - 1630
Round Table: 1640 - 1730
Venue: LT1, Teaching Complex at Western Campus (TCW), CUHK
　
Discussants:
Dennitza Gabrakova (City University of Hong Kong),
Kwok-ying Lau (Chinese University of Hong Kong),
Ping-keung Lui (Hong Kong Society of Phenomenology),
Yuji Nishiyama (Tokyo Metropolitan University)
　
Co-organized by:
The Edwin Cheng Foundation Asian Centre for Phenomenology,
Archive for Phenomenology and Contemporary Philosophy,
Hong Kong Society of Phenomenology
　
Admission free; no registration required
For inquiry, please contact phenomenology@live.hk
Official website: http://rightphilo.blog112.fc2.com/

Talk given by Professor Johann P. Arnason, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at La Trobe University, Melbourne
　
Date: 24 May 2010
Time: 1700-1900
Venue: Room 125, Fung King Hey Building, CUHK
　
Abstract:
The Czech phenomenologist Jan Patocka (1907-1977) wrote the essay "Supercivilization and It’s Internal Conflict” in Prague in the mid-1950s which remained unknown for several decades. It is both an interpretation of modernity, which Patocka tried to understand in civilizational terms, and a critical analysis of Communism, which appears as a product of a radical current within the modern “supercivilization”, opposed to what Patocka saw as a moderate version, prevalent in the West. The text is an outstanding example of a phenomenological diagnosis of the times, and a crucial phase in the development of Patocka’s philosophy of history.

The Speaker:
Johann P. Arnason is Emeritus professor of Sociology at La Trobe University, Melbourne, and Visiting Professor at Charles University, Prague. His main research interests are in historical sociology and the
comparative analysis of civilizations. Publications include "Civilizations in Dispute", 2003, and "Axial Civilizations and World History" (edited, with S.N. Eisenstadt and Bjorn Wittrock), 2005. He has also written essays on phenomenology and social theory, with particular emphasis on Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Jan Patocka.
　
Co-organized by:
Edwin Cheng Foundation Asian Centre for Phenomenology,
Hong Kong Society of Phenomenology

Speaker: Prof. Hans Sluga, Department of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley; Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy, CUHK
Date: 12 March 2010
Time: 1700-1900
Venue: Multi-Purpose Room, New Asia College, CUHK
Organizer: (1) Hong Kong Society of Phenomenology, (2) Edwin Cheng Foundation Asian Centre for Phenomenology, CUHK
　
Oskar Becker (1889-1964) is a key figure in the history of phenomenology. After obtaining a doctorate in mathematics in Leipzig he studied philosophy with Edmund Husserl and in the 1920's served, together with Martin Heidegger, as Husserl's assistant and as editor of the Yearbook for Phenomenological Research. In his book Mathematische Existenz, published in 1927 in the same volume of the Yearbook as Heidegger's Being and Time, he sought to provide foundations for mathematics with the help of both Husserl's phenomenology and Heidegger's hermeneutics. Later on he sought to supplement Heidegger's analysis of Dasein with an account of Dawesen, a concept that was meant to capture the non-historical aspects of reality. In later years he worked extensively on problems of logic and the philosophy and history of mathematics. Becker also served as an important transmitter of Heidegger's thought for a post-Second-War generation of German philosophers, including most notably Juergen Habermas and Otto Poggeler.