For Kant, "Right," or coercively enforceable civil and criminal law, and "Ethics," our non-coercively enforceable duties to self and others, are the two parts of morality as a whole, with a common foundation in our fundamental obligation to treat "humanity" in both ourselves and others always as an end and never merely as a means. In this seminar we will explore the structure of his basic arguments in both Right and Ethics to see how they are each grounded in the moral status of humanity, and how the concept of humanity must be understood in order for his arguments to work. We will further explore what can be expected from the enforcement of law, and what must be left to the moral motivation of both power-holders and ordinary citizens in a "civil condition" or state.
Background for the seminar will be provided by three of my forthcoming but not yet published papers, "Enforcing the Law of Nature," "Morality, Right, and Responsibility," and "Humanity, Right, and Ethics." These papers will be made available in advance of the seminar.

Speaker
Prof. Paul Guyer

Prof. Paul Guyer received his PhD at Harvard University in 1974. His teachers included Stanley Cavell and John Rawls. He is the Jonathan Nelson Professor emeritus in Humanities and Philosophy at Brown University and the Florence R.C. Murray Professor in the Humanities emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania; he also taught at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois-Chicago, Princeton University, and Harvard University. His dissertation was on Kant’s aesthetics, leading to his first book, Kant and the Claims of Taste (1979); he has worked more broadly on both Kant and aesthetics throughout his career. He is the author, editor, and/or translator of more than thirty books, including Kant and the Claims of Knowledge (1987), Kant on Freedom, Law, and Happiness (2000), Kant (2006/2014), A History of Modern Aesthetics (3 vols., 2014), Virtues of Freedom (2016), Reason and Experience in Mendelssohn and Kant (2020), A Philosopher Looks at Architecture (2021), Idealism in Modern Philosophy (2023, with Rolf-Peter Horstmann), and, most recently, Kant’s Impact on Moral Philosophy (2024). He was General Co-Editor of The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant in English Translation, and in that series co-edited and co-translated the Critique of Pure Reason, and edited and co-translated the Critique of the Power of Judgment and Kant’s Notes and Fragments. He also edited three different Cambridge Companions on Kant. He has published more than three hundred journal articles and book chapters.
Prof. Guyer has been president of both the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division and the American Society for Aesthetics, and was chairman of the board of the North American Kant Society for many years. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens. He has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Princeton University Center for Human Values, and the American Academy in Berlin, and has been an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Prize Winner. His other honors include the Matchette Prize of the American Philosophical Association, the Centennial Medal of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the International Kant Prize (2024).
Prof. Guyer continues his research with a focus on Kant’s moral and political philosophy in historical context.

“Muslim and non-Muslim Interactions in Secular Contexts: Trans-Asian Comparison and Entanglement” is Part II of the Joint International Workshop Series co-organized by the Centre for the Study of Islamic Culture at CUHK, the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences “Multiple Secularities,” and the Institute for the Study of Religions at Leipzig University.

Featuring speakers from diverse backgrounds, we will explore the complexities of interactions between Muslims and non-Muslims in Asia, particularly the themes:

• Muslim Women Negotiating Agency
• Local Perspectives on Chinese Muslim Status
• Intra-Muslim Relations in Secular Environments
• Muslims in Secular Economies
• Muslims and Non-Muslims in Multicultural Southeast Asia

Wonder often fades as understanding and knowledge grows. A child's wonder at everyday objects tends to disappear, as it should, when the child comes to understand more about them. Is wonder, then, a fool's attitude, only appropriate for the ignorant? I argue that it is not. In particular, I argue that there are some stable objects of wonder, or, more simply wonders, where wonder is appropriate, no matter how much one knows or understands about the object. I explore what such stable objects of wonder have in common, and consider what this tells us about the value of wonder itself.

Speaker
Prof. Harvey Lederman
Professor, University of Texas at Austin

In the historical process of Buddhism's introduction to China, there were several significant theoretical debates during the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties period. Among them, I believe the most meaningful one in terms of cultural exchange was a debate triggered by Taoist Gu Huan's writing of "Yi Xia Lun". "Yi Xia Lun" is the earliest discussions of "civilizational conflict" in Chinese history. The issues it addresses pertain to whether different civilizational thought systems can engage with and assimilate one another, leading to the use of barbarian elements for the benefit of Chinese culture, and to the multidimensional expansion of the local cultural realm and its values.

Speaker
Prof. Dong ping
Zhe Jiang University

Dong Ping, a distinguished professor at Zhejiang University and a doctoral supervisor at the School of Philosophy, is a member of the Zhejiang Provincial Research Institute of Literature and History and an expert receiving special government allowances from the State Council.
 

To inform CUHK public of the new programme BA in Public Humanities

Speaker 
Prof. Chan Kam Leung Alan
Prof. Tang Xiaobing Max
Prof. Pang Laikwan
Prof. Chung Peichi
Prof. Leung Hok Bun Isaac
Prof. Lim Kok Wai Benny
Prof. Tan Jia