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5 Lectures by Prof. Dagfinn Föllesdal

Lecture 1: Husserl’s phenomenology and its relation to contemporary philosophical issues(胡塞尔现象学及其与当代哲学议题的关系)
Speaker: Professor Dagfinn Föllesdal
Chair and Commentator: Professor LIU Zhe (
刘哲)
Time: 2018
年11月6日, 18:30-21:00
Place: 李兆基人文学苑哲学系3109室
Abstract: 
This lecture will be an introduction to Husserl’s phenomenology. Husserl is difficult to read, and my main aim in this lecture is to present his view clearly and systematically. All the main themes of his philosophy will be covered, starting with his notion of intentionality and going on to his views on perception, intuition, intersubjectivity and empathy, constitution and the phenomenological reduction. The lecture will end with a survey of Husserl’s influence on existentialism and hermeneutics.

Lecture 2: Husserl and Gödel(胡塞尔和哥德尔)
Speaker: Professor Dagfinn Föllesdal
Chair and Commentator: Professor XING Taotao (邢滔滔)
Time: 2018年11月8日, 18:30-21:00
Place: 李兆基人文学苑哲学系3109室
Abstract: 
It is not widely known that there was a connection between Husserl and Gödel. Gödel’s Nachlass shows, however, that Gödel studied Husserl’s work carefully and regarded it highly. After a brief presentation of Husserl’s view on mathematical objects and on justification in mathematics, I will discuss Gödel’s view on these two themes. I will devote special attention to Gödel’s realism and the relation between this and the constructivist view that one finds in Husserl. Gödel’s view on mathematical intuition will be discussed and compared to that of Husserl. In particular, we will look closely at his view that mathematical intuition and perception of physical objects are very similar to one another.
The comparison between Husserl and Gödel throws light on a passage in the appendix that Gödel added to his article “What is Cantor’s continuum problem?” when this was reprinted in Benacerraf and Putnam, Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings in 1964, and which is often regarded as mysterious:
That something besides the sensations actually is immediately given follows (independently of mathematics) from the fact that even our ideas referring to physical objects contain constituents qualitatively different from sensations or mere combinations of sensations, e.g., the idea of object itself ... . Evidently, the 'given' underlying mathematics is closely related to the abstract elements contained in our empirical ideas. It by no means follows, however, that the data of this second kind, because they cannot be associated with actions of certain things upon our sense organs, are something purely subjective, as Kant asserted. Rather they, too, may represent an aspect of objective reality, but, as opposed to the sensations, their presence may be due to another kind of relationship between ourselves and reality. (pp. 271-272)

Lecture 3: Quine and some main issues in the philosophy of language (I) 【蒯因与语言哲学中的某些主要议题(I)】
Speaker: Professor Dagfinn Föllesdal
Chair and Commentator: Professor CHEN Bo(陈波)
Time: 2018年11月9日, 14:30-17:00
Place: 李兆基人文学苑哲学系3109室
Abstract:
Quine was a main figure in 20th century philosophy, who introduced and shaped many of the issues that engage philosophers of our time. In three lectures I will survey all main aspects of Quine's philosophy and trace the development of his views. The lectures will focus mainly on his philosophy of language, with a close study and discussion of his views on meaning and communication, analyticity and indeterminacy of translation. However, Quine was a very “holist” philosopher, and we will also need to go into his view on ontology, logic and mathematics, modality, reference, science, naturalism, mind and the mental. The lectures will not make use of formalism and will not presuppose any knowledge of Quine’s philosophy.

Lecture 4: Quine and some main issues in the philosophy of language (II) 【蒯因与语言哲学中的某些主要议题(II)】
Speaker: Professor Dagfinn Föllesdal
Chair and Commentator: Professor CHEN Bo(陈波)
Time: 2018年11月10日, 14:30-17:00
Place: 李兆基人文学苑哲学系3109室
Abstract: Quine was a main figure in 20th century philosophy, who introduced and shaped many of the issues that engage philosophers of our time. In three lectures I will survey all main aspects of Quine's philosophy and trace the development of his views. The lectures will focus mainly on his philosophy of language, with a close study and discussion of his views on meaning and communication, analyticity and indeterminacy of translation. However, Quine was a very “holist” philosopher, and we will also need to go into his view on ontology, logic and mathematics, modality, reference, science, naturalism, mind and the mental. The lectures will not make use of formalism and will not presuppose any knowledge of Quine's philosophy.

Lecture 5: Quine and some main issues in the philosophy of language (III) 【蒯因与语言哲学中的某些主要议题(III)】
Speaker: Professor Dagfinn Follesdal
Chair and Commentator: Professor CHEN Bo(陈波)
Time: 2018年11月12日, 14:30-17:00
Place: 李兆基人文学苑哲学系3109室
Abstract: Quine was a main figure in 20th century philosophy, who introduced and shaped many of the issues that engage philosophers of our time. In three lectures I will survey all main aspects of Quine's philosophy and trace the development of his views. The lectures will focus mainly on his philosophy of language, with a close study and discussion of his views on meaning and communication, analyticity and indeterminacy of translation. However, Quine was a very “holist” philosopher, and we will also need to go into his view on ontology, logic and mathematics, modality, reference, science, naturalism, mind and the mental. The lectures will not make use of formalism and will not presuppose any knowledge of Quine's philosophy.

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