2014年9月21日 星期日

哈佛公開課:正義 (分享會)


哈佛公開課 :正義  一場思辨之旅(8)

日期:2014104(星期六)
時間:下午7:00-10:00 (9:00-10:00 集思會)
地點:香港城巿大學 學術樓() G5-214
聯絡:Desmond Chan 9033 4604 (請留言)
            Albert Jiao 5449 0550
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本課主題:Fair Start? What do we deserve?
這是哈佛大學政治學教授Michael Sandel的公開課,全課程共12講。(本課主要探討羅爾斯(John Rawls) 的理論。 (分享會將播放選錄片段,參加者可自行從Youtube觀看有關影片,或閱讀《正義》第6-7章。)


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2014年9月6日 星期六

Jürgen Habermas on public sphere

Public sphere (Öffentlichkeit) 
Habermas argued that the essential characteristic of the Öffentlichkeit culture was its "critical" nature. Unlike "representational" culture where only one party was active and the other passive, the Öffentlichkeit culture was characterized by a dialogue as individuals either met in conversation, or exchanged views via the print media. Public sphere is a space for the development of a public-minded rational consensus.

公共領域
公共領域的概念是哈伯瑪斯(Jürgen Habermas)提出的,哈伯瑪斯認為要用絕對標準來衡量現代社會,什麼是真、善、美等等是很困難的。那我們能怎麼做?我們只能夠創造一個好的環境讓人對某些問題作對話。在對話的過程裡,儘量把身分地位拿開,只看彼此講話的內容與論據,不以人廢言。過程中要真誠平等的對話。他覺得現代社會這些很重要,因為沒有絕對標準,只能透過對話慢慢形成共識。如果對話沒法產生共識,才去投票,少數服從多數。對他來講民主不單是投票的過程,更重要的是投票之前,我們對問題有沒有更好的理解,用比較理性的態度去投票。(陳健民)

參考Reference:
陳健民,〈大學與公民兩地社會建設:中港兩地的經驗〉。江明修編(2011),《社會企業與公益創新:邁向公民社會》,頁34,台灣:airiti press。
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%BCrgen_Habermas

2014年9月5日 星期五

Moral Dilemmas

“Life in democratic society is rife with disagreement about right and wrong, justice and injustice…“

“…But it need not be this way. Sometimes, an argument can change our mind. How, then, can we reason our way through the contested terrain of justice and injustice, equality and inequality, individual rights and the common good?“

1. Start with an opinion or a conviction
e.g.: “Turn the trolley onto the side track”

2. Seek out the principle on which it is based
e.g.: “Better to sacrifice one life to avoid the death of many”

3. Confront with a situation that confounds the principle
e.g.: “I thought it was always right to save as many lives as possible, and yet it seems wrong to push the man off the bridge.”

=> Feeling the force of that confusion, and the pressure to sort it out, is the impulse to philosophy.

=> Confronted with this tension, we may revise our judgment about the right thing to do, or rethink the principle we initially espoused.

=> As we encounter new situations, we move back and forth between our judgments and our principles, revising each in light of the other.

=> This turning of mind, from the world of action to the realm of reasons and back again, is what moral reflection consists in.

Reference
Sandel Michael J. (2009) Justice: What’s the Right Thing to do? New York: FSG.
Sandel Michael J. ,Open Course : Justice, episode 1. (youtube)