My memory of attending Moral Science Clubs talks from 10 years ago was that the atmosphere was often aggressive. The audience would be keen to poke holes in the talk and the speaker would come up with ways of fighting back. It was basically a Spanish bullfight with words. It was pleasant to discover that Hallvard Lillehammer’s talk on moral praise and moral performance wasn’t quite like that. During the presentation itself, Lillehammer would himself wonder whether his take on matters are influenced by Kantian instincts acquired due to his cultural background and upbringing....

When you see Bertie “hail a salaam” at someone, you know Ben Schott has got everything under control and could just toy with the reader.

What makes people want to write something that is not for immediate practical use (e.g. school/work report, letters of invitation)? Part of it, especially for literary and philosophical types, is no doubt fame, fortune and the possibility of immortality. Who could resist the thought that perhaps, one day, one’s writing will be pored over by scholars like any little scrap of paper by Shakespeare or Kant? More prosaically, writing also helps solidify memory....

I remember coming across Nozick before as a cardboard libertarian philosopher. My impression of Anarchy, State and Utopia (“ASU”), its main arguments and weaknesses, were more or less consistent with what Dworkin mentioned in his Magee interview: Nozick starts from the proposition that individuals have rights and there are things no state may do to them without violating their rights. His arguments fail because this basic starting point is unjustified....

I only read the beginning and the end of this book in Chinese translation. But I enjoy a central tension it explores. On the one hand Confucianism as a matter of history relied on the absolute power of “the Son of Heaven” for legitimacy and propagation. On the other, Confucians have always emphasised the need for benevolence and tolerance. One resorts to law and force only as the very last measure....

One of my friends from university joined the Society of Jesus after graduation, and I was privileged to be invited (with A) to join their community in London for dinner. The meal was simple but delicious, and we were given a very warm welcome. It reminded me of my days staying and studying at St Deiniol’s Library (now Gladstone’s library): a community of scholars gathered together at the dinner table to discuss what they have read and thought....

The characters in these stories may be drawn from the upper-crust of the English society. But they have one thing in common with 21st century start-ups: everyone is desparate for money. Both plots are driven by the need of hard cash: the leading men needs it to marry the women of their dreams. Founders now need the same to escape the 9-5 and make their lives complete. Even the side plots are all about bets: on horses, on trophy pigs, on the length of sermons (cf....

[These notes are jotted down long after I read the actual book; the details are more likely than not to contain errors.] In the University in Ruins, Professors Bill Readings(!) argues that the origins of the modern research university lies in Germany, where the idea that a Culture can unite disparate polity polities took hold. In his interpretation, the reason why there are so many influential German philosophers is not anything inherent in German culture as such....

From the time of 詩經, Chinese poets have compared people as passing guests in a wide world that does not age or care for human feelings. According to 吉川幸次郎, 蘇軾 turned this lament on its head: 吾生如寄耳，寧獨為此別。 The world is wide and in no hurry to disappear. We part today; but why think this is the last time?