• If you are new to philosophy, our four general first-level courses all aim to give you an introduction, and to get you thinking for yourselves. They do not require any previous background in philosophy. All these courses are available to students in different faculties.

• If you want to learn some logic, we have some logic courses which may sharpen your mind, including CRITICAL THINKING AND LOGIC, a three-unit self-learning course called ELEMENTARY LOGIC, and a more advanced formal logic course.

• If you have already studied philosophy and want to take further courses, or to major in the subject, there are lots of possibilities. We are a very varied group of teachers, with different points of view, and a wide range of interests. We give you as students the opportunity to help us decide some of the courses to be put on.

• If you are a B.A. student going into the second year, note that your choices include taking a double major, combining philosophy with another discipline (including disciplines from the Social Sciences Faculty, like Psychology, Political Science or Sociology), as well as the "joint major" programme in LINGUISTICS & PHILOSOPHY.

• For more information, please visit our department's web site at:

   If you want to know more about what philosophy is, please look at our on-line philosophy guide at:

          - You acquire skills valued by most employers, like the ability to analyse and solve problems, to communicate, to organize ideas and issues, to assess pros and cons. These skills are important not just in philosophy but also in the modern job market.

          - Many employers prefer students with broad intellectual experience and skills. This is particularly true of students who study philosophy in combination with other subjects. You can take a social science subject (e.g. politics or psychology) as one of your double majors.

          - The study of philosophy is useful for at least the following careers: business, management, public administration, journalism, law, communication, public relations, teaching and publishing.

      Our courses are divided into three levels and four groups. The three levels correspond to the three years of study for an undergraduate degree. But it is open to students outside the Arts Faculty to take, for instance, a first level philosophy course in any year of study (provided that the regulations of their own degree programme permit it). The four groups are rough indications of courses related to each other in subject-matter, though not necessarily in approach. The four general first-level courses correspond to the four groupings of higher-level courses.

      Students wishing to take the second/third level courses should normally have taken at least one first-level course, except where otherwise indicated, or with prior approval. Apart from PHIL3810 SENIOR SEMINAR and PHIL3910 SENIOR THESIS, they are all second or third level courses. Some of these courses are also available to students of other faculties as "broadening courses".

      Most of these courses consist of 24 teaching hours in one semester.

      Of all the second and third level courses listed, twelve to sixteen will normally be given each year. This means that not every course will be available in any two-year period. Therefore, student preferences will play a part in determining which courses are given. Some courses, however, are likely to be given every year (because of our commitments to curricula outside the B.A., and for other reasons), and some we prefer to give at least once every two years to make sure that every student has an opportunity to take them.

      Students who major in philosophy must take at least eight courses in philosophy (i.e. eight second or third level 6 unit courses), and are recommended to take at least one course from each of the following categories:

      Third year majors are recommended to take the SENIOR SEMINAR (PHIL3810) in their final year, especially if they are considering further study in philosophy, provided that their second year grades reach a good level.

      You may also double major, by combining Philosophy equally with any other discipline in the Faculty of Arts or the Faculty of Social Sciences. This is a favoured and good pattern of work.

      You may also major in a cross-disciplinary programme in LINGUISTICS AND PHILOSOPHY.

      Students who take a minor in Philosophy must complete 24 credits of second and third-year courses.

Key : * = offered in 2008/2009; 1 = first semester; 2 = second semester

      There are four general introductory courses in philosophy with different themes, each earning six credits :

      All these courses are available to Arts, Science, and Social Sciences students, and students of any other Faculties whose regulations allow them to enroll. There are no prerequisites. Method of assessment for all four courses will be 100% coursework, which may include in-class tests.

      All first year students are encouraged to learn some logic, for example by taking the three-unit ELEMENTARY LOGIC course.

Human beings have always attempted to understand and control the world they live in by asking questions, and seeking effective answers, about that world. These attempts have taken many forms, but philosophy has always been a central part of this process of explanation and the progress of knowledge. The questions of what we can know, how we can know, and how we can use what we know, are prime examples of philosophical questions that have come down to us in a long history of inquiry - philosophy is a part of the natural and practical curiosity of mankind.

This course is an introduction to philosophical issues about the mind. These include metaphysical questions about what minds are, whether the mind is something non-physical or whether it is some kind of a computer. Then there are the epistemological questions about the limitation of human knowledge, such as whether we can really know what other people's experiences are like, or whether there is a God.

One of the founders of Western philosophy, Socrates, claimed that the most important philosophical question is "How is one to live?" How are we to live in our relations with others as individuals? And how are we to live together as communities and societies? This course will introduce some of the ways that key philosophers in the Western tradition have answered these questions. Reading texts by Plato and Aristotle in ancient Greece, and modern and contemporary writings by Locke, Kant, Mill, Rawls and contemporary theorists of democracy, we will explore questions about the way we relate to other people.

The course compares central themes in the philosophical dialogues of the Chinese and Western traditions. Topics may include Confucian intuition, Daoist paradox, Greek rationalism, British Empiricism, Existentialism, Pragmatism, Maoism, Zen Buddhism, and positivism.

      These courses are available to first year Arts Faculty students, and to first, second and third year students from all other faculties.

Critical thinking is a matter of thinking clearly and rationally. It is important for solving problems, effective planning, and expressing ideas clearly and systematically. We shall study the basic principles of critical thinking, and see show how they can be applied in everyday life.

Note: Not available to students who have taken YEDU0001 CRITICAL THINKING FOR EVERYDAY LIFE.

This is a web-based self-study course on elementary formal logic. Formal logic uses special symbolic notations to study reasoning and arguments systematically. In this course we shall look at some basic concepts in logic, and learn how to use special logical symbols to construct and evaluate arguments. There are no lectures in this course, and all teaching material is available online for self-study. There are, however, optional tutorials for students to ask questions. Registered students should visit the philosophy department web site at the beginning of the semester to find out how they can obtain access to the learning material.

This web-based self-study course about formal logic is a sequel to PHIL1006 Elementary logic. Topics will include first order predicate logic, deduction systems for propositional and first order predicate logic, elementary soundness and completeness results. Other topics may include applications to computer science, linguistics, and other areas.

      Courses listed under Group I to Group IV below are also offered to second and third year non-BA students for inter-Faculty broadening purposes.

      Unless otherwise indicated, all second- and third-level courses require a 6-credit first-year course and are assessed by 100% coursework, which may include in-class tests.

      Each second/third-level course carries 6 credits, except for PHIL3910 SENIOR THESIS which earns 12 credits.

Theory of knowledge deals with the nature and possibility of knowledge and its limits. We shall address questions that include: Is Scepticism possible? Are some kinds of knowledge more basic than others? Are our views of the world really true or just elaborate stories that serve our purposes? Can philosophers learn about knowledge from psychology and physiology? What could philosophers add to their stories? Is there one concept of justification (reason) or many (social and cultural differences)? Is truth an important goal of knowledge?

An advanced introduction to contemporary philosophy, this course will focus on three areas of lively current debate. Students will have an opportunity to critically examine a sample of the best recent work in analytic philosophy. Careful attention will be paid to the roots of these debates in the work of Frege, Russell, Moore and Wittgenstein. Topics will include: skepticism, vagueness, and causation.

This course covers both the nature of reality and the nature of knowledge of it and treats the two questions as intrinsically connected. We shall examine a number of important theories of metaphysics, as well as anti-metaphysics, including those of Plato, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and contemporary philosophers such as Habermas, Rorty and Putnam. We will treat these theories not only as representing different views on metaphysics but also as forming a logical order of development.

The human mind is the nexus of a number of great mysteries. What is the nature of self? Is the mind identical to the brain, or is it an immaterial substance? Is Artificial Intelligence possible, and can computers experience emotions and other feelings? Are our actions free, or are they determined by our genes and upbringing? We shall be exploring some of these issues and other related topics in this course.

What is a language, and what is involved in knowing or understanding a language? In this course we will see how philosophers and linguists answer such questions as the following: What can logic tell us about the grammar of natural languages? Are human beings born with a universal grammar? What makes a word meaningful? What is the difference between what we mean and what we convey when we say something? How does a metaphor work? Can we learn something from slips of the tongue about the nature of language?

Happiness is something we all strive for, despite the fact that we have only hazy and inconsistent notions of what it would involve. Is it a psychological state or the condition of living a good life? Is it to be gained by withdrawing from the world, or engaging in it? Are we, in some sense, designed to be happy, or is it always an impossibility? This course will lead students through some of the most influential conceptualisations of happiness in the Western tradition. We will consider, in detail, the work of Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics), J.S.Mill (Utlitarianism) and Freud (Civilisation and Its Discontents). This focus will allow us to explore a range of ideas about the nature of happiness and the possibility (or impossibility) of our achieving it. Particular emphasis will be placed on the ongoing influence of these conflicting ideas in our contemporary world.

In this course we study the major modern theories of social contract, starting with the seventeenth-century Leviathan of Thomas Hobbes, which places the state above its subjects. Later in the same century John Locke's Second Treatise of Government argued that the contracting parties to the state would seek protection of their property above all, and that they could dismiss a non-performing government, an inspiration for the American Revolution. Jean-Jacques Rousseau rejected the positions of Hobbes and Locke, basing his social contract on the will of all jointly to secure the common good, or 'general will'. John Rawls' A Theory of Justice in the twentieth century bases the democratic system on a conception of social justice grounded in equality of basic rights and regard for the least advantaged members of society.

All of us care about justice but perhaps you seldom pause to reflect on the nature of justice and the many difficult issues which justice raises. This course introduces you to these issues and systematic ways of thinking about them. In a nutshell, justice is concerned with the question, How should the benefits and burdens of social cooperation be distributed among members of society under conditions of scarcity and conflicting values? Or, as Serge-Christophe Kolm puts it, "What should be done when different people's desires or interests oppose one another and cannot all be fully satisfied? Justice is the justified answer to this question and its science is the theory of justice." We will think about this question at two levels: the distribution of fundamental rights and duties in the basic structure of society; and the distribution of goods in particular domains, such as health care. Since controversy abounds at both levels, we will discuss and compare a variety of positions, including those of John Rawls, Brian Barry, Amartya Sen, Ronald Dworkin, Robert Nozick, Serge-Christophe Kolm, Norman Daniels, and Francis Kamm. We will also consider whether, and to what degree, Western theories of justice such as these are useful for thinking about issues of justice in Hong Kong and the PRC at large.

Liberal democracy is the dominant political value and form of government in terms of power and influence in the world today. It is supposed to be a coherent combination of liberalism and democracy, and yet there are deep tensions between these two components. It is by identifying these tensions that we can best understand the workings of liberal democracy as a form of government and assess its plausibility and appeal as a political value. Within this context, such familiar topics as political agency, freedom, rights, and private life will be seen in a fresh light.

An introduction to comparative moral philosophy, with readings drawn from the classical Chinese tradition as well as from modern, analytical sources. Figures likely to be taken up include Confucius, Mencius, Mo Tzu and Han Fei Tzu. Attention will be given to the historical development of Chinese moral thinking through these key representatives. Questions to be taken up include the question of whether traditional Chinese thought can have relevance to us in the modern world, and how our beliefs about our nature may shape our beliefs about what is moral or immoral.

This course examines the works of early-modern philosophers writing on politics and science, stressing the interconnections between them. We will examine the claim by some of these philosophers that modern science and technology hold the key to what Francis Bacon called 'the relief of man's estate'. We will read Bacon, Descartes, Bossuet, Locke, La Mettrie, Diderot and Rousseau.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was one of the most important philosophers of the French eighteenth century. He was critical of the Enlightenment's fascination with science, arguing that virtue, community and a kind of freedom, not technological 'progress', should be the goal of human striving. In this course we seek to understand Rousseau's thought in its historical context; we consider how he can be considered a philosopher for our own time, who respected the rights of nature as well as those of humanity. We read selections from his Confessions, and the entire texts of his Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts, and his Discourse on the Origins of Inequality among Men.

Nietzsche occupies a special place in Western thought, both as a wholesale critic of the philosophical tradition that went before him (e.g. Socrates, Kant), and as a precursor of certain philosophical trends that are important today (e.g. Foucault, Derrida). This course offers an overview of Nietzsche's philosophy (including the will to power, perspectivism, nihilism, eternal return) and discusses Nietzsche's influence on contemporary thought.

The important German philosopher Habermas, combining strengths of the Continental and Anglo-American philosophical traditions, has developed a highly influential theory on a wide range of moral, political and historical issues. This course is designed to provide a general introduction to Habermas's interdisciplinary, comprehensive, and politically engaged way of doing philosophy. Topics covered include discourse ethics, the public sphere, social action and rationality, technology and science as ideology, the nature of modernity, and legitimation problems in late capitalism.

The work of French philosopher Michel Foucault (1924-1984) has been enormously influential in many fields: from philosophy and politics to social theory and gender studies. This course offers a general introduction to this work, with particular focus on power, knowledge and sexuality. It will end with a consideration of Foucault's contribution to a contemporary re-thinking of subjectivity and ethics.

Mencius, the most influential of Confucian philosophers, presents interesting challenges to interpretation. Does his philosophy provide a basis for a Chinese theory of human rights? Is his conception of human nature defensible today? Which tradition of interpretation (mind or principle) gives the most plausible interpretation? We shall discuss these questions while looking at some modern scholarly interpretations of Mencius in his ancient context.

This course will focus each year on a different key philosophical text. Presentations will be made by students and discussed according to a schedule worked out in advance between students and the course co-ordinator. Selected third-year students will be included.

This is a third-year course, and is normally offered every year. Permission to attend it will be given to those students with good second year grades.

A thesis may be prepared under supervision for submission not later than March 31 of the final year. Students have to decide a topic on which they would like to write, then select a teacher in the relevant field and discuss the project with him/her, before the end of their second year. If the teacher deems the project viable, then a thesis title must be agreed by the closing date of June 15. The student will then have to work on the thesis over the summer, and be able to demonstrate progress made. If the progress is adequate, work on the thesis may continue; if not, the student will have to take two courses instead.

There are no word limits prescribed, but theses tend to be between 15,000 and 25,000 words in length. Assessment will be based entirely on the completed thesis. This course is only available to students majoring in Philosophy.

      This programme is jointly organised by the Department of Linguistics and the Department of Philosophy. If you need any further information you may contact either of the following members of staff who will be happy to answer your queries:

      Philosophers have long been interested in languages for various reasons. First, our linguistic capacity is one of our most distinguishing features. It allows us to express and record complex ideas, and to communicate with each other. Understanding this capacity is one way to find out more about human nature and our psychology.

      Second, many philosophers think that language has a deep connection with many philosophical problems. Some philosophers think that we should study languages because they reflect the structure of reality. Others think that our ordinary languages are actually not precise enough and that artificial languages should be constructed for philosophical and scientific purposes. Still others think that philosophical problems are not real problems, and that they arise because we misunderstand the nature of our own languages.

      Finally, many philosophers are interested in language simply because it is in itself a fascinating topic. This is especially more so with the recent growth of linguistics. Linguistics is the scientific study of our language capacity. The development of linguistics is exciting because it offers new perspectives and methods in looking at many philosophical questions about language, questions such as: How are the rules of language different from other social norms? To what extent is our language capacity innate? Is it possible to build machines that understand languages as well as we do? These and similar issues involve not just empirical studies but also conceptual clarification. This is why philosophers and linguists collaborate and debate with each other actively on such matters, and this makes the field even more interesting.

      Studying philosophy improves critical thinking and analysis, since you will have to think systematically about both sides of an issue, and evaluate arguments and reasoning carefully. In studying linguistics, students will learn more about the role of language in our psychology and society, and acquire concepts that help them gain a deeper understanding of the grammar, history and sound system of natural languages. By majoring in these two areas, students not just gain the benefits of studying both disciplines. It also helps develop the ability to integrate theories and information from two different subjects. The intellectual and linguistic skills you acquire as a result will be very important for a wide variety of occupations, both in the private commercial sector and in the public sector.

      This programme is open to all Arts students who have passed the following first-year courses:

         2  Any introductory philosophy course from PHIL1001 to PHIL1004.


Course Structure

      In order to major in Linguistics and Philosophy, a student must study in the second and third year no less than eight courses in the two departments, including:

      The remaining eight courses in a student's second/third year programme may be selected from those offered by any department, as permitted by the regulations.

      It should be noted that not all courses are offered in both departments every year. Choices are subject to approval by the Head of the School of Humanities on the recommendation of the Undergraduate Coordinators of the departments.

      Plagiarism, especially from the internet, is an increasing problem in this department and at this University; it is a serious offence against both the rules and the spirit of the University. Plagiarism is defined as the use of other people's ideas without correct and full acknowledgement. Your coursework should be your own; you will learn nothing by copying, either from peers or from websites. Furthermore, copying others' work is unfair to your fellow students. We certainly encourage discussion of ideas among students, but any ideas not your own that you introduce into your written work must be properly referenced. Please see this web page for further details:

      The department offers two higher degrees by research, the MPhil and the PhD, and can arrange for supervision over a wide range of philosophical topics. If you are interested in pursuing postgraduate studies, please contact Dr TE O’Leary.

      This committee meets regularly to discuss any matters of concern, and to consider ways of improving the work of the department. All students are welcome to make suggestions, and to attend the meetings.

      • J. Ci - agency and subjectivity, theories of justice, philosophical and cultural dimensions of capitalism, ethics and politics of modern and contemporary China

      • G.A. Cook - early modern European philosophy (17th -18th centuries), philosophy of nature and science, environmental philosophy, social and political philosophy

      • M.E. Deutsch - philosophy of language, philosophy of mind

      • C. Hansen - Chinese philosophy, comparative philosophy, Daoism, Chinese theory of language, Chinese theory of mind, meta-ethics, philosophy of law

      • P. Hawley - epistemology, philosophy of language, theory of action

      • J.Y.F. Lau - philosophy of mind and cognitive science, philosophy of language

      • M.R. Martin - epistemology and philosophy of language, history of early modern philosophy, classical Confucianism, comparative philosophy, moral and social philosophy (including the ethics of collecting and preserving cultural property)

      • T.E. O'Leary - contemporary European philosophy (especially Michel Foucault), ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of art and literature

      Jiwei Ci was born in Beijing and studied in Beijing and Edinburgh. Before coming to Hong Kong, he had taught in Beijing and had been an Andrew Mellon Fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center, a Fellow at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina, and a Member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He teaches various subjects in moral and political philosophy, from time to time also offering courses on continental philosophy and on Confucianism. His research interests include agency and subjectivity, theories of justice, the philosophical and cultural dimensions of capitalism, and the ethics and politics of communist and post-communist China. He is the author of Dialectic of the Chinese Revolution: From Utopianism to Hedonism (Stanford University Press, 1994) and The Two Faces of Justice (Harvard University Press, 2006).

      Alexandra Cook was born in Washington, DC. She studied at Wellesley College, the University of Virginia and Cornell University. She received the PhD in political philosophy from Cornell in 1994, where she specialized in Continental thinkers. She has taught in the College at The University of Chicago, at Colgate University (Hamilton, NY), and at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her major interests are early modern philosophy and the European Enlightenment, environmental philosophy and history and philosophy of science. Her research on the botanical writings of the eighteenth-century philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau brings all these interests together. She has published a translation and critical edition of Rousseau's botanical writings; currently she is writing a book on Rousseau's theory of nature.

      Max Deutsch came to Hong Kong in 2001. He began his graduate studies in philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. After finishing his M.A., he moved to New Jersey to begin a dissertation on the mind-body problem at Rutgers University. He completed his Ph.D. in May 2001.

      Max's current research is focused on the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of language. Topics in the philosophy of mind that interest him include the mind-body problem, the nature of consciousness, representational theories of phenomenal character, and the internalism/externalism debate. Topics in the philosophy of language that interest him include the semantics of names, the semantics of attitude reports, the semantics/pragmatics distinction, and theories of indexicals and demonstratives.

      Max reads novels and listens to music in his spare time.

      William Haines is trying to understand what it is for anything to be good, and how we can tell. Toward answering these questions he has studied modern Western philosophy, ancient Greek philosophy, and ancient Chinese philosophy, but he has some interest in most other areas of philosophy. He is currently at the University of Hong Kong for a two-year fellowship to work on Chinese philosophy. His publications include Lunlixue: Meiguo zhi xuefa (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 1994); and articles on Aristotle, the unity of goodness, and consequentialism, and the Analects of Confucius.

      Chad Hansen first came to Hong Kong over thirty years ago where he became fascinated with Chinese language and culture and set out to understand and explain Chinese philosophy. Returning to the United States, he went to University where he majored in philosophy then went to the University of Michigan to study for a Ph.D. He studied Mandarin in Taiwan for a year then returned to Hong Kong after a decade for his dissertation research. He finished his dissertation at the University of Michigan and began teaching philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh in 1972 where he was enlightened two years later.

      From there he went to the University of Vermont after the publication of Language and Logic in Ancient China. Later he was selected as University scholar for his second book, A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought. He has also served as visiting professor at The Universities of Michigan, Hawaii, Hong Kong, UCLA and Stanford before returning to HKU in 1991 where he was appointed Professor in 1994.

      He is presently translating the Daode-Jing and writing a book on Comparative East-West Ethics and an introduction to Chinese Philosophy. Besides Chinese philosophy, his main interests are in comparative ethics, philosophy of law, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind. He values the dynamism of Hong Kong as well as the language and especially the food.

      Patrick Hawley earned his PhD from MIT in 2003. He arrived at Hong Kong University in 2005, after teaching at MIT, Tufts University and Brandeis University.

      Patrick is currently pursuing projects in epistemology and philosophy of language. In epistemology, he is particularly interested in the limits and value of knowledge, and the relation between our practical ends and our theoretical goals. In philosophy of language he is working on pragmatics and context sensitivity.

      He also maintains a lively curiosity about computers – his initial degree was in computer science, and he worked in research laboratories before turning seriously to philosophy. He also taught computer science for a year at the national university of Cambodia.

      Intrigued by the mystery of the universe, Joe Lau went to Oxford to study physics and philosophy. While he was there, he became interested in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science, and so he went to MIT for graduate studies in philosophy. He joined the HKU Philosophy Department in 1994. His main research interest concerns the nature and scope of computational theories of cognition and consciousness. He is currently finishing a few books on critical thinking. When he is not busy, he likes to hike, code, and conduct post-modernist cooking experiments.

      Dr Martin grew up on the relaxed and environmentally pure shores of Honolulu, Hawaii. After receiving his university and postgraduate training on the east coast of the United States, he came to HKU in 1980. His main philosophical interests are moral and social philosophy, and early Chinese philosophy, especially Confucianism. In his teaching Dr Martin's main courses include Chinese Philosophy: Ethics, Moral Problems, Theories of Morality and Early Modern Philosophy. From 1993 to 2002, Dr Martin served as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, after serving five years as Associate Dean. In his leisure time Dr Martin enjoys art collecting, travel and swimming.

      Timothy O’Leary left Ireland in 1989 having completed a BA at University College Dublin, and went to Paris where he did a Maîtrise de Philosophie at the University of Paris X (Nanterre). In 1992 he went to Australia, where he completed a PhD on ethics and aesthetics in Foucault's late work. A book based on this research was published in 2002 (Foucault and the Art of Ethics, Continuum). He taught at several Australian universities before joining the Department of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong in January 2001. His major research interests are in the fields of ethics (both ancient and modern), politics and literature, with a particular focus on European philosophy since (and including) Nietzsche. In recent years he has published in the area of the philosophy of literature, especially in relation to the works of contemporary Irish writers. His current project is a book that draws together the work of a range of philosophers (including Foucault, Dewey, Deleuze and Aristotle) in order to explore the transformation of experience that literature makes possible.

       To find out more about the department, please visit the department web site at http://www.hku.hk/philodep. There you will find study guides and links to other philosophy resources on the web.