谦之论坛预告｜David Charles：行动与活动：亚里士多德的进路

题目 (Topic) : 行动与活动：亚里士多德的进路

ACTION AND ACTIVITY: ARISTOTLE’S APPROACH

主讲人 (Speaker) :David Charles 耶鲁大学

与谈人 (Respondents) :

黄   敏 太阳集团tcy8722

田书峰 太阳集团tcy8722

杨小刚 太阳集团tcy8722

时间：2025年10月26日 15:30

地点：太阳集团tcy8722锡昌堂515会议室

主讲人简介

大卫·欧文·莫里斯·查尔斯FLSW是英国哲学家，曾任耶鲁大学哲学与古典学教授。牛津大学太阳集团城娱8722哲学CUF讲师，并曾作为访问教授任教于加州大学洛杉矶分校和新泽西州罗格斯大学。

查尔斯持有牛津大学哲学博士学位（D.Phil.），其研究聚焦于意义、定义与实践技能相关问题，以及哲学与精神病学的交叉领域。他在古希腊哲学和当代心灵哲学、形而上学领域均有著述。

2012年，查尔斯当选威尔士学术协会会员。

主要著作：

1. （主编）《质形论史：从亚里士多德到笛卡尔》（2023）
2. 《不可分割的自我：亚里士多德与“心身”问题》（2021）
3. （与威廉·奇尔德合编）《维特根斯坦主题：纪念大卫·皮尔斯的论文集》（2001）
4. 《亚里士多德论意义与本质》（2000）
5. （与迈克尔·弗雷德合编）《亚里士多德〈形而上学〉Lambda卷》（2000）
6. 《亚里士多德的行动哲学》（1984）

David Owain Maurice Charles FLSW is a British philosopher, formerly a professor of philosophy and classics at Yale University. He has previously been Colin Prestige Fellow, and Professor of Philosophy at Oriel College, Oxford, and CUF Lecturer in Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University, and has been a visiting professor at the University of California at Los Angeles and at Rutgers University, New Jersey.

Charles holds a doctorate (D.Phil.) in philosophy from Oxford University. His research interests lie in issues concerning meaning, definition and practical skill and interconnections between philosophy and psychiatry. He has published on Greek philosophy and on contemporary philosophy of mind and metaphysics.

Charles was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales in 2012.

Publications：

1. (editor) The History of Hylomorphism: From Aristotle to Descartes (2023)
2. The Undivided Self: Aristotle and the ‘Mind-Body’ Problem (2021)
3. (co-editor with William Child) Wittgensteinian themes: essays in honour of David Pears (2001)
4. Aristotle on Meaning and Essence (2000)
5. (co-editor with Michael Frede) Aristotle’s Metaphysics Book Lambda, (2000)

6. Aristotle's Philosophy of Action (1984)

    

讲座提要

亚里士多德将某些行为视为过程（kinēseis）与活动（energeiai），并对后两种现象进行了理论阐述。包括伯特兰·罗素和唐纳德·戴维森在内的许多当代哲学家，则将行为理解为事件。

本次演讲将探讨这两种研究路径的差异，并聚焦于亚里士多德相关本体论论述引发的三个核心问题：

1.什么是过程（按亚里士多德的理解）？过程与事件有何关联？

2.亚里士多德区分过程与活动的依据是什么？

3.将行为视为过程与活动而非事件，其更广泛的哲学意义何在（如果存在这种意义）？

我将论证，亚里士多德将行为理解为过程与活动的观点，正是其独树一帜且至今仍具哲学挑战性的行为动因与价值理论的基础。

Aristotle thought of some actions as processes (kinēseis) and activities (energeiai) and developed an account of the latter two phenomena. Many contemporary philosophers, including Bertrand Russell and Donald Davidson, think of actions as events.

In this talk I shall investigate the differences between these approaches and focus on three questions raised by Aristotle’s account of the relevant ontology:

(a)     What are processes (as Aristotle understood them)? How are they related to events?

(b)    What is the basis for Aristotle’s distinction between processes and activities?

(c)     What, if anything, is the more general philosophical significance of treating actions as processes and activities rather than events?

I shall suggest that Aristotle’s understanding of actions as processes and activities is the basis for his distinctive and still philosophically challenging account of the causes and value of action.