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Notable work "The Foreignness of Philosophy"《哲學的陌生感》"The Pursuit of Philosophy"《哲學的追尋》"The Blindspot of Thinking"《思考的盲點》 Similar Mou Zongsan, Tang Junyi, Confucius, Ch'ien Mu, Immanuel Kant | ||
Dr. Tao Kwok Cheung (Chinese: 陶國璋, born 1955), was born in Guang Dong Huizhou city (Chinese: 廣東惠州市) and moved to Hong Kong in 1959 at the age of four. He teaches the General Education courses in the Chinese University of Hong Kong as a full-time professor since 1990 and retired in 2015 to be a part-time assistant professor. He founded the Philosophia Cultural Society (Chinese: 睿哲文化學會) with other University lecturers in 2001 and is also a council member of Society for Life and Death Education. He publishes articles in a special column “Philosophy in an array of stars” (Chinese: 繁星哲語) in the Hong Kong Economic Journal and in Mingpao.
Contents
Academic background
Research interest
Teaching career
Professor Tao is renowned for his witty and humorous teaching style. “Philosophy of Love” and “Death and Immorality” are popular courses among students in the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
“Philosophy of Love”
“Analyze love in a solemn philosophical way” (Chinese:"把愛情當做哲學命題進行嚴肅分析") is what Professor Tao aimed to do when he started the course “Philosophy of Love”. In Philosophy, topics like Freedom, Death and Democracy are widely discussed in depth. Yet, people rarely interpret “Love” in Philosophy, probably because Philosophers are not experienced in love, and that they like to talk about the love in ethics and morality, but not the love between people. Also, it is difficult for Philosophers to analyze “Love” as it cannot be explained by theories or other rather rational methods. Therefore, Professor Tao aspired to fill the vacuum in Philosophy by investigating the unexplored topic of love.
“Death and Immorality”
Though “Death” is much discussed in the field of Philosophy, it is not brought up to a great concern in Hong Kong, because “Death” is a traditional Chinese taboo word, where people do not usually mention it in public but keep it as a topic to be discussed in private. Being diagnosed with Nephrotic at an early age, Professor Tao particularly sympathizes with the topic of “Death” where he constantly suffers from pain. Since 1990s, he has been teaching the course “Death and Immorality” and keep modifying it. At first, he attempted to categorize deaths conscientiously, such as chronic disease, suicide, sudden death. Recent years, he switched to a more relaxing and interactive teaching style, in which he would talk about the unfortunate death of male or female protagonists in romantic story, invite masters in Buddhism to share a religious view of death and organize a workshop for students to feel death. Professor Tao has been teaching this course for over twenty years, he concluded his insights about death in a University talk, he said “When people talk about death, it is very easy for them to view it as ‘others’ death, thus neglect its personal meaning. In fact, death is the reflection of humans on their own existence, we should treat it as a memory of life and let it be our motivation to live, it might change your views on the world” (Chinese: "當人們談論死亡時，往往容易將其視為‘他人之死’，而忽視了對於自我的意義。其實，死亡是人類對存在的自我反省，我們應當把它變成一生的感受，同樣也是一生的促進，這樣一來它也許會改變你對世界的看法。").
Writing style
Professor Tao uses terse and clear language to illustrate complex Philosophical theories in both Chinese and Western world to readers, such as Metaphysics, Phenomenal and Neo-Confucianism. Since Professor Tao mainly writes about Philosophical theories, he keeps his language in an objective manner and seldom reveals personal feelings in his works. His works are well-structured and served as introductory books to beginners in Philosophy. For instance, in his most up-to-date book “Post-80s·The Blind Spot of Love” (Chinese:《愛的盲點‧80後篇》), incorporated simple ideas in Philosophy, Psychology, and Sociology in analysing the development of mentality in the Post-80s. Hence, portrays the Love Phenomenon in the Post-80s and unlocks their sentimental world.
Though Professor Tao uses plain words, his works are poetic and lively, which challenge the perception that Philosophy is meant to be solemn. In “The Foreignness of Philosophy” (Chinese: 《哲學的陌生感》) , the famous line "Foreignness is the oblivion over a long period of time, they do not know who they are as being long in their bustling real-life. "(Chinese: "陌生是長時間的遺忘，長期在現實生活中營役而不知其所歸向。") reflects Professor Tao's use of simple yet beautiful Chinese in explaining Phenomenon in Philosophy. "I existed, life in here, it has no beginning or an end, it cannot be depended upon something else, it is the most natural and primitive bounce; it is filled with passion, that needs to be expressed entirely" (Chinese: "我存在了，生命之在，起迄無端，欲著而無著，是原始自然的躍動；它滿盈激動，總要求發放出來，宣洩無餘。"), gives readers a vivid impression of the excitement in possessing life.