Third session of the lecture series in Philosophy Month by Prof. Carroll

On Oct. 30, 2015, Prof. William E. Carroll from University of Oxford has given us the third session of the lecture series in Philosophy Month, which is named Cosmology, Philosophy, Theology, and the Origin of the Universe--From Stephen Hawking to Thomas Aquinas, in E301, Library, SJTU. The lecture has attracted lots of science students.

For as long as human beings have reflected on nature and their place in nature, they have been fascinated with questions of origins: their own individual origins, the origins of their family, of the human race, and, ultimately, the origin of the universe itself. We move carelessly at times among different senses of what we mean by "origins," resulting in ambiguity and confusion. We can speak of origins in terms of cosmology, philosophy, and theology, but, if we fail to keep distinct the different senses of "origin" and the different modes of analysis with respect to various disciplinary inquiries, our understanding is seriously compromised. Prof. Carroll said that the sub-title of the lecture, "From Stephen Hawking to Thomas Aquinas," could be re-phrased as "from confusion to clarity," for discussions in the European Latin Middle Ages concerning the insights of cosmology, philosophy, and theology with respect to the origin of the universe were considerably clearer and indeed more profound than those we encountered nowadays. This was also what he has argued during the speech.