Between June 22 and July 1, Professor Hilary Kornblith, Director of Dept. of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Amherst was invited by the Famous World Scholars’ Program of Y. C. Tang Disciplinary Development Fund to Zhejiang University. During this period, Hilary Kornblith delivered two lectures, chaired two seminars and had in-depth communications with master’s and doctor’s candidates in Scientific Philosophical Major in office hours.

The subjects of two lectures are “Knowledge and Rethinking” and “Cognitive Subject”. The former focuses on the role of rethinking in the formation of reliable faith. Hilary Kornblith thought the faith with rethinking was not superior to faith without thinking, so he had negative opinions about the role of rethinking in knowledge. The latter focuses on the freedom of subjects in cognition and the cognitive responsibility, and it also involves rethinking. He thought “what I should believe in” related to rethinking is not superior to “what I believe in”. Besides, he criticized the rationalistic tradition in epistemology from the empirical naturalistic traditions.

Professor Huang Huaxin and Professor Sheng Xiaoming, President and Vice President of School of Humanities were present at the ceremony honoring Hilary Kornblith the guest professor of ZJU and issued him the certificate and badge of ZJU. Hilary Kornblith also discussed with Professor Cong Hangqing the details of academic exchanges and cooperation.