人大史学讲堂之七十九

“Emotions from Paganism to Christianity”
从异教到基督教转型中的情感
 

 主讲：大卫·康斯坦（纽约大学古典学教授）
主持：王大庆（中国人民大学历史学院教授）
评议：徐晓旭（中国人民大学历史学院教授）
      时间：2019年10月11日（周五）下午3: 00-5: 00
地点：人文楼三层会议室

     Although emotions may seem to be hard-wired in the human brain, in fact, as scholars and scientists have begun to realize, they too have a history, and the way they are described and felt differs from society to another.  The transition from paganism to Christianity in particular brought with it new conceptions of the emotions.  In my talk, I examine selected emotions, including pity, anger, fear, envy, and love, as they are defined in classical Greek and Latin texts and in early Christian writings, highlighting what we may call the new structures of feeling that emerged in Late Antiquity – and continue to influence the way we think and feel today. 

    内容提要：虽然各种情感可能是人类大脑中所固有的，但实际上，正如学者们和科学家们已经开始认识到的那样，它们也有历史，在各个社会中，它们被描述和感受的方式是不同的。从异教到基督教的转型中，尤其伴随着各种情感的许多新观念的出现。在康斯坦教授的讲述中，会考察被选择出来的一些情感，包括怜悯、愤怒、恐惧、嫉妒和爱，它们在古典希腊语和拉丁语的文本以及早期基督教的书写中都得到了界定，他把讨论的重点集中在晚期古代出现的我们可以称之为“感觉的新结构”上面，这些新结构继续对我们今天的思考和感觉的方式产生着影响。

    David Konstan's research focuses on ancient Greek and Latin literature, especially comedy and the novel, and classical philosophy. In recent years, he has investigated the emotions and value concepts of classical Greece and Rome, and has written books on friendship, pity, the emotions, forgiveness, and beauty. He has also written on ancient physics and atomic theory and on literary theory, and has translated Seneca’s two tragedies about Hercules into verse. His most recent book concerns ancient vs. modern conceptions of loyalty, gratitude, love, and grief. 

    主讲人简介：大卫·康斯坦（David Konstan），美国著名古典学家。主要研究领为古代希腊和拉丁文学，尤其是喜剧和小说，以及古典哲学。近年来，他考察了古典时代希腊和罗马的情感和价值观念，撰写过关于友谊、怜悯、情感、宽恕和美的一些著作。他还写过关于古代的物理学、原子理论和文学理论的著作，把塞涅卡的两部关于赫拉克勒斯的悲剧翻译成韵文。他最近的著作是关于古代与现代的忠诚、爱和悲伤的观念的比较的。   

    Konstan's B.A. was in mathematics; in senior year of college, he began ancient Greek and Latin, and went on to obtain a doctorate in classics.  He taught at Wesleyan University from 1967 to 1987, and at Brown University from 1987 to 2010, when he joined the faculty at NYU. 

    康斯坦的学士学位是数学；在大学的高年级，他开始学习古代希腊和拉丁文，后来获得了古典学博士学位。1967年到1987年他任教于卫斯理大学，1987年到2010年任教于布朗大学，2010年起在纽约大学任教。

    Konstan has held visiting appointments in New Zealand, Scotland, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, and Egypt, among other places.  He serves on the Editorial Boards of numerous journals around the world.  He has been President of the American Philological Association, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.  He has been awarded NEH, ACLS,and Guggenheim fellowships, among others. 

    康斯坦曾在新西兰、苏格兰、巴西、阿根廷、南非、澳大利亚和埃及等国家做访问学者。担任世界上很多学术期刊的编委。他一直担任美国语文学会的主席，美国艺术与科学学院的院士，澳大利亚人文学院的荣誉会员，获得过多种基金的资助。