Simone Weil
Waiting for God
Paperback $120
ISBN: 9780061718960 Published April 2009

天才兒童、資優生、哲學家、工運活躍份子、女兵、教師、詩人、劇作家、神的見証人、、、西蒙・威爾在二十世紀初一戰時期短短的34年裏超額完結她的人生。這本經典收錄了她給神父Perrin的6封信及數篇關於「愛」的短文，深刻呈現威爾在動盪世界對人類生命的種種反思。

為紀念西蒙・威爾誕生100週年，此最新版《等待上帝》加載威爾詳盡生平介紹、給此書的評論及讚語（重量級書評人包括：T.S. Eliot, Albert Camus, 威爾的同窗Simone de Beauvoir, Andre Gide, Joyce Carol Oates, Susan Sontag 等等），還有威爾的金句擇錄。

Simone Weil has become a legend, and her writings are regarded as a classic document of our period.
— The New Yorker

Her example, her achievements, her frustrations, her intellectual or moral or religious impasses, and her failures, self-described or apparent to us from hindsight, all can serve to focus the mind, enlarge the heart, and stir the soul.
— Robert Coles

Emerging from the thought-provoking discussions and correspondence Simone Weil had with the Reverend Father Perrin, this classic collection of essays contains the renowned philosopher and social activist’s most profound meditations on the relationship of human life to the realm of the transcendent. An enduring masterwork and “one of the most neglected resources of our century” (Adrienne Rich), Waiting for God will continue to influence spiritual and political thought for centuries to come.

Philosopher, theologian, social critic, and political activist, Simone Weil (1909–1943) has become a legend of modern spiritual and political thought. Waiting for God contains Weil’s most profound meditations on the relationship of human life to the realm of the transcendent.

伸延閱讀｜of related interest

Aldous Huxley
The Perennial Philosophy: An Interpretation of the Great Mystics, East and West
Paperback $130
ISBN: 9780061724947 Published July 2009

Graham Pullin
Design Meets Disability
Hardcover $210
ISBN: 9780262162555 Published April 2009

今天，誰也不會否定眼鏡是時裝及潮流的一部分。然而，在1930年代，英國National Health Service 其實把眼鏡定義為醫療工具，而配戴眼鏡的人則是「病人」。多得眼鏡設計先鋒如Alain Mikli 及Cutler and Gross 等把這醫療工具轉化為時裝，我們少不至於因為近視而被標簽為「殘障」。設計師改變大眾對殘障的觀念，但另一方面，殘疾怎樣給予設計師無限創作靈感？為殘障人士設計的產品如何能符合他們的需要？這些便是Graham Pullin 撰寫的Design Meets Disability 的主題。

Pullin 本人是Interactive Media Design at Dundee 的教授，也是著名科技設計及研發公司IDEO 的創辦人之一，對醫療、健康、互動媒體和人體功學等的課題都什有研究。書中Pullin 以Charles and Ray Eames 的Dining Wood Chair 作為引子，先談他們如何重塑醫療用的腿部夾板並製成雕塑，從而構思出壓曲的Plywood 的經典設計，引領讀者了解此書的重點 － 不單談為殘障人士而做的設計，同時也細看當代設計與殘疾種種微妙的關係，並討論為殘疾人士設計的產品，如何突破了我們一向對設計的審美觀念。全書以大量我們熟知的產品作為例子，如iPod Shuffle、深澤直人為無印良品設計的唱機等，深入淺出的解釋設計品怎樣直截地讓用家了解其使用方法及概念。

－ 節錄自MING 《明日风尚》2009/07號

There is huge potential for innovation in the daily lives of disabled people. Graham Pullin’s timely and inspiring book describes a wide range of design challenges; many of these sound niche at first—but have broad potential. What are needed are off-the-wall thinking, design craft, and engineering brilliance—plus disabled people as expert co-designers.
—John Thackara, designer and author of In the Bubble

This book will change your emotional response to designing for disability forever, as you discover that designs can celebrate a medical necessity, as in elegant and fashionable eyewear from Cutler and Gross, or openly express functionality, as in the carbon fiber running legs sported by Aimee Mullins. Graham Pullin creates this change with chapters that are rich with examples and luscious images, combining deep thinking with a light touch. In the second half of the book he presents us with a fascinating collection of his favorite designers, leaving us yearning for the meetings between design and disability that such rich talent might generate, given the opportunity.
—Bill Moggridge, Cofounder of IDEO and author of Designing Interactions

Eyeglasses have been transformed from medical necessity to fashion accessory. This revolution has come about through embracing the design culture of the fashion industry. Why shouldn’t design sensibilities also be applied to hearing aids, prosthetic limbs, and communication aids? In return, disability can provoke radical new directions in mainstream design. Charles and Ray Eames’s iconic furniture was inspired by a molded plywood leg splint that they designed for injured and disabled servicemen. Designers today could be similarly inspired by disability.

In Design Meets Disability, Graham Pullin shows us how design and disability can inspire each other. In the Eameses’ work there was a healthy tension between cut-to-the-chase problem solving and more playful explorations. Pullin offers examples of how design can meet disability today. Why, he asks, shouldn’t hearing aids be as fashionable as eyewear? What new forms of braille signage might proliferate if designers kept both sighted and visually impaired people in mind? Can simple designs avoid the need for complicated accessibility features? Can such emerging design methods as “experience prototyping” and “critical design” complement clinical trials?

Pullin also presents a series of interviews with leading designers about specific disability design projects, including stepstools for people with restricted growth, prosthetic legs (and whether they can be both honest and beautifully designed), and text-to-speech technology with tone of voice. When design meets disability, the diversity of complementary, even contradictory, approaches can enrich each field.

Graham Pullin is a lecturer in Interactive Media Design at the University of Dundee. He has worked as a senior designer at IDEO, one of the world’s leading design consultancies, and at the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering, a prominent rehabilitation engineering center in the United Kingdom. He has received international design awards for design for disability and for mainstream products.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty
The World of Perception
Paperback $145
ISBN: 9780415773812 Published March 2008

這本小書《感知的世界》……討論藝術和科學從古典時期（classical）過度到現代社會（modern）的轉變。作者Merleu-Ponty是著名的法國哲學家，和沙特（Satre）同期，曾經是好友，最後因為政見不和而反臉。這本書是根據一系列電台節目的結集，節目錄於上世紀四十年代，因為是為大眾而作，所以文字十分簡單而且易懂，就算沒有哲學知識讀起來也不會有問題。

Merleu-Ponty指我們需要去思考我們和世界的關係，或者說我們和其它人以及物件的關係。古典時期，我們對於物件(object)的認識是基於歐基里德幾何，也即是物件佔有空間，但無論將它們移到哪裡，這些空間都不會改變，這也是牛頓力學的一個重要的假定之一，而愛恩斯坦的相對論打破了種觀念，因為空間會因物質而改變。所以現在我們要重新思考空間，但這個思考要突破科學的限制，因為科學並不能提供一個絕對的答案，Merleu-Ponty認為關健就是「感知」(perception)。

－ 節錄自許煜《甚麼是蜜糖？》

In simple prose Merleau-Ponty touches on his principle themes. He speaks about the body and the world, the coexistence of space and things, the unfortunate optimism of science – and also the insidious stickiness of honey, and the mystery of anger. - James Elkins, Author of Stories of Art

Maurice Merleau-Ponty was one of the most important thinkers of the post-war era. Central to his thought was the idea that human understanding comes from our bodily experience of the world that we perceive: a deceptively simple argument, perhaps, but one that he felt had to be made in the wake of attacks from contemporary science and the philosophy of Descartes on the reliability of human perception.

From this starting point, Merleau-Ponty presented these seven lectures on The World of Perception to French radio listeners in 1948. Available in a paperback English translation for the first time in the Routledge Classics series to mark the centenary of Merleau-Ponty’s birth, this is a dazzling and accessible guide to a whole universe of experience, from the pursuit of scientific knowledge, through the psychic life of animals to the glories of the art of Paul Cezanne.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961), one of the century’s leading phenomenologists and a founder, with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, of the journal Les Temps Modernes. He is the author of The Phenomenology of Perception (Routledge Classics, 2002).

馬國明
路邊政治經濟學新編
平裝 $70 （附送馬國明聲音故事CD）
ISBN: 9789888011100 2009年7月出版

《路邊政治經濟學‧新編》除了重新收錄馬國明發表於九十年代《荃灣的童年》和《街頭掠影》兩篇重要長文外，新編入的數篇文章完全是前述文章的延續和擴充，特別是《荃灣的暮年》和《在街頭尋找香港本土文化的生母》更是姊妹作。後者發酵了《荃灣的童年》和《街頭掠影》原來的關懷，並進一步納入公共空間、本土文化和美食天堂等觀念進行思考，讓概念從抽象的高度植入到本土經驗的根莖泥層底下。新舊文章橫跨十多年的光景，最初的關懷穿越時空不斷思索和深化，承載著作者長時間沉澱下來的思想結晶。

作者簡介：
馬國明，1979 年畢業於中文大學歷史系，同年成立曙光圖書公司，至 2006 年 6 月結業。1995 年獲香港大學比較文學碩士學位，2004 年擔任嶺南大學文化研究碩士學位課程兼職講師。公餘課餘為報章撰寫書評及文化評論，見解精闢新銳，為讀者所重。

著有《從自由主義到社會主義》（香港，1983）、《路邊政治經濟學》（香港，1998）、《班雅明》（台北，1998）及《馬國明在讀甚麼》（香港，2004）、《全面都市化的社會》（香港，2008）。

相關閱讀｜of related interest

馬國明
全面都市化的社會
平裝 $30
ISBN: 9789628326853

陳雲
難忘香港食與色——城鄉風俗雜憶
平裝 $60
ISBN: 9789628971824 2009年7月出版

大隻佬
香港／2003／導演：杜琪峰、韋家輝／93 mins

在因緣際會驅使下，能「看到因果」的大隻佬遇上一個背負著「惡業」的探員李鳳儀。看似四肢發達頭腦簡單，以跳脫衣舞維生的大隻佬(劉德華飾)，原來曾是和尚。在追查案件的過程中，兩位主角亦開展了微妙的關係。電影尾段，李鳳儀幫助大隻佬追尋兇手，完成心願，卻仍最終遇害。大隻佬悲憤莫名，為找尋李鳳儀及追兇，幾乎開戒。在覺悟惡念的可怕後，他一直留在山上，最後再次穿上僧袍。

是次聚會集中討論和反思電影故事中所表達的基礎佛學概念，包括「因果」、「業力」等等。

主持: 郭錦鴻先生（香港城市大學中國文化中心導師）
日期：2009年9月14日（星期一）
時間：下午4－6時
廣東話主講，費用全免，歡迎捐助；座位有限，請先訂座

廷伸閱讀:
1. 尉遲治平、席嘉編，《因果解讀》。南寧：廣西民族出版社，1999。
2. 黃啟江,《佛教因果論的中國化》，收入《因果，淨土與往生：透視中國佛敎史上的幾個面相》。臺北：臺灣學生書局，2004。
3. 萬全勇，〈中國佛教因果報應說的理論特色〉。西藏民族學院學報(哲學社會科學版) 2006年5月，第27卷，第3期，頁50-54、108。