Talks

INTERNAL TALK 14 - DESIGN THINKING - NGUYỄN CÔNG TÂM - Nov 8th, 2021
09/ 11/ 2021

Design thinking was presented. This thinking includes 5 steps: 1) Empathize: Research Your Users' Needs Here, you should gain an empathetic understanding of the problem you’re trying to solve, typically through user research. Empathy is crucial to a human-centered design process such as design thinking because it allows you to set aside your own assumptions about the world and gain real insight into users and their needs. 2) Define: State Your Users' Needs and Problems It’s time to accumulate the information gathered during the Empathize stage. You then analyze your observations and synthesize them to define the core problems you and your team have identified. These definitions are called problem statements. You can create personas to help keep your efforts human-centered before proceeding to ideation. 3) Ideate: Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas Now, you’re ready to generate ideas. The solid background of knowledge from the first two phases means you can start to “think outside the box”, look for alternative ways to view the problem and identify innovative solutions to the problem statement you’ve created. Brainstorming is particularly useful here 4) Prototype: Start to Create Solutions This is an experimental phase. The aim is to identify the best possible solution for each problem found. Your team should produce some inexpensive, scaled-down versions of the product (or specific features found within the product) to investigate the ideas you’ve generated. This could involve simply paper prototyping. 5) Test: Try Your Solutions Out Evaluators rigorously test the prototypes. Although this is the final phase, design thinking is iterative: Teams often use the results to redefine one or more further problems. So, you can return to previous stages to make further iterations, alterations and refinements – to find or rule out alternative solutions. Not only limited its use in design, interestingly the speaker also proposed using this design thinking as a problem solving tool in working enviroment. A lot of questions and cases are raised to explore how plausible this proposal works.

INTERNAL TALK 13 - BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY - TRẦN HỒNG UYÊN THI - Nov 1st, 2021
02/ 11/ 2021

This workshop used inquiry-based approach. Four questions are asked and discussed in four teams: (1) what is business?, (2) what is management?, (3) what are functions of a manager?, and lastly, (4) what is philosophy of business? To answer each question, one team member was assigned to lead their team discussion, and presented their team answer. In this first and second question, four teams came to similar definitions: a business [activity] is a commercial activity which involves providing goods or services with a primary motive of earning profits and management is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively. In the third question, four teams were different in their answers except two functions of a manager: planning and controlling. Two other functions, organizing and leading, were specified by two teams. One team used the model PDCA: planning, doing, checking, and acting. Key take-aways for workshop participants on what a manager does are four functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. To avoid confusion of roles of manager and leader, their characteristics were described. In short, the manager is ‘to do thing right’ and leader is ‘to do right thing’. In the final topic, philosophy of business, a definition was given: philosophy of business is the set of principles and beliefs that a company is working toward to achieve success. Nike‘s slogan ‘Just do it’ was cited as an example to illustrate their mission ‘bring inspiration and innovation to every athletes in the world’. Three videos were shown and analyzed by four teams to show how Nike conveys their philosophy in their consistent marketing campaigns.
INTERNAL TALK 12 - FEMINIST EXISTENTIALISM - NGÔ CAO NGỌC ANH - Oct 25th, 2021
26/ 10/ 2021

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women. Existentialism is a philosophical and cultural movement which holds that the starting point of philosophical thinking must be the individual and the experiences of the individual. Existentialist feminists emphasize concepts such as freedom, interpersonal relationships, and the experience of living as a human body. Simone de Beauvoir was a renowned existentialist and one of the principal founders of second-wave feminism.Beauvoir examined women's subordinate role as the 'Other', patriarchally forced into immanence in her book, The Second Sex, which some claim to be the culmination of her existential ethics. The book includes the famous line, "One is not born but becomes a woman," introducing what has come to be called the sex-gender distinction. Beauvoir's The Second Sex provided the vocabulary for analyzing the social constructions of femininity and the structure for critiquing those constructions, which was used as a liberating tool by attending to the ways in which patriarchal structures used sexual difference to deprive women of the intrinsic freedom of their "can do" bodies. Gender equality (or sexual equality) in Vietnam were discussed in the second part. 70 percent of women joins the workforce that is signiciantly higher than average of the world percentage (50%). Vietnamese women receive 15% lower salary than Vietnamese men in the same jobs. Accessibility to university education is still a challenge for Vietnamese women in rural areas. More and more women are now in leader positions in economic field, but politics and military fields are primary areas of men. The key challenge in gender equality in Vietnam is how to raise awareness of the whole society and remove the glass ceiling.
INTERNAL TALK 11 - MIND IN BUDDHISM AND MIND IN ORDINARY LIFE - NGUYỄN MINH PHƯƠNG - Oct 18th, 2021
20/ 10/ 2021

- Reason to choose the topic - Mind in Buddhism - Mind in ordinary life - References Mind or “Tâm” in Vietnamese means literally heart (“tâm”) or mind (“tâm trí”), it also means good will in ethical sense. In Buddhism, “Tâm” is used in interchangeably with “Thức” (consciousness), for example “duy tâm” (mind only) and “duy thức” have the same meaning. In Hinayanist tradition, “tâm” is a psychological concept, but in Mahayanist tradition, this concept was developed into a metaphysical one. All dharmas (“pháp”) come from “tâm/ thức”. There are eight levels of consciouness according to “duy thức” school: eye consciousness (“nhãn thức”), ear consciousness (“nhĩ thức”), tongue consciousness (“thiệt thức”), body consciousness (“thân thức”), mental consciousness (“ý thức”), deluded awareness (“mạt na thức”), and store consciousness (“tàng thức”). “Tàng thức” is foundational functions of all cognitions. ”Tâm/ thức” plays central roles in two most popular Mahayanist Buddhist practices that we can see through their maxims “nhất tâm bất loạn” in Pure Land school and “minh tâm kiến tánh” in Zen school. The nature or meaning of “nhất tâm”, “minh tâm”, and “chân tâm” (or “Phật tánh” (Buddhahood)) are the most often asked questions in Zen Buddhism. They are incomprehensible to laymen who are not Buddhist practitioners. Though incomprehensible as a metaphysical concept, “Tâm” is widely used in Vietnamese ordinary language and daily life. “Tâm địa” is land of mind which grows and generates actions. “Nhẫn tâm” is literally bitter mind, its current usage is to mean an evil mind. Other examples are “thiện tâm” (good heart/ good will), “ác tâm/ tà tâm/ tâm ma” (evil mind), “tâm tham”, “tâm sân”, “tâm si”, which all came from Buddhist teachings. Vietnamese people have no problem to understand common expressions containing “Tâm”. But the question “what is the nature of Tâm?” is very difficult to answer.

INTERNAL TALK 10 - MINIMALIST LIFESTYLE - ĐẶNG ÁI VY - Oct 12th, 2021
12/ 10/ 2021

- Definition of minimalist lifestyle - How does this lifestyle benefit us? - Guide to a minimalist lifestyle - Q&A The definition of a minimalist lifestyle was clarified as simply freeing ourselves from unnecessary stuffs, including tangible and intangible ones. In fact, minimalism has been mentioned throughout the course of history, for example, Buddhists have been known for their tendency to ignore material possessions for thousands of years. But it was not until the 20th century that the practice became mainstream with the motto "less is more" across various industries such as fashion, design, technology, etc. 3 main benefits that come from the lifestyle: savings, comfort and environmental pollution reduction. There are pieces of advice to build a minimalist lifestyle like: when it comes to objects, the second time we have to considerate eradicating an object is exactly when we should actually eradicate it; we should distinguish our needs and wants to declutter our living spaces and keep just what we really need and feel happy with. Recommended reading list: Live More With Less: The Gift of Minimalism by Teresa Baker, Karen Alexander (Sống tối giản để hạnh phúc hơn). Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism by Fumio Sasaki (Lối sống tối giản của người Nhật). Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown (Nghệ thuật theo đuổi sự tối giản). Một cuốn sách về chủ nghĩa tối giản by Chi Nguyễn. Q&A section involved many questions to be thought of: What are the drawbacks of minimalism? Does it threaten the economy? Does minimalism differ from simplicity? Since the word "minimalism" etymologically expresses an extreme meaning: culmination of reduction (minimal - smallest, least - "tối" giản), is it a bad idea to completely pursue such lifestyle?
INTERNAL TALK 9 - INTRODUCTION TO EXISTENTIALISM - HUỲNH DUY THANH - Oct 4th, 2021
05/ 10/ 2021

- Vietnamese translations on existentialism - Definition of existentialism - Main themes of existentialism - Some existentialist philosophers - Q&A In the first part, the speaker gave an overview of Vietnamese translations on existentialism. Key works were translated before 1975 by Vạn Hạnh group including Bùi Giáng on Camus and Heidegger, Phạm Công Thiện, Nguyễn Hữu Hiệu, Trần Xuân Kiêm on Nietzsche and Heidegger. Sartre was also a favourite philosopher whose works were translated by Phùng Thăng and many others. The recently noteworthy translations was Sartre's Existentialism is a Humanism by Đinh Hồng Phúc. Existentialism was the major philosophical movement which was very popular in France in the 1940s and in South Vietnam in the 1960s. It focused mainly on human existence and human experience. The term ‘experience’ used by existentialists is more on subjective side which is different from empiricist and idealist tradition. In the view of the existentialist, the individual's starting point has been called "the existential angst", a sense of dread, disorientation, confusion, or anxiety in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world. The main themes of existentialism are: (1) existence precedes essence or anti-essentialism; (2) the absurd: human beings must find meaning in a meaningless world; (3) human anxiety; (4) freedom/ responsibility. In the last part on existentialists, the speaker discussed key topics in Kierkegaard: the subjective truth, three domains of human existence (aesthetics, ethics, religion), and concept of individual. In Q&A section, some questions were asked: what is the concept of man according to existentialists? What are the social consequences if people act according to their own moral values?
INTERNAL TALK 8 - INTRODUCTION TO WESTERN PHILOSOPHY CANON - HUỲNH DUY THANH - Sep 27th, 2021
28/ 09/ 2021

This talk aimed at giving an overview of Western philosophy canon. It tried to answer three basic questions: 1) What are major periods and philosophical schools in Western philosophy? 2) Who are important philosophers in each major period? 3) What works are considered philosophical classics? By going through book series such as Very Short Introduction, Routledge Philosophy Guidebooks, and Routledge Guides to the Great Books, the speaker tackled the three questions. - Ancient philosophy: the big names are Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Classics: Trial of Socrates, Republic by Plato; Poetics, Politics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle. - Medieval philosophy: the big names are Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Classics: Confessions by Augustine; Summa Theologiae by Thomas Aquinas. - Early modern philosophy: Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Mill of British empiricism; Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz of Continental Rationalism; Kant and Hegel of German Idealism. The classics of the first school are: Leviathan by Hobbes, Essay Concerning Human Understanding by Locke, Principles of Human Knowledge by Berkeley, and Enquiries/ Dialogue by Hume. The classics of the second school are: Meditations by Descartes, Ethics by Spinoza, and Monadology by Leibniz. Lastly, the classics of the last group are Three Critiques by Kant, Phenomenology of Spirit and Philosophy of Rights by Hegel. - Analytic Philosophy: important figures are Frege, Russell, Moore, Wittgenstein. Their classics include Principia Ethica by Moore, Tractatus, Philosophical Investigations, On Certainty by Wittgenstein. - Continental Philosophy: important philosophers are Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty. There classic works are Cartesian Meditations by Husserl, Being and Time by Heidegger, and Phenomenology of Perceptions by Merleau-Ponty.