Prof. Donald Stone Visits SIS

      November 10^th, Donald Stone, a famous professor from New York City University of the United States, gave a lecture in SIS on the topic of "Three Faces of Humanism: Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Mozart". Prof. Stone held that Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Mozart, masters respectively in literature, fine arts and music, had revealed through different artistic forms various problems confronted by human beings. There were profound common grounds behind the otherness of the three of them. They were artists with deep understanding of humanity, revealing the serious problems afflicting mankind, including poverty, death and inequality. However, they did not lose hope and were confident with human beings, believing that man had goodwill. Besides, they all took mercy and love as the crucial tool to save the human being.

       Prof. Stone is a bosom friend to China. He has come to China many times and visits Zhejiang University every three years. Not only is he friendly to Chinese people, but also he is concerned about human beings as a whole, without being influenced by nationalism. In his lecture, Prof. Stone quoted a sentence spoken by Hamlet: “The imminent death of twenty thousand men, that, for a fantasy and trick of fame, go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot whereon the numbers cannot try the cause”, by which he expressed the irony on the Iraq war.

      The lecture given by Prof. Stone was very substantial and enlightening. He managed to present the audience with precise and brief theoretical interpretations, from which they all benefited a lot.