Phoenix Reading Plan
Classic literature, you can't just pass by
Zhou Guoping is a famous contemporary scholar, writer and philosophical researcher.
Philosophy is abstract, but it cannot be separated from life. If we talk only about philosophy and not about life, we lose our soul. If men and women are used to symbolize the rationality and sensibility of philosophy, then the two must be organically combined, and one is indispensable.
The moderator asked me to speak first, probably because I had a previous conviction and wanted to target me, and I was ready to be criticized. On the topic of "Philosophy and Women," I have written very disrespectful remarks before, such as: "Women engaging in philosophy is detrimental to both women and philosophy." But the next sentence was indeed my true words: "God knows, I say this because of how much I love women and how much I love philosophy!" ”
Actually, I don't think women are much bad for philosophy, maybe good. What does philosophy do? It is to grasp the whole of the world. Why grasp the whole of the world? In order to grasp the essence of life. Therefore, the starting point is life, which is the requirement of the soul, and philosophy wants to rely on the thinking of the mind to solve the tasks proposed by the soul. But the mind has only one tool, and that is logic. Kant has long pointed out that logic is impossible without this capacity as a metaphysics of science. As far as I can see, in fact, all the truly great philosophers in history, their most brilliant ideas have not been derived by logic, logic is more of a means of expression, and before logic, these ideas already existed as beliefs and intuitions. Therefore, faith and intuition come first, logic comes second. The most important endowment for a philosopher, then, is not the ability to think logically, but intuition. Since philosophy is ultimately about grasping the fundamentals of life, philosophers also need to have a real understanding of life.
The intuition required for philosophy is not quite the same as the intuition in daily life, which can be called advanced intuition, or rational intuition. According to Kant's division, man's cognitive ability can be divided into three levels, namely sensibility, intellect, and reason. Among them, sensibility faces phenomena, intellect uses logic to sort out phenomena, and reason interrogates the ontology, which is a metaphysical impulse. Higher intuition is related to the sensibility and rationality in it, that is, sensibility plus metaphysical impulses, and sensibility is the premise of rationality.
Now we can analyze the strengths and weaknesses of women's philosophy. Women are more sensual, and women have an advantage at this point. Men are intellectual, love logic, and can easily lead to the degradation of sensibility. Reason in the sense of metaphysical impulses should be said to belong to all geniuses, regardless of gender, but on the whole it seems to be more intense in men. However, through pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, women experience the mysteries of nature with their bodies, and they have an advantage in metaphysical experience. So Goethe said: Eternal woman, lead us away. I agree with Lin Yutang's assessment: men understand the philosophy of life, but women understand life. If a man does not listen to the guidance of women, the philosophy of life he has developed must be a distortion of life. Now everyone is talking about the crisis of philosophy, and this crisis is that men always want to use logic to satisfy metaphysical impulses, this road does not work, or even the opposite, farther and farther away from the root of life. Therefore, the wisdom of women can make a great contribution to solving this crisis.
However, I still insist that women do not have to and should not be directly philosophical. Why? One of the reasons is that philosophy still needs logic after all, and it is indispensable to this tool for sorting out and expressing, which is a weakness of women. This weakness also affects the exertion of women's strengths, because logical thinking is chaotic, often mixing sensibility and rationality, life trivia and fundamental truth into a pot of porridge. The second reason is that I am afraid that they will be damaged by philosophy, and I really think that philosophy is far more harmful to women than women are harmful to philosophy, besides, it doesn't matter if philosophy is damaged a little, I don't want women to be damaged. On this point, I read a passage that I wrote before: "A woman who likes philosophy may have a brilliant mind and wants to seek further training from philosophy; perhaps there is a bitter soul who wants to find a way out of philosophy." Unfortunately, in most cases, after learning philosophy, the mind becomes complex, abstract, and unintelligent; the soul becomes deeper, more desperate, and more painful. I couldn't help but feel sad to see a clever woman caught in the labyrinth of conceptual speculation and utter incomprehensible words. I couldn't help but be heartbroken to see a lovely woman ascending a metaphysical cliff and weeping into the abyss. Bad philosophies make people boring, good philosophies make people miserable, and both damage women's beauty. I oppose women engaging in philosophy, but out of a kind of pity and pity for jade. ”
We can look at the facts, in the history of philosophy, have you found a great or famous female philosopher? What does this mean? I think this shows that women are indeed not suitable for philosophy because of some reasons of their own, and I also see the deep meaning of nature in it, which is to protect women and not let women engage in philosophy. Who are the women who have contributed the most to philosophy in history? It was Santip, the wife of Socrates, who was a famous shrew, and her abuse made her a philosopher with an incomparably broad heart, one of the greatest philosophers in human history. Of course, this is a joke, and it is likely that the shrews of the world have destroyed more philosophers, but certainly some of the smaller philosophers.
In short, I think that women can play an excellent role in philosophy, and this role is to use their merits to influence men, to influence the world, to make the world richer and more human under the guidance of the "eternal woman", so that the indirect impact on philosophy is far greater than their direct participation.
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