How long have you not asked questions of the world? If you are a person who is often curious and confused, always want to ask questions about the people and events happening around you, congratulations, you may have a strong "philosophical temperament". People with this temperament are less likely to be pushed by the tide of life to stand firm, and can maintain their own unique voice in the noisy world.
Even if you always love to ask questions and always love to question, it is still difficult to always like to pestering adults to ask questions like when you were a child. It is the countless "whys" that have built up our knowledge web, and it is becoming more and more difficult to maintain curiosity after the new things in the outside world are commonplace. From this point of view, many of the "question marks" of children are particularly valuable.
Aristotle said, "Philosophy begins with curiosity about the world." For children who want to ask a "why" about anything, philosophy belongs to them. The book "Starting from Surprise: The First Lesson of Adolescent Philosophy", taught by eight teachers of the philosophy department of colleges and universities, returns philosophy to children by combining the psychology of adolescents and the current context, so that they do not stop asking "why" and remain curious about the world. In today's dialogue, teachers Liu Qing, Cai Wenjing, and Gao Song will answer key questions such as why, how to think about philosophy, and how philosophy can help us settle ourselves in the ever-changing world.
More importantly, philosophy is a spiritual temperament and way of thinking that allows people to more clearly identify complex problems and maintain an open mind.
The biggest feature of philosophy is to question, Aristotle questioned Plato, the people behind questioned Aristotle, step by step, the history of philosophy is the history of the people in the back cutting off the heads of the people in front.
Don't deliberately guide your child to study philosophy, that would be anti-philosophical. But we can inspire, encourage, and inspire his philosophical thinking, sensitivity, and spiritual temperament.
In the course of philosophy, you may have to shape and develop a character, that is, a spirit of bravery and fearlessness.
01.
Why should teenagers study philosophy?
Zhang Song: All three are university teachers, please combine your own education and teaching experience at home and abroad to talk about the difference between philosophy education at home and abroad. Or rather, why should teenagers study philosophy?
Liu Qing: Don't think of philosophy as a kind of book knowledge, saying that you start by reading Aristotle, Plato, Hegel, and Kant, so that you can call it philosophy. No, philosophy means to love wisdom, so whether it is for children or non-professionals, philosophy is more important, is a spiritual temperament and way of thinking, which can make people more clear to identify complex problems and maintain an open mind. For no one can grasp all the absolute wisdom, but some questions can be relatively clarified.
Let me give you an example. Recently, people have been talking to me about the "double standard" problem. For example, there is an A, who did a robber's thing, broke into people's homes to grab things, and broke into the door. B did the same thing. First of all, if you blame B instead of B, are you "double standard"? A is not qualified to accuse B because A did the same thing. But you not only did not accuse A, but also justified his behavior, B did this thing and you accused, then you are a "double standard". Secondly, you accuse A, you don't accuse B, you are also "double standard". The more complicated question is, if you are a "double standard" person, do you have the qualifications or legitimate position to accuse others of "double standard"? There are actually a lot of problems open up here, which is the basic problem of philosophy, that is, the problem of logic.
I think the most fundamental philosophical temperament is that we are not drowned in the tides and torrents of the living world to follow, and we cannot follow forever, so this will require us to have a problematic awareness of the world, to ourselves, to our own situation, and even sometimes it is a distance of defamiliarization, a distance of critical thinking, to re-look at the world, this is the temperament and ability of philosophy. When you develop and develop your own temperament and ability, you will find that you may need some philosophical knowledge, that is, in principle, everyone can approach philosophy, close to philosophical consciousness, temperament and ability, and I do not believe that man can truly develop life without such a philosophical temperament and ability at all.
Cai Wenjing: I very much agree with what Teacher Liu just said, if we talk about philosophical education in a very narrow sense, we take philosophy as an ideological tradition and a discipline to talk about its problems, and philosophy education in such a narrow sense is not something that everyone must accept. And I think as philosophers, we shouldn't be conceited and arrogant about our disciplines. But in a broad sense, philosophical education may be equated with education itself.
Nowadays, primary education is very much advocated for language teaching, and they speak big languages. In fact, some of the teaching contents of Chinese, mathematics, and English can all be a philosophical education in some way. For example, in Chinese language teaching, the teacher does not only tell children to memorize texts and understand the text in a single way, but also to ask questions, inspire, and associate, so that children can learn to think, reflect and ask questions in the text, which is also a kind of philosophical education. Or when telling stories and picture books to kindergarten children, you can also integrate philosophical education into them. We want children to come up with new ideas and realize that there are many, many possibilities: they can realize that they can overturn some existing ideas, and then create and innovate.
Takamatsu: Children are naturally curious, and we adults may be curious about them, and we have embraced these ideas. Because we live in habitual thinking repeatedly every day, we are less likely to feel that there is something wrong with these things, we cannot ask questions, and we lose the ability to be surprised. But this ability is rooted in us and does not disappear completely, we just forget. But children are often amazed. So people say that philosophy is human childhood because it begins with wonder, and that's the theme of our book. What makes people different from animals is that we wonder, we question the most basic things, like how the world came to be.
I teach students a course on "History of Western Philosophy" at Tongji University (a science and engineering university) not to make them remember what philosophers have said, but to cultivate a spirit of cultivating them, that is, to question the existing system, especially the conceptual system, and what they do not perceive every day. Because the biggest feature of philosophy is to question, Aristotle questioned Plato, the people in the back questioned Aristotle, step by step, the history of philosophy is the history of the people in the back who cut off the heads of the people in front, so philosophy is difficult to progress, it is not like science, science can progress, because it builds up the building after laying the foundation. Philosophy is not, the philosopher will raise the bar with you after seeing the foundation, he asks you whether the foundation is firmly laid, he wants to tear down and rebuild, it is going down. So people will think that philosophy has not progressed, maybe in this sense, philosophy is not as advanced as science, but it is precisely the most fundamental question, if you develop this habit, even if you are not doing philosophy, in your daily work, you also have the ability to jump out of the framework, I think this will bring the power of innovation.
02.
How to guide children to the path of philosophical thinking?
Zhang Song: The three teachers are all parents, and I would like to ask the three teachers, as parents, how do we guide our children to embark on the road of philosophical thinking?
Cai Wenjing: One of the reasons I think I study philosophy is interest, when thinking, when writing, there will be very simple happiness, so from my own point of view, I hope that my child can do the same in the future, engaged in a job that she feels very happy, of course, the premise is that she can know what she likes, know that she has the possibility of choice. Philosophical education is not necessarily to tell you about Western philosophy, there are also Chinese philosophy, Chinese philosophy contains the spirit of reflection, criticism, and questioning may not be so strong, but it also has a connotation of striving for the ideal personality, and has the same background in it. I hope that children can be exposed to more things, think more, and be able to realize what kind of problems they have and what kind of possibilities they have.
Back to The question of Teacher Zhang Song: How to guide children? I would ask her to read more, and at this stage, at this stage of the second grade of elementary school, I would not tell her about Socrates and Plato. I have sent Takamatsu a set of "World Celebrity Comics" before, our children love to read, this set of books will tell all kinds of people, will also talk about philosophers, will tell the story of Socrates, Plato, and the story of Confucius, anyway, is the story of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign celebrities, in the process of reading, children in addition to absorbing, there will be more space to think. I don't think I have to tell her what the philosopher has said and thought, but in the daily bits and pieces, I hope to be able to guide herself to discover, explore, and think, which actually contains a kind of courage in it.
Takamatsu: If the word "learning" is limited to being done in an objectified way, I am not in favor of allowing children to study philosophy in this sense. We need to have a philosophical spirit, which everyone has, and it may be because of a certain way of life, perhaps the traditional Chinese way of thinking, that spirit is missing. Just now Teacher Cai said that China also has philosophy, and I will talk a little bit about different opinions. Derrida said that China has no philosophy, which is not a pejorative meaning, but that China has its own set of ideological traditions and systems, which can not be called philosophy, and philosophy may be a very special civilization produced in the Western and Greek lands, which produces things that produce the natural curiosity and the spirit of inquiry of mankind.
In today's world, there is another benefit to studying philosophy. We must admit that the world is, in a large sense, the world of the West, and that the way we live now is largely shaped by Western culture. When we say that Western culture must be called Greek, we are talking about Greek philosophy. From this point of view, if you want to understand the whole West, then understanding a little philosophy, allowing children to contact some philosophy as soon as possible, letting him know what philosophy is about, how it affects the current Western society and even the formation of the current pattern, is also helpful for him to understand the world.
Liu Qing: A person who studies philosophy may sometimes be very confident, sometimes stubborn, but there will always be a voice that reminds him that every mortal person has a particularly large limitation, because philosophy will tell us this. Socrates said that the important thing is that I know nothing, and this sentence itself can be played. Philosophy shapes a character that you listen to others, and you try to understand. Our current habit is that when I listen to you, I think about how to refute you, most of the time, and there is a habit behind this, philosophy is against this kind of thing, philosophy is against stupidity. I think philosophy has a strategic side, an adult side. When a person has a philosophical character or thinking, then the person is more likely to be able to get along better with people. This "good" does not mean being polite, but that when there is disagreement and argument, he has a more attractive and convincing way to let people see another possibility of an impasse.
Don't deliberately guide your child to study philosophy, that would be anti-philosophical. But we can inspire, encourage, and stimulate his philosophical thinking, sensitivity, and spiritual temperament, which will help in all work, although this help may be indirect. I am somewhat stubbornly convinced that, in a broad sense, a man of philosophical wisdom and philosophical spirit must be a more abundant life, and an interesting life. The funny thing is that he is not so dogmatic, if you live a dogma for a lifetime, how pitiful, you will ask for a very clear, for everything must have an answer, who opposes your answer you are very angry, so pitiful! This kind of pity is actually a spiritual refugee. Man does not have to be like this, man can live out otherwise.
On the other hand, philosophy is an adventure, why? Because philosophy has another very radical side, it can problemify all the frameworks, premises, dogmas that you originally relied on in your life, which is not something that everyone can bear. That is to say, as a purely philosophical life, it is quite difficult for you to gain a firm foothold in any real society, and you have to have a very strong, maverick mental state. Everyone grows in philosophy, on the one hand, we need a certain certainty, a sense of stability; on the other hand, we have to "exoduse" from our original state. The greatest or most unfortunate development of mankind is the "exodus." In a literal sense, we leave the place where we used to live, from that very narrow place. Exodus is both desirable and risky. In a spiritual sense, we used to believe in something so much that it ended up changing.
So, it's an adventurous process, and it has two sides, on the one hand making you more accessible and interesting, but on the other hand there must be risks. Therefore, in the process of philosophy, you may have to shape and cultivate a character, that is, a brave and fearless spirit. Philosophy encourages you not to stop forever and not to enjoy so comfortably a fixed state of life and way of thinking without reflection, so it encourages you to run away. It's a temptation because you'll make mistakes. But otherwise, we are not enough to be human.
3.
How does philosophy allow us to settle ourselves better?
Zhang Song: Today, around us, in our world, there are often unexpected things happening, such as the recent tragic women in Russia and Ukraine, somewhere some time ago. This conflict creates a very strange phenomenon: many friends will tear apart. So in this unpredictable world, how can learning philosophy help us personally and become a better version of ourselves? Not only theoretically, but in the face of the current changes, and often unexpected changes, how do we settle ourselves?
Cai Wenjing: I think the question raised by Teacher Zhang Song is very important and very personal, especially in the recent period, we have seen a lot of situations that most people will be surprised by. From my point of view, philosophy sometimes offers me the ability to look at things from the sidelines or to look beyond the suspension of phenomena and beyond disputes. Of course, this is not to say that I have become indifferent, but that I observe in a more calm, restrained way, and wait before making a judgment, before making a choice, and philosophy sometimes makes me more silent or more dull and slow. Especially in this kind of thing, we will see people who stand in line, see condemnation, choice, and break-up, on the one hand, I can understand such a situation, on the other hand, I feel that it is not enough. As a student of philosophy, philosophy will give me the ability to jump out of this event, and if I'm going to make a decision, if I'm going to make a judgment, I need to give myself a reason, which is the real connotation of reason—to give a reason. Such a rational philosophical spirit is extremely scarce in our society today, including on social media, and it sometimes hurts our moral intuition, which is quite frightening. I don't know if such a philosophical attitude can settle us, but at least it doesn't make our world worse.
Takamatsu: A lot of times, when something happens, we have a lot of emotions, we get angry, we choose to take sides. Of course, I am not against taking sides, in the end we all have to have a position, and it is not realistic not to take any position, after all, we live in a real society and deal with real people. As participants in political life, we must have an opinion, which here may involve the distinction between politics and philosophy, which the ancient Greek philosopher Plato said. But I'm thinking that some of the emotions that lead us to make decisions generally come from certain information that we accept, but that information can be wrong. Emotions are of course important, especially when some angry emotions prompt us to act and make us appeal, which is what any politician should do.
But before letting our emotions, our passions, lead us, I believe that philosophers will jump out and eventually let reason decide. You have to judge whether your emotion is legitimate, where does it come from? There's a phenomenon on social media right now that your circle is actually very fixed. For example, in my circle, a lot of them are philosophical, and they will give me some of their opinions or articles that they forward. We are bound by social media, things are clustered, people are grouped, and we may have a hard time seeing other information. If we can jump out, be able to accept more information, and then make our own judgments, I think this is the behavior that philosophers should have more.
Liu Qing: This is a difficult question, and we must withdraw from it for reflection. But, you are a person, and you have to have a choice sometimes. You can't say that philosophy is all about telling you to be careful, to be cautious. Think slowly, you have to reflect: have you been in a state of non-committal on issues involving particularly important moral and political responsibilities? Would you make a simplistic, arbitrary judgment in a state of excessive hesitation? Now the split on the Internet is like this. I think that philosophy or philosophical thinking has a very limited effect on bridging or ameliorating such a split. As far as the present man is concerned, everyone's position has long been there, and it does not matter if you give him a proof or give him a reason, he has chosen his position in advance, and all his statements are only postscripted for his preferences, most of the time. Philosophers are also not fully immune in this respect.
In this sense, David Hume said that man is a man of passion, and that reason serves passion. In fact, it means that we have a position in advance. But it doesn't make much sense to stop there, because how do we discover the fact that human reason is only a slave to passion? This is a rational discovery. If you know and accept this fact, and you say, yes, all reason is a slave to passion anyway, then let's be a slave. No, since reason reveals this truth, the truth itself will in turn affect your thinking and how you treat your passions with reason. Of course, there are many strategies in this, let's talk about a simple strategy. What is the greatest secret of happiness in life? Don't argue with stupid people. Someone said, "I disagree. "Yes, you are." In China, there are those who support Trump, there are those who oppose Trump, some time ago the Xuzhou incident was divided into a gang, and recently Ukraine was also divided into a gang, as if the remaining friends are your real friends, not necessarily. I found that in this incident, the friends who had previously supported Trump, they were back. So what I'm trying to say is, don't argue, because that argument is invalid and meaningless.
But if we look at it from a philosophical point of view, do we have a relative standard for what is a good argument and what is a good and more evidence-based view? There is still this, and it can be practiced within a certain range. What is the opinion? The opinion is that I feel so, and I don't need evidence at all. And knowledge is evidence-based. Alternatively, opinions need neither subjective arguments nor objective evidence. And some things are beliefs or beliefs, I myself feel that there is evidence, there is a set of arguments that can be defended, you believe in a thing, you need to have a discourse that you believe in, but this is not enough, because your belief has a lot of subjectivity in it, so true knowledge needs subjective evidence and objective evidence, needs internal defense and external defense. External defense is a little harder, external arguments need to be able to be believed by others, and there needs to be discerned in back-and-forth discussions about which is better. This is a particularly important and difficult thing in the present.
In what sense does philosophy help us in the face of our present strife? First, we can reflect more rationally. When we ourselves are impulsive and emotional, looking back, this is always a good quality. Second, when considering all kinds of doubts and possibilities, it does not mean that we are completely unable to make choices and make a difference, and think that this makes sense, that seems to make sense, and everyone has a reason, so don't argue. No, we can always make a choice, because after exhausting all our knowledge, our doctrine, we will still think that a certain point of view is closer to what we are talking about, that it has better internal and external evidence. But such a judgment is always a temporary possibility, and this is where the philosophical trouble lies: on the one hand, you have to make a judgment that gives certainty; on the other hand, you have to treat such a judgment or decision as a relativization, that is, it is neither final nor eternal.
Philosophy is so annoying, why say this? But this is the human condition, because each of us is not God, and we do not hold the ultimate truth. Isn't that how all of our lives are? We make a choice, make a judgment, not for no reason, but have a certain basis. And to be philosophical or to have philosophical qualities is to allow you to give the best argument and find the most credible argument under the existing possible conditions, which is the best thing you can do as a human being. Because you know that we are human beings, even if we think we are the best judgments and decisions at that time, there may be limitations, even mistakes, and we live in this situation. Philosophers or philosophical knowledge can make you aware of this, it is a kind of self-realization.