Civilization is an overused word, which actually represents a lofty thing, far beyond the lights, telephones and other things can be included. The influence of civilization on us is something we cannot accurately measure, it is a passion for the mind, even a love of beauty, it is reason, it is gentle, it is polite and thoughtful, it is subtle emotions. If the things that we cannot accurately measure become the most important things, that is the highest state of civilization. If man does not become indecisive as a result, human life will reach something that man can rarely attain, and no one can surpass at all.
- Edith Hamilton, The Greek Spirit
Being a person of integrity comes at a cost
The cost of not being upright is even greater
Text | Zhou Lian
01
As a philosopher, I like Zhang Weiying's book "The Power of Ideas", which can be said to be empathetic. Why? Because whenever someone asks me sarcastically, he says, "What's the use of you studying philosophy?" I will reply that although we study philosophy as seemingly useless, it is actually of great use, the so-called useless great use. Now Teacher Zhang Weiying provided me with another statement, that is, the concept is powerful.
Speaking of the power of ideas, I often give the example of the French Revolution, when the news of the siege of the Bastille reached the Palace of Versailles on the southern outskirts of Paris, Louis XVI asked in a panic: "What?" Did you rebel? The Duke of Bordeaux at that time replied: "No, Your Majesty, it is a revolution". The difference between rebellion and revolution is not only the transformation of words, but also the revolution of ideas and ideas.
It was also this King Louis XVI of France, when he was in prison, and it is said that in the middle of the night, he said a sentence, he said: "It was these two men who destroyed France." "The two men he is talking about are Rousseau and Voltaire, both philosophers.
So, to change your mindset is to change the world!
As we all know, Marx was buried in Highgate Cemetery on the northern outskirts of London after his death, and there are two sentences inscribed on his tombstone, the first of which is well known to everyone: "Proletarians of the world unite.". The second sentence is also familiar to everyone: "Philosophers have always interpreted the world in different ways, and the problem is to change the world."
I don't particularly agree with the latter sentence. Why? For Marx himself changed the world by explaining it, and if it were not for the fact that he invented the concepts of "exploitation" and "surplus value", how could the proletarians of the whole world unite to overthrow the old world and build a new one?
Of course, precisely because ideas have the power to destroy decay, and precisely because ideas may send us to heaven or to hell, we should let every idea and idea speak freely under a fair, open, and free environment.
02
I'll tell you a story about a gossip in the fall of 1939, when Ludwig Wittgenstein and his student, Norman Malcolm, were walking along the banks of the River Thames in London, and the two men were gossiping about a piece of gossip that the German government was condemning the British government for instigating a murder that was being murdered by Hitler.
Wittgenstein commented that I wouldn't be surprised if the news was true. Malcom countered that such behavior was incompatible with the "national character" of the British. The argument was harmless, but Wittgenstein was very angry, they had been good friends, but since then Wittgenstein has severed ties with Malcom.
Five years later, Malcom had left England to serve in the U.S. Pacific Fleet, when he received a letter from Wittgenstein and finally understood why Wittgenstein was angry.
In that letter, Wittgenstein recalled their argument when he said:
"I am amazed by the simplicity and naivety of your discussion of the national character, and it strikes me that what use is it if the study of philosophy brings you nothing more than to enable you to speak paradoxically about questions of esoteric logic and the like, if it does not improve your thinking on important questions in everyday life, if it does not make you more cautious than any journalist in the use of dangerous statements?"
I was extremely impressed by Wittgenstein's words.
I think that in our time, because of the popularization of knowledge and the development of information, more and more people have access to all kinds of abstract and esoteric philosophical theories and unfathomable super concepts without any threshold, which are in wittgenstein's words those "dangerous statements".
But, as Wittgenstein put it, if, instead of developing the habit of humility, learning to whip in, and carefully analyzing, instead of winning intellectual arrogance and abusing these dangerous statements at will, it would not only be a trampling on philosophy, but would undermine the character of public discourse and the common sense of everyday life.
03
In addition to being vigilant against the abuse of super concepts, we must also be vigilant against the abuse of political language, military language, and online language.
I think our world is filled with all kinds of violent language, some from the abuse of political language, for example, fighting and fighting, fist products, main hits, and so on. Some come from the pollution of online language, such as di si, short and poor, bai fumei, rich and handsome, positive energy, yuanfang, how do you see, you know, counterattack, jiyou (we also often use), pit daddy, spell daddy, nima, kneeling, playing soy sauce, bunker, cousin, room sister, green tea bitch, are also drunk.
Violent language, rough language, will inevitably lead to violent thinking, rough thinking.
Orwell said that the shallowness of thinking makes our language vulgar and inaccurate, and the random mess of language makes it easier for us to produce shallow thoughts. It seems to me that this rigid, violent, crude language expresses hatred for thinking, fear of the thinker himself.
If clear, accurate, and logical thinking is the first step towards the conceptual revolution, the innovation of ideas is first manifested in language and expression.
Orwell's exact words: Resisting bad English is not trivial, and it's not just something that professional writers should care about. Well, again, in my opinion, resisting bad Chinese is not a trivial matter. Because language is the home of existence, we use language to shape our thoughts and shape our emotions through language.
04
Finally, I would like to take a moment to talk about the education of emotions.
I still remember when I was 7 years old, one day in the summer of that year, suddenly the lamas of our third-line factory paused the broadcast of red songs and began to broadcast eulogies in a heavy, sad voice. I was sitting in the doorway playing with my friends, and my mother grabbed me into the house and told me that from today onwards, I was not allowed to laugh out loud in public for three days. Why? Because our kind grandmother Song Qingling has passed away.
I didn't know it at the time, but I quickly accepted my mother's explanation. It took many years to realize that, strictly speaking, this explanation given by my mother was not a moral reason, but an intuitive forge and an emotional discipline. The kind Grandma Song Qingling has passed away, and of course it is wrong to laugh and play, which is an intuitive judgment that does not require any reasoning, just as we are happy to see flowers, and we have palpitations when we hear the word "cancer".
From childhood to adulthood, we have received a set of black and white, love-hate emotional education in a variety of emotional exposure reactions, and finally established a one-to-one corresponding emotional response. Language and emotion are constantly processed, disinfected, and domesticated in this process. Even many years later, we know that peasant uprisings are not necessarily singable, that democracy has virtues and systems in addition to chaos, that the old society was not necessarily evil, and that there may be a warm and pulsating side. But that emotional response that goes deep into the marrow of the bone is still lingering, so much so that when someone wants to challenge our deep-seated emotional response as if it were fundamentally denying ourselves, it's a kind of self-identification.
David Hume once said, "Reason is a slave to passion." "In real life, we often find facts that frustrate us a little, and even if you try to persuade or change a person through rational arguments, you will find that even if you mute him, you still can't really convince him or change him. In this sense, reason is a slow motion of emotion, reason is the afterthought of emotion, and reason is the slave of emotion.
So in this sense, I think we should not only pay attention to the power of ideas, but also the power of emotions, and we should pay attention to the education of emotions. Because emotional education can be the fundamental path to change a person.
05
I don't know how many people have seen the documentary Triumph of the Will, a 1934 film by the famous German female director Leni Riefenstahl who was invited by the Nazis to make it.
When I look at Triumph of the Will, I always think of another quote from Orwell, who said: "Walking on foot is one of the most terrifying sights in the world, even more terrifying than a dive bomber, a naked declaration of power, and what is quite clear and deliberately present in it is the sight of this boot straight in our faces, and its ugliness is part of its existence, because it is proclaiming: 'Yes, I am ugly, but you dare not laugh at me'." ”
"I'm ugly, but you don't dare laugh at me", I think Orwell's observation is very intriguing, but intimidation is not enough, Mussolini said, the so-called fascism, first of all, is a kind of beauty.
It can be seen that if power wants to win awe, in addition to being domineering and unscrupulous, it must also understand a little aesthetic principle. I suppose that as the SS officers walk, someone must be struck by the uniform, unassailable power, but also by the so-called solemn, solemn beauty contained in it. And it is only when you truly receive the emotional influence of individualism and humanism that you realize its ugliness rather than beauty.
Therefore, I have always believed that a person's political position is right or left, whether his attitude to power is like or evil, whether his life is interesting or uninteresting, in addition to reason, ideas, concepts, to a greater extent, emotional education and aesthetic taste.
Whitehead, a famous British philosopher, once said a sentence when he said:
"There must be expression before any understanding, and before any expression, there must be a feeling of importance."
What is the feeling of importance? Where does importance lie? This seemingly very profound philosophical question, I think it actually has a very, very superficial answer, and its importance lies in the daily experience of each of us.
Of course, the daily life experience mentioned here is first and foremost required to be a healthy life experience, a real life experience, a life experience free from fear. In Javier's words, it is to live in reality. Live authentically, speak authentically, think authentically, write authentically, be decent people, and achieve decent society. As our ancients taught us, be upright, self-respecting, self-disciplined, discreet, shameful, and dignified.
Not long ago, a friend left me a message saying that a life of integrity comes at a price, and it is heavy, too heavy. This sentence silenced me for a long time, and I certainly agree with him. But on the other hand, I would like to say that in fact, an unrighteous life is also costly, equally heavy, and even heavier.
06
Mr. Zhang Dongsun said a sentence decades ago, he said: "Autocrats do not only lie in politicians who are corrupt and pervert the law and act arbitrarily, but also in the people's fearful heart and the habit of hypocrisy and inferiority." ”
I often recommend to my students a book, written by the famous classical scholar Edith Hamilton, called "The Greek Spirit", and there is a passage in it that I really like and would like to share with you.
She said:
"Civilization is an overused word, it actually represents a lofty thing, far beyond the lights, telephones and other things can be included. The influence of civilization on us is something we cannot accurately measure, it is a passion for the mind, even a love of beauty, it is reason, it is gentle, it is polite and thoughtful, it is subtle emotions. If the things that we cannot accurately measure become the most important things, that is the highest state of civilization. If man does not become indecisive as a result, human life will reach something that man can rarely attain, and no one can surpass at all. ”
This passion for the mind, the love of beauty, the honor, the gentleness, the courtesy, the cherishing of subtle emotions, we were not strangers to it.