The foreword to Liu Qing's Lecture Notes on Western Modern Thought is titled: Open a book and begin a journey of intellectual exploration. The content of this book is informative and sophisticated, and for those who have long been influenced by traditional Chinese culture, it is tantamount to opening up another world. From June 25, 2021, the author inadvertently came into contact with this book, and was attracted to it, and began to read it seriously for eight hundred, intermittently, and it took two months!
This book explores the meaning of life by introducing 19 modern philosophers and thinkers in the West, and quotes Socrates in it to point out that "the life without reflection is not worth living", but it is also gentle to say: the meaning of life is an "important but not urgent" issue, the unexamined life is not worth living, and the overexamined life is a life that cannot be lived.
Among them, the depth and breadth of thought and speculation, philosophers and thinkers in the development and improvement of various ideas at the same time, there are also tit-for-tat competition, meticulous thinking, unique vision, these ideas seem to flow, if close or far, as if in front of the eyes, but can not be touched. For example, When Weber pointed out that modern society, though glamorous, is caught in the predicament of the "struggle of the gods," Habermas believes that "communicative rationality" can get out of this predicament.
Sartre deduced from the nothingness of life that man naturally has freedom, and pointed out that freedom is a burden, and what kind of freedom he chooses will inevitably bear the consequences it brings, sometimes unbearable weight; some are reflections on modern science and reason, preventing science from becoming a supreme and inviolable theology, science is always an incomplete correctness; reason creates modern society, and excessive reliance on instrumental reason will make it easier for people to be enslaved and become tools and robots.
Excessive rational conceit, self-righteousness to control the future, in modern society often creates disasters, the road to hell is paved with good wishes; Berlin proposed pluralistic values and two kinds of freedom, which read clumsily but contains reason, and many times, the dilemma encountered by individuals is caused by the coexistence of monolithic values and the inability to accept pluralistic values in thought.
Rolsnozik's argument is more interesting, mainly in the form of freedom being more important? Or is equality more important? Different choices make different countries, and on the surface these theories are far away from us, but in fact, they affect us all the time, go deep into every corner of life, and it is not "if you ignore it, it does not exist."
After reading this book, do you have a conclusion about the meaning of life? Not really. However, refusing to become a certain kind of inertial person, thinking and reflection and communication is the only way, although it cannot completely solve the problem, but it does solve some problems. When a person is alive, all his actions are a reflection of the meaning of life and the value of life, sometimes he understands, sometimes he does not understand, there is no action for no reason.
Liu Qing wrote a sentence at the end: Human beings are great because of reason, and they mature because they know the limitations of reason. The American philosopher MacKintai said: A good life is a life that pursues a good life all your life, and Descartes said: I think, therefore I am. With the deepening of thinking, although it is impossible to draw the "geometric circle" of life, it is approaching this geometric circle step by step.