This question is not only the ultimate question of Tolstoy, but also the ultimate question of many philosophers, thinkers, and ordinary people, and of course, a considerable number of people have not asked this question. In Tolstoy's view, a person who does not ask this question is happy, whether he is a master who understands the world or a peasant who knows nothing, without this question can save many troubles, and once this question is asked, it is impossible to get rid of it without a purgatory torture, as toTolstoy is like.
This is a problem that is simple and simple to say is difficult and difficult, in simple terms, as Mr. Hu Shi said, life has no meaning, what meaning you give it, it has no meaning, difficult as Tolstoy said, before thinking about this problem, he must first take away all the ropes in the room to avoid hanging himself without thinking.
For Tolstoy, who liked to think, this question bothered him for a long time, and at first he refused to answer it. Writing, teaching, family, marriage, and other trivialities of life temporarily saved him from this problem, but just as a minor illness would eventually become a serious illness, the problem exploded in Tolstoy's fifties, to the point where he could not live if he ignored it. Tolstoy decided to confront the problem, but this time he found that he had no answer.
These questions cannot wait, and they must be answered now. If I don't answer, I can't live. The answer, however, is no. - Confessions
Tolstoy decided to start all over again, and perhaps religion could solve this problem, after all he was a Christian.
However, Tolstoy found through careful observation that the more knowledgeable the believer, the less religious, and most people only used religion as a means, for whom prayer, worship, and salutation were meaningless physical movements. In particular, Tolstoy himself was quite skeptical of doctrine, and he read many books from an early age, and the more he read, the more he could find the irrationality in the doctrine.
Seeing that religion could not solve the problem, Tolstoy turned to experimental science. Experimental science has always been serious and empirical, and Tolstoy thought that perhaps experimental science could solve this problem. However, once the deep research is carried out, it is found that experimental science can only solve its internal problems, and it is also weak for the problems of life.
Some disciplines do not intend to answer the question of life, but only answer their own scientific, professional questions, if you turn your attention to this field, then you will lament the power of human intelligence, but you have long known this fact - it does not answer the question of life... If you turn your attention to the disciplines that answer the questions of life, such as physiology, psychology, biology, sociology, you will see a surprising poverty of thought, vague expression, and a disguise that can answer questions beyond the scope of its discipline. Thinkers argue endlessly and contradict themselves. - Confessions
Experimental science was helpless, and Tolstoy turned to speculative science, where Tolstoy discovered more "pseudoscience" and nonsense:
The pseudosciences in this field—jurisprudence, sociology, history—all try to answer human questions and whimsically use their own means to answer questions of life concerning all mankind. - Confessions
The near-collapsed Tolstoy did not believe that he alone had asked such a question, and the sages must have explored and concluded about it, so he threw himself into the arms of the sage, but the conclusion was even more devastating: the truth of life is a complete nothingness!
Socrates said: The life of the flesh is sin and lies, and the life of the flesh is happiness! Schopenhauer said: Life is sin, it is nothing, and the transformation into nothingness is the only happiness of life! Solomon said: Everything in the world, whether it is wisdom or foolishness, whether it is poor or rich, whether it is joy or sorrow, is emptiness! The Buddha said: Life is inevitable suffering, weakness, aging and death, and we should free ourselves from life and life and death!
The more Tolstoy studied, the more he found that this was an unsolvable problem:
I search for answers in all my knowledge, not only to find nothing, but to believe that those who, like me, seek meaning in this knowledge must have found nothing... The study of experimental science does not deal with the ultimate question, it simply explores positive knowledge and thus expresses the greatness of human intelligence... Not only did philosophy not answer me, it itself asked...
If you must find the answer, death seems to be the only answer.
However, Tolstoy vaguely felt that something was wrong, and if death was the only answer, why didn't humanity go extinct? Why are hundreds of millions of people alive and well, but only a few are looking for death? Why are there so few people who claim to be looking for death and life to really end themselves? Why didn't Socrates, Solomon, and Schopenhauer commit suicide? Can Schopenhauers represent all of humanity?
Tolstoy believed that he was in the wrong direction, that it was impossible to draw positive conclusions along the line that the essence of life was nothingness, and that to understand why to live one had to turn one's attention to most people who loved life.
I understood that if I wanted to live and understand the true meaning of life, then I should not look for those who have lost the meaning of life and want to commit suicide, but in billions of people.
In the vast number of working people, Tolstoy found a surging heat wave of life, who believed in religion more than the intellectuals.
After going around in circles, Tolstoy returned to religion, and he found that only when he had faith in God did the fire of life begin to burn, and once he lost faith in God, he was like dead. But The God in Tolstoy's heart is different from the various denominations, it is a school of its own, which Tolstoy called "moral self-improvement."
At the end of The Confessions, Tolstoy tells a rather allegorical dream in which he dreams of lying on a suspender woven of ropes, which does not touch the ground, and the more he looks down, the more he feels the bottomless abyss below, and he is about to fall, and as soon as he begins to look upwards, the fear disappears, not only that, he does not feel the slightest danger or even a little comfort, he finds that this suspender is so cleverly designed, As long as the person lying on it looks up, it is unlikely to fall. In other words, as long as a person has faith in his heart, he can find the meaning of life, and if he loses faith, he loses the meaning of life.
Friends, are you satisfied with Tolstoy's answer? Discussion is welcome