What is western culture and Futude spirit?

Renaissance and Enlightenment are the peaks of human cultural and spiritual development. The religious reform, bourgeois revolution, scientific revolution and industrial revolution in this period have brought unprecedented activity, liberation, spiritual enrichment, free consciousness development, exuberant creativity, frequent success in scientific achievements and unprecedented prosperity in culture and economy. During this period, the main spirits of its culture were humanistic spirit, individualism, Protestant spirit and scientific spirit.

1. Humanistic spirit

The basic spirit of Renaissance and Enlightenment is humanistic spirit. Renaissance began with the criticism of the darkness of medieval religion. In view of the fact that there were only gods and no people in medieval religion, it became its purpose to enhance people's status and value.

The humanistic spirit is first manifested in the affirmation and care for people, and people sing loudly about the greatness and dignity of people. Praising people and affirming people's thoughts became people's conscious consciousness in this period. This is a remarkable change, marking people's awakening. People are liberated from the heavy imprisonment in the Middle Ages and look at the world and themselves subjectively. As Buckhart said, "The Renaissance alone is enough to make us feel eternal. The philosophical concept of human nature has a long history-but here, this concept has become a reality. "

Humanistic spirit is also prominently manifested in the full flow and all-round development of human creativity. "This is the greatest and most progressive change that mankind has never experienced. It is an era that needs giants and produces giants-giants in terms of thinking ability, enthusiasm and personality, versatility and erudition." In this period, it is people's lofty ideal to pursue the balance of body and mind or spirit and body, and to pursue the full development of people's talents in all aspects, especially creativity.

The highest expression of humanistic spirit is humanitarianism. Humanitarianism includes two levels. On the one hand, it is related to individual self-awareness, emphasizing respect for individual value and developing individual ability and freedom. Egoism, hedonism, the pursuit of beauty and the development of talent, and the publicity of individualism are the mainstream of the spirit of this period. On the other hand, people are aware of their glory and responsibility as a member of the class, so they should not be satisfied with their own happiness, but also think of the happiness of others, society and all mankind. He is willing to work hard for this, even sacrificing his own interests until his death if necessary. This selfish and narrow-minded spirit, which transcends egoism and individualism and is associated with higher values, is fully embodied in Thomas Moore's Utopia, and the origin of modern utopian socialism begins.

2. individualism

The most important achievement of the Renaissance is human discovery, and the most important spirit is individualism. Individualism not only refers to egoism, even egoism, but mainly refers to the individual's subjective consciousness and personality consciousness. In western culture, the spirit of individualism associated with individual freedom, individual ability development and individual subject status rose during the Renaissance.

Individualism can be seen everywhere, not only rulers, nobles and elites, but also many ordinary people, scholars, teachers, artists, secretaries, businessmen, bankers, actors, craftsmen and many women. They realize that their existence is unique, unrepeatable and irreplaceable, so they live in the world, on the one hand, they should enjoy themselves and pursue secular happiness, on the other hand, they should strive to fully develop their own personality. They are either rude or brave; Or tyranny, or weakness; Or studious, or suntech, or greedy; Or sociable, or smart; Or love art; Or collect money; Or indulge your instincts and enjoy yourself; Or devote yourself to creation, make first-class achievements and win people's respect. Anyway, let your own value be realized and your ability be developed.

Individualism is also manifested in the affirmation of human dignity, human value and the development of free personality.

Individualism is also manifested in the pursuit of the development of personal feelings and the satisfaction of desires, and in the development of egoism. The strength of western individualism is rooted in the strength of civil economy, which is a commodity economy. All labor must be reduced to abstract things, or exchanged through the condensation of abstract labor-money, regardless of birth, belief and social relations. Therefore, commodities are born equal and free, and they are also the deep foundation for the growth of individualism. Individualism, as the mainstream of modern western society, developed from this.

3. Protestant spirit: secularization of religion

The Reformation is a great ideological emancipation movement, which rose in Germany in 15 17, and later spread to other parts of Europe, having a far-reaching impact on western culture.

The most important achievement of the religious reform is secularization, which affirms the value of secular life. On the one hand, it secularizes religious life, on the other hand, it sanctifies secular life. This secular life refers to the secular activities of secular believers, especially the folk class. As a result of secularization, both religious life and secular life are rationalized, which creates conditions for the birth of new religious ethics and even capitalist spirit.

Secularization is a rebellion against traditional Christian teachings, which is characterized by denying secularism and asceticism. Since earthly life is full of sins in the eyes of primitive Christians and is not worth nostalgia, it is logical to abandon this world and deny human nature. Secular Protestantism is quite another matter.

In Protestantism, secular activities not only have the necessity of existence, but also have sacred significance, which is the call of God and the result of God's will. Therefore, voters should make active efforts to show God the success of earthly life. Laziness and laziness are both acts of abandoning the people; It is also despised by Protestants to practice monasticism, abstain from secular affairs and give up secular duties. This Protestant ethic provides the necessary value orientation for the establishment of a capitalist society, thus providing impetus for economic development and the arrival of a new society.

Religious reform and its secularization promoted the rationalization of people's ideas, thus providing an indispensable value basis for economic development and rationalization. Protestantism regards labor, business and other activities as its bounden duty, so it has a sense of responsibility and mission, which makes economic activities have moral and religious significance and makes people never stop doing their own work. This has played a positive role in the development of capitalism. Until today, religion is still thriving in capitalism, and its root lies in this.

4. Scientific spirit

(1) Pursuing the truth:

The fearless pursuit of truth and the exploration of truth are the most precious in the scientific spirit and the most precious spiritual wealth left to us by that era.

Truth correctly reflects the understanding of objective existence and its laws, but the understanding and reflection of this kind of thing is closely related to people's subjective initiative, and people's experience, hopes and values all play a role in it. Even the concepts, categories and languages used in people's thinking and understanding are the accumulation of human initiative developed in the long-term practice. Therefore, truth is always relative, concrete and conditional, always in the process of development, and there is never absolute truth.

In this sense, the pursuit of truth is more valuable than the possession of truth itself. The reason why human understanding has been deepened and the river of truth has been enriched is that the pursuit of truth has never stopped. This unremitting pursuit of truth is the core of scientific spirit.

The masters of science who appeared in that period were all heroes who persisted in and pursued the truth. Despite the opposition of the church, Galileo repeatedly publicized Copernicus's Heliocentrism and other scientific ideas, with amazing courage. As Bernard pointed out, "to overthrow common sense depends not only on science, but also on courage." Although he has been modest and retired all his life, those who dare to do so are courageous; Moreover, as a renaissance humanist, he has all the motives to do this and the past. "

Bruno was a great martyr and a soldier who devoted himself to science. He loved science, adhered to the truth and was brave and unyielding until he was burned alive by the Roman Inquisition. His death is undoubtedly a tragedy for him personally, but it is an honor for truth science and scientists. If so, it shows the value of truth and science, and the selfless and fearless quality of scientists. In order to pursue truth and develop science, I will sacrifice my life. It's not that he didn't know the consequences of doing so, but he died of his own free will, which is the lofty value of a scientist's life.

Newton was also a warrior who pursued truth, and his spirit of pursuing truth all his life was admirable. His earnest exploration, careful investigation, abandoning all useless assumptions and fantasies, and opposing metaphysical speculation to explain the reasons for things' changes all embody the spirit of pursuing truth.

The spirit embodied in these scientists is still talked about by westerners.

(2) Conquer nature:

During this period, the development of scientific revolution, the progress of technology and the renewal of ideas have strongly promoted economic development, pushed people to March into the depth and breadth of production, explore the mysteries of nature, explore nature, be the master of nature and conquer nature.

Columbus discovered the new world and Magellan sailed around the world, which broadened people's horizons and strengthened their courage. Man can completely control and conquer nature by his own strength, instead of being a slave and servant of nature, like in ancient times.

The establishment of Newtonian mechanics has increased people's confidence and pride. Originally, the world in the sky and the world H on the earth were governed by the same law. Now this law has been discovered by human beings, from which people can accurately predict the orbit of celestial bodies. Harvey's discovery of blood circulation marks the deepening of people's understanding of themselves. Driven by science, there is almost nothing that human beings can't understand, and there is no natural force that they can't control. Even if they can't do it now, they will be allowed to do it in the future, because science is cumulative, progressive and endless. Therefore, people's creativity is infinite, and people's existence and strength are infinite. What difficulties and obstacles will not be trampled underfoot? This optimistic and confident spirit has continued to this day.

(3) empiricism and rationalism:

There are always two traditions in the development of science: empiricism and rationalism.

The development of scientific activities is inseparable from experience, observation, measurement, data collection, experiment, operation of tools and instruments, accumulation of skills and verification of achievements, otherwise the flower of science will leave its rooted soil. Of course, scientific activities are inseparable from concepts, judgments, reasoning, thinking, logic, analysis and synthesis, and from the development of pure reason. Otherwise, just like the lack of sunshine and rain, the flower of science is equally difficult to bloom. In addition, the development of science needs the efforts of scientists, especially creative work, intuition, inspiration, understanding, the influence of creativity, specific beliefs, values, and even mysterious current experience. These things are absolutely indispensable to science. During this period, the above factors, especially empiricism and rationalism, have made great progress and promoted and supplemented each other, thus promoting the arrival of the climax of scientific development.

As the originator of modern philosophy, Francis Bacon is also the founder of modern induction. His emphasis on experience, his admiration for new methods such as induction and experiment, and his criticism of medieval superstition and scholasticism made him the first representative of modern empiricism, and his thoughts had a far-reaching impact on modern empiricism and even scientific development. Under his advocacy, the experimental spirit came into being, and a large number of outstanding experimental scientists emerged. He paid attention to practicality and practicality. They did various experiments by themselves, which not only explored the mysteries of nature and gained knowledge, but also solved practical problems and paid attention to beneficial utilitarian effects. This empiricism has become an important tradition of western science and culture.

Rationalism is an important spirit of science. Compared with empiricism, it represents a trend, a tradition and an extreme of human spiritual development, and it is also an important source of scientific thought from ancient times to the present.

Scientific research is essentially a rational activity. It is an activity that people take the natural or objective world as the research object and try to grasp its essence and laws in order to benefit mankind. Scientific research needs to deal with all kinds of perceptual things and accumulate experience and knowledge, but it is more critical and important to grasp its inherent essence and law through phenomena and transcend sensibility. Therefore, experience alone is not enough. It needs reflection, analysis, generalization and synthesis. Only in this way can we grasp the abstract law and the law hidden under the experience representation. Reflection, analysis, generalization and synthesis all belong to the abstract thinking ability or cognitive ability of human reason, from which ideas, theories, book knowledge and even scientific thoughts come. Rationalism, that is, the spirit of attaching importance to and advocating rationality, is very important to the development of science.

Under the advocacy of Descartes, scientific rationalism has become an important trend of thought in western culture. Under the influence of rationalism, universalism, determinism, reductionism, doubt and critical spirit have become the important spirit of the times and the primary driving force of scientific development.

So far, the traditions that have influenced western culture have basically taken shape, and the main spirits of these cultures still play a great role in today's western life.

Fourth, the basic spirit of modern western culture.

The main spirit of modern western culture is embodied in the following aspects:

1. Liberalism and spirit of freedom

The spirit of freedom has a long history in the west. Liberalism is the foundation and leading spirit of many western countries in modern times. Modern western liberalism is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

Human rights:

Human rights are basic human rights, including personal rights, property rights, freedom of thought and universal suffrage, which are protected by law in contemporary western society and shall not be arbitrarily violated.

Economic liberalism:

Contemporary western economic liberalism is mainly manifested in: (1) the right to exist; (2) Ownership and property rights; (3) Free competition and free trade; (4) Economic democracy. Among them, protecting property ownership is the most important.

Market liberalism:

The contemporary west is a market economy, advocating free competition, free trade and mercantilism. On the one hand, China is laissez-faire, the government does not interfere, and individuals have full autonomy in economic activities; On the other hand, it supports external expansion and takes foreign markets and resources under the banner of free competition. Recently, capitalist countries have adopted the policy of combining laissez-faire with state intervention and combining individual freedom with social control in their economic development, but liberalism is the mainstream.

Freedom of thought:

Freedom of thought includes freedom of belief, freedom of speech, freedom of publication and tolerance. These contents are deeply rooted in western society, protected by relatively perfect laws, and have become the lifestyle of westerners.

Freedom of personality and will:

Paying attention to individuality and respecting others' individuality is the basic attitude of modern westerners, and everyone has the right to choose in life.

2. Democracy and rule of law

The spirit of democracy and the rule of law has a long history in the west, and modern western countries have different forms of government, but the spirit of democracy and the rule of law runs through, and the trend of democracy and the rule of law is unstoppable in the contemporary era.

Democracy mainly includes sovereignty by the people, by the people and for the people.