Fudan university open class: the origin of cultural differences between China and the west

According to the lecture "The Origin of Cultural Differences between China and the West" by Professor Wang Defeng of Fudan University, the sequence is different from the video.

The article mainly starts from three points: contract; Rationality; logic

Before philosophy there was a religion called primitive religion. Greek mythology is very developed, and Greece has also developed the predecessor of theology and philosophy. Then the primitive religion of Greece and the myth of Greece construct a surreal world. The world is on Mount Olympia, right? At the highest time, it was called Zeus, and there was a god. The relationship between the gods has its own moral laws and moral order, so the Greeks used such a primitive religion and myth to build a different world in the world-the world of gods. What is the purpose of building God's world? The purpose is to make the order between people sacred and inviolable. Why do you need this?

The civilization of ancient Greece is Aegean civilization, and there are many islands in the geographical area. A tribe keeps appearing. To find a better natural environment, it colonized another island. The movement of sea colonization occurs frequently, so different tribes will meet on the same island. So how did they get along in peace? It is impossible for them to construct social order according to blood relationship and blood relationship system like China people. They only have one way, called a contract. If three tribes live on the same island, it can't be based on blood, can it? Because there is no blood relationship, only a contract can be established, but the contract is made by people and can also be destroyed. So we must recognize this contract. What is the method? Before western philosophy, the basic task of religion was to build a world of gods, and to define human order by the order between gods and morality, so as to make human order sacred and inviolable.

Then this tells us that before the beginning of western philosophy, western religious thought has distinguished two worlds, one is the real world, the other is the world of God, the other is this shore and the other is the other. This is a feature of the geographical environment at that time. Then soon after the beginning of philosophy, Socrates met such a figure, and later his student Plato, so Plato established the first complete philosophical system. Plato's philosophy is generally called idealism. He no longer speaks in religious language, and he no longer speaks in primitive religious language. He used rational language, so rational language should also construct a world on the other side, which is called the world of ideas.

For example, what is a hammer? We said we saw the special shape of this hammer, such as the handle and the hammer head on it, and then I said it was a hammer. No, the hammer is not such an external feature. We realize that this is a hammer, because we have the idea of a hammer in our hearts, so every concrete emotional hammer is actually a poor imitation of the idea of a hammer.

Then it's strange for everyone to hear Plato's idea-every perceptual thing is an imperfect imitation of the idea.

For example, this white horse and that black horse are all imitations of the concept of horse. Of course, imitations are definitely imperfect and flawed.

What is Plato's idealism? He came to an important conclusion that the real world is not perfect, because the real world is composed of perceptual things, and these perceptual things are imperfect imitations of ideas. There is no concrete hammer in the world, which can be called the ideal of a hammer. Wouldn't it be ridiculous if a Dane raised his hammer and announced to all nations in the world that it was the only real hammer?

Perceptual things are imitations of ideas and are not perfect. So an important conclusion was reached. What are the defects in the real world? The gap between it and the idea.

Therefore, the world should be transformed. We in China have never wanted to change the world. Ladies and gentlemen, since Plato's thought became a tradition, the request to transform the world has been constantly put forward. Why? The real world was found to be flawed. How could it be found? Because you have ideas in your heart, isn't reality flawed compared with reality? What if there is a defect? Transforming it and making it closer to the idea is called progress.

Our hammer today is very different from the original hammer, isn't it? We have a crusher called the present hammer, which is very different from the original hammer in form, but we should know that modern steam engines and crushers represent the progress from the original hammer to today's hammer, right? Who brought this progress? Compare our thoughts with the defects in reality, and then correct this defect and overcome it. Therefore, the West must point out that history is progressive.

The world should be transformed, because it is an imperfect imitation, which requires overcoming its defects, and every time it is overcome, it will bring about a progress. Ideas make western civilization and China civilization have essential differences. Have we in China ever thought about transforming the world? Today, we think about it because of the influence of the west, and we only thought about the unity of heaven and man before.

Constantly modify and transform this society, including many shortcomings in my life. What if there are many shortcomings? Transform it. The theory and concept of transformation come from Platonism-idealism, so it is impossible for China people to constantly transform, transform nature and transform society, including their personal lives, like westerners. You learned later that there is no need for transformation, and transformation is ridiculous.

Because the west, especially in modern times, is willing to develop capital and technology to transform nature. Plato's theory of ideas has been fully embodied in western civilization since modern times. What is this? It can create things that are not found in nature.

For example, bubble gum, there is no such thing in nature, so you must pay attention to eating bubble gum. You can't swallow it after chewing it, because it is not metabolizable, so you must spit it out.

Many things can be traced back to idealism. Because it constructs things that nature does not have, and once these things are created, they cannot enter the cycle of nature. Is it called white pollution today? White pollution can only be produced in western civilization, how can it be produced in China? This is impossible, because his understanding of the world is different.

I believe that when we see parents take their children to court today, or children take their parents to court, or brothers and sisters take each other to court, no matter which side wins the case, the one who wins the case will not be happy, don't you agree? The rationality of law cannot be the value basis of a country's social life.

China is a country ruled by law in the future. Don't imagine that all contradictions and conflicts in interpersonal relationships are handled by legal principles, which is actually impossible. If I go to a restaurant to drink a bowl of soybean milk, I'm worried about whether there are any factors harmful to my health in this soybean milk, or how to tell me if I find it. If this is a way of life and problems in daily life must be solved through legal proceedings, then think about how many courts Shanghai needs, for example.

The crisis of daily life does not depend on the rationality of law, nor on the logic of capital, but on the ethical spirit of a nation.

Nuclear energy is absolutely safe to use, so it has a premise-people don't make mistakes, but people are animals that make mistakes.

People can't think that perfection and infinity can be achieved without making any mistakes under the arm of reason, which is impossible. Man is limited in the final analysis, and he is surrounded by nothingness.

So in this way, the propositions of philosophy and religion are consistent at this point, and * * * also agrees that people make mistakes. Once a mistake is made in the use of nuclear energy, the consequences are beyond control.

People live in this world, what makes us stand on the earth is not the rationality of our minds, but the feeling of life. Western philosophy puts the emotions in people's hearts very low-the first level of reason, the second level of will and the third level of emotion, which is too low. Their understanding of life and the world is Rutgers centralism, while China's philosophy is just the opposite. We think about this truth, right?

What drives us to act and makes our actions appropriate, and our actions bring harmony and happiness in this social life instead of destruction and disaster, it must be that the application of our life emotions is positive.

We should not think that we can arrange our lives with cold rational thinking. We are always in the mood. We are not only happy or sad, but I am happy when I am happy. When I am sad, I am sad, not a cold-hearted entity that has nothing to do with emotion. At this moment, I happen to be in a sad state, and then I ruled this out. Without this kind of thing, life emotion is all aspects, which constitute our heart, and he is our heart.

We know that western logic needs reasoning, right? Then Aristotle's syllogism, major premise, minor premise and conclusion are typical in reasoning. Ok, then there must be an intermediate concept between the concepts used in the major premise and the minor premise, and then the conclusion must be correct in form.

So where does the premise of every inference come from? From the previous inference, well, then the conclusion of another inference becomes the premise of your inference, so where does the premise of another inference come from? Further, there is another inference, and another inference is the origin of this premise. If you go forward, what will you eventually find? There is such an inference that its premise is not the result of inference.

If the premise of every inference is the result of another inference, we will go back indefinitely, and eventually you will find such an inference, whose premise is no longer the result of any inference, and it must be philosophy. What does China's philosophical classics give? It's all these things, that is, you can take it as a premise and then reason. What did he give? What did he say and what did he see? What's the point? The scene of the soul.

In short, it is very simple, such as the movement against Tao, which is used by the weak. You already know what I said. Do you understand or not? Just ask me why I'm going the wrong way, and you can show me. Lao Tzu said that what I saw was the movement against the Tao. He is not the result of any inference, he is an intuitive judgment of the world, and then you can deduce a lot of things.

What do you mean? Everything in the world must go its own way.

Because of this, the Chinese nation in China has a kind of wisdom that other nations can't compare with us. What kind of wisdom? In the darkest and most difficult times, the Chinese nation maintained its confidence in the future. Why? -The darkness is about to pass. He is bound to go to his own opposite, and the light is bound to be ahead, so our nation is great, and it also keeps our nation vigilant at the most glorious time and the most proud time. Why? Things are moving in the other direction.

Have you read Hegel's Logic? It is derived step by step, and each step is logically rigorous and blameless. But readers must think rationally, keep up with each other, and there must be no mistakes. In the face of Hegel's logic, open the logic when you can't sleep, and you will soon fall asleep.

Why? Because you can't stay rational and awake for a long time, you can't get excited, you just reason there, and then you can't stand it, your eyelids become heavy and you fall asleep. This is a work of western philosophy, which thoroughly and meticulously exercises our minds and trains our rational thinking, and the effect is similar to that of learning mathematics.

The classics of China's philosophy nourish our hearts, because it involves all kinds of life emotions in our hearts. You can watch this paragraph, because you have had this feeling of life, but you can't see that paragraph. You haven't felt this way in your life. You can recite it and you will understand later. I'm afraid you have nothing. This is called childlike innocence.

Therefore, China's tradition of Chinese studies education is child-oriented. When we grasp it, we should not let him understand it, but let him recite it. We think this method is too mechanical and bad. Unlike western learning and education methods, which are based on understanding, how can you understand the classics of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism when you are young? There is no strict reasoning. Strict reasoning and category deduction can be learned by children, right? Some people are very talented in mathematics and can understand advanced mathematics at an early age. This is not surprising, and their IQ is relatively high.

So what is an important feature of China's philosophical works? Full of images, metaphors, examples, metaphors and literary values, I don't infer from them, but tell them directly to you. I don't care if you don't accept it. China's ancient sages directly told what they saw, which is called intuition, while western philosophy is reasoning.