Philosopher's Whispers: I and Him

Author: Karl Walter
Translator: Lu Shicheng, Zhang Zaiyang, Song Zhonghuan, Zhong Changsheng, Wang Rukuan
Country: Germany
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: In a nutshell, it can be said that only when we draw boundaries, among strangers, and in the presence of others do we become more aware of ourselves. Men experience themselves as men when they are near women, just as women experience themselves as women when they are near men; true happiness and prosperity in life require—fundamentally—mutual affirmation in the presence of others. This applies not only between genders but also in many unpredictable areas. Therefore, in addition to the fear of the horrifying, curiosity, and an interest in distant and unfamiliar things also belong to being human. Modern civilization, on the one hand, makes it infinitely easier to encounter distant and unfamiliar things than in any previous era; on the other hand, it makes the tendency to flatten distinctions extremely powerful. The paradox of modern civilization lies in the fact that, in the employed tourism industry, women dress up to dance and men beat drums as if they were still "natives," though this is no longer the case. Both are under a common veil of illusion, in a state of sleep or half-awakening. This veil was first lifted in Italy; people generally became aware of the need to objectively examine everything in the nation and in the world; at the same time, subjectivity also powerfully emerged: man became an individual of the spirit and recognized himself as such. Jacob Burckhardt described this important process of the Renaissance with the famous statement mentioned above. Yet, far beyond it in principle is the characteristic of the development of Western Western countries. Not only in ancient lifestyles but also in high civilizations, the group has always retained a principle of priority over the individual, though the reasons and methods may appear very different. Conversely, only in the West was the individual discovered—as something that is fundamentally real. Many factors contributed to this, including the monotheism of the Jews, the spirit of the ancient Greeks, the legal thought of the Romans, the urban development of the Middle Ages along with the preliminary forms of their civic society, market activity, and capital economy. The result was a process of unprecedented effect, because it came with the discovery that the world is fundamentally controllable. Man was freed from the protection of the natural world—or at least the rules and connections of the natural world that had been experienced—and took pride in this. People can praise this as liberation or condemn it as a second original sin. That is, an unavoidable tension relationship arose—the tension between the individual and the collective, between the pursuit of freedom forward and the pursuit of lost security backward—a relationship that cannot be finally and clearly resolved. Thus, the inscrutable ambiguity and contradictions in human relationships become evident in many areas. Emmanuel Kant spoke of our "solitary society," while Schopenhauer vividly described the situation of hedgehogs: they try to approach and huddle together to stay warm. But when they do so, their spines cause them pain and bleeding. So they seek distance, though at the cost of cold, during which the danger of freezing to death reverses itself. Is there a solution? Is there an acceptable balance? What must we fear, what can we hope for, what should we do? Can people live together without constantly facing the abyss? A series of questions, it is highly likely—even highly likely—that we will never find a final and clear answer. Because we are not dealing with unambiguous things but with unpredictable ambiguities, we need various perspectives, should listen to many, different, even contradictory opinions, so that we can reflect and make our own judgments. The key to the question of how we should and can live with others, both at the beginning and the end, is this question—as Kant put it, all other questions converge into this one? Nature has created all relationships equally for everyone—Greeks and barbarians alike. This can be correctly understood by examining everything that humans are born with. These things are used in the same way by everyone. And among these things, there is no difference between barbarians and us, nor between Greeks. After all, we all breathe air through our mouths and noses, and we all eat with our hands. That is, just as we are all different from one another, nothing is more similar or the same for any individual. But if the distortions of custom, if meaningless illusions had not twisted the frail human mind and turned it away from what it had always longed for, then no one would be like themselves in the way that everyone is like everyone else. Therefore, there is a single definition (as people usually give it of man) that applies to everyone. This is enough to prove that there is no distinction within the species. If there were a distinction, it would be impossible for a single definition to include everyone. Because reason—through which we alone surpass animals, and through which we are powerful through conjecture, argumentation, refutation, elucidation, and inference—is certainly common; in learning, there are distinctions, but in the ability to learn, there is equality. Because what all human sense organs grasp is common, and what moves the senses moves all senses in the same way; the concept I mentioned earlier that is impressed on the mind, is impressed in the same way on the minds of all people, and the spiritual interpreter, the orator, differs in writing but is consistent in intention. In a tribe that has not yet reached maturity, there is no such spirit; it needs a leader. But the similarity of humans is not only in truth but also in error. Because everyone is conquered by interest. Even if interest is to incite wrongdoing, it still has some resemblance to a natural wealth, namely, it takes pleasure in ease and comfort. Thus, from the spiritual error, people derive certain benefits, they escape from similar ignorance and avoid the death of natural dissolution, they pursue life because it gathers us in the place of our birth, pain is included among the greatest evils, not only because of its severity but mainly because it leads to the destruction of our nature; and because of the similarity between the brilliance of virtue and honor, respected things bring happiness, while disgraceful things are despised. Suffering, joy, desire, and fear permeate the senses of all people in the same way. If one person is controlled by one illusion and another by a different one, then those who worship dogs and cats as if they were gods, like other nations, suffer from the same superstitions. On the other hand, which nation does not love friendship, kindness, the awareness of gratitude and the appreciation of good deeds? Which nation refuses to hate arrogance, pride, evil deeds, cruelty, and ingratitude? From these things, we can recognize that the entire human race is internally socialized, and this is the final realization (humanity needs philosophy), because the doctrine of a just life makes people better. Among people in a natural state, there are no ranks; it is first introduced by civil law. Aristotle, though in his Politics, adopted this principle: that some people are born as wise, or as he truly wanted to say, philosophers (he himself belonged to them), and are destined to rule, while those who are physically strong and dull are destined to obey. It seems that masters and servants are not created through universal consent but through differences in spiritual strength; yet reason and experience refute this. How could a wise person think that it is better to be ruled by others than to rule oneself? As long as there is a violent struggle between the so-called wise and the physically strong, the former can never or rarely win. Therefore, nature itself makes everyone equal, and this equality must also be recognized. Even if it is assumed that nature does not create people equally, then peace can only be maintained under equal conditions, because everyone believes themselves to be equal to others. Therefore, equality must be accepted, and the ninth law of nature states: All men are born equal. Pride is the offense against this law. I have found two kinds of inequality in humanity. One, which I call natural or physical, because it is determined by nature, exists in age, health, physical strength, and the differences in mental and spiritual characteristics. The other, which I call moral or political, depends on an agreement. It is determined by the consent of people or even recorded in law. This inequality exists in various privileges, that is, in certain people enjoying privileges that harm others, such as being richer, more authoritative, more powerful, or even demanding obedience from others. People do not need to ask: What is the cause of natural inequality, because the answer can be found in the simple definition of the word. People do not need to explore whether there is an essential connection between the two kinds of inequality. Because, in other words, this is asking whether the ruler is necessarily more valuable than the ruled, whether physical or spiritual strength, wisdom or morality always produce the same individuals and correspond to their power and wealth. This is a question that might be useful to discuss among slaves (if their masters listen). However, this is not suitable for those who seek truth, are wise, and are free. Everyone lives together in society, everyone has the same just obligations, everyone is equal; does this mean that putting love and friendship in priority is just? This requires explanation. I have just imagined a situation: a person is in danger, and I can help him; now I imagine: at the same time, two people call for my help. Can I freely, even must, help the one who is closer to me through blood ties, friendship, gratitude, or respect, at the risk of letting the other die? Yes. Why? Because in the mass of society, there are as many private associations for us as there are individuals, and according to the principles of social life itself, we must fulfill all the conditions imposed on us by these associations, precisely those imposed by the associations around us according to their closeness. Therefore, we are forced to take precedence over others in caring for our father, mother, children, friends, and so on. I am not responsible for the normal functioning of the social machine. I am not the son of a clockmaker. I see: if an acorn and a walnut fall side by side, and one does not remain motionless to make way for the other, but both follow their own laws, growing as well as they can, until finally one covers the other and destroys it. If a plant does not grow according to its nature, it will die. Man is the same. This is an important and noteworthy perspective on the current state of human development: as we move toward a civilization that envelops the world and at the same time have the possibility of becoming citizens of the coming 20th century, we truly witness for the first time in the past 50,000 years examples of human lifestyles from the most primitive hunters and gatherers to people who have always tilled the land with wooden hoes for meager harvests, to those living in cities with theocratic or monarchical orders, to farmers living in isolation and untouched by urban civilization, as they lived a thousand years ago, to nations that have lost their ancient, multi-layered civilizations and have replaced them with new civilizations adapted to lower levels, coarse and brutal ways of survival, and to nations that have crossed thousands of years of civilization without transition to enter the modern world. A native of New Guinea calls a pile of yams "a pile" because he cannot count the yams, while at the same time, someone at Cape Kennedy calculates to the second when a Apollo spacecraft must change direction to enter the lunar orbit. In Japan, there is a guild of potters who make special ceremonial vessels, whose members, according to ancient custom, even today, 13 generations later, do not need to stir the potter's wheel or cultivate other forms of their craft by hand. In some parts of the world, old women collect herbs and try to soothe the frightened young pregnant women with murmuring incantations, while in another place, laboratories are researching better methods of contraception and analyzing every stage of the reproductive process. A warrior in a barbarian tribe goes out at the age of 20 and takes a sacrifice from the people who have been hostile to them for 500 years, while at the same time, an international research team is calmly and practically examining the immense destructive potential of nuclear weapons. The entire 50,000-year history of humanity is presented to us, and in the brief moment when all-encompassing events occur, we are provided with the possibility of observing everything at the same time.