Generality and human existence

Author: Che Yuling
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-12-01
Features: Here, the sense of helplessness and despair about the limited nature of life is clearly expressed. However, Nietzsche did not completely deny life as Schopenhauer did. He could not tolerate the meaninglessness of life and sought to set life on something full of strength and vitality, thereby escaping complete pessimism. "My highest hope has not been revealed! And all the illusions and consolations of my youth have died! How can I endure? How can I endure and overcome such wounds? How can my soul rise from the grave? Yes, there is something in me that is unharmed, indestructible, and can shatter rocks: this is my will. It moves forward silently, unwavering." In Nietzsche's view, only through the will to power can one escape the nihilism and suffering of life, and the vivid and intuitive embodiment of the will to power is art. However, he remained skeptical about the meaning of life, sometimes lamenting that art is a rumor and "the übermensch" is an illusion. It can be seen that deep down, he was torn by two intense conflicting emotions: the pursuit of life's meaning and the disbelief in life having any meaning. This was the main reason why Nietzsche called himself a "tragic philosopher," and there was a heart-stirring sense of "knowing the impossible but still striving to do it" in his philosophy.
We see that for Schopenhauer, the finitude of life led him to conclude that life ultimately ends in death, or nihilism, which determined life as negative. For Nietzsche, life was also nihilistic, but this did not negate the possibility of life having some positive meaning. Only in Heidegger did the finitude of life, or death, acquire a positive nature. He did not explore the sadness of death itself but limited himself to grasping its role in guiding individuals to return to themselves. He believed that death was not an indifferent endpoint to existence; rather, the end of death tightened the string of life. And life itself was precisely because of the tension created by finitude that it became life. Thus, understanding death in the sense of existence is called "dying to live." Because death makes individual existence ultimately impossible, turning it into nihilism, it compels individuals to seriously consider: how can one live in a way that is more meaningful? The essence of death is nihilism, and he believed that the intention of "being" can only reveal itself when embedded in the realm of "nothingness." Only by embedding oneself in the realm of "nothingness" can one transcend all things. Precisely because we can strongly sense and comprehend the nihilism after death, we cherish life, realize our unique and irreplaceable value, and thus desire to realize all possibilities within our lifetime. Only in this way can we avoid letting life "decline" (verfallen) into mediocrity and confusion, and prevent daily life from eroding our individuality. Dasein, facing its "limit situation," must reflect on how to grasp life in a more meaningful way. Therefore, one should not cowardly avoid death but should bravely face it, "leap into death" (Heidegger), in order to save oneself from the alienated state of decline and actively design oneself, unfolding one's "authentic potential," that is, a rich and comprehensive life.
It is clear that Heidegger gives death, or human finitude, a positive meaning. When a person becomes aware of the self and the absolute, the suffering of life begins to torment him, and he starts seeking wisdom, that is, seeking a way to unite the self with the absolute, the small self with the great self, finitude with infinity. In essence, infinity is an embodiment of divinity. It is an inescapable factor in human thought and reason, as well as an inherent factor in the nature of human activity. Generally speaking, two concepts and beliefs about infinity can be distinguished: one is the external world, that is, the physical infinitude of nature in time and space; the other is the human inner desire for immortality and eternal life, which gives rise to the belief in a perfect and complete outcome where humans transcend all existence and difficulties. These two often influence each other. The infinitude of the external world contrasts sharply with the finitude of human present life and earthly existence, which often further intensifies and reinforces the inner desire for immortality and infinity, as well as the pursuit of becoming divine.
In essence, infinitude is transcendence, divinity, and it manifests as an uninterrupted activity of transcending the existing, a process of continually approaching the divine. It can be said that "humanity" is a product of the combination of biological and divine natures. Biology is finite and real, while divinity is infinite and ideal. In the universe, the position of humans is perhaps between animals and gods, possessing the characteristics of both while constantly ascending toward divinity. For a long time, people have regarded gods as perfect "others", using the divine perspective to regulate and correct their thoughts and behaviors. In reality, divinity is inherent in human nature, and the image of gods is the imagined ideal of human beings. It is precisely the pursuit of gods that leads humans toward transcendence, and both infinitude and divinity are reflected in the continuous process of humans transcending themselves and the existing. Therefore, we can say that only transcendence is the essence of human existence, and only when connected to transcendence is a person what they are; all other things derive from this.
Deep within us lies an insatiable curiosity about the human self. What is a person, and what might a person be? Facing this ancient yet ever-renewing question, countless answers have been proposed. From Christianity understanding humans as God's creation to rationalism viewing humans as products of reason; from biologists seeing humans as advanced life forms evolved from apes to cultural philosophy and anthropological humanism defining humans as "symbol-making animals"; from Nietzsche's critique of humans as moral beings to existentialism's analysis of the essence of individual human nature, thinkers of different eras have attempted to unravel the eternal mystery of "what is a person."
As something knowable, humans manifest through their various experiential aspects. "What is a person" often depends on the research methods we use; "the different methods we use reveal different aspects of humans, but once they become objects of knowledge, they are absolutely no longer unified wholes or humans." In this passage by Jaspers, we can see that if humans are treated as objects of knowledge, in an experiential level, through empirical investigation and research, what we obtain is only a partial view of humans, or even a "mummy-like" human. This method does not grasp the essence of life, or we can say it examines humans too meticulously, attempting to grasp and appreciate life in its most direct and pure form, conducting a "dissection-like" study of humans. In this process of research and examination, the beauty of life disappears, and the true essence of human existence is obscured. The infinite openness and possibilities of humans are abandoned. This is a dangerous path toward losing oneself. It is like seeing a beautiful flower bud, in order to explore its mysteries, we peel it open, only to find that not only do we not find the answer, but we also destroy the originally beautiful whole into fragments.
Therefore, if we want to truly understand ourselves, we cannot remain at the level of the various known experiential aspects of the external world, but must liberate ourselves from the constraints of "determined existence" (Jaspers' term). In a certain sense, humans are what they are not, or "humans are all that they are not." To know the existence of humans is to know the existence of the entire span of time. As a possible mode of existence, humans are connected to "transcendence." Through transcendence, humans know themselves as self-completing (giving) agents in freedom. How humans achieve unity is a question that is infinite in time and unsolvable, yet it is a path to studying humans.
The drive to transcend is the impetus for humans to move forward; precisely because of transcendence, humans can become something unique and completely open in the universe, something of the greatest possibilities and dangers. The most notable feature of transcendence is its unknowability; it cannot be verified or falsified at the experiential level. Because transcendence points only to a possible life, it exists only in human imagination, and imagination is unpredictable and endlessly variable, so it is a world beyond the reach of science. When faced with this fundamental question, scientific knowledge is powerless. The object of scientific research is precise and effective knowledge, which grasps facts—the boundaries and foundations of all things. "This scientific knowledge is always specialized in its subject matter.