Science and Life View (Vol. 1 & 2)

Author: Zhang Junmai et al.
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-02-22
Features: What you have learned daily is science. Science is based on certain principles and rules, all of which have evidence. For example, two plus two equals four, and the sum of the angles in a triangle equals two right angles—these are principles in mathematics. Velocity is distance divided by time, so its formula is S = d/t. The element of water is H2O—these are principles in physics and chemistry. After reading textbooks for a long time, you must think that everything in the world follows certain rules and is governed by the law of causality. In reality, if you close your eyes and think for a moment, you will know that most problems are not as clear-cut as this. And such problems are not the lofty theories of philosophy but are right in our daily lives. One person says this, another says that, with no clear standards of right or wrong, truth or falsehood. What is this? It is life. For the same life, because of different perspectives, opinions vary, so nothing in the world throughout history is more divided than the view of life. The center of the view of life is "I." What is opposite to "I" is "not I." Among the "not I," there are various distinctions. From the perspective of those who gave birth to me, they are parents; from the perspective of those who are my spouse, they are husband and wife; from the perspective of the group I belong to, they are society and the state; from the perspective of property distribution, there are private property systems and public property systems; from the perspective of valuing or devaluing materialism, there are spiritual civilization and material civilization. All these issues, across East and West, throughout history, have extremely diverse opinions, unlike mathematical or physical and chemical problems, which have definite formulas. Based on the above discussion, the characteristics of the view of life are: subjective, intuitive, comprehensive, free will, and singular. Because of these five points, no matter how advanced science becomes, the problem of the view of life cannot be solved by science alone; it depends solely on humanity itself. The great thinkers of all time, who have contributed to this problem of the view of life, are those who have done so. For example, Yang Zhu advocated "self," Mozi advocated "universal love," while Confucius and Mencius took a middle ground. From Confucius and Mencius to the Confucian scholars of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, they emphasized the cultivation of inner life, resulting in spiritual civilization. In Europe for three hundred years, they emphasized controlling nature with human effort, resulting in material civilization. Adam Smith was a liberal individualist; Marx was a socialist; Schopenhauer and Hume were pessimists; Plato and Hegel were optimists. Each held their own views, with no absolute right or wrong. Yet in the long, dark history, these few alone have been the guides lighting our path. The changing of thought trends is the changing of the view of life. Today, China is at that time. Someone once asked, "What is the correct view of life?" After hearing the five points I have discussed, you will know that this is also an unanswerable question. For the view of life has no objective standards, so it can only be sought within oneself and cannot be adopted as one's own view of life from others' ready-made views. Although the view of life is not a manufactured product, there are certain issues related to it that I can tell you about: the spirit and the material, love between men and women, the individual and society, the nation and the world.
Regarding the spirit and the material: the application of science is focused outward, resulting in laboratories and factories spreading across the country. Working from morning to evening, life is like a machine, and the comfort of the spirit cannot be known. In our country, science has not yet