Fun Philosophy (Illustrated Edition)

Author: Cheng Yunlei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: The great philosopher Zhuangzi dreamed that he had turned into a butterfly. Upon waking, he wondered: Was it Zhuangzi who had become the butterfly, or was the butterfly who had become Zhuangzi? Zhuangzi was not a butterfly—that is common sense. However, philosophers are not content with common sense thinking; they always ask for the reasons behind common sense. According to common sense, no matter what I dream, it is just a dream. After waking up, I return to real life, and this real life is definitely not a dream. But the philosopher asks, "How do you know the former is a dream and the latter is not?" Zhuangzi seriously considered this question. He once asked: When a person is dreaming, there can be dreams within dreams. Upon waking, they think they have woken up, but in reality, they are still dreaming. How do we know that the daily life we experience is not just a dream? Perhaps one day we will wake up from this dream. The story of Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly is actually asking a philosophical question: Is the world we perceive truly real? Since in dreams we can perceive things that do not exist as existing, how can we be sure that our perceptions upon waking are not mistaken?
We usually believe that we can understand the world through our senses. Humans have five senses—besides vision, there are hearing, smell, taste, and touch. They are based on physical senses such as the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. These senses play a very important role in the process of understanding the world. They reflect different aspects of the world from different angles and serve as a bridge between the subjective world and the objective world.
But are our senses complete? A colorblind person might mix up red and green, and their world is different from that of a person with normal vision. Even for people with normal vision, compared to certain animals, they are to some extent abnormal. For example, bees have poor vision, but they can see ultraviolet light, which humans cannot. Octopuses also have poor vision, but they can see infrared light, which humans cannot. The world as perceived by these animals is certainly different from ours. Who is right? Our understanding of the world relies on our senses. Beyond vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, is there a sixth sense? If there are aliens far away from us with different evolutionary paths, and their perception of the world is based on different senses, then their world would undoubtedly be very different from ours.
Someone once wrote in a science fiction novel about a highly intelligent being with 500 senses. Their world would surely be far more colorful and diverse than ours. Additionally, we often experience hallucinations. For example, if you insert a straight chopstick into a glass of water, it may appear bent. If you punch someone, they might see stars, even though there are none in their field of vision. Since our senses are so unreliable, and yet we cannot understand the world without relying on them, are our senses reliable for understanding the world? In fact, this concern is unnecessary. This is because human sensory abilities are not fixed; they can improve gradually through practice. For example, the hearing of the blind,