Of course, I watched Seven Habits several times and learned so much from the teacher in the orange orchard. I also have a basic answer, that is, I want to be a person with wisdom and loving ability, and I can influence others to become happier. ? However, this sentence is still too vague. What is wisdom? How can we have wisdom?
I want to start with philosophy. I happen to have a copy of Philosophy and Life, which my brother gave to Mr. Fu Peirong. Author Fu Peirong began to study philosophy at the age of 18. Ph.D., Yale University, USA, Professor of Philosophy, Taiwan Province Provincial University. He has been teaching philosophy for many years, and this book is his general course for college students, from oral to written. Suitable for beginners interested in philosophy, as an introductory textbook. ? Looking through the preface, catalogue and recommendation order, we find that this book not only expounds the important philosophical thoughts of the east and the west-such as Socrates, existentialism and absurdity in the west, Confucianism and Taoism in the east; The author starts with the concept of philosophy, and the last part combines philosophy with art, religion, education and culture, which broadens readers' horizons and minds. It not only talks about philosophy, but also takes philosophy as a perspective and thinking method, leading readers to reshape the depth and width of life. ? This is just what I need an introductory book on philosophy.
This book is too rich to explain one by one according to my current understanding. I will introduce this book in three parts. In the first part, I will focus on two chapters of this book: 1. The concept of philosophy; 2. Important western philosophical thoughts; This chapter introduces the author's viewpoint and structure in detail. In the second part, I will briefly evaluate this book. The third part will introduce my feelings and the influence of this book on me.
The first part: Introduction to the whole book.
1. Philosophical concept
The English of philosophy is called philosophy, which comes from Greek and is synthesized by two words in Greek, philia and sophia, meaning to love wisdom-love wisdom. To love wisdom, we should keep an open mind, so we have a basic habit of learning philosophy, that is, we should be curious about everything and reflect rationally.
Aichi, where does wisdom come from? Westerners believe that wisdom is spiritual, and true wisdom comes from the test of life. People have three aspects: body, mind and spirit, and the essence lies in the mind, because the body will age and the mind can fly freely without being bound by the body. There are too many examples. In the west, Franklin pondered the meaning of life in a concentration camp. In the east, "Wang Wen was arrested and played Zhouyi, while Zhong You worked in the Spring and Autumn Period". ? Plato said that "philosophy is the death of practice", which means that practice reduces the degree of control over the body. Because the body is a matter with weight and inertia. For example, we want to get up early, but we can't. For example, we want to help others, but we are too lazy to take action because we waste time and energy. It can be seen that the body is weak, and we should let the inertia of the body not affect the individual, just like death. Only in this way can the mind freely pursue wisdom.
Philosophy can be summarized in three sentences. 1. Cultivate wisdom; 2. Discover the truth; 3. Confirm the value. The first two are easy to understand, meaning that people are free, and freedom represents choice. Life needs to test some theories by choosing some experiences. For example, if you choose a major, a job and a lover, you may have tried it before you know whether a lucrative major, a well-paid job and a beautiful lover are suitable for you. Of course, I think the choice of experience should be based on one's own interests, advantages and abilities, and the other is to learn from others. If you have to try everything yourself, or know that it is not necessarily suitable for you to try, where can you have so much time to experience it?
"Without life, philosophy is empty; Life without philosophy is blind. " To improve philosophical literacy, we should do four things well: cultivate thinking habits, grasp the overall point of view, establish value orientation, and strive to achieve the unity of knowledge and practice.
1) Cultivate the habit of thinking. Passive people are easily influenced by the outside world and react immediately by instinct. For example, when some people are angry, they say hurtful words regardless, just to let their anger vent proudly. Actually, everyone has such an instinctive desire. The key is whether you can think calmly and ask yourself, why am I angry? What choice should I make? Let yourself feel hurt others, or take a step back, or calm down for a while. ? In addition, we may have been instilled with many family and social concepts since childhood. For example, one of my colleagues said that "money is everything". He is based on a movie, in which rich people realize many wishes because of their money. He believes in this view. ? Although I disagree with this view. But I believe that there must be some places in my blind area that undoubtedly agree with social views. ? Only when there is doubt where there is no doubt can we discover new possibilities without being limited by experience and traditional views.
2) Grasp the overall view. Each of us has a one-sided view, so we need to listen to different opinions and see what we have overlooked.
3) Establish the value orientation. Orientation has two meanings, one is orientation and the other is direction. Each of us is born with our own personality, and after learning and growing up, we can correct and adjust our position, and then choose what kind of person we want to be in the direction. This is the value orientation.
4) Strive for the unity of knowing and doing. The integration of knowledge and practice is a very difficult thing, but it is also something that people should strive for all their lives. We must choose a value and constantly prove it, so that we can be more and more satisfied with ourselves. Of course, you don't have to put too much pressure on yourself. If everyone can achieve goodness, wouldn't the streets be full of saints? !
The purpose of philosophy is to find out what is "truth" by seeking its roots. It is also a bypass that connects the universe and human life into a whole, so as to clarify your own way to settle down.
2. Important western philosophical thoughts
The author focuses on Socrates, existentialism and absurdity, three western philosophical classics.
1) Socrates
By telling Socrates' dialogic philosophical thinking and life events, this paper reveals the enlightenment brought by Socrates' life. Socrates was an Athenian. He thinks Athens is the greatest city and is famous for its wisdom and prosperity. An Athenian citizen should pay attention to self-cultivation, love wisdom and perfect his soul. He never thinks he has knowledge, nor does he teach others what knowledge is. He only inspires people to realize that what they know is false knowledge through rhetorical, dialectical and inductive dialogue. Only by putting aside false knowledge can we have real knowledge. People should be very careful when talking with Socrates, because if a concept is involved in the conversation, Socrates will keep asking questions about that concept until he can't answer it. ? For example, if you praise a person for being brave or show respect to God, Socrates will ask, "What is courage?" "What is respect?" In the end, maybe that person will find that he doesn't know at all.
Socrates is very persistent about truth. He inspired others to discover their ignorance, but it was an embarrassing or angry experience for that person. Therefore, he offended many authorities in Athens and was accused of "corrupting Athenian youth" and "disrespecting God". At the trial, at the age of 70, he was easily acquitted because of sympathy. Then he refused to accept softness and compromise. In court, he still criticized the authorities for pursuing fame and fortune, which made the judges angry and sentenced him to death. This reflects his pursuit of truth and uncompromising. ? During the month of waiting for the death penalty in prison, he had many opportunities to escape. Classmates and friends helped him prepare his way out, but he refused. Because he respects tradition, as an Athenian citizen, he must abide by the laws of Athens. The law is unfair to him, but he can't resist it. He also called on young people to abide by two things when they have no independent thinking ability, namely, the laws of the polis and the beliefs of the polis. Both are important social traditional resources, and respecting them can solve many life problems.
Socrates has two views that particularly shocked me. The first is "knowledge is virtue". If one understands what virtue is, Bi Ran will practice it. If a person really understands goodness, he can't wait to get close to it. How can he be evil? ? But why do some people know what they can't do? For example, robbery, cheating, speaking ill, and even laziness. That's because they have short-term "goodness" to do these things. But if they really feel the long-term "evil", they may re-recognize what "good" is and do good and avoid evil.
The second concept is to listen to the inner voice, which is conscience. Socrates called it a daemon, which means elves. Genie never says yes, only saysno. It says no when a person shouldn't do something, reminding him that what he wants to do now doesn't meet his inner expectations. That is, what we usually call uneasy and unbearable feeling. For example, when we lie and don't keep our promises, that voice will appear.
By the way, Socrates did not leave any works in his life. If you want to know his thoughts, you can read Dialogue and Republic written by his student Plato.
2) Existentialism
Existence, a verb, is alive, alive and free to choose, and only exists in describing human beings. Being is the choice, the possibility of choosing to be yourself. There are many representatives of existentialism, each with his own opinions, but they are all inseparable from the meaning of human existence. People need to face themselves sincerely and bravely and choose to be themselves. Some views are quite clear to human beings. The author introduces the pioneers Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, as well as the representative figures Jaspers, Heidegger and Marcel. There is a lot about this part, and I want to briefly introduce Nietzsche's "Three Changes of Spirit", because it can just solve many puzzles in our current life.
Nietzsche's three spiritual transformations: camel, lion and baby.
Camels are ships in the desert, and they are hard-working, which means that people should be trained from an early age and listen to their parents and teachers. The difference between a camel and a lion is that the camel must obey the commands and orders of others, while the lion makes his own decisions and is responsible for himself. When you go to college, you should enter the lion stage. Ask yourself what you really want. What can I do to make myself meaningful? ? However, although the camel looks poor, it doesn't have to make up its own mind; Although the lion is free, he is responsible for himself and has lost the right to make excuses and complain. ? I remember that after I got married last year, I gradually found that the consequence of independence is responsibility. Because I suddenly found myself responsible for myself, the instant pressure made me cry several times.
The last change of spirit, being a baby, means a perfect beginning, offering all the possibilities. This means that the mind has returned to its original point and can start again. ? I don't think the author explained this paragraph clearly. Personally, I understand that babies are soft and full of infinite possibilities. When the spirit reaches this state, it shows that people believe in their infinite potential and are willing to throw away the limitations of past experience, so that the mind can develop more freely and release the vitality and brilliance of life.
3) Absurdism
Absurdity is an unreasonable event that cannot be explained by reason. Camus said that the world is not absurd and life is not absurd. It is absurd for people to live in this world.
If a person thinks that "people die with nothing", it is difficult for him to be optimistic about his life. Because "living in this world should be optimistic and struggling" and "people have nothing when they die" are contradictory. Struggle needs to pay a price. If we work hard every day and finally find that life is nothing, what is the struggle for? ? This is a negative absurd tendency.
Positive absurdism, however, does not take absurdity as the result of thinking, does not take absurdity as the purpose, but takes absurdity as the method. As a method, even though we know that the real world and life are absurd, we still accept this situation and use it as a starting point to break all the illusory knowledge and values we have established before, and then start to establish a outlook on life again.
Part II: Book evaluation.
I can't make a complete evaluation, because I still have a little knowledge of philosophy. Thank you for this book's inspiration to philosophy.
It's just that in the process of repeated reading, there is one thing I think the author didn't do well. That is, the author only stated the philosopher's point of view in most cases, and there was no clear argument. For example, if everything is absurd, it means that individuals have real freedom, because freedom means canceling all preconditions and not giving any hints. There is no explanation or argument about this sentence. At least I can't get the answer from the author, but as an active reader, I remember this question and will seek the answer by reading Camus' works in the future.
Part III: Influence on me
1. affirmed the meaning of life.
The author says that only by making clear the integration and orientation of body and mind can we solve the busy, blind and vacant predicament of modern people, and then reduce the threat of depression, and the happiness of life will have a chance to rise from the bottom. The discussion of these problems is a serious and heavy burden, which requires the brain to pay the price, otherwise it is difficult to enjoy the pleasure of solving puzzles.
Camus once said at the beginning of The Myth of Sisyphus that "there is only one really serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide." His experience after careful study is of course against suicide. Besides, he should positively affirm the meaning of life. What's the point? Refers to the part that can be "understood". As long as our life can be "understood", life is meaningful.
The author affirmed the meaning of life from three aspects.
1) There is work to be done.
When we are caught in a busy or even life-threatening job, we often feel disgusted. Some people are just muddling along, just like those lazy national cadres in in the name of people recently. However, once we are unemployed and retired, how boring life will become without a job to confirm our "usefulness and contribution"!
But in reality, it is quite common to do one thing and complain about another. In my opinion, if people want to get rid of the mood of "hate work" at this time, they must first establish a correct consciousness, that is, no job is perfect; Secondly, we should positively affirm the positive significance of the current work. We might as well ask ourselves, "Since I hate this job so much, why don't I quit?" ? At this time, we may think that we don't know what to do after resigning, or at least the work is decent, or the salary given to me is not bad. ? The reason why we don't resign is actually our positive affirmation of our current job. How can I repeatedly emphasize that this job is meaningless? That's not self-deception!
Finally, we can try to understand the significance of this job to society. For example, waiters can help customers enjoy consumption, quality inspectors can make customers use products more stably, and sales can help customers choose the right products more clearly. Take myself as an example, the position of product manager changes the world through innovation and meets people's needs more comfortably. To realize this product in my application market, we can help users enjoy the life of mobile internet by discovering applications and using them better. If you often wait for the bus, we recommend an app to check the arrival of the bus in real time; If you like cooking, we recommend an app to learn cooking from five-star chefs. If you are busy with decoration recently, I recommend an app that understands the decoration style, and then recommend an app that visits the building materials market. For the user, his life will really become more convenient, rich and interesting because of our recommendation. For me, this is the meaning of my work.
2) Someone cares
This sentence refers to two aspects, one is that someone can be taken care of by me, and the other is that someone can take care of me. If love is two-way, it will make people cherish life more.
When we care for others, whether the object is a plant, a small animal, a person or even an idol, we can feel a sense of responsibility from the bottom of our hearts. When the people we care about thank us, we will feel trusted and liked. These emotions will further enhance our affirmation of the value of our lives. I have many examples here that I want to share with you.
There is a story about my flowers and plants. I was not good at planting flowers before, and I always forgot to water them, and I didn't know the skills of fertilization and pest control. Later, I didn't believe in evil, and I couldn't keep a pot of green radish alive! So I began to take care of it. Check maintenance skills online and buy nutrient solution. When I changed the pot for the first time this year, it was full of vitality, which gave me great encouragement and made me feel that I have the ability to take care of plants and be responsible for my own life. Since I changed the pot for it, I love and care for it more. It may confirm the saying that "the more you give, the more you love".
Another story is about two school girls who are on the job and open to traffic. When a post was opened to traffic, I acted as a catalyst for their team learning. One of my female classmates and I like to write to each other. She sometimes gives out a long confusion, and I give her a long comfort. Every time I read her letter, I can feel her trust in me, which is very touching. ? Another school girl specially mailed me a wedding gift this year, which is a map of the world that can be pasted. She has made clear the direction of going abroad and thanked me for my care and help in the past. I was shocked and sighed. My concern for her is limited to a few sincere chats, but I think that insignificant sincere listening and caring is enough to warm a person's heart. This makes me more sure of myself and want to be a warm person. For me, it may be a trivial matter to be willing to spend time and energy listening and caring sincerely, but for others, it may be a kind of warmth and courage. This harvest from others, in turn, inspired my life.
3) There is pain to bear.
Nine times out of ten, life is not satisfactory. Health, work, relatives and friends, not getting it or not getting it, and confusion about life may all bring us pain. Most people pursue happiness. Why is suffering the meaning of life? To understand this proposition, we must first realize that "life is a constantly changing process." There are passive changes and active changes. Especially in the time of suffering, it stimulated my potential to face the test, and as a result, I increased my professional knowledge and changed my destiny. ? In suffering, what we should cherish is to seize the opportunity of suffering, actively change ourselves and improve ourselves.
To give the simplest example, when I was a child, I was beaten by my parents or compared with other children. We all made up our minds that we would never beat my children again and never let our children live in the shadow of other children! ? If we always remember the pain we suffered when we were young, and when we really become parents in the future, I think we can improve in two aspects. First, starting from "don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you", think about how to educate children correctly, and the final conclusion may be whether to fight or not, just how to make children understand his mistakes; Second, we should better understand the difficulties of parents. ? And if we don't cherish this pain, or even forget it when we grow up, maybe we will force our children to shout "Never hit his children again".
There is pain to bear, let me look at life from the perspective of pain. Just as Nietzsche fully affirmed the value of pain, he even thought that pain and happiness were both positive, but their functions were different. He put forward that "what can't kill me makes me stronger". Pain makes people smarter and stronger. He believes that the spirit of tragedy lies not in affirming a fair and just world order (virtuous people in tragedy are often tortured by fate), but in the power that can be inspired by fate.
Of course, it still hurts. We should not only seek positive significance from it, but also try to alleviate the pain, for example, through artistic aesthetics such as poetry, music, movies and paintings, or let ourselves get close to nature and experience the beautiful natural beauty of mountains and rivers.
2. The role of art in life:
The poet Ji Bolun said: "Beauty-when you see it, you are willing to die for it, and you are willing to ask for it."
I think there are two kinds of art, one is painting that shows tragic reality, such as tragedy and massacre. When we see such works of art, we often feel an impact, that is, an impact that elevates individuals to the human level. This impact makes us stand in the destiny of mankind and inspires the energy of resistance. When I was in the museum, faced with the photos of the massacre, I couldn't help thinking, if the bayonet was pointed at me during the massacre, would I be afraid, howl and give in? If my home is destroyed, I am displaced, and I lose my relatives and children in the process of fleeing, do I still have the courage to live?
There is also an art that expresses beauty and makes me feel that life is really worth living. One day, I felt terrible. I came out of the supermarket and took a casual look to the right. I saw a train passing 200 meters away, and there was a peach blossom between me and the train. At that moment, I seemed to watch the train pass by in the flower sea, as if I had personally experienced the train that was very popular in Beijing recently and crossed the flower sea to Badaling. The time for the train to cross is very short, just a few seconds, but those seconds are still. I forgot my physical discomfort, forgot my troubles, and only reveled in the beautiful picture.
3. Correct understanding of spirituality and belief
In order to integrate physical and mental development, physical health is necessary, spiritual growth is necessary, and spiritual cultivation is important.
Brother Rong said that "many people are healthy and psychologically normal, but they are not happy". The problem lies in the spiritual level. The importance of spiritual cultivation is to use "importance" to mark the purpose and significance of life. Confucius, every ten years, life will develop to a new stage. This inspired me to realize that spiritual cultivation is different from learning, and it is something that people should strive to develop all their lives. "Who am I, where am I from and where am I going?" It is also a question that a person has to ask himself repeatedly all his life.
What is faith? Recently, in the process of reading, friends will encounter topics of religion, belief and God. It may be difficult for us to understand that there is no religious belief in our country. To answer this question, we must first distinguish the types of beliefs, including life beliefs, political beliefs and religious beliefs. ? What puzzles us is actually religious belief. Religion is just a manifestation of faith.
Faith is the relationship between man and transcendental power. The so-called transcendental power refers to the final appeal of human suffering, sin and death, the sufficient reason for the existence of all things, and the object that individuals feel absolutely dependent on. Faith is inner transcendence. Whether this transcendental power is directed at the gods of various religions, or Confucius' "heaven" and Taoism's "Tao". Transcendence should explain where our life comes from, where the world comes from, and where the suffering of life comes from. It explains everything we can't give ourselves. ? In my senior year, I began to explore transcendental power. After reading many theories, I personally believe that there is God, whether the Buddha is in my heart or God is everything. I often talk to my heart and listen to my inner voice. I will hear Socrates' conscience as an elf and correct my behavior.
Finally, I want to send you a word, which is two lines engraved on the temple of Delphi in ancient Greece. One line is "Know yourself" and the other is "Don't overdo everything".