In fact, this is not a book review, just reading this, causing some thoughts about enlightenment. Since Kant clearly put forward the question of "what is enlightenment", intellectuals' reflection on enlightenment has never stopped. In China, people should be most familiar with the May 4th Enlightenment and the New Enlightenment in 1980s. The theoretical discussion, the success or failure of enlightenment itself, the discussion and debate have never stopped, and it has spread from traditional media to the Internet. Needless to say, I have recently seen many people's views and opinions on this issue in "Legal Thought Network" () and "Intermediate Ideological and Cultural Forum" (). These discussions and arguments remind me of an argumentative essay "He Huaihong-Ni Liangkang/Communication on Conscience" I read in the first volume (2000) and the second volume of the Philosophy Department of Peking University (published by Hubei Education Press). Two scholars are also arguing about the meaning of "conscience". Now I quote a passage from Ni Liangkang's reply: "I agree with your idea of academic discussion and criticism of academic rationality in academic circles, which is a most basic feature that a mature academic research community should have." Moreover, I think it is better to engage in and implement this criticism concretely than simply calling for and advocating such an atmosphere. In short, we can speak for ourselves here. " Personally, I agree with Teacher Ni very much. Of course, each of us has our own unique experience, experience and experience. This uniqueness may be that the experience itself is brand-new and others have not experienced it, and it is more likely to be a brand-new combination-to borrow biological terms, the former is gene mutation and the latter is gene recombination. Therefore, it is completely normal and understandable that people have different understandings of the meaning of "enlightenment". But if everyone speaks for himself, what is the necessity and significance of communication? "Zhuangzi 6 1 Qiushui" wrote: "Zhuangzi and Keiko swim on the Hao Liang. Zhuangzi said,' It is also a pleasure for fish to swim leisurely.' Keiko said,' If you were not a fish, would you know the happiness of fish?' Zhuangzi said,' If I am not a child, do I know the joy of fish?' Keiko said:' I am not a child, I really don't know children; Zi Gu is not a fish, but he doesn't know the happiness of fish. ""If this is really the case between Zhuangzi and Hui Shi, we can't communicate in language at all, so we might as well put our unique personal experience and understanding here, and put something that everyone agrees with here (this is the so-called "academic" thing, which can't be called academic only if you can understand it in the world), seek common ground while putting aside differences, and let's talk more about what we understand and like and discuss it in depth; If you are not interested or don't like it, talk less or don't talk. Isn't this more constructive than emphasizing your own point of view and ignoring other people's ideas? There is no doubt that we can't fully understand "enlightenment", and I believe no one can fully understand it. In Wei Zhuomin's translation of Critique of Pure Reason, Cao Fangjiu mentioned one of Mr. Wei Zhuomin's translation examples: "faith" and "belief", "denial" and "sublation", and changed "I deny knowledge to clear the ground for faith" to "I want to sublate knowledge and leave room for faith". Of course, when Kant uses Graube, if he refers to "faith" in general, he only expresses the meaning of "faith" when talking about religious issues. When we generally use this word, it is not only religious issues, but also many fundamental issues that can be traced back to the source belong to "faith". For example, Einstein's "God" is not a Christian God, but he believes that the universe is harmonious, orderly and regular, so he does not believe that quantum theory is a complete theory. Some things are in the field of faith, and it is impossible to explain them clearly-I once chatted with some students of Central South Theological Seminary next to Xinhua Bookstore on Vu Thang Road. They really believe in God, and some of their problems about natural science cannot be solved by science. However, failure to study it clearly does not mean that we should not study it, and we should not forget that Wittgenstein once solemnly told us that there is no private language and philosophical problems are caused by unclear expression. Personally, I don't fully agree with his point of view, but his point of view is unavoidable. There are other similar concepts and problems about "enlightenment", such as philosophy, science, wisdom and justice, and there are roughly two different orientations. First, trace back to the source and look for changes in original intention and meaning from the historical and cultural origins of this nation and other nations; On the other hand, regardless of history, we only discuss the problem from our own experience (including what we have seen, heard, felt and thought). The former can't really be restored to its original state during operation, and it is more or less contaminated with various colors intentionally or unintentionally; The latter is actually a continuation, because no one can really be completely unaffected by tradition (there is almost no difference between people without cultural inheritance and apes). Either idea is not bad, in other words, it has its own defects, so someone should do both. Investigating the historical significance of "Enlightenment" and "Enlightenment" (Enlightenment), in short, when we see the "Enlightenment", the first thing that comes to mind is the enlightenment thought./kloc-rose in Europe in the 8th century, compared with the French Enlightenment such as Bell, Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau. There is the Scottish Enlightenment represented by Hume; There is also the German Enlightenment, represented by Goethe and Kant. Of course, the meaning here is relatively broad, such as Rousseau, who is very different, and Kant, who criticized the enlightenment, but they are all trying to drive out darkness with light, replace ignorance with reason, and critically inherit the cultural achievements of their predecessors. Later, countries all over the world got rid of the ideological emancipation of autocratic thought, which was called the Enlightenment with historical significance, such as Russia and China. One of the most important signs of the Enlightenment is that it broke the authority of the outside world. No matter what the authority is in religion, nature, society and national system. Everything must defend its existence or give up its right to exist in front of a rational court. However, obviously, this has established a new authority, which is rationality. Kant saw the defect of rationality arbitrariness, so one of his important tasks was to draw boundaries for rational rights, beyond which reason should not interfere. This is purely rational criticism. Enlightenment reason is closely related to the rise of science in 17 and 18 centuries. The victory of natural science delighted all enlighteners-they finally found a real, tangible God. Many people think that the process of modernization is to make rational judgments and arrangements on all aspects of human life with rationality. However, the crisis of physics in the 20th century (ultraviolet disaster, the dispute over the completeness of quantum theory), the crisis of mathematics (set paradox), the crisis of philosophy (no research object of this subject can be found) and the crisis of human existence (two world wars) have repeatedly told us that the high spiritual civilization of human beings did not come with the high material civilization, and the progress of science and technology does not mean that morality must progress with it, and the whole human society has been dragged back to darkness, superstition and superstition for many times. Enlightenment is far from completing its task. The works I have found used with "Enlightenment" in Chinese are all works of the Qing Dynasty, such as "Enlightenment of Rhythm" edited by Che, entitled "Enlightenment"; Zhang Xuecheng's General Meaning of Literature and History 6 1 Vol.561Internal Chapter said: "It is not appropriate to use chess to lay out the chess game, but we should take today's text as a mirror, get a glimpse of all ancient books and prose, and inspire discussion with teachers." In the second time of A Dream of Red Mansions, Mrs. Jia died in Yangzhou, and Leng Zixing gave a speech on Fu. Yucun said to Leng Zixing, "Although this student has some understanding, he is harder than the job seeker." In these places, the object of "enlightenment" actually belongs to children's "ignorance of reading sentences" rather than "confusion" It is the basic and introductory knowledge to express it in modern Chinese. There is little difference between the "Qi" in ancient Chinese and modern Chinese, such as Shan Hai Jing 6 1 Zhongshan Jing: "It starts in summer and ends in winter; This is a cave, and there must be soldiers in winter. " This means "start, open". "The Analects of Confucius 6 1": "Confucius said:' If you don't get angry, you won't get angry. If you don't take Sanjiao as an example, there will be no more. ""this is the meaning of "enlightenment" derived from "opening", which no longer refers to a practical and concrete action, but makes the object understand ideologically. But Meng is a little different. At first, it refers to a plant, "Shan Hai Jing 6 1 Zhongshan Jing": "There is a tree whose leaves are like locusts, yellow and flashy, and its name is Meng Mu, which is not confusing." Later, there was a cover, "Thirteen Years of Zuo Zhao Zhuan Gong": "Cover it with a curtain." "Mandarin 6 1 Volume 18 Chu Language": "If you smell it and abandon it, you will still hear it." It also means cheating. "Zuo Zhuan" 6 1 Gong twenty-four years: "It is covered from top to bottom." However, "Meng" has long had the meaning of ignorance, such as "Meng" in the Book of Changes: "Meng: Heng. I begged Meng Tong, and Meng Tong begged me. If you sue at the beginning, you will blaspheme again and again, and if you blaspheme, you will not sue. Li Zhen. " Zhu explained in the original meaning of Zhouyi: "Meng: ignorance." At the beginning of life, I was ignorant. "The Warring States Policy" 6 1 Volume XXVI 6 1 "Han Ce I": "The soldiers of the Han Dynasty cannot be weak, and the people cannot be ignorant. Soldiers are Qin birds, and wisdom is Chu laughter. They received a letter from Chen Shi, but lost their plan in Hamming. "That is to say, at least in the Western Han Dynasty, you and Liu Xiang talked about enlightenment, and his understanding should not be much different from that of modern people. As we all know, getting the object out of ignorance is a kind of ideological enlightenment. In Webster's Dictionary (version 1994), the interpretation of enlightenment is to give spiritual insight, and literal translation means "to give a deep understanding in thought and spirit". The editor also played a slick game, not to mention who gave whom profound insights in thought and spirit. Kant answered this question: "What is the Enlightenment?" At the beginning, he wrote: "Enlightenment is the immaturity imposed by human beings. Immature is the inability to use one's own reason without the guidance of others. When the reason is not the lack of rationality, but the lack of courage and determination to use rationality without the guidance of others, then this immature state is imposed on yourself. Saperiod! Have the courage to use your own reason! This is the slogan of the Enlightenment. "We can see that a person who is enlightened by others lacks the ability to use his own reason. Obviously, the premise of enlightenment is that people who must be enlightened are not irrational, and patients with 2 1 trisomy syndrome cannot; Second, if an enlightened person wants to use Confucius to speak ill of the Zhou Dynasty, he will spit on you. Since it is far from enough to enlighten people's minds, there is also an analysis and understanding of knowledge, which is very similar to the difference between science and philosophy of science-what is going on and why, scientific question and answer; What this principle and formula mean to us is a subject to be solved by philosophy of science.