But what is Tao? Mr. Yuan Lanfeng didn't explain it in his notes, and the example cited was also a misunderstanding (misinterpretation) of China's ancient "Tao". In fact, "Tao" is a theoretical science to study (explore) the real existence or real existence of matter, and the original meaning of metaphysics (that is, "Tao") is not metaphysics. The reason for this is the following：
The Book of Changes says: "The metaphysical is the Tao, and the metaphysical is the device." Geometry is called "shape" for short. Equipment, physical objects, tangible things. Metaphysics comes from the dynamic (motion form) of practicing the "device"-people can directly experience individual objects with certain shapes and gain perceptual knowledge, that is, individual objects and their motion forms that can be perceived or experienced from objective reality; And find its particularity from individuality, and further improve the special movement form of this individual object to the universal movement form-the movement form of the whole universe, so as to comprehensively explore and solve various movements and laws of the whole universe. This dialectical material theory science or ideological system is called "Tao".
However, metaphysics has no source of objective reality. Metaphysics is purely speculative, also known as speculative philosophy. Ci Hai: "speculative philosophy-a philosophy that tries to deduce reality from concepts and make the development of the objective universe conform to the universal laws constructed by human thinking." "Ci Hai" also said: "Metaphysics-1 philosophical terms. Its meaning is: (1) Since Hegel, it has been regarded as a synonym for anti-dialectics. Marxist philosophy points out that metaphysics is characterized by an isolated, static, one-sided and superficial world outlook. ..... Metaphysical thought has been produced in ancient times. (2) In the history of philosophy, it refers to the philosophy of studying extrasensory objects other than experience. ..... (2) the title. Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher. Greek is tameta ta physica (Latin metaphysica), which means' after physics', so it is also called' after physics'. ..... this book laid the foundation of western philosophy. "
What ancient philosophers in China called "Tao", also called metaphysics, was originally the "physical Tao" in ancient China. Laozi (Chapter 21) said: "Tao is a thing [according to: the universe is unified in matter], but it is only vague; There is an elephant in it; Hey, there's something in here. " "Shuo Wen Jie Zi": "Wei, every thought is also". Confused, confused, uncertain, dynamic; The mover is the thing, and the thing is the mover; The image [form] of its movement can be perceived or experienced by people in actual feelings, thus forming the abstraction of things in thinking. For example, a straight line (shape) is an abstraction, which actually extracts a straight strip object, because people perceive this object as tangible (image) in their senses. Just like the American authority and mathematician M? Klein said: "Like Descartes, he stripped off thousands of wandering phenomena and properties at once and concentrated on two things that can be described mathematically: matter and motion. In a century that regards sports as the most prominent and serious problem, it is perhaps not surprising that scientists think that sports is a basic physical phenomenon. Paying attention to matter and movement is only the first step in studying new ways of nature. " ([1][ America] Morris? Klein. Ancient and modern mathematical thoughts: Volume I [M]. Translated by Zhang Lijing, Zhang Jinyan and Jiang Zehan. Shanghai: Shanghai Science and Technology Press, 20 14: 274. It can be said that the rational knower cries, and the object of perceptual knowledge (individual objects with certain shapes) is called qi. Perceptual knowledge is the foundation of Tao. The device (object) is tangible, and the recognized shape (geometric figure) is abstracted from the device (object).
In other words, the "shape" (image) of Tao (metaphysical man) comes from practice, that is, metaphysical man-the dynamic abstraction or geometric figure of individual objects and substances (so-called "devices") in the perceptual knowledge stage of direct experience, and the "shape" that rises or sublimates to the rational knowledge stage (universal theoretical science)-quantitatively describes the whole material universe. This axiom, also known as "the principle of material unity of the world [universe]", is the cornerstone of modern Marxist practical philosophy. There is quantitative experimental evidence to put forward this axiom, which can be seen in the article "Experimental Evidence for Quantitative Description of the Whole Universe in Pure Mathematics".
Mr. Yuan Lanfeng's Note: Aristotle believes that "the number of axioms or postulates listed should be as small as possible, as long as they can be used to prove all the results." There is obviously only one axiom or postulate, but metaphysical scholars such as Aristotle can't. In fact, M. Klein went on to say (strangely, Mr. Yuan Lanfeng didn't take this note): "Aristotle thinks that axioms come from observing physical objects. They are general understandings that people directly understand. " ([1], 44.) That is to say, every axiom or postulate needs to observe the factual evidence of physical objects, which Aristotle and other metaphysical experts (that is, speculative philosophers) can't do, and no one can "integrate knowledge with practice".
Mr. Yuan Lanfeng also pointed out: Aristotle's definition thought is in line with the modern spirit; He said that definition is just to give a name to a group of words. He also pointed out that the definition must be expressed by the first thing in the defined substance. Therefore, he criticized the definition of "a point is something without a part", because the word "that thing" didn't say what it meant unless it might mean "a point", so this definition was inappropriate. "However, Aristotle, Euclid and other metaphysical scholars (that is, speculative philosophers) have still failed to figure out the proper definition of' point'. In fact, there is no such isolated "point" without parts. A "point" can only exist attached to a physical object, such as a pre-existing line that exists as the boundary of a pre-existing line. Therefore, Euclid's Ruler and Ruler Drawing Rule "postulate 1: it is possible to make a straight line from any point" is completely deceptive or nonsense! That is, the postulate of this straight line is not true or not. In this regard, m? Klein also pointed out: "Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz gave an example of a decahedron; We can define such a graph, but it doesn't exist. If someone starts to prove the theorem about this graph without realizing that it doesn't exist, then the result he gets will be nonsense. "([1], 43.) In this way, in the field of theoretical science, all theorems obtained by constructing (proving) the concepts of points and straight lines in Euclidean geometry in western mathematics are untrue or untenable, such as points on the number axis and their scales or numbers, coordinate systems, Newton's and Leibniz's calculus, and so on. So much so that Einstein exclaimed: "People have put forward such opinions more than once, thinking that the laws of nature may not be described by differential equations. ..... In any case, using differential equations and integral conditions to record natural laws as we do today is contrary to reasonable ideas. The foundation of theoretical physics has been shaken again. " [2] Xu and Fan Dainian. Collected Works of Einstein (Volume I) [M]. Beijing: Commercial Press,1976:175-176)
Einstein said: "Science must establish the connection between various empirical facts, which enables us to predict the facts that will happen in the future according to those facts that we have experienced. ..... we are looking for an ideological system that can link observed facts together. " ([2],298-299.)
"Therefore, if we don't study individual objects and individual forms of motion, we can't understand matter and motion at all." "In fact, all real and exhaustive understandings are just: we raise individual things from individuality to particularity in our thoughts, and then from particularity to universality; We find infinity from finiteness, eternity from temporality and build it. " ([3] Engels. Dialectics of Nature (Chinese Version) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House,1971:214,212. This is the original meaning of "metaphysics" (Tao).
In this way, in fact, the practical philosopher of China's ancient genius is a materialist dialectics scientist who is much more objective, honest and intelligent than Aristotle and other metaphysical experts. According to the direct experience of practice, ancient scientists in China abstractly described the whole real universe science as a geometric figure-"one foot" (1 foot), which is the only starting point for deducing the universe theory. The study of all kinds of movements in the whole material universe is simplified into two aspects: one is to study the whole movement (absolute movement) of the whole universe (1 foot), and the other is to study all kinds of movements (relative movement) inside the whole universe (1 foot), so "one foot" (1 foot) is to take the whole real universe. Han Shu said, Yuan Yuan Ben, the numbers are from the beginning. All belong to one. The shape of one refers to six books. " "Notes on Explaining Words": "Thinking only." Only the beginning refers to the initial starting point of thought or theoretical thinking. Simplicity principle is the starting point of its theoretical derivation and a guiding principle of modern natural science, especially physics. See the theoretical method to solve the problem of the universe.
The above-mentioned "Tao" is almost lost today, and the world has many misunderstandings and misinformation (such as the example of Wang Yangming cited by Mr. Yuan), which should be traced back to the source. China's ancient "Tao" (metaphysics, representing the whole universe) originated from the movement form of real objects and substances, which was a scientific abstraction of substances or a geometric figure with unified shape and number. It is not a geometric figure that has no material meaning (can't move by itself) explained by western speculative philosophers dressed in metaphysics, such as Aristotle and Euclid (such as the concept of straight line in Euclid's Elements of Geometry). As mentioned above, the postulate "1: a straight line can be drawn from any point to any other point" stipulated by Euclid's ruler and ruler drawing is untrue or untenable.
Morris? Professor Klein pointed out:
Chinese scientists have found that the superposition method must be based on the axiom that matter is tangible through the direct experience of material practice, and then the shape and the number are matched (so that the shape has the number), and the combination of shape, number and geometry is intuitively and clearly expressed quantitatively, or the "superposition method" of Euclidean geometry must be replaced by the self-test of the mass bar (that is, "folding in half").
"Dialectics (that is, metaphysics) is the only mathematical scientific thinking method, which is most highly suitable for this development stage of natural concepts. Nature, for daily applications, for scientific small enterprises-that is, all kinds of engineering technologies we are talking about now. For example, astronomical observation engineering technology, high-energy physical observation engineering technology, electronic engineering technology, aerospace engineering technology, construction engineering technology and so on. The mathematical category of metaphysical pure speculative rules is still valid. " ( [3], 190- 19 1.)
Fortunately, the theoretical science as the "Tao" of matter has been rediscovered today, which can be found in the article "The Tao of Physics".