There is a saying that people can't be idle, and when people are idle, they will think wildly. No, I was bored and read the book "What Do Philosophers Do?" ".
To speak of philosophy is to think about questions such as "Why do people live? What is the meaning of life? What is the nature of the universe?" In this era of high housing prices and the pressure of 996, if you ask people "the meaning of life", they will definitely treat you as a lunatic. If a college student picks up a book of Kant and Hegel in the dormitory, it is very likely that they will be ridiculed by their classmates: "What about pretending to be X again?"
In fact, philosophy is not so bright, such as chicken soup for the soul, Chinese studies, and philosophical essays, which are very popular.
When I picked up this book, I just wanted to flip through it at first. Although all kinds of work and family chores are very busy during the day, but in the dead of night, I occasionally think about half of my life, is it meaningful? Since so many wise people throughout the ages have thought about this question, let's see what they have to say. I didn't expect this to turn, and I couldn't stop.
This is not a serious philosophical book, but adopts the popular online writing style, which is witty, funny, but rigorous. If you have read popular books such as "Things in the Ming Dynasty" and "History Is Actually Interesting", you should be familiar with it. Pick a paragraph for you to experience:
In addition to the ease of writing, the organization of the content is also addicting to read.
This is not a philosophical monograph, but more of a philosophical review, or a history of Western philosophy. Of course, it is not a history of philosophy in the strict sense, but tells the ins and outs of philosophy in chronological order. Here you can recognize some famous philosophical sages, such as Socrates, Descartes, Newton, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Bacon, etc. You can also understand how philosophy and religion love and kill each other and are entangled with each other . It can also understand some philosophical thoughts, such as metaphysics, dualism, mechanism, determinism, existentialism, nihilism and so on.
Don't, don't, it's a headache to see so many people's names, let alone talk about this or that doctrine, it still seems difficult to read!
Wait a minute, in fact, the development of philosophy is a series of links. To put it simply, a certain philosophical master thinks he has figured out the entire philosophical system, and then writes a book and says it. But the latecomers shouted, wait, there are loopholes, and then blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. But there are latecomers to seize the loopholes, so back and forth, so that philosophy continues to develop. Therefore, if you start this book at the beginning, you can follow this cycle and read it all the way.
Of course, after reading it at the end, you still find that there is no standard answer to the question "Why do people live?"
Isn't this a pit? Write and write, there is no conclusion.
In fact, when we ask what is the meaning of life, we are looking for a goal for our life. If we ask the other way around, we ask: "Why don't I kill myself immediately?"
Is it suddenly enlightened?
"I don't want to die because I still want to travel and eat delicious food"
"I don't want to die because I can't make my parents sad."
Those answers, then, are the meaning of your life right now.
What if your answer was "I don't think there's any point in living, I'm just afraid of dying"?
When an atheist is faced with the great fear of death, sometimes the instinct to survive makes the mind desperately find a reason to live. This reason can also be regarded as the meaning of life.
Fear of death also means that we should cherish life. The reason to cherish life is that, in terms of human experience, death is a rare irreversible event in the universe. We should try our best to preserve and prolong our own lives, not to risk our own lives, but also to respect the lives of others. Respecting life also means that we should cherish time .
Wittgenstein said in "On the Philosophy of Logic": " The solution to the problem of life consists in the elimination of this problem. "
There is an old saying in China: " Forty is not confused ". When people are over forty, it's not that we don't have doubts, and we know the answers to all questions, but for some reason we feel that we no longer need to ask these questions.
When you stop asking this question, it may mean that you have found the answer.
If you haven't found the answer yet, I recommend reading this book.
