In contemporary society, science and humanities are split. Technical rationality has penetrated into all aspects of human social life, and humanistic care has gradually declined. This has led to the public giving up thinking, avoiding the sublime, and rejecting time. Serious social problems. The prerequisite for solving this problem is to proceed from the holistic perspective of human cultural practice, achieve the harmonious unity, mutual support and development of science and humanities, and at the same time rebuild the spiritual home of public life. The following is how I show humanistic care in the technological age. I hope it will be helpful to you.
As an external symbol of human progress, technology usually refers to the sum of the methods, skills and means of transforming nature that humans have gradually accumulated in the process of interaction with nature to meet their own needs. The technological era mentioned here mainly refers to the era of social development that has begun since the modern Enlightenment and is dominated by the spirit of scientific rationality and expressed in the form of capital and market. Today, the "universal light" composed of science and technology shines on human daily life and plays an increasingly important role in the development of society. This not only means that technology has widely penetrated into our material world, but also means that technology has become an imperceptible social ideology and has begun to deeply intervene and shape human cultural life. In the words of German philosopher Jaspers, the technological era is a transitional period for mankind, and its important feature is that technology becomes the decisive force.
We know that when a country is in the stage of social transformation and development from agricultural civilization to industrial civilization, people often place too many expectations on science and technology, so it is easy to enter an era of technological dominance. This is It has been confirmed by the development process of Western countries. Our country has also generally attached great importance to science and technology during the 30 years of reform and opening up. However, humanities academics and culture have often been unknowingly downplayed and marginalized in the economic and social development of the entire country. The slogan "Culture sets the stage, the economy sings the show" typically reflects the utilitarian attitude in the development of the entire society. Once culture becomes a marginalized supporting role, the relationship between the means and ends of our social development is reversed.
Therefore, today with the rapid development of science and technology, we must consciously examine the impact of technology on our social life. The true development of a society cannot be separated from the important role of culture, because culture is the soul of a nation's progress, culture is the inexhaustible driving force for a nation's progress, and culture is the spiritual home of people. When people's daily lives are filled with many contradictions and various serious problems prevail, it is particularly important to rebuild a spiritual home where people can live poetically.
The evolution of modern civilization and the spirit of rationality
Since capitalist civilization stepped onto the stage of history, human society has entered an era of technological rational development. At the beginning of the Renaissance in Europe, capitalism began to grow from its infancy. The arrival of capitalist civilization into the world has greatly promoted the progress of human technology and the development of science. However, due to its natural characteristics of pursuing profits, capital has a tendency to deviate from people's good intentions. As Marx said in the "Communist Manifesto": "Capital comes into the world, dripping from head to toe, from every pore. Bloody and dirty things.” But Marx also affirmed the historical contribution of capitalism from a historicist perspective and affirmed the “civilizing role” of capital. That is to say, Marx looked at the issue of capitalism with a dialectical historical attitude. He believed that capitalism opened up the world market, and that capitalism dug up the national foundation under the feet of industry. It dragged all nations around the world into the historical process of modernization. Therefore, "the productive forces created by the bourgeoisie in its less than one hundred years of class rule are more numerous and greater than the total productive forces created in all previous eras." It can be seen that the great driving force of technology is linked to capital and the market.
Rationality is the booster that enables technology to demonstrate its practical power. Behind the brilliance of technology in human social life is actually the victory of the rational spirit. Since modern capitalism entered the stage of history, rationality has become the strongest voice of human culture in modern times.
Whether it is Bacon's "knowledge is power", Descartes's "I think, therefore I am", or Kant's "man makes laws for nature", from the famous sayings of these philosophers we can feel how confident human rationality is. From the perspective of cultural philosophy, we can divide the evolution of human rationality in the West into four stages in modern times:
The "rational enlightenment" in the 17th century. Usually we regard the 17th century as the century of rational enlightenment. We know that the Renaissance triggered people's ideological awakening, reason began to emerge from the ignorance of religion and theology, and human values ??were revealed. For example, the main purpose of Boccaccio's "Decameron" is to let people get out of the aura of religious theology. "Give back to others what they have" - ??this is the core slogan of the modern Renaissance. And when people step out of the aura of God, their secular life world will be fully affirmed from then on. In the 17th century, the prosperity of capitalist factory handicrafts and the transition to mechanized production prompted the rapid development of technical science and mathematics; in the ideological and cultural circles, many Enlightenment thinkers also emerged, such as Bacon, Locke, Descartes, Hobbes, Galileo et al. Descartes philosophy places human rationality at the supreme position, believes that "thinking" is the prerequisite for determining the rationality of "being", and emphasizes that the issue of "truth" can only be placed in the "immanence" of the subject's thinking, and to accept " Only through the examination and trial of "I think" can we be qualified to guide people's real social life.
"Rational independence" in the 18th century. The 18th century was a century of independent rationality. Reason, as a "power of light", was generally accepted in human social life and drew a clear line with the "power of ignorance" of religious theology. To confidently demonstrate the power of the human subject spirit, to face the world bravely, independently, and freely using reason, and to have the freedom to openly use one's reason in all matters, this was the mainstream cultural appeal of the 18th century. With the help of the global expansion of capital, Western thinkers are trying to spare no effort to promote "rationality", the new worldview and values ????that express capitalism, to the world. The landmark cultural event of the 18th century was the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia by the philosopher Diderot. This book was the first systematic encyclopedia in the West. It summarized the spirit of the Enlightenment in the 18th century and systematically explained the comprehensive view of reason on the world. sexual meaning. Diderot thus became a representative figure of the famous French Encyclopedia School. Under the banner of the Encyclopedia School, a series of shining names such as D'Alembert, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Condorcet, and Holbach were gathered. France in the 18th century thus became the center of Western culture.
The "cult of reason" in the 19th century. After the comprehensive rational enlightenment in the 18th century, rationality reached its peak in the 19th century. All natural sciences such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, earth, heaven and other basic subjects have completed differentiation. The application of reason in human life has become increasingly mature, becoming a scalpel that can face everything. Engels once said with emotion that the 19th century was the century of establishing systems. He believed that people living in the 19th century were ready to establish systems at every turn. Anyone who does not establish a system seems to be unworthy of living in the 19th century. We can use three books to represent the cultural spirit of the 19th century: Hegel's "Logic" was published in 1812; Darwin's "The Origin of Species" was published in 1859; and the first volume of Marx's "Das Kapital" was published in 1867. The symbolic significance of these three books is that they use reason to reveal the development laws of human thinking, nature and society: Hegel's "Logic" attempts to use reason to explain the development laws of human thinking. The entire "Logic" talks about It is the law of thinking. He used rationality to construct his thinking edifice; Darwin used the "scalpel" of reason to decipher the development laws of the natural living world of human beings in "The Origin of Species". Its cross-epochal significance lies in its attempt to reveal the entire universe, the evolution of nature, and the evolution of human beings using a rational logic; Marx's "Das Kapital" used rationality to analyze the development laws of human society. In short, in the 19th century, reason became the "scalpel" that could dissect all aspects of the world. "The supremacy of reason and the perfection of human nature" can be said to be the values ??that people living in the 19th century firmly believed in.
"Rational reflection" in the 20th century.
The 20th century was an inflection point in the development of human rationality, which we call the century of rational reflection. Why should we reflect on rationality? Because something went wrong with the development of the 20th century. In particular, the two world wars have left an unforgettable impression on us - why did such a disaster suddenly occur in the triumph of human reason? The world wars subverted the classical ideals of mankind. Faced with the cruel reality of life, mankind began to reflect: Reason is supreme. Is human nature perfect? ??On August 6, 1945, Einstein, the outstanding scientist of the 20th century, learned about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. As the first person to push the United States to start atomic bomb research, Einstein Extremely shocked, he said with regret: "My biggest feeling right now is regret. I regret that I should not have written that letter to President Roosevelt. ... I wanted to remove the atomic bomb, a criminal tool of murder, from the hands of madman Hitler." I couldn't imagine that it would be given to another madman now." Einstein once said a profound sentence: "The road to the destruction of mankind is paved by the first-class scientists of our century. In his later years, Einstein was more like a philosopher, reflecting on the significance of science to human beings at a higher level. According to relevant statistics, before and after World War II, nearly 90 scientists around the world were directly or indirectly engaged in military-related research work. Humanity's most advanced rationality and technology have become the most dangerous factors that put mankind on the verge of destruction. Because of this, humanities scholars in the 20th century began to consciously reflect on "rationality", such as Spengler's "The Decline of the West", Lukács's "The Destruction of Reason", etc. The philosopher Nietzsche declared in "The Science of Joy" that "God is dead" - the reason that represents the classical rational spirit is dead. In the field of literature, Camus's "The Stranger", Beckett's "Waiting for Godot", Sartre's "Nausea" and other works also express the reflection on rationality and the torture of human nature from different aspects.
Cultural issues in the technological era
On the one hand, technology has improved productivity and enriched people's daily lives, but on the other hand, it has also led to an increasing split between technology and humanistic life. We know that in ancient society, science and humanities were not clearly differentiated and could coexist harmoniously. For example, the official studies of the Zhou Dynasty in ancient China clearly required students to master six basic talents, namely the "six arts" - etiquette, music, and imperial duties. , shoot, book, count. The "royal" and "shooting" in this are a technical requirement. In ancient times, people were required to be "all-rounded" and must know not only etiquette and music, but also knowledge of archery, driving, calligraphy, mathematics and other knowledge. In ancient Greece, mathematics and geometry were classified as humanities subjects. It can be seen from this that natural science and humanities are originally a unified whole of the tree of knowledge of the entire human race. This big tree contains both science, technology and humanities. It is necessary to develop human potential and shape personality based on human development and the actual needs of society. This laid the material prerequisite for the "all-round development" of ancient people, and everyone was able to learn various skills to adapt to organic social life. Only in ancient Greece did encyclopedic thinkers like Aristotle emerge.
However, with the development of productive forces and the continuous advancement of science and technology, the division of labor in society continues to become more refined, and the entire discipline becomes more and more detailed, creating a large number of "experts." Experts mostly specialize in a particular field of knowledge rather than being well-rounded generalists. This may be the "antinomy" of human division of labor: on the one hand, division of labor increases productivity and produces more material wealth and spiritual products, reflecting the degree of social development; but on the other hand, division of labor binds people to a certain In a fixed position, there is no time to consider other things, which over time leads to one-sided development of people. Moreover, the humanities and natural sciences have begun to become more and more divided. Natural sciences have become more and more specialized. Technical rationality dominates the development of natural sciences. Humanistic care has given way to commercial profits and the pursuit of various human desires.
When industrial and technological civilization was on the rise, human beings cheered and longed for the hope that rationality and technology would help humans gradually improve and lead a better life. But if we think calmly, we will see that the origin of human rationality has indeed produced many social problems today.
It is true that happiness, as a feeling of physical and mental harmony, has a certain relationship with material satisfaction. People cannot eat bread to satisfy their hunger, but we cannot regard material enjoyment as the only purpose of life. There is a British proverb: "Eat to live, but live not to eat." We cannot reverse means and ends. To achieve spiritual enrichment and tranquility, we need to rebuild our spiritual home.
The first is to rebuild our public life. To put it simply, public life is the interrelated and mutually influencing common life formed by people in the public space. Modernization has expanded the time and space for people to communicate, which requires people to follow some simple and minimum codes of conduct in public activities. Looking around the current social life, we find that it is very common that public and private spaces are not distinguished in people's interactions. Private space is also public * space, and public * space is also private space. Many people don't know to abide by public rules when they go to public places, and this happens at all levels. This is contrary to our development requirements for modern civilization. Therefore, if a person has to undergo modern baptism and education, he must distinguish between public and private, especially in public situations, he must abide by public rules and pay attention to public ethics.
The second is to cultivate a sunny mentality. Sunshine mentality is a positive, optimistic, upward and enterprising mental model. Today, we are faced with fierce social competition, conflicts between different cultures, and various material temptations, which disturb our hearts all the time. The pressure caused by the fast pace of modern society makes our happiness declining. It is very important to be good at giving positive psychological suggestions and enhance inspirational education in life. I think a sunny mentality means facing life with a positive attitude, especially facing difficulties and setbacks in life. If you are too mentally fragile, you will not be able to adapt to this society calmly. Cultivating a sunny mentality means cultivating a normal mind and being unfazed by favors and disgrace - in difficult times, we must see the results, see the light, and improve our courage; when facing flowers and applause, we must be able to have a clear mind, Keep to yourself and take it in stride.
The third is to learn to praise others and learn to be grateful. The purpose of praise and gratitude is to create harmonious and warm interpersonal relationships. Dare to praise others is a sign of mental health. A person with a particularly low self-esteem is often the most afraid to praise others. Gratitude is not only a virtue, but also an attitude towards life. Gratitude is now the scarcest resource in our society, but looking around today's social life, we find that the awareness of gratitude among people is increasingly lacking. Cultivating a sense of gratitude is an important part of a person's socialization. Therefore, to be considerate of others, you must learn to put yourself in their shoes. Gratitude education should start bit by bit. Our ancients have a saying, "Don't do good deeds because they are small, and don't do evil deeds because they are small." Quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes. Subtly, we must learn a kind of mutual empathy between people. When you are in society and others give you even a little help, you have to express your gratitude to others, because this is a process of accumulating positive energy in society.
In the end, we must strive to become a complete person. "Complete man" is the ideal that Marx longed for. Specifically, it refers to a person who has overcome human alienation, has a sound self-awareness, and has a complete spiritual life. Today's society has made people more and more specialized and fragmented. Except for their own major, they no longer know or are familiar with other things. A complete person should be good at showing himself, reflecting on himself, updating himself and transcending himself. Especially today, we call for a complete person who has a rich relationship with the world we face, who establishes a positive and stable connection between "heaven, earth, and people" and fully develops it. A person who expresses his or her own life. By building a positive and constructive relationship with others, society, and nature, one can truly become a person with all-round development of morality, intelligence, body, and beauty, and then become a builder of a beautiful society.