As the director of the World Politics Research Center, the director of the Intellectuals and Intellectual History Research Center, and a professor at East China Normal University, Dr. Liu Qing is close to the people and embraces the Internet and mass media. . Didn’t you see, he is not only the manager of the app, but also the mentor of the seventh season of last year’s Qi Pa Shuo. Although he will appear on the screen, they will all be guest appearances. After all, his main job is as a scholar, and he has made many academic achievements and is very influential. Recently, his two new works have stirred up the Liu Qing trend. The two works are "The Age of Strife" and "Liu Qing's Lectures on Modern Western Thought". Let’s briefly talk about Dr. Liu’s “Liu Qing’s Lecture Notes on Modern Western Thought”.

First of all, the coordinates and scope of this book are modern Western thoughts, and it is the subject of lecture notes, so it is highly academic. Therefore, under the introduction of Dr. Liu Qing, we can learn about 19 thinkers from a modern perspective. They extensively and systematically discussed the pros and cons of instrumental rationality, how to face nihilism, the alienation of people by consumerism, and the fairness and justice of wealth distribution. and globalization issues. Among them, 19 are thinkers, and the only representative thinkers include Weber, Nietzsche, Freud, Sartre, Bauman, etc.

At the beginning of this book, the author uses simple and clear examples to illustrate the characteristics of modernity and modernity. For example, there is the common saying that "marriage is the tomb of love" and the love of Western aristocrats in the past. The purpose of the existence of the court. In ancient times in the West, marriage was a spiritual responsibility. Marriage was to protect property and continue the family. This had nothing to do with love. But the reason why modern times are modern is that they are different from previous thoughts and concepts. Today’s marriage and love The relationship is very close. This is the progress of modern society. In this regard, the author also explains the dilemma of modernity. After all, changes and challenges are related to the meaning of personal life and the order of social life. Therefore, in the following part of the book, the major Western thinkers are discussed and accepted. They are all inseparable from the game of modernity between individuals and society in modern Western society.

The reason why the author puts Weber's ideological theory in the first chapter is because Weber, as the "father of organization theory" and a respected figure in modern sociology, represents modern thought. adult. How to say this? Let's not listen to the detailed explanation. Weber's existence represents this modernity, and there are four important assertions in it: the first is the disenchantment of the world, the second is the battle between the gods, the third is the expansion of instrumental rationality, and the fourth is the modern iron cage. The disenchantment of the world is just that humans do not believe in religion, and when they wake up from the dream, it brings humans into modern society. The Clash of the Gods refers to the diversified development of modern people's values. The expansion of instrumental rationality illustrates the unbalanced development of specific material instrumental rationality and value motivation rationality, which leads modern society in which means overwhelm ends to go down a bad path. It is this phenomenon of means overriding ends that has led to the modern iron cage. What this means here is that every human individual has become a part of the social machine. It has no personality and is a dehumanized individual.

Finally, with the four major conclusions, the author clearly concludes that Weber represents the coming of age of modern thought. After all, in Weber's theory, we read about breaking away from pessimism, gaining clarity, and reaching a calm state of mind. "There is only one kind of heroism in the world, and that is to still love life after seeing the truth of life clearly." This is the most clear expression of the greatness and maturity of Weber's thought.

When it comes to the second chapter about the spiritual crisis of modern people, the author representatively lists the theories of voluntarism and the superman philosopher Nietzsche to teach everyone how to understand and deal with dilemmas. "God is dead" is the premise of Nietzsche's theory of thought, so what happens next? This has triggered the spiritual crisis of modern people, and Nietzsche's positive nihilism is very inspiring in how to deal with crises and difficulties. After all, this kind of positive nihilism is actually the characteristic of Superman. Nietzsche's Superman refers to the symbol of ideal life, the ideal goal and realm of life that Nietzsche pursues. It is worth noting that in this positive nihilism, the author also gives the example of Sisyphus pushing a stone to illustrate that Sisyphus uses his own choices to create meaning and uses his endless fighting spirit to fight against nothingness, just as Camus said "The struggle to reach the top is enough to enrich the human soul." This is a good acceptance of Nietzsche's positive and superhuman philosophical meaning.

Afterwards, we can also read Freud’s unconscious theory and psychoanalytic theory to understand human mental activities, including desires, impulses, thinking and other personality structures, where the id, the self , superego, three parts to explain the issue of human natural desire, thereby explaining the nature of desire in the spiritual crisis of Westerners. Later we can also read Sartre’s philosophy of “existence is nothingness”. The author explains this philosophy from the unique characters of Sartre and his wife Beauvoir. It turns out that Sartre and his wife Beauvoir are a legendary couple. They are not attached to each other and they do not live together. , they all live in separate apartments and maintain independent spaces. But the emotions are still flowing. This is one of the beautiful love realms we pursue. It is such a maverick that the great existential theory of "existence is nothingness" was formed.

The author also tells the story of Sartre's "invention" that "existence is nothingness", and gives examples of what he thought about from the cup and the waiter. It turns out that human beings have no fixed essence. Human essence can be changed and needs to be formed. Therefore, human existence is nothingness and needs to be formed. This is the same as the idea of ??looking at problems through development. Therefore, Sartre's existentialism brings light to the spiritual crisis of modern people. It is a spirit of resistance that can see the truth clearly and continue to fight.

After that, we can read the lessons of the 20th century in Chapter 3. For example, we can see the real reason why the Jews were massacred. In the author’s opinion, it is the modernity that supports Bauman’s Holocaust. Yes, it turns out that the Jews were massacred not because of hatred, but because under the influence of the bureaucracy, in the German system at that time, every German became a social part without emotions, morality and conscience. Everyone It was only because they were performing tasks without thoughts and souls that there was such a massacre. Another theory is that the superposition of Arendt’s banal evil and extreme evil prompted the Holocaust. Because the Germans’ motive for the massacre at that time was not to regard the Jews as enemies or as human beings, or even as their work and means to achieve their goals, it seemed that the Jews were worthless, and this behavior of the Nazis was even more evil. , and it is extremely mediocre evil. Of course, in conjunction with this lesson, we can also read the great philosophical theories of Popper, Hayek, Berlin, and Marcuse.

In Chapter 4, we talked about liberalism and its critics. Here we analyze the reasons why liberalism is constantly being challenged. It also talks about Rawls’s use of the veil of ignorance to achieve social justice in liberal society. Dworkin’s equality and rational relations are also discussed here, and it is particularly worth mentioning in response to the Weber’s problem in Chapter 1: how to deal with the uneven development of instrumental rationality and value-motivated rationality. The clever Habermas used the "conversation" method to deal with this kind of game and contest. What is explained here is the importance of human interaction and communication actions in the world. Of course, the author also analyzed the role and conditions of communication in dealing with the above issues. Communication should be carried out effectively on the premise of equality, trust and respect. In addition, it also shows that this kind of communicative rationality establishes the principles and foundation of rational norms for our living world, thereby resisting "systematic colonization."

Finally, the author lists the debates in the post-Cold War era at the end. Among them is Fukuyama's "end of history theory", which was originally aimed at liberal democracy. This is a bit like the situation in our Three Kingdoms that "the long-term unity must separate", but the author is skeptical. After all, it is China. In terms of development, it still takes time to tell. But as far as Western thought is concerned, Fukuyama's "end of history" theory also has a certain influence. In addition, Huntington's "clash of civilizations" is an unavoidable situation. After all, "those who are not my species must have different minds" illustrates the changeable and multifaceted situation of the world. Finally, the author also expressed his position on the debate in the post-Cold War era: it is only temporary that the two countries will be separated for a long time, and it is the unchanging general trend that the two countries will be united for a long time. The development of China is like this, and the development of the West and the world is even more like this. After all, everyone loves peace and has the same original intention of pursuing a better life.

In this thick handbook of modern Western thought, Dr. Liu Qing uses concise and easy-to-understand words on the edifice of thought to allow our readers to face many difficult problems in personal life and social welfare. , thus serving as many warnings, from which prudent and sincere answers can be obtained.