The Big Questions: Opening Questions
Philosophical Reflections · · 9 min read · Philosophy
1. Is there anything you would be willing to give your life for? If so, what is it?
Truth — how life or intelligence arose from inorganic structure, say, or what the origin of the universe is, or coming to understand what Laozi meant by the Dao. As the saying goes: hear the Way in the morning, and you may die content in the evening.
Or giving my life so that those around me might be healthy, happy and well — even though sacrificing myself would often only make them sadder. And also giving my life so that more people could be happier. That depends on the numbers: for one or two people, or a thousand, or ten thousand, I might still be unwilling; made more abstract and vague — the people of a country, the people of the world — I would be willing. Where is that line? And: I believe that most people's lives are worth less than mine, so I would not sacrifice my life for a few individuals; yet once the number grows large, I feel my sacrifice becomes acceptable. But what is the motive — something like the utilitarian "maximize the good in the world"? That depends on how I think about what a person means. If I believed that when I ceased to exist the world's meaning would cease with me, I would have no motive at all to give my life for others. But clearly that is not what I think: if I were gone, I would want my family and friends to live well, and if they benefited from it, I would feel the meaning still remained.
2. If you had only a few minutes to live, how would you use them? What if you had a few days? Twenty years?
3. A famous philosopher once said that human life is no more meaningful than the life of a cow or an insect. We eat, sleep, live for a while and reproduce, as other animals do; life has no final purpose. How would you answer him? What purposes does human life have that cannot be found in a cow or an insect? What is the goal of your life?
Life has no given, ultimate purpose, so we have to define our purposes ourselves — or accept the cheap substitutes others define for us. The purpose of genes is to carry themselves on for as long as possible, across different environments. But I can't say whether that is a "purpose", or whether an inorganic environment produced a structure that keeps changing and passing itself on, so that we take a "property" of that structure for its "purpose".
Clearly, people and genes live in two different dimensions; whatever the "purpose" of genes, it cannot wholly serve as the purpose of a person. When we discuss the "meaning" of life, what do we actually mean by "meaning"? What counts as "meaningful"? When we talk about the meaning of the Chinese sign 玫瑰, rose, we may mean the plant with red petals it refers to, a thing that can be understood within a context people share; we may mean romantic love; or, for different people, it may call up the joy or the disappointment after giving a first rose to a first love one evening, or the bunch of flowers setting the mood at a candlelit dinner; it may be a scent, or the pain of a thorn going into the flesh. When we speak of the "meaning" of something, we are talking about "what goes beyond the thing itself".
But meaning is rooted in context. To someone who doesn't speak Chinese, the two characters 玫瑰 carry no romance; they are just like every other mysterious square character they cannot read. So it is certain that everyone's understanding of the meaning of things differs in the end; there is no single, identical understanding of "meaning".
The meaning of an individual life should be given by the individual, within their own context — though of course you can borrow the meanings others offer, and take them up if you agree.
Right now I don't know how to answer this question, because I haven't worked out what the word "meaning" really is. What I understand by meaning may differ from what you do. In the past I would usually substitute "value" as a synonym, but now it seems I can't.
The goal of my life is to pursue the truth of the world, to keep learning and experiencing so as to understand and feel a little more of it. And I hope this experience of mine can encourage people who share the same interests.
As for purposes that cannot be found in the life of a cow or an insect — what I have just said counts.
4. Do you believe in God (in the broad sense)? Why? What is God like (that is, what is it that you believe in)? How would you prove to someone who does not believe in God that what you believe is true, that God really exists (and what would change your mind)? If you do not believe in God, why not? Describe exactly what it is that you don't believe in (is there some other conception of God you would accept? What would change your mind?).
I believe in bodhisattvas and in karmic conditions, but it doesn't amount to faith. I believe there are truths in the world beyond what causality can explain, truths that cannot be known; I hold that power in awe, and so I try to learn the religious explanations that might exist, taking the traditions I like and agree with as reliable explanations to believe in. But more than that, I want to use these religious ideas to understand, in concrete form, the powers I believe in but cannot know, so that I can live better. I went to Mount Wutai, for instance, to pay homage to Manjushri; I am devout and reverent before the Bodhisattva, but I took the pilgrimage above all as a practice in understanding this unknowable power. On that trip I came to understand a little of dependent origination, and to glimpse a little of "let the mind arise without dwelling on anything"; and before the Bodhisattva I made a vow, to spur myself on toward my ideals.
What I believe in is unknowable, inexplicable truth, or law. To prove it to someone who doesn't believe, I would only need to explain to them that there are phenomena science (causality) cannot explain, that there are truths which cannot be described in language and cannot be known. Or, much as with Gödel's incompleteness theorems, we can describe certain truths that science cannot explain. But I'm not inclined to explain this to others, because it can be neither proved nor falsified; one can only believe it or not.
5. Which of these is most "real": the chair you are sitting on, the molecules that make up the chair, or the sensory impression you have when you sit on it?
6. Suppose you were an animal in a psychology laboratory, but with all the thoughts and feelings you have now. You hear the scientist say, "It's just a mindless animal, acting entirely on instinct." How would you convince him that you have a mind?
7. Suppose you lived in a society in which everyone believed the earth stood still, and the sun, the moon and the stars moved around it along predictable, if perhaps rather complicated, paths. You object: "You're all wrong — the earth goes around the sun." But no one agrees with you. They all think you are mad, because everyone can feel that the earth isn't moving, and everyone can see the sun, the moon and the stars moving. Who is right? Is it really possible that you alone know the truth, and everyone else is wrong?
8. "Life is but a dream," as an old popular song goes. Suppose you think such an idea is possible, or at least conceivable (in a philosophy class, say): that you are at this moment still asleep in bed, only dreaming that you are reading a philosophy book. How could you prove to yourself that this isn't so, that you are in fact awake (pinching yourself won't work — why not)?
9. Describe yourself as a character in a novel. Talk about your manner, your habits, your personality and your characteristic turns of phrase. What sort of person do you turn out to be? Do you like this person? What do you like (or dislike) about him?
10. How would you explain to a visitor from another planet who (or what) you are?
11. There is a "happiness box": once inside, you would feel intense pleasure continuously, but you would never do anything else. Would you get in? For how long? Why?
12. Must a good person (one who does no evil and simply does what is required of them) be happy? In other words, do you believe life is ultimately fair? Must a wicked person — at least in the end — suffer (and if not, why should anyone try to be good)?
13. Do you believe that taking a life is wrong in every circumstance?
14. Have you ever made a decision that involved no one else and was entirely your own (that is, not because your parents suggested it, not under the influence of your friends or of television, books or films, and not because you had no choice or were unduly swayed by some person or situation)?
15. Is freedom always a good thing?
16. Do you want children? Why?
Translated from the Chinese original.