Edict of prison, under the tree of the new crooked neck.

Cao Duan looked at Jiang Xinghuo, who was sitting in front of him but couldn't just clean up the chess pieces, and didn't know how to choose for a while.

It's not that he doesn't know how to choose this game of chess, Jiang Xinghuo can't win even if he withdraws to the original point, but he is seriously thinking about whether to accept Jiang Xinghuo's proposal.

In Cao Duan's eyes, Jiang Xinghuo was like the fire in front of the moth, knowing that as long as he got together, it would be very easy to be burned and there would be no bones left, but he was full of temptation.

Cao Duan was curious about what kind of ambition this world-shattering Ming national teacher had in terms of academic thought?

A person compares himself to Pangu and thinks that the sages of the past are living in chaos, is this extreme self-confidence or extreme conceit?

Cao Duan thinks that maybe the former is a little more, after all, Jiang Xinghuo has overcome some of the ultimate problems of science with his own strength, and since the hole cards of the three gatekeepers in the debate ring are all handed over to them by Jiang Xinghuo, then Jiang Xinghuo's pioneering research on philosophy can already be called "the first person in the world".

Cao Duan was very curious about where Jiang Xinghuo's self-confidence came from, and he vaguely felt that it should be hidden in today's conversation, or in other words, the content of today's conversation was the blank part in the middle of the booklet.

If he agrees, then a new door will open a gap for him; If he refuses, the door will be closed again, which means that he will leave with endless confusion. He really didn't understand, why did Kong Xilu become what he is now? But the good thing is that he doesn't have to wade into this troubled water, and he doesn't have to step on the chariot of the Changer, which could capsize at any moment.

So, it's a very contradictory thing.

"You're scared." Jiang Xinghuo continued to pick up the chess pieces.

"That's right." Cao Duan was blunt.

Cao Duan didn't intend to hide anything, because this was a fact, and he was really scared, so he had the idea of retreating.

Cao Duan is not a corrupt Confucian, nor a speculator, he is a person who studies academics attentively, with both the purity of a scholar and the rejection and resistance of a scholar to the treacherous temple instinct.

"It's okay." Jiang Xinghuo bowed slightly to show understanding, "When you think about it, you can come to me." ”

Cao Duan said sincerely: "I'm timid. ”

"I don't force others to change themselves, just think about it."

Jiang Xinghuo, who finally finished cleaning up the mess, put down the chess box in his hand and stretched his arms.

Cao Duan arched his hand towards Jiang Xinghuo and turned to leave.

After taking a few steps, Cao Duan stopped.

This is what he is best at, and he has almost never failed in this area, even to the amazement of countless great confucians.

And he still believes in it.

It's just that

He still can't estimate Jiang Xinghuo's wisdom.

This young man seems to have the wisdom of the heavens and the earth, like a saint who really exists in the world.

The allure brought by the unknown wisdom made the two villains in Cao Duan's heart start fighting again.

In fact, by the time the thought arises, one of the villains has already won.

Cao Duan pondered for a long time, and finally slowly exhaled a breath and turned back.

"Master Guoshi, I still want to hear about the spiritual world and the blank part of that booklet. But that doesn't mean. ”

"It doesn't mean you have to do things for me, of course, it's up to you."

Jiang Xinghuo stretched out his hand and pointed to the chessboard, signaling that he could make a move.

Cao Duan took the black first this time, and still landed on the left corner in front of him, Jiang Xinghuo changed his chess path, and Bai Zi played next to him.

The two played chess and chatted at the same time.

"Let's start with a story."

Jiang Xinghuo said slowly: "A long, long time ago, in a dark cave, several wild children who had lived in the cave since they were children were tied to a stool with their backs to the entrance of the cave because they made mistakes, unable to move. Behind them was a wall, outside which was a fire, and the light from the fire cast the shadows of something on the walls at the bottom of the cave, and the people who were tied up could only see the shadows on the walls. They think things are like shadows on the walls of a cave – that's the real world. ”

Cao Duan easily understood what Jiang Xinghuo meant. He's talking about the empiricism of the early materialists in the pamphlet.

In order to defend the corner, Cao Duan continued to dislocate and fall, Jiang Xinghuo did not seem to have the purpose of fighting for strangulation, but continued to play the wall-style method, next to each other Baizi.

"Until one day, there was a wild child who broke free and escaped from the cave, he saw the outside world, he saw a tree, but probably because of the harsh sunlight, he very much doubted whether the tree in front of him was real, and when his eyes slowly adjusted to the light outside, he saw the tree clearly, and really touched it."

"It dawned on him and he immediately ran back to tell the wild children, who were still tied to the stool: 'The real world is outside, here there is only falsehood, only shadows.' However, when the man untied the bound people, they became angry, and they were so accustomed to accepting the 'truth' of the shadow and taking the advice of others as poison, and they stoned the man to death. ”

However, these wild children have broken free after all, so they finally saw the wall behind them, the fire on the other side of the wall, and the entrance to the cave outside, and these wild children who have lived in the cave since childhood finally mustered up the courage to go out, out of the cave, they also saw the tree, at first they also doubted, the tree and the shadow appeared at the same time, which one is real? But no matter who doubted it, they could not deny that this tree was the real tree, and the tree that could be felt and felt was much more real than its shadow. ”

Cao Duan asked, "And then?" ”

Then, as a result, some people fled back into the cave in fear of accepting this heavy truth; Luckily, someone stayed behind and went on to explore the outside world. ”

Cao Duan pondered for a moment and then said: "The 'shadow' in this refers to the empiricism of the early materialists, and this is not feasible? ”

"It's not all."

Jiang Xinghuo shook his head: "Inferences may not be true, seeing may not be true, and the rationalism of the early idealists is also unreliable. ”

"For example?"

"Let's say you've lost this game."

Cao Duan looked at the chessboard and fell into contemplation, and after looking at it for a long time, he still didn't see where he lost, obviously his black chess was guarding the corner along the side, and there was still a lot of breath in the corner, even if the white qi continued to press, it would only make the corner he occupied completely formed, as for whether the white chess could develop towards Tianyuan, whether he was fighting with the past to slay the dragon, that was also a matter of later, why did he say that he had lost now?

Could it be that the national teacher is actually a hidden chess player, and he has already seen countless moves since then? But this is obviously a standard paradigm start!

●○○○○○

●●●●

Cao Duan said sincerely: "I also ask the national teacher to give advice, I am stupid, and I don't know where I lost." ”

Jiang Xinghuo pointed to the small note pressed under the chess jar, Jiang Xinghuo had just written it when he turned around, and the handwriting was still very fresh.

Cao Duan took out a small note and looked at it closely.

"Chess name: backgammon."

"Rules: The first five-star star wins."

Cao Duan: "."

Jiang Xinghuo smiled: "See, seeing is not necessarily true, and the cognition obtained by reason is not necessarily true, maybe change the rules and conditions, then the inferences you thought were natural before will be overturned and restarted. Most people think that phenomena are real, but phenomena are not real, and they are not fixed and rheological phenomena, and they cannot be truly understood. ”

The word rheology, Cao Duan easily understood, in his mind, the source is about "Hou Han Shu, Volume 35, Cao Bao Biography": "The situation is transported back, the situation is tens of thousands, the system cannot change with its flow, the quality is not enough to determine its chapter, and the Lord of Sigu should also be the one who gains and loses", and the meaning judged in combination with the context is also right.

"So what does the national teacher think is true?" Cao Duan vaguely captured the key.

"It's not that I think, but what do you think is real in this world?"

Jiang Xinghuo turned around from the stone bench and patted the crooked neck tree with his hand: "If this tree is the tree that the group of wild children who have lived in caves since childhood saw and touched, is it real?" ”

"Isn't it?" Cao Duan frowned and asked.

"Try to feel the tree."

Cao Duan stood up and touched the strange-looking tree with one hand.

"Not enough."

Cao Duan wrapped his arms around the tree, and the new clothes that his wife had made overnight for him to go to Beijing were stained.

"It's not enough."

Cao Duan simply hit the tree with a fist, and the skin was broken in an instant, and the tree shook with a crooked neck.

"Is it real?"

Looking at Jiang Xinghuo who was tasting tea, Cao Duan nodded.

"It's true."

Jiang Xinghuo put down the teacup and lay down on the chessboard, as if he was sleepy and muttering.

"The former Zhuang Zhou Dream is Hu Die, lifelike Hu Die, self-metaphor Shizhi and! I don't know how to do it. Oh Ran Jue, then Yu Ran Zhou also. I don't know that Zhou's dream is Hu Die, and Hu Die's dream is Zhou? Zhou and Hu Die, there must be a difference. This is called materialization. ”

Cao Duan's tall and thin body shook slightly, he understood what Jiang Xinghuo meant, if the world he existed in was just a dream of someone, then the tree in front of him was still real?

"If the space we are in is just a dream of a person named Jiang Xinghuo before death six hundred years later, or even more cruel This dream of Jiang Xinghuo before his death may be just a story written by a person who writes a book, then am I real at this moment? Are you real? Is this tree that you think is so real that it makes you bleed in pain is still real? ”

Jiang Xinghuo turned his face sideways, the midsummer sun fell on his face through the shade of the trees, and a little bit of Venus seemed to be visible from the young man's thick eyelashes, and he pillowed his arm alone, as if he was asking Cao Duan and himself.

Cao Duan was speechless.

In the days of studying in the countryside, once his mind is exhausted, Cao Duan often dreams that he is sitting at his desk in front of his desk reading, writing, and thinking when he sleeps, just as Cao Duan in his dream cannot prove that the world he is in and that he is real, and Cao Duan in the current "real world" cannot prove that the world he is in and that he is real.

In Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, this philosophical proposition similar to Zhuang Zhoumengdie's was also called the brain in a jar.

"A man (assuming yourself) was operated on by an evil scientist, and his brain was cut out of his body and placed in a vat containing a nutrient solution that kept the brain alive. The nerve endings of the brain are connected to a computer, which is programmed to send information to the brain in order to keep it hallucinating that everything is completely normal. For him, it seems that people, objects, and the sky still exist, and his own movements and body sensations can be input. It is completely possible to intercept the memories of brain surgery, and then input the various environments and daily life that he may experience. He can even be coded and 'feel' himself reading a funny and ridiculous text here. ”

The core of this philosophical proposition is that the individual's cognition or judgment of objective existence depends on the stimulus he receives, assuming that the brain in the tank generates a series of "test" responses to detect its own cognition, and at the same time the "system" can give the corresponding stimulus in response in time, the crux of the problem is not in the brain in the vat's cognition of the world, but in the "I" own cognition of the world, the objectivity of its own existence is questioned, and a paradox will be formed in a world of consciousness created entirely by stimuli.

So, how do you make sure you're not in this predicament yourself?

Or how can you be sure that you are not one of the wild children who came out of the cave?

The "shadow" (empiricism) has been proven untrustworthy by you, so how do you know if the world that seems to be "real" in front of you can be determined by perception such as touch and the rational mind in your brain is another more advanced "shadow" that can deceive your brain?

Cao Duan fell into complete confusion.

This epistemological proposition that even the existence of the entire world has been subverted is not something that can be solved by science.

No matter how "sincere" his heart is, if the world is all illusory, then what's the use?

What's more, the interpretation of the world by science is originally comparable to "Minecraft", and the explanation of the composition of the world with turbid air is not as good as pixel blocks in the final analysis.

Suddenly, Cao Duan thought of Jiang Xinghuo's booklet.

According to the contents of the pamphlet, from ancient times to the present, philosophers of all civilizations have chosen one of the materialistic or idealistic when choosing a path.

And the current propositions, whether they are the so-called empiricism of the early materialists or the rationalism of the early idealists, cannot be explained, or they are all wrong.

And Jiang Xinghuo once wrote a sentence.

"But in fact, all people's fears come from ignorance of the world."

Cao Duan really felt this fear of his own, and this fear, as Jiang Xinghuo expected, came from ignorance of whether the world was real or not.

"No!"

Cao Duan suddenly looked at Jiang Xinghuo and pointed to the booklet on the side of the chessboard: "Can I choose neither way?" ”

"Why do you say that?"

Jiang Xinghuo still tilted his head to look at him.

"As you said, materialism and idealism are like two people seeking the Tao, good and bad are not important, the important thing is to seek the Tao, and the Tao neither favors the good nor the bad."

Jiang Xinghuo raised his head, raised his arms and extended his chest, and contracted his shoulders back, making a "click" sound.

"You're smart, you're one of the smartest people I've ever met in this world."

"From ancient times to the present, the philosophical world is chaotic, in this chaos, some people think that the world should be a certain way, this is a matter of course, eternal and unchanging, in China, the more representative figure is called Dong Zhongshu, Dong Zhongshu believes that the feudal outline is often out of the will of heaven, eternal and unchanging, that is, the so-called 'the great origin of the Tao comes from the sky, the sky does not change, the Tao does not change'; and some people keep studying the world, thinking about the origin of the world, such as Zhang Zai."

Let's call them 'speculators' and 'researchers.'"

"In addition to this kind of person, there are also 'doubters' such as Zhuangzi, who at one point thinks that this world is indeed not real, but he can't figure out which one is real, Butterfly or Zhuang Zhou."

"Skepticism is of course very important, for philosophy, if we want to explore the truth of the world, then we must remove everything that is unexamined, impurities, doubtful, we must doubt everything to ensure that our logical thinking is accurate, and all this must have an origin, and this origin must be a self-evident first law."

Cao Duan looked at the booklet, and then at Jiang Xinghuo.

This first law must not be something like common sense, experience, or reason, or even the "science" proposed by Jiang Xinghuo, but something more fundamental.

"Don't think about it." Jiang Xinghuo smiled.

"Now go back to the origin of the two forks in the road, and the way you seek is behind you."

The moment Jiang Xinghuo said this, the goosebumps on Cao Duan's body stood up.

A mixture of great fear, excitement, and numbness stimulated his nerve endings.

Cao Duan turned around tremblingly, and there was nothing behind him.

Cao Duan understood all this.

Jiang Xinghuo stroked the rough bark: "When you doubt everything, there is only one thing that will not be doubted, and that is your thinking, even if you doubt your thinking, you are still thinking." In other words, as long as Jiang Xinghuo is thinking, whether the world in front of him is his illusion before he died, or someone's script, at the moment when Jiang Xinghuo is thinking, he is real, and he can use this as the origin to explore the truth of this world, and then verify the authenticity of this world. This is not the study of the mind, this is not the absence of things outside the mind, the absence of things outside the mind, and the reason outside the mind, nor is it that my mind is the universe, and the universe is my mind, but the first law of philosophy. ”

"I think, therefore I am."

Cao Duan looked at the shadow on the ground and thought to himself.

"In this world, maybe the flowers and trees of the material world are not real, and maybe the moral laws of the spiritual world are not real, but there must be something that is true, unshakable, original, fundamental, and ultimately decisive, and that is my thinking."

"Yes, when Cao Duan in the dream is pondering the problem he is puzzled with, as long as the thoughts are together, the Cao Duan in the dream is real, and it is possible for him to realize that he is in an illusion through thinking."

"However, in what way does Cao Duan in the dream have to judge that he is in a dream?"

When Cao Duan said his question, Jiang Xinghuo raised Erlang's legs again and folded the two hands holding the tea cup in his arms.

"Why can you easily recognize that the world in which Cao Duan lives in his dream is illusory?"

Cao Duan sat down, unlike the first time, this time he poured himself a cup of tea.

The tea entered his throat, which immediately made Cao Duan feel a lot warmer.

Cao Duan also sat on the stone bench holding a teacup: "Because no matter how 'real' the dream is, the dream is missing after all, it cannot restore a world, or in other words, the dream itself is an incomplete world." ”

"Yes, incomplete."

Jiang Xinghuo nodded: "An incomplete world can be falsified without much effort. ”

"When we think about the origin of the existence of the world, we usually have to assume that the world is a complete whole, or that the world is composed of certain elements or materials, or that the world is controlled by some mysterious force, law and principle in order to continue to live and operate, all of the above philosophical reflections on the existence of the world are ontological questions about the existence of the world."

"As a theoretical assumption, ontology must first assume that the world is a whole, otherwise, people's cognition of the world is not logically complete, and therefore not knowable, even if this 'whole' is only what you think is the whole, it is enough, because it is impossible for people to fully understand the world."

Jiang Xinghuo paused, and then said: "The whole world is the essence of the world, and whether it is Jiang Xinghuo or Cao Duan, or Cao Duan in the dream, the 'real world' they understand is based on the sum of different existence phenomena manifested in the so-called 'reality' based on the 'ontological world'. ”

"So now the question is actually very simple, with the independent thinking of the first law, how to judge whether the world you live in is real?"

Cao Duan blurted out: "Truth can only be obtained through philosophical contemplation and deduction, and I only need to study whether the ontology and phenomena are in line with my thinking and my understanding of the world according to various deductions!" If a large number of them do not match, then the world is likely to be fake! ”

Jiang Xinghuo pinched two chess pieces, one black and one white, between his thumb and index finger.

"Black, ontological realm; White, phenomenal world. ”

"The phenomenal world, needless to say, what you see, hear, feel, what you think is the source of the incomparably real world, everything you perceive, is the things of the phenomenal world."

"In the ontological realm, there are three kinds of transcendental existence, that is, the transcendental existence of objective things, the transcendental existence of subjective reason, and the transcendental existence of logical inference."

"First, it refers to the various empirical phenomena of existence that transcend objective things, that is, the general principles, rules, and logic that constitute the existence of things, and the reason why this kind of research is carried out is because all the phenomena that can be realized by the self are connected together in a certain universal and inevitable way, and all the perceptual and intuitive materials presented in the self-consciousness are connected by the categories of knowledge, and the empirical knowledge synthesized from this is objective and valid."

Cao Duan finally understood what "science" did in the world opened up by Jiang Xinghuo.

How to verify that the world is real? Of course, it is through the study of phenomena that the general principles of things are obtained, which in the words of science is "Gewu".

Cao Duan couldn't help but ask: "So what is the 'new way of learning things' that Gong Kong never said to me?" ”

"I can magnify the appearance of everything in this world, and I can see 68,000 insects from a bowl of water."

Cao Duan finally understood why Kong Xilu refused to be released from prison.

If he can make a unique breakthrough on the road of "Gewu", then I am afraid that he will also be in the same state as Kong Xilu, or even more indulgent.

Cao Duan suddenly swallowed his saliva, and there was a hint in his eyes when he looked at Jiang Xinghuo. Fear.

Yes, fear.

Jiang Xinghuo's means of gathering people are too clever, and in front of him, there seems to be no person in the world who can't be gathered.

No one is desireless, all desires are either fame or profit, even people like Kong Xilu and Cao Duan seem to be difficult to buy, but this premise is just that no one in the world can offer the right price before.

Of course, the price code is not the mundane things such as money, but the "Tao" that they dream of.

There is only one person in the world who cannot seem to be bought.

That is Jiang Xinghuo himself.

But does the emperor really reassure a person who has no desires, no desires, and no weaknesses?

Thinking of this, Cao Duan instinctively wanted to take a step away from Jiang Xinghuo as he did just now, but somehow, his feet seemed to have taken root, and he couldn't move when he stood still.

Jiang Xinghuo can give him what he desires the most.

-- Ways to understand the truth of the world.

After answering Cao Duan's question, Jiang Xinghuo continued:

"Second, it refers to the various forms of thinking and thinking paradigms that transcend human beings, that is, the general principles, rules, and logical composition of human thinking, which is the starting point of the first law I just told you."

"Third, we are a tool to study whether the two worlds of ontology and phenomena are compatible, and whether the world is real. That is to say, all inferences are composed of propositions, countertopics, and propositional logic, and we can find the corresponding ontology of things by bringing our observation of the phenomenal world into it, and all ontologies of things exist in the real world in forms, types, paradigms, etc., which are logical phenomena. ”

Looking at the chess pieces in Jiang Xinghuo's hand, Cao Duan finally understood why Jiang Xinghuo was obviously the one who proposed the new theory of mind, but he seemed to be a little disdainful of that set of things.

Because "I think" can only deceive myself, and I can't explore the truth of the world.

On the surface, it seems that the logical closed loop can be completed as long as the mind is motivated in the principle of mind, but in the method of exploring and verifying the ontological realm and the phenomenal realm taught to him by Jiang Xinghuo, although the most fundamental first law is based on the observer's thinking, the observer does not blindly follow the thinking, but uses a certain almost absolute calm state to verify whether the phenomena in the phenomenal world conform to the ontology and the logic of thinking through a set of systematic derivation tools It's possible that it's fake.

"All inferences are made up of propositional, antitopical, and propositional logic. Can you give an example? ”

"Yes."

Jiang Xinghuo wrote a set of pros and cons in the booklet.

Topic: The world is finite in time and space.

Countertopic: The world is infinite in time and space.

Cao Duangang wanted to ask if one of them was wrong, but he immediately snuffed out the thought in his heart.

seems to be a contradictory proposition, but he is a little familiar with Jiang Xinghuo, but he understands that it may all be right or wrong.

"Suppose that our world has no beginning in time, then by any given moment, an eternity has passed, and thus in the world there is an infinite series of continuing states of things that have passed. However, the infinite nature of a series lies in the fact that it can never be completed by continuing to synthesize. Therefore, it is impossible for an infinite series of worlds to pass, so the beginning of the world is a necessary condition for the existence of the world, and this logical derivation is okay, right? ”

Cao Duan nodded, and Jiang Xinghuo continued to use logical deduction to prove the countertopic.

"Contrary to the question, suppose that the world has a beginning in time, then, since the beginning is that this thing did not exist in the time before it, there must be a time in the past, in which the world does not exist, that is, empty time. But nothing can happen in empty time, because no part of empty time itself has any condition of 'being' and not 'non-existence', distinguishing it from other parts, regardless of whether we assume that things occur by themselves or by some other cause. In the world, while many series of things may have beginnings, the world itself cannot have beginnings, so the world is infinite in terms of past time, right? ”

Even a wise person like Cao Duan had a trace of confusion in his eyes at this moment.

"So, did our world have a beginning in time?"

Jiang Xinghuo put down the black and white chess pieces in his hand and said calmly:

"I don't know."

"Positives and negatives are ideal, and of course it's best to come up with ' One of them is wrong', so that we can go further on the road of exploring and verifying the world, but unfortunately, our time is limited, even if we in a short life, all the relatively important propositions are logically deduced, there will still be many unsolved mysteries, and these propositions that we cannot verify by thinking, we need a lot of people like Confucius to verify through the study of the world, when they make a breakthrough, the original unfalsifiable proposition, may make a breakthrough in an instantBut there may be propositions that cannot be verified for hundreds or thousands of years, but does that matter? ”

Cao Duan thought for a moment, then smiled.

This is important, but it is not too important, because when a person who is in a dream and is extremely awake can verify whether the world is real through two complementary ways, he is already on the path of pursuing the "Tao", and it does not matter whether the focus of the "Tao" is a big dream or the end of the universe.

For people in the present, looking back on the past is nothing but a blank chaos.

And this step has been a thousand years, and all philosophers have never taken it.

At this moment, Cao Duan finally understood what the "Dao" in "Chaowen Dao can die at night" is.

It's not the "avenue" that ends there, but the one that really leads to the "avenue".

"Even though we are in a dream, we are still truly living in every moment of 'my thoughts', our life and thinking are by no means meaningless, we are walking on the road of proving the truth of the world, it is already of great significance, even if the end is just a void."

Cao Duan stretched out.

"Xie Guoshi shows the way, Cao Duan is willing to do his best in this life to seek enlightenment."

——————

When Zhu Gaoxu found Jiang Xinghuo, he found that the master had already slept soundly, and a slight snoring sounded.

Under this familiar tree, on a stone table are chessboards, chess pieces, and a booklet.

The pamphlet was pressed against the chess jar, and the hot wind blew through, revealing only a corner.

"The unspeakable will be speechless."

(End of chapter)