As an external symbol of human progress, technology usually refers to the sum of methods, skills and means accumulated in the process of interaction with nature to transform nature to meet human needs. The technological era mentioned here mainly refers to the era of social development, which started from the modern Enlightenment, took the spirit of scientific rationality as the leading factor, and took capital and market as the forms of expression. Today, this "shining light" composed of science and technology shines on human daily life and plays an increasingly important role in the process of social development. This not only means that technology has widely penetrated into our material world, but also means that technology has become a subtle social ideology and has begun to deeply intervene and shape human cultural life. In the words of the German philosopher Jaspers, the technological age is a turning point of mankind, and its important feature is that science and technology become a decisive force.
We know that when a country is in the stage of social transformation from agricultural civilization to industrial civilization, people often place too much expectation on science and technology, so it is easy to enter an era dominated by technology, which has been confirmed by the development process of western countries. In the 30 years of reform and opening up, our country has also attached great importance to science and technology, while humanistic culture is often unconsciously diluted and marginalized in the economic and social development of the whole country. The slogan of "building a stage with culture and singing opera with economy" typically reflects the utilitarian attitude in the development of the whole society. Once culture becomes a marginal supporting role, the relationship between the means and the purpose of our social development will be reversed.
Therefore, with the rapid development of science and technology, we should consciously examine the impact of technology on our social life. The real development of a society is inseparable from the important role of culture, because culture is the soul of a nation's progress, the inexhaustible motive force of a nation and the cultural home of the people. When people's daily life is full of contradictions and serious problems, it is particularly important to rebuild the spiritual home where people can live poetically.
Evolution of Modern Civilization and Rational Spirit
Since capitalist civilization stepped onto the historical stage, human society has entered the era of technological rationality. At the beginning of the European Renaissance, capitalism began to grow from the bud. The arrival of capitalist civilization in the world has greatly promoted the progress of human technology and the development of science. However, because of its natural characteristics of pursuing profits, capital often deviates from people's good wishes. For example, Marx said in the Manifesto of the Productive Party: "When capital comes to this world, blood and dirt are dripping from every pore from head to toe." But Marx also affirmed the historical contribution of capitalism and the "civilized role" of capital from the perspective of historicism. In other words, Marx took a dialectical historical attitude towards capitalism. He believes that capitalism has opened the world market, dug up the national foundation at the foot of industry and dragged all ethnic groups in the world into the historical process of modernization. Therefore, "the productive forces created by the bourgeoisie in its class rule of less than 100 years exceeded all the productive forces created in all previous times." It can be seen that the great driving force of technology is linked to capital and market.
Rationality is a booster for technology to show its realistic power. Behind the brilliant technology in human social life is actually the victory of rational spirit. From modern capitalism to the historical stage, rationality has become the strongest voice of human culture since modern times. Whether Bacon's "knowledge is power", Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" or Kant's "man-made natural legislation", we can all feel how confident human reason is from the famous sayings of these philosophers. From the perspective of cultural philosophy, we can divide the evolution of human rationality in modern western countries into four stages:
/kloc-"rational enlightenment" in the 0/7th century. Usually we regard17th century as the century of rational enlightenment. We know that the Renaissance aroused people's ideological awakening, reason began to walk out of ignorance of religious theology, and human values were revealed. For example, the theme of Boccaccio's decameron is to get people out of the aura of religious theology. "Give back what people have"-this is the core slogan of modern Renaissance. When man comes out of the aura of God, his secular life world is fully affirmed. /kloc-in the 0/7th century, the prosperity of handicraft industry in capitalist workshops and the transition to mechanized production promoted the rapid development of technical science and mathematics; In the ideological and cultural circles, there are also many enlightenment thinkers such as Bacon, Locke, Descartes, Hobbes and Galileo. Descartes' philosophy puts human reason in the supreme position, thinks that "thinking" is the premise of judging the rationality of "existence", and emphasizes that "truth" can only be qualified to guide people's real social life if it is put into the "immanence" of subjective thinking and tested and judged by "thinking by oneself".
/kloc-"rational independence" in the 0/8th century. 18th century is a century of rational independence. As a "bright power", rationality is generally accepted in people's social life, and draws a clear line with the "ignorant power" of religious theology. It is the mainstream cultural demand of18th century to show the strength of human subject spirit confidently, face the world with reason bravely, independently and freely, and use one's own reason openly in everything. With the help of the global expansion of capital, western thinkers try to spare no effort to promote "rationality", a new world outlook and values that express capitalism. /kloc-The iconic cultural event in the 0/8th century is an encyclopedia edited by the philosopher Diderot. This book is the first systematic encyclopedia in the west, summarizing the spirit of the Enlightenment in the18th century and systematically explaining the comprehensive significance of reason to the world. Diderot therefore became a representative of the famous encyclopedia school in France. Under the banner of the Encyclopedia School, a series of shining names such as D'Alembert, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, condorcet and Holbach were gathered. /kloc-France in the 0/8th century became the center of western culture.
/kloc-"rational worship" in the 0/9th century. After the comprehensive rational enlightenment in18th century, rationality reached its peak in19th century. Science, science, culture, life, the earth, heaven and other natural sciences have been divided, and the application of reason in human life has become more and more mature, becoming a scalpel that can face everything. Engels once said with emotion that19th century is the century of establishing system, and people living in19th century are ready to establish system. Whoever does not establish a system seems unworthy to live in the19th century. We can use three books to represent the cultural spirit of19th century: 18 12 Hegelian logic publishing; Darwin's Origin of Species was published in1859; The first volume of Marx's Capital was published in 1867. The symbolic significance of these three books lies in revealing the development law of human thinking, nature and society with reason: Hegel's logic tries to explain the development law of human thinking with reason, and the whole logic talks about the law of thinking, and he built his own thinking building with reason; Darwin cracked the development law of human natural life world with a rational scalpel in the Origin of Species. Its trans-generational significance lies in trying to reveal the evolution of the whole universe and nature, including the evolution of human beings, with a rational logic; Marx's Das Kapital analyzed the development law of human society with rationality. In short, in the19th century, rationality became a "scalpel" to dissect all levels of the world, and "rationality comes first and human nature is good" can be said to be a value concept that people living in the19th century firmly believe.
"Rational reflection" in the 20th century. The 20th century is a turning point of human rational development, 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. Especially the two world wars, let us never forget-why did such a disaster suddenly appear in the victory of human reason? The world war has subverted the classical ideals of mankind. Faced with the cruel reality of life, human beings began to reflect: is reason the supreme? Is human nature the best? 1On August 6, 945, Einstein, an outstanding scientist in the 20th century, learned that Hiroshima, Japan was bombed by an atomic bomb. As the first person in the United States to promote atomic bomb research, Einstein was extremely shocked and said with regret: "My biggest feeling now is that I regret writing that letter to President Roosevelt. ..... I tried to take the atomic bomb, an evil killing tool, from the crazy Hitler. I didn't expect it to be sent to another madman now. " Einstein also said a meaningful sentence: "The road to the destruction of human war was paved by the first-class scientists of our century." Einstein in his later years was more like a philosopher. He reflected on the significance of science to mankind at a higher level. According to relevant statistics, before and after the Second World War, nearly 90% of scientists around the world were directly or indirectly engaged in military-related research. The most advanced rationality and technology of mankind have just become the most dangerous factor for mankind to be on the verge of destruction. Therefore, humanists in the 20th century began to consciously reflect on "rationality", such as Bingler's Decline of the West and Lukacs's Destruction of Reason. The philosopher Nietzsche declared in The Happy Science that "God is dead"-the reason representing the classical rational spirit is dead. In the field of literature, Camus's The Outsider, 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 age
On the one hand, technology improves productivity and enriches people's daily life, but on the other hand, it also leads to the growing division between technology and human life. We know that in ancient society, there was no clear distinction between science and humanities, so they could coexist harmoniously. For example, in ancient China, Guan Xue clearly required students to master six basic talents, namely, "six arts", that is, courtesy, music, obedience, shooting, writing and number. Among them, "prevention" and "shooting" are a technical requirement. In ancient times, people were required to develop in an all-round way. They should know not only etiquette, but also music, as well as archery, driving, calligraphy, mathematics and other knowledge. In ancient Greece, mathematics and geometry were classified as humanities. It can be seen that natural science and humanities are originally the unified whole of the whole human knowledge tree. This big tree contains both science and technology and humanities. We should start from the development of people and the actual needs of society, develop people's potential and shape their personality. This laid a material premise for the "all-round development" of ancient people, and everyone could learn various skills to adapt to the organic social life. Only in this way did an encyclopedic thinker like Aristotle appear in ancient Greece.
However, with the development of productive forces and the continuous progress of science and technology, the social division of labor is constantly refined, and the whole discipline is becoming more and more detailed, creating a large number of "experts." Most experts specialize in a specific field of knowledge, rather than all-round development of generalists. This may be the antinomy of human division of labor: on the one hand, division of labor improves productivity, produces more material wealth and spiritual products, and reflects the degree of social development; But on the other hand, the division of labor has bound people in a fixed position and has no time to take care of others, which has led to one-sided development of people over time. Moreover, humanities and natural sciences are becoming more and more divided, natural sciences are becoming more and more specialized, technical rationality dominates the development of natural sciences, and humanistic care gives way to commercial profits and people's pursuit of various desires.
When industrial and technological civilization is in the ascendant, human beings are cheering, hoping that rationality and technology can gradually make human beings better and live a better life. But when we think calmly, we will see that the origin of human nature today has indeed produced many social problems. According to statistics, the number of people who died in traffic accidents in the 20th century was much higher than that in wars in the 20th century. Technology is a double-edged sword, not a panacea for all social diseases, nor can technology conquer the world. Because scientific spirit and technical rationality can only solve limited problems in daily life, and more problems in human life, such as mental and social problems, are often beyond the reach of science.
Man is a kind of duality, and each of us has both body and mind. People need both humanities and technical science. Si Nuo, a famous British scientist, once described the mutual contempt between science and engineering scholars and humanities scholars in universities in the two cultures, and pointed out that the two sides had reached a state of mutual incomprehension and even mutual disgust in western society in the 20th century. Si Nuo believes that the division and communication difficulties between modern "humanity" and "technology" are the biggest obstacles to effectively solve world problems and contradictions. It is true that science and technology and humanities correspond to different levels of needs. Generally speaking, natural science is knowledge to meet people's physiological and physiological needs; Humanities is a discipline that meets people's spiritual and psychological needs. It expresses people's orientation and purposeful care and pursuit of the meaning and value of life.
The human body needs to be satisfied, and so does the soul. We develop science and technology to make people live better, but it can't solve people's psychological and spiritual problems. Einstein once emphasized the complementarity between humanities and science, and thought that "science without religion is like a blind man, and religion without science is like a lame man". In fact, the power of religion is the power of human nature, which means that science must have a direction, and the direction and purpose of scientific development are determined and realized through human nature. Emphasis on scientific spirit and humanistic spirit is an artificial division, not a real world picture. Therefore, the philosopher Heidegger advocates returning to man's "life world" and looking for the original relationship between man and the world, because the life world is a world in which humanities and science are unified.
For the integration of science and humanities, we can learn from the ancient educational models and ideas of human beings. In ancient times, science and technology and humanities were not separated, but in modern times, the differentiation between them has spawned many social problems. When technology invades people's daily life, it is more and more difficult to return to the ancient mode of integration of science and humanities. Our society is becoming more and more secular, paying attention to the present and advocating practicality, which is tantamount to the secular landscape of the whole society. Secularization has both positive and negative aspects. When the concept of money first prevails, material desires cross-flow, and faith is lacking, society will inevitably enter a generally mediocre era, and it will be difficult to find an organic social development model, and the integration of science and technology and humanities will become more and more difficult.
Humanistic care in life practice
Strengthening humanistic care and rebuilding humanistic spirit has become a very important topic in today's social development practice. What is humanistic spirit? Simply put, it is a kind of thinking and feelings of caring for people, understanding people and treating people as adults. Advocating humanistic spirit requires us to care about human development at the target level. Nowadays, China society has put forward the idea of "people-oriented". People-oriented means treating people as adults, not as things, as means and tools. However, in the practice of market economy life in China today, we often see the distortion of interpersonal relationship-interpersonal relationship is more of an interactive relationship, and people often regard others as tools and means to achieve their goals.
Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen humanistic spirit and humanistic care in social life. Humanistic spirit embodies the concern for human dignity, value and destiny. The society is changing and the times are changing, but the humanistic spirit remains unchanged. Some people interpret humanistic spirit as people-oriented, individual and freedom, which are the three cornerstones of humanistic spirit. I agree with them. "People-oriented" means people-oriented, and people are the purpose; "Individual" emphasizes personal value, because the whole social life is based on individuals. As Marx said, in the capitalist society, "the free development of everyone is the condition for the free development of all people"; "Freedom" is to master one's own destiny and a symbol of human spiritual transcendence.
The fundamental point of rebuilding the humanistic care of the whole society lies in clarifying the goal orientation of social development, giving it constant value and significance, and ensuring the comprehensiveness and sustainability of social development. Looking at our current life practice based on this value appeal, I think there are three main problems:
The first is to give up thinking. Under the background of global industrialization and modernization, mass culture has become the main consumption form of our social life. In the tide of cultural industrialization, mass cultural products are produced in large quantities and are the same. But we know that popular cultural products are often a form of consumption that appeals to emotional entertainment, without depth and plane. If the public blindly indulge in the fanatical pursuit of such spiritual products, it will inevitably dilute the development of elegant, serious and critical culture. As a result, people give up thinking and avoid the real desire in the depths of the soul, and the pursuit of the meaning of life is bound to be diluted.
The second is to avoid sublimity. At one time, the common people showed obvious rejection to all kinds of false loftiness that pervaded the society. But the question is, when the false sublimity is dispelled, should we seriously ask: Does our society still need true sublimity? Regrettably, this issue has not attracted enough attention from the whole society. The public's sensual revelry masked the lofty glory. Especially in contemporary China, the crisis of trust and belief is becoming more and more serious, and "sublimity" is becoming more and more out of reach. The old man fell on the road and no one dared to help him. In the face of many social injustices, people dare not speak out, and the egoism of "leaving others alone" is popular. What is social justice? What is social morality? In the environment of trust crisis, these moral concepts can't stand the test of secularity and reality, and no one dares to do good and no one wants to be noble. In this way, lofty beliefs are gradually avoided or even forgotten by people.
The third is to refuse time. Nowadays, fast pace has become the norm in people's daily life. It seems that everyone is busy, but most people don't know what they are busy with and have no sense of direction. With the reform and opening up, it took only 30 years for China to complete the 50-year development path of the West/KLOC-0 and create a miracle of the world economy. However, we find that there are many problems behind "fast": fast is often not good-counterfeiting, shoddy, and false exaggeration are flooding the society. We don't know why we should live a fast-paced life. In the fast pace, we become impetuous and lose our inner peace. An ancient Indian proverb says very well: "Don't walk too fast, wait for the soul." This proverb is thought-provoking: we are all busy now, but are we busy with spiritual care and purposeful pursuit? Mr. Zong Baihua, a famous aesthetician in China, wrote a sentence in "Poems of Floating Clouds" in the 1920s: "White clouds are floating in the sky, and people are in a hurry in the metropolis." This poem vividly reflects our modern scene today. It is true that we are all down-to-earth, but do we have time to look at the stars? Perhaps this is the problem facing our society today. Not only does everyone refuse to be busy with time without direction, but even people often have time-saving and utilitarian exchanges. As a result, interpersonal relationships become more and more tense and unfamiliar.
These three problems in people's daily life reflect the fragmentation and practicality of personal life caused by the differentiation of science and humanities from one side. Due to the lack of humanistic care and the proliferation of material enjoyment, ecological and environmental problems and social problems have been further derived. The market economy is too eager to stimulate. We pay too much attention to material possession and quantity expansion, but ignore the inner balance and the improvement of quality of life. In the pursuit of material things, we lose the most precious thing in human nature. Therefore, to get out of the misunderstanding of giving up thinking, avoiding sublimity and refusing time, we need to truly unify science and technology with humanities, reasonably control and guide individual desires, and rebuild spiritual home.
Reconstruction of Modern People's Spiritual Homeland
People exist with a purpose, and human beings can't bear a rootless life. They always need to find a reason to live in the complicated world of experience, and that is to settle down in life. Rebuilding the unity of technology and human nature is to let our hearts find inner enrichment and peace again. It is true that happiness, as a feeling of physical and mental harmony, is of course related to material satisfaction. People can't draw cakes to satisfy their hunger, but we can't take material enjoyment as the only purpose of life. There is an English proverb: "Eat to live, but live not to eat." We can't reverse the means and the purpose. To achieve spiritual enrichment and tranquility, we need to rebuild our spiritual home.
The first is to rebuild our public life. In short, public life is the interconnected and interactive public life formed by people in public space. Modernization has expanded people's communication time and space, 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 people do not distinguish between public space and private space in communication. Private space is also public space, and public space is also private space. Many people don't know how to obey public rules when they go to public places, and people at all levels have it. This runs counter to our requirements for the development of modern civilization. Therefore, if a person wants to accept modern baptism and education, he must distinguish between public and private, especially in public places, abide by public rules and pay attention to social morality.
The second is to cultivate the sunshine mentality. Sunshine mentality is a positive, philosophical, upward and enterprising mentality mode. Today, in the face of fierce social competition, conflicts between different cultures and temptations of various materials, these are always bothering our hearts, and the pressure brought by the fast pace of modern society makes our sense of happiness decline. It is very important to be good at positive psychological suggestion and strengthen inspirational education in life. I think the sunshine mentality is to face life with a positive attitude, especially the difficulties and setbacks in life. If the psychology is too fragile, you can't adapt to this society calmly. To cultivate a sunny attitude is to cultivate a normal mind and be humble-in difficult times, you should see achievements and light and improve your courage; In the face of flowers and applause, be clear-headed, keep yourself and accept it frankly.
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 healthy mentality. A person with a special inferiority complex 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 sense of gratitude among people is increasingly lacking. Cultivating gratitude consciousness is an important link for a person to step into socialization. Therefore, to be considerate of others, we must learn to put ourselves in others' shoes. Thanksgiving education should start from bit by bit. We ancient people have a saying, "Don't do it because of small goodness, don't do it because of small evils". Quantitative change leads to qualitative change, in which we should learn a kind of empathy between people. When others give you even a little help in society, you should also thank others, because this is a process of accumulating positive energy in society.
Finally, try to be a complete person. "Complete man" was the dream of Marx in those years, especially a man who overcame human alienation, had a sound self-awareness and had a complete spiritual life. Nowadays people are more and more specialized and fragmented. I am no longer familiar with anything except my major. And a complete person should be good at showing himself, reflecting on himself, renewing himself and surpassing himself. Especially today, we call for a complete person who has a rich relationship with the world we face, a person who has established a positive and stable relationship between "heaven, earth and man" and a person who has fully developed his own life expression. Only by establishing a positive and constructive relationship with others, society and nature can he truly become a man with all-round development in morality, intelligence, physique and beauty.