Chapter 3 Philosophy --- see the starry sky in the maze

What is philosophy?Why do we need philosophy? There is a maze in Europe, which is surrounded by hedges and is very complicated.Once you get in, you can't get out.Not long ago, I took my two children to walk through a maze in Disneyland Paris; after entering, I couldn’t get out for half an hour, but the two children have a strange animal instinct, somehow I went out, stood on a high place and watched my mother turn inside, but couldn't turn out. The life situation of each of us is of course a maze, full of confusion and hesitation, and no one can tell you where the way out is.The society we live in, especially in Taiwan after the "lifting of martial law", has upside-down and chaotic values, so we are in a historical maze, and every road does not know where it will lead.

As far as I personally understand it, philosophy is that when I can’t find a way out in the green maze, night falls and the stars come out, I look up from the maze, and I can see the sky full of stars; philosophy, It is the understanding of the stars. If you know the constellations, you may be able to get out of the maze and not be confused by the obstacles in front of you. Philosophy is the question you ask when you look at the starry sky. Tonight, let's read a few lines from "Heavenly Questions". (projected) Where is the sky? The twelve points are divided, the sun and the moon belong to the stars, and Chen

How closed and obscured? How opened and bright? More than two thousand years ago, Qu Yuan stood in his green maze, looked up at the stars, and blurted out such a question.What he asked was, why does the sky coincide with the earth, and how do the twelve hours record?Where is the sun and moon attached, according to what arrangement are the twenty-eight constellations, why is the gate of heaven closed for night?Why is the gate of heaven open for day?Spica is on duty at night, and it is still dark. Where does the sun hide? Basically, this is the question that a three-year-old child raised when he opened his eyes for the first time and discovered that there is a shining gravel in the sky in this world. It is very primitive; because it is primitive, it is so profound and huge, so People, there is no way to avoid such problems.

A person with power walks in a maze like us, but power can easily make him think that he has the ability to choose his own path and lead the masses forward, but in fact, he may neither know that he is standing What direction is he, and he doesn't know what the meaning of this direction is in the big picture; he neither knows which way he came from, nor where the road ahead is going; What's more, he didn't realize that there was a vertical and horizontal star map above his head.It is frightening that such a person will come to lead our society.In fact, the so-called stepping out of the maze of thought and the maze of history have specific terms in Western history, for example, "enlightenment", the enlightenment of the eighteenth century.The so-called enlightenment is nothing more than discovering the existence of the starry sky in the green maze, asking questions, thinking about the way out, and going out.For me, this is enlightenment.

Therefore, if literature enables us to see the reflection of poplar trees in the water, then philosophy enables us to grope out of the maze with the illumination of stars.