Chapter 5 Souls Don't Die: Dialogues

Snow Max (referred to as Si): Philarises (referred to as Fei): S: Now tell me in one word, what will become of me when I die?Please be concise. Fei: All and nothing. S: I guess so.The trick of me posing you a problem and you solving it in a contradictory way is not new. P: Yes, you ask a transcendental question, and you ask me to answer it only in terms of inner knowledge. Obviously, contradictions will follow, there is no doubt about it. S: How about transcendental questions and inner knowledge?Of course, I have heard these expressions before. For me, this is also a cliché. Kant prefers this kind of expression, but it is only used to express God, and he does not use it to talk about other things. is quite correct and appropriate.He argues in this way: If God is in the world, he is within consciousness, and if he is not in the world but outside it, then he is transcendental. This is most clear, you Of course it is understood that you are now earthly or transcendent, but this Kantian nonsense is no longer useful, it is outdated, does not adapt to the modern point of view, and in our German learning There will be, and there are already some famous people.

Fei: (narrator) He means German crooks. S: For example, like the great Schleiermacher and the wise Hegel.But now, we have abandoned this nonsense.Rather, it is so alien to our current thinking that we can no longer bear it. If so, what function and significance is there? Fei: A priori knowledge is a kind of knowledge that goes beyond the scope of possible experience and strives to determine the nature of things themselves.But inner knowledge is entirely limited to experience.So, it doesn't apply to anything other than actual phenomena.You are just an individual, so death is your destination, but your personality is not your real inner existence, but only the surface form of existence; personality is not a thing in itself, but only expressed in the form of time The phenomenon will have a beginning and an end.But your true being has no awareness of time, no beginning or end, much less the finiteness of a particular individual.True existence is everywhere and everywhere.Without it, no one can survive.So once death comes, you disappear as an individual on the one hand, but on the other hand, you still exist in the whole world. This is what I said before, after you die you will become the reality of all and nothing mean.It is very difficult to find a more precise and concise answer.This answer, I admit, is contradictory, simply because your life is finite and your immortal element is eternal.You may say that the immortality of human beings will also be destroyed in response to human death. If you say this, you will fall into another contradiction!If you bring the transcendental things into the inner knowledge, you must be very clear about the consequences.A priori knowledge distorts inner knowledge because the former is not at all serving the latter.S: Attention!I can't give you two pennies for your idea of ​​the immortality of the soul, unless I'm dead and still an individual.

Fei: Well then, I may be able to satisfy you on this point.I can guarantee that you will still be an individual after death, but there is one condition, which is to completely lose consciousness 3 months in advance. S: I have no problem with that. P: But you have to remember that once a person loses consciousness completely, he stops thinking about the passage of time.So, it's the same for you dead, in your stream of consciousness, whether it's been 3 months or 10,000 years, no matter what the situation is, the problem is that you wake up After coming here, will you still believe what other people say?So it doesn't matter to you whether you pass 3 months or 10,000 years before you recover.

S: Indeed.If that's the case, I think you're right.P: Even after 10,000 years, I don't think it's a huge misfortune if no one thinks to wake you up.After a short period of life, and a long period of unconsciousness, you become accustomed to non-existence, or at least you can be sure that you are ignorant of the whole world, and, if you understand it, maintain your It must be a great comfort to you that the miraculous power of the present state of life never ceases to produce and give life to extraordinary beings like yourself. S: Exactly!That's why you think you're going to subtly disqualify me as an individual with all this rhetoric, and that I won't survive anymore.I am not fascinated by that "magical power" and what you call "extraordinary people".I cannot live without my individuality, and I will never abandon my individuality.

P: Perhaps you feel that your individuality is such a delightful thing, so radiant, so perfect, so incomparable— You can't imagine anything better.If we could draw a judgment from the words of others, would you be willing to replace your present condition with something better and more permanent that might be available? S: Don't you really understand that my individuality is, by its very nature, private to me? For me, this is the most important thing in the world. "Because God is God and I am me." I'm going to survive, me, me!This is crucial.What I want is not the kind of existence that can barely prove to be mine, but the kind of existence that I take for granted as mine.

Fei: Look what you've been doing!When you're saying me, me, "I'm going to survive," don't you think that it's not your only requirement.Everything is like this.It is true that all conscious beings desire to live. This desire of yours, then, is that part of you that is not your individuality—the part that is common to all things, without distinction.This is not only the cry of the individual, but also the cry of existence itself.This is the intrinsic ingredient of all living things, and even the origin of all things.This desire, the longing for and the satisfaction of it, is existence in general—not any actual individual existence.No, individual existence is by no means the end of desire.

It seems so because this desire—this will—is conscious only in the individual, as if it were only related to the individual, and then the illusion arises—indeed, it is a problem that makes it difficult for the individual to Get rid of the illusion.However, as long as he reflects, he can break the shackles and free himself. Individuals only have such a strong desire to survive indirectly, and only the will to live is the real and direct pursuer—all things are like this.Existence, therefore, is a free thing, it is nothing but the reflection of the will, and where there is existence is also where the will is, for at this point the will can be satisfied in existence itself.That is to say, the will never slackens, but always moves forward, so it can get all satisfaction.On the other hand, the will also has no regard for the individual, and the individual has nothing to do with the will, as I said, although this appears to be true, since the individual can never be directly aware of the will unless the will is in the individual itself.Its effect is that it makes the individual cautiously continue to exist, otherwise human reproduction would be impossible.From what has been said, it is evident that the individual is not a perfect form, but a finite form.So, to be free from the individual does not mean loss but gain.Don't bother yourself about it.Once you fully realize your true being, which is the universal will to live, then all those questions will seem so childish and ridiculous to you.

S: Like all philosophers, you yourself are so childish and ridiculous!If a person of my age talks to such a fool for even a quarter of an hour, it is only for the amusement and to pass the time.I have more important things to do, so bye!