【推文】Anders K. - Harari's books are riddled with bad philosophy. They're smuggling nihilism in...
連結
原推文1 - x.com/falliblemusing...
原文及個人翻譯
I used to think Sapiens was a great book. Sweeping, provocative, the kind of book that makes you feel like you finally understand the big picture of human history. It's on every CEO's bookshelf, assigned in universities, praised as a masterwork of synthesis. Yuval Noah Harari is treated as one of the serious thinkers of our time.
But something nagged at me. Some passages felt off. Claims that human rights are just figments of our collective imagination, not real things, just stories we tell ourselves. That nations, laws, money, justice, doesn't exist outside our heads. That meaning itself is a delusion we've invented to cope. That we're far more powerful than ever before but not happier. That hunter-gatherers had it better because they had no dishes to wash, no carpets to vacuum, no nappies to change, no bills to pay.
That sounded depressing to me, but was perhaps just the realistic scientific worldview? What it meant to see the world clearly, without comforting illusions.
我曾經認為《人類簡史》是一本很棒的書。它視野開闊，引人深思，是那種能讓你覺得自己終於理解了人類歷史的宏大圖景的書籍。它擺放在每個CEO的書架上，被大學選為教材，並被譽為合成研究的傑作。Yuval Noah Harari被視為我們這個時代的重要思想家之一。
但是，總有一些東西讓我感到不安。有些段落感覺不對勁。例如，他提出人權只是我們集體想像中的產物，而不是真實存在的，而僅僅是我們自己講述的故事。他還認為國家、法律、金錢、正義等都不存在於我們的頭腦之外。他甚至認為意義本身是一種虛幻的妄想，是我們爲了應對現實而創造出來的。此外，他還指出我們比以往任何時候都更強大，但卻沒有更快樂。他還認為狩獵採集者過得更好，因為他們沒有洗碗、吸塵、換尿布或支付賬單之類的事情。
這些觀點聽起來讓我感到沮喪，但這也許只是一個現實的科學世界觀？它意味著以清晰的視角看待世界，而不依賴於安慰性的幻想。
Then I read The Beginning of Infinity by
@DavidDeutschOxf
. Deutsch has a concept he calls 'bad philosophy.' Not philosophy that's merely false, but philosophy that actively prevents the growth of knowledge. Ideas that close doors rather than open them. That makes problems seem unsolvable by design.
After soaking in Deutsch's framework (it's dense, a bit like digesting a delicious whale), it becomes clear: Harari's books are riddled with bad philosophy. They're smuggling nihilism in under the guise of scientific objectivity. Some examples:
On meaning: "Human life has absolutely no meaning. Humans are the outcome of blind evolutionary processes that operate without goal or purpose... any meaning that people inscribe to their lives is just a delusion."
On human rights: "There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws, and no justice outside the common imagination of human beings."
On free will: "Humans are now hackable animals. The idea that humans have this soul or spirit and they have free will, that's over."
On progress: "We thought we were saving time; instead we revved up the treadmill of life to ten times its former speed." The Agricultural Revolution? "History's biggest fraud." We didn't domesticate wheat, "it domesticated us."
On our cosmic significance: "If planet Earth were to blow up tomorrow morning, the universe would probably keep going about its business as usual. Human subjectivity would not be missed."
On the future: "Those who fail in the struggle against irrelevance would constitute a new 'useless class.'" Homo sapiens will likely "disappear in a century or two."
然後我讀了David Deutsch的《無限之初》（The Beginning of Infinity）。Deutsch提出了一個名為「糟糕哲學」的概念，這種哲學不僅是錯誤的，而且會主動阻礙知識的增長。它提出的觀點會關閉大門，而不是打開它們；它會故意讓問題看起來無法解決。
在深入理解Deutsch的框架（這本書內容豐富，有點像消化美味的鯨魚）之後，就變得很清楚：Harari的著作充滿了糟糕的哲學思想。他正以科學客觀性的幌子，潛移默化地傳播虛無主義。以下是一些例子：
關於意義：「人類生活沒有任何絕對的意義。人類是盲目的進化過程的產物，這些過程沒有目標或目的……人們賦予自己生活的任何意義都只是妄想。」
關於人權：「在宇宙中，不存在神靈、國家、金錢、人權、法律和正義，除非存在於人類共同的想像之中。」
關於自由意志：「人類現在是可被操控的動物。認為人類擁有靈魂或精神，並且擁有自由意志的想法已經過時了。」
關於進步：「我們以為我們在節省時間；但實際上，我們只是將生活的跑步機速度加快了十倍。」 農業革命？「這是歷史上最大的騙局。」 我們並沒有馴化小麥，「而是被它馴化了。」
關於我們的宇宙意義：「如果地球明天早上爆炸，宇宙可能會繼續按照往常一樣執行。人類的主觀性不會被人們所懷念。」
關於未來：「那些在與無關緊要的鬥爭中失敗的人將構成一個新的『無用階級』。」 人類智人很可能「在一兩百年內消失」。
This is bad philosophy. It tells us our problems are cosmically insignificant, our solutions are illusions, and that progress is neither desirable nor within our control. It's also perfect nonsense. No one would ever go back to being hunter-gatherers. Would you rather worry about your kid spending too much time on Roblox, or face the 50% chance she won't reach puberty?
And our so-called "fictions"? They ended slavery. They gave women equal rights. They solved hunger. They eradicated smallpox. They turned sand into computer chips. They got us to the moon, and hopefully soon, to Mars and beyond. These "fictions" are already reshaping the universe, and over time they may become the most potent force in it.
Now compare Deutsch:
"Humans, people and knowledge are not only objectively significant: they are by far the most significant phenomena in nature."
"Feeling insignificant because the universe is large has exactly the same logic as feeling inadequate for not being a cow."
"Problems are soluble, and each particular evil is a problem that can be solved."
"We are only just scratching the surface, and shall never be doing anything else. If unlimited progress really is going to happen, not only are we now at almost the very beginning of it, we always shall be."
這是糟糕的哲學。它告訴我們，我們的問題在宇宙中微不足道，我們的解決方案是幻覺，進步既不值得追求，也不在我們控制之下。這完全是胡說八道。沒有人會想回到狩獵採集的生活方式。你寧願擔心你的孩子花太多時間玩Roblox，還是面對她有50%的機率無法發育到青春期？
而我們所謂的「虛構」？它們結束了奴隸制，賦予了婦女平等的權利，解決了飢餓問題，消滅了天花，將沙子變成了計算機晶片。它們讓我們到達了月球，並且希望很快就能到達火星以及更遠的地方。這些「虛構」已經在重塑宇宙，而且隨著時間的推移，它們可能會成為其中最強大的力量。
現在，讓我們比較一下Deutsch的觀點：
「人類、人們和知識不僅在客觀上具有重要意義，而且是自然界中最具重要性的現象。」
「因為宇宙很大而感到微不足道，這與因為自己不是一頭牛而感到自卑完全一樣。」
「問題是可以解決的，每一個特定的邪惡都是一個可以被解決的問題。」
「我們才剛剛開始探索，並且永遠不會停止。如果無限進步真的會發生，那麼不僅我們現在幾乎處於它的開端，而且我們將永遠處於它的開端。」
Where Harari sees a species of deluded apes stumbling toward obsolescence, Deutsch sees universal explainers, the only entities we know of capable of creating explanatory knowledge, solving problems, and potentially seeding the universe with intelligence.
The difference isn't academic. Ideas shape action. If you believe life is meaningless, progress is a trap, and humans are hackable animals with no free will, how does that affect what you build? What you fight for? What you teach your children?
Harari's books sell because they flatter a fashionable pessimism. They let readers feel sophisticated for seeing through the "delusions" everyone else lives by. That smug cynicism is corrosive. And it's everywhere: in schools, in media, in bestselling books. More than half of young adults now say they feel little to no purpose or meaning in life. This is what happens when you teach an entire generation bad philosophy. Less progress, less health, less wealth. Less flourishing. And ultimately, a higher chance that civilization and consciousness go extinct.
Fortunately, there's another equally well-written, but much truer, account of homo sapiens, appropriately titled 'The Beginning of Infinity'. And this one smuggles no despair in by the backdoor. But let's give Harari credit where it's due. He is right about one thing: if planet Earth blew up tomorrow, we wouldn't be missed. Because there'd be no one left to miss us, just a careless universe, blindly obeying physical laws. We are the only ones who can miss, but we're not going to. We're going to aim, hit, and keep going.
Harari看到的是一群被欺騙的猿類，它們正在走向滅亡，而Deutsch則看到了普遍的解釋者，這是我們所知的唯一能夠創造解釋性知識、解決問題並有可能在宇宙中播撒智慧的實體。
這種區別並非學術上的。思想影響行動。如果你認為生活沒有意義，進步是一種陷阱，人類是可被操控的動物，並且沒有自由意志，那麼這些想法會如何影響你所建造的事物？你為之奮鬥的事物？以及你教給孩子的內容？
Harari的書籍暢銷是因為它們迎合了一種流行的悲觀主義。它們讓讀者感到高雅，因為他們能夠看穿其他人所信奉的「幻覺」。這種自鳴得意和犬儒主義具有腐蝕性，並且無處不在：在學校、媒體和暢銷書中。現在，超過一半的年輕人表示，他們對生活中的意義或目標感很小甚至沒有。這就是當你教給整個一代糟糕的哲學時會發生的事情：進步減少，健康減少，財富減少，繁榮減少。最終，文明和意識滅絕的可能性更高。
幸運的是，還有另一種同樣精彩但更真實的人類智人的敘述，名為《無限之初》。而且這本書沒有通過後門偷偷地傳播任何絕望。但是，讓我們承認Harari做得好的地方：他有一點是正確的：如果地球明天爆炸，我們不會被人們所懷念。因為沒有人會剩下可以懷念我們，只有盲目遵守物理定律的宇宙。我們是唯一能夠懷念的人，但我們不會這樣做的。我們將努力、命中目標，並繼續前進。