Yearly Archives: 2008

哲學

哲學功課﹕Nietzsche and Eternal Recurrence

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今個學期讀存在主義﹐作為一個受現代主義啟蒙的理性人﹐對於這個哲學門派沒有什麼好感﹐甚至對其哲學思想也沒有多大興趣。只是讀哲學不同讀其他學科﹐就算不喜歡某哲學思想﹐也先要理解明白它的內容﹐才可以合理地否定其價值。

這門課的教授從事尼采的研究﹐尼采又是存在主義四大巨頭之一﹐所以課程前半部偏重尼采的思想。尼采最出位的言論﹐莫過於他高呼「上帝己死」﹐其他主要思想還包括超人慨念﹐無限復活﹐道德的起源等。他的文章寫得極含糊難明﹐與其他力求思想精練的哲學家不同。尼采的思想偶然也有值得參考的新觀點﹐不過大部份讀起來似是瘋言瘋語多點。其實尼采可能只是隨便亂寫﹐後世學者把自己的主觀意念讀入他的文章中﹐合力構建一代存在主義巨人。他的原文只有聊聊數語﹐那些學者卻可以寫出洋洋數萬字的論文﹐吹水唔抹嘴的順手拈來尼采補完計劃。

這篇功課是分析尼采的無限復活理論﹐因為尼采原本的理論沒有什麼合理根據﹐只不過是提倡某一種做處世的態度﹐基本上整篇功課水分極重﹐分別的只是有些觀點是前輩尼采學者亂吹出來﹐有些則是我昨夜趕功課臨時興起亂吹。題外話﹐李天命的機遇再生論﹐其實是抄尼采的無限復活論。

Nietzsche and Eternal Recurrence

In this essay, I am going to discuss Nietzsche’s idea of Eternal Recurrence and its implication in the meaning of life. Nietzsche proposed the idea of Eternal Recurrence that “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more.” (GS 341) In some of his writing, Nietzsche asserted that Eternal Recurrence is “the most scientific of all possible hypotheses.” (GS p. 17) He assumed that time is infinite and our life is finite, according to the law of probability, the combinations of atoms that will recreate our life must recurrence again and again. As the latest development in cosmos science and quantum physics show that the space and time of universe is bounded and particles could have infinite number of quantum states, Nietzsche’s hypothesis is unsound. However this essay is not an inquiry into the scientific proof of Eternal Recurrence, we should treat Eternal Recurrence as a thought experiment to help us understand our life.

In the Christianity view of the world, life is linear in time. Man lived his time on earth, and then after he died, he will be judged by God. God will assign the man’s place in heaven or hell to have eternal happiness or eternal pain. In Nietzsche metaphysical system, God is dead; therefore there is no longer a God to judge the action of man. Many people are looking forward to the life after death. They endure the suffering in life and looking forward to the reward in the heaven. Taking away their God would render their life without purpose. They may think that the time on earth is finite and short, no matter what they do will not matter anymore after they die. As a result, they will suffer from the despair in a form of nihilism. In order to give some meaning to their lives, he proposed Eternal Recurrence as an alternative to fill the void left behind by God’s death.

According to Nietzsche, man should take the responsibility of morality into his own hand after God is dead. With an eternal recurrence of life, we must bear the result of every choice we make in our life. No matter the end result is happy or painful; we have to live through it again and again forever. Nietzsche thinks the idea of eternal recurrence would emphasis the importance of our decision and causes us “the greatest stress”, since we have to discern carefully about all our decisions and make sure the end result is the one we truly desire. For those people who enjoy every moment of life, who live with no regret, the eternal recurrence is a supreme elation. Their life is all they want. They do not need an external God to fulfill their life. In eternal recurrence, they would life to “crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal.” (GS 341) Nietzsche hoped this thought experiment would force us to examine our life, ask ourselves the question that “are we willing to live the same life again?” By answering this question, we will be able to internalize our desire and enjoy what life offers and become a “superman”. Once we achieve the state of “superman” by removing the concept of God, we can live our life in a new sea of possibilities, to explore all the new options and experience new growth potential.

Indeed the eternal recurrence may give us “the greatest weight” in choosing how to live our life, it seems that Nietzsche is too optimist about the human psychology and how a decision is make. In Nietzsche’s ideal scenario, the eternal recurrence would free the mind of man and let man live boldly and dangerously to have an exciting life. If man is rational and taking eternal recurrence very seriously, he may take every small detail into consideration before making the decision, then the outcome is very likely the exact opposite of what Nietzsche had suggested. On one hand, the eternal recurrence encourage man to pursuit his dreams by removing limitation imposed by Christian morality. On the other hand, the eternal recurrence also discourage man to take risk, since if he failed, he may have to live with the undesired outcome forever. Human mind tends to weight loses more than gains. If given a free choice, most people would pay safe and choose conservatively instead of roll the dice bravely and hope to win the jacket pot in life. When a man examines his life using eternal recurrence, it is very likely to find himself didn’t indulge enough in his desires or passions. He may regret not living his life to its fullest and “throw himself down and gnash his teeth” on the missed opportunities. However at the same time, he would also be glad that he had restrained himself or otherwise he could have failed miserably.

Nietzsche thinks those who affirm life would “jump in joy” for eternal recurrence, so they can repeat everything in their life eternally. Yet, Nietzsche did not foresee those who really affirm life would fill with the darkest despair for repeating the same routine life after life. According to the law of diminish return, more of the same life would bring less happiness and gradually lost its meaning after repeating itself too many times. A man may have lived a colorful and positive life, but he may not want to repeat the life again. For better or for worse, it is more fun to try something new in the next life. Nietzsche praises those who bravely sail in the new sea of possibility, yet eternal recurrence put a boundary on this new sea. The real “superman” would seek new adventure, sail in uncharted water like a voyager instead of going back and forth in same water body like a passenger ferry. The “superman” cannot bear the boredom of eternal recurrence, just like they cannot bear the boring life preparing for Christian’s judgment day. They escape from the cage of God, but they fall into another cage called eternal recurrence. The “strong” man need not seek the purpose of his life from a higher deity; he can create the meaning of his life by using eternal recurrence as a mental apparatus. The “stronger” man has no need to rely on such a mental apparatus; he could still assert the will of power even he can only live this life once. He would not look forward to more of the same life, which would eventually become boring. He would rather have an eternal resurrection than an eternal recurrence, so that he can come back to the world to experience a difference life by exploring the new possibilities. The meaning of life does not require an eternal repetition. If a life is meaningful, living it once already fulfill the purpose. If a life is meaningless at the first time, no matter how many times you repeat it, you cannot generate meaning from a void. There is nothing in eternal recurrence can’t be fulfill by living through it once and only once. The meaning of the second recurrence of the first life is redundant and hence meaningless.

In conclusion, Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence provides a new perspective to evaluate our life from traditional Christian life view. However Nietzsche failed to anticipate challenge from post-Christian morality. Eternal recurrence maybe a very powerful mental tool back in Nietzsche’s time, but today it looks pale in comparison and could not provide a satisfying answer to those who follow “the way of the stronger man”.

Daily Scribble

Wedding Invitation

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Wedding Invitation

Me and Pat choose to make our own wedding invitation card. At first we want to print the wedding invitation like everyone else does. However, Pat think the print invitation does not have individual character and ours should be more special. Since we learn how to make cards from previous church event, we could use the same technique to make our invitation. In addition, we also sign up a wedding invitation making class to learn some advance technique and get some ideal.

Pat designed the card, I only help her out in making the cards. It takes a much longer time to make 200 wedding invitation than we had expected. It’s fun to cut the paper, stamp the picture, color the pattern, heat up the ensemble powder together. It’s some precious memory that both of us will share for the rest of our life. I worked on the no brainier tasks while Pat worked the task require fine motor skill. Since we are not machine, every card is slight different and each card is unique. We end up having two designs because the first design is too complicate and we have to switch to a simpler design to save time. I think even the second design is too complicate, so for the final bunch we will probably use another design. Other than these major designs, there are a few prototype cards too. If you happen to have one of the prototype cards, you must be really lucky.

Daily Scribble

Outsourcing delimma

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In this project, I am supervising 3 team members in our India office.  This week, I am really disappointed by their lack of productivity.  I have assigned them some tasks for the week and they are very behind in completing the tasks.  It would take me two days to finish those tasks my self and I already take the difference in experience into account and gave them a week of time.  It turns out their deliverable is still late, it looks like that will take them another half a week to get to done.  It seems I have over estimated their productivity.  I am quite unhappy about their work.  How can I finish the project on time with these three not performing grunts?

On a second thought, maybe I should be happy about their lack of productivity.  The company should know the gold rule: what you pay is what you get.  The Indians get a 1/4 of my salary, it is quite obvious that they are as good as me.  If they cost much less and still work almost as good as me, then I should start worrying about my job.  Finish the project on time and drastically cut the cost by outsourcing is a mission impossible to begin with.  The deadline is expected to slip.  As long as it is not my fault and there is nothing I could do, I cannot be blamed for the failure.  Failure is the mother of success, as long as we learn the lesson.  I think the lesson I learn from this outsourcing experience is that I should never over estimate the productivity of the Indian contractors, especially the junior guys.

政治經濟

殺人的理想主義藝術價值觀

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早幾天新聞報導﹐又有一個女學生因學業問題跳樓自殺身亡。死者就讀於中大音樂系﹐已差不多學成畢業﹐她還彈得一手好鋼琴﹐原訂於本月舉行獨奏會。報導沒有說她自殺的詳細原因﹐我猜想是女孩父母強迫她讀音樂﹐碰巧女孩在這方面很有天份﹐被迫苦練出高超的琴技。不幸她對音樂沒有多大興趣﹐最終一想時不開而成慘劇。報紙引述她在網誌中的一段話：「我喜歡鋼琴的程度，還遠遠不夠做一個音樂系學生的水準，要是我想聽到音樂的話，放錄音也夠了。不知道自己彈的東西能否感動別人，但是似乎連自己也感動不了。對自己來說，即使一兩個禮拜不碰鋼琴也沒有甚麼感覺。」

造成這件慘劇的原因﹐除了女孩與父母欠缺溝通﹐沒有傾訴對象等個人問題外﹐社會對藝術的期望也是元兇之一。在社會的主流意識當中﹐很不期然為藝術帶上一個光環。認為學藝術要有很高尚的情操﹐讀音樂系非要對有一分音樂熱誠不可。學習藝術就一定要陶冶性情﹐一定要追求真善美﹐一定要表達內心的感情才行。結果女孩受不往從這些藝術價值觀的而來壓力﹐從露台一躍而下結束了寶貴的生命。

若果女孩能夠想開一點﹐不再被社會對藝術的價值迷惑﹐她就不會這樣輕而言死了。說穿了藝術不一定要高高在上﹐藝術也可以只是一門賺錢的手藝。當想通了這點﹐就會明白讀音樂系也不一定需要喜歡音樂﹐不會再有對藝術沒有熱情的心理包伏。感動不了別人不緊要﹐就算連自己也感動不了也沒有所謂﹐只要彈得一手好鋼琴有人聘請演出或教琴﹐衣食無憂生活舒適就可以了。用來我自己的經驗來說﹐我在大學時讀電腦系﹐有不少同學對電腦沒有多大興趣。他們讀電腦只是要入大學混個學位﹐又想不到有什麼其他科可以讀矣。若讀電腦寫程式可是以一門賺錢手藝﹐那為什麼讀音樂彈鋼琴不可以同樣只是一門賺錢手藝。說起來彈琴教琴的收入﹐分分鐘比做電腦工寫程式還可觀呢。

遊記

印度遊記(完) – 後感

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Taj Mahal

這文章是印度遊記的最後一篇﹐談談我在印度生活了兩個月的感想﹐反思自我與世界的關係。這次印度之旅不能夠算是被迫﹐我有最終決定權可以選擇不去﹐雖然可能對工作前途不是明智的決定。可是更加算不上是自願﹐若果要我自己掏腰包買機票﹐印度大既永遠也不會出現在我的旅遊行程表上。能夠促成這次印度之旅只可以說是機緣了﹐既然要去就不妨來則安之﹐是擴闊眼界增廣見聞的一個難得機會。

公司的設計部要登陸印度﹐趕全球化工作外判的潮流。我這次工幹的最主要工作﹐便是建立印度那邊的團隊﹐培訓新入職的當地工程司。平時在報章雜誌看工作外判的新聞﹐及不上親身經歷這麼深的體會。一般有關工作外判的主流論述﹐多數是評擊無良企業為追求利潤﹐不關心本土員工的福利﹐把工作外判便宜的第三世界﹐剝削當地的廉價勞工。可是當自己置身全球化的一環﹐又不難理解企業外判工作的決定。印度初級工程師人工雖然只是北美的八分一﹐在當地他們已經是有車有樓的中產階層﹐談不上在剝削刻薄第三世界的工人。身在北美隔著個太平洋﹐印度的廉價勞工只是賬目上的一數字﹐我們可以咬牙切齒說印度人搶走我們的飯碗。當身在印度與印度人面對面﹐與他們交朋友時一起吃喝聊天﹐就不把他們當作數字﹐而是活生生有血有肉的人看待。他們也是人也要掙錢養家﹐若他們的工作效率不比我們差太遠﹐我們憑什麼白收十倍的人工呢﹖

工作全球化無可避免﹐略懂經濟理論的人也知道﹐保護主義只是膛臂擋車。若果不想在全球化下被淘汰﹐只好不斷進修自我增值﹐工作價值上升要比外判的成本效益快﹐才可以逃過裁員被搶飯碗的命運。幸好印度的資深工程師和管理人材不足﹐他們的工資也水漲船高﹐現在已及得上北美的一半﹐每年還有超過一成的增幅﹐五至十年內會喪失低成本的優勢。全球化對已發展國家的工人來說﹐可以說是一面雙刃刀。若果工作生產效率低﹐或只是在做低增值的工作﹐一定不可能贏過印度的廉價勞工。可是反過來說即使印度人工八分一﹐請八個印度人卻不能取代一個北美員工。因為人力資源不是計加數﹐八個低工作效率的人一起做事﹐只會把事情弄得一團糟﹐說不定還會出現負生產值﹐要人家替他們收捨爛灘子。現實的情況大慨是﹐會用十個北美員工帶領四十個印度員工﹐用來取代原本的二十個北美員工。對留下來的十個員工來說﹐印度員工是用來增加他們效率的人力資源﹐某程度來說與使用新軟件來增加工作效率沒有分別。只要能夠步上高增值高效率的崗位﹐全球化工作外判﹐可說是令工作回報水漲船高的難得機遇。所以如果有效使用印度的人力資源﹐提高自己增值服務的競爭力﹐是今後最重要的課題。

同樣也在報紙雜誌看過不少﹐貧富懸殊是全球化另一個衍生的問題﹐這次印度之旅﹐也令我有很深刻的體會。去過印度才見識了什麼是真正的貧窮﹐香港那些整天喊窮﹐控訴的社會不公義的弱勢社群﹐簡直是身在福中不知福﹐他們在香港享受的生活質素﹐與印度貧民窟相比簡直是天堂。說實的我也膽子走進印度貧民窟看看﹐只不過是坐新德里去泰姬陵的火車途經目睹。那裏的貧民不要說住有水有電的公屋﹐環境較好的有半幅磚牆鐵皮屋頂﹐其次有骯髒的帆布帳蓬﹐最差的只有樹枝和草席﹐有的房子甚至連屋頂也沒有。貧民窟沒有廁所﹐窮人只好離睡覺遠一點的地方﹐對著火車軌脫褲就地解決大小二便。貧民窟當然也沒有自來水﹐火車沿途經過一個個咖黃色﹐不知是泥水還是雨水的小湖﹐可以看見湖的一邊有一大群牛在洗澡﹐窮人則在另一邊取水喝洗衣服。印度窮人靠什麼維生我不知道﹐不過肯定在旅遊景點行乞是其中一樣。在印度乞丏無處不在﹐管理妥善的旅遊比較少乞丐﹐在地點偏遠管理不善的景點﹐只要有外國遊客出現﹐乞丐就會好像蒼蠅一樣﹐整群出動嗡著他們的獵物。

在香港或北美等發達地區﹐窮人只是社會上一小部份不幸的人﹐ 我們的善心很自然地悠然而生﹐認為我們有捐點錢施捨給窮人。可是對著印度或其他落後地區數之不盡的窮人﹐我們不禁會反問捐錢有用嗎﹖我們有無條件行善的義務嗎﹖正如在旅遊景點遇到的乞丐﹐若果心軟施捨給面前好像很可憐的人﹐其他乞丐看見就會走來包圍著你討錢。就算你派盡帶來的現金﹐也不可能滿足所有前來行乞的窮人﹐倒不如乾脆一開始就不給錢。捐錢行善有像是有錢人義務﹐但那只限於不影響生活質素的大前題下。世界上的窮人多如海裏細沙﹐派錢幫助他們根本不切實際﹐我們可以幫到幾多人。總不成叫人真的學耶穌所講﹐要變賣所有家產分給窮人﹐讓自己也變成窮人一份子吧。可是窮人存在始終是個實在的問題﹐也不可以坐視不理。既然派錢不是辨法﹐讓他們提高生產力﹐以自己能力脫貧﹐故然是一條可行的方案。

可是現實是地球資源根本不夠用﹐若世界全部人也要有發達國家的生活水準﹐那可需要三個地球的資源。若要發達國家人民大幅降低生活質素﹐與窮人分享地球現 有的資源﹐那簡直全是滿口仁義道德的廢話。除非閣下是德蘭修女﹐可以拋棄一切去服務窮人﹐否則就只是偽善的假道學。就算是那些追求所謂社會公義的人﹐他們所 享受的生活質素﹐已是遠超在剷平主義下﹐每個人能夠分到的地球資源。因此唯一結論只有一個﹐問題的核心是地球太多人﹐那些窮人根本一開始就不應存在世上﹐他們是世界上多了出來的人。沒有生產力對社會沒有貢獻﹐只是空坐著吸納浪費社會資源。當然我們不能把窮人全部殺掉﹐一來這是違反人道的罪行﹐二來也會衍生暴力危害社會穩定的問題。不過我們倒可以防止他們來到世界上﹐積極向窮人推行節育計劃﹐免除他們出世一生受苦的悲慘命運﹐亦過減少剩人口對地球資源的消耗。當我想通了這點關鍵﹐就明白應該怎樣捐錢做善事才最有意義。我開始上網找尋有什麼非牟利組織﹐在第三世界致力推行人口控制計劃﹐讓我捐出的金錢和心意﹐能夠最有效地幫助解決世界的問題。

印度遊記寫到這裏﹐想說的話也應該說了﹐剩下的感想經歷太過瑣碎﹐也不知該如何整理下筆。若有機會重遊印度﹐到時再印度遊記續集寫出來吧。如果要我再選擇一次去不去印度﹐我既不自願也不抗拒﹐大慨我還是會說句隨緣吧。我一向對於異國文化沒有很大興趣﹐反正自己的中國文化和西方文化已多到學不完﹐用不著費心去學習其他落後國家的低級文化。不過這次印度之旅倒令我對學習文化有點改觀﹐若沒有其他國家的文化的落後作對比﹐又怎能欣賞到中國和西方文化的高雅呢。