THE DIFFERENT EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AND PHILOSOPHY ATMOSPHERE BETWEEN FRANCE AND CHINA---- WHICH MAKES DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHY ACHIEVEMENT IN THE TWO CULTURE

When I read Pascal’s personal experiences and his philosophical works, a strange question is ringing in my mind: China has a lot of great thinkers, but nearly all of them stay at the stage of ideology and Confucianism. In a word, they don’t become influential philosophers in the world. Why does it happen?

Pascal has some similarities with Zhuangzi, who is the famous thinker in China from BC. 4^th to BC. 3^rd century. Even though they lived in totally different historical stage or cultural atmosphere, they had lots of similar thoughts on the world, lives and changes. One of those similarities is that, Zhuangzi thought all the things in the world are intangible, cosmos’s operation cannot be handle by people, real and illusion cannot be told, and he supported peripateticism for the attitude towards life and learning. However, why didn’t these great thinkers in China become influential towards the world, or made substantial contributions to the human beings?

I have following concepts after the learning of Pascal:

l  Philosophy and Natural Science

Through the achievements of Pascal, I find that philosophy is the conclusion of all kinds of subjects and knowledge, which is obviously shown in Pascal’s philosophical experiences. As one of the great philosopher, Pascal doesn’t just stay in the aspect of thought and ideology, but his philosophical achievements are based on learning, analyzing and even creating natural science. Therefore, philosophy becomes the development or conclusion of other subjects.

When we look around the cultural environment in ancient China, there was a huge lack of creative natural science atmosphere.

Pascal’s father is a tax officer in the city, which needs strong capacity in math. He has a very profound influence in Pascal’s childhood, and the math capacity becomes the foundation for his remarkable philosophical achievements. Pascal’s contributions to hydrostatics, particularly his experimentations with the barometer and his theoretical work on the equilibrium of fluids, were made public one year after his death. The development of probability theory is often considered to be the most significant contributions in the history of mathematics.

l  Faith & Religion

At the age of 23, Pascal started to read the works by Augustine, and he began to touch faith and religion. At first, he thought that god is a conception in philosophy, as time passed by, he found that when people felt sad for their guilty, philosophy could not comfort them, but for the people who had faith in god can be comforted even if they were lack of knowledge.

Pascal wrote in his works, the cognition towards god is from the sense of human beings, which is the confidence towards Christian but not logic. Human beings can’t prove the existence of god by their ration, but only through Christian.

I find that in the history of human beings, there are a lot of great philosophers who have strong belief towards religion. They build their lives on the solid Christian belief stone, but not on the floppy sand of philosophical theory.

However, in the long history of ancient China, religion didn’t become the social ideology all the time. The emperor and political order is the only ideology in this country, and the high authority always suppresses any kind of religion group and their related actions. Therefore, China always lacks the soil of religion and belief, which impedes their research of philosophy.

l  Thinking

Pascal once said, Man is a reed, the feeblest thing in nature, but he is a reed that thinks. As a great philosopher, Pascal paid high attention in thinking, which he thought was the most important factor constructing human beings. This is same when we look back at Descartes, who said the famous motto: I Think Therefore I am. Ever since Renaissance, thinking in philosophy is the permanent theme in Western culture. However, when we look at thinking in Ancient China even nowadays China society, all the people are hurrying up for their livings---- high salary, high social status, career, raising up children, and so on. Material, utility and restlessness make Chinese people lack the energy for deep thinking. In my perspective of view, it’s another way showing the lack of spirit and faith.

l  Basic Education

When I learn more about Great French Philosophers, I find that there is philosophical gene flowing in French people’s blood and companying their whole lives. From the beginning of primary school, French children start accepting philosophy education. They have the particular textbook of philosophy, and all the other subjects have the penetration of philosophy. As the matter of fact, the philosophy education in France schools is not aimed to cultivating philosophers, but for bringing up excellent French Residents.