These words made Jiang Cheng feel a little uncomfortable, but he said quietly: "You sound like an idealist."
"Idealist?" Xu Dingjia shook his head, "I am neither an idealist nor a theist. If I want to define it, I prefer agnosticism."
Jiang Cheng didn't know much about philosophy, so he could only look at Xu Dingjia.
"I don't know." Xu Dingjia raised the corner of his mouth proudly and said: "Agnosticism is opposite to agnosticism. It is a philosophical epistemology. The main idea is that apart from feelings or phenomena, the world itself cannot be known."
"Sounds like a very negative theory." Jiang Cheng disagreed with the other party's statement and asked, "If human science can reach a certain level, wouldn't it be able to explain everything?"
"I deeply doubt this." Xu Dingjia said a little discouraged, "because the human body has too many limitations."
"Restrictions?" Jiang Cheng didn't understand what Xu Dingjia was referring to.
Seeing Jiang Cheng's confused look, Xu Dingjia suddenly made up his mind and said, "Okay, since you are so humbly asking for advice, I will give you some advice."
"I didn't ask for advice..." Jiang Cheng whispered.
Xu Dingjia didn't care about this. Once the conversation started, he couldn't stop it. He took a sip of water to moisten his throat, and then said: "If you don't talk about anything else, first of all, the human body has its limits. Don't you object to this?"
Jiang Cheng nodded, "But what does this have to do with what I said before?"
Xu Dingjia said: "In your understanding, the limits of human beings are nothing more than the limits of some physical abilities. But what I want to say is the limits of human perception."
"The limit of perception?" This is indeed a new topic for Jiang Cheng.
Seeing the other party's curiosity, Xu Dingjia's own interest also rose, and he said: "Do you think what you see, hear, and feel now is all of this world? We can make a comparison, such as the sense of smell . Human noses are certainly not as sensitive as dogs. Dogs can even smell smells that humans cannot detect at all. Besides vision, human perception of color only occupies a very short section of the spectrum. By the way, let me tell you some trivia. At present, Among known creatures, the one with the most colors is... the Pipi shrimp."
"ah?"
Jiang Cheng could only say one word before he fell into the other person's ramblings.
"Not to mention hearing, for example, in addition to the sounds that humans can hear, there are also ultrasonic waves and infrasound waves... Then, let's talk about touch... "
"Stop it!" Jiang Cheng's head hurt from hearing this, and he quickly stopped the other party from continuing to list, and asked: "What is the purpose of saying this?"
Xu Dingjia said without hesitation: "Of course it is to prove the limitations of the human body."
Jiang Cheng thought about something and argued with Xu Dingjia: "But since you can say this, it means that humans have observed it through scientific means. Even though the human body has limitations, science is an extension of human perception."
Xu Dingjia looked at Jiang Cheng carefully, showed an admiring look, and said, "It's not easy for you to think of this. However, what happens next is even more terrifying."
"First of all, we have determined that human perception has limits. Secondly, science is an extension of human perception. There is no problem with these, right?" Xu Dingjia suddenly asked, "But have you ever thought about what would happen if the way humans perceive Isn’t it enough to describe the real world?”
"What do you mean by this?" Jiang Cheng felt that his mind was a little unable to keep up.
"As a digression, do you know why the ancient sages were good at using metaphors? Because the real truth cannot be expressed in straightforward language." Xu Dingjia smiled and continued the topic, "So, here is A metaphor is needed. Have you ever heard of the term blind men touching an elephant? ... Or, is there any way you can describe light and color to a man who was born blind?"
Jiang Cheng vaguely understood something, but he was still confused. He reluctantly said: "Are you saying that human perception is incomplete?" The question itself was very strange, but Jiang Cheng blurted it out almost instinctively. In fact, Even he himself didn't know the meaning of this question.
After hearing this, Xu Dingjia was overjoyed and kept nodding his head: "I didn't expect you to have such understanding. You are such a teachable child!"
Jiang Cheng stretched out his hand to rub his temples and said slowly: "So, what do you mean?"
Xu Dingjia paused. He needed to think carefully about what he was going to say next before he could describe it. "To put it simply, based on the fact that human perception is incomplete, a lot of common sense that we take for granted is actually not true." is wrong. In other words, although we feel that common sense is very applicable, in the real world, these are all wrong. What is even more frightening is that we can never know where we are wrong! And because of this Due to the existence of limitations, human beings will never be able to come into contact with the truth of the world, and can only be complacent about their little achievements like a frog in the well."
Jiang Cheng gradually felt his scalp numb as he listened to the other party's remarks. Although there is no supernatural horror story involved, it gives people an inexplicable feeling of despair.
The joking smile on Xu Dingjia's face gradually faded, and was replaced by a serious expression: "So, the Tao can be Tao, but it is very Tao. The saints already knew in ancient times that the true Tao cannot be described in words. In the face of the truth , human beings do not even have the ability to perceive its full picture, let alone expect that the poor language can describe one ten thousandth of its mystery."
"No! That's not right!" Jiang Cheng shook his head, instinctively wanting to deny the other party's argument, but he didn't know where to start. It was early autumn at this time, and with the cloudy days, the weather was already dull. After this conversation, Jiang Cheng felt a little restless and a layer of sweat formed on his forehead unknowingly. Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind, and he said as if grasping a life-saving straw: "The reason why you say that is because you can see those things... those... Qi? Doesn't this mean that humans still have the potential to expand their perception? Of?"
"I have said before that I am not an ordinary person." Xu Dingjia said proudly: "I am the direct descendant of the Heavenly Master and a real person!"
"Real person?"
Xu Dingjia explained: "The so-called real people are people who have achieved reality. They really exist. In mythology and history books, we can find clues about them. Even in foreign countries, there are real people, but their number is far greater than in China. They are rare and only exist in distant and ethereal myths. In mythological stories, they are called 'original people', that is, the original and most complete appearance of human beings."