A World of Ideas

Interview of F. Forrester Church:

Church: "Lord Acton said that every institution - and I would say, every individual, too - is finally destroyed by an excess of its own first principle. So each of us has to be wary and mindful of our own first principles wherever we're sure we're right."

(Every Chinese dynasty, including the current one, is an example of this process.)

Church: "My own definition of religion is that it's our human response to the dual reality of being alive and having to die... When another person is dying, or a loved one has died, it's like a blast of fresh air that blows all the dust off your own desk, and makes all of your own petty grievances and pride and anger and bitterness and envy meaningless. You remember that this is basically the bond, this mortar of mortality that binds us fast to one another... And therefore, we are one."

 

[胡涣]

回复 '7grizzly' 的评论 :

这是鲁迅说的我们的王朝的first principle:

古时候，秦始皇帝很阔气，刘邦和项羽都看见了；邦说，“嗟乎！大丈夫当如此也！”羽说，“彼可取而代也！”羽要“取”什么呢？便是取邦所说的“如此”。“如此”的程度，虽有不同，可是谁也想取；被取的是“彼”，取的是“丈夫”。所有“彼”与“丈夫”的心中，便都是这“圣武”的产生所，受纳所。

　　何谓“如此”？说起来话长；简单地说，便只是纯粹兽性方面的欲望的满足——威福，子女，玉帛，——罢了。然而在一切大小丈夫，却要算最高理想（？）了。我怕现在的人，还被这理想支配着。

[7grizzly]

> Every Chinese dynasty, including the current one, is an example of this process.

What was each Chinese dynasty's "first principle"?

[7grizzly]

> it's like a blast of fresh air that blows all the dust off your own desk,

How fit indeed is this analogy!