人觀與生命的意義

The View of Person and the Meaning of Life

在《真正難題》書中，Flanagan企圖在新達爾文演化理論的基礎上，「解消」超自然世界，融入自然世界中。在提出這個企圖的同時，他也認為追求幸福的欲求，不但是自然的，也是人性中的一部份。這是「真正難題」所想要解決的問題，也就是在物質世界中意義如何可能的問題。這本書值得評論的原因在於作者對於科學信心之強，以致於他認為，只要能夠接受自然主義的立場，所有從自我意識所建構的內容都可以承認其價值。換句話說，Flanagan願意從心靈科學的角度接受長期其他學者所不願意談論的那些有關宗教與倫理方面的議題。我們在評論中，將這本書依照「人觀」、「生命意義」與「科學信仰」分為三部分。前兩部分在於說明這本書理念的結構，後一部份則是批判。最後在〈結論〉中我則強調，解消非科學的信念並融入科學中，並不是論證生命價值的必要部分。人的社會本身長期的存在，就足以說明這一點了。

In Flanagan's The Really Hard Problem (MIT Press, 2007), he attempts to, on the basis of neo-Darwinian theory, 'dissolve' the supernatural world to the natural world. While attempting to do so, he admits the desire of pursuing happiness as, understandably a part of nature, or more precisely, human nature. This is what he considers the solution of 'The really hard problem' which refers to 'how meaning is possible in this world ?' The book deserves a careful review because it is innovative in the sense that it holds a strong confidence in science to such an extent that the self-conceived consciousness is fully admitted if the naturalistic stance is complied in the first place. In other words, Flanagan is willing to talk about religious and ethical issues in terms of mind science which has a long period of revulsion towards those issues. For this reason, we intend to review the book by first reconstructing its structure of ideas and then criticizing its core point. The review, other than the introduction and the conclusion, is divided in to three parts: the view of person, the meaning of life and the faith in science. Naturally, the first two parts intend to portray the main structure of the book and the third part is a comment added to the work. The conclusion reiterates that taking everything non-scientific into the realm of science is not necessary to launch an argument defending the meaning of life. The very existence of the human society is sufficient to do so.