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Hi everyone. And welcome back to《知乎哲也》, the new segment with TJ on philosophy and our life.

Which basically means there is a shared standard that people can judge you, people can judge your life，whether it has meaning or not. Right？Because they are，like you said, certain criteria.

Right. And the problem with objectivity is...well, there is two big ones. The first one we already talked about is that you can have a meaningful life without feeling any meaning. And that seems to be a contradiction in itself. But the second one is if we're gonna say there's an objective meaning to life.

Who says the criteria？

Exactly.What would you put on the list, Lulu?

As in a criteria？

Yeah. Do you think there's any things are objectively meaningful？

I Think, honestly, it will sound hypocritical or a bit too grand，but I think like making a difference, or having influenced to positively impact on other people's lives，I would say that is the meaning.

Maybe it sounds a bit vague，but for example，they say, Oh teaching， you are helping students，right? Then you're making a positive impact on people's lives. The reason why I probably will judge the grass counter，the grass counting Harvard professor, is I think it’s a bit self-serving. It might be something that made her happy，but she is not positively contributing to the society and to other people.

Yeah. So that meaning can be something that is connected to other people，right？That we are a social animal is what Aristotle would say that we're connected to other people. And that's part of who we are. I think that's a good idea for an objectively good thing is, family is one thing that people often talk about, friendship and community. And this is all to do with other people. The other one that comes up a lot, and I agree with you, I do think that caring about your community，caring about your family is good，even if it doesn't make you feel happy. I do think it is a meaningful thing to do.

And the other one that I think is very strong is Education.

Education.

Yes, education is a good thing. Even if you don't like it，I remember when I was a little boy，I hated going to school. When I was 4 years old，5 years old，I was the slowest student in class. I found it very，very hard to learn to read.

Really?

I hated schools so much for the first few years.

We had very different life, we had very different childhood. I loved going to school and I was a Top student.

Okay, well, of course, later I got good later，but only because I had to go through this period of finding the meaning. Sometimes you have to find the meaning in family, education… and it takes time，not everything comes to you very quickly, I don't think.

Yeah, but there are lots of talks about similar situations，for example，in China, a few years back，I think there's a heated discussion as in北大毕业生，then they'd probably go to pursue some trivial jobs or seemingly trivial jobs, and then there was always a big news as in they're wasting their talents，they're wasting their education.

What do you think, TJ? Like you are, obviously, a highly educated man. In the future, if you don't use these to teach or to write books or to do intellectual things，if you just go count grass or do something that is similar to counting grass，would you think you have wasted your talent，your education？

I think it depends if it can help me to do something as in if it contributes to something，I think it can help. I know a monk in龙泉寺，right in Longquan temple in Beijing, and he has a PhD from Tsinghua University, and after he graduated，he went straight from the PhD to the temple. Of course that means he didn't get a job，but he still does a lot of work in the community.

He still uses the things that he learned at university helped him to grow and understand the world and he still tries to focus on education and community and improving the world. So I think sometimes people give up on the world and they focus on themselves. And I think that's the thing you have to avoid, as long as your education is helping you to develop something, especially something connected to the community in your family. I think it's okay.

Yeah，so I think that we do share the sort of the same or similar ideas that it needs to be something that's not just self-centered like I want to count grass. I don't care if this has any impact on other people. Then it's purely focusing on yourself.

But whatever you said about the monk, maybe people expected him to be the CEO of a company，but he became a monk，but that doesn't mean that he's not making contributions to the community that I'm okay with. But again，the whole point about the grass counting is that she is not benefiting any one, right？That's the whole point. That's why I question the meaning of that grass-counting life.

Right, there is a kind of selfishness to this. But I also think, just from my real life examples, this is just an example, a hypothetical example by a philosopher，but in my real life，all the people I know that just focus on their own happiness, are not that happy.

I think that this is part of human life. Part of what it is to be human being is that your happiness and your connection to the people around you, your understanding for them and your empathy for them. That is a big part of what it is to be happy. And when you try to cut yourself off from other people and focus on yourself, in the end，I don't think it helps you very much.

Yeah, exactly. Anyhow，meaning of life, Happiness，huge topics. But today we have covered two basic ways of thinking in philosophy. One is objectivist way of thinking，the other is subjectivist way of thinking. What do you think？If you are listening to today's show？What do you think about the Grass Counter Story？To you, what is the meaning of life？Leave us a comment in the comment section and tell us what you would like to hear in this segment.

Thank you TJ for coming to the show.We'll see you next time，bye! (Bye!)

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注：龙泉寺大师是博士

事实上，毕生埋头追求绝对幸福的人追不到幸福，盲目寻找终极意义的人寻不到意义。