A wise man-tool

Instrumental rationality refers to that actors, driven by utilitarian goals, use tools and technical means to achieve their goals with the help of rationality. In this process, human destiny, value and dignity are not involved at all.

China has been sitting on the chessboard of the world for thousands of years, creating numerous scientific and technological achievements and cultural heritage. Today, the world situation is changing rapidly and we increasingly feel that mankind is on the verge of great danger from unprecedented challenges. So China, as a responsible developing country, share the China’s wisdom with the people all around the world, to build a shared future together. What I want to share today is not Chinese technology, but an idea of Confucius: “A wise man will not make himself into a mere machine fit only to do one kind of work."(jun zi bu qi)

I'm afraid everyone here is familiar with the term "tool man". A tool man is, as the name implies, a person who is used like a tool and nobody cares his or her feelings.

The word has become popular in recent years, but in fact it has been around for a long time. In Chaplin's Modern Times, there is an image of workers becoming part of an assembly line, but the profits generated by the company have little to do with them. In this process, the essence of human being as a "person" is ignored and more alienated as a "tool". There are plenty of examples in our lives of people who unconsciously become tool people. In advanced industrial societies, for example, consumption binges are everywhere. People seem to live in goods, their souls trapped in cars, houses, fine clothes and so on. But when people do get those goods, they don't seem to be happy for long. Is such consumption a person's real need or is it instigated by advertising? When people are used as "tools", they have less independent thinking and lack of emotional experience.

This phenomenon will lead to people, as a "person" of the basic psychological needs can not be met, thus increasing the occurrence of psychological diseases. According to the Guardian, there were around 108% more depression cases in England in 2016 than a decade earlier. Meanwhile, one in six Americans takes at least one psychiatric drug to treat depression, anxiety, insomnia and other problems. And these diseases are all associated with a sense of meaninglessness. It is difficult for a person to find his own value as a tool, because man is a complex social creature.

More than 2,000 years ago, Confucius in China put forward the idea that "a gentleman does not use utensils". Max Weber explains the phrase: the gentleman is an end in itself ‚ and not just as a means to a particularly useful end. It means that one should not only learn a certain skill, but make himself into a tool. It's about developing yourself in an all-round way, making all kinds of experiments in life and experiencing wonderful emotions. After serious thinking, I found my mission and assumed social responsibilities, and in the process, I constantly affirmed my significance as a human being.

In the last century, many famous universities around the world have started to offer courses of general education, but this is obviously not enough. In today's era of tool rationality, if the idea of "a gentleman is not a tool" is integrated into education, so that people in the world can realize that they and others are people with feelings and thoughts, rather than tools, we will look at each other more kindly. When the people of the global village realize that we are one family, a beautiful shared future will not be far away.

2023-01-17

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