Kant has four big questions for philosophy.

  • What can I know?
  • How should I act?
  • For what can I hope?
  • What is the human being?

This writing has something to do with Kant’s last question.

In the book of “Last Chance to See”, Douglas Adams told an anecdote about the Golden Pavilion Temple in Kyoto.

“I remembered once, in Japan, having been to see the Gold Pavilion Temple in Kyoto and being mildly surprised at quite how well it had weathered the passage of time sicne it was first built in the fourteenth century. I was told it hadn’t weathered well at all, and had in fact been burnt to the ground twice in this century.”

“‘So it isn’t the original building?’ I had asked my Japanese guide. ‘But yes, of course it is,’ he insisted, rather surprised at my question. ‘But it’s burnt down?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Twice.’ ‘Many times.’ ‘And rebuilt.’ ‘Of course. It is an important and historic building.’ ‘With completely new materials.’ ‘But of course. It was burnt down.’ ‘So how can it be the same builing?’ ‘It is always the same building.’ I had to admit to myself that this was in fact a perfect rational point of view, it merely started from an unexpected premise. The idea of the building, the intention of it, its design, are all immutable and are the essence of the building. The intention of the original builders is what survives. The wood of which the design is constructed decays and is replaced when necessary. To be overly concerned with the original materials which are merely sentimental souvenirs of the past, is to fail to see the living building itself.”

Another smiliar amusing tale is from Terry Pratchett in his book, The Fifth Elephant. “This, milord, is my family’s axe. We have owned it for almost nine hundred years, see. Of course, sometimes it needed a new blade. And sometimes it has required a new handle, new designs on the metalwork, a little refreshing of the ornamentation . . . but is this not the nine hundred-year-old axe of my family? And because it has changed gently over time, it is still a pretty good axe, y’know. Pretty good.”

Then this is also the paradox of the Ship of Theseus. But the real question is what is you as a living person? 反用清朝词论家况周颐一句古词：花若再开非故树？

PS. The first story connects me to the famous novel, The Temple of Golden Pavilion (金阁寺), by Yukio Mishima (三岛由纪夫). The book was published in 1956.

PPS. There is a good book about this. Kant’s Questions: What is the Human Being? by Patrick R. Frierson, 2013

附录：减字浣溪沙 · 听歌有感

惜起残红泪满衣。 它生莫作有情痴。 人间无地着相思。

花若再开非故树， 云能暂驻亦哀丝。 不成消遣只成悲。

重开的花依然是旧时的花，树却已然改变，不再是旧日那棵树了。这其实就是说“人不能两次踏入同一条河流”。