When a person enslaves others and regards others as inferior species, public opinion will deny this value; when a company does not hesitate to harm consumers and business partners for its own benefit, when a nation-state invades another nation-state...public opinion will also criticize it. But why is it that human beings enslave everything and destroy the natural world, and they are regarded as legitimate and ignored? Because humans are whitewashing themselves.
Of course, a series of philosophers such as Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, and Kant have exalted human subjectivity, but we must avoid this kind of thinking from developing too much and evolving into something similar to the "geocentric theory" in medieval Europe, which is not conducive to human self-cognition and cognition of society and nature. Is man really the center of the universe? This is just human fantasy, arrogance and delusion. If the 13.8 billion years of cosmic history are compressed into one year, human civilization will not exist until 23:59:46 on the last day of this year. Lao Tzu said, "Heaven and earth are not benevolent, and treat all things as straw dogs." Human beings are just one of the creatures in nature. In the infinite space and time, they are just a speck of dust, an accident, and have only existed for a very short time.
The reality is that frogs are called "beneficial insects" because they are a tool that humans can use to protect food, and species that are about to be extinct by humans are imprisoned as protected animals, which has become a good deed. Humans take the provision of all things for granted, and also extend their own values to all things and nature. They use human interests and likes and dislikes as the basis for value judgments and moral evaluations, and regard themselves as the "king" of all things and regard all things as "slaves." When this trend of thought reaches its extreme, it will be backfired, that is, the destruction of nature, the deterioration of ecology, and the imbalance of the food chain. Humans have enemies on all sides, and their anger is overflowing. The edge is not only directed at all things, but also at their own kind, and actually at themselves. Because the logical cornerstone of "anthropocentrism" is "egocentrism."
The Taoist doctrine represented by Laozi is to minimize subjective bias, examine human beings and the entire universe from a perspective like an outsider, and provide unique ideological products for the relationship between self and others, others and others, and man and nature. Laozi always emphasized the universality and first driving force of Tao in the universe, and human beings must follow Tao. This "Tao-centrism" helps us eliminate the inflated mentality, clearly recognize our position and what we should do, and has the significance of correction. When people drive on the highway, it is important to be sober and not to drive wildly.
Although there is no legal and moral authorization for
human beings to rule over all things, at the current stage of cosmic history,
human beings are actually ruling all things on this planet. Then, in the
relationship between man and nature, as the "monarch" of all things
without a crown, we should also follow the way of inaction of heaven and earth,
let all things rest and recuperate, and reduce "taxes" on all things,
instead of treating them as "slaves" and doing whatever they want.
Let humans live in harmony with their people, so that they can have a larger
and longer-term "tax source" and be a better "monarch". The
relationships between people and between oneself and others must also coexist
harmoniously and follow the right path.
当一个人奴役他人、视他人为下贱物种，舆论会否定这一价值观；当一个企业为私利而不惜坑害消费者和商业伙伴，当一个民族国家侵略另一个民族国家……舆论同样会口诛笔伐。可为什么人类奴役万物、破坏自然界，就被视为正当而视若无睹呢？因为，人类在给自己涂脂抹粉。
固然，从亚里斯多德、托马斯•阿奎那、笛卡尔、康德等一系列的哲人，高扬了人类的主体性，但我们要避免这种思维发展过头，演变得和欧洲中世纪的“地球中心说”类似，那不利于人类的自我认知和对社会、自然界的认知。人真的是宇宙的中心吗，这只是人类的意淫、自大和妄念。如果把138亿年的宇宙历史压缩到一年，要到这一年最后一天的23点59分46秒，才有了人类文明。老子说“天地不仁，以万物为刍狗”，人类只是自然界的万物之一，在无限的时空中只是一粒灰尘、一个偶然，至今还只是一个极其短暂的存在。
现实是，由于青蛙是人类保护粮食的可用工具而被称为“益虫”，而快被人类灭绝的物种被监禁起来作为保护动物则成了善举。人类把万物的供养视为理所当然，还把自己的价值观推之于万物和自然界，以人类利益和好恶作为价值判断和道德评价的依据，自居万物之“君”而视万物为“奴”。当这种思潮到了极致，就受到了反噬，那就是自然界的破坏，生态的恶化，食物链的失衡。人类四面树敌，戾气四溢，锋芒不止指向万物，还指向同类，实际也在指向自己。因为“人类中心论”的逻辑基石是“自我中心论”。
以老子为代表的道家学说，是尽量减少主观偏见，以一种天外高客般的视角来审视人类自身、审视整个宇宙，为自我与他人、他人与他人、人与自然的关系提供别具一格的思想产品。老子始终强调道在宇宙中的普适性和第一驱动力，人类必须遵循道。这种“道中心论”帮助我们消除膨胀心态，清醒认知自己所处的位置，应该怎么做，具有纠偏意义。人在高速公路上驾车，重在清醒，不可狂飙。
虽然没有看到任何法理和道义授权了人类统治万物，但在宇宙史的现阶段，人类事实上是在统治着这颗星球上的万物。那么，在人与自然的关系中，作为万物无冕之“君主”，也该效法天地无为之道，让万物休养生息、对万物减“税”，而不是视之为“奴”而为所欲为。让人类与他们的子民和谐共处，这样才能拥有更大的、长久的“税源”，才能更好地当好“君主”。而人与人的关系、自我与他人的关系，也要和谐共生，循道而行。
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