The relationship between man and the universe

Man is the essence of matter, the subject of the universe, the foundation of existence and the essence of time and space. The relationship between man and nature is a process of continuous development, as Engels pointed out: "Man himself is a product of nature, developed in his own environment and developed with this environment." Man is a part of nature. As the highest stage of biological evolution, man is the product of natural evolution, and human life activities are ultimately determined by natural conditions. Humans once feared, deified and worshipped nature, and looked at nature with the idea of looking up at and praising the sky. Man succumbs to nature, and his life is dominated by powerful and uncompromising nature. With the enhancement of human wisdom and the deepening of understanding of nature, human beings are no longer willing to be dominated by nature. Human beings are above nature, dominating, utilizing and controlling nature. The unreasonable exploitation and utilization of natural resources by human beings has led to environmental pollution and ecological destruction. Human activities will inevitably lead to environmental changes, but the destruction of the environment is not inevitable.

The value of nature is the nature of nature, which is determined by the nature and structure of natural ecosystems and natural substances. We believe that nature has value, and the value of nature is diverse. On the biological level, nature has "intrinsic value", which shows that nature takes itself as the scale, indicating the existence of life and nature: ① Nature exists before human beings, so natural things have the value of independent evaluation and existence. (2) refers to the value evaluated by human beings from everything in nature itself, not just from the use and function of natural things. ③ The value of ecosystem. The effect of ecosystem integration is different from the sum of its components, and the nature of the whole ecosystem cannot be replaced by the nature of its other components, such as the value of natural selection, the value of stimulating and supporting survival, etc. On the cultural level, it also has "external value", nature has tool value, and everything in nature has its unique function. If this function is lost, this kind of thing will be replaced. The value of this tool in nature is measured by people.

The idea of harmony between man and nature is: affirming that man is the relative subject of nature, and human society and economy must develop continuously; At the same time, we should clearly understand the objective laws of nature and the finiteness of natural resources, and realize that we must make use of the development of modern science and technology and modern productive forces to strive for a harmonious and sustainable development between ourselves and nature.

Science has proved that human beings are only one of many biological species and only a part of nature, not the scale of everything. At the same time, due to the limitations of subjective and objective conditions, human understanding has great limitations. Moreover, whether human understanding is correct, whether it can be improved and developed, can not be separated from the activities of understanding and transforming nature (that is, practice), especially the understanding and grasp of the laws of nature, and can not be separated from the relationship between man and nature. Third, we should explore the value of nature in all directions. We should not only conquer and use nature, but also obtain the use value beneficial to human development from nature; At the same time, we should treat, protect and respect nature. We should establish the concept of great values, that is, when evaluating all economic and social activities, we should consider not only their economic value, but also their ecological value; We should consider not only the immediate value, but also the long-term value; We should not only consider what we get from nature, but also how to repay nature and so on. (reasonable development)

The real world we are facing is a contradictory unity composed of human society and nature, and the relationship between them is dialectical unity. On the one hand, man and nature are interrelated, interdependent and interpenetrating: man is born out of nature and is a part of it. The existence and development of human beings can not be separated from nature for a moment, and it is inevitable to exchange material and energy with nature through productive labor. With the improvement of productive forces, the ability of human beings to understand and transform nature has been continuously enhanced. Now the nature is not the original nature, but the nature that has left the mark of human will everywhere, that is, the humanized nature. "Humanized nature" shows that the relationship between man and nature is getting closer and closer. The dependence chain, correlation chain and infiltration chain objectively formed between man and nature inevitably require human beings to consciously accept the domination of both social laws in the process of understanding nature, transforming nature and promoting social development, so as to promote the stable and synchronous evolution of nature and society and promote the coordinated development of nature and society. On the other hand, man and nature are opposites. In order to survive and develop better, human beings must constantly deny the natural state of nature and change it; And nature strongly denies man and tries to return to the natural state. The relationship between man and nature, such as negation and anti-negation, change and anti-change, is actually the relationship between action and reaction. If the relationship between these two "actions" is not handled well, especially the natural response to people is spontaneous to a large extent, it will easily lead to the imbalance between man and nature. In addition, due to the dual role of human social practice in transforming nature, there are both positive and negative aspects. If human beings can correctly understand the laws of nature and properly grasp the relationship between man and nature, they can continuously achieve the results of transforming nature, enhance their adaptability to nature and improve their ability to understand and transform nature. If we don't realize the deeper essential connection between nature and grasp some connection between man and nature, the result of transforming nature is to destroy the balance within nature, the balance of human society or the relationship between man and nature, and then we will inevitably be retaliated by nature. Engels once warned people "don't be too intoxicated with our victory over nature." Every time such a victory, nature will retaliate against us. Every victory did achieve our expected results in the first step, but it produced completely different and unexpected effects in the second and third steps, and the first result was often cancelled. Engels also took the Mesopotamian plain as an example to demonstrate his point of view. Opposing position

There are still two extreme understandings about the basic concept of the relationship between man and nature. One is to raise the status of human beings excessively, thinking that human beings are the absolute subject of nature and should and can transform nature more thoroughly according to their own development requirements. The other is to excessively lower the status of human beings, thinking that human beings are only a member of the natural ecosystem, and transforming nature is an objective law that interferes with nature and will be punished by nature. We should try our best to restore the natural environment to its original state before human development. Neither of these two extreme understandings will work in real life.

In philosophical theory and legal theory, there are basically two concepts in the relationship between man and nature, regardless of ancient and modern times, at home and abroad: first, anthropocentrism attaches importance to and emphasizes the difference between man and animals and the relationship between people, and praises and highlights human wisdom, will, spirit, strength, important role and important position; The second is naturalism, which attaches importance to and emphasizes the * * * nature between man and animals and the relationship between man and nature, and praises and highlights natural and inhuman life. The first is "extreme anthropocentrism", that is, "man is the soul of all things", and he is the center, master, conqueror of nature and the only subject of legal relationship. People have the absolute right to control nature freely, and treat nature from the interests of people and even from the interests of a certain class or stratum. People can't and shouldn't surpass themselves, fundamentally deny the value, dignity and natural rights of nature, and deny and oppose the coordination and opposition between man and nature. The second is "extreme naturalism", also known as "natural centralism" or "ecological centralism", that is, there is no difference between man and nature, which fundamentally denies man's central position, ignores man's interests and creativity, advocates taking ecology as the center and everything conforms to nature, and nature has the same legal status and rights as man, and even thinks that man is a "cancer of the universe" and that man's existence is a morbid state of the universe. Humans, like cancer cells, take away the living space of other creatures in the universe. However, after all, people are advanced creatures different from ordinary creatures. When they mature to a certain stage, they have the ability to surpass themselves. The laws made by human beings at a certain stage should be the combination of immediate and long-term interests, practical rationality, scientific attitude and moral ideal, and at the same time reflect the laws of natural ecology, socio-economic law, the law of interaction between man and nature, and the combination of interests of human beings and other species. Human beings should respect, protect and make rational use of nature, coordinate the relationship between man and nature through law, and realize the harmony between social productive forces and natural productive forces, economic reproduction and natural reproduction, economic system and ecological system, humanized nature and dehumanized nature, and man and nature. In this sense, we should oppose "naturalism" and "extreme anthropocentrism".