香港人– 包括我在內– 愛旅遊乃是眾所周知的事實。但每次去歐洲，真是很累– 十多個小時飛機不用說了，還有時差呢？下了飛機，若要再坐數小時的汽車，那真的是不要命了。
我最近彈了Debussy 那首為單簧管而寫的Première Rhapsody, 作品的開端令我想起法國北部的海灘，甚至Mont-Saint-Michel (一個UNESCO遺址)。
我個腦一瞬間便可到達法國北部，但我身軀卻不能: 我身軀要坐十多小時飛機，再坐多個小時的車才能到達法國北部。其實這背後涉及自笛卡兒時候便困擾哲學家的Mind-Body Problem: 我的Body 同我的Mind 關係是甚麽？近代哲學家如John Searle想的更複雜: Mind，意識(Consciousness)，”我” (“I”)，第一人身的看法(First-person Point of View) – 這些全是同義詞嗎?
我沒有能力在這𥚃給一個答䅁。只不過，Mind-Body Problem 真的是同大家息息相關的:Body 可以在法國，但Mind 擔心香港的一些事情; 可以Body 在中環，但Mind 在法國。我相信這是大家經歷過的。
最後，正如德國理想主義(German Idealism)哲學家謝林(Schelling)所説: “`大自然的系統就是我思想的系統。”[1]透過音樂，我的思想和法國北部的自然景色瞬間便連為一體了。
最後，我想同大家分享一下這個令我想起法國北部的音樂。
[English Version]
Hong Kong people, including myself, love travelling abroad. Yet, sometimes, travelling can be prohibitively exhausting – especially from Hong Kong to Europe. Those hours on the plane, on the car (if your destinations include the suburbs) can be gruesome.
I recently got a chance to play Debussy’s Première Rhapsody for Clarinet in which its beginning reminds me of Northern France and Mont-Saint-Michel (a UNESCO site).
My mind can travel to France instantaneously whereas my body cannot. This, actually, is symptomatic of a philosophical problem which has been troubling philosophers ever since Descartes: the Mind-Body Problem. What is the relationship between my mind and my body? It gets even more complicated in modern philosophy. For example, in the philosophy of John Searle, are the mind, the consciousness, the “I”, the first-person point of view all synonyms?
To answer these questions in a blog would be a cardinal sin (nor I am capable of doing so). What I can say is the Mind-Body Problem is something that we all always experience: your body is in France yet your mind is thinking about something in Hong Kong; your body is in the office yet your mind is at a beach….
Perhaps, as German idealist philosopher Schelling wrote, “the system of nature is at the same time the system of our mind”1 – through music, my mind has become one with the nature at Northern France.
Finally, I would like to share with you the beginning of this Debussy’s piece, which reminds me of Northern France:
[1] “the system of nature is at the same time the system of our mind” Schelling, Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature, trans E. E. Harris and P. Heath (Cambridge University Press, 1988), 30.
Photo credit: https://www.musement.com/us/mont-saint-michel-1/private-walking-tour-of-mont-saint-michel-and-abbey-35900/