On Life Education For University

University students'indifferent attitude toward life and the ignorance of life in university education remind us of showing concern over the life education in university. The life education in university is not only an important practical problem but also a very important theoretical problem. However, at present this problem needs to be given further studies in the field of pedagogy. Especially there is no sufficient answer to the problem of how the"cognitive body"returns to"life itself"through"specific individual"and how to return, the key to the problem is that there is no further explanations about the transformation of human living style. All these are the theoretical presuppositions with which the studies about the life education in university must be faced and they are also the key problems on which the basic theory of the life education in university is based in this paper.The basis in constructing the basic theory of the life education in university lies in setting up the idea of"living human". The idea of"living human"is the logical choice formed in the history of the development of educational thoughts. From the evolution of educational thoughts it can be found out that in history every educational thought was deeply influenced by the philosophy, the science or the religious thought which had a leading role in that specific time and had the typical characteristics of that time in a particular form. As a kind of"fact"or"idea"the life education in university has already existed in history. Based on this judgement, they can be observed from the horizon of the life education and talked to. As a result, a new concept can be obtained about the idea of university education. In history, the basic presupposition about human nature in the ideas of university education can be summarized and refined as four dimensions of thoughts: obedient"holy human's"dimension of belief, free"natural human's"dimension of nature, confident"cognitive human's"dimension of ration and real"social human's"dimension of practice. Having traveled through the space of history, the above four dimensions of thoughts, once formed, have become a part of the idea of life education and accumulated. After the educational thoughts of humanism and existentialism have been developed, a common opinion has been made in pursuit of"whole human"and the idea about co-existence of"living human"has been chosen by history and become an important trend of thought at present. These dimensions of thoughts formed in history have existed harmoniously on the fundamental combined point of life and existence through a surprising way. But, this diachronic research shows that the synchronic existence of dimensional ideas of university education in history has the tendency of choosing either this one or that one, so it can't avoid hypercorrectness and also the problems about harmony and competition of many dimensions of thought can't be better dealt with.Nowadays, the reason why the idea of"living human"can be combined with the above mentioned dimensions of thoughts about university education lies in human's modern consciousness of life and existence. The transition of deep-level culture as a whole leads to a massive change of individual existing style and the social modernization stimulates the individual consciousness of existence. Although the change of lifestyle and the individual consciousness of existence as a historic reality are an old fact, the individual consciousness is highlighted in the social transition of China. The reasons are as follows: the consciousness of existence is the instinct need of individual based on life's"survival"and the limitation on promotion of the meaning of life in the process of continuously surpassing the natural reality—survival, therefore, the interaction of individual itself and environment becomes more harmonious in the pursuit of higher quality of existence; on the other hand, only in modern time there is a new realization about the old fact. Modern survival philosophy believes that the direct basis of human consciousness of existence is modern changes of the survival idea and it is mainly reflected in the disclosure of Marx's idea on"practice-survival"to"target activity of human sensitivity". As a consequence, the position of human's"life"as an axis is highlighted."life"has become the most fundamental existence and the highest summary. Therefore, we have to return to and move forward to the point at which"life"sees the human's lifestyle , consciousness of existence and meaning of existence , speak highly of the holy awe to life, light, moisturize and extradite life by life and then pursue the see-through level in the formation of life. Here"return to"means that although human life is an old fact, it has been ignored gradually by human itself in the process of evolution and changes. For"move forward", it means that although the cognition of life has existed since the ancient time, the cognition in philosophy and the development in science don't reach the height and depth which people now hold the views on. Human's"self consciousness of survival"gives"purposefulness of self combination"to the logical starting point, while the theoretic supporting point of science which backs the logical starting point is a common nature of"self construction of substance"owned by the"basic complexity"of life. The presupposition"self construction"makes it possible to open the black box hung by philosophers–"how substance is transformed into spirit". The latest findings about"transformation of substance into spirit"are based on the stage of methodology of three research presuppositions, that is, physical presupposition (supposing consciousness is a special physical process in which the presupposed consciousness is brought out by certain brain structure and dynamics). Evolutionary presupposition (consciousness has been evolving in the process of natural selection of animal world), subjective characteristic presupposition (consciousness has the secret characteristic in the principal and qualitative aspect and can't directly communicate through the public and intersubjective scientific theory in nature). Three basic viewpoints are formed on the basis of three methodologies: the first one is that"description comes after existence"; the second one is that"cognition comes after practice"and the third one is that"logic comes after selection". From the three basic viewpoints,"dynamic core presupposition"can be founded to reveal the mechanism brought out by human's elementary and advanced consciousness, as human language has been brought out, the"automatic system"(that is proved and put forward as"self construction"by physicists) of life based on the natural physiology combines the elementary consciousness with the advanced consciousness and makes selective brain given infinite"probability of conscripting a new combination"because of the foundation of"dynamic core". It is the probability of conscripting a new combination that gives human"spirit"and initiative. Accordingly, the harmony of human life spreads out. At this point, the demon is compelled in the cognition of life to some degree and the cognition is no longer limited to previous awe and praise as a belief but explained rationally on the basis of science. Therefore, the presupposition that"cognitive self"returns to"life itself"through "specific individual"has been sufficiently proven and disclosed historically, logically and scientifically.On that foundation, from the viewpoint of the life relationships in reality, the intrinsic moral character of life education requires the establishment and practice of methods of comparison. The point of comparison is whether university education or non-university education is involved, the standards of comparison are the subjective capacity of university education, and the reference system is whether the education falls into life education of"pre-university"or of"post-university". Comparing the gradual consummation of pre-university life education with the introspective promotion of that of post-university highlights the unique character of the university life education——the greater subjective ability, the more prosperous life individuals enjoy. This prosperously launched life structure includes the natural life education, the spiritual life education and the social life education. Among them, spiritual life education, the agglomeration of real sense of reasoning, morality, aesthetics and value, is the basic component, including the pursuit of truth, good, beauty and benefit, and the criticism and abandonment of false, vice, ugliness and evil. There is little doubt that emotions, as one of the subjective characteristics of university education, are also fundamental and of penetrability. Feelings are an indispensable element in the functionality limits made up of different parts of the structure. They, along with the education of natural life and social life, merge into an entity of self-identification. It is noted that peculiar manifestations of the subjective life power in the university education are not to be ignored. One of the important reasons for university students abandoning themselves is the collapse of their self-constructed world of life significance and the corresponding lack of immediate correction and rebuilding. Life education in university is able to furnish university students with support and relief of heart and soul.The basic thinking method to obtain the above viewpoint is giving a broader understanding to the life connotation with a relative standpoint, that is, acknowledging the rationality of each kind of life connotation. This theoretical attitude can adapt the individual life well in the feasibility, allowing them to involve themselves into the particular life education with certain essential life factors as the core. As a result of this vague orientation in life connotation, the theoretic interpretation of university life education inevitably appears the cycle of hermeneutics. The argumentation of the cycle of hermeneutics over the history and life, the whole and the part of university education thought can theoretically expound well the ideas of university life education, the birth of the harmoniously"living person"and its constitutive expansion in the university life education.The cycle of dialectics formed by the cycle of hermeneutics in theory can be walked out through returning to the practice of university education life and then the difficulty in theory can be solved. To surpass the cycle of hermeneutics in the university life education, the selective practical strategy is put forward, that is,"differentiating improvement"not rebuilding, the key is to arouse the life consciousness. In the aspect of university reforms, universitys must carry on a systematical construction of the life education resources, including the construction of the system of educational goals and objectives, the building of classroom instruction and class life, and the government of university education administration. In addition, universitys must endeavor to construct necessary resources in faculty training, curriculum infiltration, teaching practice, ethics fostering, and leisure guiding.In the aspect of the subjective ego in university education, the life experience is the fundamental mode of the internally developed life significance, such as the experience of birth and death. The explicit strategies of life experience are life presentation and life hearkening in the life dialogues. Life presentation is the refinement of life significance in the life experience process; it also can to a certain extent overcome"the non-conversational ability"proposed by Hans Georg Gadamer. But the effect of life presentation is also decided by the ability to listen attentively in the life. So long as you keep some space in your innermost feelings, and only when you are in the silence, as there is bound to be silence in any space, can you really listen attentively. In this way, we find the reliable innermost feelings in our self-life expression, thus obtaining the life experience which promotes unceasingly.