San Lwin - Great Thinkers of the World

Third printing Author's correction

The word “confess” can be said to have a general meaning of admitting one’s sins. However, when it is said to confess, it is more likely to convey a sense of honesty than of admitting one’s sins. The Collins Cobuild-Essential English Dictionary says confess

The meaning of the word "to confess" is explained as 'You say 'I must confess' to emphasize that you are being honest about something'. Here, if we take the meaning of "I must confess" as "to be honest about something", then the meaning of "to be honest" (or "to be honest") is to emphasize the sincerity and honesty of something.

Now, I want the reader to understand that this is my honest statement, taking that same interpretation.

I use the word "honesty" to express my honesty and integrity about something. If I were to express my honesty and integrity, I wrote and published a book called "Great Thinkers of the World" more than thirty years ago (or around the age of 30). Before publishing the book "Great Thinkers of the World", I first wrote and published a book called "Philosophy Kagyi Khakwe" as a test.

That was the early 1960s. At that time, I was a master's student in the Philosophy Department of Yangon University, studying world philosophies. On the other hand, it was not long before I entered the literary world as a writer. I think it was a time when the romance novels of Saya U Thant Pho Naing were popular in the Burmese literary world. When I entered the literary world around 1958, writing novels worth one kyat and sixty baht, I had the thought in my mind that I was not a romanticist, or someone who could write exciting romance novels.

Around that time, Buddhist ideas were beginning to influence my life, and I began to think that this type of writing was not the kind of writing I should write, since I viewed love letters as useless and frivolous in the eyes of the Buddha.

Coincidentally, at that time, I was reading and studying many great books on philosophy. Then I thought about it. I thought that it would be good if I could write a philosophy book. In thinking like that, I had studied philosophy books extensively and used all my life to get a university degree in philosophy as a hobby. On the one hand, I also had a desire to write a philosophy book that was more mature than a love story and a search for truth. On the other hand, there was a gap in the field of Burmese literature because there was no such thing as a flourishing philosophy book in the world. It was not yet flourishing, and there was a gap, so I had a strong desire to write philosophy books to fill that gap.

However , I have to think deeply about the fact that what is wanted is "desire" and what is possible is "life" and whether it will be possible to produce a finished product by putting it into the factory of my brain, which I want to be a thinker. Desire and life are never the same. As long as I am not a creative force (or) a powerful being, I cannot create desire into life. I have to think carefully to understand that life does not follow desire, but desire follows life.

Then, we have to think about how to make life and desires fit together. We realize that the 'method' of how to make the desires we want to become come true in the environment we live in is more important.

Then, we have to find the 'method' again.

To be honest, I want to write philosophical literature. This is just a wish. But what really happens in life is that people, readers, only want to accept romantic literature and fiction and read it with pleasure. Will readers who only want to read fiction read philosophical literature? I have to think seriously. Well, a writer is only the one who fertilizes and gives birth to a book. There must be someone who takes care of and raises the child he has given birth to so that it can grow into a human being, a human being (or) survive. Similarly, if a writer pays a lot of money to get a book into the hands of a reader and the publisher publishes it, then when the book reaches the readers, if the readers accept it, it can grow and become a human being.

A great paradox arose within me. Would anyone want to read a philosophical text? Would anyone publish a philosophical text?

These questions became a big problem that plagued my head day and night.

Among animals, humans are the ones who have to invent their own pastures. Other living creatures do not have the ability to create such things. They have to find and eat ready pastures to survive. In ancient times, humans also had to find and eat fresh grass and water. However, human life is not easy to get ready natural pastures. If you enter the pasture occupied by a group of people who are ahead of you, you will have a bad chance. The first group may refuse to accept it and attack you. Or if you enter the pasture of others and eat, you may not have a chance to get good pasture. The best thing is to find a new pasture by yourself, whether it is a place left by others or a bad place that others have not entered yet. It is difficult, but if grazing occurs, it is possible to have your own pasture.

I also thought that if I could find a new pasture that I wanted to graze on, or create my own, and if I could find it, I could graze on that pasture and create a satisfying life.

In the literary world, the people who had come before me were already living peacefully and happily in their pastures. If I were to enter the pastures of those who had come before me as the next person, I would only have to eat the leftovers. The creatures who had already been fed and fed on my pastures would not readily accept the creature who had come after me. I realized that I would not be able to have a happy “life”. Then I had to look for an opportunity to find a new pasture or to create a new pasture.

There is one thing. When investing in life, you must have the courage to take risks and invest (or the policy of taking risks and investing (entrepreneurship). However, in taking such risks and investing and developing a business, you must not only have courage. You must also carefully study whether there is a market potential for the product you produce. If you take a foolish risk without the potential to gain market share, you can lose a lot. There is also a market potential. You have the wealth to invest. That is not all. You must also have the technology and experts to create and produce the product you will produce so that consumers will accept it.

I think about these things for a long time. I criticize them for a long time.

I am a thinker and have a penetrating mind. I also have new ideas. However, I must admit that since I have never produced and marketed a product, I cannot gain market share and I do not have the ability to judge whether consumers and readers will accept it or not.

Then, who can intervene and skillfully create his own will to become life? Who would dare to publish the philosophical treatise he has written? Who could publish it?

This question is difficult to answer..

The person who will invest money will be his own will, his own character, and his own. He will think first of his own profit rather than the benefit of his readers. This is the natural law of business. What guarantee can I give to that publisher?

A scientist who invents something new has no other approach than to convince the manufacturer and distributor of his product that he is interested in making it available to a large audience. This is something I have taken to heart.

--

More than 30 years ago, when I was a writer, there was someone who was interested in publishing my books. He has now passed away. He was Ko Hla Than, the owner of Modern Literary Publishing. I had to rely on him.

“Ko Hla Than, I want to write philosophical literature.”

"What kind of philosophical writing is this, teacher? Nowadays, people only accept and read love, romance, and adventure stories. Isn't it better to write such romantic novels that people will like, teacher?"

"I want to negotiate so that you and I can see eye to eye here."

The first question you asked is important. The question of what is philosophy? That is a very important question. Because, like you, today's readers don't know what philosophy is. That's right. So we have to learn this first."

"How will you do it, teacher?"

“We must first plan and present the philosophies that have emerged in the world, the great thinkers who thought about those philosophies, and the Western and Eastern ideas they thought about,” said Ko Hla Than.

"Today's readers only want to read for fun, so why would they want to read boring philosophical literature?"

"That's right, as you say, philosophy is not a good thing. But you should know that people only like beautiful things, don't think so. Rather than being beautiful, they like things that are useful and valuable for their lives. Another thing is that people like things that are new and true. The Burmese reading public has not yet come into contact with philosophy. So if we start introducing them to philosophy, I think the public will be interested if they see it as something new and interesting that they haven't read before."

Ko Hla Than considered this statement seriously.

"I can accept what you have presented now. So I will give you the answer tomorrow," he promised.

I thought tomorrow was a long way off for me. The next day, when I met Ko Hla Than, he said, "I asked him questions."

"I'll do it, just tell me the teacher's plan," he said.

“Okay, Ko Hla Than, the first thing I will do is introduce you to philosophical literature.”

"What book are you going to write?" "Philosophy Kagyi Khakwe -" an introductory book

"I will write."

“Well, the word philosophy will be new to the Burmese audience, sir. Kagyi Khakwe is more of an introduction, so it won’t be too heavy for the readers, it might be light. Good, I like it. Please write that book quickly, sir. We will try to test our minds, test our times, and try to publish it.”

Ko Hla Than and I agreed to go.

I also wrote and published “Philosophy Kagyi Khakwe” as a platform for philosophical literature for the Burmese literary world. The book was immediately accepted by the readers, so I had to publish it two or three times. Then Ko Hla Than

"We tested the blood and it turned out to be a good fit. So, teacher, write a more comprehensive philosophy book. Write it quickly, teacher," he said.

In 1964, I was transferred to Myitkyina College as the Head of the Philosophy Department (teacher). Before I moved, I completed the book “Great Thinkers of the World” that is now in the hands of the reader and handed it over to Ko Hla Than. Around 1965, Ko Hla Than published the first edition of “Great Thinkers of the World” by Modern Publishing. The book was sold out soon after its publication. Then, in 1966, I founded the Punya Publishing House. At that time, the first edition of Great Thinkers of the World was no longer available, so towards the end of 1966, Punya Publishing published a second edition of Great Thinkers of the World, with additional revisions.

The second edition of The World's Great Thinkers sold out before the end of 1966. However, due to changes in my life, I was unable to arrange for another edition of The World's Great Thinkers for a long time.

More than 30 years ago, I published “Philosophy Kagyi Khakwe” and “Great Thinkers of the World” to introduce the stage of philosophical literature in the Burmese literary world. At that time, I did not expect that young readers who wanted to read philosophical and religious texts with such interest would appear so quickly before I died. However, I had high hopes that at some point, readers who wanted to read only high-quality, enlightened literature would emerge in Myanmar, like in other countries in the world.

I must say that I am lucky. Because I have seen that the kind of high-quality, enlightened, and enlightened literature that I had hoped for, the kind of literature that values ​​and values ​​life, has flourished even before my death. In the literary world, there is a large market share for philosophical and religious literature. If we can produce worthy religious and ideological literary products, I can see that there is a large audience of consumers who will eagerly buy and consume those products. Traditionally, in Myanmar, the work of a writer was considered a job that could not grow, a job where one could only eat boiled leaves and Ngapi. Now that idea is no longer true. If a writer could only produce and sell high-quality literary products, then he would be able to buy a house and a car and a TV, a refrigerator, We have seen and experienced that we can live comfortably with washing machines. This is not a wishful thinking. It is a real life experience. In every country with a high-class readership in the world, writers are those who can live comfortably with big cars and big houses. Now this situation has also occurred in Myanmar. People need physical food to fill their stomachs, and food for their stomachs, but they also need “food for the soul” to fill their minds. Therefore, in times of high prices, they pay more for food for their minds than they do for food for their stomachs. This is also easy to see. When the prices of literary goods rise, the literary market also expands. Then, the number of literary producers and literary entrepreneurs also increases.

The book "Great Thinkers of the World" has been out of print for a long time in the literary market. It has been over thirty years. I think that the book "Great Thinkers of the World" is also needed as food for the minds of readers who were born and raised during that time and have reached the age of 30.

This book can be said to be a short history of Western philosophy, presenting a glimpse into the lives and thoughts of the great Western philosophers who have emerged in the world. In order to highlight the successive periods of history, this book begins with the great philosophers who emerged in the Roman Empire more than 2,500 years ago, around 600 BC, and continues to the present day.

The book is divided into sections, from the great philosophers of the 20th century to the modern philosophers. Philosophy is a separate discipline. It also has its own academic terminology. A list of philosophical terms is also included in the appendix to make it easier for young readers to learn.

In the first and second editions, the images of the great philosopher were shown in blocks. Now, in the third edition, those blocks are no longer there, so I don't know if the images will be shown or not. However, since we are in the OFFSET era and the computer era, I think that if the images were originally shown, they will be shown on film. This third edition of this book is a precursor to another advanced literary era, but I will be satisfied.

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