Felix strolled through the streets of Paris, a few hundred meters ahead is the south bank of the Seine, along the shore, is a variety of elaborately decorated stores, many of which are exotic.
A paper-cutting store, for example, had a wide range of paper decorations on its doorstep, from small colourful animals to elaborate and sophisticated interior ornaments.
The store owner is a young woman with a brightly coloured hair ornament, when Felix walked into the store, she enthusiastically promoted the product to him.
Finally, Felix picked out a colourful pinwheel that he could hold in his hand.
A week before the official start of the conference, Felix enjoyed two days of shopping. From the Musée d’Orsay to the Louvre, and then to the world-famous Notre Dame, he treated himself as a pure tourist, enjoying the customs and exquisite cuisine of Paris.
After all, he intended his trip to Paris in three days in a note to the French Ministry of Magic.
On a gorgeous street, crowded with tourists from all countries converging, one could look up and see the Eiffel Tower, the landmark of the 7th district of Paris.
A young couple held a child in each hand, holding half a gelato.
“Mom, mom, I want flowers, I want flowers.” The little boy said, pointing a short-distance away.
The couple followed the direction and looked over. About ten meters away from them, seven or eight small children and their families were gathered around a young man who looked very handsome, slender, and had a gentle smile on his face.
Black hair and light blue eyes, like a clear sky that give people a sense of tranquillity.
Felix put his left hand behind his back and snapped his fingers lightly with his right hand, and a bright yellow tulip suddenly appeared in his hand, which he handed to a child in front of him.
“It’s a street magician.” The child’s father said.
“It looks great.” The child’s mother stared at Felix’s hand, not seeing anything wrong with it.
The couple walked over with the child, and Felix showed the crowd his empty hands, empty except for an emerald ring on his left hand.
Under the inquisitive eyes, he clasped his hands together in a prayer motion, and from his closed hands came a “chirping” sound.
“Wow!”
Several small children’s mouths grew wide in an exaggerated manner, and even their parents also showed an unbelieving expression.
Felix slowly opened his palm, there is a small bird with colourful feathers in his hands. The bird nimbly turned its neck, fearlessly surveyed the surrounding, tiny black eyes that made people love it.
The bird groomed its own feathers and flew away with its wings when a child tried to touch it.
The crowd looked up, their eyes followed its flight path until it disappeared into the sky.
Felix gave a salute, declined some coins and bills, and departed briskly.
…
At a large Paris, Felix roamed through the famous French university of higher education, a picturesque place where many people of his age sat leisurely on the lawn, talking freely and leisurely.
A pair of young girls gawked at him curiously, and a student with grape-purple hair whispered to the girl next to her in her ear: “Look, that guy is very handsome, which department is he in?”
Her friend said in an affirmative tone, “Definitely not from our department.”
“So maybe from another department, or a tourist?”
“You can just go and ask him.”
“Why not?” The purple-haired girl stood up, and she walked over to Felix and said in somewhat lazy French, “Hello, I’m Amandine Zoe.”
Felix looked back and said gently, “Hello, Miss Zoe, you can call me Felix, Felix Hap.”
Zoe froze for a moment and said, “You have beautiful eyes, and, you can call me Amandine.”
” Okay, Amandine.”
The girl named “Amandine” is very talkative and cheerful, and she acted as a guide to introduce Felix to her university.
“This is the history department… and this is the humanities … Oh, I remember, there is a very famous philosophy professor’s public class today!”
Amandine’s eyes widened, and her expression is very hesitant, as if she keeps weighing between Felix and the open class.
“Can I come and observe?” Felix asked with a smile.
“Of course, I didn’t think you’d like philosophy.” She let out a long sigh of relief.
“I really don’t know much about it, but it’s good to listen to it once in a while.”
Amandine led Felix into a large, spacious classroom, and in the corner of her eye she saw her best friend looking at her in indignation; she smiled sardonically and pulled Felix down.
The classroom became dim, and light is cast in the center.
A middle-aged man dressed formally and sternly stood at the podium, his gaze abstruse and his tone nonchalant: “What is existence? What is the meaning of human existence?”
“Before you were born, we went through a time when our faith was shaken, and, in the words of Nietzsche, we never realized as clearly as we did then, ‘God is dead.'”
“We experienced a change of thought, a war which made us think about the meaning of living, starting with Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky, culminating in Sartre and Camus after World War II, until now it is silently fading.”
“Someone invented the term existentialism, but existentialism cannot be considered a systematic philosophical category; there is no such discipline as Existentialist Philosophy; at best, it is a label.”
“I will share some common reflections on ‘existence’-”
“For example, you are the result of your choices.”
“Another example is that time is the only measure of existence and non-existence.”
…
“Many people feel that existentialism was born in the cafés of the Left Bank in Paris, the product of the imagination of a group of disillusioned people, but this is a complete stereotype, and many people are physically and silently implementing certain praiseworthy existential ideas.”
“Suffering and hardship make people desperate, desperation makes people think about the meaning of existence, and thinking brings new life.”
Before we knew it, two hours had passed.
A student raised his hand and asked, “Normally we don’t think about the ‘meaning of existence, but only under pessimism and despair, does this mean that existentialism is actually a pessimistic argument?”
“We study existentialism in order to avoid others studying existentialism?”
The professor said humorously, “Very interesting point, you could enrol in my graduate program.”
“I need to emphasize that existentialism is an optimism supported by reason and logic; imagine your life plunged into a greyness, war, famine, the alternative to science and technology … In short, you can’t find the meaning of existence.”
“This is when existentialism will tell you that although your life is full of tragedies, we still have to try our best to live and choose for ourselves the meaning of our lives. You will find that your very existence will add variables to the world, good, bad, and constantly fluctuating.”
Many hands went up.
The professor pointed to Felix.
Felix stood up: “Professor, in one of the categories you mentioned in your lecture, you believe that to exist is to see, to perceive, to experience, so how do we perceive and experience things that are distant, things that may never even appear in reality, like magic in films?”
Felix’s question caused the students to whisper and laugh – it is fun to insert the topic of magic into a serious philosophical question.
One or two students whistled in approval of Felix’s ‘boldness’.
The professor thought for a moment and replied: “Magic is a product of our imagination and currently exists only in terms of imaginary media, such as films, novels, and so on. So do they really exist? Or are they simply a product of the imagination, a product of our brains that make us think it exists?”
“What if one day magic does appear in reality?” Felix pressed.
The professor laughed, “If magic really ‘existed’ in reality, no one would not be unaware of it. Technology has developed to the point where we have the ability to travel to every corner of the world. Even the sky and the ocean cannot stop mankind from exploring.”
But he soon realized that he had met a persistent student today –
“I mean, if you’ll pardon me, we could make the assumption that there is a small collective of magicians who conceal their existence with all sorts of miraculous magic, but one day you find out about them-”
Felix paused briefly, “What would you do?”
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