Let us discuss the question of world outlook and outlook on life. The term "outlook on life" is rarely seen in foreign books. Chinese people like to speak of an outlook on life. In fact, world outlook and outlook on life are one thing, not two things. The so-called outlook on life is precisely the social outlook, the world outlook, encompassing both the natural world and human society. For the sake of popular understanding, it is also acceptable to speak of an outlook on life. Among some comrades, this question has remained unresolved for decades. That is to say, theirs is an empiricist outlook on life and world outlook, not a Marxist world outlook. There is also methodology; it is both a world outlook and a methodology. Some comrades, when speaking, only discuss methodology and not world outlook. This is to say that, regarding comrades who have historically made mistakes—according to my observations and the results of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee exchanging views with them—their world outlook and methodology are not Marxist, not dialectical materialism or historical materialism, but subjective idealism, the empiricism of subjective idealism. In terms of foreign schools of thought, it is the Machism criticized by Lenin. In Russia, there was God-building, God-seeking, and God-fascination, using spirit to create man. Who was it? Was it Lunacharsky, Bogdanov? I have read their works, but have now forgotten. Machism, it is said, originated in Austria and Germany; in America, it is called pragmatism, also called utilitarianism—they are one and the same thing. They do not acknowledge objective existence, do not acknowledge objective truth, and have no objective standards. They do not acknowledge that the material world of nature exists independently of human consciousness. Objective truth is inherent, not an individualistic "individual truth." From the perceptual to the rational, objective truth in turn becomes subjective truth.

Subjective truth originates from objective truth. It differs from religion, and differs from subjective idealism. It is the opposite. These comrades of ours indulge in wishful thinking—a Chinese saying calls it "considering oneself always in the right"—rather than seeking truth from facts. Facts are objective truth; "seeking" means subjectively reflecting objective truth, which must pass through the mind. It requires countless repeated sensations, which then transform into concepts. Mountains, waters, grasses, trees; people, horses, cattle, sheep; chickens, dogs, pigs—all are concepts. People include bourgeois people and proletarian people. Male, female, old, young—all are concepts. All are derived from abstraction. Concrete persons: Zhang San, Li Si. For example, Elder Dong, Elder Lin, Elder Wu—you are elderly people; your children are young people. Your wives are called women.

Those who have historically made mistakes are all, in part, in large part, or entirely, subjective idealists. Therefore, they are difficult to reform; their world outlook and methodology must be changed. The solipsism of Britain's Berkeley is an extreme school of subjective idealism—a most subjectively idealist religious figure, a great philosopher. His famous saying: Why do I exist? Because I think. If I do not think, I do not exist. The world also exists only insofar as "I think, therefore it is"; otherwise, the world too does not exist. They are solipsists.

Why must we start from this point? Because historically, whenever political questions are discussed, world outlook is never addressed. The most fundamental question is precisely the question of the worldview. Not discussing it will not do. Everything must begin from here.