今天 我请大家再一次思考 I ask you to think again today
我们在这学期课上 about one of the central texts
学习过的一篇主要的文本 that we looked at over the course of this semester
即柏拉图的对话《费德鲁斯篇》中 the famous charioteer's speech
著名的车夫演讲 in the middle of Plato's dialogue the Phaedrus.
我希望从另一个角度再次解读这个演讲 I want to return to this speech
把它作为一种对我们上次所学的 as a kind of response, or a further meditation
《仲夏夜之梦》中一些主题的 on some of the themes we looked at last time
回复或者进一步的思考 from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
我提到过《仲夏夜之梦》这部戏剧 I suggested that, the play A Midsummer Night's Dream,
提出了一个关于爱情的令人不安的问题 raises a rather disturbing question about love.
那就是 It raises the question of
我们对所爱之人的兴趣 whether the object of our romantic interest
是否源于所爱之人本身 becomes interesting to us for himself, for herself,
还是 or rather
这种情爱兴趣在某种程度上 if romantic interest is something that is in some sense
是一个由模仿和竞争组成的 part of a larger social network,
更大的社会网络的一部分 a network of imitation and of competition.
这并不意味着 Now this would not mean that
我们不爱那个我们认为自己爱上的人 we don't love the person who we think we fall in love with,
但这会改变我们 but it would change our sense of
对坠入爱河的意义的理解 what it means that we fall in love.
如果《仲夏夜之梦》中的故事 It might be if the stories in A Midsummer Night's Dream
以一种特殊的方式来认真解读的话 are interpreted in a particular way, and taken to heart,
它或许意味着 it might mean that
坠入爱河就仅仅是担任一个位置 to fall in love is simply to assume a certain position
一个存在于模仿和竞争的社会网络里的位置 within a social network of imitation and competition.
你或许会认为这就是说 You might think that this means that
你对一个人的爱并不是出于所爱之人本身 you don't love the other person for himself, or for herself,
从某个角度来看 and from one point of view,
确实可以这样描述 that could be the way you describe it.
不过 But of course
如果我们把这种更为社会化的爱情观 if we apply this more social view of lover and beloved,
不仅应用到我们所爱之人的身上 not only to those we love,
还应用到作为爱人和所爱之人的我们自身的话 but to ourselves as lovers and as beloveds,
那么 it turns out that
关于自我的构想也会变得非常不同 the picture of the self is very different too.
这并不是说 It is not as if
我是一个真实的 被定义为完全个人的自我 I am a real self, real defined as radically individual
独立于同其他人的 undependent on any of my social relations
任何社会关系 to other human beings,
不是说 as if
我完全是一个个人主义者 I am a radical individualist
而我所爱之人 but the objects of my love alas,
却只是社会网络中的一个节点 are only nodes in the social network.
因为为了做到一致 我们也必须 Because of course, to be consistent, we would have to
把那种关于所爱之人的社会化观点 apply this social view of who and what our beloveds are
运用到我们自身 to ourselves too.
我们是谁 什么让我们真实 It may be that who we are, what makes us real
也许并不带有那么强的个人化色彩 is something less radically individualist
不同于传统上我们对情爱的认识 than our typical picture of romantic love would make it seem.
因此 或许这点是正确的 So that while it may be true that
即我们所爱之人的形象 通过模仿和竞争的关系 our beloveds are made romantically salient to us,
在我们眼里变得越来越突出 in part through relationships of imitation and competition,
但是否与此同时 could it also be the case that
我们关于自我的理解 who we are, our own sense of ourselves
也同样取决于 depends to no smaller extent on where we stand
我们在模仿和竞争的社会网络里的所处的位置呢? in these networks of imitation and of competition?
我们如何去了解自我? How do we know who we are?
我们是否只是简单地在自我中寻求 Do we know simply by looking inward
一种其他人不能直接看到的永恒的实质? at some eternal essence that nobody else can see directly?
又或者 我们是否能够更好地了解自身 Or do we know who we are better
通过采取一种更为客观的 if we take in a certain sense a less subjective view,
旁观者的态度看待自己 a more third-person view of ourselves
通过自己与他人的关系认识自己 if we look at our relationships to other people?
我们如何知道 How do we know
自己是哪一种"兄弟"或"姐妹"呢? what kind of, say, brother or sister we are?
"兄弟"和"姐妹"这两个词本身 The very terms "brother" and "sister"
明显就是社会化的措辞 are clearly socialized terms.
了解什么是"兄弟"或"姐妹" To know what it is to be a brother or a sister
就是通过 is already to know yourself
你与他人的关系去了解你自己 through your relations to certain other humans.
那为什么浪漫爱情就不同呢? Why is it different with romantic love?
我们为什么或多或少地 Why is it that to be in love is something
会期待完整地诠释爱情 we expect to be able to explain, more or less completely,
而不去考虑我们身处的 without looking at that larger social network
那个更大的社会网络呢? in which we are embedded?
是何种对爱情自由的渴望使得我们 What sort of aspiration to romantic freedom is it that makes us
以一种如此个人化的方式来看待自身 see ourselves in this radically individualist way,
以一种逃离 a way that seems to escape
家庭和社会给我们 from the bonds or from the demands
所带来的束缚的方式认识自我 that are put on to us by family, by society,
而这正是《仲夏夜之梦》中 is the escape into the green world
远离父亲和国王而逃进森林 from a father, and from a king
这一情节所要呈现的 in A Midsummer Night's Dream seems to enact.
柏拉图的《费德鲁斯篇》也是一部戏剧性的作品 Plato's Phaedrus is another dramatic work,
关注的是 focused on the question of
情爱世界里自我认识的问题 self-knowledge within the context of erotic love.
我们清楚地记得 We remember very near
在前几页对话的开头里 苏格拉底 the very beginning of the dialogue in the first couple of pages
对他的年轻朋友费德鲁斯 Socrates says something very odd
说了一些奇怪的事 to his young friend Phaedrus.
苏格拉底说如果他不知道费德鲁斯是谁的话 Socrates says that he must be forgetting himself
那他一定也忘了自己是谁 if he doesn't know who Phaedrus is.
因此那时在对话里 Socrates' own model, then, of self-knowledge
苏格拉底关于自我认识的构想 at that point in the dialogue
并不是通过向内寻求 is not that Socrates turns inward
一个完全的自我 onto a radically individual self
来实现对自我的认识 to know who he is.
相反 苏格拉底把视线转向了外部世界 It's instead by looking outward in conversation
通过理解对话里的费德鲁斯 to what he can make of Phaedrus
来了解他自己 that Socrates learns who Socrates is as well.
了解费德鲁斯 To know who Phaedrus is
是了解苏格拉底自己的关键一步 in an essential part of knowing who Socrates is.
苏格拉底并没有把自己封闭在自己的世界 Socrates does not possess himself in some self-sufficient way,
可以选择向他人打开或是关闭 that then he can open or close to other human beings.
相反 正是因为他对 Indeed, it's only in his openness to
费德鲁斯等人敞开心扉 other human beings like Phaedrus
苏格拉底才得以认识自我 that Socrates discovers who he is himself.
从这种观点来看 Considered from this point of view,
当然这不是分析这篇对话的 of course it's not the only point of view available
唯一观点 in the dialogue,
正如爱情的社会意义 no more than the socialized sense of love
不是解读《仲夏夜之梦》 is the only point of view available
的唯一视角一样 in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
但从这种视角来看 But considered from this point of view,
车夫演讲采取了一种非常特殊的形式 the charioteer's speech takes on a very particular form,
特别是车夫演讲中 in particular the part of the charioteer's speech
描绘镜子和眼睛意象的那一部分 that uses the image of the mirror and the eye,
与《仲夏夜之梦》里的 begins to look a lot like
许多方面十分相像 certain aspects of A Midsummer Night's dream.
当一个人看到其所爱之人的美丽 When the lover sees beauty in the beloved,
他并不仅仅把这份美丽归属于那个特定的人 the lover does not merely attach to that specific person,
即那个美丽的所爱之人 that beautiful beloved,
尽管他确实把两者相联系起来 though of course the lover does attach to the beloved.
但是 他也会再次认识自身 But the lover also rediscovers something about himself,
再次发现如果不在恋爱中 rediscovers something that when he's not in love
他就不断受到遗忘的威胁 he's in constant danger of forgetting.
他回归到最好的自我 He returns to what's best in himself,
最高尚的自我 to what's highest in himself,
找回这篇对话 to something that within this dialogue
和《仲夏夜之梦》里都提到过的 as within A Midsummer Night's Dream is understood
所谓神圣圣洁的事物 as something divine, something sacred.
这就是为什么关于偶像和偶像崇拜的语言 This is why the language of idols, even of idolatry,
在柏拉图对话和莎士比亚戏剧中 seems so at home
如此普遍的原因 both in Plato's dialogue and in Shakespeare's play.
只有当爱人向其所爱之人敞开心扉时 But what's striking about the form of self-knowledge
他才能够获得 that the lover can receive, can open to
对自我的认识 only when he's open as well to his beloved,
这种形式的自我认识的特殊之处在于 what's striking about this form of self-knowledge is that
它并不仅是完全个人化的 它同时也是理想化的 it is not radically individualist, it is also idealizing.
柏拉图《费德鲁斯篇》里的车夫演讲中 The lover in Plato's Phaedrus in the charioteer's speech
所提到的爱人绝不是单纯地去满足 does not simply serve whatever particular mundane interests
他在那个特定的时间和空间中所产生的兴趣 he may happen to have at that place and that time,
一点也不是 not at all.
相反 所爱之人的美丽使他摆脱了 Instead, the beauty of the beloved pulls him out
特定时间和空间的束缚 of the particularity of place and time,
使他回到了一个 returns him to the world of myth,
不受时间和空间影响的神话世界 a world that is timeless and placeless.
因此那个被铭记的自我 So that the self that's remembered,
那个在爱情中的崭新的自我 the self that's now embraced a new in the moment of love,
是一个完美的自我 is the self that is perfected,
是一个除去日常琐碎的自我 that has the pettiness of the everyday stripped from it.
对这个所爱之人的认识同时也是 The vision of this particular beloved is at the same time
一种衡量真正的自我的尺度 the measure of what a true self would be.
真正的自我绝不会是完全个人的自我 And the true self is never the radically individual self.
在与费德鲁斯的对话中 The self that Socrates tries to remember
苏格拉底试图铭记的自我 in his conversation with Phaedrus
是从普通的自我中脱胎换骨出来的更好的自我 is a better self from the self that you usually would see.
爱情让你变得比平时更好 Love makes you better than you usually are,
但与此同时 but in making you better than you are
它也会让你更加贴近真实的自我 it also makes you more truly who you are.
因此 从这种观点来看 So that from this point of view,
社会性对爱情来说并不是威胁 the social nature of love is not a threat to love,
而是实现爱情的必要条件 it's the necessary condition of the fulfillment of love.
在这种社会化的爱情观中 On this socialized view of love,
爱情中确实总是存在着模仿 a love that always has in it an imitation, yes,
但却是对一个比过去更高的 but an imitation of a higher self
自我的模仿 from what you are when you are not a lover
从这一观点来看 On this view,
与他人的联系能使你看清自身 the connection to the other that allows you to see yourself,
能够在你和你的想象之间制造足够的距离 to create enough distance between yourself and your vision
从而使你能够看清自己 so that you become visible to yourself.
这种关于实现爱情的构想 This picture of the accomplishment of love
并非是完全自私的 is not an essentially selfish one.
的确 这是一种很具有挑战性的构想 Indeed it's a very challenging one.
我们在柏拉图《会饮篇》最后所看到的 What we see at the end of Plato's Symposium is
正是当挑战失败 what happens when the challenge breaks down,
并不再被接受的时候所发生的事情 can no longer be accepted.
亚西比德产生了怎样的心理变化呢 What happens to Alcibiades
当他对苏格拉底的爱的社会性 when the social nature of his love with Socrates
使他意识到了 reveals to Alcibiades
一个本可以实现的更好的 a better self he could have been,
但却被他拒绝的自我? but that he refuses?
变化是亚西比德感到羞耻 It causes Alcibiades to feel shame
但却不肯完全放弃他对苏格拉底的爱 but never to fully give up his love for the Socrates
因为这份爱不仅显示了苏格拉底的秘密 who reveals to Alcibiades not the secrets of Socrates,
更显示出了真正的亚西比德的秘密 but the secrets of the true Alcibiades.
如果通过忒修斯最后的演讲来分析的话 A Midsummer Night's Dream looks much darker if it's read
《仲夏夜之梦》就会显得更加阴暗 from the point of view of Theseus' concluding speech,
因为忒修斯拒绝承认 because Theseus refuses the notion that
在爱情中显现出来的自我 the self revealed to us when we fall in love
是一个理想的自我 is an idealized self,
是一个促使我们 a self that challenges us
变得比平常更好的自我 to be more than we are in the everyday world.
或许你可以说 忒修斯 Theseus presents the work
把爱情中模仿想象的这件事 of imitative imagination in love
看成一种对自我的恭维 as a work of, you might say, mere flattery of the self,
仿佛疯狂的诗人和情人 as if the poet and the lover like the lunatic
不过是在创造一个 are merely creating a world
他们所熟悉的 可以支配的世界 in which they can be at home and in control.
但这并不是波顿体验爱情戏剧性的方式 That's not the way that Bottom experiences the theatricality,
在一段爱情中担任一方的角色 the taking up of a part within a life of love,
也不适用于 and it's not the way that
车夫演讲中苏格拉底所提出的 Socrates in the charioteer's speech
模仿和反映的景象 presents the prospect of imitation, of mirroring,
以及通过所爱之人来了解自身的观点 of seeing ourselves reflected by our beloveds.
爱情就是我们自身在所爱之人身上的投射 How narcissistic in the end is the view of love as something
这种爱情观有多少自恋的成分? that we in some ways project on to our beloved?
它是完全自私利己的吗? Is it all self-serving? Is it ultimately selfish?
它的自私最多是像试图寻找 It's only as selfish as trying to find your best self,
并不懈追求最好的自我这种做法一样 as being always restlessly in pursuit of it.
当我们坠入爱河时 Whether when we fall in love with somebody
我们究竟是愿意让自己变得孜孜以求 we're willing to take on the project of this restlessness,
愿意不断尝试 this constant attempt
去变得更加完美和完整 to become more perfect, more complete,
还是会让我们所爱之人 我们的伴侣 whether our beloved, whether our spouses
永远都作为 will always be for us
我们提升自己的障碍 a standing challenge to improvement
阻挡我们找到真实的自我 to a truer self-knowledge
会是哪种结果不得而知 is a difficult question.
或许 我们反而会更喜欢 Perhaps instead we'll prefer a view of love
阿里斯托芬演讲中所提到的那种爱情观 that's more like Aristophanes' speech,
回到最初的 where we return to some original
更为舒适的 and much more comfortable sense
人际联系中 of connection to another human-being.
爱究竟应该让我们更加上进 Should our love promote restlessness,
能够激发我们 should it provoke us
对当前的自我感到羞耻 to a certain kind of shame about where we are now
而对未来可能达到的自我感到兴奋? and a certain kind of exhilaration about what we can become?
还是能让我们制造一个舒适区 Or should love instead create a comfort zone,
一个如安东尼居住的封闭的世界 an enclosed world, like the world that Antoine inhabits,
一个我们所有需求都得到满足的世界 a world where all of our needs are met,
而这个世界与狄奥提玛和苏格拉底所发现的 as opposed to that eroticized world
那个需求从未被满足的 that Diotima and Socrates discover
情爱世界正好相反 where our needs are never met
因为每次我们 because every movement
努力去满足自身需求时 toward meeting our needs shows to us
都会发现 我们的需求 our needs are deeper and longer
比此前想象的更为深层次 than we'd ever thought before we arrive at that new point.
我认为 这门课程使用的材料 I think of the material in this course
一次又一次地回归到 as returning over and over again
对需求问题的讨论上 to the question of need, of neediness.
需求是否应该被克服 Is need something to be overcome?
是否应该从生活中被剔除 to be removed from a life,
特别是通过 removed most specially by
找到合适的所爱之人的方式来剔除? finding that comfortable person whom we can love?
又或者 需求本身就是 Or is neediness itself
我们在情爱中所寻求的东西 the experience we should seek in erotic love,
不是实现欲望 not the fulfillment of a desire,
而是不断激发新的欲望 but the ever new provocation of a further desire,
一种变得比开始时更好的欲望 the desire to be more than what we started as.
我认为从柏拉图式的角度 For myself, I find a more platonizing reading
阅读《仲夏夜之梦》会更好 of A Midsummer Night's Dream more satisfying.
我并不认为 忒修斯对爱情和其想象力的 I do not think that Theseus' is rather, as it seems to me,
那种愤世嫉俗的观点 cynical view of love and its imaginative power
是莎士比亚所要表达的思想 is Shakespeare's final word.
但我还是认为柏拉图的思想会更贴近我们的真实 But in the end I think Plato's word is closer to our truth.
但我们还需要进一步探讨 But it remains to be said that both Plato and Shakespeare
柏拉图和莎士比亚作为伟大的作家和思想家 were great enough writers and thinkers
都通过他们的作品批判了 that they embed in their own works a criticism
对于情爱何去何从的积极的解读 of the optimistic reading of where erotic love can take us.
如果情爱使我们变得自恋 If erotic love leaves us as narcissists,
使我们困在一个自己创造的舒适世界里 leaves us enclosed in a comforting world that we create
而不再提出 to hold at bay
满足需求和实现完美的愿望 the demands of our neediness and our imperfection,
那么我们就必须发出疑问 then the question has to be asked
情爱是否是我们所应该追求的 whether it's something we should pursue,
还是我们所应该避免的 or whether perhaps it's something we should avoid.
在这门课中 确实 Certainly there are other texts,
有过一些文本和时刻 there are other moments within this course,
我们看到了质疑的观点 where we see arguments that seem to raise a doubt about
质疑是否能够剔除爱情和情爱中的 whether romantic love and erotic love can ever be cured of
自恋和自私的成分 their narcissism and selfishness.
我认为在很大程度上 I think in a very powerful way
《牙医的秘密生活》是一部令人非常不安的电影 The Secret Lives of Dentists can be a very disturbing movie.
它可以是一部关于戴夫医生的电影 It can be a movie about a man Dr. Dave
他活在自己的世界中 who lives inside his own head,
他不喜欢爱情生活的不完美 who doesn't let the imperfection of his love life
影响到他最真实的 最个人的自我 into his most true, his most radically individual self.
通过创造另一个自我 也就是斯雷特这个角色 By creating his alter ego, the Slater character,
他避免去面对一些事情 he avoids confronting something.
从这个方面来讲 In that respect,
你或许会认为奥赛罗 you might think of Othello
陷入了同样的悲剧之中 as engaged in the same sort of strategy.
奥赛罗从未打破自恋的禁锢 Othello never breaks out of his narcissism,
他一直封闭在自己的世界中 he's always enclosed.
卢安打破了自恋的禁锢吗? Does LuAnn Arceneaux break out of her narcissism?
显然 她对罗杰产生性欲的那一瞬间 Clearly the moment of sexual desire that she feels for Roger
在她差一点就犯下通奸罪时 when she almost commits adultery
是可以用《仲夏夜之梦》中 is asking to be described in the cynical terms
愤世嫉俗的术语来描绘的 derived from A Midsummer Night's Dream,
那是一种社会性的 空虚的欲望 is a kind of social and empty desire
与罗杰这个特定的人几乎没有任何关系 having almost nothing to do with the particular man Roger,
但却与那一夜以及出现危机的 and almost all things having to do with
那次特殊的状况 the particular situation of
有着紧密的联系 that very evening and that moment of crisis.
因此我认为 最终 So I do not think in the end that
下面的问题很难得出答案 there is an easy answer to the question of
我们的自恋 我们对日常的自我的坚持 whether our narcissism, our holding on to this everyday self,
是否正如柏拉图在《费德鲁斯篇》中所言一样 is something that's challenged by love
被爱情所威胁 as Plato would have it in the Phaedrus,
还是被爱情所促进? or is something that's reinforced at last by love.
你们所有人都会成为 All of you would be the great experimenters
这门课程实践部分的伟大实验者 in the lab portion of this course,
特别是在你们自己的婚姻中 particularly in your own marriages,
而以下的问题有待观察 and it remains to be seen,
作为伴侣 你们是会 as spouses whether you will
不断地督促对方去实现新的完美 restlessly call each other to new perfections
还是在财富和大学教育 or whether comfort each other in the everyday selfishness
所带来的自私中互相满足 that wealth and a college education can bring.
带着这个快乐的想法 这学期的课程就此结束 With that happy thought, the semester is over.