我们一直在讨论 We've been talking about the question as to whether
永远不死是否值得期待 or not it would be desirable to live forever,
永生是不是件好事 whether immortality would actually be a good thing,
是像我们大家一般认为的那样 as most of us normally presume,
还是像伯纳德·威廉姆斯所说的那样 or whether in fact, as Bernard Williams argues,
它并不值得期待 it would be undesirable.
我们要研究的问题是 The question we turned to was,
尽可能打开你的思路 just let your imagination run free.
不去考虑苟延残喘地延长 Instead of asking what would it be like to continue living a longer
现实生活中那种每况愈下的生活 kind of trajectory that humans have in the real world
你会生病 where you just get sicker
衰老 有气无力 and more and more frail and incapacitated,
不去考虑那样的永生是否有价值 ask yourself not whether immortality of that sort would be valuable,
而是去考虑是否能描述一种 but is it even so much as possible to describe a life
你想永远过下去的生活 that you would want to live forever?
这是我上节课留给你们的问题 That's the question I left you with last time.
我想我已经表明了我的态度 I think I already tipped my cards on this matter.
我倾向于认同威廉姆斯的观点 I'm inclined to agree with Williams.
我认为不管我们如何定义这种生活 I think that no matter how we try to fill in the blank,
那会是个很长的定义 it's a very long blank.
这里关键的一点就是 永生的意思 The crucial point here for us is that immortality means
并不是活很长时间 not just living a very long time
也不是活特别长时间 or even an extraordinarily long time,
而是永远地活下去 but literally living forever.
我觉得这很难 I think it's very difficult,
实际上我觉得根本就不可能 indeed I think it's impossible,
有你希望永远做下去的事情 to think of anything you'd want to do forever.
我有位朋友 I have a friend who once
有一次跟我说他希望永远活着 claimed to me that he wanted to live forever
这样他可以每天吃泰国菜 so that he could have Thai food every day for the rest of,
直到永远 well, the rest of eternity.
我也蛮喜欢泰国菜的 I like Thai food just fine,
但是一想到要 but the prospect of having
日复一日地吃泰国菜 Thai food day after day after day after day
吃上几千 几万 几亿 几兆年 for thousands, millions, billions, trillions of years
就没那么吸引人了 no longer seems an attractive proposal.
看上去倒更像是一场噩梦 It seems like it becomes some kind of a nightmare.
我前面也举过相同的例子 And the same way that I indicated previously
虽然我喜欢吃巧克力 that although I like chocolate--
我爱巧克力 I love chocolate--
但要让我一直不停地 the prospect of having to eat more and more
不停地吃巧克力 and more and more and more chocolate,
那最后就我就想吐了 eventually the idea becomes a sickening one.
随便举任何一件事 Think of any activity.
你们有些人喜欢玩填字游戏 Some of you may enjoy doing crossword puzzles,
可能每天花上几小时玩玩字谜很有意思 and perhaps doing crossword puzzles a couple hours a day is enjoyable.
但设想让你日复一日地猜字谜 But imagine doing crossword puzzles every day
十年 一千年 for 10 years, 1,000 years,
一万年 一亿年 一兆年 a million years, a billion years, a trillion years.
最后 在我看来 Eventually, presumably, so it seems to me,
你大概会说 "我实在不愿猜字谜了" you'd end up saying, "I'm really tired of crossword puzzles."
当然 还会有一些你从没见过的 Sure, there'd be some new particular puzzle
新字谜 you hadn't seen before,
但你曾经沧海难为水 你会说 but you'd sort of step up a level and say,
"尽管我没做过这个字谜 "Although I haven't seen this particular one before,
但我以前做的已经太多了 I've seen crossword puzzles before.
万变不离其宗 There's really nothing new under the sun here.
尽管这个字谜的组合方式我没见过 The fact that I haven't seen this particular combination of words
但也引不起我的兴趣" isn't enough to make it interesting."
当然 填字游戏也不是什么艰深难题 Well, crossword puzzles aren't a very deep subject,
我们也许仍感疑惑 and we might wonder whether or not
如果我们找到了 we would do better if we were engaged in
更具挑战性的问题 会不会更有意思呢 something more mentally challenging than that.
这也许会给我带来不一样的体验 This may indicate something unusual about me,
我很喜欢数学 but I rather like math.
花大量时间研究数学问题 And the prospect of having a lot of time to pursue math problems
做深入细致的演算看起来很吸引人 of a richer and deeper sort seems fairly attractive.
但即便如此 Yet even there,
当我想到要永远研究数学 when I imagine an eternity of thinking about math--
或者永远研究哲学 or for that matter, an eternity of thinking about philosophy,
比起数学 显然我更喜欢哲学 which I obviously like even more than math--
这都不是令人向往的生活 the prospect seems an unattractive one.
我想不出自己希望永远干什么 I can't think of any activity I'd want to do forever.
当然 这个说法里有漏洞 Now, of course, that's a bit of a cheat
我们并没说过要永远 because the claim isn't to spend eternity
研究数学而不干任何别的事情 doing math problems and nothing but math problems.
我们并非用50 80 100年的时间 Right now, with our 50, 80, 100 years,
并不是每天都干同一件事 we don't fill our day doing only one kind of activity.
我们每天事务纷杂 We fill our day with a mixture of activities.
但这对解决问题毫无帮助 But it doesn't really help
晚上吃泰国菜 中午吃中餐 having Thai food for dinner and Chinese for lunch.
或者周一周三周五吃中餐 Or perhaps Chinese on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays
周六周日吃泰国菜 and Thai on Saturdays and Sundays
每天下午花两个小时研究数学 and spending two hours in the afternoon doing math
早上花三个小时研究哲学 and three hours in the morning doing philosophy.
这样的生活让人向往 That sounds like a pretty pleasant life.
但是 But again,
当你想到永远过这样生活 if you think of the possibility of doing that for all eternity
无法摆脱 and never getting away from it,
无从解放的时候 never being free from it,
我认为 你对永生的美好憧憬 the positive dream of immortality,
就会变成噩梦 I think, becomes a nightmare.
当然 也许我的想象力不够奔放 Well again, maybe I'm not just being creative enough in my imagination.
我过去的一位同事曾描述过 Different former colleague of mine once talked about the prospect of
天堂里神仙般的日子 having a kind of heavenly vision of the divine.
或许那值得永远拥有 Maybe that would be desirable forever.
她描述说 想想当你 And she described it as, think of what it's like to
和一位挚友言语投机 have a really great conversation with a friend
你希望谈话一直继续 that you wish would never end,
除了上帝 except God's
谁也不是如此博学的挚友 this infinitely rich friend
所以这样的谈话值得永远持续 and so the conversation ends up seeming desirable forever.
当然 我可以说这样的话 Well again, I can say the words,
但当我想象这种情形 but when I try to imagine that possibility
认真来看 至少就我个人来讲 and take it seriously, at least speaking personally,
这一点都说不通 it doesn't--it doesn't hold up.
我没有一位朋友 No friend that I've ever talked with is one
我愿意和他永远交谈下去 that I actually would want to spend eternity talking to.
当然 有人可能会说 And it's of course possible to say, well,
只是想象有这样一位朋友 just imagine a friend that
你愿意和他永远交谈下去 you would want to talk through all eternity to.
但问题是 But the whole point is,
我想象不出这种情形 I can't imagine what that would be like.
我尽力去想象一种生活 When I do my best to imagine some kind of existence
它可能令我向往并永远吸引我 that would be desirable or attractive forever,
我想不出来 这简直是场噩梦 it just doesn't work. It becomes a nightmare.
当然 也许我们不用这样 Well again, maybe what we need to do is not so much
想象同样的情形 just imagine the same cycling
一周接着一周不断发生 going through week after week after week,
我们可以拿职业生涯为例 but whole careers.
也许你可以花50年 Maybe you could spend 50 or
或者100年专职研究哲学 100 years pursuing philosophy as your career.
然后花50年或者100年研究数学 And then 50 or 100 years pursuing math as your career.
花50年或100年去旅游 And 50 or 100 years traveling around the world.
花50年或100年去搞艺术 And 50 or 100 years being an artist
画些水彩画 诸如此类 and working on your water colors, or whatever it is.
好了 看上去好像 Well, that certainly seems like
我们能消磨更多的时间 we could probably get more time out of that.
但是 问题的关键在于 But again, the crucial point to remember is
永远的意思是永无尽头 that forever is literally forever.
我想象不出任何一种生活 There's no life that I'm able to imagine
我希望永远过下去 for myself that's one that I would want to take on forever.
当然 你可能会说应该有些生物 Well, you might say surely there could be creatures
会希望永生 that would want to live forever,
会享受永生 that would enjoy an eternal existence.
也许你说得不错 And I think that's probably right.
科学家已经做过如下的实验 So scientists have learned how to do the following.
有一些... There are certain--
你可以在老鼠大脑中植入一个电极 you can take a rat and put an electrode in his brain.
如果电极位置正确 If you put the electrode in just the right place,
那么当电极通电 then when the electrode gets turned on,
它就会刺激老鼠的快乐中枢 it stimulates the pleasure center in the rat's brain
使它获得一阵快感 and it gets a little burst of pleasure,
很强烈的一阵快感 a pretty intense burst of pleasure.
实际上 你可以把电极和导线 And in fact, you can take the wire, the electrode,
接到一个控制杆上 然后教老鼠 and hook it up to a lever and teach the rat
推动控制杆 how to push the lever
使它自己获得快感 and give itself a little burst of pleasure.
现在 老鼠会怎么做呢 Now, what happens to rats when you do this?
或许 不出所料 Well, maybe unsurprisingly,
它们会不停地推控制杆 what they do is, they keep pressing the lever.
实际上 它们不吃不喝地推控制杆 Indeed, they press the lever and they'll stop eating,
它们不再有交配的欲望 they're no longer interested in sex.
它们只是不停地 They basically just give themselves
使自己获得快感 this little orgasmic burst of pleasure--
直到它们死去 well, until they die.
当然 死去对老鼠是件坏事 Now well, of course, it's too bad the rat dies,
但如果我们假设老鼠能够永生 but if we imagine the rat not being mortal--
也许你能给它静脉点滴 perhaps you've got it on IV
补充营养 so it's getting its nutrients that way--
那么很容易想象老鼠 then perhaps it's easy to imagine the rat
会永不停歇地推控制杆 simply pressing the lever forever,
使自己获得快感 getting this intense burst of pleasure
永生永世心满意足地做这一件事 and being content to do that for all eternity.
想象老鼠这么做很容易 So if it's so easy to imagine that for the rat,
为什么不能想象我们自己呢 why not for us?
我们为什么不能如法炮制呢 Why not just put our own orgasmatron hat on with a little--
现在不是老鼠了 而是人类 not rat lever, but now human lever--
控制人脑内电极产生刺激 with the electrodes stimulating our own brains
使我们获得强烈的快感 so that we get this intense burst of pleasure?
我们假设这种快感永不衰竭 And just imagine this intense burst of pleasure going on forever.
还有什么比这更令人神往呢 What could be more desirable than that?
当我想到这件事的时候 Except, when I think about that,
我也请你们思考一下 and I invite you to think about that,
我不觉得这番景象有多吸引人 I don't actually find that an especially attractive prospect.
请注意 Mind you,
我并不是在说 it's not that I think
这种刺激不能使我们永远获得快感 we couldn't be stimulated to get pleasure forever.
我是在说 人和老鼠是有区别的 It's that there's something that distinguishes humans from rats.
当我... 我当然会非常享受 When I--No doubt I would enjoy it.
无疑 你在很长一段时间内也会非常享受 And no doubt you would enjoy it for a very long time.
但我认为过了一段时间 会出现... But I imagine that after a period, there'd be this--
人类有审视自身经历的能力 Well, humans have this ability to look down on their experiences,
或者说跳出圈外 or step back from their experiences,
自我评价的能力 and assess them.
即使现在 我坐在这里讲课 Even now, as I'm sitting here lecturing to you,
我的一部分 part of me,
因为我正在提这个问题 because of this very question that I'm raising,
我的一部分意识在想 课堂效果如何 is thinking about how's the lecture going,
我讲清楚了应该讲清楚的内容了吗 and am I going to get through what I need to get through,
如此这般 and so forth and so on.
我们可以反省自己正在做的事 We can reflect on our first order or base level experiences.
现在 假设你在快乐制造仪里 Now, imagine then that you're in the pleasure-making machine.
过了一会儿 你的部分意识会问 After a while, part of you is going to start asking,
"我怎么觉得这感觉和昨天一样 "Huh, say, it feels the same as it was yesterday,
而且和前天 大前天也一样 and the day before that and the day before that.
我估计明天还是这感觉 I imagine this is how it's going to feel tomorrow,
后天也是 大后天也是" and the day after that and the day after that."
那么最终你会开始发问 And eventually this question would start,
"这就是生活的全部吗 "Is this really all there is to life,
就是这样天天享受快感吗" just simple pleasure like this?"
作为人 不同于老鼠 The thing about being human is, unlike the rat,
我们不是得过且过地活着 you're not just going to stay caught up in the moment.
我们要站在更高的角度 You're going to take this meta-level or higher level standpoint,
来反思这种快感 我们要问 look down at the pleasure and wonder,
"这就是生活的全部吗" "Is this all that there is to life?"
我估计最后 And I think eventually
这个问题会折磨你 that question would gnaw at you
侵蚀你 凌驾于你的快乐之上 and sour and override the pleasure.
最终 你会恐怖地发现 Eventually, you'd become horrified that
实际上 you were, in effect,
你陷入了和老鼠同样的境遇 stuck in this rat-like existence.
当然 你的意识告诉你 Of course, the human part of you is able to say
老鼠般的生活不是全部 there's more to you than this rat-like existence.
确切来说 这部分意识会奋起反抗 But precisely, the human part of you is going to rebel
反抗这没完没了的 at the unending parade of
老鼠一样的廉价快乐 simple rat-like pleasures.
所以 我不认为 So, I don't think
如此永生是件好事 an eternity like that would be such a good thing.
或许对老鼠是好事 但对人不是 Maybe it would be for a rat, but not for a human.
当然 我们可以通过 Of course, we could perhaps deal with
让自己变得像老鼠来解决这个问题 that problem by making us more rat-like
改变我们的思维过程 in terms of our thinking processes.
或许正确切除额叶能做到这一点 Perhaps the right kind of lobotomy would do the trick.
我不太了解具体细节 I don't actually know exactly what it would take,
基本上是剪断你相关的神经连接 but you just cut off and snip the relevant nerve endings
这样我们就不能 so that we're no longer
进行高级思维了 able to engage in that higher order thinking.
再也不会问 No longer able to raise the question,
"这就是生活的全部吗" "Is this all there is?"
再也不能从低级快感中升华出来 No longer able to step back from the first order pleasure.
毫无疑问 通过手术 No doubt, you can turn us
你可以把我们变成像老鼠一样的生物 into creatures like rats in that way.
我估计到那时 And then, I presume,
我们也会永远享受快感了 we would continue to enjoy it forever.
但是真正的问题不在于 But the question isn't really,
你能做些什么 is there something you could
使一个人快乐 do to a human being so that he'd be happy,
或至少永生永世地自得其乐 or at least enjoying himself, forever?
问题实际上是 坐在这里的你们 It's rather, do you, sitting here now,
想象一下那种生活 thinking about that kind of life,
你自己想不想一辈子这么过 do you want that for yourself?
你是否会接受额叶切除手术 Do you want to be lobotomized
至少在目前看来 这是唯一的方法 where that's the only way, at least that we've got so far,
来想象一种你希望永远过下去的生活 to imagine a life that you would enjoy forever.
当然 把我弄成这样子 Sure. Screw me up enough
也许我就喜欢活到永远了 and maybe I'd enjoy being alive forever.
但这不意味着我现在就想这样 But that doesn't mean that I now want that for myself.
对我来讲 That doesn't seem to me
这不是你送给我的礼物 to be some gift you've given me.
对我来讲 That seems to me to be
这是你强加给我的可怕惩罚 some horrible penalty you've imposed on me,
你减少了我身上人的功能 that you've reduced me from being a human being,
使我不能做出正确反应 able to engage in the full range of reflection,
把我变得和老鼠一样 and simply turned me into something like a rat.
所以当问道 So again, when the question is posed,
"有没有一种生活 "Is there a kind of life
让我或你愿意永远过下去"时 that I or you would want to live forever?"
这个问题是问你们的 当前 当下 the question I'm asking is a question to you, here, now.
有没有一种生活 Is there a kind of life that
你愿意永远过下去 you would want to live forever?
不是那种 如果我们改变了你 Not that, if we altered you,
那个东西愿意永远过下去 that that product would want to have forever.
我看不出有这种可能 I can't see how to do it.
对了 还有一种可能性 Well look, there's one other possibility.
我们不做额叶切除手术 Instead of imagining lobotomizing us,
不变成老鼠 turning us into rats,
假设我们只是说 suppose we just say, look,
问题其实就是这样 the problem is really this.
问题就是乏味 The problem, of course, is boredom.
就是单调 The problem is tedium.
就像你研究数学研究烦了一样 The problem is that you get tired of doing math after a while,
一百年 一千年 一万年 100 years, 1,000 years, a million years,
如此这般 你说 whatever it is. You say,
"没错 这里是有个数学问题 "Yeah, here's a math problem
我还没解决 但那又怎样 I haven't solved before, but so what?
我做了太多的数学研究 I've just done so much math,
它对我再没吸引力了" it holds no appeal to me before."
或者 你逛遍了全球各大艺术博物馆 Or, you cycle through all the great art museums in the world
然后你说 and you say,
"没错 我看够了毕加索 "Yeah, I've seen these Picassos.
看够了伦勃朗 I've seen these Rembrandts before.
我已领略了这些作品的所有内涵 I've gotten what there is to get out of them.
难道就没什么新东西了吗" Isn't there anything new?"
问题是 不不 And the problem is no, no.
我们还有 即使还有新作品 We've--even if there's literally new things,
它们也不是什么 they're not the new kinds
使我们耳目一新的东西 of things that can still engage us afresh.
那么 如何解决这个问题 Well, what's the solution to that?
办法大概是某种记忆消除法 The solution to that might be a kind of amnesia,
某种渐进式的记忆消除 a kind of progressive lack of memory.
我现在在这里 一百岁 一千岁 So here I am, 100 years, 1,000 years,
50万岁 反正是很长时间 around 500,000 years, whatever it may be.
你对生活烦透了 You're getting pretty bored with life.
但如果我们现在能让人 But if we now introduce some progressive memory,
逐渐遗忘一些事情 so--a progressive memory loss--
那么我不记得十万年前发生的事了 so that I no longer remember what I did 100,000 years earlier.
到我一百万岁 And by the time I'm a million,
我不记得 I no longer remember what
50万年前 年少时的所作所为了 I was doing when I was a lad of 500,000.
我一百五十万岁的时候 And by the time I'm a million and a half,
我再也记不得那些陈年旧事了 I no longer remember what was happening in oh, back, back.
我知道我一直活着 I know I was alive, perhaps.
或许我以前是不是活着我都忘了 Or maybe I don't even remember that I was alive.
我只记得最近这一到两万年发生的事了 I sort of remember the last 10-20,000 years and that's it.
既然我们处在这种状态 And while we're at it,
我们为什么不彻底改变 why don't we have overhauling
你的爱好 要求和品味呢 of your interests and desires, your tastes?
于是你对音乐的品味 So your tastes in music
在这几千年中逐渐变化 evolve over thousands of years.
你对艺术和文学的兴趣也一样 And your tastes in art or literature.
你现在喜欢数学但你后来不喜欢了 Or, you like math now but then you lose your taste in math,
你变得喜欢 and you become the kind of person perhaps
喜欢中国诗歌了 等等 who's interested in Chinese poetry, whatever it is.
这样能解决问题吗 Wouldn't that do it?
如果我们采用这种 If we had this sort of
完全彻底渐进式的改变 progressive all-radical alteration,
不是一些不痛不痒的改变 not just minimal alteration,
而是彻底改变我的记忆 but radical alterations of my memory,
信仰 愿望 品味 my beliefs, my desires, my tastes.
这难道不是那种 Couldn't that be a kind
永远可以享受的 of existence that would be forever enjoyable
而且不是老鼠那样的永生吗 and yet it wouldn't be a rat-like existence?
我会学习中国诗歌 I'd be engaged in studying Chinese poetry.
我会研究数学 I'd be engaged in doing math.
我会学习天文学 等等 I'd be engaged in studying astronomy, what have you.
这比老鼠过的那种生活强多了 That's far better than the rat's existence.
而且 我不会感到厌烦 And yet, at no point do I become bored,
因为大致说来 because, roughly,
我每个时期都不一样 I'm so different from period to period to period.
实际上 我认为 Well, I think actually,
在一些情况下 这是可以实现的 you probably could tell a story where that was true,
特别是失忆药的剂量足够的情况下 especially if we throw in enough doses of memory loss.
但这个例子应该会使你想起 But this case should remind you of something,
我们以前谈到过的一个例子 because this case is one that we've actually discussed
即 玛士撒拉案例 before under the label of "Methuselah."
玛士撒拉 还记得吗 Methuselah, remember,
当我们谈到人格同一性 when we talked about personal identity,
我们想象一个人 we imagined somebody
我当时说的时间还比较短 -much shorter-lived at that time.
我说的是几百年 一百岁 I think it was several hundred years, a hundred years old,
200 300 600 700 800 900岁 200 years old, 300 years old, 600, 700, 800, 900 years old.
等到玛士撒拉900岁的时候 By the time Methuselah was 900 years old,
他已不再记得任何童年往事了 he no longer remembered anything about his childhood.
当我思考玛士撒拉案例时 我发现 What I found when I thought about the Methuselah case was,
即使有个人是800岁的我 even though it was me at age 800,
和现在站在你们面前的是同一个人 the same person as the one who's standing here in front of you now,
也没什么大不了的 it didn't really matter.
我会说 "那又怎样" I said, "So what?"
当我思考自己想从生存中得到什么时 When I thought about what I wanted in survival,
并不是在想遥远的未来 it wasn't enough that there be somebody
会有个人是我 in the distant future that be me.
这还不够 That wasn't good enough.
那个人一定要和我有足够相似的人格 It had to be somebody with a similar enough personality.
你告诉我 "将有个活着的人 You tell me, "Oh there's going to be somebody alive.
他会是你 但是完全不像你 It'll be you, but it'll be completely unlike you.
口味不同 Different tastes,
不记得自己曾经教过哲学 等等" no memories of having taught philosophy and so forth."
我会说 从形而上学的角度来看 I say, that's all rather interesting
这确实很有趣 from a metaphysical point of view,
但就我个人来讲 我还真不在乎 but speaking personally, I don't really care.
如此生存下来 我一点不感兴趣 It's of no interest to me to survive,
就算念两句咒语 and merely saying the mantra,
"不管怎样 他就是我" "Oh, but it's me"
也不能让我更感兴趣 doesn't make it more desirable to me.
我希望的不仅仅是有个人是我 What I want isn't merely for somebody to be me.
我希望他和我足够一样 I want them to be sufficiently like me.
玛士撒拉案例的问题在于 And the problem with the Methuselah case was,
经过太久时间 他已不再像我了 go far enough out, it's no longer sufficiently like me.
所以其实我并不关心是不是有个人 So I don't really care that there'll be somebody out there
仍然是我 who's still me,
要是他一点也不像现在的我又有何用 if they're so unlike me now.
但这就是我们刚才讨论的 But that's, after all, what we've just described,
循环往复 记忆遗忘中发生的事情 in imagining the cycling with the memory loss.
十万年后可能会有个人 Yeah, there'll be somebody around 100,000 years from now,
五十万年后也会有个人 500,000 years from now,
他们可能是我 and maybe they'll be me.
但我不在乎 I don't care.
我没得到我希望从生存中得到的东西 It doesn't give me what I want when I want to survive.
所以 这或许是一个两难困境 So perhaps we should put the point in the form of a dilemma.
永生是否值得永远拥有呢 Could immortality be something worth having forever?
一方面 Well, on the one hand,
如果这个人一直是我而且像我 if we make it be me and similar to me,
我就会感到厌烦 boredom's going to set in.
唯一的方法是将我的额叶摘除 The only way to avoid that is to lobotomize me,
但这并不可取 and that's not desirable.
如果我们通过渐进式记忆遗忘以及 If we make--If we solve the problem of boredom setting in
彻底改变人格来解决厌烦问题 with progressive memory loss and radical personality changes,
或许你就不会厌烦了 maybe boredom won't set in,
但我不愿这种事发生在自己身上 but it's not anything that I especially want for myself.
那个人是不是我对我并不重要 It just doesn't matter to me that it's me,
就如同有人告诉我 anymore than it would matter to me if they just tell me,
"那时会有另外一个人 "Oh, there'll be somebody else around
喜欢中国诗歌" there who will like Chinese poetry."
所以 什么样的永生会吸引我呢 So, is there a way of living forever that's attractive to me?
我想不出来 I can't think of what it would look like.
所以我赞同伯纳德·威廉姆斯的说法 So, I agree with Bernard Williams
他指出永生不值得拥有 when he says immortality wouldn't be desirable.
它其实是场噩梦 It would actually be a nightmare,
一副你渴望挣脱的枷锁 something you would long to free yourself from.
我们提出这一论断 并不是说 Now, having said that, of course, that doesn't in any way mean
我们在50 80 100岁时 that it's a good thing that we die when we do
死去是件好事 at 50 or 80 or 100.
确实 十万年以后 From the fact that after 100,000 years
一百万年以后 随便多久 or a million years or whatever it is,
生活最终会变得令人厌倦 eventually life would grow tiresome,
但这并不说明 生活会在50年 that hardly shows that life has grown tiresome
80年或100年以后变得令人厌倦 after 50 years or 80 years or 100.
我不相信我能 I don't believe we'll--
在撒手人寰之前 I'll--come close to scratching the surface of
做完我想做事情当中的九牛一毛 what I would enjoy doing, by the time I've died.
我想你们也一样 And I imagine the same thing is true for you.
所以 或许最好的生活形式并不是永生 So perhaps the best form of life would be not immortality;
我认为它不值得期待 I think that would be not particularly desirable.
也不是我们现在这个样子 And not what we've got now,
你只能活上50 80 100年 where you live after a mere drop of 50 or 80 or 100 years.
而是 But rather,
我认为最好的生活形式是 the best thing I suppose would be
想活多长活多长 to be able to live as long as you wanted.
这是朱利安·巴恩斯在他 This is the sort of thing that Julian Barnes basically imagines
《梦想》篇章里想象的事情 in the chapter "The Dream"
我让你们读过它 That I had you take a look at.
巴恩斯想象天堂就是 Barnes envisions heaven as
你可以一直做你想做的事情 a situation which you can stick around doing what you want to do
只要你想做就可以 for as long as you want to do it.
但是巴恩斯指出 But Barnes says,
最终你会厌烦的 eventually you'll have enough.
当你厌烦了 你就可以停下来 And once you've had enough, you can put an end to it.
不过 我们能否结束生命 Still--the fact that we can put an end to it,
这一点我们一直在强调 that's the point we've already been flagging,
即 永生并非是件好事 that immortality would not be so good.
但这里的新思想是 But the new thought here is
理想生活就是 what would be good would be
活到满意为止 being able to live until you were satisfied,
活到你领略了生命中所有的美好事物 until you'd gotten what goods there were to get out of life.
这一观点让我们想起 What all this suggests, then,
这也是我以前讲过的观点 and this is a point that I really made before,
对剥夺说最好的理解并不是说 is that the best understanding of the deprivation account doesn't say
我们必有一死这件事是坏事 that what's bad is the mere fact that we're going to die.
如果永生确实不值得期待 If I'm right in thinking immortality would be undesirable,
那么我们必有一死就是好事 then the fact that we're going to die is good,
因为它保证我们不会永生 because it guarantees that we won't be immortal,
那会是场噩梦 永远醒不来的噩梦 which would be a nightmare, an unending nightmare.
不过 即使我们终将死去不是坏事 Still, even though it's not a bad thing that we will die,
死亡发生时仍然可能伤害我们 it could still be a bad thing that we die when we do.
我们仍然可能死得太早 It could still be the case that we die too soon.
剥夺说指出 死亡是坏事 According to the deprivaton account, death is bad,
当它发生时 when it's bad,
它剥夺了我们生命中的美好事物 because of the fact that it deprives us of the good things in life,
只要我们活着就能得到的美好事物 insofar as we would have continued to get good things in life.
但如果生命不能再给你好东西 But if life would no longer have anything good to offer you,
如果你将得到的 if what you then would have had would have been
是负面的 而不是正面的东西 something negative instead of something positive,
那么这时 死亡就不是坏事 then at that point, dying wouldn't actually be a bad thing.
它会是好事 It would be a good thing.
死亡只有在剥夺了你 Death is bad insofar as it deprives you of
生命中的美好事物时才是坏事 a chunk of life that would have been good.
如果它剥夺了你悲惨的未来 Insofar as it deprives you of a future that would have been bad,
那么死亡就不是坏事而是好事 then death's not actually bad, it's actually good.
如此阐述这个观点 Now, in stating this view this way,
我已经假设 I'm obviously presupposing
我们至少可以 that we can make these kinds of, at least,
对生活质量做出某种全面的评估 overall judgments in terms of the quality of your life,
你过得有多好 how well off you are.
生活给了你好东西 还是坏东西 Is life giving you good things, or is life giving you bad things?
是值得继续活下去 Is it worth continuing to live,
还是不值得继续活下去 or is it not worth continuing to live?
所以我打算转到这个话题 So, I want to turn to that topic and spend oh,
大概花上一节课多一点的时间 probably the better part of a lecture or so.
包括这堂课的后半部分和 The rest of today and some
下节课的一些时间来讨论 of next time talking about the question of,
什么是美好的生活 well, what is it for a life to go well?
我们如何评估 How do we assess what
一种生活是好的还是坏的 makes a life--a good life versus a bad life?
我说的不是高尚的生活 And I don't mean morally good life.
我是指 对活在其中的人有益的生活 I mean, good for the person whose life it is.
一种你认为 A life that you think,
"我从中受益"的生活 "I'm benefiting from having this life."
它包含了什么元素 成分和内容 What are the ingredients or constituents or elements
是坏生活里没有的 of a good life versus a bad life?
当然了 这并不意味着 And of course, since it's not
非黑即白 不是好生活就是坏生活 just black and white, good life or bad life,
而是关于程度的不同 but various shades of gray,
好点的生活和差点的生活 better lives and worse lives,
那衡量好坏生活的 what's the yardstick by virtue of which
标准是什么呢 we measure better and worse lives?
好生活里面包含了什么 What goes into a good life?
思考这个问题的时候 Now, in thinking about this question,
你可以把它看作是对幸福本质的探讨 this is--you might think of the topic as the nature of wellbeing.
和我们课程中的其它话题一样 And like all the other topics we've talked about in this class,
它也是个复杂的问题 it's a complicated subject,
需要花大量时间来研究 about which one could spend a great deal of time.
我们现在要做的 All we're going to do here is really just,
和以前一样 点到为止 once again, scratch the surface.
但首先要说的第一个问题 But the very first point that needs to be made,
我觉得是这样的 I think, is this.
如果你开始罗列生活中值得拥有的东西 If you start listing all the things worth having in life,
看上去你似乎很难 it might seem as though you couldn't possibly
把它们分门别类 come to any general organizing principles.
想一想 什么东西值得拥有 Think about it. What's worth having?
好了 工作值得拥有 Well yeah, jobs are worth having.
钱值得拥有 性值得拥有 Money's worth having. Sex is worth having.
巧克力值得拥有 Chocolate's worth having.
冰淇淋值得拥有 Ice cream's worth having.
空调值得拥有 Air conditioners are worth having.
什么事应该避免 What are some of the things worth avoiding?
应该避免失明 Well, being blind is worth avoiding.
应该避免被劫 Being mugged is worth avoiding.
应该避免腹泻 应该避免痛苦 Diarrhea is worth avoiding. Pain's worth avoiding.
应该避免失业 Getting unemployed is worth avoiding.
应该避免战争 War is worth avoiding.
我们如何理出其中的头绪 What kind of systematicity could we possibly bring to all of this?
我认为最重要的一个区分是 Well, the crucial, I think, first distinction is this.
我们需要分清 We need to separate between
那些因其结果而有价值的东西 those things that are good because of what they lead to.
严格来说 That is, more strictly,
只因其结果而有价值(的东西) only because of what they lead to.
以及自己本身就有价值的东西 And those things that are valuable for their own sake
或者说因其自身性质(就有价值的东西) or in their own right.
以工作为例 Take something like a job.
工作值得拥有 为什么呢 A job's worth having. Why is a job worth having?
工作值得拥有是因为 Well, a job's worth having because,
除其它因素外 它能给你发钱 well, among other things, it gives you money.
好了 钱值得拥有 All right. Money's worth having. All right.
为什么钱值得拥有 Why is money worth having?
钱值得拥有是因为 除其它因素外 Well, money's worth having because, among other things,
你可以拿它买冰淇淋 you can buy ice cream with it.
好的 为什么冰淇淋值得拥有 All right. Why is ice cream worth having?
冰淇淋值得拥有是因为 Well, ice cream's worth having because
当我吃冰淇淋时 when I eat ice cream
我有快乐的感觉 it gives me this pleasurable sensation.
好了 为什么快乐的感觉值得拥有 All right. Why is the pleasurable sensation worth having?
问到这里 我们的回答不一样了 At this point, we get a different kind of answer.
在这里 我们说 At this point, we say something like,
快乐因其自身原因值得拥有 pleasure is worth having for its own sake.
其它事情的价值在于 The other things were valuable
它们是获得最终快乐的手段 as a means, ultimately to pleasure.
而快乐因其自身原因值得拥有 But pleasure is worth having for its own sake.
因作为手段而具有价值的事情 The things that are valuable as a means
我们称之为具有"工具价值" we can say are instrumentally valuable.
因其自身原因具有价值的事情 The things that are worth having for their own sake,
哲学家称之为具有"内在价值" philosophers call intrinsically valuable.
如果我们审视一下前面那个 If we look back at that long,
好坏事情的冗长列表 open-ended list of things that were good or bad,
我们会发现上面大多数东西 we'll find that most of the things on that list
都是有工具价值的东西 are instrumentally good.
它们因其结果而有价值 They're good because of what they lead to.
或者相反 招致损害 Or, for that matter, instrumentally bad.
为什么疾病是坏事 Why is disease bad?
除其它因素外 Well, among other things,
它意味着你不能享受生活 it means perhaps that you can't enjoy yourself.
它剥夺了你的快乐 So it deprives you of pleasure.
或者它可能意味着 当你生病 Or perhaps it means because you're sick,
你无法保住工作 you can't hold your job down.
如果你无法保住工作 If you can't hold your job down,
你就挣不到钱 如此这般 you can't get the money and so forth and so on.
最终 列表上的坏事大多是 Ultimately, most of the negative things on that list were
招致损害的坏事 instrumentally bad.
列表上的好事大多是 Most of the good things on that list
使你受益的好事 were instrumentally good.
如果我们想探究 If we want to get anyplace on the question
美好生活的本质 about the nature of the good life,
这两类作为手段的事情 what we need to focus on is not the
都不是我们关注的焦点 instrumental goods and bads,
我们关注的焦点是本质上的好事和坏事 but rather the intrinsic goods and bads.
你需要问自己 You've got to ask yourself,
"什么样的事情因其自身原因值得拥有 "What's worth having for its own sake?
它本身就值得拥有" What's worth having in and of itself?"
很自然我们会想到 Well, one natural suggestion is
快乐因其自身原因值得拥有 that pleasure is worth having for its own sake
痛苦因其自身原因应该避免 and pain is probably worth avoiding for its own sake.
所以痛苦是本质上的坏事 So pain's probably intrinsically bad;
快乐是本质上的好事 pleasure is intrinsically good.
顺便提一下 从逻辑上讲 Notice by the by that logically speaking,
并没有什么限制一件事不能两者皆是 there is nothing that stops the very same thing from being both.
而且实际上 And actually
你还可以得到其它各种组合 you can get other weird combinations.
你去看牙 牙医戳着你的牙问 You go to the dentist and he pokes you. He says,
"这里疼吗 那里疼吗" "Does this hurt? Does that hurt?"
以此来确定牙龈发炎的地方 in order to try to figure out where there's gum disease.
他引起的疼痛本身是件坏事 And the pain that he causes is intrinsically bad.
本质上的坏事 In and of itself it's bad.
但尽管如此 它还是有用的 Yet, for all that, it's being useful there.
它作为一种手段帮助诊断牙龈炎 It's providing a means of deciding where the gum has decayed.
帮助牙医治愈你的疾病 And that allows the dentist to improve your gums,
这样你以后就不会再牙疼了 which avoids more pain down the road.
所以你现在忍受的疼痛 So the pain you're suffering
实际上具有工具价值 now is actually instrumentally valuable,
是一种有价值的手段 useful as a means,
即使它在本质上是坏事 even though it's intrinsically bad.
同样的 当我工作的时候 Similarly, when I work,
我很开心 I enjoy myself.
这时候的快乐具有内在价值 And so the pleasure I'm getting then is intrinsically good.
但它同时也具有工具价值 But it's also instrumentally good.
由于我工作开心 The fact that I'm enjoying
所以我会干得更努力 myself makes it easier for me to work harder.
或许会更有效率 Perhaps I'm more productive,
把工作做得更好 I do better at my job.
所以这里 快乐同时具有内在价值 So the pleasure is both intrinsically valuable
和工具价值 and instrumentally valuable.
没人说一件事只能非此即彼 So there's no claiming that things have to be one or the other,
不能全占着 but not both.
不过 为了明晰 Still, in trying to get clear
幸福的本质 about the nature of wellbeing,
我们关注的焦点 the crucial thing to do is to focus not
不应该放在工具价值上 on the question about instrumental value,
而应该放在内在价值上 but rather to focus on the question of intrinsic value.
什么事情因其自身原因值得拥有 What things are worth having for their own sake,
而不管它们是否还具有工具价值 whether or not those things also have instrumental value,
诸如此类 or what have you?
什么事情因其自身原因值得拥有 What things are worth having for their own sake
什么事情因其自身原因应该避免 and what things are worth avoiding for their own sake?
通过上面那些例子 Well, in giving these examples,
我已经指出 I've already indicated
至少有两件这样的事情 at least two things that belong on the list.
看起来很合理 It seems pretty plausible
快乐就是本质上的好事 to think pleasure is intrinsically good.
生命中 即使不是唯一的 One thing, maybe not the only thing,
至少也是一件值得拥有的事 but at least one thing, that goes into a life worth having
就是去享受 是快乐 is enjoying it, is pleasure.
反过来 一件本质上的坏事 And one thing that seems intrinsically bad,
一件减少生命价值的坏事 one thing that seems to reduce the value of a life,
就是痛苦 is pain.
大多数人都同意 Most of us agree then,
快乐具有内在价值 pleasure is intrinsically valuable;
而痛苦本质上消减价值 pain is intrinsically negative, unvaluable,
它是负面的 has anti-value.
假设我们现在做个结论 Well, suppose we make for, the moment,
做个大胆的哲学上的推测 the bold conjecture, the philosophical claim,
快乐以及痛苦不仅仅是... that not only is pleasure and the absence of pain,
快乐不仅仅是某件好事 not only is pleasure one good thing
痛苦不仅仅是某件坏事 and pain one bad thing.
假设这就是全部 Suppose that's the entire list.
假设我们认为唯一的 Suppose we conjecture that the only thing
本质上的好事就是快乐 intrinsically valuable is pleasure
唯一的本质上的坏事就是痛苦 and the only thing intrinsically bad is pain.
这种观点叫"享乐主义" That view is called hedonism.
享乐主义吸引了很多人的关注 So hedonism is a view that many people are attracted to,
或许有些同学也相信它 perhaps some of you believe.
它对幸福本质做了非常简单的解释 It's got a very simple theory of the nature of wellbeing.
幸福就是享受快乐 Being well off is a matter of experiencing pleasure
最大限度地避免痛苦 and avoiding or minimizing the experience of pain.
这就是享乐主义 That's hedonism.
我们稍后再讨论 A little later we'll turn to the question of,
如果享乐主义不是正确的理论 well, if hedonism is not the right story,
好坏事情的列表上还要包含什么 what else belongs on the list,
或者它就是正确的理论 or is it the right story?
我们稍后再谈这个问题 We'll turn to that question a little bit later.
请注意 如果我们接受享乐主义 But notice that if we've got hedonism or,
或者我们稍后会看到的 for that matter as we'll see,
其它的幸福理论 some other theories of wellbeing,
如果我们接受享乐主义 if we've got hedonism,
我就能够做出这类评估 we're able to make the kinds of evaluations
可以帮助自己决定 that I was helping myself to
就像我几分钟前谈到的 when I started talking a few minutes ago about well,
如果生命对你一无是处 you know, if what life would hold for you is bad overall,
那你还不如死了 如此这般 then you're better off dying and so forth.
我们如何做出上述判断 What's going on when we make those judgments?
享乐主义为我们 Well, the hedonist offers us
提供了简单直接的工具 a very simple straightforward answer.
判断你的生活是否值得拥有 In deciding whether what life holds for you is worth having,
是否聊胜于无 better than nothing,
大概说来 you, roughly speaking,
你可以把所有快乐时间加在一起 add up all the good times
减去所有痛苦时间 and subtract all the bad times
然后看看结果是正是负 and see whether the net balance is positive or negative.
把全部快乐相加 减去全部痛苦 Add up all the pleasures, subtract all the pains.
如果结果是正的 If the balance is positive,
你的生活就值得过下去 your life is worth living.
结果若为正 且数字越大 And the more positive the balance, the bigger the number,
你的生活就越值得过下去 the more your life is worth living.
如果结果是负的 If the balance is negative though,
想想这说明了什么 think about what that would mean.
如果结果是负的 If the balance was negative,
这说明你未来的痛苦多于快乐 you're saying your future holds more pain overall than pleasure.
这就是负数 And that's a negative.
你最好还是死掉得了 不是吗 You'd be better off, well, you'd be better off dead, right?
因为如果你死了 Because if you were dead,
你就没有快乐也没有痛苦了 you'd have neither pleasure nor pain.
我们可以说 That's going to presumably be given--
如果用数字表示的话 mathematically if we gave it a number,
你的数字是零 we'd slap a zero on that.
不是正数 不是负数 当然是零 No positive number, no negative number. That's a zero. Obviously,
如果快乐减去痛苦是正数 if the balance of pleasure over pain is positive,
那它比零好 that's better than zero.
如果痛苦减去快乐 But if the balance of pain over pleasure--
如果痛苦比快乐多 If there's more pain than pleasure
那么结果是负数 so that the balance is negative,
它比零差 是一个不值得过的生活 that's worse than zero. That's a life not worth having.
这就是享乐主义的说法 That's what the hedonist says.
享乐主义有不同的方法 Now, there's different ways of working out the details of
计算细节 the hedonist view.
毕竟 It's not, after all,
不是所有快乐痛苦在数值上都一样 as though all pleasures count equally or all pains count equally.
刺到脚趾的痛苦和 The pain of stubbing your toe obviously doesn't count
偏头痛的痛苦在数值上不一样 for nearly as much as the pain of a migraine,
它们和受折磨的痛苦也不一样 which doesn't count nearly as the pain of being tortured.
所以我们需要制定 And so we might need to work out various,
纷繁复杂的公式 more complicated, formulas here,
用痛苦乘上 where we multiply the pain times
它持续的时间以及它的强度 its duration and take into account its intensity,
得到痛苦数量 get the sheer quantity of pain that way.
同样 快乐也可以持续更长时间 And similarly, pleasures can be longer lasting,
强度更大 or more intense.
你可以想象具体细节 You can imagine how some of those details might go,
有些问题会变得相当棘手 and then some of the questions get rather tricky.
但只就我们的目的而言 But for our purposes,
我们不用去关心那些细节 we don't really need to worry about the details.
这个想法 大致说来 The thought is, roughly,
就是用某种合适的方法衡量快乐和痛苦 weigh up the pleasures and pains in some appropriate way.
把快乐相加 把痛苦相加 Add up the pleasures. Add up the pains.
看一下全部的快乐是否大于 See whether the grand total of pleasures is greater
全部的痛苦 than the grand totals of pain.
数字越大 你的生活越好 The more positive the number, the better your life.
现在 有了这一工具 Now, armed with an approach like this,
你能做的不局限于评估整个生命 we can do more than just evaluate entire lives.
当然了 我们能做的一件事情就是 Well, one thing we can do is just that.
我们能评估整个生命 We can evaluate entire lives.
你来到天国之门 There you are at the pearly gates
回顾自己的一生 and you look back on your life and you could,
原则上 你可以把所有快乐加起来 in principle, add up all the pleasures,
把所有痛苦加起来 add up all the pains,
从快乐中减去痛苦 subtract the pains from the pleasures
然后问自己 and ask yourself,
"我的生活过得怎么样呢 "How good a life did I have?
我的一生有多幸福呢" How well off was I, having lived that life?"
或许你会想象另一种生活 And perhaps then you could imagine alternative lives.
如果我当时做医生了 If only I had chosen to become a doctor,
而不是做律师 instead of having chosen to become a lawyer.
我的生活会变得幸福或悲惨多少 How much better off or worse off would I have been?
或者 如果我成为艺术家 Or if I decided to become an artist
或是学者 或是海滨流浪汉 or a scholar or a beach bum
或是农夫 or a farmer,
我的生活会变得幸福或悲惨多少 how much better off or worse off would I have been?
那个数字会变大或变小多少 How much greater or smaller would the number go?
尽管我一直在说数字 Despite my talking about numbers, of course,
但这并不意味着 there's no particular assumption
我们真能把它们精确数字化 that we can really give precise numbers to this.
而且我们也不认为 And we certainly don't think
大多数人真能 that in fact most of us are in the position
计算出某种精确的数字 to actually crank out any kind of accurate number.
大多数人没有足够的信息 Most of us don't know enough to know
来精确了解 with a high degree of accuracy
生活会变成什么样 how things would have gone had
如果我选择做农夫而不是做哲学家 I decided to become a farmer instead of a philosopher.
不过 享乐主义也没说 Still, the hedonist isn't saying
从实用的角度出发 from a practical point of view
我们真能这样做 we can necessarily do this.
它说的是理论上 原则上 But in theory, in principle,
当我们面临选择 犹豫不决时 this is what we're wondering about when we face choices.
我们可以问自己 We can ask ourselves,
"我们的生活会变成怎样 "What would our life look like?
会变好还是变坏" Would it be better or worse?"
至少 我们可以采用的一个标准是 And the yardstick that we're at least doing our best to apply is
用快乐减去痛苦 one of measuring up the pleasure and subtracting the pain.
当然 享乐主义也指出 And of course, the hedonist will also hasten to point out
尽管我们不能精确无误地算出结果 that just because we can't do this perfectly or infallibly,
但这并不意味着我们不能做出有根据的推测 that doesn't mean we can't make educated guesses, right?
你决定是上耶鲁读大学 You're trying to decide should you go to Yale for college
还是去俄亥俄州立大学 or should you go to Ohio State
还是上哈佛 如此这般 or Harvard or wherever else you got into,
你问自己 and you ask yourself, well,
你试着规划未来 你问自己 you try to project your future and you ask,
"去哪个地方对我更有好处 "Where do I think I'd be better off?
我面临的这些选择 Which of these branches that are available to me,
人生的岔路 the branches of my life story,
哪条路会带来 which is the one in which the future from here
更多的快乐和更少的痛苦" on out holds more pleasure and holds less pain?"
这就是享乐主义说的思考方法 That's how the hedonist says we should think about it.
顺便提一下 And notice by the by,
当我们对未来作出选择时 that when we make choices about our future,
至少从享乐主义的角度看 from the hedonist point of view, at least,
没有必要考虑之前的事情 there's no particular need to dwell a whole lot on the past,
因为发生的已经发生了 because what's done is done.
我们改变不了 You're not going to alter
以前你获得的快乐 how much pleasur you enjoyed previously,
和你承受过的痛苦 how much suffering you've undergone previously.
只有将来是未定的 What's open is the future.
所以我们不仅能评估全部生活 And so we're able to evaluate not just lives as a whole,
如同站在天国之门回顾一生 looking back at the pearly gate.
我们也能评估从此以后的生活 We're able to evaluate lives from here on out.
哪一条未来之路 Which of the various futures
能带给我更美好的生活 that are open to me are likely to give me the better life,
使我更幸福 leave me better off,
那种用快乐和痛苦衡量的幸福 measured in terms of pleasure or pain?
我们尽力评估 And we do our best,
不管未来是好是坏 however good or bad that may be.
我们尽力在其中比较 We do our best to make such comparative evaluations.
当然了 And of course,
我们不仅可以评估从此以后全部的生活 we can do more than just evaluate the entire rest of my life.
我们也可以评估明年或下半年 We can evaluate the next year or the next six months or,
或者 今晚的事情 for that matter, just this evening.
我们会谈到 今晚该做些什么呢 I can talk about, well, what should I do tonight?
我应该呆在家里写论文 Should I stay home and work on my paper?
还是去参加聚会 Should I go to the party?
哪一个会使我今晚过得更愉快 Where will I be better off tonight?
我大概更喜欢参加聚会 Well, I'll probably enjoy myself more at the party
而不是写论文 than I will working on the paper.
而且离论文交稿还有段时间 诸如此类 And the paper's not due for a while and so forth.
我们不仅可以评估整个生活 We make evaluations not just of entire lives,
还可以评估生活中的一部分 but of chunks of lives.
好了 All right.
如果我们接受享乐主义 That's what we can do
这些就是我们所能做的 if we accept hedonism.
但我们还未确定是否应该接受享乐主义 But haven't yet asked, should we accept hedonism?
即便知道一些同学 Now, it will not come as news to me
甚至很多同学接受享乐主义 if I were to learn that several of you, maybe even many of you,
我也不会吃惊 in this class accept hedonism.
这是个很流行的观点 It's a very popular view.
不仅在哲学家中 Not just among philosophers where it's a view
从哲学诞生起就有这个观点 that's been around as long as there's been philosophy,
而且也存在于街头巷尾之中 but among people in the street.
这是个很有吸引力的观点 It's a very tempting view to think,
什么使得生活值得拥有 what makes life worth having
什么东西因其自身原因值得拥有 and the only thing worth having for its own sake,
是获得快乐和避免痛苦 is having pleasure and avoiding pain.
但话虽如此 But for all that,
尽管这个观点很流行 despite the popularity of that view,
我个人认为它肯定是错的 I'm inclined to think it must be wrong.
并不是说我认为快乐不好 痛苦不坏 It's not that I think pleasure isn't good and pain isn't bad.
享乐主义的问题在于 Where hedonism goes wrong is
它认为只有这两样事是重要的 when they say it's the only thing that matters.
我认为美好的生活不仅仅意味着 I'm inclined to think there's more to the best kind of life
获得快乐和避免痛苦 than just having pleasure and avoiding pain.
我以前讲过 Now, I already revealed that,
当谈到老鼠快乐机的时候 when I was talking about the rat lever machine.
我说 把我放进去我也能自得其乐 I said, hook me up to that machine and I'll enjoy myself.
但我不想这样 But I don't want that for myself.
为什么 因为生活中除了 Why? Because there's more to life
快乐和避免痛苦之外还有其它东西 than just pleasure and the absence of pain,
起码我是这样认为的 or so it seems to me.
也许我们会说 Still, we might say,
老鼠的那种快乐不是唯一的快乐 but the rat lever is not the only kind of pleasures there are.
还有其它快乐 比如欣赏艺术 There's all these pleasures of experiencing art
陶醉于落日余晖 and seeing a beautiful sunset.
我不知道你们怎么想 And I don't know about you,
但至少当我想到老鼠快乐机时 but at least when I imagine the rat lever thing,
它确实是那种廉价的 无差别的快感 it's a sort of simple, undifferentiated pleasure.
所以 它不说明问题 So, that really won't do the trick
它没有给我们带来 in giving us the best quality pleasures
人类渴望的那种高层次快乐 of the kinds that humans most crave--
深厚的友情 流畅的沟通 the pleasures of friendship and discussion
两性的亲密 and sexual intimacy.
这种快乐 老鼠快乐机提供不了 These pleasures the rat lever machine wasn't giving us.
那么难道享乐主义就正确了吗 So couldn't hedonism still be true?
难道它就正确了吗 Couldn't it still be the case
只要我们考虑了乐趣的重要性 that as long as we take into account the importance
找到了正确的乐趣类型 of getting the right kinds of pleasures,
并把快乐定义为 then really pleasure is
是且只是这种乐趣 就可以了吗 what it's all about and all that it's about?
不 我仍然认为它是错的 No, I think that's still not right.
但确实 But indeed,
我们需要换一台 we'll need to move to
比老鼠快乐机更高档的机器 something fancier than the rat lever machine.
罗伯特·诺齐克就此提出过一个思想实验 Here, the relevant thought experiment was suggested by Robert Nozick,
他是个哲学家 几年前去世了 a philosopher who died a few years ago,
生前在哈佛任教多年 taught for many years at Harvard.
诺齐克让我们想象一台体验机 Nozick invited us to imagine an experience machine.
假设科学家发明了一种方法 So, suppose that the scientists have discovered a way
不仅仅是刺激 not just to stimulate the
你脑部特定的快乐中枢 particular little pleasure center of the brain,
而是让你彻底融入 but basically to--give you basically,
纷繁复杂的虚拟现实中 completely realistic virtual reality.
那么当你进入这台机器 So that when you are hooked up to the machine,
你会获得一模一样的感觉 it seems to you exactly the same on the inside
就如同你真的在做... as it would seem to you if you really were--
这里可以填上各种事情 and now fill in the blank.
你体验到一模一样的攀登珠峰的感觉 You could have the identical experience of climbing Mount Everest,
比如说 你感到风拍打着你的身体 let's say, so that you'll feel the wind bracing you.
当然 你不会真的被风吹打 Of course, you won't really feel any wind.
严格来讲 这不是真的 Strictly speaking, that's not true,
因为你没站在珠峰上 because you're not up on Mount Everest.
这里没有风 There is no wind.
真正发生的事情是 What's really going on is
你泡在心理学家的水槽中 you're floating in the psychologist's tank
头上布满电线 待在他们的实验室里 in their lab with the electrodes hooked up your brain.
但是你不知道自己泡在水槽里 But you don't know that you are floating in the tank.
进入机器以后 Hooked up to the machine,
你相信自己正在攀登珠峰 you believe you are climbing Mount Everest.
你感到成功登顶的喜悦 You feel the thrill of having made it to the top
劲风拍打着 and the wind bracingly
你的下颚 你感到满足 striking your chin and you feel the satisfaction
你还记得绳索绷断时 and you've got the memories of having almost died
你命悬一线 when the rope broke before.
这和看3D电影不一样 It's not like being at the IMAX.
问题的关键是 当你看3D电影时 The crucial point, when you're at the IMAX is,
虽然也很真实 although it's very realistic,
但你的一部分意识知道自己在电影院里 part of you is aware that you're just in the theatre.
但在体验机里 But on the experience machine,
你不知道自己是在实验室里 you don't know you're just in the lab.
当你在体验机里 When you're on the experience machine, you've got--
你的大脑接受一定方式的刺激 your brain is being stimulated in such a way
你心里产生一模一样的体验 that you've got the identical experience on the inside to
就如同你真的在做这件事一样 what it would feel like if you really were doing these things.
所以 想象在体验机里的生活 So, imagine a life on the experience machine.
想象放入一盘磁带 Imagine plugging in the tape.
想想这是个多老的例子 Says something about how old this example is
我们居然还在谈放入磁带 that we talk about plugging in the tapes.
想象放入一张DVD Imagine plugging in the DVD, or whatever it is,
里面存放了所有最棒的体验 with all of the best possible experiences.
什么都有 Whatever you think those are.
这里 也许不同人有不同要求 Here, you might imagine different people disagreeing about--
好的 我们放入一些 oh, but throw in something--
比如你想写一部伟大的美国小说 but if what you want to do is write the great American novel,
那么你就会体验到这种经历 then you've got the experience
你枯坐到深夜 of staying up late at night
文思枯竭 not knowing how to make the plot work out,
把稿纸揉成一团扔到一边 crushing pieces of paper and throwing them away.
摔烂你的计算机 Crushing your computer,
或者什么别的东西 or whatever it is that you
看你用什么写小说了 do as you write the great American novel.
或者你希望发现癌症的治疗方法 Or you want to be finding the cure for cancer.
那么你就得到了一模一样的体验 So you've got exactly the experience you would have
你在实验室工作 if you were working in your lab
获得了重大突破 having the brilliant breakthrough
你最终发现了 when you finally realize what the combination is
抗生素的正确配比 等等 that would make the right antibody, whatever it is.
或者你希望看到最美丽的落日 Or if you want to be observing all the most beautiful sunsets
最迷人的风景 and the most exotic locales,
你得到了一模一样的体验 you've got exactly the experience you would have
就如同你真的在做这些事一样 if you were doing all these things.
这就是在体验机里的生活 That's life on the experience machine.
这些事 你一件都没做 You're not doing any of it.
你泡在实验室里 You're floating in the lab.
但是体验是一模一样的 But the experiences are identical.
现在 问问你自己 Now, ask yourself then,
你希望自己一生 would you want to spend
都在体验机里度过吗 your life hooked up to the experience machine?
问问你自己 如果你发现 Ask yourself, how would you feel
你现在正生活在 if you discovered now that you have been living
体验机里 你会有什么感觉 your life hooked up to an experience machine?
这里 我需要做些说明 Now, I've got to make a footnote here.
这一完美精妙的哲学案例最近几年 This perfectly glorious philosophical example has been ruined
被《黑客帝国》这部电影毁了 in recent years by the movie The Matrix.
现在 不论何时我讲这个例子 Because whenever I tell this story now,
人们就会说 people start saying,
"这台邪恶的机器 "Oh, well the evil machines
忙着用你的肉体当电池" are busy using your body as a battery"
或者什么别的 不是吗 or whatever it was in the movie, right?
还有 "当我体验这些事情的时候 And "What if people are nefariously feasting on my liver
那些人要是吃我的肝脏怎么办" while I'm having these little experiences?"
别去这么想 Don't imagine any of that.
并不是那个邪恶的科学家 It's not that the evil scientist
故意欺骗你 is just deliberately deceiving you
好完成他邪恶的实验 so as to conduct his nefarious experiments.
不是这样的 Nothing like that.
同样的 当我们在机器里 And similarly, while we're at it--
不是像黑客帝国里的那种担忧 this is not a Matrix-like worry--
如果你担忧 if you're worried about, yeah,
当我在机器里 全球贫困问题会怎样 but what's happening to world poverty while I'm doing all of this?
你就想像所有人都在体验机里 Just imagine that everybody's hooked up to experience machines,
每个人都有最棒的体验磁带 but everybody's got the best possible tapes.
现在问问你自己 Now you ask yourself,
我让你们问自己的是 what I'm asking you to ask yourself,
你希望自己 is would you want to spend
一辈子待在体验机里吗 your life hooked up to the experience machine?
我不是说 I'm not talking about,
在里面呆一周 一月 wouldn't it be interesting to try it out for
甚至一年 这样好不好玩 a week or a month or even a year?
而是 严格来讲 这个问题是 And indeed, the question, strictly speaking,
难道体验机里的生活 isn't even would life on the experience machine
真比现在的好吗 be better than it is now?
尽管如果我发现一些同学的生活很糟糕 Although it would make me very, very sad to discover this,
我会非常非常难过 I suppose it's possible some of you have such bad lives
以至于进体验机里的生活是种解脱 that moving on to the experience machine would be a step up.
但这不是问题所在 That's not the question.
问题是 The question is,
体验机里的生活 does life on the experience machine
给了你生活中全部值得拥有的东西了吗 give you everything worth having in life?
生活中全部值得拥有的东西 Everything worth having in life.
它是人类存在的最好形式吗 Is it the best possible form of human existence?
根据享乐主义 According to the hedonists,
回答是也只能是"是的" the answer's got to be, it has to be "Yes."
体验机里的生活完美无缺 Life on the experience machine is perfect,
只要你放对了磁带 as long as you've got the right tape plugged in.
你就能获得 So, you've got the best possible balance
最好的快乐 最完美的体验 of wonderful pleasures and wonderful, fantastic experiences,
因为这就是人类幸福的全部含义 since that's all there is to human wellbeing.
假设 By hypothesis,
这台机器赋予了我们全部 the machine is giving us that.
不会再有更多的事情了 There couldn't possibly be anything more.
不会再有任何缺失了 There couldn't possibly be anything missing.
但当我想到这个问题 But when I think about the question,
我希望一生都在体验机里度过吗 would I want to spend my life hooked up to an experience machine?
我的回答是"不" the answer is "No."
我估计很多同学 当你们问自己 And I imagine that for most of you, when you ask yourself,
你希望自己一生 would you want your entire life
都在体验机里度过吗 to be spent hooked up to the experience machine?
你的回答也是"不" your answer is "No."
但如果回答是"不" But if the answer is "No,"
那么意味着享乐主义肯定是错的 then that means hedonism's got to be wrong.
如果体验机里的生活不是全部 If life on the experience machine is not everything,
那么最好的生活里还有比 then there's more to the best possible life
内心体验更多的东西 than getting the insides right.
体验机让你获得高层次的乐趣 The experience machine gets the pleasures right,
完美的体验 gets the experiences right,
完善你的精神状态 gets the mental states right,
它使你内心充满欢乐 it gets the insides right,
但如果体验机里的生活没有包括 but if life on the experience machine isn't all
生活中全部值得拥有的内容 that's worth wanting out of life,
那么美好生活里就还有 then there's more to the best possible life
比内心体验更好的东西 than getting the insides right.
我们下节课将要讨论这个话题 What we've got to turn to next time, then, is the question,
还有什么别的吗 what else might it be?
下课 Okay.