耶鲁大学开放课程—哲学：死亡.19.Open.Yale.course—Philosophy：Deat

我们一直在讨论We'vebeentalkingaboutthequestionastowhether永远不死是否值得期待ornotitwouldbedesirabletoliveforever,永生是不是件好事whetherimmortalitywouldactuallybeagoodthing,是像我们大家一般认为的那样asmostofusnormallypresume,还是像伯纳德·威廉姆斯所说的那样orwhetherinfact,asBernardWilliamsargues,它并不值得期待itwouldbeundesirable.我们要研究的问题是Thequestionweturnedtowas,尽可能打开你的思路justletyourimaginationrunfree.不去考虑苟延残喘地延长Insteadofaskingwhatwoulditbeliketocontinuelivingalonger现实生活中那种每况愈下的生活kindoftrajectorythathumanshaveintherealworld你会生病whereyoujustgetsicker衰老有气无力andmoreandmorefrailandincapacitated,不去考虑那样的永生是否有价值askyourselfnotwhetherimmortalityofthatsortwouldbevaluable,而是去考虑是否能描述一种butisitevensomuchaspossibletodescribealife你想永远过下去的生活thatyouwouldwanttoliveforever?这是我上节课留给你们的问题That'sthequestionIleftyouwithlasttime.我想我已经表明了我的态度IthinkIalreadytippedmycardsonthismatter.我倾向于认同威廉姆斯的观点I'minclinedtoagreewithWilliams.我认为不管我们如何定义这种生活Ithinkthatnomatterhowwetrytofillintheblank,那会是个很长的定义it'saverylongblank.这里关键的一点就是永生的意思Thecrucialpointhereforusisthatimmortalitymeans并不是活很长时间notjustlivingaverylongtime也不是活特别长时间orevenanextraordinarilylongtime,而是永远地活下去butliterallylivingforever.我觉得这很难Ithinkit'sverydifficult,实际上我觉得根本就不可能indeedIthinkit'simpossible,有你希望永远做下去的事情tothinkofanythingyou'dwanttodoforever.我有位朋友Ihaveafriendwhoonce有一次跟我说他希望永远活着claimedtomethathewantedtoliveforever这样他可以每天吃泰国菜sothathecouldhaveThaifoodeverydayfortherestof,直到永远well,therestofeternity.我也蛮喜欢泰国菜的IlikeThaifoodjustfine,但是一想到要buttheprospectofhaving日复一日地吃泰国菜Thaifooddayafterdayafterdayafterday吃上几千几万几亿几兆年forthousands,millions,billions,trillionsofyears就没那么吸引人了nolongerseemsanattractiveproposal.看上去倒更像是一场噩梦Itseemslikeitbecomessomekindofanightmare.我前面也举过相同的例子AndthesamewaythatIindicatedpreviously虽然我喜欢吃巧克力thatalthoughIlikechocolate--我爱巧克力Ilovechocolate--但要让我一直不停地theprospectofhavingtoeatmoreandmore不停地吃巧克力andmoreandmoreandmorechocolate,那最后就我就想吐了eventuallytheideabecomesasickeningone.随便举任何一件事Thinkofanyactivity.你们有些人喜欢玩填字游戏Someofyoumayenjoydoingcrosswordpuzzles,可能每天花上几小时玩玩字谜很有意思andperhapsdoingcrosswordpuzzlesacouplehoursadayisenjoyable.但设想让你日复一日地猜字谜Butimaginedoingcrosswordpuzzleseveryday十年一千年for10years,1,000years,一万年一亿年一兆年amillionyears,abillionyears,atrillionyears.最后在我看来Eventually,presumably,soitseemstome,你大概会说我实在不愿猜字谜了you'dendupsaying,I'mreallytiredofcrosswordpuzzles.当然还会有一些你从没见过的Sure,there'dbesomenewparticularpuzzle新字谜youhadn'tseenbefore,但你曾经沧海难为水你会说butyou'dsortofstepupalevelandsay,尽管我没做过这个字谜AlthoughIhaven'tseenthisparticularonebefore,但我以前做的已经太多了I'veseencrosswordpuzzlesbefore.万变不离其宗There'sreallynothingnewunderthesunhere.尽管这个字谜的组合方式我没见过ThefactthatIhaven'tseenthisparticularcombinationofwords但也引不起我的兴趣isn'tenoughtomakeitinteresting.当然填字游戏也不是什么艰深难题Well,crosswordpuzzlesaren'taverydeepsubject,我们也许仍感疑惑andwemightwonderwhetherornot如果我们找到了wewoulddobetterifwewereengagedin更具挑战性的问题会不会更有意思呢somethingmorementallychallengingthanthat.这也许会给我带来不一样的体验Thismayindicatesomethingunusualaboutme,我很喜欢数学butIratherlikemath.花大量时间研究数学问题Andtheprospectofhavingalotoftimetopursuemathproblems做深入细致的演算看起来很吸引人ofaricheranddeepersortseemsfairlyattractive.但即便如此Yeteventhere,当我想到要永远研究数学whenIimagineaneternityofthinkingaboutmath--或者永远研究哲学orforthatmatter,aneternityofthinkingaboutphilosophy,比起数学显然我更喜欢哲学whichIobviouslylikeevenmorethanmath--这都不是令人向往的生活theprospectseemsanunattractiveone.我想不出自己希望永远干什么Ican'tthinkofanyactivityI'dwanttodoforever.当然这个说法里有漏洞Now,ofcourse,that'sabitofacheat我们并没说过要永远becausetheclaimisn'ttospendeternity研究数学而不干任何别的事情doingmathproblemsandnothingbutmathproblems.我们并非用5080100年的时间Rightnow,withour50,80,100years,并不是每天都干同一件事wedon'tfillourdaydoingonlyonekindofactivity.我们每天事务纷杂Wefillourdaywithamixtureofactivities.但这对解决问题毫无帮助Butitdoesn'treallyhelp晚上吃泰国菜中午吃中餐havingThaifoodfordinnerandChineseforlunch.或者周一周三周五吃中餐OrperhapsChineseonMonday,Wednesdays,andFridays周六周日吃泰国菜andThaionSaturdaysandSundays每天下午花两个小时研究数学andspendingtwohoursintheafternoondoingmath早上花三个小时研究哲学andthreehoursinthemorningdoingphilosophy.这样的生活让人向往Thatsoundslikeaprettypleasantlife.但是Butagain,当你想到永远过这样生活ifyouthinkofthepossibilityofdoingthatforalleternity无法摆脱andnevergettingawayfromit,无从解放的时候neverbeingfreefromit,我认为你对永生的美好憧憬thepositivedreamofimmortality,就会变成噩梦Ithink,becomesanightmare.当然也许我的想象力不够奔放Wellagain,maybeI'mnotjustbeingcreativeenoughinmyimagination.我过去的一位同事曾描述过Differentformercolleagueofmineoncetalkedabouttheprospectof天堂里神仙般的日子havingakindofheavenlyvisionofthedivine.或许那值得永远拥有Maybethatwouldbedesirableforever.她描述说想想当你Andshedescribeditas,thinkofwhatit'sliketo和一位挚友言语投机haveareallygreatconversationwithafriend你希望谈话一直继续thatyouwishwouldneverend,除了上帝exceptGod's谁也不是如此博学的挚友thisinfinitelyrichfriend所以这样的谈话值得永远持续andsotheconversationendsupseemingdesirableforever.当然我可以说这样的话Wellagain,Icansaythewords,但当我想象这种情形butwhenItrytoimaginethatpossibility认真来看至少就我个人来讲andtakeitseriously,atleastspeakingpersonally,这一点都说不通itdoesn't--itdoesn'tholdup.我没有一位朋友NofriendthatI'veevertalkedwithisone我愿意和他永远交谈下去thatIactuallywouldwanttospendeternitytalkingto.当然有人可能会说Andit'sofcoursepossibletosay,well,只是想象有这样一位朋友justimagineafriendthat你愿意和他永远交谈下去youwouldwanttotalkthroughalleternityto.但问题