不要为了意义去生活-天天微头条

有那么一瞬间，你会不会突然产生疑惑：这样日复一日的生活，究竟有何意义？有价值吗？值得过吗？然而世界不会给你任何答案。

(资料图)

加缪认为，这个世界是荒诞的，我们渴望找到意义，但这个世界并没有任何意义。如果强行采用意义去生活，去找到自己相信的东西，我们非但不会快乐，自由也会被剥夺。

如果我们不想通过强行采用意义来逃避荒诞，我们应该怎么办呢？

You Don’t Need Meaning to Be Happy

According to Albert Camus, if you search for meaning in this world, you’ll find nothing. Maybe someone close to you passes away, or your spouse has an affair, or you unexpectedly lose a limb in a car crash, and you find yourself asking, “why me, why now, and why this way?” And in return, the world gives you no reply.

阿尔贝·加缪说：如果你在这个世界上寻找意义，你将一无所获。也许你身边的某个人离世，或者你的配偶有了外遇，或者你在车祸中意外失去了一条腿，你会发现自己不断追问，“为什么是我，为什么是现在，为什么会这样？”，而世界不会给你任何答复。

All of these events – all of these effects – have a cause. The world is a place of causes and effects after all. But there’s no reason, not one we can determine at least, behind these causes and effects. You’ll never find a clear “why” behind any tragedy. For Camus, the world is absurd. It’s just there and it couldn’t care less about us. The stars don’t shine with a purpose, the galaxies don’t move with a plan in mind, nor do the planets circle for any other reason besides the laws of physics. Camus calls this experience the absurd: a feeling born from the contradiction between our desire to find meaning in this world and a silent world that has none to give.

所有这些事件，所有这些结果，都能找到原因，这世界毕竟是一个基于因果的地方，但在这些因果关系的背后，没有任何理由，至少没有我们可以确定的理由。你永远无法在任何悲剧背后找到一个明确的“为什么”。加缪认为，世界是荒诞的，它只是存在于那里，它一点也不在乎我们。星星的闪耀并不出于任何目的，星系的运动也没有任何计划，行星的运转也没有任何特别的原因，它们的背后只有物理规律。加缪把这种体验称为“荒诞”：一种源于我们想在这个世界上找到意义的愿望与一个没有任何意义的沉默世界之间的矛盾的感觉。

And for many people, the feeling of absurdity is unbearable. They can’t imagine being happy without a meaning in life, so they find a way to escape the absurd. And the most common form of escape is through the forced adoption of meaning. Whether it’s through a religion, philosophy, or politics, people find something to believe in and make that the meaning for their own lives. But for Camus, this makes no sense.

而对许多人来说，这种荒诞的感觉是无法忍受的。他们无法想象从没有意义的生活中获得幸福，所以他们找到了逃离荒诞的方法。而最常见的逃避方式就是通过强行采用意义，无论是通过宗教、哲学还是政治，人们找到自己相信的东西，并将其作为自己生活的意义，但于加缪而言，这根本毫无用处。

The world has no meaning, so it’s absurd to derive one. And in addition to that, instead of making you happy, deriving a meaning from life actually robs you of your intrinsic freedom. Just imagine the person who joins a religion and now has to act in accordance with the rules of that religion. According to Camus, this person has lost the freedom of action. There are certain actions which they can no longer do if they want to abide by the rules of that religion. And the same loss of freedom occurs for someone who adopts a new philosophy or joins a new political movement.

这个世界没有任何意义，所以从中得出一种意义也是荒谬的，而除此之外，从生活中强行得出的意义，非但不能使你快乐，反而会剥夺你本身的自由。试想一下，一个人加入了一个宗教，于是他现在必须按照该宗教的教义行事。加缪认为，这个人失去了行动的自由。如果他想遵守该宗教的教义，有些行为就不能再做。而对于接受新的哲学，或加入新的政治运动的人来说，也会同样失去自由。

But the adoption of meaning doesn’t just rob you of freedom, it also dulls your mind. Because instead of seeing the world as it is, you begin to see it through the distorting lens of your new ideology. Through the lens of religion, everything gets evaluated as sin or not sin. Through the lens of philosophy, everything becomes virtue or vice. Through the lens of politics, everything becomes oppressor and oppressed. So how do we deal with the absurd if we don’t want to escape it through the forced adoption of meaning.

但对意义的采用不仅剥夺了你的自由，也使你的头脑变得愚钝，因为你不再能看清世界的本貌，你会开始通过你的新意识形态的扭曲镜头来看待它。通过宗教的镜头，一切都被评价为罪或非罪；通过哲学的镜头，一切都成为美德或罪恶；通过政治的镜头，一切都成为压迫者和被压迫者。那么，如果我们不想通过强行采用意义来逃避荒诞，我们该如何应对它呢？

For Camus, happiness doesn’t lie in the discovery of a meaning, but rather the search for a meaning. Finding an answer is not as important as living the question. And Camus calls the commitment to keep searching for a meaning, even though none exists, revolt. Revolt is the path to freedom, passion, and happiness. For Camus, the human condition is most comparable to the myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus was condemned by the Greek gods to an eternal punishment. He must roll a boulder up a mountain only to watch it fall back down, over and over again, for all eternity. This is Sisyphus’ imprisonment and punishment: eternally, fruitless labor.

于加缪而言，幸福并不在于对意义的发现，而是在于对意义的探寻。找到答案不如生活在问题之中，而加缪将这种即使意义并不存在，也要不断寻找的承诺称为反抗。反抗是通往自由、激情和幸福的道路。对加缪来说，人类的状况与《西西弗斯的神话》最为接近。西西弗斯被希腊诸神判处了永恒的惩罚，他必须把一块巨石滚上山去，然后看着石头滚落，如此重复，直到永远，这就是西西弗斯受到的刑罚：永恒的、无结果的劳动。

And like Sisyphus, we’re condemned to work without reward. We’re prisoners, punished with the task of seeking meaning in a world that has none to give. But I think Camus’ genius lies in this insight: “There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” We can look up at the gods and say, “no, this isn’t my punishment. I acknowledge and accept my fate. I want it this way. I want to keep searching even though I know that search will amount to nothing. I enjoy searching. I don’t need to find something. Searching is enough for me.” 

就像西西弗斯一样，我们也注定要进行毫无结果的劳作。我们是囚犯，被罚在一个没有任何意义的世界中寻求意义，但我认为加缪的天才就在于这种洞察力：“没有蔑视战胜不了的命运”。我们可以仰望神明，说：“不，这不是我的惩罚，我承认并接受我的命运，我想要这样做，我想要继续寻找，尽管我知道这种寻找将一无所获，我享受寻找，我不需要找到什么，只是寻找对我来说就已经足够了”。

And in this way, our punishment ceases to be a punishment. We spit in the face of our captors. If I throw you in prison with the hopes of punishing you, but you sincerely desire to be in that prison, then I’ve failed in punishing you. You’ve beat me. And similarly, by continuing our relentless search for meaning, we overcome the gods and our fates. By enjoying the search itself, we revolt. Through our revolt, we become free. No longer restricted or bound by some pre-packaged ideology – by some forced adoption of meaning – we become free to fully experience life the way we want. We’re free to act in the way we wish, and through this freedom, we become passionate and alive.

这样一来，我们的惩罚就不再是惩罚了，我们蔑视俘获我们的人。如果我把你扔进监狱，希望以此惩罚你，但你却真诚地渴望待在监狱里，那么我对你的惩罚就失败了，你战胜了我，同样地，通过继续不懈地寻找意义，我们战胜了神灵和我们的命运，享受寻找本身，就是我们的反抗。通过反抗，我们变得自由。当我们不再被一些包装好的意识形态，或强行采用的意义所限制或束缚，我们就变得自由，可以按照我们的意愿充分体验生活，我们可以自由地按我们的想法行事。通过这种自由，我们变得充满激情和活力。

We don’t need a meaning to be happy in life, and in fact, a meaning often just gets in the way of happiness and freedom. It limits your action and dulls your mind. The discovery of meaning isn’t as important as the search for meaning. By continuing to search, you revolt against the gods. You turn your punishment into your reward, and by doing so, you overcome it. You become free to search for meaning wherever you like and experience the fullness of life, and by doing so, you become alive. The search is enough, or as Camus put it, “the struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

我们不需要一个意义来获得生活的幸福。事实上，意义往往只会阻碍幸福和自由。它限制了你的行动，使你的思想变得愚钝。发现意义远没有寻找意义重要，继续寻找，就是对神明的反抗，你把对你的惩罚变成你的奖励，通过这样做，你就战胜了它，你可以按照你的意愿自由地寻找意义，体验生命的充实，通过这样做，你就有了旺盛的生命力，寻找就够了，或者如加缪所说，“向高处的奋斗本身，就足以填满一个人的心，我们必须想象西西弗斯是快乐的”。

本期ONE译制团：

翻译：AL

总校：小良哥

source: Freedom In Thought