The Meaning of Life [《The Big Question》 笔记]

The Meaning of Life

1. Careful thinkers often avoid it, aware that the question is vague, that the meaning of the word meaning is itself ambiguous, that the answers are not always literal truths that can be defended by argument and reason.

1. The Meaning of Meaning
   1. ...
      1. 日常生活中，当我们不哲学的概括的思考时，life seems crammed full of meanings.
      2. 但是，when we begin to think abstractly,我们发现任何具体的目标和期望都称不上meaning of life.因此，我们看一些更大更抽象的，如happiness in life, love, success. 但容易觉得"all is vanity"而且 soon to pass away.因此，我们begin to look beyond life for the meaning of life.(总有种需求存在，它总是使人倾向于哲学思考)
   2. meaning作为reference
      1. 一般来说，the meaning of something is what it refers to, something beyond itself. 可能，the notion of meaning as reference 就是个大问题。(meaning的这种notion未必到处都适用吧？)
      2. 若确实采用reference. Reference is a contextual affair, and so it is in life, too. 可以看到Our particular acts can be explained by reference to gouls and conventions. 但是我们可以同样方式去试图解释 our whole lives吗？也许就如，语言学中，可以问一个词的意思，但如果问整个语言的意思就没有意义了。
   3. 一些回答
      1. Children, God, Afterlife. 但它们都不是完整的回答, they only postpone it.
      2. No meaning at all
         1. 我们需要的是an answer in our lives, not just beyond them.(不是要meaning as reference)
         2. Camus 认为生活是没有意义的, his reaction, however, was not that life is therefore not worth living but rather that we have to make it worth living by rebelling against this absurclity, by refusing to participate in the iniustices of the world, and by living life to the fullest.
         3. If the Myth of sisphus is tragic, that is because its hero is conscious.
         4. The struggle toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisphus happy --Albert Camus
2. The Meaning of Life
   1. 这个问题难有具体答案。Indeed, it is more of a metaphor that is required, an image, a vision of life in which you can see yourself as having a definite role, a set of reasonable expectations, and -- what makes this so important -- your vision in many ways determines the life you will lead.(什么是答案？答案可以有多种形式，不一定是argument，还可以是metaphor。虽然一般都是追求argument。)
   2. The question of the meaning of life is not just a matter of discovery but also an important act of creation.(不是发现一个答案，而是创造)
   1. Life as a Game
      1. game 可以是一个self-contained activity, the significance of the game lies in the playing itself.
      2. It is not to be taken so seriously.
      3. emphasize the inportance of obeying the rules(但这rules在哪里，谁来定的)` and enjoying oneself, and, if possilbe, winning.但我们又tend to use the words winner and loser in a dangerous way.(此时就难以enjoy了)
      4. game还有很多种，每种目的不同，如for fun, superiority, kill time, hurting；也有认为language, economisc, and philosophy这些也是games。
   2. Life as a Story
      1. We live not just moment to moment 或者 for some single great goal, 而是 follow a rather detailed script. 看做 a particular temporal way, as a plot unfolding, as the development of character and personality.
      2. We often find ouselves making decisions about our lives using the standards we also use in evaluating literature or a movie,如：interesing, suspense, good taste, dramatical等。
      3. 有各种类型的故事和角色，不是目标或者得到什么给life意义，而是the quality of the story, the quality with which one lives out and develops 他自己的role或roles；
      4. 从这个角度看，选作角色或者太多不一致 就是to damage the meaning that one finds in life.
   3. Life as Tragedy
      1. The tragedy metaphor(特别在看到死亡存在时，易产生这种metaphor) makes life into a serious and unhappy process, 偶尔的pleasure永远同样的结局。
      2. To live well, in this view, means to play one's tragic role well -- to bear it heroically, perhaps making some grand soliloquies along the way.(这种观点太难忍受了，所以才有人把死亡开做另一个世界的开始，即使承认真"死亡"，也要bear it heroically之类的)
   4. Life as Comedy
      1. 不能否认我们都该 use a little more humor, not so much in our lives but about our lives(是about而不是in，看肥皂剧的humor就是in), in the way we see our own flults and foibles.
      2. Jokes, however, tend to be rather contrived and limited in time, and a person who spends all of his or her time playing jokes too easily beomes a tedious an pahtetic person to have around.(要区分joke和humor，特别是offensive joke肯定不算humor)
      3. ambition和frustration，desire和disappointment不是Camus所说的"The Absurd"，而是aburdity in humorous sense.
      4. 当tragedy和comedy结合，那就是"black humor"或者irony。
   5. Life as a Mission
      1. ......
   6. Life as Art
      1. "Live yout life as a work of art"没有a story in mind but more an art like sculpture, in which one lives by creating a shape for oneself, 例如 "building character", developing what we call "style".(活出风格style,class)
      2. Live beautifully，如果不能，至少live with syle "with class".此时，life被作为artwork来评价，如用：moving， inspiring, well designed, dramatic, or clolrful, or as clumsy, uninspired, and uninspiring, or easily forgettable.
      3. 注意，the 创造 activity itself that counts for 创造者 as much as the results of their efforts.
   7. Life as an adventure
      1. 就是living life by taking risks, even risking life, and thrilling in that sense of skill and uncertainly.
      2. 一个明显问题是，those who see life this way, there may be no other way to live. Everything else is boring and tedious.(追求太多刺激，难免麻木，而不满)
      3. 与前面不同，life can be aesthetic and exciting without being like art或文学，关键是，可以不用总想着整体和看起来怎样。但也有the thrill of living "to the fullest",通过 taking chances, enjoying chanlenge an the rush of adrenaline.(更重视局部感受)`(感觉现在人们都觉得over is over, 因此，变得倾向于只重视局部)
   8. Life as Disease
      1. To be "sick" presupposes some sense of what it is to be well`未必，有人就是不停抱怨而已`，所以重要问题是：what would count as a healthy life?
      2. 生活中有很多想要的，但并不意味着没有得到，没有符合理想 就 make Life a disease.(natural,unnatural和 disease,healthy使用类似，都像是为了表达观点的一种用词策略，例如：disease也许是表现失望愤怒)
   9. Life as Desire
      1. The image of life is that of continuous wanting, one thing after another, with no end in sight.
      2. 但没有end并不是说 life is frustration, for such desires can usualy b satified. 而是说 没有 ultimately satisfying.
      3. 欲望和对欲望的满足 that gives life meaning. Not to desire, on the other hand, is to be already dead.
   10. Life as Nirvana
       1. 与desire相反，the goal of life is to attain as restful a state as possible without tension or desire.
       2. 佛教中loosen the hold of our desires and reach a state of tranquility in which nothing bothers us, 包含了一种equanimity toward death.
       3. 西方哲学中the sense of peace is sometimes promoted as the goal of philosophical activity or contemplation(unperturbed learning and thinking).
   11. Life as Altruism
       1. Altruism is acting for the benefit of others.这样看时，就have a very difinite sense of mission, 和对成功，失败，应该做些什么的clear-cut views.
       2. Life as altrusim 对一些人是one-way enterprise; 而对另一些人是 a general ideal, 希望某天人人都能无私帮助他人。
   12. Life as Honor
       1. ......
   13. Life as Learning
       1. 为什么learning是个问题，但是learing本身就可以使令人满足的。
       2. 有些人feel compelled to experience as much as possible, to "try everything at least once" just in order to know what it is like.
   14. Life as Suffering
       1. a prospect that, when thought of all at once, indeed seems pointless.如：无数次不断重复的刷牙，一生看做一串just to链。
       2. 也许类似 Sisyphus, 但Camus认为Sisyphus's life is meaningful, despite the absurdity of his task,because he reacted to his frustration with a kind of defiance.(Sisyphus的反抗)
       3. 另外像the great pessimist Arthur Schopenhauer 也仍为life is frustration; 我们的desires 根本上是irrational and pointless; the answer, he proposes, is datachment through either aesthetic contemplation or ascetic self-denial.
   15. Life as an Investment
       1. 所做的各种事都是to get a certain return.
       2. 但是回报具体是什么，好坏投资的标准都是问题。很容易不知不觉中产生混淆， 把实际的金钱作为标准。
       3. 为什么是用最终得到的东西来衡量， rather than the activity of living it self, is the meaning of life.
   16. Life as Relationships
       1. 是human relationship给予意义，是the very particular relationship one has with another person or a few other persons.
       2. 我们的出发点总是分离的个体，比如the union of two,而不是 a union.
       3. 但there is a much more inspiring picture of all of us already connected, perpahs--as Hegel argued--in one all-embracing Spirit. In this view, it is the distance between us, not intimacy, that is the aberration.