It can be painfully easy to hit what we call a crisis of meaning. In these moments we feel the following: What I am doing makes no sense. I am not contributing to anything. I am living day to day repeating things for a logic I just don't understand. At such points, it can help to step back, and consider something we don't usually address. What is the meaning of existence for the species as a whole? What is the underlying narrative logic for the mess, full starts, occasional progress, and fitful path of human history?我們很容易陷入【意義危機(jī)】的痛苦中。在意義缺失的危機(jī)時(shí)刻，我們會(huì)感受到：我所做的一切毫無(wú)意義。我沒(méi)有任何貢獻(xiàn)。我活著的每天都是在重復(fù)，我根本不理解其中的邏輯。在危機(jī)時(shí)刻，后退一步，思考我們通常會(huì)忽視掉的問(wèn)題，或許會(huì)有所幫助。那就是：整個(gè)人類物種存在的意義是什么？混亂不堪、起伏不定、偶爾進(jìn)步以及坎坷波折的人類歷史背后，隱藏著怎樣的敘事邏輯？The 200 thousand year old history of Homo Sapiens. By this we of course don't mean a God given meaning. We mean a logic that drives human behaviour at its best. The most generous interpretation of what knits human action, when it isn't driven by evil motives. 智人的歷史長(zhǎng)達(dá)20萬(wàn)年。當(dāng)然，我們想探討的并不是神賦予的意義，而是促使人類在最佳狀態(tài)下滾滾向前的合理解釋。如果不是出于邪惡動(dòng)機(jī)，對(duì)于人類行為的動(dòng)機(jī)，最寬容的解釋是什么。Here we can make the following rather bold declarations: There are four drivers of meaning in the human race. 在這里，我們膽敢廣而告之：4種意義驅(qū)動(dòng)人類種族的行為。Firstly, to continue the species.第一、延續(xù)物種。Secondly, to master our minds - understand ourselves.第二、掌控心智，即理解我們自己。Thirdly, to master our environment - increasing our command over it through knowledge, control of resources, and reduction of the role of accident and misfortune.第三、掌控環(huán)境，即通過(guò)積累知識(shí)、控制資源以及減少意外和不幸的發(fā)生，增強(qiáng)我們對(duì)環(huán)境的掌控力。And fourthly, the increase of our satisfaction.第四、提高我們的滿足感。These vast headings help to explain a lot of our day to day activity. 這些大致的方向能夠幫助我們理解許多日?；顒?dòng)的動(dòng)機(jī)。Take the human drive of continuing the species. Which explains parenting, courtship, love. Take mastering our minds, and understanding ourselves. That explains philosophy, psychology, education, even media. Mastering the environment. That explains business, defense, science, architecture. And as for our quest for happiness, this explains religion, culture, art. It is because of our need to master the environment that we store up capital. It is because we are collectively engaged in continuing the species that we become parents. It is in order to reduce the role of random accidents that we have science.延續(xù)物種的人類驅(qū)動(dòng)，解釋了育兒、求偶、愛(ài)情的意義。掌控心智和理解自我，解釋了哲學(xué)、心理學(xué)、教育，甚至媒體存在的意義。掌控環(huán)境，解釋了商業(yè)、國(guó)防、科學(xué)、建筑的存在意義。至于我們對(duì)幸福的追求，則解釋了宗教、文化、藝術(shù)的存在意義。正是因?yàn)槲覀冃枰瓶丨h(huán)境，我們才積累資本。正是因?yàn)槲覀児餐铝τ谘永m(xù)物種，我們才成為父母。正是為了減少意外事件，我們才有了科學(xué)。Crucially these four drives are vast collective movements. And no one human ever makes more than a tiny contribution to any of them. From a sufficient distance, even the so called 'great names', Shakespeare and Newton, Eistein and John F Kennedy. Only ever add a little bit to the unfolding river of humanity. The greatest might adjust its course by a millimetre. 關(guān)鍵是，這四大意義驅(qū)動(dòng)，是人類整體的行為綱領(lǐng)。從漫長(zhǎng)的歷史長(zhǎng)河中看，任何個(gè)體對(duì)整體的貢獻(xiàn)都是微不足道，就連所謂的偉人，莎士比亞和牛頓，愛(ài)因斯坦和約翰·F·肯尼迪，在人類的長(zhǎng)河上都只貢獻(xiàn)了一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)，最偉大的人物也只是推動(dòng)了人類歷史前進(jìn)了一毫米。Naturally, in relation to the mighty goals of humanity, each of us is puny, and therefore measuring our contribution individually is bound to leave us defeated. We shouldn't be doing this. We should think that we are but temporary actors of a species with broadly collective goals. Though our goals can feel very personal to us, when for example we're building up our own business, we're just partaking in the species will to master the environment and husband resources for a while.在人類宏大的目標(biāo)面前，我們每個(gè)人自然都微不足道，因此孤立地衡量我們的個(gè)人貢獻(xiàn)，必然會(huì)讓我們感到挫敗，我們不應(yīng)該這樣做。我們應(yīng)該將自己視作人類整體宏大目標(biāo)的臨時(shí)參與者。雖然對(duì)我們而言，我們的目標(biāo)非常個(gè)人化，比如建立自己的事業(yè)，我們只是暫時(shí)參與了人類物種掌控環(huán)境與資源的意志。The history of humanity unfolds in time. We only ever make our contribution at one moment. And the changing circumstances mean that our achievements do risk seeming absurd at another point in time. A very important nobleman in 14th century England is mere dust now. We remember almost no human who lived in the 11th century. Almost nothing stands out in the whole of 9th century. All those people who lived and died are as nothing. This is similar to what will happen to us today. We can tell by looking backwards and anticipating forwards that very little of what we do could conceivably have much of an impact. 人類歷史在時(shí)間長(zhǎng)河中徐徐展開(kāi)，我們只能在長(zhǎng)河中的一個(gè)時(shí)間點(diǎn)做出貢獻(xiàn)，但時(shí)過(guò)境遷，桑海桑田，我們的貢獻(xiàn)在另一個(gè)時(shí)間點(diǎn)看來(lái)則是荒謬可笑的。一位在14世紀(jì)地位顯赫的英格蘭貴族，對(duì)于現(xiàn)在來(lái)說(shuō)只是一粒塵埃，我們幾乎記不得11世紀(jì)活過(guò)的人類，整個(gè)9世紀(jì)幾乎沒(méi)有什么留名青史的事物。故去之人的生與死都輕如鴻毛，今天的我們也將遭遇同樣的命運(yùn)。通過(guò)回顧過(guò)去和預(yù)見(jiàn)未來(lái)，我們得知，個(gè)人能夠帶來(lái)的影響力非常小。Nevertheless, we can, at best, see ourselves as making a contribution to the goals of humankind. Maybe over a lifetime we'll collect a few resources. We'll understand a few bits of the puzzle of the mind. We'll have children, who'll have children, who'll have children. We'll alleviate the suffering of a few other people. It won't be much on its own. But we shouldn't measure it on its own. That is the sickness of individualism. We have to measure it against the broad stream of what humanity is up to. 然而，充其量，也只能說(shuō)我們能為人類目標(biāo)做出一點(diǎn)貢獻(xiàn)。也許一生中我們會(huì)積累一些資源，我們能夠解開(kāi)心智的一些謎題，我們會(huì)生育子女，兒女會(huì)生育子孫，或許我們能夠緩解他人的痛苦，我們個(gè)人的貢獻(xiàn)不會(huì)有多少份量，但我們也不應(yīng)該以個(gè)人的貢獻(xiàn)來(lái)做衡量，這是個(gè)人主義的病態(tài)表現(xiàn)。我們必須將其與人類整體的宏大目標(biāo)相衡量。In James Joyce's 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man', there is a charming moment where Stephen Deadalus who's nine years old and central character writes his name on a geography book on a way to position him in space. He begins, Stephen Dedalus, Class of Elements, Clangauces Wood College, Sallins, County Kildare, Ireland, Europe, the World, the Universe. All of us exist in these kind of multiple dimensions. The immediate, the class we're in, our name. And the grand, within the universe.在詹姆斯·喬伊斯的作品《青年藝術(shù)家的畫像》中，有一幕讓人印象深刻，九歲的主角史蒂芬·代達(dá)勒斯在一本地理書(shū)上寫下自己的名字以定位自己在空間中的位置。他寫道：“史蒂芬·代達(dá)勒斯，元素課程，克蘭高斯伍德學(xué)院，基爾代爾郡，愛(ài)爾蘭，歐洲，世界，宇宙。”我們所有人都存在于多重維度的世界中。于個(gè)體，籍籍無(wú)名；于宇宙，廣袤無(wú)垠。We need to do a version of this positioning exercise, except we are not looking for geographical positioning, we are looking for purpose positioning. None of us is going to make a huge contribution to the history of the meaning of the species. We will just tinker with one or two elements. We'll have kids, we will make a bit of money, we will understand one or two things. So we have to take species pride. And reconcile ourselves to our smallness in the larger scheme.我們需要做一種定位練習(xí)，但不是尋找地理位置，而是尋找意義位置，我們當(dāng)中沒(méi)有任何人會(huì)在人類意義的歷史上做出巨大的貢獻(xiàn)。我們只是會(huì)細(xì)微層面略微推動(dòng)。我們會(huì)生孩子，賺點(diǎn)錢，了解一兩件事情。因此，我們必須對(duì)整個(gè)人類物種感到自豪，并在更宏大的敘事中接受我們的渺小。But it can still help us to know that a connection exists between what we are up to and what the grand story of humanity means. If today you made some money, that's connected to humanity attempting to master its environment. If today you looked after some children you'll have furthered in a tiny way the survivor of the species. If today you taught someone something, you'll have continued our attempt to understand the human condition. If today you tied up the house, you helped to make life be slightly less random and accident prone. 但知道我們所做的事情與人類的宏大敘事之間存在聯(lián)系，對(duì)我們有益。如果今天你賺了點(diǎn)錢，那就與人類試圖掌控環(huán)境有關(guān)。如果今天你照顧了孩子，你會(huì)以微小的方式推動(dòng)物種的生存。如果今天你教了別人一些東西，便延續(xù)了我們?cè)噲D理解人類境況的嘗試。如果今天你收拾整理了房子，你的整體生活會(huì)變得稍微不那么隨意以及不易受意外影響。What we call being depressed means not being able to find oneself on the grid of meaning. Not being able to plot one's own coordinates on the map of the meaning of humanity. But if we look the right way, everything can be connected. One is almost always in some way helping to continue and enhance the project of our species. We just need to get better at spotting meaning. At narrating the meaning of ones life in relation to the meaning of the whole species. 【抑郁】意味著我們無(wú)法在意義的格局中找到自己，無(wú)法在人類意義地圖上標(biāo)明自己的坐標(biāo)。但如果我們用正確的方式看待，一切都是相互聯(lián)結(jié)的，一切都以某種方式在延續(xù)和完善人類物種的宏大敘事。我們只需要更善于發(fā)現(xiàn)意義，更善于將自己的生命意義與整個(gè)人類物種的意義聯(lián)系起來(lái)。
