2014.02.21

                                  心灵慰藉剂

    读阿兰德波顿《哲学的慰藉》，恰如为自己的心灵注射了一针慰藉剂。为其优美的文字所深深吸引。英语原文栩栩如生。汉字翻译生动活泼。文字内容更是直接拨动人心。
    不过，还是觉得有点长。美好的读物在心中的形象越来越清晰：一幅画、一个观点，一段背景，或者只言片语的评语，好比一针心灵慰藉剂，紧扣人的心灵向往，立马见效，使心情顿生快意。

    既然眼前的读物还不能做到如此精简，尝试以它为蓝本，创造出心中向往的美好。遇到了很多困难。画不能自画，文字不能拼凑。全凭借用。画很难找。文字很难挑选。唯有悟解在自己。直觉一马当先，海选出让自己一时的心动。

    苏格拉底：对与世不合的慰藉

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    曆史背景：公元前399年，悲劇詩人米列托斯，工商業主安涅托斯，修辭家呂康，這三個人起訴蘇格拉底“不敬神”和“蠱惑青年”。有五百零一人作爲此案的審判官，最後他們以二百八十一票對二百二十票認爲蘇格拉底有罪，並進而判他死刑。一個月之後，蘇格拉底從容赴死。

    哲学家、思想家黑格爾說：“只有當一個可敬的人遭受無辜的災難或冤屈的時候，我們才特別稱之爲悲劇；蘇格拉底就是這樣，他無辜被判處死刑，這是悲劇性的。”蘇格拉底之死，是他爲自己的信仰而殉道。蘇格拉底之死是西方精神史上的重大事件，與四百年後神殿祭祀訴那撒勒人耶稣可堪比較。

    1789年，雅克·路易·大衛爲鼓舞革命者爲信仰和真理而獻身的精神，創作了《蘇格拉底之死》，古希蠟大哲學家蘇格拉底因主張無神論和言論自由，而被誣陷引誘青年、亵犢神聖，最後被判處服毒自殺。當時蘇格拉底的親友和弟子們都勸他逃往國外避難，均遭他嚴正拒絕，當著弟子們的面從容服下毒藥。畫中所描繪的就是蘇格拉底服毒自殺的情節，在一個陰暗堅固的牢獄中展開，蘇格拉底莊重地坐在床上，親人和弟子們分列兩旁；牢門半開，從門縫中射進一束陽光，使畫中人物在黑暗的背景襯托下格外突出。

    So long as I have breath and have my faculties, I shall never stop practising philosophy and exhorting you and elucidating the truth for everyone that I meet . . . And so gentlemen . . . whether you acquit me or nor, you know that I am not going to alter my conduct, not even if I have to die a hundred deaths.

http://s11/mw690/001ldFUyty6GL7RlSKCaa&690      And more generally, the subject of which the Greek philosopher was the supreme symbol seemed to offer and invitation to take on a task at once profound and laughable: to become wise through philosophy. In spite of the vast differences between the many thinkers described as philosophers across time (people in actuality so diverse that had they been gathered together at a gianr cocktail Party, they would not only have had nothing to say to one another, but would most probably have come to blows after a few drinks) it seemed possible to discern a small group of men, separated by centuries, sharing a loose allegiance to a vision of philosophy suggested by the Greek etymology of the word -philo, love; sophia wisdom - a group bound by a common interest in saying a few consoling and practical things about the causes of our greatest griefs. It was to these men I would turn.
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      伊壁鸠鲁：对缺少钱财的慰藉

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    背景介绍：《许拉斯和山林水仙女》是一幅诗画交响曲，是英国唯美主义美学家沃特豪斯·佩特理论的完美体现。赫库勒斯乘船到达塞欧斯岛，赫库勒斯的伙伴许拉斯上岸寻找水源，许拉斯找到了泉水，但水仙女们爱上年轻英俊的许拉斯，把他带入她们的世界。碧色的湖面，美丽的水仙女，看似零乱实则精心安排的植物，使诗意在画面上缓缓流动。仙女们从睡莲池塘里探出洁白的身体渴望着他，这根本就不是拉人下水，分明是轻挽柔抱，脉脉情深，亦真亦幻，观者会默然凝眸……

    此画从1897年在皇家学院展出后又于1900至1978年多次外出展示并广泛印刷，成为20世纪西方追怀理想主义艺术的代表作。

    沃特豪斯这幅画取材于希腊神话阿耳戈众英雄远航遇险的故事，是说英雄少年许拉斯在途中去河边汲水而被众水仙拉下水淹死。沃特豪斯以古希腊唯物主义哲学家伊壁鸠鲁的学说为依据，论证了现代社会享乐主义的合理性，认为人生就应该抓住生命最有活力的年华，享受生命的快乐。

      An anomaly among an often pleasure-hating and austere fraternity, there was one philosopher who seemed to understand and want to help. 'I don't know how I shall conceive of the good,' he wrote, 'if I take away the pleasures of taste, if I take away sexual pleasure, if I take away the pleasure of hearing, and if I take away the sweet emotions that are caused by the sight of beautiful forms.'
 http://s5/mw690/001ldFUyty6GL9lkqoIb4&690     Of the desires, some are natural and necessary. Others are natural but unnecessary. And there are desires that are neither natural nor necessary.

    Natural and necessary：
    Friends
    Freedom
    Thought (about main sources of anxiety: death, illness, poverty, superstition)
    Food, shelter, clothes
    Natural but Unnecessary：
    Grand house
    Private baths
    Banquets
    Servants
    Fish, meat
    Neither natural nor necessary：

    Fame
    Power

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        塞内加：对受挫折的慰藉

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    背景说明：《塞内加之死》作于1773年大卫25岁时，描写的是代表人物塞内加于公元65年4月在罗马郊外一幢别墅中弥留之际的情景。几小时前，一名罗马军队的百人长刚来过这里传达皇帝的旨意，令塞内加立即自裁。刚破获了一桩企图堆翻这位28岁的皇帝尼禄的阴谋，暴跳如雷的皇帝以疯狂滥捕滥杀进行疯狂报复。尽管没有任何证据说明塞内加与这一阴谋有关，尽管他只担任了5年皇帝导师，10年忠实的副官，尼禄还是下令要他死，只是为了在死亡录上再加一个名字。此时，尼禄已经杀死了他的异母兄弟，母亲和他的妻子。他已经除掉了大批参议员和骑士团骑士，把他们送去喂鳄鱼和狮子。塞内加的亲友们听说尼禄的命令后都大惊失色，哭了起来。哲学家不动声色，努力劝他们止泪，鼓起勇气。

    斯多葛派（Stoicism）的主要特征是：强调责任，认为通过理智，人们能够认识到宇宙是基本正常的，是由命运而不是表象掌控的；并觉得通过约束自己的生活，学会坚定平静地接受事实，建立崇高价值观，人类就能够像宇宙一样沉静而有序。

       Where had their philosophy gone, he asked, and that resolution against impending misfortunes which they had encouraged in each other over so many years? “Surely nobody was unaware that Nero was cruel!” he added, “After murdering his mother and brother, it only remained for him to kill his teacher and tutor. ”

    他问他们的哲学哪去了，多少年来他们互相激励的那种处事不惊的精神哪去了？他说：“当然，谁都知道尼禄残暴成性，他弑母杀兄后，只剩下杀师了。”

    His experiences had taught him a comprehensive dictionary of frus-
tration, his intellect a series of responses to them. Years of philosophy had prepared him for the catastrophic day Nero's centurion had struck at the villa door.

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     蒙田：对缺陷的慰藉

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    背景知识：1571年，蒙田正当三十八岁。由于对官场政治深感厌倦，也为了躲避宗教战争带来的灾祸，他决定弃官隐居，回到他祖辈留下的波尔多蒙田古堡，过一种远离尘嚣，读书默想的生活。蒙田古堡是文艺复兴时期的建筑，气势古朴而宏伟，主楼里面宽敞舒适的房间很多，但为了追求寂静，他宁可离开家人，独自住进主楼附近一座简陋的塔楼里，他的书房就设在塔楼的三层。为了永远记下他开始退隐这一重要时刻，也借此抒发一下自己的情怀，他请人在二楼与睡房相连的一间小工作间的墙壁上，用拉丁文写下这样一段意味深长的文字：“公元1571年，三月朔日前夕，时值三十八岁生日，米歇尔·德·蒙田长久以来厌倦朝庭之苦差使与公职之重负，决定趁尚有精力之际，隐退至缪斯之怀抱，在平静、安稳之中度过所剩无几之余年，生命之大部业已流逝，期盼命运之神允其保住这一处曾献予自由、安宁、悠闲之栖身地一祖先留下之静谧隐庐。” 蒙田在这个小小“后间”里写下的宣言，不仅流露出他获得自由的喜悦和满足，同时也预示了他自己既将开始的那段不凡的人生，一个终将成为杰出思想家和随笔创始人的光辉未来。
    蒙田选定的这处“隐庐”，塔楼是座石砌的尖顶圆形建筑，外观朴素得象座高大的粮仓，但它的位置高踞于古堡内院进口处，具有监视警戒的作用。整个塔楼共四层，除顶层是钟楼外，只有一二三层可供使用，一层是间礼拜堂，二层是蒙田的卧室和套间，屋里陈设简单。第三层就是这个“隐庐”的核心部分———书房了。蒙田在《谈三种交往》一文中如此描述他的书房：“我的书房呈圆形，只有一点平直的地方，刚好安放我的书桌和椅子；我所有的书（按，约一千多册）分五层排列在四周，围了一圈，弧形的墙壁好似躬着腰把它们全部呈献在我面前。……这里是我的王国，我竭力把它置于我个人的绝对统治之下，竭力使这唯一的角落不为妻子、儿女、亲朋所共有。”

      Beneath his painted beams, Montaigne had outlined a new kind of
philosophy, one which acknowledged how far we were from the rational, serene creatures whom most of the ancient thinkers had taken us to be. We were for the most part hysterical and demented, gross and agitated souls beside whom animals were in many respects paragons of health and virtue - an unfortunate
reality which philosophy was obliged to reflect, but rarely did:
      Our life consists partly in madness, partly in wisdom: whoever writes about it merely respectfully and by rule leaves more than half of it behind.

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      叔本华：对伤心的慰藉

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     背景说明：本图系郑浪作品：油画《叔本华和他的弟子们》。图中，中立者叔本华，左一弗洛伊德，左二三尼采和他妹，左四瓦格纳；右三托尔斯泰，右二爱因斯坦，右一王国维。意图表明叔本华的观念：“人在各种欲望不得满足时处于痛苦的一端，得到满足时便处于无聊的一端。人的一生就像钟摆一样不停地在这两端之间摆动。

     Everyone endeavours to eliminate through the other individual his own weaknesses, defects, and deviations from the type, lest they be perpetuated or even grow into complete abnormalities in the child which will be produced.
  

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      尼采：困难中的慰藉

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   背景说明：漫画选自网络。作者不详。尼采最核心的思想是：意志创造世界，意志创造存在。意志创造未来。本漫画形象而突出地表现了这一思想。故未本博直接选中。

      To those human beings who are of any concern to me I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill-treatment, indignities... I wish that they should not remain unfamiliar with profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust,

the wretchedness of the vanquished.

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