TED演讲:人类为何要相爱-一个哲学探讨(1)

 　　Ah, romantic love, beautiful and intoxicating¹, heartbreaking and soul-crushing, often all at the same time. 啊...浪漫的爱情啊，美好又令人痴醉，伤心又断魂，通常所有的感觉会同时汇集在一起。

　　Why do we choose to put ourselves through its emotional wringer? 我们为什么总是用它来折磨自己呢？

　　Does love make our lives meaningful, or is it an escape from our loneliness and suffering? 爱会让我们的生命有意义吗？亦或它使我们从孤寂和痛苦中解脱？

　　Is love a disguise for our sexual desire, or a trick of biology to make us procreate? 还是用来掩饰我们对性的欲望吗？还是说它是身体戏弄我们去繁衍后代的一个手段？

　　Is it all we need? Do we need it at all? 爱是一切吗？我们真的需要爱吗？

　　If romantic love has a purpose, neither science nor psychology² has discovered it yet. 如果说爱情是有目的，自然科学和心理学上至今却对此都没什么发展。

　　But over the course of history, some of our most respected philosophers have put forward some intriguing³ theories. 但在历史的长河中，一些我们敬佩的哲学家曾推出过一些有趣的理论。

　　Love makes us whole, again. 爱情使我们再一次变得完整。

　　The ancient Greek philosopher Plato explored the idea that we love in order to become complete. 古希腊哲学家柏拉图探索了“爱让我们变得完整”这一理念。

　　In his "Symposium⁴", he wrote about a dinner party, at which Aristophanes,  在《会饮篇》中，他描述了一个晚餐派对，派对上，

　　a comic playwright⁵, regales the guests with the following story: 一位喜剧作家，阿里斯托芬，讲了如下这个故事来娱乐在场的宾客：

　　humans were once creatures with four arms, four legs, and two faces. 人类曾是拥有四个臂膀，四条腿和两张脸的生物。

　　One day, they angered the gods, and Zeus sliced them all in two. 有一天，他们惹到了众神，于是宙斯就把他们都一劈两半。

　　Since then, every person has been missing half of him or herself. 从此以后，每个人都缺失着自己的另一半。

　　Love is the longing⁶ to find a soulmate who'll make us feel whole again, 爱是渴望找到一个能让我们再次感到完整的灵魂伴侣。

　　or, at least, that's what Plato believed a drunken comedian⁷ would say at a party. 至少，这是柏拉图所相信的一个喝醉的喜剧演员在派对上讲的话。

　　Love tricks us into having babies. 爱哄骗着我们有了小宝宝。

　　Much, much later, German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer maintained that love based in sexual desire was a voluptuous⁸ illusion. 很久很久以后，德国的哲学家亚瑟·叔本华坚称爱是基于性欲的，它是一种撩人的幻想。

　　He suggested that we love because our desires lead us to believe that another person will make us happy, but we are sorely mistaken. 他提出我们相爱是因为我们的欲望引导，我们相信另外一个人能让我们快乐，但我们其实错了。

　　Nature is tricking us into procreating, and the loving fusion⁹ we seek is consummated¹⁰ in our children. 我们的本性在诱使着我们繁衍后代，我们所寻找的爱的融合生出我们的儿女。

　　When our sexual desires are satisfied, we are thrown back into our tormented¹¹ existences, 当我们的性欲得到满足时，我们会重返我们痛苦焦灼的存在，

　　and we succeed only in maintaining the species and perpetuating¹² the cycle of human drudgery¹³. 我们繁衍只是为了延续我们的种族，然后持续循环着这人生的痛苦。

　　Sounds like somebody needs a hug. 听着好像有人需要抱抱了呢。

　　Love is escape from our loneliness. 爱是从孤单中的解脱。

　　According to the Nobel Prize-winning British philosopher Bertrand Russell,  根据诺贝尔获奖者，英国哲学家，博特兰·罗素所言，

　　we love in order to quench¹⁴ our physical and psychological desires. 我们用爱来慰藉我们身体和心理上的欲望。

　　Humans are designed to procreate, but without the ecstasy¹⁵ of passionate¹⁶ love, sex is unsatisfying. 人类生来就是为了繁衍的，但没有充满激情的爱来做迷幻剂的话，性也是无法令人满足的。

　　Our fear of the cold, cruel world tempts¹⁷ us to build hard shells to protect and isolate¹⁸ ourselves. 我们对冰冷又残酷的恐惧促使我们修炼出坚硬的外壳来保护并隔绝我们自己。

1 intoxicating   

a. 醉人的,使人兴奋的

参考例句：

• Power can be intoxicating. 权力能让人得意忘形。
• On summer evenings the flowers gave forth an almost intoxicating scent. 夏日的傍晚，鲜花散发出醉人的芳香。

2 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

3 intriguing   

adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
• It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 symposium   

n.讨论会，专题报告会；专题论文集

参考例句：

• What have you learned from the symposium?你参加了这次科学讨论会有什么体会？
• The specialists and scholars present at the symposium come from all corners of the country.出席研讨会的专家学者们来自全国各地。

5 playwright   

n.剧作家，编写剧本的人

参考例句：

• Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
• The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。

6 longing   

n.（for）渴望

参考例句：

• Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
• His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。

7 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

8 voluptuous   

adj.肉欲的，骄奢淫逸的

参考例句：

• The nobility led voluptuous lives.贵族阶层过着骄奢淫逸的生活。
• The dancer's movements were slow and voluptuous.舞女的动作缓慢而富挑逗性。

9 fusion   

n.溶化；熔解；熔化状态，熔和；熔接

参考例句：

• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc. 黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。
• This alloy is formed by the fusion of two types of metal.这种合金是用两种金属熔合而成的。

10 consummated   

v.使结束( consummate的过去式和过去分词 )；使完美；完婚；（婚礼后的）圆房

参考例句：

• The marriage lasted only a week and was never consummated. 那段婚姻仅维持了一星期，期间从未同房。
• We consummated an agreement after a year of negotiation. 经过一年的谈判，我们达成了协议。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 tormented   

饱受折磨的

参考例句：

• The knowledge of his guilt tormented him. 知道了自己的罪责使他非常痛苦。
• He had lain awake all night, tormented by jealousy. 他彻夜未眠，深受嫉妒的折磨。

12 perpetuating   

perpetuate的现在进行式

参考例句：

• Revenge leads to a self-perpetuating cycle of violence. 怨怨相报会导致永不休止的暴力。
• It'set out to eradicate heresy, and ended by perpetuating it. 它的目的只是要根除异端邪说，结果却巩固了异端邪说。 来自英汉文学

13 drudgery   

n.苦工，重活，单调乏味的工作

参考例句：

• People want to get away from the drudgery of their everyday lives.人们想摆脱日常生活中单调乏味的工作。
• He spent his life in pointlessly tiresome drudgery.他的一生都在做毫无意义的烦人的苦差事。

14 quench   

vt.熄灭，扑灭；压制

参考例句：

• The firemen were unable to quench the fire.消防人员无法扑灭这场大火。
• Having a bottle of soft drink is not enough to quench my thirst.喝一瓶汽水不够解渴。

15 ecstasy   

n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷

参考例句：

• He listened to the music with ecstasy.他听音乐听得入了神。
• Speechless with ecstasy,the little boys gazed at the toys.小孩注视着那些玩具，高兴得说不出话来。

16 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

17 tempts   

v.引诱或怂恿（某人）干不正当的事( tempt的第三人称单数 )；使想要

参考例句：

• It tempts the eye to dream. 这种景象会使眼睛产生幻觉。 来自辞典例句
• This is the tidbit which tempts his insectivorous fate. 就是这一点东西引诱它残杀昆虫。 来自互联网

18 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。