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What are you afraid of? Spiders? Public speaking? The dentist? Calculus?

你怕什麼？蜘蛛？演講？牙醫？微積分？

What about death?

死亡呢？

How you feel about death has probably been shaped by your beliefs about whether or not there’s an afterlife

相不相信有來生，也許形塑了你對死亡的想法

– and if there is, what it’s like.

－如果你相信有，這也形塑了你對死亡的想像

The ancient Egyptians believed that, at death, your heart would be weighed against a feather,

古埃及人相信，死後，人的心臟會跟羽毛一起秤重

to determine if it was fit to enter the underworld.

據此來決定是否能進入另一個世界

A heart heavy with misdeeds would be fed to a demon

作惡多端的人心臟沉重，會被拿去餵給怪獸吃掉

Christians may envision Saint Peter, waiting at the pearly gates to welcome you into heaven,

基督徒相信，死後聖彼得會在天堂的珍珠大門旁迎接你

unless your name doesn’t make his list.

除非你的名字不在他的名單之中

Imagine not only being turned away from the coolest club in town, but banished to the eternal torments of hell.

想像一下你不只被城裡最酷炫的俱樂部拒絕，還被趕到痛苦永無止境的地獄中

As we learned in our discussions about the philosophy of religion, when the stakes are eternal,

就像我們對宗教哲學的討論，當風險一直都在的時候

it’s only reasonable to get a little nervous about what’s basically the Ultimate Final Exam.

會對於基本上是終極最後試驗有點緊張是很合理的

But if it makes you feel any better, many philosophers have believed, and still believe,

假如這些話會讓你感覺好些，一直以來哲學家都相信

that death is nothing to fear.

死亡沒什麼好怕的

[Theme Music]

［主題配樂］

In 399 BCE, Socrates was sentenced to death for, among other things,

西元399年前，蘇格拉底因眾多原因被判處死刑

refusing to acknowledge the official deities of Athens,

他不承認雅典眾神

radicalizing youth, and generally honking off the people in charge.

腐蝕青年思想，惹火了當權者

But even when he faced his own imminent death, he remained calm and unafraid.

不過，即使死亡當前，他依然保持冷靜，毫不畏懼

He was a philosopher, after all. And fear was no match for his ability to argue.

畢竟，他是個哲學家。以他的能力恐懼對他來說不是個問題

Socrates didn’t think we could know if there’s an afterlife or not,

蘇格拉底認為我們無法得知是否有來生

but he thought there were really only two possibilities.

但他認為也只有兩個可能

And as far as he was concerned, neither of them was anything to be afraid of.

而且，既他所知，兩種情形都無須害怕

Here’s his argument:

他的論點如下：

Either death is a dreamless sleep or death is a passage to another life

死亡是一場無夢的長眠，或者，死亡是前往另一個世界的通道

Dreamless sleeps are nice, not scary (Socrates said he could use the rest)

睡一場沒有夢的覺很棒，無須畏懼（蘇格拉底說他也很需要這樣的休息）

And a passage to another life sounds good, too,

前往另一個世界的通道聽起來也不錯

because he’ll get to hang out with cool people from the past who have already died

這樣，他就可以跟已逝的故人一起談笑風生

Therefore, either way, death is nothing to fear

因此，無論是哪種情形，死亡没什麼好怕的

Socrates’ idea of the afterlife was Hades, which he seems to have pictured as being a lot like Athens,

在蘇格拉底的思想中，死後世界就是冥界，在他想像中跟雅典頗為相似

except that no one had any physical bodies – only disembodied minds.

只是人們都没有實體身體－只有超脫軀殼的意志

And frankly he thought that sounded awesome, because bodies can be a real pain;

坦白說，他覺得這樣很棒，因為肉體會帶來痛苦

they just need to be fed, and require rest. Just, so much upkeep.

身體需要進食，需要休息，要做太多事情來維持身體

So, in the afterlife, Socrates imagined he’d get to have endless philosophical conversations,

所以，在來生中，蘇格拉底想像自己會有無窮盡的哲學對話

and continue learning new things, with the greatest thinkers of the past.

跟著已故的偉大思想家繼續學習新事物

And they wouldn’t have to take a break to eat or sleep or pee!

他們不需要休息、吃東西、睡覺或上廁所！

Now, Socrates recognized that, although his favorite activity, philosophizing, didn’t require a body, some things do.

現在，蘇格拉底明白，進行他最愛的哲學思辨是不需要身體的，但有些東西是需要的

And if all of your favorite pastimes are physical, you might find the afterlife disappointing.

所以假如你喜歡的都是實體娛樂活動，你在來生中可能會覺得失望

That’s why Socrates recommended spending your life looking after your mind,

這就是為什麼蘇格拉底建議要花時間檢視自己的內心思想

cultivating that part of you that you’ll get to keep forever – if there’s an afterlife.

建立起自己的思想意志，如此才能讓自己永遠存在－假如真的有來生的話

If you do that, when the time comes for you to die, you’ll actually see death as a benefit,

如果你這麼做了，死亡將至之時，你會視死亡為一益事

because you won’t be troubled by bodily things, while your mind will be in top form.

因為你不會為身體等一切實體所困，你的意識會上升成某種形式

But what if there isn’t an afterlife?

但是假如沒有來生呢？

What about that “dreamless sleep” that Socrates spoke about?

蘇格拉底提到「沒有夢境的長眠」又是什麼？

Isn’t total annihilation of the self, like, the scariest thing there is?

這不就是指一個人完全毀滅，也就是最可怕的事情嗎？

Ancient Stoic philosopher Epicurus didn’t think so.

古哲學家伊比鳩魯不這麼認為

He lived about a hundred years after Socrates, and he rejected belief in an afterlife altogether.

他生於蘇格拉底約100年之後，完全不相信有來生

Instead, he said we’re just our bodies, and nothing more.

反而，他說我們就只是肉體本身，沒有其他了

But still, he still didn’t find death scary.

不過，他仍然不認為死亡可怕

Here’s his argument: death is the cessation of sensation.

以下是他的論點：死亡就是停止感知

Good and evil only make sense in terms of sensation.

善與惡在人有感知時才有意義

So, Death is neither good nor evil.

所以，死亡既非善亦非惡

Epicurus was convinced that things are only evil, or bad, if they feel bad.

伊比鳩魯確信事物之所以是邪惡或不好的，是因為它們讓你感覺很糟

And he didn’t mean only physical feelings.

他講的不僅只是肉體的感覺

Anyone who’s ever had a broken heart will tell you that it’s a lot more painful, and harder to heal, than a broken leg.

任何有心碎經驗的人都會告訴你，比起摔斷腿，心碎痛苦多了，也更難治癒

But a broken heart is still a sensation – you need a body to experience it – so as a materialist –

但心碎仍是一種感知－你需要肉體去體驗這個感覺－所以，對物質主義者來說

someone who believed that You equal Your Body – death just meant nonexistence.

你本身就是你的身體－死亡代表的是不存在

And there was nothing scary about that, because, well,

這没什麼好害怕的，因為

there won’t be any you to have any feelings about not existing!

你本身感受不到自己不存在

Epicurus argued that fearing nonexistence is not only stupid, but it gets in the way of enjoying life.

伊比鳩魯論道畏懼不存是愚蠢的，要享受生命

You are alive, and experiencing sensations, now.

你還活著，現在仍在感受一切

So, he said, make those sensations as great as possible,

所以，他說，盡可能去享受吧

and don’t worry about when those sensations are going to stop! YOLO!

不要擔心什麼時候會停止感知！生命只有一次！

To help you understand Epicurus and his attitudes about death a little better,

為了讓你更了解伊比鳩魯對死亡的態度

let’s head over to the Thought Bubble for some Flash Philosophy.

讓我們用思想泡泡來進行一些快速的哲學思考

Think about a hangover. If you haven’t had one, imagine what they might be like.

想想看宿醉，假如你沒有這個經驗，想像一下可能會是怎麼樣

Hangovers aren’t bad for you before you get one, right?

宿醉之前發生的事一點都不糟，對吧？

In fact, the thing that comes before the hangover is often quite pleasant, what with all the laughing,

事實上，宿醉前通常都很愉快，充滿歡笑

and feeling uninhibited, and working up the courage to talk to that cutie from your calculus class.

感覺無拘無束，還讓你提起勇氣去跟微積分課上的美女講話

No, the hangover is only bad while it’s happening.

不過，開始宿醉後，事情就變糟了

And true, it might be bad after it’s over, like, if it kept you from doing well on your calculus exam the next morning,

的確，宿醉後就開始糟糕了，宿醉讓你明早的微積分考試表現不盡理想

because you were too busy trying not to barf in front of said cutie.

因為你忙著讓自己不要在那個美女前嘔吐

But the point is, if something is bad for you, it’s generally bad for you at a particular time, the way a hangover is.

但重點是，假如某件事情對你來說很糟糕，他通常是發生在某一個時間點，就像宿醉一樣

But Epicurus said that death can’t be bad for you at any time.

不過伊比鳩魯說死亡在任何時間點都不會是糟糕的

Because once it arrives, you’re gone!

因為一旦死亡降臨，你已經不存在了

The thing that eventually kills you? Yeah, that’s gonna be bad for you, before your death.

死亡最終會奪走性命嗎？是的，對你來說這一定糟透了，不過要在你死去之前才會感覺糟糕

But that’s not death.

這表示此時還不是死亡

When you think about it, you and Death are never present at the same time.

當你還在想死亡，你和死亡是不會同時存在的

And if there’s no you when death is present, then there is no time in which death is bad for you.

假如死亡降臨時你已經不在了，你也沒有時間感到死亡很糟

Thanks, Thought Bubble!

感謝這些思想泡泡！

So, things like hangovers and charley horses and movie spoilers are bad, because you’re there to experience them.

所以，像宿醉、腳抽筋、劇情被爆雷這些事情感覺很糟，是因為你能親身體驗這一切

But as far as Epicurus was concerned, life was like a night of drinking before the hangover that is death,

但既伊比鳩魯所知，生命就像是宿醉（也就是死亡）前的飲酒之夜

which – inevitable as it is – you will never actually experience.

不可避免地，你也無法真正體驗後續的宿醉

Now, the 21st century has its own perspectives on death.

現在，21世紀對於死亡有新的觀點

And one might be best described as a kind of philosophical FOMO.

其中一種被視為一種哲學上的FOMO（fear of missing out 恐懼錯失任何新訊息）

Contemporary American philosopher Thomas Nagel points out that some people dread death

當代美國哲學家湯瑪斯·內格爾指出，有些人對死亡感到恐懼

because they’ll miss out on things that they want to experience.

因為他們害怕錯過那些想要親身經歷的事物

If you died right now, you’d never get to finish the video game you’re in the middle of,

假如你現在死了，進行到一半的電動遊戲就無法破關

or read the next George RR Martin book, or see humans land on Mars.

或看到喬治·R·R·馬丁的下一本書、也看不到人類登陸火星

Which would suck, yeah.

這真是太糟了，唉

But think about it like this: Cool stuff was going on way before you were born. And you missed it!

但是想一想：酷炫的東西在你出生前就一直出現，你也都錯過了！

I’m gonna make some assumptions about your age here

我要先假設一下你的年齡

and say that you weren’t listening when Orson Welles terrified the nation with the War of the Worlds.

你一定沒有聽到奧森．威爾斯用廣播播出世界大戰嚇壞整個國家

You didn’t march on Washington. You totally missed Woodstock.

也沒有參與到華盛頓進軍，你也一定錯過整個胡士托音樂節

So, Nagel asks: If you don’t feel some sort of deep sense of loss at what you missed before you were alive,

所以，內格爾問大家：假如你對於自己錯過出生前的這些大事，並沒有感到損失慘重

why should you feel loss at what you’ll miss after you die?

那為什麼要對錯過你死後的事情感到哀痛欲絕？

Now, Nagel does point out that, if we believe that life is essentially good,

現在，內格爾指出，如果我們相信生命的本質是美好的，

then there is something to mourn when a life is cut short.

那麼生命變短時就令人哀痛

Since humans can live, on average, for about 80 years,

人類平均可以活大約80年

someone dying at the age of 20 is a tragedy, because that person missed out on 60 possible years of good times.

對於一個20歲就死去的人來說這是個悲劇，因為他可能錯失了60年的大好時光

But we should pause here to talk about what you really value about life,

但這裡我們該停下來，討論一下你如何衡量生命的價值

because that will also have an impact on what you think about death in general,

一般來說，這會影響你對死亡的想法

or about the death of a particular person.

也會影響你對特定的人死去時的想法

If you say that life is just always, inherently, good, then you’re said to place a high value on the sanctity of life.

如果你說生命總是美好的，那麼，你賦予生命神聖的高價值

It doesn’t matter what the content of that life looks like, or what the person is like.

這與一生過得如何，或者是什麼人無關

The fact that they’re alive is just good. So, losing it would not be good.

只要事實是你認為活著是美好的，那麼，失去生命就不是什麼好事

But, if you think that quality of life is what’s important,

但是，如果你認為生活品質很重要

then you’re going to want to distinguish between lives that are full of good experiences, and those that aren’t.

那麼你就會去區分生命中的美好部分和不好的部分

If you value quality of life, you don’t think that there’s something inherently valuable about merely being alive.

若你重視生命的品質，你不會認為光活著這點有任何價值可言

So in these terms, some deaths might actually be positive or valuable –

那麼在這個情形，有些死亡或許是有益的、有價值的－

like, if they bring about an end to a terrible, painful existence.

像是讓一段糟糕、痛苦的生命走向終點

Now, of course, it might make sense to be afraid of dying itself,

當然，現在害怕死亡是有道理的

because the process of dying can be painful and drawn out and involve saying a lot of difficult good-byes.

因為死亡的過程是痛苦、持久的，包括許多很困難的道別

But maybe Socrates and Epicurus have convinced you that fearing your own death is absurd.

但也許蘇格拉底和伊比鳩魯早已說服你畏懼死亡很荒謬

Well then what about the death of others? Is it equally silly to fear the death of the people you love?

那麼他人的死亡呢？害怕你深愛的人死亡也一樣傻嗎？

Probably so, say some philosophers, because what you’re fearing isn’t actually death;

也許是，有些哲學家這麼說，因為你真正害怕的不是死亡

what you’re afraid of is being left behind, alone, when a loved one dies.

當愛人死去時，你真正害怕的是被留下、孤單

And this is a good place to hear from ancient Chinese Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi.

此時聽聽中國哲學中的道家思想家莊子的說法

He lived about the same time as Epicurus, and believed that there’s no reason to fear the death of your loved ones.

他和伊比鳩魯生在同一時代，他認為不必害怕失去摯愛

He asked, why would you fear the inevitable?

他問道，為什麼要害怕不可避免的事情？

We know death is going to happen, to everyone, and we also know that it’s a part of the life cycle.

我們知道死亡會發生在任何人身上，我們也知道這是生命的循環

And we don’t see any other part of that cycle as being bad.

我們並沒有將生命循環中的其他部分視為壞事

Wouldn’t it be silly, he said, if we mourned the loss of our babies when they became toddlers,

他說，如果我們為孩子從嬰兒變成幼童感到哀傷，不是很傻嗎？

or our children when they became teens?

或者小孩變成青少年的時候？

We celebrate every other life milestone, with birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, and graduations,

我們會慶祝每一個生命的里程碑，像是生日派對、成年禮、畢業典禮

to mark the passage of time and the changes that have come.

用來紀念時間的流逝和它帶來的改變

Sure, your parents might shed some tears when they pack you off to college,

當然，你的父母送你去大學時可能會流淚

but they also knew that that day was going to come –

但是他們也知道總會有這麼一天－

when you would move away from them and onto your own life.

你會搬走，離開他們，展開自己的生活

So death, according to Zhuangzi, is just one more change – why treat it differently?

所以，依莊子的說法，死亡只是另一種改變－為什麼我們不能等同視之呢？

Instead, he said, you should celebrate the death of a loved one

他說，反而，你應該要慶祝愛的人死去

just as you celebrated every other life change that they experienced.

就像你慶祝他們歷經其他生命的轉變一樣

You should think of their death as a going away party for a grand journey.

你應該把死亡當作開啟另一段偉大旅程的歡送派對

In his view, mourning can actually seem selfish.

在他看來，哀傷其實很自私

When it’s time for the people you love to move on, Zhuangzi said,

在你的愛人繼續前進時哀傷是很自私的，莊子說

the last thing you should do is hold them closer.

你該做的最後一件事是更靠近親近他們

Today we talked about death.

今天我們談論死亡

We considered philosophical responses – from Socrates, Epicurus, and Zhuangzi,

思考哲學上的說法－從蘇格拉底、伊比鳩魯和莊子

about whether it’s logical to fear your own death, or the deaths of your loved ones.

談論害怕自己，或者是愛人的死亡究竟有沒有邏輯

And we talked about Thomas Nagel, death, and Fear of Missing Out.

我們也談到湯瑪斯．內格爾、死亡和害怕錯過

This episode of Crash Course Philosophy is made possible by Squarespace.

本集《哲學速成班》是以 Squarespace製作

Squarespace is a way to create a website, blog or online store for you and your ideas.

Squarespace提供你或是任何想法一個管道，以建立網站、部落格或是網路商店

Squarespace features a user-friendly interface, custom templates and 24/7 customer support.

Squarespace提供人性化介面、客製化範本及全天候客戶支援

Try Squarespace at squarespace.com/crashcourse for a special offer.

你可以到 squarespace.com/crashcourse試用Squarespace，領取優惠

Squarespace: share your passion with the world.

Squarespace：分享熱情給全世界

Crash Course Philosophy is produced in association with PBS Digital Studios.

《哲學速成班》與PBS數位影音合作發行

You can head over to their channel to check out amazing shows like

你可以收看他們的頻道，有許多精彩節目像是

Brain Craft, PBS Game/Show, and Gross Science.

《大腦精工》、《PBS 遊戲/節目》和 《噁爛科學》

This episode of Crash Course was filmed in the Doctor Cheryl C. Kinney Crash Course Studio

《哲學速成班》由 Doctor Cheryl C. Kinney Crash Course Studio製作

with the help of all of these awesome people and our equally fantastic graphics team is Thought Cafe.

以及《Thought Cafe》影像團隊的優秀人員提供協助