is that people can sometimes be heard to complain that they're

當我們有時聽見人們抱怨，

going through something what they call an Existential Crisis.

他們正在經歷所謂的「存在主義危機」。

"No!"

「不！」

The phrase maybe used rather casually and vaguely

這個詞可能被用的有點隨性和模糊，

but it nevertheless touches on one of the major traditions of European philosophy

但它觸及到了歐陸哲學的其中一個大支派，

closely associated with the ideas of five philosophers in particular.

而這個思想和五位哲學家尤其相關。

Kierkegarrd, Camus, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre.

齊克果、卡謬、尼采、海德格和沙特。

Though these thinkers disagreed on many things, it is possible via their thought

儘管這些思想家在許多觀點上仍有分歧，我們仍可以藉由他們的觀點

to come to a coherent view of what an existential crisis really is,

來統合出「存在主義危機」的完整定義，

and when it might therefore be helpful to refer to ourselves as going through one.

了解它之餘，當我們真正面臨到這個危機時，我們也可以知道如何應對。

The crisis is marked by five distinctive features

存在主義危機由五個獨特的元素組成：

Firstly, it's a period when a lot that are previously seemed like common sense or normal

首先，這個時期會有很多原先看似是常識或正常的東西，

reveals its contingent, chance, uncanny and relative nature.

揭露它本身的偶然性、隨機性、荒謬性與相關性。

For example, we might start to wonder "Why we live in THIS part of the world rather than ANY other?"

例如，我們可能會開始思考，「為什麼我住在世界的『這個』部分，而不是『其他』地方呢？」

"Why we're doing THIS job and NOT something else?"

「為什麼我做的是『這份』工作而『不是』其他的呢？」

"Why are we with THIS partner and following THIS set of social norms?"

「為什麼我會跟『這個』人在一起，並且遵守著『這套』社會規範呢？」

In short, we realize rather disturbingly there are far more options beneath the surface than we normally allow ourselves to imagine.

簡而言之，我們頗為惱人地發現，世界上存在的可能性，遠比我們想像多得多。

We are more freer than we thought.

我們遠比我們想像的還要自由。

Secondly, this revelation is acutely anxiety inducing.

第二，這個揭露的過程非常劇烈，而且處處充滿焦慮。

A recognition of our freedom doesn't bring with it calm; quite the opposite.

意識到自我的自由並不會帶來平靜，恰恰相反。

We recognize we've been deluding ourselves about what HAD to be.

我們這才意識到，一直以來我們都在試圖催眠自己去相信事情「應該」如何。

No one really cares quite as much as we'd thought about what we are and have chosen to do.

沒人像我們想的那樣在乎我們是誰，以及我們選擇去做什麼。

We could change everything around.

我們可以改變一切。

We come to a disturbing awareness that our ultimate responsibility is to ourselves, not the social world.

我們再度惱人地意識到，我們的終極的責任是對我們自身，而不是對這個社會。

Thirdly, we develop a heightened awareness of death.

第三，我們更加意識到死亡無所不在。

Time is short and running out, we need to re-examine our lives,

時光飛逝而且，我們需要重新檢視我們的生命，

but the clock is ticking ever louder.

但死神卻緊追在我們身後。

Fourthly, and crucially for all the existential philosophers,

第四點，同時也是對所有存在主義哲學家來說很重要的一點，

we have many choices but are, by the nature of the human condition,

我們雖然擁有很多選擇，但受限於人類的條件，

denied the information we would need to choose with ultimate wisdom or certainty.

我們缺乏相關的資訊以明智且有把握地做決定。

We are forced to decide, and can never be assured that we've done so adequately.

我們被迫做出選擇，但卻永遠無法確定我們是否已做好充足的事前準備。

We are steering blind,

我們就像矇著眼睛開車，

and therefore we can be guaranteed to make a lot of mistakes.

因此我們勢必會犯下許多錯誤。

The condition of mankind is to have to plot our course in the dark without adequate reason or insight.

人類的境況是必須在缺乏充足理由和視野的情況下，在黑暗中替自己的未來布局。

This leads to another favorite word for the Existentialists:

這裡要介紹另一個存在主義者們喜愛的字眼：

Anxiety.

焦慮。

The human condition is to be anxious.

人類是注定要感到焦慮的。

Not about "this or that" particular thing but as a basic feature of our lives.

這個焦慮無關乎「這個或那個」這樣明確的事物，它是一個我們人生中的基本元素。

Because we must always choose without any security that we've chosen well and without sufficient time to explore the options,

因為我們在做選擇之前，總是無法確定這個決定是否正確，而且我們也沒有時間去衡量所有的可能性，

this can call all sound perilous and dispiriting.

這一切聽起來都相當危險且令人沮喪不已。

Yet the existential philosophers don't mean to depress us.

但存在主義哲學家們無意讓我們沮喪。

They want to lend dignity and grandeur to dilemmas which we too often think of as ours alone,

他們希望我們在那些太常被認為是個人的難題面前時，能有尊嚴且莊嚴地去面對，

and therefore feel ashamed about as some personal curse,

因為我們太常因那些難題而感到丟臉，並將他們視為個人的詛咒；

when they are in fact fundamental features of the human condition

然而，事實上他們只是人之所以為人的基本條件而已，

which will noble us when we considered them with sufficient depth.

如果我們深度地去思考，這些難題反而會使我們昇華。

The existentialists offer us a useful corrective to a normal pernicious view that

存在主義者們提供我們一種對普遍有害看法的修正，

intelligent choice might be possible and untragic in structure.

傳統上認為，我們可以做出聰明的決定，而決定本身也不是悲劇性的。

An existential approach tempers the modern sentimental notion that perfection is within reach.

存在主義的觀點調節了現代的感性認知，也就是認為完美是存在的。

That you suffer from the agony of choice isn't some anomaly,

因為選擇而感到焦慮並不是甚麼不正常的事，

it's one of the most predictable and poignant things about being alive.

相反地，它是生命中最可以被預測且最尖銳的事情之一。

This is a message we benefit from hearing quite often

如果認知到這個事實，對我們其實相當有益，

because what helps with regret is the knowledge that

因為消弭遺憾的辦法，就是意識到

in fact every life is burdened by it in some shape or form.

事實上每個人的生命都多少受焦慮左右。

The regret-free life exists only in movies and songs.

毫無缺憾的人生只存在於電影和歌曲中。

The way to diminish our anxiety and panic

要消解焦慮和不安的方法，

is to alleviate the sense that one had the option to choose correctly but failed.

就是要放下「我本來可以做出正確決定，但卻失敗了」這樣的執念。

A degree of disappointment is, as the existentialist philosophers so beautifully admitted,

如同存在主義哲學家如此美麗的承認，些許的失望，

just simply the human condition.

就只是人類之所以為人類的條件而已。