Name: 什麼是「存在主義」又會造成什麼危機？ (What is an Existential Crisis?)
Uploaded: 2025-05-14T21:01:30.000Z
Duration: 5 min 5 s

One of the touching signs of the influence of philosophy on everyday life, is that people can sometimes be heard to complain that they're going through something what they call an Existential Crisis.

哲學影響日常生活的重要標誌之一就是我們有時會聽到人們抱怨他們正經歷他們所謂的「存在主義危機」。

程度副詞

The phrase may be used rather casually and vaguely.

But it nevertheless touches on one of the major traditions of European philosophy closely associated with the ideas of five philosophers in particular.

但它仍然觸及歐洲哲學重要的傳統觀念之一，這個觀念與五位哲學家的思想密切相關。

Kierkegarrd, Camus, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre.

他們分別是齊克果、卡謬、尼采、海德格、和沙特。

Though these thinkers disagreed on many things, it is possible via their thought to come to a coherent view of  what an existential crisis really is,

雖然這些思想家在很多事情上無法達成共識，但從他們的想法中可以得出他們對存在主義危機的看法一致，

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

而當我們經歷存在主義危機時也可以作為參考。

The crisis is marked by five distinctive features.

Firstly, it's a period when a lot that are previously seemed like common sense or normal reveals its contingent, chance, uncanny and relative nature.

第一：這是一個很多以前看似是常識或是正常的事情，揭示了它的偶然性、隨意性、神秘性和相對性的時期。

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

舉例來說，我們可能會開始問自己「為什麼我們生活在世界的這個地方而不是任何其它地方？」

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

「為什麼我們做這項工作而不是別的工作？」

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

「為什麼我們和這個人在一起並遵守這些社會規範？」

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，我們意識到讓人不安的是，在我們通常允許自己所想像的表面之下其實還有更多選擇。

我們比我們想像的要自由得多。

Secondly, this revelation is acutely anxiety-inducing.

第二：這個啟示讓我們極度焦慮。

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

意識到我們的自由並沒有讓我們平靜，事實上恰恰相反。

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

我們發現我們一直在欺騙自己，關於我們必須是什麼。

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

沒有人像我們所想的那樣真的在乎我們是誰以及我們選擇做什麼。

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

我們察覺到一件令人不安的事，那就是我們最終要對自己負責，而不是對我們的社交世界。

Thirdly, we develop a heightened awareness of death.

Time is short and running out, we need to re-examine our lives, but the clock is ticking ever louder.

時間不多了，我們必須重新審視我們的人生，但死亡卻離我們越來越近。

Fourthly, and crucially for all the existential philosophers, we have many choices but are, by the nature of the human condition, denied the information we would need to choose with ultimate wisdom or certainty.

第四：對所有存在主義哲學家來說至關重要，我們有很多選擇，但是根據人類的本質，我們被剝奪了我們需要用來做出明智或正確選擇的訊息。

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

我們被迫做出決定，我們永遠無法確定我們是否做得正確。

We are steering blind, and therefore we can be guaranteed to make a lot of mistakes.

我們就像是蒙著眼開車，因此我們可以肯定我們會犯很多錯誤。

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

人類的狀況是必須在沒有適當理由或深刻的理解的情況下，在黑暗中計畫我們的路線。

This leads to another favorite word for the Existentialists: Anxiety.

這給我們帶來了另一個最喜歡的存在主義詞：焦慮。

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

不是關於「這個或那個」特定的事情，而是我們生活的一個基本特徵。

Because we must always choose without any security that we've chosen well and without sufficient time to explore the options, this can call all sound perilous and dispiriting.

因為我們總是必須在沒有任何保證我們做出正確決定的情況下做出選擇，也沒有足夠的時間探索所有選項，這一切都聽起來非常危險且令人沮喪。

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

然而存在主義哲學家不想讓我們失望。

They want to lend dignity and grandeur to dilemmas which we too often think of as ours alone, and therefore feel ashamed about as some personal curse,

他們想在我們陷入困境時給予我們尊嚴和偉大，我們常將那困境想得太個人，因此覺得這是某種個人的詛咒而感到羞恥。　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

when they are in fact fundamental features of the human condition which will ennoble us when we considered them with sufficient depth.

但事實上這是人類狀況的基本特徵，當我們用足夠的深度去思考它們時，我們會變得高尚。

The existentialists offer us a useful corrective to a normal pernicious view that intelligent choice might be possible and untragic in structure.

存在主義者為我們提供一個針對正常有害的觀點的有用改善方法，這個觀點認為明智的選擇或許在結構上是可能且不悲慘的。

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

一個存在主義的方法緩和了現代多愁善感的想法，也就是完美觸手可及。

That you suffer from the agony of choice isn't some anomaly, it's one of the most predictable and poignant things about being alive.

你承受選擇所帶來的痛苦並不是異常的事，而是活著最可預測且悲傷的事情之一。

This is a message we benefit from hearing quite often because what helps with regret is the knowledge that in fact every life is burdened by it in some shape or form.

這是一個使我們受益的訊息，因為知道事實上每個人的人生都以某種形式承受著後悔。

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

沒有後悔的人生只存在於電影和歌曲之中。

The way to diminish our anxiety and panic is to alleviate the sense that one had the option to choose correctly but failed.

消除我們焦慮和恐慌的方法是減輕「我們本可以做出正確的選擇，但是卻做出了錯誤的選擇」這樣的觀念。

A degree of disappointment is, as the existentialist philosophers so beautifully admitted, just simply the human condition.

一定程度的失望是，就如同一個存在主義哲學家所漂亮地承認，這只是一種人類的情況。