【哲学英语】叔本华西方哲学家

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 【哲学英语】叔本华 西方哲学家

西方哲学家独特的思维逻辑与理性精神,使他们的哲学思想少了一些诗意,多了一些真相,丰富了一些个性。在中国传统文化复兴的今天,作文里的中国名句多起...

19世纪上半叶，拿破仑60万大军于滑铁卢战役惨败，至此拿破仑帝国宣告结束，波旁王朝便乘势卷土重来。而此时的欧洲经过多轮乱战，已经筋疲力尽，民众的生活陷入了前所未有的艰难与绝望。

Schopenhauer

I. The Age

Why did the first half of the nineteenth century lift up, as voices of the age, a group of pessimistic

poets—Byron in England, De Musset in France, Heine in Germany, Leopardi in Italy, Pushkin and Lermontof in Russia; a group of pessimistic composers—Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, and even the later Beethoven (a pessimist trying to convince himself that he is an optimist); and above all, a profoundly pessimistic philosopher—Arthur Schopenhauer?

That great anthology of woe, The World as Will and Idea, appeared in 1818. It was the age of the "Holy" Alliance. Waterloo had been fought, the Revolution was dead, and the "Son of the Revolution" was rotting on a rock in a distant sea. Something of Schopenhauer's apotheosis of Will was due to that magnificent and bloody apparition of the Will made flesh in the little Corsican; and something of his despair of life came from the pathetic distance of St. Helena—Will defeated at last, and dark Death the only victor of all the wars. The Bourbons were restored, the feudal barons were returning to claim their lands, and the pacific idealism of Alexander had unwittingly mothered a league for the suppression of progress everywhere. The great age was over. "I thank God," said Goethe, "that I am not young in so thoroughly finished a world."

All Europe lay prostrate. Millions of strong men had perished; millions of acres of land had been

neglected or laid waste; everywhere on the Continent life had to begin again at the bottom, to recover painfully and slowly the civilizing economic surplus that had been swallowed up in war.

Schopenhauer, traveling through France and Austria in 1804, was struck by the chaos and uncleanliness of the villages, the wretched poverty of the farmers, the unrest and misery of the towns. The passage of the Napoleonic and counter-Napoleonic armies had left scars of ravage on the face of every country. Moscow was in ashes. In England, proud victor in the strife, the farmers were ruined by the fall in the price of wheat; and the industrial workers were tasting all the horrors of the nascent and uncontrolled factory-system. Demobilization added to unemployment. "I have heard my father say," wrote Carlyle, "that in the years when oatmeal was as high as ten shillings a stone, he had noticed the laborers retire each separately to a brook, and there drink instead of dining, anxious only to hide their misery from one another." Never had life seemed so meaningless, or so mean.

▍ 语言点

lift up: 升起；浮起

composer: n. 作曲家

profoundly pessimistic: 极其悲观的

anthology of woe: 苦难的合集

Son of the Revolution: 革命之子，指代拿破仑

apotheosis: n. 神话；尊奉为神

apparition: n. 鬼魂；幻影

little Corsican: 指代拿破仑

pathetic: adj. 可伶的；感伤的

The Bourbons: 波旁王朝

unwittingly: adv. 不知不觉地

mother: vt. 孕育；孵化

suppression: n. 压制

thoroughly finished: 彻头彻尾完蛋的

lay prostrate: 俯卧

perish: vi. 死亡；丧生

lay waste: 荒废

economic surplus: 经济盈余

swallow up: 吞没

wretched poverty: 赤贫

unrest: n. 动荡

passage: n. 过境

scars of ravage: 伤痕累累

strife: n. 冲突

nascent: adj. 初期的

demobilization: n. 遣散

oatmeal: n. 燕麦

retire each separately to: 分别退到

随着战争的失败，革命的消逝，欧洲似乎也失去了自己的灵魂。面对破碎不堪的欧洲，许多穷人从宗教中寻求安慰，但大批的上层人士却丧失了信仰，陷入了颓废；由此也催生出一批悲观主义的哲学家。

Schopenhauer

I. The Age

Yes, the Revolution was dead; and with it the life seemed to have gone out of the soul of Europe. That new heaven, called Utopia, whose glamour had relieved the twilight of the gods, had receded into a dim future where only young eyes could see it; the older ones had followed that lure long enough, and turned away from it now as a mockery of men's hopes. How many thousands of heroes and believers had fought for the Revolution! How the hearts of youth everywhere in Europe had turned towards the young republic, and had lived on the light and hope of it,—until Beethoven tore into shreds the dedication of his Heroic Symphony to the man who had ceased to be the Son of the Revolution and had become the son-in-law of reaction. How many had fought even then for the great hope, and had believed, with passionate uncertainty, to the very end? And now here was the very end: Waterloo, and St. Helena, and Vienna; and on the throne of prostrate France a Bourbon who had learned nothing and forgotten nothing. This was the glorious dénouement of a generation of such hope and effort as human history had never known before. What a comedy this tragedy was—for those whose laughter was yet bitter with tears!

Many of the poor had, in these days of disillusionment and suffering, the consolation of religious

hope; but a large proportion of the upper classes had lost their faith, and looked out upon a ruined world with no alleviating vision of a vaster life in whose final justice and beauty these ugly ills would be dissolved. And in truth it was hard enough to believe that such a sorry planet as men saw in 1818 was held up in the hand of an intelligent and benevolent God. Mephistopheles had triumphed, and every Faust was in despair. Voltaire had sown the whirlwind, and Schopenhauer was to reap the harvest.

Seldom had the problem of evil been flung so vividly and insistently into the face of philosophy

and religion. Every martial grave from Boulogne to Moscow and the Pyramids lifted a mute interrogation to the indifferent stars. How long, O Lord, and Why? Was this almost universal calamity the vengeance of a just God on the Age of Reason and unbelief? Was it a call to the penitent intellect to bend before the ancient virtues of faith, hope and charity? So Schlegel thought, and Novalis, and Chateaubriand, and De Musset, and Southey, and Wordsworth, and Gogol: and they turned back to the old faith like wasted prodigals happy to be home again. But some others made harsher answer: that the chaos of Europe but reflected the chaos of the universe; that there was no divine order after all, nor any heavenly hope; that God, if God there was, was blind, and Evil brooded over the face of the earth. So Byron, and Heine, and Lermontof, and Leopardi, and our philosopher.

▍ 语言点

Utopia: 乌托邦，理想中的美好社会

twilight: n. 黎明

recede into: 退至；沦落到

lure: n. 诱惑；魅力

turn away from: 厌烦；远离

tear into shreds: 撕成碎片

Heroic Symphony: 英雄交响曲

cease to be: 不再是

passionate: adj. 激情的；热烈的

dénouement: n. 结局；收场

disillusionment: n. 幻灭

consolation: n. 慰问

look out upon: 凝视

alleviating: adj. 缓和的

benevolent: adj. 慈善的；亲切的

Mephistopheles: 靡菲斯特，歌德所著《浮士德》中的魔鬼

whirlwind: n. 旋风

reap the harvest: 收获

fling so vividly and insistently into: 如此生动且坚持地直击

martial grave: 军人的墓地

mute interrogation: 无声的审讯

calamity: n. 灾祸

vengeance: n. 报复

penitent: adj. 忏悔的

wasted prodigal: 酩酊大醉的花花公子

divine order: 神圣的秩序

brood over: 笼罩