Hidden Forces feed 2024年07月17日
Rebecca Goldstein | Why Philosophy Isn’t Going Away: a Conversation on What Matters Most
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在《Hidden Forces》第69集中,主持人Demetri Kofinas与著名哲学家和小说家Rebecca Goldstein对话,探讨物质主义的哲学和什么使人类生活有价值。通过古希腊故事,特别是克罗伊斯国王的遭遇,节目揭示了生活的价值和苦难的正当性,以及如何在面对命运无常时寻找生活的意义。

📜 故事背景:节目以古希腊为背景,通过希罗多德的《历史》中克罗伊斯国王的故事,探讨生活的意义。克罗伊斯是吕底亚的最后一位统治者,他询问雅典立法者索伦谁是最幸福的人,期望得到自己的名字,但索伦赞扬了一些普通的、没有财富和权力的人。

🔮 索伦的智慧:索伦的回答“在结局到来之前,不要称赞任何人”表明,只有生命结束时,才能判断一个人是否过着有价值的生活。克罗伊斯后来被波斯帝国征服,面临死亡时,他才真正理解索伦的话。

🎭 古希腊哲学:古希腊人没有像后来的基督徒那样简单的答案。他们每年春天聚集在剧场,通过观看悲剧来处理人类存在的无情困境。他们认为,依靠当前环境来评价存在的价值是徒劳的。

📚 生活意义探讨:节目通过这些故事和哲学讨论,提出了一个永恒的问题:什么使生活值得忍受?这是对如何在无常的命运中寻找生活意义的一种探索。

In Episode 69 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with renowned philosopher and novelist Rebecca Goldstein, about the philosophy of mattering and what makes human life worth living.

The question of “what makes life worth living,” is something that human beings have been grappling with since time immemorial. Perhaps, nowhere did this question pose a more existential imperative than in ancient Greece, which provides the setting for this conversations. The show begins with an anecdote from “The Histories of Herodotus,” where the ancient historian recounts the story of King Croesus, the late ruler of Lydia, who governed the lands of western Anatolia in the mid-sixth century B.C. At the height of his reign, Croesus was visited by Solon, the lawgiver who had just laid the foundations for Athenian democracy. "Stranger of Athens,” inquired Croesus, “we have heard much of thy wisdom and of thy travels through many lands, from love of knowledge and a wish to see the world. I am curious therefore to inquire of thee, whom, of all the men that thou hast seen, thou deemest the most happy?" Croesus, expecting to hear the sound of his own name sung from Solon’s lips, was angered by the Athenian's reply. Solon proceeded to extol the virtues of otherwise “ordinary” men who lacked the trappings of wealth and power that Croesus so readily possessed. Seeing the king’s dissatisfaction, Solon responded with words that would come to haunt not only Croesus but which would obsess the whole of Athenian society for decades to come: «μηδένα προ του τέλους μακάριζε». Solon’s message was clear: Let me see your life’s ending. Only then I can know if you lived a good and happy life. Only then I can know if you lived a life worth praising.

Not long after Solon’s visit, Croesus’ kingdom was invaded and conquered by Cyrus the Great, ruler of the Persian Empire. Condemned to death, it is said that Croesus yelled out Solon’s name three times from the flaming pyre atop which his body burned. It was not until that moment that he understood the message that Solon had so dutifully delivered. Croesus believed himself to be the happiest man, because of all the material wealth and power he had accumulated. But we cannot judge the happiness or the worth of a human life until it is over. A good life requires a good death, and learning how to live requires that we wrestle with our own mortality.

The question of “what makes life worth living” therefore, was another way of asking: “what justifies life’s suffering?” Unlike for the Christians who succeeded them, there was, for the Greeks, no easy answer. It’s why they would congregate every spring in the amphitheater to laugh and cry and work out their grief over the pitiless predicament of human existence. 'Fairness’ was as foreign a concept to the Greeks as fate is to us. The stories of Croesus, Minos, Oedipus, Agamemnon, and the like were not only reminders of how the fortunes of the fated turn; they were also evidence for the futility of relying on present circumstances for evaluating the merits of existence. It is no surprise, therefore, that this obsession with deriving meaning from one’s own life independent of the whims of tempestuous Gods or of fated circumstance manifested itself in Greek philosophy. Its open-endedness posed an existential imperative then, as it does today.

Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas

Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou

Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod

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生活意义 古希腊哲学 命运无常 人生价值
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