耶鲁大学开放课程—哲学_死亡24OpenYalecourse—Philosophy_.doc

耶鲁大学开放课程—哲学：死亡24OpenYalecourse—Philosophy：.txt心态决定状态，心胸决定格局，眼界决定境界。当你的眼泪忍不住要流出来的时候，睁大眼睛，千万别眨眼，你会看到世界由清晰到模糊的全过程。上节课 Last time, 我们讨论了由于人必有一死 we talked about how you should live your life, 我们应该如何度过一生 in light of the fact of our--your mortality. 知道自己必有一死 How does the fact that we will die-- 会对我们的生活方式产生什么影响 how should that affect the way that we live? 我们下面要讲的 What were going to turn to now, 这学期的最后一个话题 our final topic for the semester, 是这个问题的另一面 is the flip side. 我们必有一死 The fact of our mortality 是否意味着 raises the question as to whether or not 我们应该结束自己的生命 we should put an end to our life. 严格来讲 我认为 Strictly speaking, I suppose 这不是我们寿命有限的问题 its not the fact that were mortal, per se, 而是我们以前讲过的 its one of those extra features of death that 死亡其它性质里 Ive discussed previously, 生命长度因人而异的问题 the variability of death. 而且更准确地说 And more particularly still, 是我们能控制自己生命长度的问题 the fact that we can control how long we live. 我们可以在享尽天年之前 We face the possibility of ending our life earlier than 结束自己的生命 it would end otherwise. 这当然就是自杀了 Thats suicide, of course. 所以我们最后一个话题就是 And so our final topic is, 在什么情况下 under what circumstances, 如果有的话 自杀是合理的 if any, does suicide make sense? 在什么情况下 Under what circumstances, 如果有的话 自杀是恰当的 if any, is it an appropriate thing to do? 我们的文化中弥漫着 Now, its a fairly widespread feature of our culture 对自杀的鄙视 that suicide is looked upon with such a mixture of disdain, 恐惧和反感 fear, finding it offensive, 清晰地思考以及 that its very hard, often, to think clearly 讨论这个话题都很困难 and discuss the topic clearly. 人们总是认为 Most people think its either 自杀是一种疯狂的行为 that youve got to be crazy to kill yourself. 你关注自杀的事情 The very fact that you are contemplating suicide 就说明你已经疯了 is evidence that youre crazy. 如果你没疯 就说明你道德沦丧 And if youre not crazy, then it shows that youre immoral. 自杀毋庸置疑 Suicide is clearly never, 从来都不是正确的选择 never right, the right thing to do. 所以 我希望花些时间 So, what I want to propose is that we take some time 从两方面探讨这个问题 and look at the questions on both sides with a fair bit of care. 首先我们