「转」尼采与上帝之死

“What is called idol on the title page is simply what has been called truth so far.

标题上所谓的偶像，其实就是迄今为止所谓的真理。

Twilight of the Idols – that is: the old truth is approaching its end.”

偶像的黄昏——那就是:古老的真理正在接近它的终点。”

In the last lecture, we investigated true world theories, which were examples of some of the old ‘truths’ Nietzsche thought were on the decline.

在上个视频中，我们研究了真实世界理论，这是尼采认为的一些旧的"真理"正在衰落的例子。

In this lecture we will investigate why Nietzsche thought these ‘old truths’ were approaching their end.

在本视频中，我们将探讨为何尼采认为这些“旧真理”正在走向终结。

To do this we’ll analyze what is perhaps Nietzsche’s most famous and controversial statement: “god is dead”.

为此，我们将分析尼采最著名也最具争议性的论断:“上帝已死”。

We’ll look at what such a statement meant to Nietzsche, what led him to make such a bold pronouncement, and what he thought would happen if this belief were to become as widespread as he anticipated.

我们会看看这个声明对尼采意味着什么，是什么导致他做出如此大胆的声明，如果这个信念像他预期的那样广泛传播，他认为会发生什么。

So what did Nietzsche mean by his statement ‘god is dead’?

尼采说"上帝死了"是什么意思?

On the surface it may appear that he was referring to the observation that belief in the monotheistic god of Christianity was on the decline.

表面上看，他指的似乎是对基督教一神论的信仰正在衰落。

However, such a view is not generally accepted by modern day scholars,

然而，这种观点并没有被现代学者普遍接受，

rather many suggest instead that with this statement Nietzsche wanted to symbolize his conviction that faith in true world theories in general were deteriorating.

相反，很多人认为尼采想用这句话来象征他的论断，即对真实世界理论的信念总体上正在恶化。

Many scholars and philosophers who have been influenced by Nietzsche have claimed that in communicating the death of god to the masses,

许多受尼采影响的学者和哲学家声称，在向大众传达上帝之死时，

Nietzsche should be characterized as a modern day prophet.

尼采应该被描述为现代的先知。

What is it about his message that qualifies him for such an honorable title?

是什么让他有资格获得如此光荣的头衔呢?

Nietzsche was only one of a number thinkers in his time to recognize the growing skepticism towards Christianity, as well as other less prominent true world theories.

尼采是他那个时代众多认识到对基督教以及其他不太著名的真实世界理论的怀疑正日益增长的思想家之一。

So surely this alone does not qualify him for the title of ‘prophet’.

所以这一点肯定不能使他有资格成为“先知”。

Rather, the uniqueness of Nietzsche’s message lay in his remarkable ability to foresee the potentially devastating consequences which would befall those individuals unable to retain their faith in true world theories.

相反，尼采预言的独特性在于他的非凡能力，预见潜在的毁灭性后果，这些后果将降临到那些无法保持对真实世界理论信仰的人身上。

Nietzsche thought that when true world theories lost their influence, individuals would be torn from the very world views which gave their lives meaning, and the strength to persevere in life despite sometimes miserable conditions.

尼采认为，当真实世界理论失去影响时，个人将失去赋予他们生命意义的世界观，失去在有些悲惨情况下得以坚持生活下去的力量。

In short, Nietzsche understood that the death of god could potentially vault a large majority of the human race into a state of nihilism.

简而言之，尼采明白上帝之死可以潜在地将绝大多数人类推入虚无主义的状态。

The great Walter Kaufmann, in his classic work on Nietzsche, described exactly why Nietzsche is often heralded as a modern day prophet:

伟大的沃尔特·考夫曼在其关于尼采的经典著作中，准确地描述了为什么尼采经常被视为现代先知:

“Sometimes prophecies seem to consist in man’s ability to experience his own wretched fate so deeply that it becomes a symbol of something larger.

“有时预言似乎包含了人深刻体验自己的悲惨命运的能力，以此使预言成为一个更大的象征。”

It is in this sense that one can compare Nietzsche with the ancient prophets.

在这个意义上，人们可以将尼采与古代的先知进行比较。

He felt the agony, the suffering, and the misery of a godless world so intensely, at a time when others were yet blind to its tremendous consequence,

他强烈地感受着这个不信神的世界的痛苦、苦难和不幸，而此时其他人还看不到它的巨大后果，

that he was able to experience in advance, as it were, the fate of a coming generation.”

尼采能够提前体验下一代人的命运。”

The generation following Nietzsche in many ways seemed to have experienced the fate he had prophesied.

尼采之后的一代人在许多方面似乎经历了他所预言的命运。

As the historian Ronald Stromberg, in his book Redemption by War, explained, the turn of the 20th century marked a time when intellectuals in Europe were gripped by a growing sense that life was meaningless –

正如历史学家罗纳德·斯特罗姆伯格在他的《战争的救赎》一书中解释的那样，20世纪之初，欧洲的知识分子越来越意识到生活毫无意义

and it was this feeling which can help to explain the now forgotten fact that the vast majority of European intellectuals were in fact pro-war in the years leading up to World War I.

正是这种感觉帮助我们解释了一个现在已经被遗忘的事实，那就是绝大多数欧洲知识分子在一战爆发前都支持这场战争。

Stromberg wrote:“How, in the end, are we to explain this so fateful explosion of warlike ideas and sentiments among all manner of European intellectuals in 1914?

斯特罗姆伯格写道:“最终，我们该如何解释1914年欧洲各类知识分子中这种具有决定性意义的好战思想和情感的爆发呢?

Of the ingredients we have found to be pervasive, all are important: hatred of the existing society; the apocalyptic “sense of an ending”;

在我们发现普遍存在的因素中，所有因素都很重要:对现有社会的仇恨;启示录式的“结局感”;

need for some kind of worthy cause to give meaning to one’s life; sheer thirst for adventure against the background of a dreary materialism…”

需要某种有价值的事业来赋予人的生命以意义;在沉闷的物质主义背景下，对冒险纯粹的渴望……”

Fortunately the modern age is much different than the spirit of the early 20th century, as today most individuals are not fervent war supporters.

幸运的是，现代与20世纪初的精神有很大不同，因为今天大多数人都不是狂热的战争支持者。

Instead, modern individuals seem to search for a cause which will give meaning to their life in different ways.

相反，现代人似乎在以不同的方式寻找一种能赋予他们生活意义的事业。

However, this search for many appears to be a lost cause, as despite the high standard of living we enjoy in the West, the question ‘what is it all for?’ still grips most of us in our moments of solitude.

然而对许多人而言，这一追求似乎注定要失败，因为尽管我们在西方享受着高水平的生活，“这一切是为了什么?”这个问题在我们大多数人独处的时候仍然紧紧抓住我们不放。

As the psychologist Victor Frankl pointed out:

正如心理学家維克多·弗蘭克所指出的:

“For too long we have been dreaming a dream from which we are now waking up: the dream that if we just improve the socioeconomic situation of people, everything will be okay, people will become happy.

“太长时间以来，我们一直在做一个梦，现在我们正从这个梦中醒来:这个梦就是，只要我们改善人们的社会经济状况，一切都会好起来，人们会变得幸福。”

The truth is that as the struggle for survival has subsided, the question has emerged: survival for what?

事实是，随着生存斗争的消退，问题出现了:生存为了什么?

Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.”

现在越来越多的人有生活下去的手段，但丧失了生活的意义。”

Nietzsche announces the death of god in a famous aphorism in his book The Gay Science, called The Madman.

尼采在他的书《快乐的科学》中宣布了上帝的死亡。

In this passage he tells a tale of a madman who runs out onto the street screeching “I seek God! I seek God!” Understandably, those on the street give him a strange look and continue on with their evening, however, the madman does not cease.

在这一段中，他讲述了一个故事:一个疯子跑到街上，尖叫着“我寻找上帝!”我寻找上帝!可以理解的是，街上的人都以一种奇怪的眼神看着他，继续他们的夜晚，然而，这个疯子并没有停止。

He yells:“God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him! How shall we console ourselves, the most murderous of all murderers…

他大叫:“上帝死了!上帝的确已经死了!我们已经杀了他!作为所有杀人犯中最凶残的一个，我们该如何安慰自己呢……

There was never a greater event,- and on account of it, all who are born after us belong to a higher history than any history before this!”

从来没有比这更大的事件了——因此，所有在我们之后出生的人都属于一个比以往任何历史都更高的历史!”

Despite the madman’s attempt to enlighten his fellow citizens regarding the enormity of the death of god, the individuals on the street pay little attention to him.

尽管这个疯子试图让他的同胞们认识到上帝之死的严重性，街上的人却很少注意到他。

When he noticed the utter indifference of those around him, “he threw his lantern on the ground so that it broke in pieces and was extinguished”.

当他注意到周围的人完全漠不关心时，“他把提灯扔在地上，以至于它摔成了碎片，熄灭了”。

“I come too early, I am not yet at the right time.

“我来得太早了，还没有到合适的时间。

This prodigious event is still on its way, and is travelling, – it has not reached men’s ears.”

这件怪事还在发生，还在传播中——它还没有传到大多数人的耳朵里。”

Later in his life, Nietzsche reached the opinion that the loss of faith in true world theories was in fact the most glorious event to befall mankind.

在他的后半生，尼采认为失去对真实世界理论的信仰实际上是人类最光荣的事。

In his book, The Gay Science, he wrote:

在他的《快乐的科学》一书中，他写道:

“In fact, we philosophers and “free spirits” feel as if we are illumined by a new dawn, on receiving the news that “the old God is dead”;

事实上，我们这些哲学家与“自由人”深深感觉到自己像是被一个新生的旭日照耀，旧上帝已死

our hearts overflow with gratitude, wonder, premonition, anticipation.

我们心中交杂感激、惊喜、预感和期待之情。

At last the horizon seems to us open again…the sea, our sea again lies open before us; perhaps there has never yet been such an “open sea.”

最后，我们的视线似乎更加开阔，纵然还不够明亮，但我们的船毕竟能置诸大海，面对各种危险了；我们的海，也是前所未有的“开放之海”，再度展现在我们眼前。

A universe without god, or without a transcendent purpose driving the lives of men toward a common end, was in fact a universe, according to Nietzsche, where strong and creative individuals could freely sculpt their own world views.

尼采认为，一个没有上帝的宇宙，或者没有推动人类生活走向共同目标的超然目的的宇宙，实际上是一个强大而有创造力的个体可以更自由塑造自己世界观的宇宙。

However, this attitude of Nietzsche’s did not come naturally, but was an attitude that he came to adopt only after years of struggle, pain, and suffering.

然而，尼采的这种态度并不是自然而然的，而是经过多年的奋斗、痛苦和折磨之后才形成的。

Early in his life, Nietzsche experienced first-hand the misery of living in what he believed to be a godless world;

尼采早年曾亲身体验过生活在他所认为无神的世界中的痛苦;

it was a world with no transcendent purpose and thus no meaning, in which mankind had no special place in the scheme of things.

这是一个没有超越性目的的世界，因此也便没有意义，在这个世界里，人类在事物的计划中没有独特的一席之地。

In other words, this worldview led him to experience the agony of nihilism.

换句话说，这种世界观使他经历了虚无主义的痛苦。

In one of his earlier works, Human, all too Human, Nietzsche expressed this agony, he wrote:

尼采在其早期作品《人性的，太人性的》中表达了这种痛苦，他写道:

“But the tragic thing is that we can no longer believe those dogmas of religion and metaphysics, once we have the rigorous method of truth in our hearts and heads, and yet on the other hand, the development of mankind has made us so delicate, sensitive, and ailing that we need the most potent kind of cures and comforts—hence arises the danger that man might bleed to death from the truth he has recognized.

但是，不幸的是，如果人们在心中和头脑中有了获得真理的严格方法，那么人们就不会相信宗教教条和形而上学；而另一方面，由于人性的发展，人们变得如此温柔、敏感、痛苦，以至于必须要有最高级的药品和安慰手段才行；于是就产生了这样的危险：人类因为知道了真理而流血致死。

Byron expressed this in his immortal lines: Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most must mourn the deepest o’er the fatal truth, the tree of knowledge is not that of life.”

拜伦在其不朽的诗句中表达了这一点：忧患为知：通晓天下之最者必极深痛于致人死命之真理，知识之树呀，非生命之树矣。

The question we will now examine is why he held the conviction that god was dead.

我们现在要研究的问题是为什么尼采坚信上帝已经死了。

In our modern times, it is usually taken for granted that the general decline of faith in religions and true world theories is a result of the growth of the natural sciences.

在我们现代，人们通常想当然地认为，宗教信仰和真实世界理论的普遍衰落是自然科学发展的结果。

However, Nietzsche took a different stance. In his book The Dawn, he illuminated his position:

然而，尼采采取了不同的立场。他在《朝霞》一书中阐明了自己的立场:

“In former times, one sought to prove that there is no God – today one indicates how the belief that there is a God could arise and how this belief acquired its weight and importance: a counter-proof that there is no God thereby becomes superfluous.

从前,人们试图证明上帝之不存在,现在人们却表明,上帝存在这种信念是如何形成,如何获得其分量和重要性,从而使一种上帝不存在之证明成为多余的。

When in former times one had refuted the “proofs of the existence of God” put forward, there always remained the doubt whether better proofs might not be adduced than those just refuted: in those days, atheists did not know how to make a clean sweep. ”

以前,当每一种已知“上帝存在证明”被反驳之后,仍可怀疑,是否能提出比这些已被反驳证明更好的证明: 那时无神论者还不知道溯本清源法( reinen Tisch zu machen)。

Nietzsche didn’t think it was possible to refute the existence of true worlds by putting forth an argument which utilized the latest findings ascertained by science, as he understood that true world believers would counter with arguments of their own.

尼采不认为可以通过提出一个论点来反驳真实世界的存在，不论该论点是否利用了科学确定的最新发现都不可以，因为他知道真实世界的信徒会用他们自己的论点来反驳。

Instead, Nietzsche thought he had refuted the existence of true worlds with his keen and penetrating psychological insights.

相反，尼采认为他以敏锐而深刻的心理洞察力驳斥了真实世界的存在。

He looked into the mind of the believer and understood why it was that they held such beliefs.

他深入信徒的内心，了解他们为什么会有这样的信仰。

Faith in true world theories, Nietzsche espoused, fulfilled deep seated psychological needs – such theories were created by individuals in need of solaces to protect them from the harsh realities of this life.

尼采认为对真实世界理论的信仰，满足了根深蒂固的心理需求——这些理论是由需要慰藉的个人创造的，以保护他们免受现实生活的严酷。

Before we conclude we will examine an apparent contradiction in Nietzsche’s thought with regards to his views on the death of god.

在我们结束之前，我们将考察尼采关于上帝之死的观点中一个明显的矛盾。

In a very important, and often neglected passage from his book Human, all too Human, Nietzsche admits that for all we know a true world, or what here he calls a metaphysical world, could indeed exist.

尼采在他的《人性的，太人性的》一书中有一段非常重要的但经常被忽视的话，他承认，就我们所知，一个真实的世界，或者他在这里所说的形而上学的世界，确实可能存在。

He wrote:“It is true, there could be a metaphysical world; the absolute possibility of it is hardly to be disputed.”

他写道：“的确，可能存在一个形而上学的世界；它的绝对可能性几乎不存在争议。”

Of all the misunderstandings Nietzsche has been the victim of in the last century, and there have been many, one of the most erroneous of them all would be to call him a dogmatist.

在上个世纪所有的误解中，尼采是受害者，而且有很多误解，其中最错误的一个就是称他为教条主义者。

Nietzsche, as the above quote signifies, admitted that a true world, or gods for that matter, could exist for all he knew.

尼采，正如上面引用的意思，承认可能存在一个真实的世界或神，可以容纳他所知道的一切。

As human beings we are fallible animals, and our knowledge of this vast universe is extremely limited.

作为人类，我们是易犯错误的动物，我们对这个浩瀚宇宙的了解是极其有限的。

In terms of the existence of true worlds we really have no way of knowing one way or the other.

就真实世界的存在而言，我们真的没有办法笃信的说略知一二。

This may appear, at first glance, to be a contradiction in Nietzsche’s thoughts.

乍一看，这似乎是尼采思想中的矛盾。

How could he proclaim the death of god while also stating that a true world could exist for all we know?

他怎么能宣告上帝已死，同时又声称一个真实的世界可以容纳我们所知道的一切呢？

This possible contradiction is cleared up with the realization that Nietzsche thought that his psychological insights into the mind of the believer had discredited the validity of true world theories,

尼采认为他对信徒心灵的心理洞察使真实世界理论的有效性遭到怀疑，这一认识澄清了这种可能的矛盾，

but he did not think it had disproved the existence of a true world, whatever that may be, altogether.

但他并不认为这不能完全否定一个真实世界的确存在。

In the back of his mind Nietzsche was always aware that he, like all other humans, did not have special access to ultimate truths, whatever such truths would entail.

在尼采的内心深处，他总是意识到，他和所有其他人一样，没有特别的途径去接触最终的真理，不管这些真理会带来什么。

So although he claimed ‘god is dead’, he admitted that in fact a true world in some form or another could indeed exist.

因此，尽管他声称“上帝死了”，但他承认事实上，一个以某种形式存在的真实世界确实可能存在。

However, Nietzsche himself was steadfast in his conviction to live the rest of his life without believing in any form of a true world.

然而，尼采本人却坚称，自己的余生都不会相信任何形式的真实世界。

The reason for such a conviction being utilitarian, that is, he thought that his life, and in fact the lives of all human beings, would be more successful without such a belief.

这种信念的理由是功利主义的，也就是说，他认为，没有这种信念，他的生活，实际上是所有人的生活，会更加成功。

By believing a better life is awaiting one following death, the individual escapes from the responsibility and burden of having to make the most of this life.

因为如果相信存在一个更好的生活也是人死后之事了，所以个人便幸而借这个理由逃避必须充分利用生活的责任和负担。

Thus in discarding faith in true world theories, an individual is left alone in this world with the choice of either making the most of it or spending their days in a state of guilt and self-pity over what could have been.

因此，在抛弃对真实世界理论的信仰时，一个人将独自留在这个世界上，要么充分利用这个世界，要么在内疚和自怜的状态中度过他们的日子。

Therefore, for more than any other reason, Nietzsche proclaimed the death of god because he felt that a world composed of individuals who did not believe in true world theories would be a much better world.

因此，尼采宣称上帝死亡的原因无他，仅仅因为他认为一个由不相信真实世界理论的个体组成的世界将会是一个更好的世界。

In his autobiography, Ecco Homo, written shortly before Nietzsche descended into madness, he conveyed this idea. He wrote:

在尼采陷入疯狂前不久写的自传《瞧！这个人》中，他表达了这个观点。他写道:

“The concept ‘beyond’, ‘true world’ invented in order to devalue the only world there is—in order to retain no goal, no reason, no task for our earthly reality!”

“‘超越’、‘真实世界’等概念的发明是为了贬低唯一存在的世界——是为了使我们的现实世界没有目标，没有理由，没有使命而发明的!”

In the next lecture we are going to investigate the phenomenon of nihilism from Nietzsche’s perspective, looking at, among other things, the difference between active and passive nihilism, and why Nietzsche thought nihilism was a ‘transitional stage’.

下个视频中，我们将从尼采的角度研究虚无主义现象，看看积极虚无主义和消极虚无主义的区别，以及为什么尼采认为虚无主义是一个“过渡阶段”。

We will then have put ourselves in a good position for the final lecture, where we will look at different ideas Nietzsche thought would help an individual overcome nihilism.

我们将在最后一讲中站在高处审视不同的观点，看看尼采的思想帮助个人克服虚无主义。