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November 21,2020
The
Wall Street Journal
Cats Are the Best
Philosophers
猫是最好的哲学家
Our
feline
companions know the secret
of
achieving contentment
without chasing after big ideas.
我们的猫同伴知道在不追求大想法的情况下就能获得满足的秘
密。
Some years ago a
philosopher told me that he was teaching his cat
to
be
a
vegan.
The
idea
that
such
a
super-carnivore
could
be
persuaded to adopt a
meat-free diet struck me as so absurd that I
could only suppose the philosopher was
joking. Sadly he was not.
He became
seriously annoyed when I commented facetiously
that
he
must
be
employing
some
extremely
powerful
arguments.
He
became
still
more
irritated
when
I
hinted
that
the
cat
might
be
hunting for non-vegan food elsewhere.
As far as he was concerned,
his
experiment in feline moral education was
progressing well.
几年前，一位哲学家告诉我，他在教他的猫成为
素食主义者。这
种超级食肉动物可以被说服接受无肉饮食的想法，
让我觉得是如此荒
谬，我只能认为哲学家是在开玩笑。遗憾的是，他没有。当我开玩笑
地说他一定是有一些极其有力的论
据时，
他变得非常恼火。
当我暗示
这只
猫可能在别处寻找肉类食物时，他变得更加恼怒。就他而言，他
的猫道德教育实验进展顺
利。
I resisted
the urge to tell him that if the cat had learned
anything
from the experiment it would
be how thoroughly silly human beings
can
be.
Cats
have
no
need
for
instruction
from
humans.
They
already
know
how
to
live.
Their
default
state
is
contentment,
to
which they return whenever they are not
hunting, mating or playing.
Among
humans,
as
Freud
observed,
a
state
of
diffuse
misery
is
normal. Psychoanalysis
cannot cure this condition, he believed, but
it
could
temper
the
neuroses
that
we
develop
in
the
attempt
to
escape it.
我抑制住了想告诉他的冲动，
说如果那只猫从实验中学到了什么，
那就是人类是多么愚蠢。
猫不需要人类的指导。
他们已经知道如何生
活。它
们的默认状态是满足，只要它们不狩猎、交配或玩耍，它们就
会回到这种状态。
正如弗洛伊德所观察到的，
人类普遍的痛苦状态是
正常的。他相信，
精神分析不能治愈这种情况，但它可以缓和我们在
< br>试图摆脱它时所产生的神经官能症。
Philosophy originated as an attempt to
dispel our inner anguish.
Philosophy
originated as an attempt to dispel this inner
anguish. All
three of the ancient Greek
schools
—
Skepticism,
Epicureanism and
Stoicism
—
had
ataraxia,
or
tranquility,
as
their
goal.
Cats
do
not
have
to
seek
tranquility,
since
they
revert
to
calm
whenever
they
are
not
active.
Even
if
they
had
the
required
power
of
abstract
thought,
they
would
have
no
need
for
philosophy.
If
they
nonetheless engaged in
it they would do so playfully, as a form of
entertainment.
哲学起源于驱散我们内心痛苦的一种尝试。
< br>哲学起源于驱散这种内心痛苦的尝试。
这三种古希腊学派——怀
< br>疑主义、伊壁鸠鲁主义和禁欲主义——都以“平静”为目标。猫不需要
寻求平静，
因为只要它们不活跃，它们就会恢复平静。即使他们具有
抽象思维的能力，他们也不需要
哲学。即使如此，他们也会把它当作
一种娱乐形式来玩。
It
is
tempting
to
speculate
what
such
feline
philosophers
might
teach
humans.
Cats
don’t
do
commandments,
and
if
they
gave
humans advice on how to live,
they wouldn’t care whether anyone
followed
it.
Still,
they
might
be
tempted
to
venture
some
lighthearted hints.
人们很容易去猜测
这些猫科哲学家会教给人类什么。
猫不会遵守
诫命，
即使它们给人类提出如何生活的建议，
它们也不会在意别人是
否遵守。尽管如此，他们还是可能会冒险给出一些轻松的暗示。
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