在法学院,我们花了一整个学期讨论“合同”的定义,我很了解,越想定义一个术语,越难以抓住这个术语的含义。为了我的快乐计划,我决定不去考虑定义。在学术方面,准确定义术语是有价值的,有一个积极的心理学研究为快乐找出了十五种不同的学术定义,但是在我的计划里,似乎没有必要花很多精力探讨“自足”、“积极影响”、“主观幸福”、“享乐情调”等无数个其它术语之间的区别。相反,我决定追寻最高法院大法官波特斯图尔特的神圣传统——他用一句“当我看到它就会认出它”的话定义猥亵。
I think it's enough to think about being "happier." Even if we don't agree about what it means to be happy, we can agree that whatever happiness means, it would be nice to be happier. I think the looseness of the term happiness is actually helpful; it's a concept large enough to embrace many different perspectives.
我认为考虑“更快乐”就足够了。即便我们对“快乐”的定义不一致,但我们认同不论快乐是什么,能“更快乐”就好。我认为快乐这个术语的的定义应该很松散,这个概念太大,足以包含许多不同看法。
I suspect that one reason that people try to avoid using the word "happiness" is that happiness has a bad reputation. It's often associated with superficiality, self-absorption, narcissism, and pleasure-seeking. (As in Woody Allen's movie Annie Hall, when Alvy asks a happy couple how they account for their happiness, and the woman answers, "I am very shallow and empty, and I have no ideas and nothing interesting to say," and the man agrees, "I'm exactly the same way.")
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