无论从历史的角度来看,还是从学术的观点出发,我都非常怀疑“意义”的承诺,因为意义即使不是这类事物的核心,也常常具有法西斯主义、非进步主义的优势。因此,通常情况下,在给定的事件或结构中对“意义”的紧急补充,或者生活中的主题是掩盖,是一种修饰“无意义”世界的方式。

I'm very suspicious historically and intellectually of the promise of meaning because meaning has often had very fascistic, non-progressivist edges if not a core of that sort of thing. So that very often, also the emergency supplies of meaning…that are brought to a given incident or structure…or theme in one’s life are cover-ups, are a way of dressing the world of non-meaning.

我们只是想当然地认为人类有权利以任何形式利用动物,而那是无法自圆其说的。

We’ve just taken for granted the idea that somehow humans have the right to use animals whichever way they want to and that isn’t defensible.

柏拉图说,哲学是一种对于死亡的冥想与准备。他指的死亡并非事件,而是生命中的死亡,因为没有死亡,就没有转世,没有变化,没有转换。因此问题变成了你如何学习如何死亡。蒙田在他著名的论文中说道,“哲学是学习如何死亡”,你无法避谈如何学习死亡来讨论真理。

Plato says philosophy is a meditation on and a preparation for death. By death, what he means is not an event, but a death in life, because there’s no rebirth, there’s no change, there’s no transformation without death. Therefore, the question becomes, how do you learn how to die? Montaigne talks about that in his famous essay, “To Philosophize Is to Learn How to Die.” You can’t talk about truth without talking about learning how to die.


受审视的生活:哲学就在街头巷尾Examined Life: Philosophy is in the Streets(2008)

上映日期:2008-09-05(多伦多电影节)片长:88分钟

主演:Anthony K. Lewis/彼得·辛格 Peter Singer/Cornel West/Sunaura Taylor/Judith Butler/Martha Nussbaum/Avital Ronell/Michael Hardt/斯拉沃热·齐泽克 Slavoj Zizek

导演:Astra Taylor