演說者：Skye Cleary
演說題目：Why do we love ? A philosophy inquiry 我們為什麼會相愛，一個哲學迷思。
如果浪漫的愛情有目的，那麼科學和心理學都沒有發現它 – 但在歷史程序中，我們一些最受尊敬的哲學家提出了一些有趣的理論。Skye C. Cleary概述了我們為什麼喜歡這些哲學觀點中的五個。
Ah, romantic love, beautiful and intoxicating, heartbreaking and soul-crushing, often all at the same time.
啊…浪漫的愛情啊， 美好又令人痴醉， 傷心又斷魂， 通常所有的感覺會同時彙集在一起。
Why do we choose to put ourselves through its emotional wringer?
我們為什麼總是用它來折磨自己呢？ 愛會讓我們的生命有意義嗎？
Does love make our lives meaningful, or is it an escape from our loneliness and suffering? Is love a disguise for our sexual desire, or a trick of biology to make us procreate? Is it all we need? Do we need it at all?
亦或它使我們從孤寂和痛苦中解脫？ 還是用來掩飾我們對性的慾望嗎？ 還是說它是身體戲弄我們去繁衍後代的 一個手段？ 愛是一切嗎？ 我們真的需要愛嗎？
If romantic love has a purpose, neither science nor psychology has discovered it yet. But over the course of history, some of our most respected philosophers have put forward some intriguing theories. Love makes us whole, again.
如果說愛情是有目的， 自然科學和心理學上至今卻對此都沒什麼發展。 但在歷史的長河中， 一些我們敬佩的哲學家 曾推出過一些有趣的理論。 愛情使我們再一次變得完整。
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato explored the idea that we love in order to become complete. In his "Symposium", he wrote about a dinner party, at which Aristophanes, a comic playwright, regales the guests with the following story: humans were once creatures with four arms, four legs, and two faces.
古希臘哲學家柏拉圖 探索了“愛讓我們變得完整”這一理念 在《會飲篇》中， 他描述了一個晚餐派對， 派對上，一位喜劇演員，阿里斯托芬， 講了如下這個故事來娛樂在場的賓客： 人類曾是擁有四個臂膀， 四條腿和兩張臉的生物。
One day, they angered the gods, and Zeus sliced them all in two. Since then, every person has been missing half of him or herself.
有一天，他們惹到了眾神， 於是宙斯就把他們都一劈兩半 從此以後， 每個人都缺失著自己的另一半。
Love is the longing to find a soulmate who'll make us feel whole again, or, at least, that's what Plato believed a drunken comedian would say at a party.Love tricks us into having babies.
愛是渴望找到一個能讓我們 再次感到完整的靈魂伴侶。 至少，這是柏拉圖所相信的 一個喝醉的喜劇演員在派對上講的話 愛哄騙著我們有了小寶寶。
Much, much later, German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer maintained that love based in sexual desire was a voluptuous illusion. He suggested that we love because our desires lead us to believe that another person will make us happy, but we are sorely mistaken.
很久很久以後， 德國的哲學家亞瑟·叔本華 堅稱愛是基於性慾的， 它是一種撩人的幻想。 他提出我們相愛是因為 我們的慾望引導我們相信 另外一個人能讓我們快樂， 但我們其實錯了。
Nature is tricking us into procreating, and the loving fusion we seek is consummated in our children. When our sexual desires are satisfied, we are thrown back into our tormented existences, and we succeed only in maintaining the species and perpetuating the cycle of human drudgery. Sounds like somebody needs a hug.
我們的本性在 誘使著我們繁衍後代， 我們所尋找的愛的融合 結生出我們的兒女。 當我們的性慾得到滿足時， 我們會重返痛苦焦灼的存在。我們繁衍只是為了延續我們的種族，然後持續迴圈著，這人生的痛苦，聽著好像有人需要抱抱。
Love is escape from our loneliness. According to the Nobel Prize-winning British philosopher Bertrand Russell, we love in order to quench our physical and psychological desires. Humans are designed to procreate, but without the ecstasy of passionate love, sex is unsatisfying.
愛是從孤單中的解脫。 根據諾貝爾獲獎者， 英國哲學家，博特蘭·羅素所言 我們用愛來慰藉 我們身體和心理上的慾望 人類生來就是為了繁衍的， 但沒有充滿激情的愛來做迷幻劑的話， 性也是無法令人滿足的。
Our fear of the cold, cruel world tempts us to build hard shells to protect and isolate ourselves. Love's delight, intimacy, and warmth helps us overcome our fear of the world, escape our lonely shells, and engage more abundantly in life. Love enriches our whole being, making it the best thing in life. Love is a misleading affliction.
我們對冰冷又殘酷的恐懼 促使我們修煉出堅硬的外殼 來保護並隔絕我們自己。 愛的愉悅，親密，和溫暖 幫助我們克服對這世界的恐懼， 逃脫我們孤獨的外殼， 讓我們更完全的參與到生活中來。 愛讓我們整個人感到富足， 所以它成了生命中最棒的東西。 愛是種容易被誤解的苦難。
Siddhārtha Gautama, who became known as the Buddha, or the Enlightened One, probably would have had some interesting arguments with Russell. Buddha proposed that we love because we are trying to satisfy our base desires.
悉達多·喬達摩， 那個為人所知修成佛的，成功受到教化的人， 或許能和羅素 有一段很有趣的爭論。 佛說，我們愛是為了 滿足我們最基本的慾望。
Yet, our passionate cravings are defects, and attachments, even romantic love, are a great source of suffering.
但是，我們充滿激情的渴望 反而成為我們的缺陷，負擔， 儘管是浪漫的愛情， 也會成為強大的痛苦源頭。
Luckily, Buddha discovered the eight-fold path, a sort of program for extinguishing the fires of desire so that we can reach Nirvana, an enlightened state of peace, clarity, wisdom, and compassion.
幸運的是， 佛發現了八正道， 一個能使我們消除雜欲的套路 這樣我們才能達到重生， 一個令人愉悅的境界， 充滿了平和，清靜，智慧和熱情。
The novelist Cao Xueqin illustrated this Buddhist sentiment that romantic love is folly in one of China's greatest classical novels, "Dream of the Red Chamber." In a subplot, Jia Rui falls in love with Xi-feng who tricks and humiliates him.
小說家曹雪芹描述了這樣一種佛教信仰 浪漫的愛情 在一本名著裡是充滿諷刺性的， 紅樓夢 在書中的一個情節中，賈瑞愛上了王熙鳳 儘管她戲弄並羞辱了他。
Conflicting emotions of love and hate tear him apart, so a Taoist gives him a magic mirror that can cure him as long as he doesn't look at the front of it. But of course, he looks at the front of it. He sees Xi-feng.
愛和厭惡的矛盾讓他近乎崩潰 一個道士給了他一個魔鏡， 告訴他這個墨鏡可以幫他度過這個痛苦 只要他不去看這面鏡子 但是賈瑞不出意外的看了這面鏡子。他在鏡子中看到了王熙鳳。
His soul enters the mirror and he is dragged away in iron chains to die. Not all Buddhists think this way about romantic and erotic love, but the moral of this story is that such attachments spell tragedy, and should, along with magic mirrors, be avoided.
他的靈魂進入了這面鏡子， 肉體便被死神的鎖鏈拉走了。 但不是所有的佛教徒都這樣理解 浪漫的愛情和性慾 但是整個故事的倫理。尤其是這個充斥著魔法的悲劇，和這個邪惡的魔鏡一樣，應該被消除。
Love lets us reach beyond ourselves. Let's end on a slightly more positive note. The French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir proposed that love is the desire to integrate with another and that it infuses our lives with meaning.
愛情讓我們找到更棒的自己 讓我們在一個更積極一點的理論中結束。 法國哲學家，西蒙娜·德·波伏娃提出， 愛情是探索彼此的慾望， 並且讓人們的生活更有意義。
However, she was less concerned with why we love and more interested in how we can love better. She saw that the problem with traditional romantic love is it can be so captivating, that we are tempted to make it our only reason for being. Yet, dependence on another to justify our existence easily leads to boredom and power games.
但是，她並沒怎麼解釋相愛的原因 她更關心我們怎麼樣能更好的相愛。 她發現了愛情中常見的問題， 那就是愛情讓人過於沉淪， 我們往往傾向於把愛情， 這種彼此依靠當作自身存在的理由。然而，這很容易引起厭倦和控制慾。
To avoid this trap, Beauvoir advised loving authentically, which is more like a great friendship. Lovers support each other in discovering themselves, reaching beyond themselves, and enriching their lives and the world together.
為了避免這個問題，波伏娃建議 人們應該相愛得更真實 把愛情看成更高一層次的友誼 愛人間支援彼此的同時發掘自身的潛力， 達到更好的自己， 充實自己的生活並讓這世界變得更好。
Though we might never know why we fall in love, we can be certain that it will be an emotional rollercoaster ride. It's scary and exhilarating.
儘管我們不知道我們為何相愛， 我們可以確定的是這將是一場起伏頗多的旅程。 他會變的可怕， 亦或是令人興奮。
It makes us suffer and makes us soar. Maybe we lose ourselves. Maybe we find ourselves. It might be heartbreaking, or it might just be the best thing in life. Will you dare to find out?
它會讓我們痛苦， 也會讓我們心情高漲。 也許我們會失去自我。 也許會讓我們找到更好的自己。 會讓我們心碎， 也會成為最好的一段經歷。 你敢不敢試試？
