永生的不可欲性——评伯纳德·威廉斯的永生观

Undesirability of Immortality—On Bernard Williams’View of Immortality

现代科技的发展使得永生的可欲性成了有意义的哲学话题。伯纳德·威廉斯(Bernard Williams)认为,由于在保持人格同一性的前提下,支撑一个人继续活下去的绝对欲望是会被耗尽的,届时,无休止的百无聊赖会降临到永生者的生活中,成为他们痛苦的折磨,因而永生是不值得过的。由于威廉斯没有充分认识到性格的多样性与复杂性,他从“无聊必然性”的角度对永生可欲性问题的论证是不充分的。但其批评者的观点同样值得商榷,因为他们试图通过研究有限的生命,得出关于无限生命的结论;同时,他们普遍忽略了“死亡”的权利与自由问题。因此,纵然威廉斯的论证是不严谨的,但他的结论可以说是部分正确的——永生确实不值得过,因为它剥夺了人们选择死亡的自由。

With the development of modern science and technology,desirability of immortality becomes a meaningful philosophical topic.Bernard Williams pointed out that,on the premise of maintaining personal identity,the categorical desire which supports a person to continue to live is bound to be exhausted.By then,the endless boredom will befall the immortal person and become his painful suffering,so eternal life is not worth living.Nevertheless,Williams did not fully realize the diversity and complexity of personality,so his argument on the desirability of immortality from the perspective of“the necessity of boredom”is inadequate.Yet the views of his critics are equally debatable,because they tried to draw a conclusion about the infinite life by studying the limited life.Also,they generally ignored the rights and freedoms of“death”.Hence,Williams’conclusion can be said to be partially correct—eternal life is indeed not worth living,because it deprives people of the freedom to choose to die.