バートランド・ラッセル「嫉妬について」(1931年７月22日)(松下彰良 訳) |
On Jealousy, by Bertrand Russell* Reprinted in: Mortals and Others, v.1, 1975 |
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改訳及びHTML修正をしました。(2010.7.2) ラッセルは『幸福論』のなかで,嫉妬について次のようにのべています。
この場合の嫉妬は,男女間の愛情だけではなく,もっと広い意味で使われていますが,みなさんどう思われるでしょうか？（2000.10.28: 松下） 旧い考え方をする人間と現代的な考え方をする人間とをわけるものの一つは,嫉妬に対する考え方の違い（に関するもの）である。伝統的な考え方によれば,根拠なき嫉妬は非難されるべきものとしても,正当な理由がある場合には,嫉妬は義憤とみなされる。オセロはデズデモナを殺した時,彼女が無実だったために罪を犯したことになったのであり,もしも彼女が実際に不貞行為をしていた場合には,オセロの行為は将校（軍人）や紳士にふさわしい立派なものと考えられたことだろう。不文律（不文の法）に訴えることは現在でも稀ではないし,自分の妻の不貞を理由にあえて暴力に訴える男に対し,多くの人は今でも寛大である。実際,このような立場で相手に理解を示すことは,男らしくないと考える人が多い。 このような態度は,必要以上に,嫉妬の感情をより荒っぽいものとさせる。もちろんそこには本能的な要素が存在しているが,この本能的要素は個人の名誉が侵害されたという感情によってかなり煽られる。自分の権利に関する信念が変われば,それに応じて,感じる嫉妬の激しさも,嫉妬を感ずる機会（どのような時に嫉妬を感ずるか）も変わる。ある社会環境のもとで嫉妬のために殺人を犯す人間も,別の環境では少し不愉快を感ずるだけで終わるかもしれない。 嫉妬（の機会）を減らしたければ,次のような方法によってそれはもたらすことができるだろう。即ち,いわゆる不文の法（に訴えるという極端なケースに関しては,理性的に是認することはできない（rational doubt 理性によって支持されうる疑い）。あなたは他人に金銭をだまし取られれば立腹するだろうが,あなたが補償を求めるのは法を通じてであり,私的な復讐によってではないことが期待される。私的な不正（行為）は私的な復讐によって補償されるべきであるという考えは,文明社会の通念と両立しない。 しかし通常の神経の男性であれば,自分の妻が自分よりもより貞節であるという絶対的確信を持てない限り誰も人生を耐え難く感ずるにちがいない,と言われるかもしれない。しかしこの心理すら（相手に対する）期待と社会の慣行とに依存している。最も親しい友人までが,自分（あなた）をからかって,機知をきかせて皮肉を言って楽しむ傾向があることを初めて知ると,そのような経験は非常に辛いものであり,本人も他人に対し同様のことをよくやっていることに気づいていても,ひどく立腹する。しかし,少し経験や反省をすれば,自分だけが例外であり,また,自分の欠点を他人から笑われないことを期待することはできない（虫がよすぎる）と,誰もが確信するだろう。同様のことはもっと深刻なことがらにも当てはまる。 認めることは難しいことではあるが,自分が一般法則の例外ではなく,従って人生の通常の不幸からの免罪符を持っていないと認識することは可能である。確かに世の中にはもったいぶった独善があまりにも多い。その点から考えれば,人々が自己の分け前以上のものを要求することよってなされる害を減らすものは歓迎すべきものであることは疑いない。 |
One of the dividing lines between people who are old-fashioned and people who have a modern outlook is as to jealousy. The traditional outlook was that while jealousy is to be condmned when it is unfounded, it is to be counted as just indignation where cause for it exists. Othello did wrong in murdering Desdemona because she was innocent, but if she had sinned his action would have been becoming to an officer and a gentleman. Appeals to the unwritten law are still not uncommon and most people still view leniently a man who is driven to violence by his wife's infidelity. Indeed a tolerant attitude in such circumstances is viewed by many as unmanly. This attitude causes jealousy to be much more violent than it need be. There is undoubtedly an instinctive element in it, but the instinctive element is greatly inflamed by the sense that one's rights are being infringed. When a man's beliefs as to his rights change, there is a corresponding change both in the violence of his jealousy and in the occasions on which he feels it. A man who in one social environment will be led by jealosy to commit murder will in another environment be led only to feel a bit surly. Should we desire the diminution of jealousy, it can be brought about in this way. I think as regards the extreme case of the so-called unwritten law there can be no rational doubt. If a man swindles you out of your money, you may be very angry, but you are expected to seek redress through the law, not through private vengeance. It is incompatible with the whole idea of a civilised state that private wrongs should be redressed by private violence. But what are we to say of less extreme forms of jealousy? Let it be granted that it would be better not to give grounds for jealousy, but that being admitted, we know nevertheless that many people will give such grounds. So long as jealousy is considered socially admirable, people will conceal such actions as might cause it, with the result that the most intimate of human relations becomes filled with deciet. Every man knows that he is liable to an occasional lapse from technical fidelity without on that account wishing his marriage to be broken up, but while everyone knows this concerning himself, few people can manage to believe it with regard to their partner. Everybody carries about wiht him two kinds of sexual psychology: one applicable to himself, the other to the person he is in love with. These two exist in watertight compartments and never meet. I believe myself that the psychology a man applies to himself is nearer to the truth than that which he applies to his wife, and I believe also that in the long run it never does any good to believe what is untrue. I shall be told that every properly constituted man would find life intolerable if he were not absolutely convinced that his wife was more virtuous than himself, but this again depends upon expectation and social convention. The first time one learns that one's best friends are liable to be wittily satirical at one's expense, the experience is very painful, and one feels furious in spite of the consciousness of often having done the same thing oneself; but a little experience and a little reflection will convince anybody that he cannot hope to be an exception and to have none of his foibles ever laughed at. The same sort of thing applies also to graver matters. It is possible, though I admit that it is difficult, to view oneself as no exception to general laws and as not having a sacrosanct immunity from the ordinary misfortunes of life. There is much too much pompous self-esteem in the world, and anything that diminishes the harm that people do by demanding more than their due share of the world's room is to be welcomed. |
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