人生の幸福の総量?(松下彰良 訳)* 右欄下:チェスをしているラッセルの写真の出典:The Life of B. Russell in pictures and in his own words, comp. by C. Farley and D. Hodgson, 1972.
古代人は,周知のように'中庸(の徳)を必要不可欠な美徳のひとつとみなしていた。 ロマン主義(romanticism ロマン主義:18 世紀末~19 世紀前半にかけて英独仏を中心にヨーロッパ各地でさかんになった文学・芸術・思想上の自由解放を唱える革新的思潮)とフランス革命の影響のもと,この考え方は多くの人々から捨てられ,激しい情熱(←他を圧倒する情熱)--それが仮に,バイロンの詩の主人公たちの情熱のように,破壊的かつ反社会的な性質の情熱であったとしても --が賛美されるようになった。しかしながら,古代人は,明らかに正しかった。良い生活においては,諸活動の間にバランスがなければならず,そうした諸活動は,どれ1つとして,その他の活動が不可能になるまで押し進められてはならないのである。'大食漢'(暴飲暴食をする人)は,食べる楽しみのためにその他の楽しみをすべて犠牲にし,そうすることによって,彼の人生の幸福の総量を減らしている。 ![]() チェスが非常に好きで,昼間働いている間じゅう,夜やるゲームのことを待ちわびている人は,幸せである。しかし,一日じゅうチェスをするために仕事をほっぽり出す人は,'中庸の徳'を失っている。トルストイは,若くて罪ぶかい時代に,戦場での勇気に対して十字勲章(military cross)を授けられることになった,との記録が残っている。ところが,授与式に行く時がきたとき,彼はチェスに非常に夢中になってやっており,出席しないことに決めた。私たちは,このことを理由にトルストイの過ちを見つけること(非難すること)はほとんどできない。なぜなら,彼にとっては,勲章をもらってももらわなくてもどうでもよかったからである。しかし,彼ほどえらくない人であったならば,そのような行為は愚行と言ってよかったであろう。 ![]() |
![]() The ancients, as everyone knows, regarded moderation as one of the essential virtues. Under the influence of romanticism and the French Revolution this view was abandoned by many, and overmastering passions were admired, even if, like those of Byron's heroes, they were of a destructive and antisociai kind. The ancients, however, were clearly in the right. In the good life there must be a balance between different activities, and no one of them must be carried so far as to make the others impossible. The gormandiser sacrifices all other pleasures to that of eating, and by so doing diminishes the total happiness of his life. Many other passions besides eating may be carried to a like excess. The Empress Josephine was a gormandiser in regard to clothes. At first Napoleon used to pay her dressmaker's bills, though with continually increasing protest. At last he told her that she really must learn moderation, and that in future he would only pay her bills when the amount seemed reasonable. When her next dressmaker's bill came in, she was for a moment at her wits' end, but presently she bethought herself of a scheme. She went to the War Minister and demanded that he should pay her bill out of the funds provided for the war. Since he knew that she had the power to get him dismissed, he did so, and the French lost Genoa in consequence. So at least some books say, though I am not prepared to vouch for the exact truth of the story. For our purpose it is equally apt whether true or an exaggeration, since it serves to show how far the passion for clothes may carry a woman who has the opportunity to indulge it. Dipsomaniacs and nymphomaniacs are obvious examples of the same kind of thing. The principle in these matters is fairly obvious. All our separate tastes and desires have to fit into the general framework of life. If they are to be a source of happiness they must be compatible with health, with the affection of those whom we love, and with the respect of the society in which we live. Some passions can be indulged to almost any extent without passing beyond these limits, others cannot. The man, let us say, who loves chess, if he happens to be a bachelor with independent means, need not restrict his passion in any degree, whereas if he has a wife and children and no independent means, he will have to restrict it very severely. The dipsomaniac and the gormandiser, even if they have no social ties, are unwise from a self-regarding point of view, since their indulgence interferes with health, and gives them hours of misery in return for minutes of pleasure. Certain things form a framework within which any separate passion must live if it is not to become a source of misery. Such things are health, the general possession of one's faculties, a sufficient income to provide for necessaries, and the most essential social duties, such as those towards wife and children. The man who sacrifices these things for chess is essentially as bad as the dipsomaniac. The only reason we do not condemn him so severely is that he is much less common, and that only a man of somewhat rare abilities is likely to be carried away by absorption in so intellectual a game. The Greek formula of moderation practically covers these cases. The man who likes chess sufficiently to look forward throughout his working day to the game that he will play in the evening is fortunate, but the man who gives up work in order to play chess all day has lost the virtue of moderation. It is recorded that Tolstoy, in his younger and unregenerate days, was awarded the military cross for valour in the field, but when the time came for him to be presented with it, he was so absorbed in a game of chess that he decided not to go. We can hardly find fault with Tolstoy on this account, since to him it might well be a matter of indifference whether he won military decorations or not, but in a lesser man such an act would have been one of folly. ![]() |
(掲載日:2006.03.12/更新日:2010.4.30)