到底什么是快乐?

As someone who writes about happiness, I'm often challenged to answer these three questions:

作为一个写有关“快乐”的文章的人，我通常被问到下面的3个问题：

1. How do I define "happiness," anyway?

我到底是如何定义“快乐”?

2. Instead of happiness, which is fleeting/deceptive/egotistical/illusory, isn't the real goal to achieve joy/contentment/satisfaction/peace/self-realization or [fill in the blank]?

与其追求“快乐”这种短暂的/骗人的/自私性的/虚幻的东西，难道我们不该追求愉快/满足/满意/平和/自我实现或其他什么吗?

3. How can we agree on what it means to achieve these states? What I mean by happiness might not be what you mean by happiness. You say happiness is a warm puppy; I say happiness is living alone in a cabin at Walden Pond; etc.

对于我们而言，实现这些状态意味着什么呢? 我对快乐的定义和你的不一样。你说快乐是一只温暖的小狗；我说快乐是独自住在Walden Pond的一间小木屋里面；等等。

In law school, we spent an entire semester discussing the meaning of a "contract," and I know all too well how a term can elude¹ you as you try to define it. For the purposes of my happiness project, I decided² not to worry about definitions too much. In scholarship, there's merit in defining terms precisely³, and one positive psychology⁴ study identified fifteen different academic definitions of happiness, but when it came to my project, spending a lot of energy exploring the distinctions among "contentment," "positive affect," "subjective⁵ well-being," "hedonic tone," and a myriad⁶ of other terms didn't seem necessary. I decided instead to follow the hallowed tradition set by Supreme⁷ Court Justice Potter Stewart, who defined obscenity by saying, "I know it when I see it."

在法学院，我们花了一整个学期讨论“合同”的定义，我很了解，越想定义一个术语，越难以抓住这个术语的含义。为了我的快乐计划，我决定不去考虑定义。在学术方面，准确定义术语是有价值的，有一个积极的心理学研究为快乐找出了十五种不同的学术定义，但是在我的计划里，似乎没有必要花很多精力探讨“自足”、“积极影响”、“主观幸福”、“享乐情调”等无数个其它术语之间的区别。相反，我决定追寻最高法院大法官波特斯图尔特的神圣传统——他用一句“当我看到它就会认出它”的话定义猥亵。

I think it's enough to think about being "happier." Even if we don't agree about what it means to be happy, we can agree that whatever happiness means, it would be nice to be happier. I think the looseness of the term happiness is actually helpful; it's a concept large enough to embrace many different perspectives.

我认为考虑“更快乐”就足够了。即便我们对“快乐”的定义不一致，但我们认同不论快乐是什么，能“更快乐”就好。我认为快乐这个术语的的定义应该很松散，这个概念太大，足以包含许多不同看法。

I suspect that one reason that people try to avoid using the word "happiness" is that happiness has a bad reputation. It's often associated with superficiality, self-absorption, narcissism⁸, and pleasure-seeking. (As in Woody Allen's movie Annie Hall, when Alvy asks a happy couple how they account for their happiness, and the woman answers, "I am very shallow and empty, and I have no ideas and nothing interesting to say," and the man agrees, "I'm exactly the same way.")

我怀疑人们在回避用“快乐”这个词的原因是“快乐”的名声不好。它往往和浅薄、自我沉迷、自恋和享乐相关。（正如在Woody Allen的电影Annie Hall中一样，当Alvy问一对快乐的男女如何解释快乐，女的说：“我很浅薄、空洞，我没看法，我说不出什么有意思的东西。男的附和：“我也正是如此。”）

In fact, however, studies show that happiness doesn't make people complacent⁹ or self-centered. Rather, happier people are more likely to volunteer, to give away money, to persist in problem-solving, to help others, and to be friendly.

实际上，研究表明快乐并没有让人们自满或以自我为中心。更快乐的人更有可能做自愿者、捐钱、对解决问题坚持不懈、帮助别人及友善。

One study showed that, all over the world, when asked what they want most from life — and what they most want for their children – people answered that they want happiness. I know when I feel happy. Trying to be happier – that's good enough for me, without a precise definition.

一项研究表明，在世界各地，当问及人们在生活中最希望得到什么，最希望他们的孩子得到什么的时候，人们回答是“快乐”。但我快乐的时候，我知道快乐是什么。努力更快乐——这对我来说足够了，不需要一个精确的定义。