本文要點：
一貫的人生主題01
Instead of accepting the unity of purpose provided by genetic instructions or by the rules of society, the challenge for us is to create harmony based on reason and choice. Psychologists have used terms like propriate strivings or life themes.
除了一味被動地服從生物本能或社會規範所提供的統一目標，我們也可以根據理性與自由選擇，創造和諧。心理學家稱之為「特有奮鬥」或「人生主題」。
02
The life theme, like a game that prescribes the rules and actions one must follow to experience flow, identifies what will make existence enjoyable. With a life theme, everything that happens will have a meaning—not necessarily a positive one, but a meaning nevertheless.
人生主題就像遊戲規則，參加者一定要按照規則行動才能體驗到心流，這可視為生命樂趣的泉源。有了人生主題，所有事情都會有意義 ——不盡然是好的意義。
撰寫人生的腳本01
A similar distinction is that between
discovered life themes,
when a person writes the script for her actions out of personal experience and awareness of choice; and accepted life themes,
when a person simply takes on a predetermined role from a script written long ago by others.
人生主題也有類似的區分：
02
Both types of life themes help give meaning to life, but each has drawbacks.
這兩種人生主題都有助於賦予生命意義，但兩者也都有缺點。
03
The accepted life theme works well as long as the social system is sound; if it is not, it can trap the person into perverted goals. Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi who calmly shipped tens of thousands to the gas chambers, was a man for whom the rules of bureaucracy were sacred.
接受型人生主題在健全的社會體系下，能運作得很妥善，但社會體系一出問題，個人就很可能陷入變態的目標，不能自拔。把數十萬人送入煤氣室的納粹劊子手艾希曼，把官僚體制奉為至高無上。
04
Discovered life themes are fragile for a different reason: because they are products of a personal struggle to define the purpose of life, they have less social legitimacy; because they are often novel and idiosyncratic, they may be regarded by others as crazy or destructive. Some of the most powerful life themes are based on ancient human goals, but freshly discovered and freely chosen by the individual.
發現型人生主題的缺點是因為：因為它是個人自行界定人生方向，奮鬥之下的產物，所以往往缺乏社會的認可，它的創新和與眾不同常被世俗視為瘋狂或具有破壞性。若干有力的人生主題其實是基於古人所設定的目標，只不過由現代人重新發現罷了。
對痛苦的闡釋01
So the next question is, What kinds of explanations for one’s suffering lead to negentropic life themes? If a child abused by a violent father concluded that the problem was inherent in human nature, that all men were weak and violent, there would not be much he or she could do about it.
How could a child change human nature? To find purpose in suffering one must interpret it as a possible challenge.
Finally, a complex, negentropic life theme is rarely formulated as the response to just a personal problem. Instead, the challenge becomes generalized to other people, or to mankind as a whole.
因此，接下來的問題就是，用哪種方式闡釋遭受的痛苦，能導向精神負熵的人生主題？如果一個飽受有暴力傾向的父親虐待的小孩兒，認為問題就潛藏在人性之中，人都是軟弱而暴戾的，那麼憑他一己之力， 當然無藥可醫，小孩兒哪有可能改變人性呢？
要在痛苦中找出方向，首先我們必須把它解釋成一項可能的挑戰。
最後，精神負熵的複雜主題，很少會在應付個人問題時出現。它所涉及的挑戰一定要能適用於其他人，甚至全人類。
絕處逢生01
Ever since Freud, psychologists have been interested in explaining how early childhood trauma leads to adult psychic dysfunction.
This line of causation is fairly easy to understand. More difficult to explain, and more interesting, is the opposite outcome:
the instances when suffering gives a person the incentive to become a great artist, a wise statesman, or a scientist.
But if one assumes that people have a choice in how they respond to external events, in what meaning they attribute to suffering, then one can interpret the constructive response as normal and the neurotic one as a failure to rise to the challenge, as a breakdown in the ability to flow.
從弗洛伊德開始，心理學家一直希望能說明，童年所受的傷痛如何引起成年後的精神官能障礙。
兩者之間的因果關係不難理解，真正難以解釋而更值得注意的是，與這種預期相反的結果：
受苦刺激使一個人奮發向上，成為偉大的藝術家、英明的政治家或傑出的科學家。
如果我們假設一般人有權對外在事件做出何種反應時，那麼建設性的反應才是正常的，精神官能症則是無法面對挑戰，心流的能力受阻所引起的。
02
What makes some people able to develop a coherent purpose, while others struggle through an empty or meaningless life?
There is no simple answer, of course, because whether a person will discover a harmonious theme in the apparent chaos of experience is influenced by many factors, both internal and external. It is easier to doubt that life makes sense if one is born deformed, poor, and oppressed.
There are so many examples of this type of personality that one certainly cannot assume a direct causal relation between external disorder in childhood and internal lack of meaning later in life: Thomas Edison as a child was sickly, poor, and believed to be retarded by his teacher; Eleanor Roosevelt was a lonely, neurotic young girl; Albert Einstein’s early years were filled with anxieties and disappointments—yet they all ended up inventing powerful and useful lives for themselves.
為什麼有些人能建立一致的目標，終身受用不盡，而有些人卻一輩子過著空洞、無意義的生活呢？
這個問題並沒有標準答案，因為一個人能否在乍看一片混沌的體驗中，找到和諧的主題，乃是由很多內在和外在的因素決定的。一般人傾向於認為：在天生殘疾、貧窮、受壓迫之下，人生就不會有什麼意義，但即使如此也有例外。
童年惡劣的外在環境， 不見得會導致長大後內心缺乏意義。發明大王愛迪生小時候是個窮苦多病的孩子，還被老師認為是低能兒；愛因斯坦幼時生活充滿焦慮與失望；羅斯福夫人從小是個寂寞、神經質的女孩，但他們後來都為自己創造了有意義的人生。
超越前人智慧01
If there is a strategy shared by these and by other people who succeed in building meaning into their experience, it is one so simple and obvious that it is almost embarrassing to mention. Yet because it is so often overlooked, especially nowadays, it will be valuable to review it.
如果賦予生命意義有特別的方法可循，這方法也似乎簡單得不值一提，但因為它經常受到忽視，而且這種情況在今天尤其嚴重，所以不妨重新拿出來談談。
02
The strategy consists in extracting from the order achieved by past generations patterns that will help avoid disorder in one’s own mind.
There is much knowledge—or well-ordered information—accumulated in culture, ready for this use. Great music, architecture, art, poetry, drama, dance, philosophy, and religion are there for anyone to see as examples of how harmony can be imposed on chaos. Yet so many people ignore them, expecting to create meaning in their lives by their own devices.
這一方法主要是從前幾代建立的秩序中汲取經驗，找到一個避免自己內心被擾亂的模式。文化會累積大量的知識——或者說有秩序的資訊。偉大的音樂、建築、藝術、詩歌、 戲劇、舞蹈、哲學、宗教，都是以和諧克服混沌的好榜樣，任何人都可以仿效。但很多人都忽視它們的存在，只想靠自己的力量創造生命的意義。
03
To do so is like trying to build up material culture from scratch in each generation.
這種態度跟要求每一代都要從無到有，憑空創造一套物質文化，並無不同。
從書中獲得啟發01
Whatever one’s background, there are still many opportunities later on in life to draw meaning from the past. Most people who discover complex life themes remember either an older person or a historical figure whom they greatly admired and who served as a model, or they recall having read a book that revealed new possibilities for action.
At its best, literature contains ordered information about behavior, models of purpose, and examples of lives successfully patterned around meaningful goals. Many people confronted with the randomness of existence have drawn hope from the knowledge that others before them had faced similar problems, and had been able to prevail.
不論出身背景如何，人生稍後的階段仍然有很多從過去汲取意義的機會。很多發掘到複雜人生主題的人，若不是以他們深為尊敬的長者或歷史人物為模範，就是從書本中找到行動的新方向。
優秀的文學作品往往包含有秩序的資訊，包括各種行為模式、目標模式以及圍繞有意義的目標成功塑造的生活實例等。很多生活陷入混亂的人，得知在他們之前也有人面臨類似的問題，就能重燃希望，克服困境。
信仰的力量01
Is there any possibility that a new system of goals and means will arise to help give meaning to the lives of our children in the next century? Some people are confident that Christianity restored to its former glory will answer that need. Some still believe that communism will solve the problem of chaos in human experience and that its order will spread across the world. At present, neither of these outcomes seems likely.
有沒有可能出現一套新的目標與實踐體系，幫助我們的兒孫在21世紀找到生命的意義？有些人相信，如果恢復基督教過去的光榮，就能實現這項需求。但也有人認為，唯有共產主義才能解決人間的混沌，它終有一天會橫掃全世界。目前看來，這兩種預言都還沒有實現。
02
If a new faith is to capture our imagination, it must be one that will account rationally for the things we know, the things we feel, the things we hope for, and the ones we dread. It must be a system of beliefs that will marshal our psychic energy toward meaningful goals, a system that provides rules for a way of life that can provide flow.
如果有一種新信仰要吸引我們，它必須能理性地解釋所有我們知道、感覺、希望和害怕的事。它必須是一個能引導我們的精神能量朝一個有意義的目標邁進的體系，一個為心流生活提供規則和方法的體系。
03
It is difficult to imagine that a system of beliefs such as this will not be based, at least to some degree, on what science has revealed about humanity and about the universe. Without such a foundation, our consciousness would remain split between faith and knowledge. But if science is to be of real help, it will have to transform itself.
我們很難想像，這麼一個體系在某種程度上，不會依賴科學對人類和宇宙的認識為基礎。若沒有這樣的基礎，我們的意識就仍然在信仰與知識之間左右為難。如果科學要提供真正的幫助，也必須重作調整。
04
One way to accomplish this is through the concept of evolution. Everything that matters most to us—such questions as: Where did we come from? Where are we going? What powers shape our lives? What is good and bad? How are we related to one another, and to the rest of the universe? What are the consequences of our actions?—could be discussed in a systematic way in terms of what we now know about evolution and even more in terms of what we are going to know about it in the future.
要做到這一點，有個方法是通過進化的觀念。所有我們關注的問題 ——我們從哪裡來？我們往哪裡去？什麼力量塑造我們的生活？什麼是善，什麼是惡？我們彼此之間，我們和宇宙之間有什麼關係？我們的行動有什麼後果？這些都可以用目前的進化論知識作系統地討論，這方面的知識未來還會繼續擴充。
The obvious critique of this scenario is that science in general, and the science of evolution in particular, deals with what is, not with what ought to be. Faiths and beliefs, on the other hand, are not limited by actuality; they deal with what is right, what is desirable. But one of the consequences of an evolutionary faith might be precisely a closer integration between the is and the ought. When we understand better why we are as we are, when we appreciate more fully the origins of instinctual drives, social controls, cultural expressions—all the elements that contribute to the formation of consciousness—it will become easier to direct our energies where they ought to go.
這種方式面臨的批評是，一般科學或進化論科學處理的都是已經存在的現象，不考慮應不應該的問題。然而信仰卻不受現實的局限，它會討論什麼是對的，什麼是令人渴望的。進化的信仰或許能在現實與理想之間做一整合。當我們了解自己為什麼是現在這樣，就更能了解直覺衝動、社會控制、文化表達等有助於意識形成的元素，更容易把精力導向更正確的方向。
進化掌握在我們手中01
And the evolutionary perspective also points to a goal worthy of our energies.
There seems to be no question about the fact that over the billions of years of activity on the earth, more and more complex life forms have made their appearance, culminating in the intricacies of the human nervous system. In turn, the cerebral cortex has evolved consciousness, which now envelops the earth as thoroughly as the atmosphere does.
進化觀點同時指向一個值得我們投注精力的目標。數十億年來，地球上的生命形式越來越複雜，人類神經系統也日趨精巧細密；大腦皮層演化而具有的意識，影響力遍及全球。
02
The reality of complexification is both an is and an ought: it has happened—given the conditions ruling the earth, it was bound to happen—but it might not continue unless we wish it to go on. The future of evolution is now in our hands.
複雜性不僅是現實，也是理想：它已經出現——按照地球的法則，它必然會出現；但除非我們希望它繼續，否則它的發展很可能會中斷。進化的未來就掌握在我們手中。