物质主义会将我们带向幸福吗？
Nowadays, in many people’s minds there is a big question mark over the idea that happiness follows economic expansion, because in real life that is not the case. The statistics are also pointing to a different reality. So, people cannot help wondering if they will be as unhappy as those in the highly industrialized countries when they themselves have become prosperous.
事到如今，很多现代人心里都划了一个巨大的问号：我们以前认为，经济发达以后，人就会幸福，但如今的事实怎么并非如此呢？这是实实在在的数据告诉我们的啊！这是不是说明，当有一天我们像西方人那么富裕的时候，会不会也一样不幸福呢？
In the past, some Western philosophers also held the view that happiness comes from material wealth and possessions. This idea has been around since the Renaissance.
过去西方的一部分哲学家也认为：金钱或物质生活是幸福的来源。从文艺复兴运动的时候开始，就有人这么说。比如，人文主义之父彼得拉克就扬言道：“我自己是凡人，我只要求凡人的幸福！”
Julien Offray de la Mattrie, a French materialist of the Enlightenment who proposed the metaphor of the human being as machine， believed that man’s happiness and pleasure must be felt via the body’s organs. He said that happiness cannot be born of mind or feeling. If one were to look for happiness in one’s own thought or by studying some hitherto unknown truths, it would be like searching for happiness in an unhappy place.
启蒙运动的时候，法国机械唯物主义的代表人物，那个一直高喊 “人是机器”的拉美特利也认为：人们的快乐和幸福是肉体器官通过感觉而得到的，他说：“幸福是不能依靠思想方式或感觉的方式的……如果在自己的思想中寻找幸福，如果想靠研究我们没有注意到的真理来寻找幸福，那就是在没有幸福的地方寻找。”
It is also Voltaire’s view that sensual pleasure is the impetus for people to pursue happiness. He actively opposed the asceticism imposed by the church then, insisting instead that neither law nor religion should block people’s desires.
伏尔泰也认为：生理器官的满足，是人们追求幸福的根源和动力。他们竭力反对西方宗教的禁欲主义，认为感官享受是追求幸福的动力，无论是法律或者宗教，都不应该阻碍人的欲望。
Under the influence of these philosophies, people in the West generally accept the view of accumulating material wealth as a means to obtain happiness. But after a few hundred years of endeavor, real happiness still remains elusive. Insomuch as having good cars, beautiful houses， even yachts and private planes, many rich people continue to feel aimless, dejected and miserable in life. There doesn’t seem to be any solution at hand for them.
在这些思想的带动下，西方人拼命地挣钱，在奋斗了几百年以后，却发现有钱了还是不幸福，尽管有了名车、别墅，有些人还有了游轮、飞机，但精神上却异常空虚、颓丧、痛苦，时至今日，他们已经无计可施了。
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