Cosmicism（宇宙主义）——寄蜉蝣于天地，渺沧海之一粟

寄蜉蝣于天地，渺沧海之一粟。哀吾生之须臾，羡长江之无穷。挟飞仙以遨游，抱明月而长终。知不可乎骤得，托遗响于悲风。

Cosmicism is the literary philosophy developed and used by the American writer H. P. Lovecraft in his weird fiction. Lovecraft was a writer of philosophically intense horror stories that involve occult phenomena like astral possession and alien miscegenation, and the themes of his fiction over time contributed to the development of this philosophy.

宇宙主义是美国作家 H. P. Lovecraft （洛夫克拉夫特）在其怪异体裁小说中提出并使用的一种文学哲学理念。Lovecraft的作品主要是有着强烈哲学气息的恐怖故事，包含比如灵魂出窍和外星人与人类交配繁殖等，他的小说主题逐渐推动了这一哲学理念的形成。

Principles of cosmicism
宇宙主义基本理念

The philosophy of cosmicism states that there is no recognizable divine presence, such as God, in the universe, and that humans are particularly insignificant in the larger scheme of intergalactic existence, and perhaps are just a small species projecting their own mental idolatries onto the vast cosmos, ever susceptible to being wiped from existence at any moment. This also suggested that the majority of undiscerning humanity are creatures with the same significance as insects in a much greater struggle between greater forces which, due to humanity's small, visionless and unimportant nature, it does not recognize.

宇宙主义的哲学理念是：宇宙中并没有明确的神迹的存在，比如上帝等；在星际这一更大背景下，人类尤其是微不足道的，可能人类不过是一个将自己的偶像崇拜心理投射至整个广袤宇宙的渺小物种而已，而且随时都可能被毁灭。这同时也意味着，在更宏大力量之间的更宏大斗争中，大部分愚昧的人类不过是像昆虫一样渺小的动物，而且因为人类自身的渺小、短视和微不足道的本质，完全认识不到这些更宏大力量的存在。

Perhaps the most prominent theme in cosmicism is the utter insignificance of humanity. Lovecraft believed that "the human race will disappear. Other races will appear and disappear in turn. The sky will become icy and void, pierced by the feeble light of half-dead stars. Which will also disappear. Everything will disappear. And what human beings do is just as free of sense as the free motion of elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, feelings? Pure 'Victorian fictions'. Only egotism exists."

宇宙主义中最主要的主题，可能就是人类的微不足道。Lovecraft 认为，人类种族将会消失，然后其他物种会出现，然后也会消失。天空将冰冷空洞，濒死星球散发的微弱星光透射其中，而这也会消失，一切都将消亡。人类的一切行为就像是基本粒子的自由运动一样毫无意义可言。善、恶、道德、感受？都不过是存粹的“维多利亚式小说”而已。唯一存在的，只有自我主义而已。

Cosmicism shares many characteristics with nihilism, though one important difference is that cosmicism tends to emphasize the inconsequentiality of humanity and its doings, rather than summarily rejecting the possible existence of some higher purpose (or purposes). For example, in Lovecraft's Cthulhu stories, it is not so much the absence of meaning that causes terror for the protagonists as it is their discovery that they have absolutely no power to effect any change in the vast, indifferent, and ultimately incomprehensible universe that surrounds them. Whatever meaning or purpose may or may not be invested in the actions of the cosmic beings in Lovecraft's stories is completely inaccessible to the human characters, in the way an amoeba (for example) is completely unequipped to grasp the concepts that drive human behavior.

宇宙主义在很多方面与虚无主义相似，但一个重要区别是，宇宙主义强调人类与人类行为的无足轻重，而不是整体上去否认可能有更崇高使命存在。例如，在 Lovecraft 的 Cthulhu（克苏鲁）系列故事中，让主角们感到恐惧的，与其说是感到毫无意义，不如说是他们发现他们面对广袤、冷漠和神秘莫测的宇宙时，自身任何行为都无法使宇宙产生任何改变时的那种无力感。在Lovecraft的故事中，宇宙生物行为中或许有也或许没有的任何意义或使命，都是完全超出人类理解范畴的，就像是比如阿米巴这种单细胞生物体也完全不具备理解人类行为驱动因素的能力。

Lovecraft's cosmicism was a result of his complete disdain for all things religious, his feeling of humanity's existential helplessness in the face of what he called the "infinite spaces" opened up by scientific thought, and his belief that humanity was fundamentally at the mercy of the vastness and emptiness of the cosmos. In his fictional works, these ideas are often explored humorously ("Herbert West: Reanimator," 1922), through fantastic dreamlike narratives ("The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath," 1927), or through his well-known "Cthulhu Mythos" ("The Call of Cthulhu," 1928, and others). Common themes related to cosmicism in Lovecraft's fiction are the insignificance of humanity in the universe and the search for knowledge ending in disaster.

Lovecraft的宇宙主义源于：他对所有宗教事物的彻底不屑；他感到在面对因科学思考而开启的、其所称之为的”无限空间“时，人类整体上是无助的；以及他认为人类种族的命运本质上是被掌控在宇宙的广袤和虚无中的。在其虚构作品中，这些理念通常被以幽默方式阐述（Herbert West: Reanimator," 1922），或是通过梦境般的叙事方式阐述（The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath），或是通过其知名的”克苏鲁神话主题“（"The Call of Cthulhu," 1928, 和其他同主题作品）。其小说中所体现的宇宙主义的共有主题是：人类在宇宙中的微不足道，以及对知识的追求均以灾难而告终”。

"Cosmic indifference"
“宇宙之漠然”

In Lovecraft's fictional works, human beings are often subject to powerful beings and other cosmic forces, but these forces are not so much malevolent as they are indifferent toward humanity. This indifference is an important theme in cosmicism. The noted Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi points out that "Lovecraft constantly engaged in (more or less) genial debates on religion with several colleagues, notably the pious writer and teacher Maurice W. Moe. Lovecraft made no bones about being a strong and antireligious atheist; he considered religion not merely false but dangerous to social and political progress." As such, Lovecraft's cosmicism is not religious at all, but rather a version of his mechanistic materialism." Lovecraft thus embraced a philosophy of cosmic indifferentism. He believed in a meaningless, mechanical, and uncaring universe that human beings, with their naturally limited faculties, could never fully understand. His viewpoint made no allowance for religious beliefs which could not be supported scientifically. The incomprehensible, cosmic forces of his tales have as little regard for humanity as humans have for insects.

在其小说中，人类通常受到强大生命形式和其他宇宙力量的影响，但这些力量与其说是出于恶意，不如说是对人类毫不在乎。这种漠然，是宇宙主义的重要主题。知名 Lovecraft 研究学者 S.T. Joshi 指出，“Lovecraft 通常会在宗教问题上与同事展开（或多或少地）温和辩论，尤其是作为虔诚教徒的作家和教师 Maurice W. Moe。Lovecraft 毫不避讳地表明自己地强烈反宗教无神主义者立场。他认为宗教不仅是虚假的，而且对社会和政治进步是危险的。”因此，他的宇宙主义完全并非一种宗教概念，而更像是一种他个人机械唯物主义（形而上学唯物主义）的一个版本。Lovecraft 支持宇宙漠然论这一理念。他相信宇宙是毫无意义的、机械的、冷漠的，而人类受到有限感官能力的局限，永远无法充分理解宇宙。他的观点中也否认了无科学证据支撑的宗教理念。他的故事中超出人类理解范畴的宇宙力量对人类毫不在乎，就像是人类对昆虫毫不在乎一样。

Though hostile to religion, Lovecraft used various "gods" in his stories, particularly the Cthulhu related tales, to expound cosmicism. However, Lovecraft never conceived of them as supernatural; they are merely extraterrestrials who understand and obey a set of natural laws, which to the limited human understanding seem magical. These beings (the Great Old Ones, Outer Gods and others)—though dangerous to humankind—are neither good nor evil, and human notions of morality have no meaning for these beings. Indeed, they exist in cosmic realms beyond human understanding. As a symbol, they represent the kind of universe that Lovecraft believed in, a universe in which humanity is an insignificant blot, fated to come and go, its appearance unnoticed and its passing unmourned.

尽管敌视宗教，Lovecraft 在其故事中却使用了各种“神”的角色，尤其是克苏鲁相关故事，来阐释宇宙主义这一理念。但 Lovecraft 从未将他们描述为超自然生命，他们只不过是奉行着人类种族因理解局限性而觉得神奇的一整套自然法则而已。这些生命（旧日支配者、外神和其他角色等）尽管对人类很危险，但却并无善恶之分，人类的道德理念对这些生命毫无意义。的确，他们毕竟存在于超出人类理解范畴的宇宙空间。作为一种象征，他们代表了Lovecraft 所信奉的宇宙，一个人类不过是毫无意义的一点墨迹，注定出现、注定消失，它的存在不会被注意到，它的消失也不会被哀悼。