In his comment on my essay, Paul Kottman says that not only are the issues “unquestionably important” but that my way of raising them “is itself significant” (Paul Kottman, “Playing with the Dead: A Response to Jonathan Lear,” Critical Inquiry 46 [Autumn 2019]: 212). I agree. But Kottman misunderstands my way of raising them—and this initial misunderstanding distorts the rest of his interpretation. Kottman says that, for me, “the issues remain murky if assessed only on the basis of established facts or beliefs or opinions. We need something other than historical knowledge or moral judgment—an addition Lear calls ‘ethical imagination’—in order to grasp the issues at stake” (p. 212). This characterization gets me wrong on a number of levels, all of them important. I do not talk about issues being murky. I talk about the difficulty of reality—and I use that phrase in the special sense that Cora Diamond elucidated in her classic paper, “The Difficulty of Reality and the Difficulty of Philosophy.” It is crucial to grasp the irony in her use—an irony that is at the same time utterly earnest. Normally, difficulties of reality are difficulties we encounter in the world—difficulties in figuring out what to do in emotionally or ethically challenging situations, difficulties with things that we rely on breaking down, difficulties in understanding a theoretical problem, and so on. With any of these difficulties, or if difficulties pile up,

中文翻译：

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关键反应 II. 困难与困难

在对我的文章的评论中，保罗·科特曼说，不仅这些问题“毫无疑问地重要”，而且我提出这些问题的方式“本身也很重要”（保罗·科特曼，“与死者玩耍：对乔纳森·李尔的回应”，批判性查询 46 [2019 年秋季]：212）。我同意。但是科特曼误解了我提出它们的方式——而这个最初的误解扭曲了他的其他解释。科特曼说，对我来说，“如果仅根据既定的事实、信念或观点进行评估，问题就会变得模糊不清。我们需要历史知识或道德判断以外的东西——李尔称之为“伦理想象”——以便把握关键问题”（第 212 页）。这种描述让我在很多层面上都错了，所有这些都很重要。我不谈论模糊的问题。我谈论现实的困难——我用科拉·戴蒙德在她的经典论文“现实的困难和哲学的困难”中阐明的特殊意义来使用这个词。掌握她使用中的讽刺是至关重要的——一种同时又是完全认真的讽刺。通常，现实的困难是我们在这个世界上遇到的困难——在情感或道德上具有挑战性的情况下很难弄清楚该怎么做，在我们依赖的事物上遇到困难，在理解理论问题上遇到困难，等等。遇到任何这些困难，或者如果困难堆积起来，” 掌握她使用中的讽刺是至关重要的——一种同时又是完全认真的讽刺。通常，现实的困难是我们在这个世界上遇到的困难——在情感或道德上具有挑战性的情况下很难弄清楚该怎么做，在我们依赖的事物上遇到困难，在理解理论问题上遇到困难，等等。遇到任何这些困难，或者如果困难堆积起来，” 掌握她使用中的讽刺是至关重要的——一种同时又是完全认真的讽刺。通常，现实的困难是我们在这个世界上遇到的困难——在情感或道德上具有挑战性的情况下很难弄清楚该怎么做，在我们依赖的事物上遇到困难，在理解理论问题上遇到困难，等等。遇到任何这些困难，或者如果困难堆积起来，