当人们为牛顿、爱因斯坦呈现给世人的“科学盛宴”而惊叹不已时,是否知道这份“盛宴”背后所承载的深厚哲学功底?当人们为工业革命将人类推向现代文明而兴奋不已时,是否想起文艺复兴、启蒙运动所奠定的思想基础?当人们仰望当今参天的“科学之树”时,是否想到几千年前希腊哲学家们辛苦栽培的“科学幼苗”?当人们见证自然科学日益改变人们赖以生存的有形世界时,是否渐渐忽略了人文科学在塑造人类无形思想时所发挥的无可替代的作用?人文学科,这颗昔日大学生活中璀璨的明星,不能也不应该失去它应有的光芒。
When the going gets tough, the tough take accounting1). When the job market worsens, many students figure they can’t indulge2) in an English or a history major. They have to study something that will lead directly to a job.
So it is almost inevitable that over the next few years, as labor markets struggle, the humanities will continue their long slide. There already has been a nearly 50 percent drop in the portion of liberal arts3) majors over the past generation, and that trend is bound to accelerate. Once the stars of university life, humanities now play bit roles when prospective students take their college tours. The labs are more glamorous than the libraries.
But allow me to pause for a moment and throw another sandbag on the levee4) of those trying to resist this tide. Let me stand up for5) the history, English and art classes, even in the face of today’s economic realities.
Studying the humanities improves your ability to read and write. No matter what you do in life, you will have a huge advantage if you can read a paragraph and discern its meaning (a rarer talent than you might suppose). You will have enormous power if you are the person in the office who can write a clear and concise memo.
Studying the humanities will give you a familiarity with the language of emotion. In an information economy, many people have the ability to produce a technical innovation: a new MP3 player. Very few people have the ability to create a great brand: the iPod. Branding involves the location and arousal6) of affection, and you can’t do it unless you are conversant7) in the language of romance.
Studying the humanities will give you a wealth of analogies. People think by comparison—Iraq is either like Vietnam or Bosnia; your boss is like Narcissus8) or Solon9). People who have a wealth of analogies in their minds can think more precisely than those with few analogies. If you go through college without reading Thucydides10), Herodotus11) and Gibbon12), you’ll have been cheated out of13) a great repertoire14) of comparisons.
Finally, and most importantly, studying the humanities helps you befriend15) The Big Shaggy16).
每当局势变得艰难,身处艰难之境的人们就会权衡得失。随着就业市场形势的恶化,许多学生都认为,他们不能由着自己的性子去选择英语或历史专业了。他们必须要学习能够直接促进他们就业的专业。
因此,在今后几年内,随着劳动力市场竞争的加剧,人文学科的持续下滑几乎已经不可避免。在过去的一代人中,读文科专业的人所占的比例已经下降了将近50%,而这一趋势注定还要加剧。人文学科过去曾是大学生活中璀璨的明星,可现在,当未来的大学生们漫游大学校园时,它们却显得那样黯淡。实验室的吸引力要比图书馆大多了。
但是,请允许我停下来,为那些试图扭转这一趋势的人们摇旗呐喊。即使在当今严峻的经济形势下,我还是要为历史、为英语、为艺术课程说几句话。
学习人文学科能够提高你的阅读与写作能力。不管你在生活中从事什么工作,如果你善于阅读、精于理解(这一能力远比你想象的要难得),你就会具有很大的优势。在办公室里,如果你能以清晰、简练的文笔来写一篇备忘录,你就能拥有巨大的影响力。
学习人文学科能够使你熟悉表达情感的语言。在信息经济时代,许多人有能力进行技术革新,比如发明一种新的MP3播放器,但却极少有人有能力创造一个品牌,比如iPod。创造品牌需要准确把握并激发人们的情感,如果不精通富于浪漫色彩的情感语言,是无法做到这一点的。
学习人文学科能够使你掌握丰富的类比。人们习惯于通过比较来进行思考——伊拉克要么像越南,要么像波斯尼亚;你的上司要么像那耳喀索斯,要么像梭伦。头脑中掌握大量类比知识的人要比类比知识很少的人更能准确地思考问题。如果你在大学里没能阅读修昔底德、希罗多德以及吉本等先贤的著作,那么你就等于失去了一个巨大的类比宝库。
最后,也是最重要的,学习人文学科能够使你亲近那个神秘的“长毛怪”。
Let me try to explain. Over the past century or so, people have built various systems to help them understand human behavior: economics, political science, game theory17) and evolutionary psychology. These systems are useful in many circumstances. But none completely explain behavior because deep down people have passions and drives that don’t lend themselves to systemic modeling. They have yearnings and fears that reside in an inner beast18) you could call The Big Shaggy.
You can see The Big Shaggy at work when a governor of South Carolina19) suddenly chucks it20) all for a love voyage south of the equator, or when a smart, philosophical congressman from Indiana risks everything for an in-office affair.
You can see The Big Shaggy at work when self-destructive overconfidence overtakes oil engineers in the gulf21), when go-go22) enthusiasm intoxicates23) investment bankers or when bone-chilling distrust grips politics.
Those are the destructive sides of The Big Shaggy. But this tender beast is also responsible for the mysterious but fierce determination that drives Kobe Bryant24), the graceful bemusement25) the Detroit Tigers26) pitcher Armando Galarraga27) showed when his perfect game slipped away, and the selfless courage soldiers in Afghanistan show when they risk death for buddies or a family they may never see again.
The observant person goes through life asking: Where did that come from? Why did he or she act that way? The answers are hard to come by28) because the behavior emanates29) from somewhere deep inside The Big Shaggy.
Technical knowledge stops at the outer edge. If you spend your life riding the links of the Internet, you probably won’t get too far into The Big Shaggy either, because the fast, effortless prose of blogging (and journalism) lacks the heft30) to get you deep below.
But over the centuries, there have been rare and strange people who possessed the skill of taking the upheavals31) of thought that emanate from The Big Shaggy and representing them in the form of story, music, myth, painting, liturgy32), architecture, sculpture, landscape and speech. These men and women developed languages that help us understand these yearnings and also educate and mold them. They left rich veins of emotional knowledge that are the subjects of the humanities.
It’s probably dangerous to enter exclusively into this realm and risk being caught in a cloister33), removed from the market and its accountability. But doesn’t it make sense to spend some time in the company of these languages—learning to feel different emotions, rehearsing different passions, experiencing different sacred rituals and learning to see in different ways?
Few of us are hewers34) of wood. We navigate social environments. If you’re dumb about The Big Shaggy, you’ll probably get eaten by it.
让我来试着作一解释。在过去一百年左右的时间里,人们创造出了各种理论体系来帮助自己理解人类行为:经济学、政治学、博弈论、进化心理学等。这些理论体系在许多境况下都有其用武之地。但没有哪一种能够完全解释人类的行为,因为在人的内心深处,有些激情和欲望是无法用任何系统模式来解释的。人人心中都存在着一只怪兽,承载着人们的渴望与恐惧,你可以称之为“长毛怪”。
当南卡罗来纳州的一位州长突然抛弃一切去赤道以南的某个地方进行一场爱情之旅时,或者当印第安纳州一位聪明、理性的议员突然不顾一切去追求一段办公室恋情时,你就知道这是“长毛怪”在作怪了。
当海湾地区的石油工程师被具有毁灭性的盲目自信冲昏头脑,当投资银行家为投机的狂热所迷惑,当政坛被冰冷刺骨的怀疑所包围,你就知道这是“长毛怪”在作怪了。
上面所说的都是“长毛怪”具有破坏性的一面。但这只温柔的野兽也有其好的一面:如科比·布莱恩特在球场上表现出的那种神秘而又坚定的决心,底特律老虎队投手阿曼多·加拉拉加在错失比赛良机时表现出的优雅的沉思,以及远在阿富汗的士兵们冒着生命危险抢救战友或一个素昧平生的家庭时所表现出的无私和勇敢,这些都是“长毛怪”的杰作。
喜欢观察的人在生命旅途中总喜欢这样问:这件事的根源在哪里呢?他或她为什么会这样做呢?这些问题很难回答,因为这种行为深深地植根于“长毛怪”的心灵最深处。
技术知识只能停留于外在世界。如果你一生的时间都花在点击因特网的链接上,你也许就没有机会深入到“长毛怪”的内心深处,因为博客(还有新闻报道)那种阅读起来毫不费力的快餐式文章缺乏能够使你深入其内心的那份重量。
但是,千百年来,总是有一些才华横溢、非同寻常之人,他们善于抓住那些源自“长毛怪”的各种起伏波动的思想,并将这些思想以小说、音乐、神话、绘画、祷文、建筑、雕塑、风景画以及演讲的形式表现出来。这些杰出的人们创作出各种语言形式,使我们明白了自己心中的渴望,并学会培养和塑造它们。他们留下了丰富的感情知识的脉络,成为人文学科研究的主题。
如果脱离市场及其职能,仅仅涉猎人文领域,则有与世隔绝之风险,这样做很可能是危险的。但是,花上一些时间,和这些语言相识相伴——学会感受不同的感情,体验不同的激情,经历不同的神圣仪式,学会以不同的方式看待世界,难道不是很有意义吗?
我们极少有人是与世隔绝的伐木者(译者注:伐木者,语出《圣经·约书亚记》第九章21节中的“伐木者与汲水者”,原指从事低贱工作的下人,此处指从事简单体力劳动、很少与人交往的人)。我们是社会环境中的航行者。如果你对“长毛怪”不理不睬,有朝一日它也许会将你吞噬。
1. 这句话来源于一句谚语,即“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”意思是:“当情况变坏时,只有吃苦耐劳之人能继续前进。”文中的这句话是根据文章所需将“get going”替换成了“take accounting”,表示“权衡得失”之意。
2. indulge [In5dQldV] vi. 恣意从事
3. liberal arts:文科
4. levee [5levI] n. 堤岸,防洪堤
5. stand up for:支持,维护,保卫
6. arousal [E5rauzEl] n. 觉醒,激励
7. conversant [kEn5vE:sEnt] adj. 精通的,(如通过学习或经历)熟悉的
8. Narcissus:那耳喀索斯,希腊神话中的美少年。他第一次看到自己在水中的倒影后,终日迷恋自己的倒影,不吃不睡,最终憔悴而死,化为一株水仙花(narcissus)。
9. Solon:梭伦(前638～前559),古代雅典的政治家、立法者、诗人,古希腊七贤之一
10. Thucydides:修昔底德(约460 BC～404 BC),古希腊历史学家,曾被认为是远古时代最伟大的历史学家。
11. Herodotus:希罗多德(约485 BC～约425 BC),古希腊历史学家,史学名著《历史》一书的作者,被誉为“史学之父”。
12. Gibbon:即爱德华·吉本 (Edward Gibbon, 1737～1794),英国历史学家,著有历史教科书《罗马帝国的兴衰史》。
13. cheat ... out of:骗取;非法剥夺(权利等)
14. repertoire [5repEtwB:] n. 全部本领
15. befriend [bI5frend] vt. 对……以朋友相待;亲近
16. shaggy [5FA^I] adj. 长满粗毛的,有粗毛的
17. game theory:博弈论,对策论
18. beast [bi:st] n. 兽性,野兽
19. 此处指美国南卡罗来纳州的州长马克·桑福德(Mark Sanford),他于2009年6月“神秘失踪”近一周后,于6月24日出现在亚特兰大国际机场。在媒体的追问下,他被迫承认自己过去的一周是在阿根廷密会情人。
20. chuck it:甩手不干,认输;停止
21. 此处指墨西哥湾;2010年 4月20日,位于美国路易斯安那州威尼斯东南约82公里处海面的一座由英国石油公司租赁的钻井平台爆炸起火,随后沉入墨西哥湾。平台底部油井自4月24日起漏油不止,造成大面积污染。
22. go-go [5^Eu7^Eu] adj. (投资)投机性的
23. intoxicate [In5tCksIkeIt] vt. 使陶醉,醉人
24. Kobe Bryant:科比·布莱恩特(1978～),美国职业篮球运动员,自1996年起效力于NBA洛杉矶湖人队。
25. bemusement [bI5mju:zment] n. 沉思
26. Detroit Tigers:底特律老虎队,隶属于美国职棒大联盟的球队之一,主场位于密歇根州(Michigan)的底特律(Detroit)。
27. Armando Galarraga:阿曼多·加拉拉加(1982～),美国职棒大联盟底特律老虎队的投手
28. come by:得到,获得
29. emanate [5emEneIt] vi. 发源,发出
30. heft [heft] n. 重量,分量
31. upheaval [Qp5hi:vEl] n. 剧变
32. liturgy [5lItEdVI] n. (英国国教的)祈祷书
33. cloister [5klCIstE] n. 隐居地,修道院
34. hewer [5hju:E] n. 砍伐者