友邻哲学旅人|友邻哲学旅人 E36 哲学的新工具(下)
2. THE NEW ORGANON
2.《新工具》
"Bacon's greatest performance," says his bitterest critic, "is the first book of the Novum Organum."
对培根批评最刻薄的一位评论家说:“培根最伟大的作品是《新工具》的第一卷。”
Never did a man put more life into logic, making induction an epic adventure and a conquest.
从来没有人能将如此强大的生命力注入逻辑学之中,他让归纳法成了史诗般的冒险与征服。
If one must study logic, let him begin with this book.
假如有人要学逻辑学,那应该从这本书入门。
"This part of human philosophy which regards logic is disagreeable to the taste of many, as appearing to them no other than a net, and a snare of thorny subtlety... But if we would rate things according to their real worth, the rational sciences are the keys to all the rest."
“许多人对哲学中有关逻辑的部分感到不耐烦,在他们眼中,那是一张束缚自由的网,一个诡异莫测的陷阱......但是,倘若我们以真正的价值来衡量,理性科学便是开启其他一切科学的钥匙。”
Philosophy has been barren so long, says Bacon, because she needed a new method to make her fertile.
培根说,哲学之所以贫瘠了那么久,就是因为缺少一种崭新方法让它重焕生机。
The great mistake of the Greek philosophers was that they spent so much time in theory, so little in observation.培根是为了强调观察。
希腊哲学家的致命缺点就是过于研究理论而忽视了观察。
培根其实高举的大旗打倒的是基督教框架下的亚里士多德大旗,从某些方面还是恢复了亚里士多德观察方面的东西,只不过亚里士多德时代工具的时代,没有办法观察到那么准确,但是他是做了观察的。
But thought should be the aide of observation, not its substitute.
但是思维应是观察的指引的,而不能替代观察。
"Man," says the first aphorism of the Novum Organum, as if flinging a challenge to all metaphysics,—"Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, does and understands as much as his observations on the order of nature... Permit him; and neither knows nor is capable of more."培根对形而上学是不太感冒的。
《新工具》的开篇箴言就对形而上学理论提出了挑战:“作为自然的仆从与解说者,所能做的和所能理解的取决于他观察自然秩序......所达到的程度;除此之外,他不可能了解或做得更多。”
The predecessors of Socrates were in this matter sounder than his followers; Democritus, in particular, had a nose for facts, rather than an eye for the clouds.
关于这一点,苏格拉底的前辈们与后来者有着更深切的认识;特别是德谟克里特,他追求的是事实而非长眼睛看云彩。
No wonder that philosophy has advanced so little since Aristotle's day; it has been using Aristotle's methods.
所以一点也不奇怪,亚里士多德之后哲学发展如此缓慢,就是因为它始终都在运用亚里士多德的方法。
"To go beyond Aristotle by the light of Aristotle is to think that a borrowed light can increase the original light from which it is taken."
“借亚里士多德的力去超越亚里士多德,就好象从光源中借一部分光来增强光源本身一样。”
Now, after two thousand years of logicchopping with the machinery invented by Aristotle, philosophy has fallen so low that none will do her reverence.
如今,我们用亚里士多德的方法论证了两千年,哲学甚至沦落到了为人所不齿的地步。
All these medieval theories, theorems and disputations must be cast out and forgotten; to renew herself philosophy must begin again with a clean slate and a cleansed mind.
所以,有必要把所有的中世纪学说、原理及辩论全都抛掉;哲学若想复兴,就一定要有一个新的开端。
The first step, therefore, is the Expurgation of the Intellect.
因此,首先要做的就是“思想上的净化”。
We must become as little children, innocent of isms and abstractions, washed clear of prejudices and preconceptions. We must destroy the Idols of the mind.创新学,培根很多时候和我们这个时代相通的。
我们要变成小孩子,脑海中没有主义与概念,处于无知状态,还要清扫出所有偏见与先入为主的观念,并摧毁心中的“偶像崇拜”。
怎么做创新?
创新就是反科学,就要把所有的科学都再来一遍,为什么有成体系的思考?因为我们从大量从无序数量当中找到有序性,再进行归类。但是从无序中找有序时,抛弃了很多无序数据,这些无序数据不意味真正没有次序,背后会有一些连续性,但是由于我们之前确定好的有序,我们把不符合我们的有序的垃圾数据就抛掉了,而这些数据背后其实是有意义和价值的。所以要回到原始无序状态去看待问题,,寻找最初的动力。
*佛家也将回归初心。
*Stay hungry, stay foolish.
语言点
bitterest: adj. 最尖刻的
induction: n. 归纳法
snare: n. 陷阱
thorny: adj. 棘手的,麻烦的
observation: n. 观察
aide: n. 辅助
aphorism: n. 格言
fling to: 投掷
logicchopping: n. 逻辑的切割
theorem: n. 公理
begin again with a clean slate: 重头再来,东山再起
Expurgation: n. 清洗
ism: n. 主义
abstraction: n. 抽象
【友邻哲学旅人|友邻哲学旅人 E36 哲学的新工具(下)】preconception: n. 先见
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