我们这些总有一死的人的命运是多么奇特呀!我们每个人在这个世界上都只作一个短
暂的逗留:目的何在,却无所知,尽管有时自以为对此若有所感。但是,不必深思,
只要从日常生活就可以明白:人是为别人而生存的──首先是为那样一些人,他们
的喜悦和健康关系著我们自己的全部幸福;然后是为许多我们所不认识的人,他们
的命运通过同情的纽带同我们密切结合在一起。我每天上百次地提醒自己:我的精
神生活和物质生活都依靠著别人(包括生者和死者)的劳动,我必须尽力以同样的
分量来报偿我所领受了的和至今还在领受著的东西。我强烈地向往著俭朴的生活。
并且时常为发觉自己占用了同胞的过多劳动而难以忍受。我认为阶级的区分是不合
理的,它最后所凭借的是以暴力为根据。我也相信,简单淳朴的生活,无论在身体
上还是在精神上,对每个人都是有益的。
我完全不相信人类会有那种在哲学意义上的自由。每一个人的行为,不仅受著外界
的强迫,而且还要适应内心的必然。叔本华说:“人虽然能够做他所想做的,但不
能要他所想要的。”这句话从我青年时代起,就对我是一个真正的启示;在我自己
和别人生活面临困难的时候,它总是使我们得到安慰,并且永远是宽容的泉源。这
种体会可以宽大为怀地减轻那种容易使人气馁的责任感,也可以防止我们过于严肃
地对待自己和别人;它还导致一种特别给幽默以应有地位的人生观。
要追究一个人自己或一切生物生存的意义或目的,从客观的观点看来,我总觉得是
愚蠢可笑的。可是每个人都有一定的理想,这种理想决定著他的努力和判断的方向。
就在这个意义上,我从来不把安逸和享乐看作是生活目的本身──这种伦理基础,
我叫它猪栏的理想。照亮我的道路,并且不断地给我新的勇气去愉快地正视生活的
理想,是善、美和真。要是没有志同道合者之间的亲切感情,要不是全神贯注于客
观世界──那个在艺术和科学工作领域里永远达不到的对象,那末在我看来,生活
就会是空虚的。人们所努力追求的庸俗的目标──财产、虚荣、奢侈的生活──我
总觉得都是可鄙的。
我对社会正义和社会责任的强烈感觉,同我显然的对别人和社会直接接触的淡漠,
两者总是形成古怪的对照。我实在是一个“孤独的旅客”,我未曾全心全意地属于
我的国家,我的家庭,我的朋友,甚至我最接近的亲人;在所有这些关系面前,我
总是感觉到有一定距离并且需要保持孤独──而这种感受正与年俱增。人们会清楚
地发觉,同别人的相互了解和协调一致是有限度的,但这不足惋惜。这样的人无疑
有点失去他的天真无邪和无忧无虑的心境;但另一方面,他却能够在很大程度上不
为别人的意见、习惯和判断所左右,并且能够不受诱惑要去把他的内心平衡建立在
这样一些不可靠的基础之上。
我的政治理想是民主主义。让每一个人都作为个人而受到尊重,而不让任何人成为
崇拜的偶像。我自己受到了人们过分的赞扬和尊敬,这不是由于我自己的过错,也
不是由于我自己的功劳,而实在是一种命运的嘲弄。其原因大概在于人们有一种愿
望,想理解我以自己的微薄绵力通过不断的斗争所获得的少数几个观念,而这种愿
望有很多人却未能实现。我完全明白,一个组织要实现它的目的,就必须有一个人
去思考,去指挥,并且全面担负起责任来。但是被领导的人不应当受到强迫,他们
必须有可能来选择自己的领袖。在我看来,强迫的专制制度很快就会腐化堕落。因
为暴力所招引来的总是一些品德低劣的人,而且我相信,天才的暴君总是由无赖来
继承,这是一条千古不易的规律。就是这个缘故,我总是强烈地反对今天我们在意
大利和俄国所见到的那种制度。像欧洲今天所存在的情况,使得民主形势受到了怀
疑,这不能归咎于民主原则本身,而是由于政府的不稳定和选举制度中与个人无关
的特征。我相信美国在这方面已经找到了正确的道路。他们选出了一个任期足够长
的总统,他有充分的权力来真正履行他的职责。另一方面,在德国的政治制度中,
我所重视的是,它为救济患病或贫困的人作出了比较广泛的规定。在人生的丰富多
彩的表演中,我觉得真正可贵的,不是政治上的国家,而是有创造性的,有感情的
个人,是人格;只有个人才能创造出高尚的和卓越的东西,而群众本身在思想上总
是迟钝的,在感觉上也总是迟钝的。
讲到这里,我想起了群众生活中最坏的一种表现,那就是使我厌恶的军事制度。一
个人能够洋洋得意地随著军乐队在四列纵队里行进,单凭这一点就足以使我对他轻
视。他所以长了一个大脑,只是出于误会;单单一根脊髓就可满足他的全部需要了。
文明国家的这种罪恶的渊薮,应当尽快加以消灭。由命令而产生的勇敢行为,毫无
意义的暴行,以及在爱国主义名义下一切可恶的胡闹,所有这些都使我深恶痛绝,
在我看来,战争是多么卑鄙、下流!我宁愿被千刀万剐,也不愿参预这种可憎的勾
当。尽管如此,我对人类的评价还是十分高的,我相信,要是人民的健康感情没有
被那些通过学校和报纸而起作用的商业利益和政治利益蓄意进行败坏,那末战争这
个妖魔早就该绝迹了。
我们所能有的最美好的经验是奥秘的经验。它是坚守在真正艺术和真正科学发源地
上的基本感情。谁要是体验不到它,谁要是不再有好奇心也不再有惊讶的感觉,他
就无异于行尸走肉,他的眼睛是迷糊不清的。就是这样奥秘的经验──虽然掺杂著
恐怖──产生了宗教。我们认识到有某种为我们所不能洞察的东西存在,感觉到那
种只能以其最原始的形式为我们感受到的最深奥的理性和最灿烂的美──正是这种
认识和这种情感构成了真正的宗教感情;在这个意义上,而且也只是在这个意义上,
我才是一个具有深挚的宗教感情的人。我无法想像一个会对自己的创造物加以赏罚
的上帝,也无法想像它会有像在我们自己身上所体验到的那样一种意志。我不能也
不愿去想像一个人在肉体死亡以后还会继续活著;让那些脆弱的灵魂,由于恐惧或
者由于可笑的唯我论,去拿这种思想当宝贝吧!我自己只求满足于生命永恒的奥秘,
满足于觉察现存世界的神奇的结构,窥见它的一鳞半爪,并且以诚挚的努力去领悟
在自然界中显示出来的那个理性的一部分,即使只是其极小的一部分,我也就心满
意足了。 (许良英 译)
- Re: 我的信仰 (爱因斯坦)posted on 06/06/2005
nice. would be even better if adagio could cite the original text. - Re: 我的信仰 (爱因斯坦)posted on 06/07/2005
I can't. I have a book of Einstein's Autobiographical Notes but this article wasn't in there, though the notes have expressed same view. Maybe someone can google it out. - Re: 我的信仰 (爱因斯坦)posted on 06/07/2005
adagio wrote:
I can't. I have a book of Einstein's Autobiographical Notes but this article wasn't in there, though the notes have expressed same view. Maybe someone can google it out.
没准是译者自己编纂的呢。所以当年主席就天天吵着要学德文。学德文干什么?读马列原著。极左好斗之外,还要加上原教旨主义。幸好没学成,要不然更麻烦了。 - posted on 09/08/2005
下面是爱因斯坦论自己的哲学思想的短文(英文全文),来自 Living Philosophies, New York: Simon Schuster, 1931,也就是网上流行的一篇文章(爱因斯坦的)《我的信仰》(或名《我的世界观》)英文本脚注里指明的出处。《我》文依据的英文也附在后面。很明显,《我》文与此篇相像但是很不相同。鉴于《我》文常被人用来“证明”爱因斯坦“也相信上帝”,我把原文引在这里,不是跟阿达玖作对啊。
Einstein, Albert in Living Philosophies Simon and Schuster, New York 1931
Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.
From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men —above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellowmen, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing sense that I have borrowed too heavily from the work of other men.
I do not believe we can have any freedom at all in the philosophical sense, for we act not only under external compulsion but also by inner necessity. Schopenhauer’s saying— “A man can surely do what he wills to do, but he cannot determine what he wills”—impressed itself upon me in youth and has always consoled me when I have witnessed or suffered life’s hardships. This conviction is a perpetual breeder of tolerance, for it does not allow us to take ourselves or others too seriously; it makes rather for a sense of humor.
To ponder interminably over the reason for one’s own existence or the meaning of life in general seems to me, from an objective point of view, to be sheer folly. And yet everyone holds certain ideals by which he guides his aspiration and his judgment. The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.
Without the sense of collaborating with like-minded beings in the pursuit of the ever unattainable in art and scientific research, my life would have been empty. Ever since childhood I have scorned the commonplace limits so often set upon human ambition. Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury—to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.
My passionate interest in social justice and social responsibility has always stood in curious contrast to a marked lack of desire for direct association with men and women. I am a horse for single harness, not cut out for tandem or team work. I have never belonged wholeheartedly to country or state, to my circle of friends, or even to my own family. These ties have always been accompanied by a vague aloofness, and the wish to withdraw into myself increases with the years.
Such isolation is sometimes bitter, but I do not regret being cut off from the understanding and sympathy of other men. I lose something by it, to be sure, but I am compensated for it in being rendered independent of the customs, opinions, and prejudices of others, and am not tempted to rest my peace of mind upon such shifting foundations.
My political ideal is democracy. Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized. It is an irony of fate that I should have been showered with so much uncalled for and unmerited admiration and esteem. Perhaps this adulation springs from the unfulfilled wish of the multitude to comprehend the few ideas which I, with my weak powers, have advanced.
Full well do I know that in order to attain any definite goal it is imperative that one person should do the thinking and commanding and carry most of the responsibility. But those who are led should not be driven, and they should be allowed to choose their leader.
It seems to me that the distinctions separating the social classes are false; in the last analysis they rest on force. I am convinced that degeneracy follows every autocratic system of violence, for violence inevitably attracts moral inferiors. Time has proved that illustrious tyrants are succeeded by scoundrels.
For this reason I have always been passionately opposed to such regimes as exist in Russia and Italy today. The thing which has discredited the European forms of democracy is not the basic theory of democracy itself, which some say is at fault, but the instability of our political leadership, as well as the impersonal character of party alignments.
I believe that those in the United States have hit upon the right idea. A President is chosen for a reasonable length of time and enough power is given him to acquit himself properly of his responsibilities. In the German Government, on the other hand, I like the state’s more extensive care of the individual when he is ill or unemployed. What is truly valuable in our bustle of life is not the nation, I should say, but the creative and impressionable individuality, the personality —he who produces the noble and sublime while the common herd remains dull in thought and insensible in feeling.
This subject brings me to that vilest offspring of the herd mind—the odious militia. The man who enjoys marching in line and file to the strains of music falls below my contempt; he received his great brain by mistake—the spinal cord would have been amply sufficient. This heroism at command, this senseless violence, this accursed bombast of patriotism—how intensely I despise them! War is low and despicable, and I had rather be smitten to shreds than participate in such doings.
Such a stain on humanity should be erased without delay. I think well enough of human nature to believe that it would have been wiped out long ago had not the common sense of nations been systematically corrupted through school and press for business and political reasons.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. This insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms— this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong in the ranks of devoutly religious men.
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own—a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism.
It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive, and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in nature.
。。。。。。。
下面是《我的世界观》的英文
The World As I See It
An Essay By Einstein
"How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...
"I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.
"My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude..."
"My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.
"This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!
"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."
************************************
* The text of Albert Einstein's essay, "The World As I See It," was shortened for our web exhibition. The essay was originally published in "Forum and Century," vol. 84, pp. 193-194, the thirteenth in the Forum series, Living Philosophies. It is also included in Living Philosophies (pp. 3-7) New York: Simon Schuster, 1931. For a more recent source, you can also find a copy of it in A. Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, based on Mein Weltbild, edited by Carl Seelig, New York: Bonzana Books, 1954 (pp. 8-11). - Re: 我的信仰 (爱因斯坦)posted on 09/08/2005
两篇英文一比,高下立判。我认为后一篇是赝品。我见到过尚能饭老兄翻译的“正本”头几句,甚好。 - Re: 我的信仰 (爱因斯坦)posted on 09/09/2005
adagio不要生气啊。:-)
我知道你是看在译文署名某人的面子上相信了这篇文章。让我觉得不对的是
1)文风太花哨,不像科学家的;
2)用了mortal 等相应于 immortal 的词,而爱氏是不相信 immortal 的。
- Re: 我的信仰 (爱因斯坦)posted on 09/09/2005
啊?我会生气?老兄定是受了笨笨那妞的蛊惑,以为我是那种怒发冲冠之辈(她还指着被我虐待呢,呵呵)老朽的和蔼可亲平易近人是有口皆碑地,哈哈哈
你转的文章,待俺读了再作评论 - Re: 我的信仰 (爱因斯坦)posted on 09/09/2005
两篇英文,第一篇的叙述更简洁优美些,不知爱氏的原作是德文还是英文?若是英文,我的直觉认为第一篇应是他所写。许良英的中译也无大误,晓畅华美。
不懂为何有人凭这篇就认定爱氏信神?在两篇英文版和一篇中文版里都说得清清楚楚,“在这个意义上,也只有在这个意义上,我才可算得上有宗教情怀的”。
又,这句,I am convinced that degeneracy follows every autocratic system of violence, for violence inevitably attracts moral inferiors. 让我叹服,老爱何以知道今天中国的情形?:) - posted on 09/09/2005
Einstein wrote this piece in English for this collection (there is also a piece by 胡适, the only Asian, in the same collection).
You can just compare the last paragraphs to see how the original statements were re-phrased to emphasize "mysterious", "emotion", "sense", "religiosity", "Reason", and the removal of the direct reference to God to see how the person who re-wrote the essay (in the disguise of shortening) to make it more ambiguous to interpret:
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. This insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms— this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong in the ranks of devoutly religious men.
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own—a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism.
It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive, and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in nature.
。。。。。。。
"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."
- Re: 我的信仰 (爱因斯坦)posted on 09/09/2005
是了,我才注意到中文那篇没有I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation那段,以及开首那句“我们这些终有一死的人 。。。”,可见是由改写的那篇英文译的。八兄好眼力!那改写老爱原稿的家伙可谓别有用心啊。:)
老爱被斩的这段让我想起雪莱的《论基督教》,一样精彩。又可见卓越的头脑产生相似的思想。
他们对基督教的看法甚合我意。微斯人,吾谁与归?哈哈哈
- Re: 我的信仰 (爱因斯坦)posted on 09/09/2005
In fact I glanced over Xu's translation one more time and it does have that reference to God. So the translation is accurate overall, though the title is misleading. - posted on 09/09/2005
adagio wrote:
两篇英文,第一篇的叙述更简洁优美些,不知爱氏的原作是德文还是英文?若是英文,我的直觉认为第一篇应是他所写。许良英的中译也无大误,晓畅华美。
爱因斯坦不很通英文,尤其是写这篇的时候。
不懂为何有人凭这篇就认定爱氏信神?在两篇英文版和一篇中文版里都说得清清楚楚,“在这个意义上,也只有在这个意义上,我才可算得上有宗教情怀的”。
不过爱氏说话也有许多前言不对后语的情形,能否有人给谈谈他的犹
太复国主义情节?
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