雙語對照 ● Universities and Their Function　大學(xué)的意義

Universities and Their Function　大學(xué)的意義

◎ Alfred North Whitehead

The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest of life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. The university imparts information, but it imparts it imaginatively. At least, this is the function which it should perform for society. A university which fails in this respect has no reason for existence. This atmosphere of excitement, arising from imaginative consideration, transforms knowledge. A fact is no longer a bare fact: it is invested with all its possibilities. It is no longer a burden on the memory: it is energizing as the poet of our dreams, and as the architect[61]of our purposes.

大學(xué)存在的理由在于它讓新老兩代人在想象中學(xué)習(xí)，從而讓知識和生活的熱情連結(jié)起來。大學(xué)是傳授知識的，但它是以一種富有想象力的方式進(jìn)行傳授。至少，這是它應(yīng)該為社會發(fā)揮的作用。一所大學(xué)若連這點(diǎn)都無法做到，那它就毫無存在的理由。一個富于想象的人很容易感到興奮激動，從而使知識得以徹底轉(zhuǎn)化。事實(shí)也遠(yuǎn)非事實(shí)本身，它具有了所有潛在的可能。它不再是記憶的負(fù)擔(dān)，而是像描繪我們美夢的詩人和實(shí)現(xiàn)我們心愿的設(shè)計師那樣充滿活力。

Imagination is not to be divorced from the facts: it is a way of illuminating[62]the facts. It works by drawing the general principles which apply to the facts, as they exist, and then by an intellectual survey of alternative possibilities which are consistent with those principles. It enables men to construct an intellectual vision of a new world, and it preserves the zest of life by the suggestion of satisfying purposes.

想象與事實(shí)不可分離：是它讓事實(shí)變得鮮明。它讓人們獲得與存在的事實(shí)相一致的一般原則，讓人們能夠理性地審視那些和一般原則相一致的各種可能性。它讓人們構(gòu)建出一個關(guān)于新世界的理性視覺。它用一些令人滿意的方法讓生活的激情得以持續(xù)。

Youth is imaginative, and if the imagination be strengthened by discipline this energy of imagination can in great measure be preserved through life. The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience, and those who are experienced have feeble[63] imaginations. Fools act on imagination without knowledge; pedants act on knowledge without imagination. The task of a university is to weld together imagination and experience.

青年是富有想象力的。假使加強(qiáng)想象的訓(xùn)練，那么它就能在生活中得以完好地保存。這個世界的悲劇在于：那些富有想象力的人卻經(jīng)驗不足，而那些富有經(jīng)驗的人卻缺乏想象。沒有知識的傻瓜全憑想象辦事，沒有想象力的書呆子則只憑知識辦事。大學(xué)的任務(wù)就是讓想象和經(jīng)驗結(jié)合在一起。

美麗語錄

A soul without imagination is like an observatory without the telescope.

沒有想象力的靈魂，就像沒有望遠(yuǎn)鏡的天文臺。

超多雙語閱讀，盡在聽力課堂