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We generally think that philosophers should be proud of their big brains, and be fans of thinking
我們通常認為哲學家應該非常自豪於自己的聰明, 而且熱愛反思和理性分析
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self-reflection and rational analysis. But there's one philosopher, born in France in 1533, who had a refreshingly different take.
但有一位哲學家,1533年生於法國, 對此有令人耳目一新的不同看法。
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Michel de Montaigne was an intellectual who spent his writing life
米歇爾·德·蒙田,作為知識分子, 他一生的寫作都在揶揄知識分子的傲慢
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knocking the arrogance of intellectuals. In his great masterpiece, the 'Essays', he comes across as relentlessly wise and intelligent
在他傑出的著作《隨筆集》中,他展現出極端的聰明,
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— but also as constantly modest and keen to debunk the pretensions of learning. Not least, he's extremely funny,
但也同時保持謙遜,並熱切地揭穿學習的虛偽。
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reminding his readers: 'to learn that we have said or done a stupid thing is nothing, we must learn a more
除此之外,他非常逗趣,提醒讀者:
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ample and important lesson: that we are but blockheads... (or, as he put it) On the highest throne in the world,
「知道自己說過或做過什麼蠢事實在沒什麼大不了,
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we are seated, still, upon our arses.'
我們還必須學習更廣泛、更重要的一課 -- 我們不過是個蠢蛋。」
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Montaigne was a child of the Renaissance and the ancient philosophers popular in Montaigne's day
或者就像他說的:「即使在世界上最位高權重的王位, 我們依然只是坐在自己的屁股上。」
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believed that our powers of reason could afford us a happiness and greatness denied to other creatures.
蒙田身在文藝復興時代, 而在蒙田那時代受到歡迎的古典哲學家
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Reason was a sophisticated, almost divine, tool offering us mastery over the world and ourselves.
普遍相信人類的理性力量能使我們快樂、偉大, 這是其他的生物無法企及的
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That was the line taken by philosophers like Cicero.
「理性」是最精緻、甚至神聖的力量, 讓我們得以主導世界、主導自己 --
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But this characterization of human reason enraged Montaigne. After hanging out with academics and philosophers, he wrote,
-- 這是像西賽羅那樣的哲學家的觀點。
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"In practice, thousands of little women in their villages have lived more gentle, more equable and more constant lives than [Cicero].
然而,這種對人類理性的描述激怒了蒙田
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His point wasn't that human beings can't reason at all,
在接觸過非常多學術界人士和哲學家之後,他寫道:
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simply that they tend to be far too arrogant about the limits of their brains. As he wrote,
「事實上,成千上萬生活在村莊裡的小婦人 都比西賽羅過得還祥和、平靜、而忠誠。」
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"Our life consists partly in madness, partly in wisdom. Whoever writes about it merely respectfully and by rule leaves more than half of it behind."
他並不是完全否定人類的理性, 而是人類太過傲慢而未能認清大腦的侷限
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Perhaps the most obvious example of our madness is the struggle of living within a human body.
就如同他寫的: 「我們的生命一半是瘋狂,一半是智慧;
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Our bodies smell, ache, sag, pulse, throb and age (whatever the desires of our minds).
任何人若只是帶著敬意描述它, 即是將一半以上的生命略去不談。」
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Montaigne was the world's first and possibly only philosopher
也許我們的瘋狂最明顯的例子, 就是活在人類肉體內的各種掙扎,
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to talk at length about impotence, which seemed to him a prime example of how crazy and fragile our minds are.
無論我們的大腦希望如何, 我們的肉體仍會有氣味、會疼痛、下垂、脈動、老去。
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Montaigne had a friend
蒙田是有史以來第一個、也許是唯一一個 討論「性無能」的哲學家 --
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who'd grown impotent with a woman he particularly liked.
-- 對他而言,這是顯示出我們的大腦 有多瘋狂和脆弱的主要例子
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Montaigne didn't blame the penis. The problem was the mind, the oppressive notion that we had complete control over our bodies, and the horror of
蒙田的一位朋友在他特別心愛的女人面前不舉,
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departing from this theoretical normality. The solution, Montaigne said, was to redraw our sense of what's normal.
蒙田認為這不是陰莖的錯;問題出在大腦 --
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By accepting a loss of command over the penis as a harmless common possibility in lovemaking
-- 在於那個壓迫性的認知, 認為我們可以完全掌控自己的肉體,
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one could preempt its occurrence — as the stricken man eventually discovered. In bed with a woman, he learnt to,
並且恐懼於自己偏離這個理論上的「正常」。
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"Admit beforehand that he was subject to this infirmity and spoke openly about it,
而解決的辦法,蒙田表示,是重新界定何謂「正常」
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so relieving the tensions within his soul. By bearing the malady as something to be expected,
如果放棄對陰莖的控制,並接受不舉是 做愛時一個正常的可能,就能預測它的發生,
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his sense of constriction grew less and weighed less heavily upon him."
就像那位大受打擊的朋友終於發現的。
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Montaigne's frankness allows the tensions in the reader's own soul to be relieved.
當和女人上床時,他學會事先承認自己的缺陷,
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A man who failed with his girlfriend could regain his forces
並且坦誠地討論此事,因而舒緩了他靈魂深處的壓力。
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and soothe the anxieties of his beloved by accepting that his impotence belonged to a broad realm of sexual mishaps, neither very rare nor very peculiar.
一旦承認這個缺陷是可能發生的, 這件事的束縛感就會減輕。
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Montaigne was equally frank about limitations of his intellect (and of its usefulness).
蒙田坦然的態度讓讀者靈魂深處的緊張得以舒緩,
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Academia was deeply prestigious in Montaigne's day, as in our own.
當男人無法滿足女友,可以從這樣的說法中重獲力量, 並以此舒緩他的愛人的焦慮,
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Yet, although Montaigne was an excellent scholar, he hated pedantry in academia.
接受他的性無能是一種廣泛發生的性缺陷, 既不罕見、也並非異常。
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He only wanted to learn things that were useful and relentlessly attacked academics for being out of touch.
蒙田對於智識的侷限也同樣坦率, 並且懷疑智識是否有用
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"If man were wise, he would gauge the true worth of anything by its usefulness and appropriateness to his life," he said.
蒙田那時代的學術界充滿優越感 -- 我們這時代亦然
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Only that which makes us feel better maybe worth understanding.
然而,儘管蒙田是個傑出的學者, 他非常厭惡學術圈的學究氣息
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In this vein, Montaigne mocked books that were difficult to read.
他只想學習有用的事物, 並無情地抨擊學術圈的不切實際。
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He admitted to his readers that he found Plato more than a little boring — and that he just wanted to have fun with books:
蒙田認為:「一個人如果聰明,就會根據事物對其 人生的用處和適切性來衡量其真正價值。」
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"I'm not prepared to bash my brains out for anything, not even for learning's sake however precious it may be.
只有那些能讓我們感覺更良好的事物值得了解。
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From books all I seek is to get myself some pleasure by an honorable pastime...
在這個脈絡下,蒙田嘲笑那些難以閱讀的書籍,
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If I come across some difficult passages in my reading
他向讀者承認,他覺得閱讀柏拉圖有點無聊; 他只想要從書中尋找樂趣。
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I don't bite my nails over them: after making a charge or two I let them be... If one book tires me
「我不打算為任何事物絞盡腦汁, 即使是為了學習,無論它有多珍貴。
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I just take up another." He could be pretty caustic about incomprehensible philosophers.
我想從書本中尋求的,僅只是 擁有一段美好時光讓自己愉快;
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"Difficulty is a coin which the learned conjure with so as not to reveal the vanity of their studies
如果在閱讀時遇到困難的段落, 我不會為此鑽牛角尖,
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and which human stupidity is keen to accept in payment."
在嘗試了一兩次之後,我就讓它去了; 如果有本書讓我覺得疲憊,我就換另外一本。」
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Montaigne observed how an intimidating scholarly culture
他對於那些令人難以理解的哲學家非常尖酸刻薄,
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has made all of us study other people's books way before we study our own minds. And yet, as he put it:
「艱澀是學者用來變把戲的銅板,目的是 為了避免洩漏他們徒勞無功的研究,
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"We are richer than we think, each one of us."
而人類的愚蠢則對它熱切地照單全收。」
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Montaigne is refreshing because he describes a life
蒙田觀察到,恫嚇式的學術文化,如何讓我們在 學習自己的思想以前,急於學習他人的書,
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which is recognizably like our own and yet inspiring still — he is a very human ideal.
然而就如同他說的:「我們比自己以為的 還要更豐富,每一個人都是如此。」
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We may all arrived at wise ideas if we cease to think of ourselves
蒙田讓人耳目一新,因為他所描述的生活, 我們能認得這就像是我們真正的生活,
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as unsuited to the task just because we aren't two thousand years old, or aren't interested in the topics of Plato's dialogues or have a so-called ordinary life.
但仍然充滿洞見、鼓舞人心 -- 他是個非常人性化的理想型。
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Montaigne reassures us: "You can attach the whole of moral philosophy to a commonplace private life
我們都可能擁有充滿智慧的思想, 只要我們不再認為自己無法這麼做 --
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just as well as to one with richer stuff."
-- 只因為我們不是兩千歲,或對柏拉圖對話錄中 的主題不感興趣,或只擁有所謂的平凡生活
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In Montaigne's redrawn portrait of the adequate, semi-rational human being, it's possible to speak no Greek
蒙田向我們保證:「你可以將整套道德哲學應用 在平凡的私人生活中,就如同應用在不平凡的生活。」
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change one's mind after a meal, get bored with a book, be impotent and know pretty much none of the Ancient philosophers.
蒙田重新描述的貼切的、半理性人類的樣貌,
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A virtuous ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough.
可以不談論古希臘、在一頓飯的時間內改變主意、 覺得書本很無聊、性無能、不太了解古典哲學家 --
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Montaigne remains the great, readable intellectual with whom we can laugh at intellectuals
有德性的平凡生活、追求智慧、但未曾遠離蠢事, 已經是足夠了不起的成就。
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and pretensions of many kinds. He was a breath of fresh air in the cloistered, unworldly,
蒙田是位偉大、簡單易讀的知識份子, 我們可以跟他一起嘲笑知識份子和各種虛偽。
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snobbish corridors of the academia of the 16th century — and because academia has, sadly,
在16世紀學術圈那不切實際又充滿勢利眼的象牙塔裡, 蒙田是一股清流,
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not changed very much, he continues to be an inspiration and a solace to all of us who feel routinely
而因為學術圈 -- 可悲的-- 至今並未有太多轉變, 蒙田持續地成為我們的鼓舞和慰藉
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oppressed and patronized by the pedantry and arrogance of so-called clever people.
-- 對於所有覺得自己日復一日地被那些充滿學究氣的、 傲慢的、所謂的「聰明人」壓迫和指導的人們而言。