伯特兰·罗素《弗兰西斯·培根》(中英文互译)
伯特兰·阿瑟·威廉·罗素(Bertrand Arthur William Russell,1872—1970),英国哲学家、数学家、逻辑学家、历史学家、文学家,分析哲学的主要创始人,世界和平运动的倡导者和组织者,主要作品有《西方哲学史》《哲学问题》《心的分析》《物的分析》等。罗素不仅在哲学、逻辑和数学上成就显著,在教育学、社会学、政治学和文学等许多领域也都颇有建树。
Francis Bacon
弗兰西斯·培根
FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626), although his philosophy is in many ways unsatisfactory, has permanent importance as the founder of modern inductive method and the pioneer in the attempt at logical systematization of scientic procedure. ...
弗兰西斯·培根(1561—1626)是近代归纳法的创始人,又是给科学研究程序进行逻辑组织
化的先驱,所以尽管他的哲学有许多地方欠圆满,他仍旧占有永久不倒的重要地位。……
Bacon's most important book, The Advancement of Learning, is in many ways remarkably modern. He is commonly regarded as the originator of the saying "Knowledge is power," and though he may have had predecessors who said the same thing, he said it with new emphasis. The whole basis of his philosophy was practical: to give mankind mastery over the forces of nature by means of scientific discoveries and inventions. He held that philosophy should be kept separate from theology, not intimately blended with it as in scholasticism. He accepted orthodox religion; he was not the man to quarrel with the government on such a matter. But while he thought that reason could show the existence of God, he regarded everything else in theology as known only by revelation. Indeed he held that the triumph of faith is greatest when to the unaided reason a dogma appears most absurd. Philosophy, however, should depend only upon reason. He was thus an advocate of the doctrine of "double truth," that of reason and that of revelation. This doctrine had been preached by certain Averroists in the thirteenth century, but accepted什么意思中文
had been condemned by the Church. The "triumph of faith" was, for the orthodox, a dangerous device. Bayle, in the late seventeenth century, made ironical use of it, setting forth at great length all that reason could say against some orthodox belief, and then concluding "so much the greater is the triumph of faith in nevertheless believing." How far Bacon's orthodoxy was sincere it is impossible to know.
培根的最重要的著作《崇学论》在许多点上带显著的近代彩。一般认为他是“知识就是力量”这句格言的创造者;虽然以前讲过同样话的也许还有人在,他却从新的着重点来讲这格言。培根哲学的全部基础是实用性的,就是借助科学发现与发明使人类能制驭自然力量。他主张哲学应当和神学分离,不可像经院哲学那样与神学紧密糅杂在一起。培根信正统宗教;他并非在此种问题上跟政府闹争执的那样人。但是,他虽然以为理性能够证明神存在,他把神学中其他一切都看作仅凭启示认识的。的确,他倒主张如果在没有启示协助的理性看来,某个教理显得极荒谬,这时候信仰胜利最伟大。然而哲学应当只依靠理性。所以他是理性真理与启示真理“二重真理”论的拥护者。这种理论在十三世纪时有一些阿威罗伊派人曾经倡说过,但是受到了教会谴责。“信仰胜利”对正统信徒讲来是一句危险的箴言。十七世纪晚期,贝勒曾以讽刺口吻使用这箴言,他详细缕述了理性对某个正统信仰所
能讲的一切反对话,然后作结论说:“尽管如此仍旧信仰,这信仰胜利越发伟大。”至于培根的正统信仰真诚到什么程度,那就无从知道了。
Bacon was the first of the long line of scientifically minded philosophers who have emphasized the importance of induction as opposed to deduction. Like most of his successors, he tried to find some better kind of induction than what is called "induction by simple enumeration." Induction by simple enumeration may be illustrated by a parable. There was once upon a time a census officer who had to record the names of all householders in a certain Welsh village. The first that he questioned was called William Williams; so were the second, third, fourth, ... At last he said to himself: "This is tedious; evidently they are all called William Williams. I shall put them down so and take a holiday." But he was wrong; there was just one whose name was John Jones. This shows that we may go astray if we trust too implicitly in induction by simple enumeration.
历来有多少哲学家强调演绎的相反一面即归纳的重要性,在这类禀有科学气质的哲学家漫
长的世系中,培根是第一人。培根也如同大多数的后继者,力图出优于所谓“单纯枚举归纳”的某种归纳。单纯枚举归纳可以借一个寓言作实例来说明。昔日有一位户籍官须记录下威尔士某个村庄里全体户主的姓名。他询问的第一个户主叫威廉·威廉斯;第二个户主、第三个、第四个……也叫这名字;最后他自己说:“这可腻了!他们显然都叫威廉·威廉斯。我来把他们照这登上,休个假。”可是他错了;单单有一位名字叫约翰·琼斯的。这表示假如过于无条件地信赖单纯枚举归纳,可能走上岔路。
Bacon believed that he had a method by which induction could be made something better than this. He wished, for example, to discover the nature of heat, which he supposed (rightly) to consist of rapid irregular motions of the small parts of bodies. His method was to make lists of hot bodies, lists of cold bodies, and lists of bodies of varying degrees of heat. He hoped that these lists would show some characteristic always present in hot bodies and absent in cold bodies, and present in varying degrees in bodies of different degress of heat. By this method he expected to arrive at general laws, having, in the first instance, the lowest degree of generality. From a number of such laws he hoped to reach laws of the second de
gree of generality, and so on. A suggested law should be tested by being applied in new circumstances; if it worked in these circumstances it was to that extent confirmed. Some instances are specially valuable because they enable us to decide between two theories, each possible so far as previous observations are concerned; such instances are called "prerogative" instances.
培根相信他有方法,能够把归纳作成一种比这要高明的东西。例如,他希图发现热的本质,据他设想(这想法正确)热是由物体的各个微小部分的快速不规则运动构成的。他的方法是作出各种热物体的一览表、各种冷物体的表,以及热度不定的物体的表。他希望这些表会显示出某种特性,在热物体总有,在冷物体总无,而在热度不定的物体有不定程度的出现。凭这方法,他指望得到初步先具有最低级普遍性的一般法则。由许多这种法则,他希望求出有二级普遍性的法则,等等依此类推。如此提出的法则必须用到新情况下加以检验;假如在新情况下也管用,在这个范围内便得到证实。某些事例让我们能够判定按以前的观察来讲均可能对的两个理论,所以特别有价值,这种事例称作“特权”事例。
Bacon not only despised the syllogism, but undervalued mathematics, presumably
as insufficiently experimental. He was virulently hostile to Aristotle, but thought very highly of Democritus. Although he did not deny that the course of nature exemplifies a Divine purpose, he objected to any admixture of teleological explanation in the actual investigation of phenomena; everything, he held, should be explained as following necessarily from efficient causes.
培根不仅瞧不起演绎推理,也轻视数学,大概以为数学的实验性差。他对亚里士多德怀着恶毒的敌意,但是给德满克里特非常高的评价。他虽然不否认自然万物的历程显示出神的意旨,却反对在实地研究各种现象当中掺杂丝毫目的论解释。他主张一切事情都必须解释成由致效因必然产生的结果。