10-9 遥远的同时代人：伊曼纽尔·康德

Distant Contemporary :Immanuel Kant

 

A small man , a big mind: Immanuel Kant revolutionized philosophy, questioned established authorities and placed reason and freedom at the centre of his thinking .Kant died 200 years ago -- his ideas still point to the future .

 

As long as he lived, Immanuel Kant sought no honours. Even in his later years, when he was already acknowledged as one of Europe’s most outstanding thinkers, he found tributes of all kinds unpleasant. Although he possessed¹ a marked self-esteem, he found all “craving¹ for honour” repugnant². The great Kant was a modest man who humorously remarked that “great people only shine from afar” and that even a prince or a king loses a lot in front of his servant, “because no man is great.”

 

In time, Kant is far removed from us. He was born in Kaliningrad in 1724 and spent most of his life there, until he died on February 12, 1804. The 200th anniversary of his death provided an occasion to remember him: worldwide, from Berlin to Beijing and from Moscow to Auckland, commemorative³ events and congresses took place in his name.

 

Kant was an up-to-date thinker. He was really only interested in the problems of his time, which he thought through perceptively² and tried to solve in an original way. Kant was a man of his time who examined and applied³ his philosophical⁴ thought with a view to its relevance⁵⁴. He thus initiated⁶ the discourse⁷ of modernism, which was no longer grounded in a belief in tradition, but had to constantly reorient⁵ itself as a permanent and precarious⁸⁶ present.

 

In this respect, Kant is still relevant to us. For we are still coming to grips with those problematic situations in which the freedom-loving wise man from K- nigsberg developed his critical philosophy.

 

When his father, a master craftsman⁹, died in penury¹⁰⁷ in 1746 (his mother had died in 1737, when he was 13 years old), Kant worked as a private tutor in the eastern Prussian provinces for several years. He used that time to expand his knowledge of the natural sciences. Back in Kaliningrad, as a scientific publicist, he showed his readers how enlightened scientific knowledge functions. To do this, he carried on from that “laudable⁸ curiosity awakened¹² by anything that is unusual and which inclines to query¹³ its causes.” In 1755 he published his pioneering work Theory of the Heavens in which, with reference to Newton’ s mathematical natural science, he attempted to explain both the systematic¹⁴ structure and the natural history of the whole cosmos¹⁵⁹. “The starry¹⁶¹⁰ heavens above me” --that was Kant’s greatest love.

 

A researcher of man

 

The 30-year-old Kant had every reason to be proud of his knowledge of the natural sciences. Several years later, however, he recognized the trap into which he seemed to have fallen: his passionate¹⁷ love of scientific research had alienated¹¹ him from man. As a 40-year-old he completed a major turnabout: the researcher of nature became a researcher of man. He began to be more interested in people than in things, and from then on attempted to grasp the complicated features of the human species. In all his examinations of the human-all-too-human, the two focal points that were then to move to the centre of his critical philosophy were already evident. In 1781, he published his Critique of Pure Reason, which purported¹² to be a revolution in thought. Western culture had received a new philosophical basis. All traditional authorities were criticized, especially church leaders who tried to legitimate²⁰ their position with religious pseudo-knowledge, and state leaders who monitored their subjects as if they were their property.

 

In his Critique of Practical Reason of 1788 Kant elucidated¹³ the moral dimension of human action and volition²². Here too, his objective was to strengthen the autonomy¹⁴ of human activity from a moral viewpoint, which can neither be steered¹⁵ by or grounded in religious dogma¹⁶ and fundamental religious certainty, or legal regulations and state force. As a free human being, each person must learn to recognize and cultivate his morality in himself. “The moral law within me” was cherished in all its force and majesty²⁴¹⁷ against all outside influence. The only valid²⁵ guideline for moral self-assurance should be the famous and notorious “categorical imperative²⁶”: one should examine the subjective²⁷ guidelines for one’s actions as to whether they can serve as principles for a general law. For only that which can be morally generalized enables different individuals to live together harmoniously²⁸. That is the imperative for the “unsocial sociality” of modern man, who no longer has to, nor wants to, pray to a god or obey a leader.

 

The ageing Kant enthusiastically welcomed the American struggle for independence and the French Revolution. “Civil law constitutions” had been developed which he lauded¹⁸ as necessary prerequisites¹⁹ for a peaceful community of free men and states. There should finally be an end to the lawless “natural state” in which the wild and despotic freedom of the stronger repeatedly led to new hostilities³⁰. By contrast, a legal state of affairs was to be established in which the freedom of one person can exist together with the freedom of the other. Only then is that “eternal peace” conceivable for which the more than 70-year-old Kant wrote the philosophical agenda in 1795. He drafted the outlines for a constitutional law, an international law and global civil rights. He regarded the idea of a peaceful, if not necessarily friendly, community of peoples as a legal principle that was in agreement with the free and public use of reason by responsible citizens.

 

His philosophical draft Perpetual Peace was no idealistic pipe dream. As a realist, Kant regarded eternal peace as the ultimate goal of all international law merely as an impracticable idea. But he was optimistic enough to regard the political principles of a federal alliance of sovereign²⁰ states and enlightened people as feasible. In this respect too, the philosopher from Kaliningrad is our contemporary. His philosophy not only apparently³¹ shines as great from afar, it shines like the “pure gold of thought” which today seems to be more valuable than in Kant’ s own lifetime.

 

注释：

1. crave³² [kreiv] vi. 渴望

2. repugnant [ri5pQ^nEnt] a. 令人厌恶的，使人极度反感的

3. commemorative [kE5memErEtiv] a. 表示纪念的，用作纪念的

4. relevance [5relevEns] n. 意义，实用性

5.reorient [5ri:5C:rient] vt. 重定……的方向（或方位）

6. precarious [pri5kZEriEs] a. 不牢靠的，不稳的

7. penury [5penjuri] n. 拮据，贫穷

8. laudable [5lC:dEbl] a. 值得赞美的，值得称赞的

9. cosmos [5kCzmCs] n.（被视作和谐体系的）宇宙

10. starry [5stB:ri] a. 布满星星的，星光照耀的

11. alienate¹⁸ [5eiljEneit] vt. 使疏远，使不友好

12. purport¹⁹ [5pE:pEt] vt. 声称，自称

13. elucidate [i5lju:sideit] vt. 阐明，解释

14. autonomy [C:5tCnEmi] n. 人身自由，自主权

15. steer²³ [stiE] vt. 指导，引导

16. dogma [5dC^mE] n. 教义，教理，信条

17. majesty [5mAdVisti] n. 崇高，高贵

18. laud¹¹ [lC:d] vt. 赞美，称赞

19. prerequisite²⁹ [5pri:5rekwizit] n. 先决条件，前提

20. sovereign [5sCvrin] a. 具有独立主权的

 

遥远的同时代人：伊曼纽尔·康德

 

小个子，大才智：伊曼纽尔·康德掀起哲学革命，质疑公认的权威，将理想性和自由放在他思想的中心。康德于２００年前逝世――他的思想仍指向未来。

 

伊曼纽尔·康德一生不追求荣誉。即使到了晚年已被公认为欧洲最杰出的思想家之一，他还是讨厌任何赞扬。虽然他十分自尊，但厌恶一切“沽名钓誉”。伟大的康德是一个谦逊的人，他幽默地说，“伟人只有在远处才闪闪发光”，即使是王子或国王也会在自己的仆从面前大失颜面，“因为没有一个人是伟大的”。

在时间上，康德与我们相隔甚远。他1724年生于柯尼斯堡（今天的加里宁格勒），在那里度过了一生的绝大部分时光，直到于1804年2月12日逝世。逝世200周年纪念日正是缅怀他的大好时机：从柏林到北京，从莫斯科到奥克兰，世界各地都为他举办了纪念活动和会议。

康德是个思考最新问题的思想家。他只对他那个时代的问题感兴趣，他敏锐地观察，深入地思考，试图用独创的方式去解决它们。康德是一个紧跟时代的人，他从实用的角度来观察和运用他的哲学思想。他提出关于现代主义的论述，认为现代主义不再植根于传统信念，而是作为一种永恒的和不稳定的现在必须不断重新定位。

在这个方面，康德对我们仍然十分重要，因为我们仍然要对付令人困惑的处境，而这位来自柯尼斯堡的热爱自由的贤人正是在这种处境中发展他的批判哲学的。

康德的父亲是一位手工艺师傅，于1746年在贫困中去世（他母亲于1737年去世，当时他仅13岁）。在父亲去世后，康德在东普鲁士各省担任了若干年的家庭教师。他利用这段时间增加自然科学知识。回到柯尼斯堡，他以科学推广员的身份向读者们讲解文明的科学知识是如何发挥作用的。为此，他联系到“值得赞美的好奇心，那种好奇心被所有不同寻常的事物唤醒，并习惯于对其原因提出疑问。”1755年，他发表了开创性的著作《天体论》，在这部著作里他参照牛顿以数学方法阐释的自然科学理论，试图同时解释整个宇宙的系统构造和自然发展史。“我头顶上的星空”是康德最热爱的。

 

人的研究者

30岁时，康德已经完全可以为他的自然科学知识而自豪了。但是几年之后，他意识到自己似乎已经落入一个陷阱：他对科学研究的热爱使他疏远了人。在40岁的时候，他完成了一个巨大转变，从一个自然研究者变成了人的研究者。他对人的兴趣开始超过了对物的兴趣，开始试着理解人类这个物种的复杂特性。在他对于人性－过度人性化的所有研究中，以后成为他批判哲学中心的两大重点已经很明显了。1781年，他的自称为思维方式的一次革命的《纯粹理性批判》问世，西方文化获得了新的哲学基础。所有传统权威都遭到了批判，尤其是试图通过宗教的虚假知识获得合法地位的教会领袖，以及将其臣民当作个人财产加以监控的国家统治者。

在1788年问世的《实践理性批判》中，康德阐明了人类行为和意志的道德规范。在这里，他的目的仍是从道德观念方面增强人类活动的自主性，这些活动既不受宗教教义和基本的宗教定理或法律规定以及国家强制力量指导，也不以它们为基础。作为一个自由人，每个人都必须学会识别并培养他自身的道德观。“我自身的道德法则”以自己所有的力量和庄严战胜了一切外来影响。作为道德自信的惟一有效准则只能是那个著名和众所周知的“直言命令”：人应当检视自己行为的主观准则是否可以作为一个普遍法则的原则。因为只有可以在道德上普遍化，才能使不同的个人和谐地共同生存。这就是对不再必须或不再愿意祈求上帝或服从领袖的现代人的“不合群的群居性”的命令。

晚年的康德热情欢迎美国独立运动和法国大革命。“民法宪法”出现了，他称赞它为构成自由的人们和国家和平共同体的必要前提。无法的“自然状态”最终应结束，在这种自然状态中，强者野蛮暴虐的自由不断引起新的敌对。要创立与此相反的法治状态，使一个人的自由可以和另一个人的自由共同存在。只有这样，才可能实现70多岁高龄的康德在1795年写的哲学纲要中的那种“永久和平”。他起草了一部宪法、一部国际法以及一部世界民权法的提纲。建立一个即便不必和睦但是和平的各国人民的共同体的想法在他看来是一个法律的原则，这个原则与有责任能力的公民自由和公开地使用理性是相吻合的。

他的哲学草稿《论永久和平》并非理想主义者的空想。作为现实主义者，康德认为，永久和平作为整个国际法的最终目的只能是一个无法实行的想法，但他还是乐观地认为，主权国家以及文明民众建立联邦同盟的政治原则是可行的。在这一方面，这位柯尼斯堡的哲学家也堪称我们的同时代人。他的哲学不仅仅在远处闪烁伟大的光辉。它的光芒如同“思想的纯金”，在今天比康德生活的时代显得更有价值。

 

1 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

2 perceptively   

adv.洞察力强地，敏锐地

参考例句：

• Perceptively, Keynes anticipated the development of a paradox. 凯恩斯敏锐地预见到了一个悖论的演变。 来自互联网

3 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

4 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。

5 relevance   

n.中肯，适当，关联，相关性

参考例句：

• Politicians' private lives have no relevance to their public roles.政治家的私生活与他们的公众角色不相关。
• Her ideas have lost all relevance to the modern world.她的想法与现代社会完全脱节。

6 initiated   

n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入

参考例句：

• He has not yet been thoroughly initiated into the mysteries of computers. 他对计算机的奥秘尚未入门。
• The artist initiated the girl into the art world in France. 这个艺术家介绍这个女孩加入巴黎艺术界。

7 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

8 precarious   

adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的

参考例句：

• Our financial situation had become precarious.我们的财务状况已变得不稳定了。
• He earned a precarious living as an artist.作为一个艺术家，他过得是朝不保夕的生活。

9 craftsman   

n.技工，精于一门工艺的匠人

参考例句：

• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。
• The craftsman is working up the mass of clay into a toy figure.艺人把一团泥捏成玩具形状。

10 penury   

n.贫穷，拮据

参考例句：

• Hardship and penury wore him out before his time.受穷受苦使他未老先衰。
• A succession of bad harvest had reduced the small farmer to penury.连续歉收使得这个小农场主陷入了贫困境地。

11 laud   

n.颂歌；v.赞美

参考例句：

• Kathy was very pleased to have graduated cum laud in her class.凯西在班上以优等成绩毕业，她为此而非常高兴。
• We laud him a warmhearted man.我们称赞他是个热心人。

12 awakened   

v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到

参考例句：

• She awakened to the sound of birds singing. 她醒来听到鸟的叫声。
• The public has been awakened to the full horror of the situation. 公众完全意识到了这一状况的可怕程度。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 query   

n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑

参考例句：

• I query very much whether it is wise to act so hastily.我真怀疑如此操之过急地行动是否明智。
• They raised a query on his sincerity.他们对他是否真诚提出质疑。

14 systematic   

adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的

参考例句：

• The way he works isn't very systematic.他的工作不是很有条理。
• The teacher made a systematic work of teaching.这个教师进行系统的教学工作。

15 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？

16 starry   

adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的

参考例句：

• He looked at the starry heavens.他瞧着布满星星的天空。
• I like the starry winter sky.我喜欢这满天星斗的冬夜。

17 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

18 alienate   

vt.使疏远，离间；转让(财产等)

参考例句：

• His attempts to alienate the two friends failed because they had complete faith.他离间那两个朋友的企图失败了，因为他们彼此完全信任。
• We'd better not alienate ourselves from the colleagues.我们最好还是不要与同事们疏远。

19 purport   

n.意义，要旨，大要；v.意味著，做为...要旨，要领是...

参考例句：

• Many theories purport to explain growth in terms of a single cause.许多理论都标榜以单一的原因解释生长。
• Her letter may purport her forthcoming arrival.她的来信可能意味着她快要到了。

20 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

21 elucidate   

v.阐明，说明

参考例句：

• The note help to elucidate the most difficult parts of the text.这些注释有助于弄清文中最难懂的部分。
• This guide will elucidate these differences and how to exploit them.这篇指导将会阐述这些不同点以及如何正确利用它们。

22 volition   

n.意志；决意

参考例句：

• We like to think that everything we do and everything we think is a product of our volition.我们常常认为我们所做和所想的一切都出自自己的意愿。
• Makin said Mr Coombes had gone to the police of his own volition.梅金说库姆斯先生是主动去投案的。

23 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

24 majesty   

n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权

参考例句：

• The king had unspeakable majesty.国王有无法形容的威严。
• Your Majesty must make up your mind quickly!尊贵的陛下，您必须赶快做出决定！

25 valid   

adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的

参考例句：

• His claim to own the house is valid.他主张对此屋的所有权有效。
• Do you have valid reasons for your absence?你的缺席有正当理由吗？

26 imperative   

n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的

参考例句：

• He always speaks in an imperative tone of voice.他老是用命令的口吻讲话。
• The events of the past few days make it imperative for her to act.过去这几天发生的事迫使她不得不立即行动。

27 subjective   

a.主观(上)的，个人的

参考例句：

• The way they interpreted their past was highly subjective. 他们解释其过去的方式太主观。
• A literary critic should not be too subjective in his approach. 文学评论家的看法不应太主观。

28 harmoniously   

和谐地，调和地

参考例句：

• The president and Stevenson had worked harmoniously over the last eighteen months. 在过去一年半里，总统和史蒂文森一起工作是融洽的。
• China and India cannot really deal with each other harmoniously. 中国和印度这两只猛兽不可能真心实意地和谐相处。

29 prerequisite   

n.先决条件；adj.作为前提的，必备的

参考例句：

• Stability and unity are a prerequisite to the four modernizations.安定团结是实现四个现代化的前提。
• It is a prerequisite of entry to the profession that you pass the exams.做这一行的先决条件是要通过了有关的考试。

30 hostilities   

n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事

参考例句：

• Mexico called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. 墨西哥要求立即停止敌对行动。
• All the old hostilities resurfaced when they met again. 他们再次碰面时，过去的种种敌意又都冒了出来。

31 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

32 crave   

vt.渴望得到，迫切需要，恳求，请求

参考例句：

• Many young children crave attention.许多小孩子渴望得到关心。
• You may be craving for some fresh air.你可能很想呼吸呼吸新鲜空气。