2019-03-21
On the Uses of Philosophy
Esthetics（美学） is the study of ideal form, or beauty; it is the philosophy of art.
【写作技巧】不是重点讨论的话题就简单一笔带过
Ethics （伦理学）is the study of ideal conduct; the highest knowledge, said Socrates（插入语）, is the knowledge of good and evil, the knowledge of the wisdom of life.
Politics is the study of ideal social organization (it is not, as one might suppose, the art and science of capturing and keeping office（权利）); monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, socialism, anarchism, feminism—these are the dramatis personae（所有演出阵容） of political philosophy.
*as one might suppose 在树敌论的时候用于缓和语气，不要那么强硬。
【赏析】介绍每个类别都用了ideal这个形容词，说明哲学研究的不是fact，而是一个理想状态。
And lastly, metaphysics（形而上学） (which gets into so much trouble because it is not, like the other forms of philosophy, an attempt to coordinate the real in the light of the ideal) is the study of the "ultimate reality" of all things: of the real and final nature of "matter" (ontology 本体论), of "mind" (philosophical psychology 哲学心理学), and of the interrelation of "mind" and "matter" in the processes of perception and knowledge (epistemology 认知论).
These are the parts of philosophy; but so dismembered （拆解）it loses its beauty and its joy.
【观点】哲学不应该被拆分，应该当成整体来看待。
We shall seek it not in its shrivelled （枯萎的，没有营养和美感）abstractness and formality, but clothed in the living form of genius（此处指哲学家）; we shall study not merely philosophies, but philosophers; we shall spend our time with the saints and martyrs （烈士，殉道者）of thought, letting their radiant spirit play about us until perhaps we too, in some measure, shall partake （品尝，参与，来自take part）of what Leonardo called "the noblest pleasure, the joy of understanding."
【观点】哲学系的学生把学校科学化之后，反而有可能感受不到它的美感了。最高级的欢喜，是理解带来的欣喜。
Each of these philosophers has some lesson for us, if we approach him properly.
"Do you know," asks Emerson, "the secret of the true scholar? In every man there is something wherein（在一个人当中） I may learn of him; and In that（因为，是一种非常正式的写法） I am his pupil."
Well, surely we may take this attitude to the master minds of history without hurt to our pride!
And we may flatter ourselves with that other thought of Emerson's, that when genius speaks to us we feel a ghostly reminiscence（鬼魅般的回忆，不知道到底发生过没有） of having ourselves, in our distant youth（插入语，一边在修饰，一边在悬停句子，为之后的爆发做铺垫）, had vaguely this selfsame（=same） thought which genius now speaks, but which we had not art or courage to clothe with form and utterance.
And indeed, great men speak to us only so far as we have ears and souls to hear them; only so far as(=so long as) we have in us the roots, at least, of that which flowers out in them.
We too have had the experiences they had, but we did not suck those experiences dry（把经验吸干） of their secret and subtle meanings: we were not sensitive to the overtones of the reality that hummed about us.（我们不敏感，听不到这个世界的弦外之音。）
Genius hears the overtones, and the music of the spheres（星球）; genius knows what Pythagoras（毕达哥拉斯） meant when he said that philosophy is the highest music.
So let us listen to these men, ready to forgive them their passing（转瞬即逝的） errors, and eager to learn the lessons which they are so eager to teach（学生只有感受到老师迫切想传承的热情，才能想学，学会。做老师要eagar to teach）. ”
Do you then be reasonable," said old Socrates to Crito, "and do not mind whether the teachers of philosophy are good or bad, but think only of Philosophy herself.（不要在乎教你的老师是好是坏，要在乎哲学本身。）
Try to examine her well and truly; and if she be evil, seek to turn away all men from her; but （不仅表示转折，还暗含了苏格拉底的对哲学的观点）if she be what I believe she is, then follow her and serve her, and be of good cheer."