【文章內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介】 education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of poundinterest law,which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing．All this was paratively slow until, with the ing of science, the tempo was suddenly raised．Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan．The trickle became a stream。 the stream has now bee a torrent．|| Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account．What is called‘modern civilization’is not the result of a balanced development of all man39。s nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life．The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a twoedged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil．It is now being used indifferently for both．Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly whimsical than that of gunners using science to shatter men39。s bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them? We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its everincreasing power,continues.||為什么進(jìn)步這個(gè)概念在現(xiàn)代世界顯得如此突出？無(wú)疑是因?yàn)橛幸环N特殊的進(jìn)步實(shí)際上正在我們周?chē)l(fā)生，而且變得越來(lái)越明顯。雖然人類(lèi)在智力和道德上沒(méi)有得到普遍提高，但在知識(shí)積累方面卻取得了巨大的進(jìn)步。人一旦能用語(yǔ)言同別人交流思想，知識(shí)的積累便開(kāi)始了。隨著書(shū)寫(xiě)的發(fā)明，又邁進(jìn)了一大步，因?yàn)檫@樣一來(lái)，知識(shí)不僅能交流，而且能儲(chǔ)存了。藏書(shū)使教育成為可能，而教育反過(guò)來(lái)又豐富了藏書(shū)，因?yàn)橹R(shí)的增長(zhǎng)遵循著一種“滾雪球”的規(guī)律。印刷術(shù)的發(fā)明又大大提高了知識(shí)增長(zhǎng)的速度。所有這些發(fā)展都比較緩慢，而隨著科學(xué)的到來(lái)，增長(zhǎng)的速度才突然加快。于是，知識(shí)便開(kāi)始有系統(tǒng)有計(jì)劃地積累起來(lái)。涓涓細(xì)流匯成了小溪，小溪現(xiàn)已變成了奔騰的江河。而且，新知識(shí)一旦獲得，便得到實(shí)際應(yīng)用。所謂“現(xiàn)代文明”并不是人的天性平衡發(fā)展的結(jié)果，而是積累起來(lái)的知識(shí)應(yīng)用到實(shí)際生活中的結(jié)果。現(xiàn)在人類(lèi)面臨的問(wèn)題是：用這些知識(shí)去做什么？正像人們常常指出的，知識(shí)是一把雙刃刀，可以用于造福，也可用來(lái)為害。人們現(xiàn)在正漫不經(jīng)心地把知識(shí)用于這兩個(gè)方面，例如：炮兵利用科學(xué)毀壞人的身體、而外科醫(yī)生就在附近用科學(xué)搶救被炮兵毀壞的人體，還有什么情景比這更可怕、更怪誕的嗎？我們不得不嚴(yán)肅地問(wèn)問(wèn)我們自己：隨著日益增長(zhǎng)的知識(shí)的力量，如果我們繼續(xù)利用知識(shí)的這種雙重性，將會(huì)發(fā)生什么樣的情況呢？Lesson 32 Galileo reborn 伽利略的復(fù)生In his own lifetime Galileo was the centre of violent controversy。 but the scientific dust has long since settled, and today we can see even his famous clash with the Inquisition in something like its proper perspective. But, in contrast, it is only in modern times that Galileo has bee a problem child for historians of science.The old view of Galileo was delightfully unplicated. He was, above all, a man who experimented: who despised the prejudices and book learning of the Aristotelians, who put his questions to nature instead of to the ancients, and who drew his conclusions fearlessly. He had been the first to turn a telescope to the sky, and he had seen there evidence enough to overthrow Aristotle and Ptolemy together. He was the man who climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped various weights from the top, who rolled balls down inclined planes, and then generalized the results of his many experiments into the famous law of free fall.But a closer study of the evidence, supported by a deeper sense of the period, and particularly by a new consciousness of the philosophical undercurrents in the scientific revolution, has profoundly modified this view of Galileo. Today, although the old Galileo lives on in many popular writings, among historians of science a new and more sophisticated picture has emerged. At the same time our sympathy for Galileo39。s opponents has grown somewhat. His telescopic observations are justly immortal。 they aroused great interest at the time, they had important theoretical consequences, and they provided a striking demonstration of the potentialities hidden in instruments and apparatus. But can we blame those who looked and failed to see what Galileo saw, if we remember that to use a telescope at the limit of its powers calls for long experience and intimate familiarity with one39。s instrument? Was the philosopher who refused to look through Galileo39。s telescope more culpable than those who alleged that the spiral nebulae observed with Lord Rosse39。s great telescope in the eighteenforties were scratches left by the grinder? We can perhaps forgive those who said the moons of Jupiter were produced by Galileo39。s spyglass if we recall that in his day, as for centuries before, curved glass was the popular contrivance for producing not truth but illusion, untruth。 and if a single curved glass would distort nature, how much more would a pair of them?伽利略在世時(shí)是激烈論戰(zhàn)的中心。但是，自他逝世以來(lái)，那場(chǎng)科學(xué)上的紛爭(zhēng)早已平息了下來(lái)，甚至他和宗教法庭的著名沖突，我們今天也能正確如實(shí)地看待。但是相比之下，對(duì)于科學(xué)史家來(lái)說(shuō)，伽利略只是在現(xiàn)代才變成一個(gè)新的難題。令人高興的是，過(guò)去對(duì)伽利略的看法并不復(fù)雜。他首先是個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)工作者，他蔑視亞里士多德學(xué)派的偏見(jiàn)和空洞的書(shū)本知識(shí)。他向自然界而不是向古人提出問(wèn)題，并大膽地得出自己的結(jié)論。他是第一個(gè)把望遠(yuǎn)鏡對(duì)準(zhǔn)天空的人，觀察到的論據(jù)足以把亞里士多德和托勒密一起推翻。他就是那個(gè)曾經(jīng)爬上比薩斜塔，從塔頂向下拋擲各種重物的人；他就是那個(gè)使球體沿斜面向下滾動(dòng)，然后將多次實(shí)驗(yàn)結(jié)果概括成著名的自由落體定律的人。但是，對(duì)那個(gè)時(shí)代的深化了解，尤其是以科學(xué)革命中哲學(xué)潛流的新意識(shí)為依據(jù)，進(jìn)一步仔細(xì)研究，就會(huì)極大地改變對(duì)伽利略的看法。今天，雖然已故的伽利略繼續(xù)活在許多通俗讀物中，但在科學(xué)史家中間，一個(gè)新的更加復(fù)雜的伽利略的形象出現(xiàn)了。與此同時(shí)，我們對(duì)伽利略的反對(duì)派的同情也有所增加。伽利略用望遠(yuǎn)鏡所作的觀察確實(shí)是不朽的，這些觀察在當(dāng)時(shí)引起了人們極大的興趣，具有重要的理論意義，并充分顯示出了儀表和儀器的潛在力量。但是，如果我們想到，使用一架倍數(shù)有限的望遠(yuǎn)鏡需要長(zhǎng)期的經(jīng)驗(yàn)和對(duì)自己儀器的熟悉程度，那么我們?cè)趺茨苋ヘ?zé)備觀察了天空但沒(méi)有看到伽利略所看到的東西的那些人呢？某位哲學(xué)家曾拒絕使用伽利略的望遠(yuǎn)鏡去觀察天空；到了19世紀(jì)40年代，有人硬把羅斯勛爵高倍望遠(yuǎn)鏡觀測(cè)到的螺旋狀星云說(shuō)成是磨鏡工留下的磨痕。難道反對(duì)伽利略的哲學(xué)家比詆毀羅斯勛爵造謠者應(yīng)受到更大的譴責(zé)嗎？如果我們回想一下伽利略之前的幾個(gè)世紀(jì)期間，曲面鏡一直是一種用于產(chǎn)生幻影而不是產(chǎn)生真象的把戲裝置，那么我們就會(huì)原諒那些當(dāng)初把伽利略觀察到的木星衛(wèi)星說(shuō)成是伽利略用他的小望遠(yuǎn)鏡變出來(lái)的人們，何況一片曲面鏡就可歪曲自然，那么伽利略的兩片曲面鏡對(duì)自然的歪曲又該多大呢？Lesson 33 Education 教育Education is one of the key words of our time. A man without an education, many of us believe, is an unfortunate victim of adverse circumstances, deprived of one of the greatest twentiethcentury opportunities. Convinced of the importance of education, modern states ‘invest’ in institutions of learning to get back ‘interest’ in the form of a large group of enlightened young men and women who are potential leaders. Education, with its cycles of instruction so carefully worked out, punctuated by textbooksthose purchasable wells of wisdomwhat would civilization be like without its benefits?So much is certain: that we would have doctors and preachers, lawyers and defendants, marriages and birthsbut our spiritual outlook would be different. We would lay less stress on ‘facts and figures’ and more on a good memory, on applied psychology, and on the capacity of a man to get along with his fellowcitizens. If our educational system were fashioned after its bookless past we would have the