这里是哲学176课 All right, so this is Philosophy 176.
这门课的内容是关于死亡 The class is on death.
我的名字是雪莱·卡根 My name is Shelly Kagan.
首先 The very first thing
我要说的就是 希望你们称呼我雪莱 I want to do is to invite you to call me Shelly.
也就是说 如果我们在街上碰见了 That is, if we meet on the street,
或是你来办公室找我谈话 you come talk to me during office hours,
请教我问题 you ask some question;
我会回应雪莱这个名字 Shelly's the name that I respond to.
当然 我也会回应卡根教授这个称呼 I will, eventually, respond to Professor Kagan,
不过我会反应慢一些 but the synapses take a bit longer for that.
因为对于这个称呼我并不敏感 It's not the name I immediately recognize.
我发现 过去这些年 I have found that over the years,
喜欢叫我雪莱的同学越来越少了 fewer and fewer students feel comfortable calling me Shelly.
我年轻的时候 还有不少人这么称呼我 When I was young, it seemed to work.
现在我"德高望重"了 Now I'm gray and august.
如果你们觉得这样叫顺嘴的话 But if you're comfortable with it,
我还是更喜欢你们这样称呼我 it's the name that I prefer to be called by.
现在 如我所说 Now, as I say,
这是一门关于死亡的课程 this is a class on death.
这是一门哲学课 But it's a philosophy class,
这就意味着我们在这门课 and what that means is that the set of topics
要讨论的一系列问题 that we're going to be talking about in this class
与其它关于死亡的课程 are not identical to the topics
所讲授的东西截然不同 that other classes on death might try to cover.
所以 首先我要说的是 So the first thing I want to do is say something
我们不会谈论那些 about the things we won't be talking about
你们可能强烈希望在 that you might reasonably expect or hope
死亡课程上听到的东西 that a class on death would talk about,
如果那样的话 这不会是你喜欢的课程 so that if this is not the class you were looking for,
你还有时间去选修其他的课 you still have time to go check out some other class.
我想要讲的东西是你们在 So here are some things that a class on death
其他死亡课上听不到的 could cover that we won't talk about.
首先我想到的是一些关于 What I primarily have in mind are sort of psychological
死亡本质和死亡现象的 and sociological questions about the nature of death,
一些心理学和社会学问题 or the phenomenon of death.
因此 一堂死亡课 So, a class on death
也许要好好讨论一下死亡的过程 might well have a discussion of the process of dying
以便让你们接受 and coming to reconcile yourself with the fact
人终会死去的事实 that you're going to die.
也许你们有人知道 Some of you may know
伊丽莎白·库伯勒·罗斯 about Elisabeth K��bler-Ross' discussion
所谓的死亡五部曲论述 of the so-called five stages of dying.
否认 愤怒 There's denial, and then there's anger,
然后是妥协 and then there's bargaining.
实际上我记不清这五个步骤 I actually don't remember the five stages.
我们也不会去讨论它 We're not going to talk about that.
同样 Similarly,
我们也不会讨论美国的丧葬行业 we're not going to talk about the funeral industry
以及他们如何敲诈百姓 in America and how it rips off people,
实际上就是这样 which it does,
在他们悲伤脆弱的时候 in their moments of grief and weakness
对他们提供的各种服务漫天要价 and overcharges them for the various things that it offers.
我们不会去讨论那些 We're not going to talk about that.
我们不会去讨论丧失亲友时悲伤的过程 We're not going to talk about the process of grieving or bereavement.
我们不会去讨论在我们的文化中 We're not going to talk about sociological attitudes
面对死亡的社会学态度 that we have towards the dying in our culture
以及我们如何试着去避免面对死亡 and how we tend to try to keep the dying hidden from the rest of us.
这些都是十分重要的话题 These are all perfectly important topics,
但是 如我所讲 它们不是 but they're not, as I say,
我们在这堂课上要讨论的话题 topics that we're going to be talking about in this class.
那么 我们要讨论什么呢 So what will we talk about?
我们要讨论的是当我们思考 Well, the things we'll talk about are philosophical questions
死亡本质或诸如此类的问题时 所产生的 that arise as we begin to think about the nature of death,
哲学疑问 like this.
大致说来 In broad scope,
这门课首先会讲到形而上学 the first half of the class is going to be metaphysics,
你们当中 熟悉哲学术语的人 for those of you who are familiar with
一定知道这个词 the philosophical piece of jargon.
课程的第二部分大致会谈到价值论 And roughly, the second half of the class is going to be value theory.
所以 课程的前半部分将会集中在 So, the first half of the class is going to be concerned
死亡本质的问题上 with questions about the nature of death.
我们死亡时发生了什么 What happens when we die?
事实上 要解决这个问题 Indeed, to get at that question,
我们首先要考虑的是 我们是什么 the first thing we're going to have to think about is what are we?
人是一种什么样的实体 What kind of an entity is a person?
特别是 我们有灵魂吗 In particular, do we have souls,
在这节课上 我所说的灵魂 and for this class when I talk about a soul,
是哲学中的术语 what I'm going to mean is sort of a bit of philosophical jargon.
我的意思是指某些非物质的东西 I'm going to mean something immaterial,
某些区别于我们身体的东西 something distinct from our bodies.
我们有非物质的灵魂吗 Do we have immaterial souls,
会有东西能够从身体的死亡中幸存吗 something that might survive the death of our body?
如果没有 那么死亡的本质意味着什么 And if not, what does that imply about the nature of death?
怎么样才称得上死亡 What kind of an event is death?
幸存对我来说是什么 What is it for me to survive?
假如我从死亡中幸存 这意味着什么 What would it mean for me to survive my death?
今晚活着对于我来说又意味着什么 What does it mean for me to survive tonight?
那就意味着 That is, you know,
周四 有人会在这儿讲课 somebody's going to be here lecturing to the class on Thursday,
可以推断 那个人就是我 presumably that will be me.
但是 如何证明 What is it for that person
周四站在这里讲课的人 who's there on Thursday to be the same person as the person
与今天在这里给大家讲课的是同一个人呢 who's sitting here lecturing to you today?
这些都是个人同一性的问题 These are questions about the nature of personal identity.
显而易见 Pretty clearly,
要想弄明白死亡和生存是怎么一回事儿 to think about death and continued existence and survival,
我们必须对个人同一性了然于心 we have to get clear about the nature of personal identity.
我们会用上半学期 These sorts of questions will occupy us
来讨论这些问题 for roughly the first half of the semester.
之后 我们会讨论到价值论 And then we'll turn to value questions.
如果死亡是终结 那么它是坏事吗 If death is the end, is death bad?
当然了 毫无疑问 大多数人 Now, of course, most of us are immediately
坚信死亡是件坏事 and strongly inclined to think that death is bad.
但是有许多关于死亡到底有多糟 But there are a set of philosophical puzzles
的哲学之谜 about how death could be bad.
让你们先来体会一下 To sort of give you a quick taste,
如果在我死后 我不存在了 if after my death I won't exist,
对我来说怎么会有坏事呢 how could anything be bad for me?
对于不存在的东西怎么会有坏事呢 How could anything be bad for something that doesn't exist?
那么 死亡怎么会是坏事呢 So how could death be bad?
所以 这么说并不是 So it's not that the result is going to be
我试图让你相信死亡不是坏事 that I'm going to try to convince you that death isn't bad,
但这的确要花点时间来准确地说清楚 but it takes actually a little bit of work to pin down precisely
什么让死亡成了坏事和怎样才算死亡 what is it about death that's bad and how can it be death?
使得死亡成为坏事的东西是否 Is there more than one thing about death
不止一件 that makes it bad?
我们可以这样想 We'll turn to questions like that.
如果死亡是件坏事 If death is bad,
那么有人也许会好奇 then one might wonder
是不是永生就是件好事了 would immortality be a good thing?
那就是我们要思考的问题 That's a question that we'll think about.
或者 更通俗地说 Or, more generally,
我们担心如果我们即将死去 we'll worry about how should the fact
将这会如何影响我们的生活 that I'm going to die affect the way I live?
我应该用怎样的态度对待不可避免的死亡 What should my attitude be towards my mortality?
比如 我应该害怕死亡吗 Should I be afraid of death, for example?
我该对我即将死去这个事实感到绝望吗 Should I despair at the fact that I'm going to die?
最后 我们将转入自杀问题 Finally, we'll turn to questions about suicide.
许多人认为既然生命是有价值的 Many of us think that given the valuable
无比珍贵的 那么 and precious thing that life is,
自杀就是毫无意义的 suicide makes no sense.
你放弃了你仅有的生命 You're throwing away the only life you're ever going to have.
我们将通过思考 And so we'll end the semester by thinking
自杀的合理性和道德性 about questions along the lines of the rationality
结束这个学期 and morality of suicide.
大致地讲 So roughly speaking,
这就是我们的课程安排 that's where we're going.
前半学期 形而上学 First half of the class, metaphysics;
后半学期 价值论 second half of the class, value theory.
下面我需要解释一点 Next thing I need to explain is this.
简单的说 There's, roughly speaking,
讲课有两种方法 two ways to do a class,
特别是像这种引论课 especially an introductory class like this.
方法一 In approach number one,
你们简单的列出不同的观点 you simply lay out the various positions,
正面和反面 pro and con,
老师争取保持中立 and the professor strives to remain neutral;
不表明他支持哪个观点 sort of not tip his hand about what he holds.
这是方法一 That's approach number one.
有时我会在介绍课上 And sometimes in my intro classes
采用这种方法 that's the approach that I take.
而另一种方法 But the other approach,
我要提醒你们 and the one that I should warn you
这个学期 在这门课上 I'm going to take this semester,
我的讲课方式将与平常不同 in this class, is rather different.
我会始终围绕一个观点来谈 There's a line that I'm going to be developing,
并推动和论证这个观点 pushing, if you will, or defending in this class.
也就是说 That is to say,
关于我们要讨论的问题 there's a certain set of views I hold
我会持有自己的观点 about the issues that we'll be discussing.
而我在课堂上要做的就是 And what I'm going to try to do in this class
与其它的观点辩论 is argue for those views.
说服你们并让你们相信我的观点是正确的 Try to convince you that those views are correct.
为了让你们先了解一下那些观点是什么 To help you know sort of ahead of time quickly what those views are,
我想先给大家介绍几种观点 I want to start by describing a set of views
你们中可能有人会相信它们 that many of you probably believe.
下面 我就给你们介绍这些观点 So I'm going to give you a cluster of views.
按理说 Logically speaking,
你们不会完全相信这些观点 you could believe some of these things and not all of them.
但有一些观点或许你们大多数人是赞同的 But here's a set of views that many of you probably believe,
我想你们至少会相信其中一部分 and I imagine most of you believe at least some of these things.
这是几种普遍的观点 So here's the set of common views.
第一 我们有灵魂 First of all, that we have a soul.
那就是说我们不仅仅只是个肉体 That is to say we are not just bodies.
我们不仅仅只是几块骨头和肉 We're not just lumps of bone and flesh.
我们身体中有一部分 But there's a part of us,
可能是极其重要的 perhaps the essential part of us,
比身体还重要得多 that is something more than the physical,
精神的 非物质的部分 the spiritual, immaterial part of us,
就像我在这说的灵魂 which as I say in this class we'll call a soul.
你们中的大多数人可能相信灵魂 Most of us, most of you, probably believe in souls.
当然大多美国人 Certainly most people in America
相信非物质的灵魂存在 believe in some sort of immaterial soul.
鉴于它们的存在 And given this existence of this immaterial soul,
有可能 it's a possibility,
也的确是有这样的可能 indeed a fair likelihood,
让我们能在死亡后继续存在 that we will survive our deaths.
死亡会破坏我们的身体 The death will be the destruction of my body,
但是我们的灵魂是非物质的 but my soul is immaterial
所以能在我们死亡之后仍然存在 and so my soul can continue to exist after my death.
不论你是否相信灵魂的存在 And whether or not you actually believe in a soul,
你希望它是存在的 you hope that there's a soul so
如果灵魂存在 你就能幸免于死 so that there'll be this serious possibility of surviving your death
因为死亡不仅糟糕而且极为恐怖 because death is not only bad, but so horrible
我们所希望的是 that what we would like to have happen is,
我们能够永远活着 we would like to live forever.
因此 拥有一个灵魂 And so, armed with a soul, as it were,
至少可以拥有永生的可能性 there's at least the possibility of immortality.
永生是一件很棒的事 Immortality would be wonderful.
我们希望能够永生 That's what we hope is the case,
无论这是否能够实现 whether or not we know that it's the case.
但永生无疑很棒 Immortality would be wonderful.
这就是为什么死亡是件坏事 That's why death's so bad.
因为它使我们丧失了永生的机会 It robs us of immortality.
如果没有灵魂 And if there is no soul,
如果死亡是完结 if death is the end,
如果没有永生 if there is no immortality,
那么在面对死亡这如此糟糕透顶的事情时 this is such an overwhelming bad thing that the only,
最明显的反应 the obvious reaction,
最自然的反应 the natural reaction,
最普遍的反应 the universal reaction,
当然会是恐惧和绝望 is to face the prospect of death with fear and despair.
就像我之前提到的 And as I mentioned earlier then,
死亡是可怕的 相反生命太美好了 death is so horrible and life is so wonderful
所以浪费生命是愚蠢的 that it could never make sense to throw it away.
自杀当然也是不道德且毫无意义可言的 So suicide is both immoral on the one hand and never makes sense.
另外这也是很不理性的 It's always irrational as well, in addition.
以上我说的是一些关于死亡本质的 That, as I say, is I think a common set of views
普遍观点 about the nature of death.
我接下来要做什么呢 And what I'm going to be doing,
我准备在这儿给你们证明的就是 what I'm going to be arguing in this class,
那个观点从头至尾 is that that set of views is pretty much mistaken
都是错的 from beginning to end.
我尝试让你们相信灵魂是不存在的 And so I'm going to try to convince you that there is no soul.
永生并不是一件好事 Immortality would not be a good thing.
对死亡感到恐惧是正常的反应 Fear of death isn't actually an appropriate response to death.
自杀有时候 Suicide, under certain circumstances,
也有可能是合理的 在道德上也是正当的 might be rationally and morally justified.
如我所言 As I say,
那个普遍观点从头到尾都是错的 the common picture is pretty much mistaken from start to end.
那至少是我的目标 That's at least my goal.
我的目的 That's my aim.
那就是我要做的 That's what I'm going to be doing.
现在 从这节课开始 Now, since of course,
我相信这个观点 I believe the views I believe...
也希望在这个学期末你们能赞同我 and I hope at the end of the semester you'll agree with me,
因为我相信那是真实的 because I think they're true
我希望你们最终会相信这个事实 and I hope you'll end up believing the truth.
但我得说关键不是 But I should say that the crucial point
你们要赞同我 isn't for you to agree with me.
关键在于让你们自己思考 The crucial point is for you to think for yourself.
我要你们做的就是冷静地 And so what I'm really doing is inviting you to take a good,
客观地看待死亡 cold, hard look at death,
并勇于面对 以一种我们从未 and to face it and think about it in a way
用过的方法去思考 that most of us don't do.
如果你在这个学期末 If you, at the end of the semester,
还是不赞同我的观点 haven't agreed with me about this particular claim
那也没关系 or that particular claim, so be it.
我也是满意的 I'll be content...
即使我不完全满意 I won't be completely content...
但至少我基本上是满意的 but I'll be at least largely content
只要你们已经深思熟虑了 as long as you've really thought
各种论证所存在的各种问题 through the arguments on each side of these various issues.
卡伦 现在你可以发 Karen, maybe this would be a good time for you
教学大纲了 to pass around the syllabus.
接下来要做的介绍是... Next introductory remark:
今天说的很多东西都是以后讨论的重点 A lot of today's talk is going to be devoted to business.
如果时间允许 I'll get to, if time permits,
我会在最后讲一点哲学 some philosophy at the end.
我想再说明一下 I want to make one more remark about
在这节课上我们都会做些什么 what I'll be doing in terms of this class.
这节课就像我说的 是节哲学课 This class, as I say, is a philosophy class.
我们主要是坐在这里 We'll basically be sitting here thinking
用我们的推理能力来思考 关于死亡 about what we can know or make sense of with regard
我们能知道什么或者能弄清楚什么 to death using our reasoning capacity.
我们尝试从理性的角度去考虑死亡 We'll be trying to think about death from a rational standpoint.
有一种证据 一种论证 One kind of evidence or one kind of argument
我们不会在这里用到 that we won't be making use of here
那就是诉诸宗教权威 is appeal to religious authority.
比如说你们中的有些人相信 So some of you may believe in, for example,
有来世存在 the existence of an afterlife.
你可能相信你会在死后继续存在 You may believe you're going to survive your death.
你可能相信永生 You may believe in immortality
因为那是教会告诉你的 because that's what your church teaches you.
这没关系 And that's fine.
我并不打算 It's not my purpose or intention here
就你的宗教信仰和你争辩 to try to argue you out of your religious beliefs
或者跟它对立 or to argue against your religious beliefs.
我所要求的是 All I'm going to ask is
在这节课上 我们不诉诸这类宗教的论证 that we not appeal to such religious arguments,
不会诉诸启示或圣经的权威 appeal to revelation or the authority of the Bible,
或是诸如此类的论证 or what have you, in the course of this argument.
在这节课上 我们都不会涉及 In the course of this class.
如果你愿意 If you want to,
你可以把它想象成一个大的假设 you could think of this class as one big hypothetical.
我们能从死亡的本质得出什么样的结论 What conclusions would we come to about the nature
假如我们必须从 of death if we had to think about
世俗的观点考虑它呢 it from a secular perspective?
只用我们自己的推测 Making use of only our own reasoning,
尽管与神圣的权威 as opposed to whatever answers
所给出的答案截然相反 we might be given by divine revealed authority.
你们中那些相信神圣权威的人 Those of you who believe in divine revealed authority,
我们下次再来谈 that's a debate for another day.
这不是我们 It's not a debate
这学期要所要进行的讨论 that we're going to be engaged in here in this semester.
同样地 尽管我没有让你们 Similarly, although I'm not going to ask you
在讨论组里隐瞒你们的宗教观点 in your discussion sections to hide your religious views,
但我会让你在这门课上 you'll be asked in the course
为其辩护 of defending them,
给出理由 让我们所有人都理解 to give reasons that would make sense to all of us.
以上是我顺带提到的上课方式 That's by way of sort of where the class is going.
现在我们转到其他讨论上去 Let me now turn to some discussion
关于这个课程的要求 about the requirements of the class,
评分等等 grades and so forth and so on.
教学大纲已经发下去了 The syllabus is going around the class.
大多数人现在已经拿到手了 Almost all of you have it at this point.
这个教学大纲大部分并不能说明全部内容 The syllabus doesn't really say a whole lot.
我已经给你们大致介绍了一下 I've already given you an overview
我们将要进行的主题 of what topics we'll be going to.
教学大纲的关键点 The crucial point about the syllabus is
是指出了你们需要在制定时间内 that it indicates what reading you need to
所需读完的阅读材料 have done for any given week.
现在我已经尽力 Now, I've done my best
为每周要上的内容 to peg the readings to where
收集了足够多的阅读材料 I will be on that week's lecture,
但大部分时候我不按照讲稿来讲课 but I don't lecture with lecture notes, for the most part.
有时候我花的时间比预期的要长些 Sometimes I take a little bit longer than I anticipated.
实际上 Actually,
我花的时间常常要比我预期的长 I often take a little bit longer than I anticipated.
毫无疑问 有时我会多花些时间 No doubt at some point I'll fall behind.
有时我又急着想要超前 At some point I may rush to catch up ahead.
以下这种事情不是常会发生的 It won't always be the case
那就是 that the readings
阅读材料恰好与讲课内容一致 will exactly coincide with where the lectures are at.
尽管如此 你们还是需要 Nonetheless, in any given week,
在给定的时间内 即每星期的开始 for the start of that week,
读完每周的清单上 you should have done
所列出的阅读材料 the readings that are listed for that week.
大纲里的读物简单的地列出了作者名 The readings on the syllabus simply say the author,
而且很多书在书店里 and there are a couple of books
都可以找到 that are available at the bookstore.
大量的读物作为教材集 There are a larger packet of readings
你们可以在泰科[当地书店] that's available as a course pack
那里找到 at Tyco's [local print shop].
所以在给定的时间里你们可以找到那些书 And so for any given week you can find the reading.
或许会有一两种情况 实际上只有一种 One or two cases, maybe just one actually,
我不止找到某作者的一篇文章 where I've got more than one article by the given author,
我也会给出文章的标题 I've given the title of the article as well.
在给定的时间里 It shouldn't be difficult
找到材料应该不难 to locate the reading for any given week.
上课的模式 当然 The format of the class, of course,
是你们所熟悉而且直白的 is a familiar and straightforward one.
我每周会在这里讲两次课 I'll be sitting here lecturing twice a week,
上午的10:30到11:20 this time, 10:30 to 11:20.
每周你们都将被分成讨论小组 Once a week you will break up into discussion sections.
小组讨论将持续50分钟 The discussion sections will meet for 50 minutes.
你们每一个人都将有单独的时间 Each one of you will have a single time.
但与小组讨论的时间不会相冲突 But it'll be different times the discussion sections meet.
这是第一次 For the first time,
哲学系可以使用 the philosophy department has just switched over
在线讨论小组注册系统 to the online discussion section registration system.
它怎样运作我并不十分清楚 I'm not 100% certain how that works.
之前我对这个也不习惯 I've not used it before.
我想它是这么回事 I take it the idea is something like this.
现在 如果你加入了这个课程 Right now, if you were to shop the class,
你就能在上面找到具体的 you could find the tentative list of
日程时间安排 discussion section days and times.
以确保你有时间来进行讨论 So be sure to find some time that works for you.
实际上 You can't actually
你现在还不能注册进入讨论组 register for any of those discussion section times yet.
但我想 But as of, I think,
下周 next week
当你能够在线注册时 when you're able to begin your online registration,
你就能注册任何讨论小组了 you will be able to register for any discussion section
实际上 In fact,
你还不能注册这门课 you won't be able to finalize your registration for your courses
除非安排表上还有空余的位置 until you've actually signed up for an available slot.
一旦你注册了 Once you have registered,
如果之前一些满额的位置 if some other slots become available
现在空缺了 that weren't previously available,
系统会给你发送邮件 I gather you'll be sent some sort of email by the system,
看你什么时候有空 in case some other time would be better for you.
你可以把自己放进候选名单里等等 You can put yourself on waiting lists and so forth.
理论上听起来挺不错 It sounds pretty good on paper.
也许可以顺利实现 Maybe it'll all work smoothly.
我从未用过这玩意 I've never been through it before.
希望我们不会有什么问题 I hope we won't have any problems.
现在你们需要确定的是 Right now what you want to make sure
那些时间是否合适 is that there is a time that's available...
当然现在任何时间都可以 right now all the times are available...
但必须是要你有时间 but that there is a time that works for you.
因为如果你不能找到 Because if you can't find
一个适合的小组 a discussion section that works for you,
你就不能选这门课了 you won't be able to take this course.
对此有任何问题吗 Any questions about that?
实际上我应该问 I should actually ask,
目前为止 any questions about anything
对我所说的所有问题有疑问吗 that I've asked or said so far, up to this point?
让我说说我的这些问题 Let me make a remark about questions,
目前最主要的事是什么 which is--today's mostly business.
希望答案非常简单 Hopefully, it'll be fairly straightforward.
但是在今天以及整个学期里 But both today and throughout the entire semester,
在我讲课时 as I'm lecturing
你们可以打断我讲课 向我提问 I want to invite you to jump in with questions.
打断我讲课好像有点夸张了 Well, jump in is a bit of an exaggeration.
我不希望你们随意插话 但可以举手 I don't want you to just start talking, but raise your hand.
如果你们听不懂我在说什么 If I'm saying something that you don't understand,
那极有可能是 the chances are pretty good that
教室里其他25位或50位学生 there's 25 or 50 other students in the class
都没有听懂 who don't understand it either.
我只是没有表达清楚 I'm just not being clear.
所以我欢迎你们提问 So I want to welcome you,
我真的希望你们 I really want to invite you,
不管何时 whenever
你们对我说的有所回应 都能 you've got some reactions to the things that I'm saying,
举起你们的手 我会让你们说话 raise your hand, I'll call on you.
你们就说 雪莱 我真不明白 Say, "Shelly, I didn't really understand
你所说的灵魂问题 what you were saying about the soul.
能请您再解释一遍吗 Could you please explain that again?"
或者就某一观点 Or, for that matter,
如果你对我所说的 if you've got some quick reactions
某个论证有什么好的回应 好的想法 or thoughts or responses to the arguments
或是好的解答 that I'm laying out
并且你想和全班同学分享 and you want to share them with the class as a whole,
我会非常乐意你这样做的 then very much I want to invite you to do this.
这个班级太大了 让我们很难会有机会 Now this class is too big for us to have some close,
跟150到180个人进行亲密的交谈 intimate conversation between the 150-180,
当然具体人数我也不是很清楚 however many students there are here.
但那肯定是不可能的 That's not going to happen.
可是 But
小组间的详细讨论 the chance for detailed discussion ,
这还是可以的 in the discussion section
这些讨论是必须的 that's where that should happen.
尽管如此 简要回应问题的机会 But still, there is the chance for brief reactions
提问的机会肯定还是有的 and definitely a chance for questions.
我很乐意你们那样做 I very much want to invite you to do that.
所以 So,
任何时候如果你有想问的东西 if at any point you've got something you want to ask about
或者你想要补充些什么东西 or some two bits you want to add,
请举手 摇晃起来 确保我能看见 raise your hand, wiggle it around, make sure I see you.
也许我想先讲完我之前所讲的东西 I may want to finish the particular point that I'm making,
但 but
随后我会把时间留给你们 接受你们的提问 I'll try to come back to you and I'll then raise your question.
如果我记住你的提问 And if I remember at least,
我会大声地把问题重复一遍 I will repeat the question out loud
让所有人都可以听到了 so that everybody can hear it.
我还想说 我会试着养成一种习惯 I also want to say that I will try to have the practice of,
如果课后你想继续讨论 after class ends, if you want to continue the discussion,
课程结束时 towards the end,
你脑子里突然冒出了某些想法 you have some questions that occurred to you,
之前却没有机会 we didn't have a chance
拿出来与全班分享 to share them with the class as a whole,
那么平时我们可以在课外继续交流 I will, on a normal day, meet outside and continue to talk with
不管有多少人想要交流 however many of you want to do that
我都会让你们满意 until you're done.
我就是喜欢谈论这些东西 I just love talking about this stuff
而且我也欢迎你在答疑时间来 and I welcome you to come to my office hours.
我希望你们在课上提问 I invite you to ask questions in class or,
如果你愿意的话 课后也行 if you prefer, after class as well.
再问一次 你们有什么问题吗 Again, any questions about any of that?
请说 Yeah.
我的答疑时间是什么时候 When are my office hours?
这真是个好问题 That's a great question and
连我也不知道问题的答案 I don't know the answer to it.
我还没有计划好 I haven't planned them yet.
星期四 On Thursday,
一上课就问我 start the class
那时再回答你吧 by asking me that and I'll give you an answer.
好吧 All right.
其它的事情 Other bits of business.
关于分数我应该说明一下 I should say something about grades.
你们中的大多数可能听说过 Now many of you may have heard,
有人可能知道 many of you may know,
如果你真的不知道 and if you don't already know this,
那么我要警告你 I should warn you,
我在耶鲁 that I have a reputation around Yale
是出了名的严厉 as being a harsh grader.
这是真的 I know this is true, that is,
而我之所以有这样的名声 I know I have the reputation, both because
是因为在学生定期评估时 I periodically in my student evaluations
我被评为耶鲁最严厉的人之一 get told I'm one of Yale's harsher graders,
还因有时"耶鲁日间新闻"的文章里 and because every now and then the Yale Daily News
会谈到关于成绩膨胀[平均成绩上升]的事 will have an article about grade inflation
然后人们总会问我 and they'll always ask me, "
"卡根教授是这样一个人..." Well Professor Kagan is somebody..."
一旦有关于成绩膨胀的故事 Once there was a story on grade inflation
耶鲁日间新闻会从下面这句话开始 that the Yale Daily News began by saying, "
"雪莱·卡根 As Shelly Kagan
耶鲁最严厉的老师之一" (known at Yale as one of the hardest graders)."
这起码让我知道 So I know I've got at least the reputation
我有严厉这个名声 of being a hard grader.
我不知道这名声是不是我应得的 I don't actually know whether it's deserved or not,
因为耶鲁并无明文规定 because Yale does not publish information about
一般评分标准是什么 what the grading averages are.
在其他我曾授课的学校 At other schools I've taught at
却有此规定 比如人文学科 there's been information along the lines of well
入门课程典型的评分标准 the typical grade in an introductory course
是怎样怎样的 in the humanities is such and such.
我刚来耶鲁没几天 Shortly after I came here to Yale,
就发现人们认为 and I started realizing that people thought
我在评分上比大多耶鲁教授都严格 I was a harder grader than most other Yale professors,
我打电话问过教务处 I called the administration and asked,
你们是不是有这方面的规定呢 "Do you have this sort of information?"
回答是 "是" The answer is "Yes."
"能不能让我看看呢" "Will you give it to me?"
回答是 "不能" The answer was "No."
他们不把这种规定给耶鲁教员们看 They don't share this information with the Yale faculty.
有点奇怪吧 Seems odd.
当然 这也不难解释 The explanation, of course, actually isn't that hard to come by.
他们担心我们这些严格的评分者 The worry is that those of us who are harder graders than average,
在这类信息发布后 if the information were published,
会因为内疚而稍把评分提高 would feel guilty and sort of ease up on our grading.
而那些评分本来就比较松的 But those who are easier graders
根本不会觉得内疚 不会因此更严格 than average will never feel guilty and toughen up.
这样一来结果就是分数一直往上升 So the result would be a constant push up with the grades.
虽然 At any rate,
不确定我是否评分严格 I don't know for certainty that I'm a harder grader,
但相信应该就是这如此 but I believe that it's the case
就我每次讲课所得到的反应而言 based on reactions I get when I give the speech that I'm about to give.
就这样吧 Okay, so.
我打开那本蓝皮书 耶鲁指导手册 When I open the blue book, the Yale guideline,
耶鲁目录 有这么一页 the Yale catalog, it's got a page,
是说耶鲁每个评分字母表示什么 as you all know, where it says what letter grades mean at Yale.
我今年没把那张纸带过来 I didn't actually bring it this year.
我有时会带 不过现在差不多背下来了 Sometimes I do, but I've got it pretty much memorized.
比方说 每个字母表旁边都注明了含义 It says, for example, next to each letter grade what it means.
比如 B表示好 B, for example, means good.
A表示优秀 A means excellent,
C表示良好 C means satisfactory,
D是合格 D is passing,
F是不及格 F is failing.
B 我们先来说B B, let's start with B.
B表示好 B means good.
现在关键问题是 好是什么意思 Now the crucial question then is what does good mean?
我认为好就是好 如此一来 I take good to mean good. Consequently,
如果你给我写了篇好论文 if you were to write a good paper for me,
就会拿B that would get a B.
如果你从我这儿拿了个B And when you get a B from me...
我这里说的是我 是指我本人 now, I say me, this is the royal me.
因为我并不会亲自给你们的论文评分 Because I won't actually be grading your papers.
给你们论文评分是一小队助教 Your papers will be graded by a small army of TAs.
但他们是在我的指导下评分的 But they will grade under my supervision,
也会遵守我告诉他们的评分标准 and in keeping with the standards that I ask them to grade with.
所以如果你们因为分数而愤怒 So when you're pissed off about your grade,
你们要找的人 the person to take it up with...
就是他们啦 well, take it up with them.
但最后你会想要来找我 But eventually you'll want to take it up with me.
所以如果你从我们这儿拿了个B So when you get a B from us,
B不是说你写的东西是垃圾 B doesn't mean what a piece of crap.
B是做得好 你拿了B应该高兴才是 B means good job! And so you should be pleased to get a B,
因为你做的好啊 because it meant you were doing good work
而且在哲学课上做到好可不容易 and it's not easy to do good work in philosophy.
A是优秀 A means excellent.
优秀并不是说你可以拿去发表了 Now excellent does not mean publishable.
优秀也不是说你是上帝赐给哲学界的礼物 Excellent does not mean you are God's gift to philosophy.
所以你们要理解的是拿到A So it's crucial to understand it doesn't mean
并不是唯一可以证明你就是 that the only way you're going to get an A
上帝赐给哲学界的礼物的途径 is to be God's gift to philosophy.
A只是对哲学初学者而言的最大褒奖 A means excellent work for a first class in philosophy.
这只是启蒙课 This is an introductory class.
是在假设你们没有任何哲学背景下进行的 It does not presuppose any background in philosophy.
但依旧 要想拿到A Still, to get an A,
你们得表现出一点资质 you've got to show some flair for the subject.
不只是表现出你们理解 You've got to show not only have you understood the ideas
那些阅读中的 课堂上的 that have been put forward in the readings
及其他内容的观点 and in the lectures and so forth,
你们还得想办法在论文中把他们整合起来 but you see how to sort of put them together in the paper in a way
显得你们有点天分 that shows you've got some aptitude here.
要让我们觉得值得注意并记下来 You did it in a way that made us take note.
A是给这类人准备的 That's what we try to reserve As for.
你们中会有些人拿A Some of you will end up getting As,
即时刚开始没有 if not at the beginning,
学期末也会有 by the end of the semester.
你们中会有很多人拿B Many of you will end up getting Bs,
即时不是在刚开始 if not at the beginning,
到学期末也会有 by the end of the semester.
很多人在刚开始时不会很棒 Many of you will not start out doing good work.
很多人刚开始时只能说令人满意 Many of you will start out doing satisfactory work or,
或者说实话 甚至不太令人满意 truth be told, less than satisfactory work.
我以前也是本科生 Now look, I was an undergraduate once.
我也知道一般的本科生论文是怎么写的 And I know what it is to write a typical undergraduate paper.
交论文前一晚坐下后 想出了几个点子 You sit down the night before and you had a couple of ideas.
你想了大概半个小时 You thought about it maybe for a half an hour.
本来是打算早点开始准备的 And you meant to get to it sooner,
但你总有很多别的事要做 but you had a lot of other things to do.
你花几个小时写出来 也许还熬夜了 And you throw it off in a couple of hours and maybe stay up late.
你知道那不是你写过的最差的东西 You know it's not the worst thing you ever wrote,
也不是最好的 and it's not the best thing you ever wrote,
里面也有几个不错的主意 and it has a couple of nice ideas,
但也许本来可以写得更好一点 but maybe it could be better.
只能说还算令人满意 It's sort of a satisfactory job.
耶鲁认为令人满意就是C Yale says satisfactory means C.
你们中很多人在学期初会把论文写成那样 So many of you will start off the semester writing that kind of paper.
问题是 And the fact of the matter is,
有些人开始时的论文会比那更糟 some of you will start off writing worse papers than that.
因为哲学论文 Because writing a philosophy paper
不是那么容易写的 is a difficult thing to learn how to do.
写哲学论文是需要一些实力的 It's exercising a set of muscles
你们很多人平时并没有练习写过 that a lot of you have not spent a lot of time exercising.
并不是说你们从来没有花时间做过 Now it's not as though you haven't spent any time doing it.
你们和高中朋友们 You've had bull sessions, right,
大学舍友等等有过闲聊 with your high school friends or in your college dorm or what have you.
但你们从未按照我们 But you haven't done it with the kind of discipline
标准严密的要求写过 and rigor that we're looking for here.
所以正如其他事一样 So, like anything else,
这个技巧在练习中会进步 it's a skill that gets better with practice.
当然这也就是说 And what that means, of course,
你们刚开始时做的不会太好 is you won't do as well at the beginning
我们期望你们在最后会更好一些 as you're likely to be doing toward the end.
其中有些人 很遗憾 Some of you, unfortunately,
在开始时表现不会很好 won't do very good jobs at the beginning...
我会鼓励我的助教们做好给D的准备 and my TAs, I'll encourage them to be prepared to give Ds.
如果论文的缺点明显比优点多 If the vices of the paper significantly outweigh the virtues,
那就是D that's a D.
如果论文毫无可取之处 If the vices very significantly outweigh whatever virtues there are,
那大概就是F了 that's some kind of an F.
实际上 你们中很多人在第一篇论文上 So the fact of the matter is many of you in your initial papers
所得的分数可能比 will get lower grades than you've probably
你们这小半辈子得过的都低 ever gotten before in your life.
我只是想要警告你们一下 I wanted to warn you about that.
我说这些不是想吓坏你们 Now I say this not so much to depress the hell out of you,
只是警告你们一下 but (a) partly to warn you,
并且说清楚 我认为这只是种技能 and (b) to make it clear that I believe that it's a skill.
写一篇好哲学论文是一种技巧 Writing a good philosophy paper is a skill
并且你会越写越好 and you can get better at it.
因此 你们中大部分人会做得越来越好 Consequently, most of you will get better at it.
所以 让我把下面的话说完 So let me make the following remark.
三篇五页长的论文 每篇论文 Officially, each paper--you have three five-page papers.
占分数的百分之二十五 这是规定的 Each paper is worth 25% of your grade, officially.
剩下的百分之二十五是小组讨论 But--the remaining 25% is discussion section;
我等一下会谈这个 I'll get to that in a minute--
按规定 每一篇论文都占百分之二十五 officially, 25% of your grade is for each of the three papers.
但如果你在这学期的课程中 But if, over the course of the semester,
进步了 那么我们会 you get better, then we will give,
在学期末 at the end of the semester,
当我们算出你的分数后 when we're figuring out your semester grade,
我们会给之后那篇 we'll give the later,
较好的论文更大的分值比重 stronger papers more than their official weight.
对大部分人而言 For many of you,
第一篇论文会很明显是最差的一篇 the first paper will be clearly the worst paper you write.
那么我们会把这篇论文的分数扔到一边 And then we'll just throw that grade away;
给第二三篇论文更大比重 give greater weight to the second and third papers.
如果第三篇论文最好 If the third paper is the strongest,
我们会让第三篇论文占更大的比重 we will give even more weight to the third paper.
这没什么公式定律 There's no formula here,
主要是看整体情况 a great deal depends on the overall pattern,
也就是助教告诉我 what your TA tells me about
你们这学期的学习情况 how you've done over the course of the semester.
这个针对你们表现进步所给予的 But this policy of giving greater weight,
更大分值比重的方针 if you show improvement,
是你们可以从中受益的方针 is something that most of you will benefit from.
所以如果你们最终没有得到好成绩 So if you end up not doing well,
这个分数政策不是想让你们退却或是退课 the moral of the story is not to go running off and dropping the class,
而是去思考你所做的对的事 but to figure out what you did right,
和不对的事 what you didn't do right,
以及怎样让接下来的 how to make the second paper better
论文写得更好 and the third paper stronger, again.
如果你有了明显的进步 And if you do show improvement,
那将会有很显著地影响 that will very significantly influence
并在你的分数及 and emerge in terms of the impact it has
学期总评上显示出来 on your overall semester grade.
因为这个政策 Because of this policy,
我其实不知道当所有都 I don't actually know when all is said
按章进行后 学期末的评分是否依然较低 and done whether at the end of the semester I'm any harder,
分数是否偏离了平均水平 whether I depart from the average or not.
我简单介绍一下一般的绩分布情况 Let me quickly mention there's a fairly typical grade distribution
对于期末的学期总评来说 for the overall grades of this, at the end of the semester.
大概有百分之二十五的人 Roughly 25% of you are likely to end up
学期末会拿到A with some kind of an A at the end of the semester.
百分之五十至五十五的人会拿到B fifty 55% of you or so are likely to end up with some kind of a B.
百分之二十至二十五的人会拿到C Twenty,25% percent of you might end up with some sort of a C.
有时少数人的分数会低于C Sometimes there's a couple of percent that end up worse than that.
你有能力完成像样的作业 这不足为奇 Unsurprisingly, you've got the ability to do decent work in this class
大多数人有能力完成好的作业 and most of you have the ability to do good work,
绝大多数人 and some of you have, a fair chunk of you have,
有能力完成优秀的作业 the ability to do excellent work,
尽管这需要花一些功夫才能做到 though it may take some work on your part to get to that point.
最后我该说一下为什么我要这样做 The last thing I should say about the grades is why do I do this?
我真的是出于对你们的尊重才这么做的 It's really I try to do it as a sign of respect for you.
我知道这听起来很奇怪 I know that may seem like a surprising thing to say
在我有些幸灾乐祸地说完 when I've just sort of gone on my little gleeful amount about
我会如何让你们集体挂掉之后 how I'm going to fail all of you,
但你们值得我称赞 你们非常聪明 but it's worth my saying you guys are so smart.
你们非常有才 You're so talented.
你们已经通过自己的能力走到现在 You've gotten so far on your ability
并且很多人已学会轻而易举收获成功 that many of you have learned to coast.
你们可能不需要靠完成学业来获得成功 It's not doing you any kind of service to let you continue coasting.
我想要的是诚实的与你们相对 对吧 My goal here is to be honest with you, right?
你们大多数人也许足够聪明 Look, you're smart enough probably most of you
最终毫不费力就可以得到B to pull off some sort of B without breaking into a sweat,
或是至少花点功夫 or at least not a significant sweat.
这没关系 So be it.
但是 你这是在自欺欺人 But it's just lying to you to pretend
你是在佯装你精通哲学 that that's excellence in philosophy.
所以我想在这门课里和你们坦诚相待 So what I want to do in this class is be honest with you
并告诉你们 and tell you,
"你们真的是在学东西 "You've really done work here
你们该为自己感到为豪" to be extraordinarily proud of yourself"
而不是说"你们做的差强人意" versus "Yeah, you've done something okay"
或是"你们干的不错 or "You've done good work.
诚然 虽不是优秀 Admittedly, it's not great,
但也算不错了" but you've done good work."
百分之七十五的分数取决于论文 All right, that's 75% of your grade is the papers.
剩下的百分之二十五基于小组讨论 The remaining 25% of your grade is based on discussion section.
小组讨论可是占了很大的分数比例 Now that's a lot of your grade to turn on discussion section.
所以我和你们说的第一件事 就是我是认真的 So the first thing I need to tell you is I really mean it.
如果你们不在小组讨论好好表现 If you blow off discussion section,
你们的分数会很低 you're grade will suffer.
你们需要知道的是 你们在小组讨论时 So it's worth knowing in a general way what you need to do
如何做才能得到比较高的分数 答案是 to earn a good grade in discussion section and here the answer is,
同样这也是最明显的 perhaps the obvious one,
你需要去参与 you need to participate.
你需要去参与讨论 You need to come to discussion sections
给出自己的想法 having thought about the lectures,
去读阅读材料 having done the readings,
去思考他们提出的问题 having thought about the questions that they raise,
并且你需要去讨论 and you need to come to discussion section
然后准备这个星期要讨论的问题 then prepared to discuss this week's set of issues.
你需要去聆听你的同学所说的 You need to listen to what your classmates are saying
并说明为什么你不同意他们 and say why you disagree with them.
不仅是说出你不同意他们 And not just that you disagree with them,
还要提出反驳的理由 but to raise an objection.
或者为什么你同意他们的观点 Or why you agree with them.
当其他人攻击他们时 And when somebody else then attacks them,
你得说 "我觉得约翰说得很对 say, "Look, I think that what John was saying was a good point
我认为他该这样维护他的立场" and here's how I think he should have defended his position,"
或者说出你的看法 or what have you.
你需要参与到哲学讨论中去 You need to engage in philosophical discussion.
如果你不参与讨论 If you're not participating in discussion section,
那你就没有完成讨论的目的 you're not doing what the section is there for.
哲学家爱谈论 同样也爱辩论 Philosophers love to talk and we love to argue.
只有通过通过谈论哲学 The way to get better at thinking about philosophy
才能让我们更好地了解哲学 is by talking about philosophy.
这就是我让你们积极参与讨论的原因 So I'm putting my money where my mouth is.
我是说"嘿 I'm saying, "Look, yeah,
那是这门课很重要的一部分 that's an important part of the class.
重要到要占分数的百分之二十五" So important that it's going to be worth 25% of your grade."
再次重申 这不是意味着 Again, it doesn't mean...
这和论文有些区别 this is slightly different from the papers...
不是说你要有渊博的哲学知识才能得到A that you've got to be brilliant philosophically to get an A.
而是 你需要在课堂环节上 Rather, you've got to be a wonderful class citizen
成为一个很棒的学生才能得到A to get an A for discussion section.
所以 我把它放到了教学大纲里 So, as I put it, in fact I think I put it this way on the syllabus,
参与 在这里我是指要相互尊重的参与 participation--and here I mean respectful participation,
而不是想出风头的那种 not hogging the limelight...
参与能够加分 participation can improve your grade,
而不会使你的分数变少 but it won't lower your grade.
不参与 或是不出勤 Nonparticipation, or not being there,
那将会扣分 that will lower your participation grade.
有任何问题关于这个的吗 Any question about any of that?
那好 All right.
我抱歉说了这么冗长的规矩 So I'm sorry to have sort of the long gloom and doom,
但这些可以让你们了解 but it seems that it's only fair to let you know
你们将要面对什么 what you're getting into.
另一个关于小组讨论我要强调的是 One other remark about the discussion sections.
我认为这就像是 The way I think of it is like
你们在外语课堂上的对话时间 the conversation hour for your foreign language class.
你们中有多少人以前上过哲学课 How many of you have had a philosophy class before?
谢谢 也许有百分之十五 Thanks. Maybe 15% of you.
或是百分之二十 Maybe 20% of you.
大多数都没上过 Most of you have not.
这很正常 That's pretty normal.
不要在小组讨论上这样想 Don't go into discussion section thinking,
"我不知道说什么 我没有哲学基础 "Oh, I can't talk. I don't have any background in philosophy.
我从来没有做过这种事" I've never done this sort of thing before."
对于大多数人来所 这是事实 That's true for most of you.
你们慢慢适应的方法 只有谈论哲学 The way you get better is by talking philosophy.
好 下一件事 All right. Next remark.
这应该是与你们分数相关的 I guess this is sort of just one last connection
最后一件事了 with regard to grades.
这是堂哲学导论课 This is an intro philosophy class.
导论课程的关键就是这是第一堂哲学课 The crucial point about intro is it means first class in philosophy.
它并不需要任何哲学基础 It doesn't presuppose any background in philosophy.
但这不表示它简单 It doesn't necessarily mean easy.
其中一些内容对某些人来说 Some of this material for some of you is going to be very,
将会非常难 very difficult.
并且尽管你们要读的材料 And although the number of pages that you'll have to read are not...
不是太多 there's not a lot.
也许是一个星期内五十页 或许更少 Probably in a typical week, 50 pages, maybe less.
对大多数人来说 For many of you,
你们可能会觉得这些内容很难懂 you're going to find it dense material.
而且我也不认为 And although I don't really have the fantasy
你们有些人会读两遍 that many of you will read this stuff twice,
如果你们有时间的话 if you had the time to do it,
那将会是非常值得去做的事 that would be a wonderful thing to do.
哲学是很难读懂的东西 Philosophy is hard stuff to read.
另一件关于这门介绍课要说的是 Other remark about this being an intro class
我们对一些问题的介绍 is that it's introductory in that the issues
都是你们头一回听说的 that we're talking about are kind of first run through.
每一件我们在这讨论的 Every single thing that we discuss here
都有可能到一个更深的境界 could be pursued at greater depth.
例如 我们会花时间讨论一些问题 So, for example, we'll spend whatever it is,
也许用了一个半星期谈论 maybe a week and a half talking about
个人同一性 或许花了两星期 the nature of personal identity, two weeks.
但是也有人会花一整个学期 But one could easily spend an entire semester
独自思考那个问题 thinking about that question alone.
所以不管我们讨论什么 So don't come away thinking that whatever it is
都不要以为那些 that we've talked about here in lecture
只能在课堂上思考 is the last word on the subject.
更确切地说 它只是这个问题的开始 Rather, it's something more like first words.
我还想再说一点关于阅读材料的事 Actually, one other word about the readings and the lectures.
有一个例外 With one exception,
我不会花很多时间讨论阅读材料的内容 I won't be spending very much time talking about the readings.
而这个例外就是柏拉图 The exception is Plato,
也许我会讲上两节课 where I'll lecture, maybe two lectures,
我会重现柏拉图的主要论证 trying to reconstruct Plato's central arguments,
至少这些论证和我们课程相关 at least the arguments relevant to our class.
我们将会读一段柏拉图的对话 We'll be reading one of Plato's dialogues.
但是大部分时候 But for the most part,
尽管我将不时地 although I'll occasionally,
偶尔地提及课外阅读材料 periodically refer to the readings,
但我不会花很多时间谈论书中的观点 I won't spend a lot of time talking about the views in the readings.
因为你应该把那些书当作是我上课的补充 The readings you should think of as complementary to my lectures.
它们会比我所讲的内容更为丰富 The idea is that there's more to say than what I've said.
你将会在阅读中发现在更多的知识 And you'll find some more of what there is to say in the readings.
或者我会提到其中的观点 Or there may be positions that I mention,
但我不会展开去谈 but I don't develop,
因为我无法与其产生共鸣 because I'm not perhaps sympathetic to them,
而你可能在阅读中 and you might find
找到与其产生共鸣的人 somebody who is sympathetic to them,
并得到更深入的领悟 developing them in the readings.
阅读材料是本课程最关键的组成部分 The readings are a crucial component of the class.
只听课无法让你得到所需的全部知识 You won't get everything you need simply by coming to the lectures.
于此相同的是 But equally the case,
我在讲座中展开讨论的观点 that the views that I'll be developing in the lectures are,
尽管也不全是我的个人观点 although not necessarily unique to me,
但你们也不是都能在阅读材料里找到 aren't all laid out in the readings.
如果你只是一味地阅读 You won't get everything I'm talking about in the lectures,
你也无法了解我讲课的全部 if all you do is the readings.
因为阅读与听课都是本课程的组成部分 They're both parts of the class.
好的 我想以此结尾 All right. I want to end by...
我其实还没说完 I'm not close to ending,
但我想说的最后一件事 but the last thing I'm going to do
是大声念出一些学生的评价 is read aloud some student evaluations.
我发现这些年来有些学生喜欢我 I have found over the years that some students like me;
有些学生不喜欢我 some students don't like me.
最能明确这个问题的方法就是 I don't know how to make this point any clearer
和你们分享一些学生的抽样评估 than to share with you a sampling of the student evaluations.
这些不是来自上学期的评估 These are not actually from last spring,
但是它们足够典型了 but they're typical enough
我都懒得举新的例证 that I was too lazy to make some new quotes.
例一 Quote one.
这些都是来自之前真实学生的原话 These are actual quotes from former actual students.
一 "讲座十分明了并符合逻辑顺序" (1) "The lectures were clear and followed a very logical order."
二 "我认为课程有时缺乏条理性" (2) "I thought the class was not always organized."
三 "我认为课程编排十分具有条理性" (3) "I thought it was a very well organized class."
(四) "总体来说 我对本课程不满意" (4) "Overall, I was unsatisfied with this course.
几乎没得出什么实质性的结论" Few substantive conclusions were reached."
五 老生常谈 (5) Along the same vein, "
"我觉得他没必要 I think he should avoid saying
每个论证完结后都说 at the end of each segment of the class,
最终 你还得自己决定如何看待这个问题" Ultimately, you'll have to decide what to think for yourself."
我该这么说来结束课程 I should end the class by saying, "
"你会相信的" You will believe."
事实上 刚上课时我就说了 Actually, I started the class by saying that.
你将会相信我所相信的 You will believe what I believe.
六 "更客观地阐述一些观点 (6) "It might be improved by presenting other views better
或许会好一些 and more objectively,
因为卡根总是用他独有的论点 since Kagan always ended a particular line
来驳斥他不赞同的论证 of reasoning by defeating the argument if he didn't agree with it.
他可以更公正地容忍其他观点" He could be a bit more unbiased and tolerant of other perspectives."
七 "上课内容有时重复或是毫无新意 (7) "Lectures were sometimes repetitive or obvious,
但偶尔会提出新的观点" but occasionally, they provided new insights."
八 "我知道有人认为论证过程有点慢 (8) "I know that some felt the pace of the arguments was a little slow,
但我感觉这样做还是有必要的 but I felt that this was generally necessary,
不只是为了不懂哲学的同学们 not only for the unphilosophy-savvy population,
也是为了能覆盖所有内容" but also to cover all points."
九 "十分全面周到 (9) "Extremely thorough and thoughtful.
接受所有提问 太棒了" 我喜欢这条 Receptive to questions. Brilliant." I like that one.
"经常罗嗦冗长" "Often long-winded." Hmmm.
十 "他的确一遍遍重复同样的观点 (10) "He does go around and around the same idea a number of times,
可这减少了课程的笔记 which does cut down on the notes for the class,
但是会让人感到有点无聊" but it can get a little boring."
十一 "尽管听有些同学说他经常自言自语 (11) "Though I've heard students say he often repeats himself,
但我认为对于哲学课而言这是一个优点 I think this is a merit in a philosophy course
因为论证和思路很容易混淆" in which arguments and thoughts can quickly become confusing."
十二 "雪莱·卡根是个完美的 (12) "Shelly Kagan is a fabulous,
足智多谋的 让人彻底信服的演讲者" resourceful, utterly convincing lecturer."
十三 "他能在大家面前论证论点" (13) "He would work through arguments right in front of--"
我喜欢这条 I like this one,
因为这是我对自己的最低目标 because this is what I at least aim to be inside my head.
这就是我一直在做的 Here's what I'm doing.
十三 "他能在我们面前论证论点 Thirteen: "He would work through arguments right in front of us,
这样有助于我自己对其进行论证" which then helped me work through them on my own."
十四 "雪莱是位不可思议 精力充沛的老师" (14) "Shelly is an incredibly dynamic lecturer."
十五 "他只是在自己的世界里胡说八道 (15) "He's just in his own world babbling on and on.
我常常心不在焉" I'd zone out with regularity."
十六 "我不得不说雪莱·卡根很可能是 (16) "I have to say that Shelly Kagan is probably
我在耶鲁四年所遇到的最好的老师" the best lecturer I had in my four years at Yale."
十七 "他是那种让人又爱又恨的老师" (17) "He's the type of teacher you either love or hate."
这估计是真的 Now that's pretty clearly true.
我希望能有一种简单的石蕊测试 I wish there were some easy litmus test
来给你们测试 然后你们会知道 that I could just give you so you'd know
你们谁上这门课是一个错误 which of you would be making a mistake taking this class.
我不知道如何做这个测试 I don't know how to give it to you.
下一个话题 分数 Next topic, grades.
一 "他经常用难以做到的 (1) "He tried to intimidate us too much
评分标准来吓唬我们 with his promise of impossible grading
以至每个人都想去报Cr/D/F的课程 so that everyone took the class credit/D/fail,
[选择Cr/D/F的课程 分数在55-100成绩都是Cr 55-50是D及格 50一下就是F不及格 该课程的好处是成绩单上不会显示具体的分数] when we all probably ended up with As or Bs.
但最后我们几乎都得了A或B His grading was not hard."
他打分显然不是那么苛刻" (2) "I recommend it, but only credit/D/fail.
二 "我推荐这门课 只是因为Cr/D/F罢了 Professor Kagan is harsh with grading."
卡根教授的打分太严苛了" (3) "When Shelly says he's the harshest grader on campus,
三 "当雪莱说他是全校最严格的评分老师时 he isn't lying.
他没有撒谎 I was consistently surprised by
我一直很惊讶 how poorly I did on papers.
我的论文究竟有多糟糕 The standards in this class are just different from
这门课的标准和 all other classes."
所有其他的课都不同" (4) "Kagan's reputation as a harsh grader is unfounded.
四 "卡根打分严格的谣言 纯属无中生有 If you put in the effort,
如果你付出了努力 the grade will reflect that."
分数就是最好的体现" So that settles the question am I a harsh grader or not.
所以这就解决了我是否对打分严苛的问题 The last question for the evaluation is
评估的最后一个问题是 should you take the class or not?
你是否来上课 Would you recommend it to somebody else?
你是否向其他人推荐这门课 (1) "I believe this class is
一 "我认为我生命中思维最开放的 one of the most mind-opening experiences of my life."
一段经历就是上了这门课" (2) "No. It's a waste of a course."
二 "不 这是在浪费时间" (3) "It gets kind of depressing at times,
三 "这门课有时会令人感到失望 but I suppose that's due to the nature of the subject."
但我认为这应归咎于这门课本身" (4) "This course stands out as one of the more unique
四 "这门课比我在耶鲁上过的任何 and stimulating courses I've taken at Yale."
课程都独一无二且令人激动" (5) "Excellent class.
五 "精彩的一门课 It made me think about life and death in a new way.
它让我以一种全新的方式思考生命与死亡 What more can you ask for from a class?"
你还能从一门课中要求什么呢" (6) "I would not recommend it.
六 "我绝不推荐这门课 The class just seemed to be a platform
它看起来就像一场演出 for Kagan to throw out random ideas
演出内容就是卡根随口抛出一些观点 and the students were never required to engage in any thought."
而学生们从没被要求参与其中" Well, that clears that up.
这部分评估读完了 Let me end with a couple of other quick remarks.
让我用一些其它的短评论来做结尾 One--these are some of my all-time favorites from previous years.
这些是我早些年的最爱 (1) "Not doing the reading didn't hurt me at all."
一 "不看课外阅读对我全无影响" Now, these are anonymous comments.
这些是匿名评论 I don't know who wrote this comment.
我不知道谁写的这条评论 But I do know this.
但我知道 Whoever wrote this remark is an idiot.
无论谁写的这条评论 他就是个白痴 Whoever wrote this remark seems to be under the impression
无论谁写的这条评论 都应该铭记 that the point of being at Yale is to spend $40,000 a year of
你父母每年花费四万美金供你在耶鲁上学 your parents' money and get away with learning as little as possible.
你应该尽可能地学到最多的知识 Well, for those of you who want to try it,
对于那些想要尝试这样做的人 you probably could pass this class
你很可能顺利通过这门课 and maybe even get an okay grade
甚至可能得到一个不错的分数 without doing the readings.
即时你不看课外阅读 There's no final exam.
本课没有期末考试 But still, it's crucial to understand,
但仍旧 你必须知道 doing the readings is an important part of learning
想要学好这门课 what this course has to offer.
课外阅读是非常重要的 Different quote. "Kagan is a self-righteous little man"
不同的例证 "卡根是一个自以为是的小个子" Now I've got to tell you,
现在我必须告诉你们 that bit about being little, that really hurts.
说我小个子 真的很伤人 Another one. "Great course. Wonderful professor.
另一个 "伟大的课程 了不起的教授 Fascinating subjects.
吸引人的课题 The deepest thinking I've done in my life."
令我进行了生命中最为深刻的思考" Final quote. "This class taught me
最后一例 "这门课比耶鲁大学的 how to think more than any other at Yale."
任何人都教会了我如何思考" I don't know whether I pull it off.
我不知道我是否成功 Pretty obviously,
很明显 for a number of students,
对于不少学生而言 I don't manage to pull it off,
我没能让他们收获更多 but that's at least what my aim is.
但那至少是我的目标 I'm trying to help you think.
我在试着帮助你们思考 I welcome you and I hope you'll be back on Thursday.
欢迎并期待下星期四你们的到来