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DamonHorowitz_2011-_监狱哲学_
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| Meet Tony. He's my student. |
说说托尼 他是我的学生 |
| He's about my age, and he's in San Quentin State Prison. |
跟我差不多年纪 他在圣昆汀州立监狱服刑 |
| When Tony was 16 years old, one day, one moment, "It was mom's gun. |
在他16岁的时候 有一天, “那是我妈的枪 |
| Just flash it, scare the guy. He's a punk . |
拿它吓唬吓唬这人。这家伙是个刺头 |
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flash:n.闪光; v.闪光; adj.庞大的; punk:n.废物;小阿飞;年轻无知的人;adj.朋客,崩客;无用的,低劣的;
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| He took some money; we'll take his money. That'll teach him. |
他有点钱,我们拿了钱,也是给他点颜色看看。 |
| Then last minute, I'm thinking, 'Can't do this. This is wrong.' |
最后一刻,我想:‘我不该这么做,这不对。’ |
| My buddy says, 'C'mon, let's do this.' |
同伴说:‘别拖拉了,快动手！’ |
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buddy:n.伙伴,好朋友;密友;小男孩;v.做好朋友,交朋友;
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| I say, 'Let's do this.'" |
我说:“动手吧！” |
| And those three words, Tony's going to remember, because the next thing he knows, he hears the pop. |
托尼会记住这三个字 因为他立刻听到了响声 |
| There's the punk on the ground, puddle of blood. |
而那个刺头躺倒在血泊里 |
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puddle:n.水坑,泥潭; vt.使泥泞,搅浑; vi.搅泥浆;
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| And that's felony murder -- 25 to life, parole at 50 if you're lucky, and Tony's not feeling very lucky. |
谋杀重罪 终生监禁,运气好的话50岁能假释 但托尼似乎不太走运 |
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felony:n.重罪; parole:n.语言;誓言,诺言;释放宣言;v.有条件释放,假释;使假释出狱;
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| So when we meet in my philosophy class in his prison and I say, "In this class, we will discuss the foundations of ethics ," |
我们在他监狱的哲学课碰到时 我说:“这门课我们讨论道德基础。” |
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philosophy:n.哲学;哲理;人生观; foundations:n.基础;地基;基金会;粉底;(foundations是foundation的复数) ethics:n.伦理学;伦理观;道德标准;
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| Tony interrupts me. |
托尼打断了我 |
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interrupts:n.中断(interrupt的复数);v.打断(interrupt的三单形式);
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| '"What are you going to teach me about right and wrong? |
“你要教我什么是是非？” |
| I know what is wrong. I have done wrong. |
我知道什么是错的。我做过错事。 |
| I am told every day, by every face I see, every wall I face, that I am wrong. |
每一天我都知道 每一天我看着面前每堵墙,我知道我错了。 |
| If I ever get out of here , there will always be a mark by my name. |
要是我出不去,我的名字上肯定有个污点 |
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get out of here:出去(表示气愤或不耐烦等)
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| I'm a convict; I am branded 'wrong.' |
我是个罪犯,我的标签就是‘错误’ |
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branded:adj.名牌商标的; v.铭刻; (brand的过去式和过去分词);
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| What are you going to tell me about right and wrong?" |
你还有什么要告诉我哪些错的哪些对的？” |
| So I say to Tony, "Sorry, but it's worse than you think. |
我跟托尼说 “抱歉,但你的情况比你以为的还糟 |
| You think you know right and wrong? |
你以为你知道对与错？ |
| Then can you tell me what wrong is? |
那你能告诉我什么是错的？ |
| No, don't just give me an example. |
不要单给我例子 |
| I want to know about wrongness itself, the idea of wrong. |
我要知道错这个概念 |
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wrongness:n.不正直;谬误;不公正;
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| What is that idea? |
错是什么意思？ |
| What makes something wrong? |
是什么导致它是错的？ |
| How do we know that it's wrong? Maybe you and I disagree. |
我们怎么知道一件事情是错的？也许你我意见不同 |
| Maybe one of us is wrong about the wrong. |
也许我们之一对错的理解是错的 |
| Maybe it's you, maybe it's me -- but we're not here to trade opinions; everyone's got an opinion. |
也许是你也许是我－但我们不是来交换意见的 谁都有自己的意见 |
| We are here for knowledge. |
我们是为知识而来的 |
| Our enemy is thoughtlessness. This is philosophy." |
我们的敌人是不思考 这是哲学。” |
| And something changes for Tony. |
托尼有了改变 |
| '"Could be I'm wrong. I'm tired of being wrong. |
“也许是我错了。我不想错下去了。 |
| I want to know what is wrong. |
我想知道什么是错 |
| I want to know what I know." |
我想知道我的想法 |
| What Tony sees in that moment is the project of philosophy, the project that begins in wonder -- what Kant called " admiration and awe at the starry sky above and the moral law within." |
托尼那一刻明白了哲学的概念 哲学始于探究－ 康德所谓的“位我上者,灿烂星空; 道德律令,在我心中。” |
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admiration:n.钦佩;赞赏;羡慕;赞美; awe:vt.使敬畏;使畏怯;n.敬畏; starry:adj.布满星星的;闪闪发光的;星光照耀的;星形的; moral:n.寓意;品行;教益;adj.道德的;道义上的;道德上的;品行端正的;
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| What can creatures like us know of such things? |
人类生命能对此认知多少？ |
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creatures:n.生物;动物;(具有某种特征的)人(creature的复数)
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| It is the project that always takes us back to the condition of existence -- what Heidegger called "the always already there." |
哲学的概念总是将我们带回存在的问题－ 海德格尔所谓的“已然存在” |
| It is the project of questioning what we believe and why we believe it -- what Socrates called "the examined life." |
这是个质疑我们的认知及其背后理由的概念 也就是苏格拉底所说的“经过检验的生活” |
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Socrates:n.苏格拉底(古希腊哲学家);
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| Socrates, a man wise enough to know that he knows nothing. |
苏格拉底,一个知道自己一无所知的智者 |
| Socrates died in prison, his philosophy intact . |
他死于狱中 但他的哲学长存于世 |
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intact:adj.完整的;原封不动的;未受损伤的;
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| So Tony starts doing his homework. |
托尼开始思考 |
| He learns his whys and wherefores , his causes and correlations , his logic , his fallacies . |
他去理解他的何所来何所去,他的前因后果 他的逻辑,他的谬论 |
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whys and wherefores:理由;来龙去脉; correlations:n.统计,[数]相关(correlation复数形式);相互关系; logic:n.逻辑;逻辑学;逻辑性;adj.逻辑的; fallacies:n.错误,谬论(fallacy的复数形式);
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| Turns out, Tony's got the philosophy muscle . |
托尼有哲学的领悟力 |
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muscle:n.肌肉;力量;v.加强;使劲搬动;使劲挤出;
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| His body is in prison, but his mind is free. |
他身在监狱,但心却自由 |
| Tony learns about the ontologically promiscuous , the epistemologically anxious, the ethically dubious , the metaphysically ridiculous . |
托尼理解了本体性混杂 认识性焦虑 道德可疑性和形而上学的荒谬 |
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ontologically:adv.存在论地;本体论地; promiscuous:adj.混杂的;杂乱的;adv.偶然地;胡乱地; ethically:adv.伦理上; dubious:adj.可疑的;暧昧的;无把握的;半信半疑的; ridiculous:adj.可笑的;荒谬的;
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| That's Plato , Descartes , Nietzsche and Bill Clinton. |
分别是柏拉图,笛卡儿,尼采 和比尔?克林顿 |
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Plato:n.柏拉图(古希腊哲学家); Descartes:n.笛卡尔(法国哲学家,数学家); Nietzsche:n.尼采(德国哲学家);
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| So when he gives me his final paper, in which he argues that the categorical imperative is perhaps too uncompromising to deal with the conflict that affects our everyday and challenges me to tell him |
最后他在递交给我的期末报告里 讨论了绝对命令 对处理日常生活中的冲突 也许是过于不妥协的态度 并要我告诉他 |
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categorical:adj.绝对的(名词categoricalness,副词categorically,异体字categoric); imperative:adj.重要紧急的; n.重要紧急的事; uncompromising:adj.不妥协的,不让步的;坚定的; conflict:n.冲突;矛盾;争执;抵触;v.抵触;
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| whether therefore we are condemned to moral failure, |
是否因此我们注定道德失灵 |
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condemned:adj.已被定罪的;被责难的;
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| I say, "I don't know. |
我说:“我不知道, |
| Let us think about that." |
我们想想这个问题。” |
| Because in that moment, there's no mark by Tony's name; it's just the two of us standing there. |
那一刻,托尼的名字上没有污点 仅仅是我们两个人站在那里 |
| It is not professor and convict , it is just two minds ready to do philosophy. |
不是教授和罪犯 仅仅是两个心灵探讨哲学 |
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convict:vt.证明…有罪;宣告…有罪;n.罪犯;
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| And I say to Tony, "Let's do this." |
我对托尼说 ”动手吧！“ |
| Thank you. |
谢谢 |
| (Applause) |
（掌声） |