黑白兀鹫翻译(1)

2021年1月20日发(作者：mkt)
Method of Scientific Investigation
The method of scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of the necessary
mode of working of the human mind; it is simply the mode by which all phenomena
are
reasoned
about
and
given
precise
and
exact
explanation.
There
is
no
more
difference, but there is just the same kind of difference, between the mental operations
of
a
man
of
science
and
those
of
an
ordinary
person,
as
there
is
between
the
operations and methods of a baker or of a butcher weighing out his goods in common
scales, and the operations of a chemist in performing a difficult and complex analysis
by means of his balance and finely graded weights. It is not that the scales in the one
case,
and
the
balance
in
the
other,
differ
in
the
principles
of
their
construction
or
manner of working; but that the latter is a much finer apparatus and of course much
more accurate in its measurement than the former.
You will understand this better, perhaps, if
I give you some familiar examples.
You have all heard it repeated that men of science work by means of induction and
deduction,
that
by
the
help
of
these
operations,
they,
in
a
sort
of
sense,
manage
to
extract from Nature certain natural laws, and that out of these, by some special skill of
their own, they build up their theories. And it is imagined by many that the operations
of
the
common
mind
can
be
by
no
means
compared
with
these
processes,
and
that
they have to be acquired by a sort of special training. To hear all these large words,
you would thinkthat the mind of a man of science must be constituted differently from
that of his fellow men; but if you will not be frightened by terms, you will discover
that
you
are
quite
wrong,
and
that
all
these
terrible
apparatus
are
being
used
by
yourselves every day and every hour of your lives. There is a well-known incident in
one of Moliere
’
s plays, where the author makes the hero express unbounded delight
on being told that he had been talking prose during the whole of his life. In the same
way,
I
trust
that
you
will
take
comfort,
and
be
delighted
with
yourselves,
on
the
discovery
that
you
have
been
acting
on
the
principles
of
inductive
and
deductive
philosophy during the same period.
Probably there is not one here who has not in the course of the day had occasion
to set in motion a complex train of reasoning, if the very same kind, though differing
in degree, as that which a scientific man goes through in tracing the causes of natural
phenomena.




18. The Beauty of Science

Judging from the scientists I know, including Eva and Ruth, and those
I’
ve read
about, you can
’
t pursue the laws of nature very long without bumping into beauty.
”I

don
’
t know if it
’
s
the same beauty
you see in
the sunset,
”

a
friend tells
me,
“
but
it
feels
the
same.
”T
his
friend
is
a
physicist,
who
has
spent
a
long
career
deciphering
what
must
be
happening
in
the
interior
of
stars.
He
recalls
for
me
this
thrill
on
grasping for the first time Dirac
’
s equations describing quantum mechanics, or those
of
Einstein
describing
relativity.
“
They
’
re
so
beautiful,
”

he
says,
”
you
can
see
immediately they have to be true. Or at least on the way toward truth.
”I
ask him what
makes
a
theory
beautiful,
and
he
replies,
“
Simplicity,
symmetry,
elegance,
and
power.
”

Why
nature
should
conform
to
theories
we
find
beautiful
is
far
from
obvious.
The
most
incomprehensible
thing
about
the
universe,
as
Einstein
said,
is
that
it
’
s
comprehensible. How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be
able
to
gauge
the
speed
of
light,
lay
bare
the
structure
of
an
atom,
or
calculate
the
gravitational
tug of a black hole.
We
’
re
a long
way
from
understanding
everything,
but
we
do
understand
a
great
deal
about
how
nature
behaves.
Generation
after
generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that
nature agrees. An architect draws designs on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up
through earthquakes. We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bounce messages
from
continent
to
continent.
The
machine
on
which
I
write
these
words
embodies
hundreds
of
insights
into
the
workings
of
the
material
world,
insights
that
are
confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and
I stare at that screen through
lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.
By discerning patterns in the universe, Newton believed, he was tracing the hand
of God. Scientists
in
our day have largely abandoned the notion of a Creator as
an
unnecessary hypothesis, or at least an untestable one. While they share Newton
’
s faith
that the universe is ruled everywhere by a coherent set of rules, they cannot say, an
scientists,
how
these
particular
rules
came
to
govern
things.
You
can
do
science
without believing in a diving Legislator, but not without believing in laws.




20. The Study of Journalistic Reporting
The
study
of
law
has
been
recognized
for
centuries
as
a
basic
intellectual
discipline
in
European
universities.
However,
only
in
recent
years
has
it
become
a
feature
of
undergraduate
programs
in
Canadian
universities.
Traditionally,
legal
learning has been viewed in such institutions as the special preserve of lawyers rather
than a necessary part if the intellectual equipment of an educated person. Happily, the
older and more continental view of legal education is establishing itself in a number
of Canadian universities and some have been begun to offer undergraduate degrees in
law.
If the study of law is beginning to establish itself as part and parcel of a general
education, its aims and methods should appeal directly to journalism educators. Law
is a discipline which encourages responsible judgment. On the one hand, it provides
opportunities to analyze such ideas as justice, democracy and freedom. On the other,
it links these concepts to everyday realities in a manner which is parallel to the links
journalists
forge
on
a
daily
basis
as
they
cover
and
comment
on
the
news.
For
example, notions if evidence and fact, of basis rights and public interest are at work in
the
process
if
journalistic
judgment
and
production
just
as
in
courts
of
law.
Sharpening judgment by absorbing and reflecting on law is a desirable component of