Unit 8 Knowledge and Wisdom课文翻译综合教程三

Unit 8

Knowledge and Wisdom

(abridged)

Bertrand Russell

1

Most

people

would

agree

that,

although

our

age

far

surpasses

all

previous

ages

in

knowledge,

there

has

been

no

correlative

increase

in

wisdom.

But

agreement

ceases

as

soon as we attempt to define

“wisdom” and consider means of promoting it. I want to ask

first what wisdom is, and then what can be done to teach it.

2

There are, I think, several factors that contribute to wisdom. Of these I should put

first a sense of proportion: the capacity to take account of all the important factors in a

problem and to attach to each its due weight. This has become more difficult than it used

to be owing to the extent and complexity of the specialized knowledge required of various

kinds of technicians. Suppose, for example, that you are engaged in research in scientific

medicine. The work is difficult and is likely to absorb the whole of your intellectual energy.

You have not time to consider the effect which your discoveries or inventions may have

outside the field of medicine. You succeed (let us say), as modern medicine has succeeded,

in enormously lowering the infant death-rate, not only in Europe and America, but also in

Asia

and

Africa.

This

has

the

entirely

unintended

result

of

making

the

food

supply

inadequate and lowering the standard of life in the most populous parts of the world. To

take an even more spectacular example, which is in everybody's mind at the present time:

You

study

the

composition

of

the

atom

from

a

disinterested

desire

for

knowledge,

and

incidentally place in the hands of powerful lunatics the means of destroying the human

race

3

. In such ways the pursuit of knowledge may become harmful unless it is combined

with wisdom; and wisdom in the sense of comprehensive vision is not necessarily present

in specialists in the pursuit of knowledge.

3

Comprehensiveness alone, however, is not enough to constitute wisdom. There must

be,

also,

a

certain

awareness

of

the

ends

of

human

life.

This

may

be

illustrated

by

the

study of history. Many eminent historians have done more harm than good because they

viewed

facts

through

the

distorting

medium

of

their

own

passions.

Hegel

had

a

philosophy of history which did not suffer from any lack of comprehensiveness, since it

started

from

the

earliest

times

and

continued

into

an

indefinite

future.

But

the

chief

lesson of history which he sought to inculcate was that from the year 400AD down to his

own

time

Germany

had

been

the

most

important

nation

and

the

standard-bearer

of

progress in the world. Perhaps one could stretch the comprehensiveness that constitutes

wisdom to include not only intellect but also feeling. It is by no means uncommon to find

men whose knowledge is wide but whose feelings are narrow. Such men lack what I call

wisdom.

4

It is not only in public ways, but in private life equally, that wisdom is needed. It is

needed in the choice of ends to be pursued and in emancipation from personal prejudice.

Even

an

end

which

it

would

be

noble

to

pursue

if

it

were

attainable

may

be

pursued

unwisely

if

it

is

inherently

impossible

of

achievement.

Many

men

in

past

ages

devoted

their lives to a search for the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life. No doubt, if they

could have found them, they would have conferred great benefits upon mankind, but as it

was their lives were wasted. To descend to less heroic matters, consider the case of two

men, Mr. A and Mr. B, who hate each other and, through mutual hatred, bring each other

to destruction. Suppose you go to Mr.

A and say, “Why do you hate Mr

.

B?” He will

no

doubt give you an appalling list of Mr. B's vices, partly true, partly false. And now suppose

you

go

to

Mr.

B.

He

will

give

you

an

exactly

similar

list

of

Mr.

A's

vices

with

an

equal

admixture of truth and falsehood. Suppose you now come back to Mr. A

and say, “You

will be surprised to learn that Mr.

B says the same things about you as you say about him”,

and

you

go

to

Mr.

B

and

make

a

similar

speech.

The

first

effect,

no

doubt,

will

be

to

increase their mutual hatred, since each will be so horrified by the other's injustice. But

perhaps, if you have sufficient patience and sufficient persuasiveness, you may succeed in

convincing each that the other has only the normal share of human wickedness, and that

their enmity is harmful to both. If you can do this, you will have instilled some fragments

of wisdom.

5

I think the essence of wisdom is emancipation, as far as possible, from the tyranny of

the here and now. We cannot help the egoism of our senses. Sight and sound and touch

are

bound

up

with

our

own

bodies

and

cannot

be

impersonal.

Our

emotions

start

similarly from ourselves. An infant feels hunger or discomfort, and is unaffected except

by

his

own

physical

condition.

Gradually

with

the

years,

his

horizon

widens,

and,

in

proportion as his thoughts and feelings become less personal and less concerned with his

own physical states, he achieves growing wisdom. This is of course a matter of degree. No

one can view the world with complete impartiality; and if anyone could, he would hardly

be

able

to

remain

alive.

But

it

is

possible

to

make

a

continual

approach

towards

impartiality, on the one hand, by knowing things somewhat remote in time or space, and

on

the

other

hand,

by

giving

to

such

things

their

due

weight

in

our

feelings.

It

is

this

approach towards impartiality that constitutes growth in wisdom.