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苏菲的世界|Sophie’s World

德谟克里特斯|Democritus

属类： 双语小说 【分类】魔幻小说 -[作者: 乔斯坦·贾德] 阅读：[30716]
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……世界上最巧妙的玩具……

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苏菲将信纸放回饼干盒，盖上盖子。她爬出密洞，并在花园里站了一会，看着整座园子，想到昨天发生的事。今天吃早饭时，妈妈又拿情书这件事情来取笑她。于是她很快走向信箱，以免又发生类似昨天的事。连续两天接到情书将会使她更难为情。

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信箱里又有一个小小的白色信封！她开始察觉哲学家送信的时间有一定的模式：每天下午她会接到一个棕色的大信封。趁着她看信时，哲学家又会神不知鬼不觉地把另一个白色小信封放在她的信箱内。

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因此，现在苏菲有办法查出他的身分了。说不定，他还是个女人呢！她可以从楼上的房间清楚看到信箱。如果她站在窗前，就可以看到这位神秘的哲学家了。白信封总不会是从空气里变出来的吧？苏菲决定明天要密切观察。明天是星期五，她有一整个周末可以做这件事。她上楼回到自己的房间，并打开信封。今天只有一个问题，但这个问题，却比她的“情书”里的那三个问题更蠢。

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积木为何是世界上最巧妙的玩具，首先，苏菲并不认为积木是世界上最巧妙的玩具。她已经有好些年没玩过它了。再说，她实在看不出积木和哲学有什么关联。

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不过，她是一个很守本分的学生。于是，她在橱柜的上层翻寻了一遍，找出一个装满各种形状、尺寸的积木的塑胶袋。

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她开始玩起积木来，她好久好久没有这样做了。当她动手时，脑中开始出现了一些关于积木的想法。

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她想，这些积木很容易组合。虽然它们每一块各不相同，但都可以互相衔接。此外，这些积木也摔不破。印象中她好像没有看过破掉的积木。她手中的这些积木看来就像许多年前刚买时一样，新得发亮。最棒的是她可以用积木组合任何东西，然后又可以把它们拆开，再组合别的东西。

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对于这样的玩具你还能有什么要求呢？现在苏菲开始认为积木的确是世界上最巧妙的玩具了。不过她还是不明白这跟哲学有什么关系。她几乎盖好一栋很大的娃娃屋。她虽然不愿意承认，但事实上她很久很久没有玩得这么开心了。

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为什么人们长大后就不再玩耍了呢？当妈妈进门时，看到苏菲正在玩积木，忍不住脱口而出：“多好玩哪！我很高兴你还没有长大到不能玩的年纪。”“我不是在玩！”苏菲生气地说。“我在做一项非常复杂的哲学实验。”妈妈深深叹了口气，苏菲大概又在想白兔与帽子的事了。

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第二天苏菲放学回家后，放着好几页信纸的棕色大信封已经在等着她了。她把信拿到楼上的房间内，迫不及待要看信，但同时她也告诉自己必须要注意信箱附近的动静才行。

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原子理论

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苏菲，我又来了！今天我们将谈到最后一位伟大的自然派哲学家，他的名字叫德谟克里特斯(约公元前46O～公元前37O），来自爱琴海北部海岸一个叫阿布德拉的小镇。

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如果你能够毫无困难地回答有关积木的问题，你将可以了解这位哲学家的课题。

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德谟克里特斯同意前面几位哲学家的看法，认为自然界的转变不是因为任何事物真的有所“改变”。他相信每一种事物都是由微小的积木所组成，而每一块积木都是永恒不变的。德谟克里特斯把这些最小的单位称为原子。

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原子(atom)这个字的本意是“不可分割的”。德谟克里特斯认为，证明组成各种事物的单位不可能被无限制分割成更小的单位是很重要的。因为如果每一个组成各种事物的单位都可以被分割成更小的单位，则大自然将开始像不断被稀释的汤一般消失了。

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更重要的是，大自然的积木必须是永恒的，因为没有一件事物会来自虚无。在这方面，他同意帕梅尼德斯与伊利亚地区那些哲学家的看法，也认为所有的原子都是坚硬结实的，但却非完全一样。

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他说，如果所有原子都一模一样，则我们将无法圆满解释它们何以能够聚合成像罂粟花、橄榄树、羊皮、人发等各种不同的东西。

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德谟克里特斯相信，大自然是由无数形状各异的原子组成的。

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其中有些是平滑的圆形，有些是不规则的锯齿形。正因为它们形状如此不同，才可以组合在一起，成为各种不同的物体。然而，无论它们的数量和形状多么无穷无尽，它们都是永恒不变、不可被分割的。

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当一个物体——如一棵树或一只动物——死亡并分解时，原子就分散各处并可用来组成新的物体。这些原子在空间中到处移动，但因为它们有“钩”与“刺”，因此可以组成我们周遭所见的事物。

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因此，现在你明白我问你积木问题的用意了吧？积木的性质多少与德谟克里特斯所说的原子相似，这也是为何积木如此好玩的原因。首先它们是不可分割的，其次它们有各种不同的形状与尺寸，它们是硬而且不可渗透的。它们也有“钩”与“刺”，使得它们可以组合在一起，形成任何你想象得到的形状。组合完成后，你也可以将它们拆掉，用同一批积木再组成新的东西。

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它们可以一再重复使用，这也是积木为何如此受到欢迎的原因。同一块积木今天可以用来造卡车，明天可以用来造城堡。我们也可以说积木是“永恒”的玩具，因为父母小时玩的积木可以拿给下一代玩。

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我们也可以用黏土来做东西，不过黏土不可以重复使用，因为它可以不断被分割成更小的单位。这些微小的单位不能够再度组合，做成别的东西。

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今天我们可以确定，德谟克里特斯的原子理论或多或少是正确的。大自然的确是由聚散不定的不同“原子”所组成。我鼻头细胞里的一个氢原子以前可能属于某只大象的鼻子；我内脏肌肉里的一个碳原子从前可能在恐龙的尾巴上。

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不过，现代科学家已经发现原子可以分裂为更小的“基本粒子”。我们称之为质子、中子与电子。也许这些粒子有一天也可以被分裂成更小的粒子。但物理学家一致认为这样分裂下去，一定会有一个极限。一定有一个组成大自然的“最小单位”。

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德谟克里特斯当年并没有现代的电子设备可以利用。他唯一的工具就是他的心灵。不过在运用他的理性思考之后，他其实也只能提出这样的答案。他既然接受没有任何事物会改变、没有任何事物来自虚无、没有任何事物会消失的说法，那么大自然必定是由可以一再聚散的无限小单位组成的。

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德谟克里特斯并不相信有任何“力量”或“灵魂”介入大自然的变化过程。他认为世间唯一存在的东西就只有原子与虚空。由于只相信物质的东西，因此我们称他为唯物论者。

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根据德谟克里特斯的说法，原子的移动并没有任何刻意的“设计”。在自然界中，每一件事物的发生都是相当机械化的。这并不是说每一件事都是偶然发生的，因为万事万物都遵从必要的“必然法则”。每一件事之所以发生都有一个自然的原因，这个原因原本即存在于事物的本身。德谟克里特斯曾经说过，他对发现新的自然法则比当波斯国王更有兴趣。德谟克里特斯认为，原予理论同时也解释了我们的感官何以会有知觉。我们之所以会感觉到某样东西，是因为原子在空间中移动的缘故，我们之所以能看到月亮，是因为“月亮原子”穿透了我们的眼睛。

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然而，有关“灵魂”这档事又怎么说呢？它一定不可能是由原子、由物质组成的吧？事实上，那是可能的。德谟克里特斯认为，灵魂是由一种既圆又平滑的特别的“灵魂原子”组成。人死时，灵魂原子四处飞散，然后可能变成另一个新灵魂的一部分。

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这表示人类并没有不朽的灵魂。今天许多人都持有这种想法。

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他们像德谟克里特斯一样，相信“灵魂”与脑子连在一起，脑子分解之后，我们就没有任何知觉意识了。

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关于希腊的自然派哲学，我们暂时就讨论到德谟克里特斯的原子理论为止。他赞成赫拉克里特斯的看法，认为各种物体出现、消失、出现、消失，因此自然界的一切事物都是“流动”的。不过每一件“流动”的事物背后，有某种永恒不变、不会流动的东西，德谟克里特斯称之为原子。

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在看信的当儿，苏非向窗外瞥过好几眼，想看那位神秘的哲学家是否会出现在信箱旁。现在她却只是坐着，看着路的那一头，想着刚才信里的内容。

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她觉得德谟克里特斯的概念虽然简单，但却非常巧妙。他发现了“基本物质”与“变化”这个问题的真正答案。这个问题非常复杂，历代的哲学家都为它绞尽脑汁。最后德谟克里特斯却单凭常识就解决了这个问题。

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苏菲忍不住要微笑起来。大自然必定是由许多不变的微小单位组成的。另外一方面，赫拉克里特斯认为自然界所有形体都在“流动”的想法显然也是对的，因为每一个人都会死，动物也会死，就连山脉也会慢慢瓦解。重点是山脉是由微小的、不可分割的单位组成的，而这些单位永远不会分解。

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同时，德谟克里特斯也提出了一些新的问题。例如，他说每一件事物的发生都是机械化的。就像恩培窦可里斯与安纳萨哥拉斯一样，他并不认为生命中有任何精神力量存在。他也相信人没有不朽的灵魂。

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她是否赞成这种想法呢？她不知道。不过毕竟她才开始上这门哲学课呀！

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the most ingenious toy in the world

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Sophie put all the typed pages from the unknown philosopher back into the cookie tin and put the lid on it. She crawled out of the den and stood for a while looking across the garden. She thought about what happened yesterday. Her mother had teased her about the "love letter" again at breakfast this morning. She walked quickly over to the mailbox to prevent the same thing from happening today. Getting a love letter two days in a row would be doubly embarrassing.

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There was another little white envelope! Sophie began to discern a pattern in the deliveries: every afternoon she would find a big brown envelope. While she read the contents, the philosopher would sneak up to the mailbox with another little white envelope.

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So now Sophie would be able to find out who he was. If it was a he! She had a good view of the mailbox from her room. If she stood at the window she would see the mysterious philosopher. White envelopes don’t just appear out of thin air!

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Sophie decided to keep a careful watch the following day. Tomorrow was Friday and she would have the whole weekend ahead of her.

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She went up to her room and opened the envelope. There was only one question today, but it was even dumber than the previous three:

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Why is Lego the most ingenious toy in the world?

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For a start, Sophie was not at all sure she agreed that it was. It was years since she had played with the little plastic blocks. Moreover she could not for the life of her see what Lego could possibly have to do with philosophy.

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But she was a dutiful student. Rummaging on the top shelf of her closet, she found a bag full of Lego blocks of all shapes and sizes.

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For the first time in ages she began to build with them. As she worked, some ideas began to occur to her about the blocks.

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They are easy to assemble, she thought. Even though they are all different, they all fit together. They are also unbreakable. She couldn’t ever remember having seen a broken Lego block. All her blocks looked as bright and new as the day they were bought, many years ago. The best thing about them was that with Lego she could construct any kind of object. And then she could separate the blocks and construct something new.

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What more could one ask of a toy? Sophie decided that Lego really could be called the most ingenious toy in the world. But what it had to do with philosophy was beyond her.

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She had nearly finished constructing a big doll’s house. Much as she hated to admit it, she hadn’t had as much fun in ages.

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Why did people quit playing when they grew up?

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When her mother got home and saw what Sophie had been doing, she blurted out, "What fun! I’m so glad you’re not too grown up to play!"

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"I’m not playing!" Sophie retorted indignantly, "I’m doing a very complicated philosophical experiment!"

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Her mother signed deeply. She was probably thinking about the white rabbit and the top hat.

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When Sophie got home from school the following day, there were several more pages for her in a big brown envelope. She took them upstairs to her room. She could not wait to read them, but she had to keep her eye on the mailbox at the same time.

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THE ATOM THEORY Here I am again, Sophie. Today you are going to hear about the last of the great natural philosophers. His name is Democritus (c. 460-370 B.C.) and he was from the little town of Abdera on the northern Aegean coast.

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If you were able to answer the question about Lego blocks without difficulty, you should have no problem understanding what this philosopher’s project was.

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Democritus agreed with his predecessors that transformations in nature could not be due to the fact that anything actually "changed." He therefore assumed that everything was built up of tiny invisible blocks, each of which was eternal and immutable . Democritus called these smallest units atoms.

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The word "a-tom" means "un-cuttable." For Democritus it was all-important to establish that the constituent parts that everything else was composed of could not be divided indefinitely into smaller parts. If this were possible, they could not be used as blocks. If atoms could eternally be broken down into ever smaller parts, nature would begin to dissolve like constantly diluted soup.

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Moreover, nature’s blocks had to be eternal--because nothing can come from nothing. In this, he agreed with Parmenides and the Eleatics. Also, he believed that all atoms were firm and solid. But they could not all be the same. If all atoms were identical, there would still be no satisfactory explanation of how they could combine to form everything from poppies and olive trees to goatskin and human hair.

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Democritus believed that nature consisted of an unlimited number and variety of atoms. Some were round and smooth, others were irregular and jagged. And precisely because they were so different they could join together into all kinds of different bodies. But however infinite they might be in number and shape, they were all eternal, immutable, and indivisible.

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When a body--a tree or an animal, for instance--died and disintegrated , the atoms dispersed and could be used again in new bodies. Atoms moved around in space, but because they had "hooks" and " barbs ," they could join together to form all the things we see around us.

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So now you see what I meant about Lego blocks. They have more or less the same properties as those which Democritus ascribed to atoms. And that is what makes them so much fun to build with. They are first and foremost indivisible. Then they have different shapes and sizes. They are solid and impermeable . They also have "hooks" and "barbs" so that they can be connected to form every conceivable figure. These connections can later be broken again so that new figures can be constructed from the same blocks.

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The fact that they can be used over and over is what has made lego so popular. Each single Lego block can be part of a truck one day and part of a castle the day after. We could also say that lego blocks are "eternal." Children of today can play with the same blocks their parents played with when they were little.

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We can form things out of clay too, but clay cannot be used over and over, because it can be broken up into smaller and smaller pieces. These tiny pieces can never be joined together again to make something else.

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Today we can establish that Democritus’ atom theory was more or less correct. Nature really is built up of different "atoms" that join and separate again. A hydrogen atom in a cell at the end of my nose was once part of an elephant’s trunk. A carbon atom in my cardiac muscle was once in the tail of a dinosaur .

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In our own time, however, scientists have discovered that atoms can be broken into smaller "elemental particles." We call these elemental particles protons, neutrons , and electrons. These will possibly some day be broken into even lesser particles. But physicists agree that somewhere along the line there has to be a limit. There has to be a " minimal part" of which nature consists.

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Democritus did not have access to modern electronic apparatus . His only proper equipment was his mind. But reason left him no real choice. Once it is accepted that nothing can change, that nothing can come out of nothing, and that nothing is ever lost, then nature must consist of infinitesimal blocks that can join and separate again.

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Democritus did not believe in any "force" or "soul" that could intervene in natural processes. The only things that existed, he believed, were atoms and the void. Since he believed in nothing but material things, we call him a materialist .

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According to Democritus, there is no conscious "design" in the movement of atoms. In nature, everything happens quite mechanically. This does not mean that everything happens randomly , for everything obeys the inevitable laws of necessity. Everything that happens has a natural cause, a cause that is inherent in the thing itself. Democritus once said that he would rather discover a new cause of nature than be the King of Persia.

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The atom theory also explains our sense perception, thought Democritus. When we sense something, it is due to the movement of atoms in space. When I see the moon, it is because "moon atoms" penetrate my eye.

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But what about the "soul," then? Surely that could not consist of atoms, of material things? Indeed it could. Democritus believed that the soul was made up of special round, smooth "soul atoms." When a human being died, the soul atoms flew in all directions, and could then become part of a new soul formation.

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This meant that human beings had no immortal soul, another belief that many people share today. They believe, like Democritus, that "soul" is connected with brain, and that we cannot have any form of consciousness once the brain disintegrates .

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Democritus’s atom theory marked the end of Greek natural philosophy for the time being. He agreed with ,Her-aclitus that everything in nature "flowed," since Torms come and go. But behind everything that flowed there were some eternal and immutable things that did not flow. Democritus called them atoms.

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During her reading Sophie glanced out of the window several times to see whether her mysterious correspondent had turned up at the mailbox. Now she just sat staring down the road, thinking about what she had read. She felt that Democritus’s ideas had been so simple and yet so ingenious. He had discovered the real solution to the problem of "basic substance" and " transformation ." This problem had been so complicated that philosophers had gone around puzzling over it for generations. And in the end Democritus had solved it on his own by using his common sense.

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Sophie could hardly help smiling. It had to be true that nature was built up of small parts that never changed. At the same time Heraclitus was obviously right in thinking that all forms in nature "flow." Because everybody dies, animals die, even a mountain range slowly disintegrates. The point was that the mountain range is made up of tiny indivisible parts that never break up.

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At the same time Democritus had raised some new questions. For example, he had said that everything happened mechanically. He did not accept that there was any spiritual force in life--unlike Empedocles and An-axagoras. Democritus also believed that man had no immortal soul.

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Could she be sure of that?

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She didn’t know. But then she had only just begun the philosophy course.

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