The World As I See It
- Albert Einstein -
How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose be knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people-first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men,living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. I am strongly drawn to a frugal life and am often oppressively aware that I am engrossing an undue amount of the labor of my fellow-men. I regard class distinctions as unjustified and, in the last resort, based on force. I also believe that a simple and unassuming life is good for everybody, physically and mentally.
I do not at all believe in human freedom in the philosophical sense. Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity. Schopenhauer‘s saying, "A man can do what he wants,but not want what he wants," has been a very real inspiration to me since my youth; it has been a continual consolation in the face of life‘s hardships, my own and others‘, and an unfailing well-spring of tolerance. This realization mercifully mitigates the easily paralyzing sense of responsibility and prevents us from taking ourselves and other people all too seriously; it is conducive to a view of life which, in particular, gives humor its due.
To inquire after the meaning or object of one‘s own existence or that of all creatures has always seemed to me absurd from an objective point of view. And yet everybody has certain ideals which determine the direction of his endeavors and his judgments. In this sense I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves-this ethical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world,the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed to me empty. The trite objects of human efforts-possessions,outward success, luxury-have always seemed to me contemptible.
My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a "lone traveler" and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friend, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude-feelings which increase with the years. One becomes sharply aware, but without regret,of the limits of mutual understanding and consonance with other people. No doubt, such a person loses some of his innocence and unconcern; on the other hand, he is largely independent, of the opinions, habits, and judgments of his fellows and avoids the temptation to build his inner equilibrium upon such insecure foundations.
My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-being, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that it is necessary for the achievement of the objective of an organization that one man should do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. An autocratic system of coercion, in my opinion, soon degenerates. For force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels, For this reason I have always been passionately opposed to systems such as we see in Italy and Russia today. The thing that has brought discredit upon the form of democracy as it exists in Europe today is not to be laid to the door of the democratic principle as such, but to the lack of stability of governments and to the impersonal character of the electoral system. I believe that in this respect the United States of America have found the right way. They have a President powers really to exercise his responsibility. What I value, on the other hand, in the German political system is the more extensive provision that it makes for the individual in case of illness or need. The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling. This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system,which I abhor. That a man can take pleasure in marching in fours to the strains of a band is enough to make me despise him. He has only been given his big brain by mistake; unprotected spinal marrow was all he needed. This plaguespot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them! How vile and despicable seems war to me! I would rather be hacked in pieces than take part in such an abominable business. My opinion of the human race is high enough that I believe this bogey would have disappeared long ago, had the sound sense of the peoples not been systematically corrupted by commercial and political interests acting through the schools and the Press.
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science . Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery - even if mixed with fear - that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds - it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man. I can not conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature
我的世界觀
阿爾伯特·愛(ài)因斯坦
我們這些總有一死的人的命運(yùn)多么奇特！我們每個(gè)人在這個(gè)世界上都只作一個(gè)短暫的逗留；目的何在，卻無(wú)從知道，盡管有時(shí)自以為對(duì)此若有所感。但是，不必深思，只要從日常生活就可以明白：人是為別人而生存的──首先是為那樣一些人，我們的幸福全部依賴于他們的喜悅和健康；其次是為許多我們所不認(rèn)識(shí)的人，他們的命運(yùn)通過(guò)同情的紐帶同我們密切結(jié)合在一起。我每天上百次的提醒自己：我的精神生活和物質(zhì)生活都是以別人（包括生者和死者）的勞動(dòng)為基礎(chǔ)的，我必須盡力以同樣的分量來(lái)報(bào)償我所領(lǐng)受了的和至今還在領(lǐng)受著的東西。我強(qiáng)烈地向往著儉樸的生活。并且時(shí)常發(fā)覺(jué)自己占用了同胞的過(guò)多勞動(dòng)而難以忍受。我認(rèn)為階級(jí)的區(qū)分是不合理的，它最后所憑借的是以暴力為根據(jù)。我也相信，簡(jiǎn)單淳樸的生活，無(wú)論在身體上還是在精神上，對(duì)每個(gè)人都是有益的。
我完全不相信人類會(huì)有那種在哲學(xué)意義上的自由。每一個(gè)人的行為不僅受著外界的強(qiáng)制，而且要適應(yīng)內(nèi)在的必然。叔本華說(shuō)：“人雖然能夠做他所想做的，但不能要他所想要的。”這句格言從我青年時(shí)代起就給了我真正的啟示；在我自己和別人的生活面臨困難的時(shí)候，它總是使我們得到安慰，并且是寬容的持續(xù)不斷的源泉。這種體會(huì)可以寬大為懷地減輕那種容易使人氣餒的責(zé)任感，也可以防止我們過(guò)于嚴(yán)肅地對(duì)待自己和別人；它導(dǎo)致一種特別給幽默以應(yīng)有地位的人生觀。
要追究一個(gè)人自己或一切生物生存的意義或目的，從客觀的觀點(diǎn)看來(lái)，我總覺(jué)得是愚蠢可笑的?？墒敲總€(gè)人都有一些理想，這些理想決定著他的努力和判斷的方向。就在這個(gè)意義上，我從來(lái)不把安逸和享樂(lè)看作生活目的本身──我把這種倫理基礎(chǔ)叫做豬欄的理想。照亮我的道路，是善、美和真。要是沒(méi)有志同道合者之間的親切感情，要不是全神貫注于客觀世界──那個(gè)在藝術(shù)和科學(xué)工作領(lǐng)域里永遠(yuǎn)達(dá)不到的對(duì)象，那么在我看來(lái)，生活就會(huì)是空虛的。我總覺(jué)得，人們所努力追求的庸俗目標(biāo)──財(cái)產(chǎn)、虛榮、奢侈的生活──都是可鄙的。
我有強(qiáng)烈的社會(huì)正義感和社會(huì)責(zé)任感，但我又明顯地缺乏與別人和社會(huì)直接接觸的要求，這兩者總是形成古怪的對(duì)照。我實(shí)在是一個(gè)“孤獨(dú)的旅客”，我未曾全心全意地屬于我的國(guó)家、我的家庭、我的朋友，甚至我最為接近的親人；在所有這些關(guān)系面前，我總是感覺(jué)到一定距離而且需要保持孤獨(dú)──而這種感受正與年俱增。人們會(huì)清楚地發(fā)覺(jué)，同別人的相互了解和協(xié)調(diào)一致是有限度的，但這不值得惋惜。無(wú)疑，這樣的人在某種程度上會(huì)失去他的天真無(wú)邪和無(wú)憂無(wú)慮的心境；但另一方面，他卻能夠在很大程度上不為別人的意見(jiàn)、習(xí)慣和判斷所左右，并且能夠避免那種把他的內(nèi)心平衡建立在這樣一些不可靠的基礎(chǔ)之上的誘惑。
我的政治理想是民主政體。讓每一個(gè)人都作為個(gè)人而受到尊重，而不讓任何人成為被崇拜的偶像。我自己一直受到同代人的過(guò)分的贊揚(yáng)和尊敬，這不是由于我自己的過(guò)錯(cuò)，也不是由于我自己的功勞，而實(shí)在是一種命運(yùn)的嘲弄。其原因大概在于人們有一種愿望，想理解我以自已微薄的綿力，通過(guò)不斷的斗爭(zhēng)所獲得的少數(shù)幾個(gè)觀念，而這種愿望有很多人卻未能實(shí)現(xiàn)。我完全明白，一個(gè)組織要實(shí)現(xiàn)它的目的，就必須有一個(gè)人去思考，去指揮、并且全面擔(dān)負(fù)起責(zé)任來(lái)。但是被領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的人不應(yīng)當(dāng)受到強(qiáng)迫，他們必須能夠選擇自己的領(lǐng)袖。在我看來(lái)，強(qiáng)迫的專制制度很快就會(huì)腐化墮落。因?yàn)楸┝λ幸齺?lái)的總是一些品德低劣的人，而且我相信，天才的暴君總是由無(wú)賴來(lái)繼承的，這是一條千古不易的規(guī)律。就是由于這個(gè)緣故，我總強(qiáng)烈地反對(duì)今天在意大利和俄國(guó)所見(jiàn)到的那種制度。像歐洲今天所存在的情況，已使得民主形式受到懷疑，這不能歸咎于民主原則本身，而是由于政府的不穩(wěn)定和選舉制度中與個(gè)人無(wú)關(guān)的特征。我相信美國(guó)在這方面已經(jīng)找到了正確的道路。他們選出了一個(gè)任期足夠長(zhǎng)的總統(tǒng)，他有充分的權(quán)力來(lái)真正履行他的職責(zé)。另一方面，在德國(guó)政治制度中，為我所看重的是它為救濟(jì)患病或貧困的人作出了可貴的廣泛的規(guī)定。在人生的豐富多彩的表演中，我覺(jué)得真正可貴的，不是政治上的國(guó)家，而是有創(chuàng)造性的、有感情的個(gè)人，是人格；只有個(gè)人才能創(chuàng)造出高尚的和卓越的東西，而群眾本身在思想上總是遲鈍的，在感覺(jué)上也總是遲鈍的。
講到這里，我想起了群眾生活中最壞的一種表現(xiàn)，那就是使我厭惡的軍事制度。一個(gè)人能夠洋洋得意的隨著軍樂(lè)隊(duì)在四列縱隊(duì)里行進(jìn)，單憑這一點(diǎn)就足以使我對(duì)他鄙夷不屑。他所以長(zhǎng)了一個(gè)大腦，只是出于誤會(huì)；光是骨髓就可滿足他的全部需要了。文明的這種罪惡的淵藪，應(yīng)當(dāng)盡快加以消滅。任人支配的英雄主義、冷酷無(wú)情的暴行，以及在愛(ài)國(guó)主義名義下的一切可惡的胡鬧，所有這些都使我深惡痛絕！在我看來(lái)，戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)是多么卑鄙、下流！我寧愿被千刀萬(wàn)剮，也不愿參與這種可憎的勾當(dāng)。盡管如此，我對(duì)人類的評(píng)價(jià)還是十分高的，我相信，要是人民的健康感情沒(méi)有遭到那些通過(guò)學(xué)校和報(bào)紙而起作用的商業(yè)利益和政治利益的蓄意敗壞，那么戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)這個(gè)妖魔早就該絕跡了。
我們所能有的最美好的經(jīng)驗(yàn)是奧秘的經(jīng)驗(yàn)。它是堅(jiān)守在真正藝術(shù)和真正科學(xué)發(fā)源地上的基本感情。誰(shuí)要體驗(yàn)不到它，誰(shuí)要是不再有好奇心，也不再有驚訝的感覺(jué)，誰(shuí)就無(wú)異于行尸走肉，他的眼睛便是模糊不清的。就是這樣奧秘的經(jīng)驗(yàn)──雖然摻雜著恐懼──產(chǎn)生了宗教。我們認(rèn)識(shí)到有某種為我們所不能洞察的東西存在，感覺(jué)到那種只能以其最原始的形式接近我們的心靈的最深?yuàn)W的理性和最燦爛的美──正是這種認(rèn)識(shí)和這種情感構(gòu)成了真正的宗教感情；在這個(gè)意義上，而且也只是在這個(gè)意義上，我才是一個(gè)具有深摯的宗教感情的人。我無(wú)法想象存在這樣一個(gè)上帝，它會(huì)對(duì)自己的創(chuàng)造物加以賞罰，會(huì)具有我們?cè)谧约荷砩纤w驗(yàn)到的那種意志。我不能也不愿去想象一個(gè)人在肉體死亡以后還會(huì)繼續(xù)活著；讓那些脆弱的靈魂，由于恐懼或者由于可笑的唯我論，去拿這種思想當(dāng)寶貝吧！我自己只求滿足于生命永恒的奧秘，滿足于覺(jué)察現(xiàn)存世界的神奇結(jié)構(gòu)，窺見(jiàn)它的一鱗半爪，并且以誠(chéng)摯的努力去領(lǐng)悟在自然界中顯示出來(lái)的那個(gè)理性的一部分，倘若真能如此，即使只領(lǐng)悟其極小的一部分，我也就心滿意足了。
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