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Nietzsche: The Will to Think 尼采：思想的决心

课文朗读

课文讲解

繁體中文譯本  

Holden is reading the newspaper over lunch with his book club friend, Lucille:  荷登和读书会的朋友鲁思儿一起用午餐读报纸：

H: Well, how about that? Friedrich Nietzsche – that often maligned nineteenth-century German philosopher – didn’t, in fact, go mad and die from syphilis. According to new research, he almost certainly died of brain cancer.

嘿，你知道吗？腓特烈．尼采──那位常被诽谤中伤的十九世纪德国哲学家──事实上他没有发疯，也不是死于梅毒。根据最新研究，几乎确定他是死于脑癌。

L: So, why the widespread belief that syphilis drove him insane?

是哦，那为什么一般人会认为梅毒使他发疯了？

H: Says here the story was cooked up after World War IIby intellectuals who wanted to destroy Nietzsche’s reputation and debunk his ideas.

这篇新闻说是二次世界大战之后，其他学者为了打击尼采的声望、揭穿他的思想见解而捏造出来的。

L: I suppose they didn’t like the fact that some aspects of Nietzsche’s philosophy were distorted by the Nazis and used to underpin their belief in themselves as supreme beings.

我想那些学者不喜欢的是，尼采的一部份哲学理论被纳粹人士扭曲，拿去支持纳粹理论，合理化他们对超级人种说法。

H: Exactly. Some intellectuals! If you know anything at all about Nietzsche, you’d know that he loathed anti-Semites, had no time for nationalists, and detested the herd mentality.

是有些学者，的确如此！其实只要对尼采哲学稍有涉猎，都会知道他是非常憎恶反犹太分子主张的，他从不理会国家主义者，也厌恶选边站的群体心理。

L: Right. The Nazis really twisted his idea of the ubermensch, or “superman,” didn’t they?

是的。纳粹人士的确扭曲了他对「超人」的解释，可不是吗？

H: Indeed. Nietzsche’s concept of a “superman” was an individual who rejected the repressive, life-denying qualities of Western culture and rose above banal social and moral conventions to construct an authentic life.

的确。尼采见解里的「超人」是一个人，他拒绝接受西方文化中压抑、抹杀活生生的生命特质，并超越当时陈腐的社会道德成规，以建构自己真正的生活。

L: Which is hardly how one would describe a mob of fascists hell-bent on establishing themselves as the master race.

这种理论真谛，怎能拿来和一群纳粹暴徒所一味认为自己是全世界最优秀人种的说法画上等号。

H: For sure, the two are as different as chalk and cheese.

的确，这两者的差距是天壤之别。

Vocabulary

单词发音

malign [məˋlaɪn] v. 诽谤，中伤

syphilis [ˋsɪflɪs] n.【医】梅毒

insane [ɪnˋsen] adj.【尤法律】（患）精神病的﹐ 精神失常的﹐ 疯癫的

cook up【口】编造某事物(尤指行骗)

intellectual [͵ɪnt!ˋɛktʃʊəl] n. 知识分子；有很高智力的人

debunk [ˋdiˋbʌŋk] v. 证明〔观点或观念〕错误

underpin [͵ʌndɚˋpɪn] v. 巩固﹐ 支持〔想法﹑信念等〕

loathe [loð] v. 厌恶，憎恨[U][+v-ing]

anti-Semite [͵æntɪˋsimaɪt] n. 反犹太分子

have no time for 不能或不愿为...花费时间

detest [dɪˋtɛst] v. 厌恶，憎恶[+v-ing]

herd [hɝd] n.〔同一种类并一同栖息的〕兽羣; 【贬】民众，百姓

repressive [rɪˋprɛsɪv] adj.〔政制或法律〕残酷的; 严苛的

life-denying 否定生命的

banal [bəˋnɑl] adj. 平庸的；陈腐的

moral [ˋmɔrəl] adj. 道德（上）的

convention [kənˋvɛnʃən] n. 惯例，习俗；常规

mob [mɑb] n. 暴民，乌合之众

fascist [ˋfæʃɪst] n. 法西斯主义者，法西斯分子

hell-bent 坚决的﹐ 不顾一切的

as different as chalk and cheese  天差地远, 迥然不同

Sentence of the Day

His ideas were caught in a war of words.

他的意见引起一场激烈的笔战。

war of words  舌战, 笔战, 论战

课文讲解

Lucille and Holden continue to discuss Nietzsche:  荷登和鲁思儿继续讨论尼采的话题：

L: I’m intrigued by Nietzsche’s critique of traditional morality and Christianity.

我对尼采的传统道德和基督教义评论很有兴趣。

H: Me, too. His criticism seems to center on his idea of “life-affirmation.” Nietzsche wanted people to question everything that denied their individuality or life energy. A controversial outcome of this principle is his claim that universal equality among human is an illusion.

我也是。他的评论似乎以「肯定人生」的理论为主轴。尼采要人们去质疑生活中会否定个人独特性或生命力的每一件事。在这个原则下产生了一个备受争议的结果，就是他宣称所谓人类具有宇宙共通特质的主张是虚幻不实的。

L: Perhaps that’s why he’s regarded as an early existentialist philosopher – one of the first to believe in living creatively for its own sake, and living for the realities of this world, rather than the rewards of an afterlife.

也许这就是为什么他被视为早期的存在主义者之一──那类学者主张为了生活本身而用心去活，为现世而活，而不是为了来世的报酬。

H: In many ways, it seems he ignored philosophy as a theoretical discipline in order to stress its implications for life.

在很多方面，他似乎忽略了哲学作为纯学术理论的训练，是为了强调生活的意涵。

L: On that point, his approach was similar to Eastern philosophy and the thinking of the earliest Greek philosophers. I wonder if Nietzsche anticipated the profound effect he’d have on Western thought?

在那点上，他的模式比较接近东方哲学和最早期的希腊哲人。我感到好奇，不知道尼采自己是否已经预料到他对西方思想将造成深厚的影响？

H: He definitely did. And what an effect he’s had on many brilliant minds – particularly on the Continent – like Freud, Jung, Camus, Sartre, and Foucault, just to name a few.

绝对有。而且对后代很多卓越的思想家影响很深厚──尤其是欧陆那一批学者──像是佛洛伊德、荣格、卡缪、沙特、傅科，而这只是其中有代表性的几位而已。

L: Nietzsche was far more than an academic philosopher. He dreamed of changing society by transforming the way people see the world.

尼采绝对不仅仅是校园里的学院派哲学家而已，他希望能藉由改变世人的看法而改变整个社会。

H: Which makes him a visionary, as well as a philosopher?

所以他不但是哲学家，而且是有远见的预言家。

－by Layla Wales

Vocabulary

单词发音

intrigue [ɪnˋtrig] v. 激起……的好奇心（或兴趣）

critique [krɪˋtik] n. 评论（文章﹑书刊等）

affirmation [͵æfɚˋmeʃən] n. 肯定

individuality [͵ɪndə͵vɪdʒʊˋælətɪ] n. 个人（或个体）的特征

existentialist [ɛgzɪsˋtɛnʃəlɪst] n. 存在主义者

afterlife [ˋæftɚ͵laɪf] n. 来世﹐ 来生

theoretical [͵θiəˋrɛtɪk!] adj. 理论的；非应用的

implication [͵ɪmplɪˋkeʃən] n.〔计划﹑行为或事件需要考虑或讨论的〕可能的影响﹐ 可能的后果

the Continent 欧洲大陆

visionary [ˋvɪʒə͵nɛrɪ] n. 有远见卓识者

Sentence of the Day

He earned his place in the history books.

他的成就已经留名青史。