2021年1月23日发(作者：sonia)
Lesson1
The
greatest
achievement
of
human
in
its
long
evolution
from
ancient
hominoid
ancestor
to
its
present
status
is
the
acquisition
and
accumulation
of
a
vast
body
of
knowledge about itself
，
the world
，
and the universe. The products of this knowledge
are all those things that, in the aggregate, we call
“civilization”,
including language,
science, literature,
art, all
the physical
mechanisms,
instruments
，
and structures we
use
，
and the physical infrastructures on which society relies. Most of us assume that in
modern society knowledge of all kinds is continually increasing and the aggregation
of new information into the corpus of our social or collective knowledge is steadily
reducing
the
area
of
ignorance
about
ourselves
，
the
world
，
and
the
universe.
But
continuing reminders of the numerous areas of our present ignorance invite a critical
analysis of this assumption.
人类从古代的类人猿祖先发展到现状的及其漫长的过程中的最大成就是获取并
积累了大量关于自身、
世界和宇宙的知识。
总的来说，
我们将这种知识的所有 产
物称之为“文明”
，包括语言、科学、文学、艺术，我们所应用的所有物理学、
工具 、结构，以及社会所以存的物质基础。大多数人认为，随着现代社会各种知
识不断增加新信息不断积聚， 我们对自身、世界、宇宙的未知正在稳步减少。但
是，人类至今对诸多领域的无知使得我们要对这种观点 进行批判分析。


Lesson2
Moreover
，
before lamenting modularization
，
it is necessary to ask ourselves whether
we
really
would
prefer
to
return
to
the
traditional
condition
of
man
in
which
each
individual presumably related to the whole personality of a few people rather than to
the
personality
modules
of
many.
Traditional
man
has
been
so
sentimentalized
，
so
cloyingly romanticized
，
that we frequently overlook the consequences of such a return.
The very same writers who lament fragmentation also demand freedom
—
yet overlook
the
un- freedom
of
people
bound
together
in
totalistic
relationship.
For
any
relationship implies mutual demands and expectations. The more intimately involved
a relationship
，
the greater the pressure the parties exert on one another to fulfill these
expectations. The tighter and more totalistic the relationship
，
the more modules
，
so to
speak
，
are brought into play
，
and the more numerous are the demands we make.
此外，
我们在惋惜感叹模块化之前有必 要自问我们是否真的愿意回归传统，
每个
人只与少数几个人做全面深入的了解接触而不是与众多 的人做有限的接触。
传统
的人流于感伤，
多生浪漫，
以至于我们经常忽略其带 来的后果。
那个哀叹人际破
碎的作者同样需要自由，
只是他忽略了严格人际关系下人的 不自由。
人际关系意
味着彼此的需求与期望。
私交越亲密意味着彼此实现这些期望的压 力越大。
可以
这么说，严格完整模块化的人际关系能够更有效地满足我们更多的需求。


In
a
modular
relationship,
the
demands
are
strictly
bounded.
So
long
as
the
shoe
salesman
performs his rather limited
service for us, thereby fulfilling our limited expectations, we do not
insist that he believe in our god, or that he be tidy at home, or share our political values, or enjoy
the same kind of food or music that we do. We leave him free in all other matters
—
as he leaves us
free to be atheist or Jew, heterosexual or homosexual, john Bircher or communist. This is not true
of total relationship and cannot be. To a certain point, fragmentation and freedom go together.
在一个模块化的人际关系中，
需求有着严格的界定。
比如，只要卖鞋的售货员为我们提供有
限的服务并保证满足我们有限的期望，
我们并不期望他信奉 我们的上帝，
或者他在家里衣着
整洁，
或者持有和我们相同的政治价值观，
或 者喜爱我们所喜爱的食物与音乐。
我们使得他
在其它事物上是自由的，
正如他不干涉我 们是无神论者或犹太教徒、
异性恋或同性恋、
反对
或拥护共产主义。
这不是更 不可能是人际关系的真实性。
在某种程度上，
模块化的人际关系
与自由相伴而生。

Lesson3
That there are significant differences between modern and traditional cultures is beyond dispute.

A world in which some societies highly modern and others still traditional will obviously be less
homogeneous than a world in which all societies are comparably modern. It dose not necessarily
follow, however, that societies with modern cultures should be any more similar than are societies
with
traditional
cultures.
Only
a
few
hundred
years
ago
all
societies
were
traditional.
Was
that
world any less homogeneous than a future world of universal modernity is likely to be? Probably
not.
“Ming

china
was
assuredly
closer
to
the
France
of
the
V
alois,
”

Fernand
Braudel
observes,
“
than the China of Mao Tse-tung is to the France of the Fifth Republic.
”
Modern societies have
much in common, but they do not necessarily merge into homogeneity. The argument that they do
rests on the assumption that modern society must approximate a single type, the western type; that
modern civilization is western civilization, and western civilization is modern civilization.
This,
however,
is
a
false
identification.
Virtually
all
scholars
of
civilization
agree
that
western
civilization emerged in the eighth and ninth centuries and developed its distinctive characteristic in
the centuries that followed. It did not begin to modernize until the eighteenth century. The West, in
short, was Western long before it was modern.
现代文化与传统 文化之间存在显著的差异是无可争议的事实。
一个同时拥有高度现代化的社
会与传统社会的世界 明显地比各个社会都同等现代化的世界缺乏相似性。
然而，
没必要遵循
拥有现代文化的 社会就应当比拥有传统文化的社会更相似这一结论。
只是在几百年前，
所有
的社会都是 传统文化社会。
那样一个世界会比将来的全面现代化的世界具有较少的类似吗？
答案也许是否定 的。
Fernand
Braudel
研究发现：明朝中国与法国
Valo is
王朝的相似度比毛
泽东时代的中国与第五次共和时期法国的相似度更高。
现代社会 拥有诸多的共同点，
但他们
没必要迈向同质化。他们所依据的论据是假设现代社会必须趋同于单 一类型，即西方类型；
现代文明就是西方文明，西方文明就是现代文明。然而，这是一种错误的认识。事 实上，所
有的研究人类文明的学者都赞同西方文明始于八九世纪并在接下来的数百年内形成了其独
有的特点。
直到十八世纪才开始现代化进程。
简而言之，
西方的西方化历史要比其现 代化的
历史悠久的多。


Interaction and borrowing between civilizations have always taken place, and with modern means
of
translation
and
communication
they
are
much
more
extensive.
Most
of
the
worlds
great
civilization,
however,
have
existed
for
at
least
one
millennium
and
in
some
cases
for
several.
These civilizations have a demonstrated record of borrowing from other civilizations in ways that
enhance their own chances of survival. Chinas absorption of Buddhism from India, scholars agree,
failed to produce the
“
indianization
”
of china; it instead caused the sinification of Buddhism. The
Chinese
adapted
Buddhism
to
their
purposes
and
needs.
The
Chinese
have
to
date
consistently
defeated intense western efforts to Christianize them. If at some point they do import Christianity,
it is more than likely that it will be absorbed and adapted in such a manner as to strengthen the