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楼主: 一江春水

苏菲的世界 Sophies World

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 楼主| 发表于 2019-1-20 13:04:15 | 显示全部楼层
两种文化

……避免在真空中飘浮的唯一方式……
亲爱的苏菲:
我们相见的日子已经不远了。我想你大概会回到少校的小木屋,所以我才把席德的父亲寄来的明信片留在那儿,这是把那些明信片转给她的唯一方式。你毋需担心她如何才能拿到它们,在六月十五日以前有许多事可能会发生呢!
我们已经谈过希腊文化时期的哲学家如何重新利用早期哲学家的学说,其中有人还把这些哲学家当成宗教先知。普罗汀就只差没有把柏拉图说成人类的救星。
说到救星,我们知道,在这个时期,另外一位救星诞生了。这件事情发生在希腊罗马地区以外的地方,我们所说的这位救星就是拿撒勒的耶稣。在这一章中我们会谈到基督教如何逐渐渗透希腊罗马地区,就像席德的世界逐渐渗透我们的世界一样。
耶稣是犹太人,而犹大人属于闪族文化。
希腊人与罗马人则属于印欧文化。我们可以断言欧洲文明曾同时受到这两种文化的孕育。不过,在我们详细讨论基督教如何影响希腊罗马地区之前,必须先了解一下这两种文化。

印欧民族

所谓印欧民族指的是所有使用印欧语言的民族与文化,包括所有的欧洲国家,除了那些讲菲诺攸格里克(Finno一Ugrian)语族语言(包括斯堪地那维亚半岛最北端的拉普兰语、芬兰语、爱沙尼亚语和匈牙利语)或巴斯克语的民族之外。除此之外,印度和伊朗地区的大多数语言也属于印欧语系。
大约四千年前,原始的印欧民族住在邻近黑海与里海的地区。
后来他们陆续向四方迁徙。他们往东南进入伊朗与印度,往西南到达希腊、意大利与西班牙,往西经过中欧,到达法国与英国,往西北进入斯堪地那维亚半岛,往北进入东欧与俄罗斯。无论到什么地方,这些印欧民族都努力吸收当地文化,不过在语言和宗教方面还是以印欧语和印欧宗教较占优势。
无论是古印度的吠陀经、希腊的哲学或史特卢森(SnorriSturluson)的神话都是以相近的印欧语言撰写的。但相近的不只是语言而已,因为相近的语言往往导致相近的思想,这是我们为何经常谈到印欧“文化”的缘故。
印欧民族相信宇宙间有许多天神(此即所谓的“多神论”),这对他们的文化有很深远的影响。这些天神的名字和许多宗教词汇曾出现在印欧文化所及的各个地区。下面我将举一些例子:
古印度人尊奉的天神是戴欧斯(Dyaus),希腊文称他为宙斯(Zeus),拉丁文称他为朱彼得(Jupitter)(事实上是iov—pater,或“法父”之意),古斯堪地那维亚文则称之为泰尔(Tyr)。这些名字事实上指的是同一个字,只是各地称呼不同罢了。你可能读过古代维京人相信他们所谓的Aser(诸神)的事,Aser这个字也出现在各印欧文化地区。在印度古代的传统语言“梵语”中,诸神被称为asura,在波斯文中则被称为ahura。梵语中另外一个表示“神”的字为deva,在波斯文中为daeve,在拉丁文中为deus,在古斯堪地那维亚文中则为tivurr.
古代的北欧人也相信有一群掌管万物生育、生长的神(如尼欧德与芙瑞雅)。这些神有一个通称,叫做vaner,这个字与拉丁文中代表生育之神的字Venus(维纳斯)相近。梵语中也有一个类似的宇叫Vani为“欲望”之意。
有些印欧神话也很明显有相近之处。在Sn。ni有关古代北欧诸神的故事中,有些与两三千午前印度流传下来的神话非常相似。
尽管Snorri的神话反映的是古代北欧的环境,印度神话则反映印度当地的环境,但其中许多神话都有若干痕迹显示他们具有共同的渊源。其中最明显的是那些关于长生不老仙丹与诸神对抗浑沌妖魔的神话故事。
此外,很明显的,各印欧文化也有相近的思想模式。最典型的例于是他们都将世界看成善与恶无休无止相互对抗的场所,因此舟欧民族才会经常试图“预测”世界未来的前途。
我们可以说,希腊哲学源自印欧文化并非偶然。印度、希腊与古代北欧的神话明显都有一种以哲学或“思索”的观点来看这个世界的倾向。
印欧人希望能够“洞察”世界的历史。我们甚至可以发现在各舟欧文化中都有一个特别的字来表示“洞见”或“知识”。在梵语中,这个字是vidya,这个字的意思与希腊文中的idea这个字相当。而idea船此字在柏拉图的哲学中占有很重要的分量。在拉丁文中这个字是video,不过对罗马人来说,这个字只是“看见”的意思。在英文中,Isee可能表示“我懂了”。在卡通影片中,啄木鸟想到一个聪明的办法时,脑袋上方会有灯泡发亮。(到了现代,seeing这个字才变成“盯着电视看”的同义字。)英文中有wise和wisdom这两个字。
在德文中有wissen(知道)这个字,在挪威文中则有viten。这些字的来源与印度文中的vidya、希腊文中的idea与拉丁文中的video这些字相同。
总而言之,我们可以断定对印欧人而言,视觉乃是最重要的感官。印度、希腊、波斯与条顿民族(Teut。ns)的文学都以宏大的宇宙观(cosmicvision)为特色(在这里vision这个字源自拉丁文中的Video这个动词)。此外,印欧文化的另一个特色是经常制作描绘诸神以及神话事件的图画和雕刻。
最后一点,印欧民族认为历史是循环的。他们相信历史就像四季一样会不断循环。因此历史既没有开始,也没有结束,只不过在无尽的生生死死中有不同的文明兴亡消长罢了。
印度教与佛教这两大东方宗教都源自印欧文化,希腊哲学亦然。我们可以看到这两者间有明显相似的痕迹。到了今天,印度教与佛教仍然充满了哲学式的省思。
我们可以发现,印度教与佛教都强调万物皆有神性(此即“泛神论”),并主张人悟道后就可以成佛。(还记得普罗汀的说法吗?)为了要悟道,人必须深深自省或打坐冥想。因此,在东方,清净无为、退隐山林可以成为一种宗教理想。同样的,在古代的希腊,许多人也相信禁欲苦修或不食人间烟火的生活可以使灵魂得救。中世纪僧侣的生活在许多方面就是受到希腊罗马观念的影响。
此外,许多印欧文化也有“灵魂转生”或“生命轮回”的观念。
两千五百多年来,每一个印度人的生命终极目的就是要挣脱轮回。柏拉图也相信灵魂可以转生。   

闪族文化

现在让我们来谈一谈闪族文化。这是一个完全不同的文化,他们的语言也和印欧语系完全不同。闪族人源自阿拉伯半岛,不过他们后来同样也迁徙到世界各地。两千多年来,这些犹大人一直过着离乡背井的生活。透过基督教与回教,闪族文化(历史与宗教)的影响遍及各地。
西方三大宗教——犹太教、基督教(编按:Christianity,系包括所有信奉基督的教派,最重要的有四种:
主要是天主教、基督教、东正教、英国圣公会,其中基督教又称新教,是十六世纪宗教革命后才分出来的)与伊斯兰教——都源出闪族。伊斯兰教的圣经古兰经与基督教的旧约圣经都是以闪族语系的语言写成的。旧约中代表神”的一个字和伊斯兰文中的Allah(“阿拉”,就是“神”的意思)同样都源自闪语。
谈到基督教时,情况就变得比较复杂了。基督教虽然也是源自闪族文化,但新约则是以希腊文撰写,同时,基督教的教义神学成形时,曾受到希腊与拉丁文化的影响,因此当然也就受到希腊哲学的影响。
我们说过,印欧民族乃是多神论者,但闪族一开始就相信宇宙间只有一个上帝,这就是所谓的“一神论”。犹大教、基督教与伊斯兰教都是一神论的宗教。
闪族文化另外一个共同的特色是相信历史乃是呈直线式发展,捷句话说,他们认为历史是一条不断延伸的线。神在鸿濛大初时创造了世界,历史从此展开,但终于有一天它会结束,而这一天就是所谓的“最后审判日”,届时神将会对所有生者与死者进行审判。
历史扮演的角色乃是这西方三大宗教中一个很重要的特色。
他们相信,上帝会干预历史发展的方向,他们甚至认为历史存在的目的,是为了让上帝可以完成他在这世界的旨意。就像他曾经带领亚伯拉罕到“应许之地”一般,他将带领人类通过历史,迈向“最后审判日”。当这一天来临时,世界上所有的邪恶都将被摧毁。
由于强调上帝在历史过程中所扮演的角色,闪族人数千年来一直非常注重历史的纪录。这些历史文献后来成为圣经的核心。
到了今天,耶路撒冷城仍是犹太人、基督徒与伊斯兰教徒共同的重要宗教中心。这显示三大宗教显然具有某种相同的背景。
我们曾经说过,对印欧人而言,最重要的感官乃是视觉。而有趣的是,闪族文化中最重要的感官则是听觉,因此犹大人的圣经一开始就是“听哪!以色列”。在旧约圣经中我们也读到人们如何“听到”上帝的话语,而犹太先知通常也以“耶和华(上帝)说”这几个字开始他们的布道。同样的,基督教也强调信徒应“听从”上帝的话语。无论基督教、犹太教或伊斯兰教,同样都有大声朗诵经文的习惯。
此外,我曾提到印欧人经常以图画或雕刻来描绘诸神的形象。
在这一点上闪族人正好相反,他们从来不这样做,对闪族人而言,描绘或雕凿神像是不可以的。旧约曾训诫人们不要制作任何神像。
你也许会想:
“可是,基督教会的教堂却到处都是耶稣与上帝的画像呀广没错,确是如此。不过,这是基督教受到希腊罗马文化影响的结果(希腊与俄罗斯等地的希腊正教至今仍不许信徒制作有关圣经故事的雕像)。
与东方各大宗教相反的是,西方三大宗教强调上帝与造物之间有一段距离。对他们而言,生命的目的不在脱离轮回,而在于从罪恶与谴责中得救。此外,西方的宗教生活较偏重祈祷、布道和研究圣经,而不在于自省与打坐。   

以色列

苏菲,我无意与你的宗教课老师互别苗头,但现在我想简短地谈一下基督教与犹大文化的渊源。
一切都是从上帝创造世界时开始。你可以在圣经第一页看到这件事的始末。后来人类开始反抗上帝,为了惩罚他们,上帝不但将亚当与夏娃逐出伊甸园,并且从此让人类面对死亡。
人类对上帝的反抗乃是贯穿整部圣经的主题,旧约创世记中记载洪水与诺亚方舟的故事。然后我们读到上帝与亚伯拉罕以及他的子孙立约,要求亚伯拉罕与他的世代子孙都必须遵守上帝的戒律。为了奖赏他们,上帝答应保护亚伯拉罕的后裔。公元前一二00年左右,上帝在西乃山上向摩西颁布十诫时,又再次与他立约。那时以色列人在埃及已经当了很久的奴隶,但借着上帝的帮助,他们在摩西的领导下终于回到了以色列的土地。
约公元前一千年时(在希腊哲学诞生很久很久之前)有三位伟大的以色列王。第一位是扫罗王,第二位是大卫王,第三位是所罗门王。当时,所有的以色列子孙已经在这个王国之下团结起来。尤其是大卫王统治时期,以色列在政治、军事与文化上都卓然有成。
依当时的习俗,国王被遴选出来时,要由人民行涂油礼,因此他们被赋予“弥赛亚”(意为“受膏者”)的称号。在宗教的意义上,国王被视为上帝与他的子民间的媒介,因此国王也称为“上帝之子”,而他的王国则可称为“天国”。
然而,不久之后,以色列的国力开始式微,国家也分裂成南北•两国,南国为“犹太”,北国则仍称“以色列”。公元前七二二年时北国被亚述人征服,失去了政治与宗教的影响力。南国的命运也好不了多少。它在公元前五八六午时被巴比伦人征服,圣殿被毁,大多数人民也被运往巴比伦充当奴隶。这段“巴比伦奴隶时期”一直持续了四十余年,直到公元前五三九年时以色列人民才获准返回耶路撒冷,重建圣殿。然而,一直到基督降生,犹太人都生活在异族统治之下。
犹太人经常提出的一个问题是:
上帝既已答应保护以色列,为何大卫的王国会被摧毁?犹太人又为何一次次遭逢劫难?不过,话说回来,人们也曾答应要遵守上帝的诫律。因此,愈来愈多人相信,上帝是因为以色列不遵守诫律才加以惩罚。
公元前七五O年左右,有多位先知开始宣称上帝已因以色列不遵守诫律而发怒。他们说,总有一天上帝会对以色列进行最后的审判。我们称这类预言为“末日预言”。
后来,又另有一些先知预言上帝将拯救少数的子民,并且派遣一位“和平之子”或大卫家族的国王协助他们重建大卫的王国,使这些人民享受繁荣的生活。
先知以赛亚说:
“那坐在黑暗里的百姓,看见了大光,坐在死荫之地的人,有光发现照着他们。”我们称这类预言为“救赎预言”。
总而言之,以色列的予民原来在大卫王的统治之下安居乐业,但后来当情形每下愈况时,他们的先知开始宣称有一天将会出现一位大卫家族的新国王。这位“弥赛亚”或“上帝之予”将“拯救”人民,使以色列重新成为一个伟大的国家,并建立“天国”。   

耶稣

苏菲,你还在看吗?我刚才说的关键字是“弥赛亚”、“上帝之子”与“天国”。最初人们只是从政治角度来解释这些字眼。在耶稣的时代,有很多人想象将来会出现一位“救世主”(像大卫王一样有才干的政治、军事与宗教领袖)。这位“救世主”被视为国家救星,可以使犹大人脱离受罗马人统治之苦。
这固然是一件美事,但也有许多人把眼光放得较远。在那两百年间,不断有先知预言上帝应许派来的“救世主”将会拯救全世界。
他不仅将使以色列人挣脱异族的桎梏,并将拯救所有世人,使其免于罪草与上帝的责罚,得到永生。这种渴望救赎的想法在希腊文化影响所及的各地区也很普遍。
于是拿撒勒的耶稣出现了。他不是唯一以“救世主”姿态出现的人,但他同时也使用“上帝之予”、“天国”与“救赎”等字眼,因此保持了他与旧先知之间的联系。他骑马进入耶路撒冷,接受群众赞颂为人民救星,仿佛从前的国王在登基时例行的“加冕典礼”一般。
他并接受民众涂油。他说:
“时候到了,天国近了。”
这些都很重要,但请你注意:耶稣不同于其他“救世主”,因为他声明他并非军事或政治叛徒。他的任务要比这伟大得多。他宣称每一个人都可以得到上帝的拯救与赦免,因此他可以置身沿途所见的人群中,对他们说:
“你们的罪已经得到赦免了。”
这种“赦免罪恶”的方式是当时人闻所未闻的。更糟的是他称上帝为“天父”。对于当时的犹太人而言,这是从未有过的事。于是,不久后,律法学者便一致起而反对他。他们一步一步地准备将他处决。
当时的情况是这样:
耶稣那个时代有许多人等待一位“救世主”在嘹亮的军号声中(换句话说,就是大举挥军)重建“天国”。耶稣传道时的确也时常提到“天国”这个字眼,但意义要宽广得多。耶稣说,“天国”就是爱你的邻居、同情病弱穷困者,并宽恕犯错之人。
”’于是,“天国”这样一个原本具有战争意味的古老字眼,到了耶稣口中便在意义上有了一百八十度的转变。人们原本期待的是一位很快能够建立“天国”的军事领袖,但他们看到的却是穿着短袍、凉鞋,告诉他们“天国”——或“新约”——就是要“爱邻如己”的耶稣。除此之外,耶稣还说我们必须爱我们的敌人,当他们打我们时,我们不得报复,不但如此,我们还要“把另外一边脸转过来”让他们打,同时我们必须宽恕,不止宽恕七次,更要宽恕七十个七次。
耶稣用他一生的行动显示,他并不以和妓女,贪污、放高利贷的人与政治颠覆分子交谈为耻。但他所行之事还不止于此;他说一个把父亲的家财挥霍净尽的浪子或一个侵吞公款的卑微税吏只要肯悔改并祈求上帝宽恕,在上帝眼中就是一个义人,因为上帝的恩典浩瀚广大。
然而,耶稣还认为,像浪子与税吏这般的罪人在上帝眼中比那些到处炫耀自己德行的法利赛人要更正直,更值得宽恕。
耶稣指出,没有人能够获得上帝的怜悯,我们也不能(像许多希腊人相信的)拯救自己。耶稣在《登山宝训》中要求人们遵守的严格道德规范不仅显示上帝的旨意,也显示在上帝眼中,没有人是正直的。上帝的恩典无垠无涯,但我们必须向他祈祷,才能获得宽恕。
有关耶稣与他的教诲的细节,我还是留给你的宗教老师来讲授吧。这可不是一件容易的事。我希望他能够让你们了解耶稣是一个多么伟大不凡的人。他很巧妙地用那个时代的语言,赋予一个古老的战争口号崭新而宽广的意义。无怪乎他会被钉上十字架,因为他那些有关救赎的崭新信息已经威胁到当时许多人的利益与在位者的权势,因此他们非铲除他不可。
在谈到苏格拉底时,我们发现,如果有人诉诸人们的理性,对某些人可能会造成很大的威胁。同样的,在耶稣的身上,我们也发现要求人们无条件地爱别人、无条件地宽恕别人,也可能对于某些人造成极大的威胁。即使在今天,我们也可以看到,当人民开始要求和平与爱、要求让穷人免于饥饿、要求当权者赦免政敌时,强权也可能因此在一夕之间倾覆。
你也许还记得柏拉图对于苏格拉底这位雅典最正直的人居然被处死一事如何忿忿不平。根据基督教的教义,耶稣也是世上唯一正直的人。然而他最后还是被判了死刑。基督徒说他是为了人类而死,这就是一般所称的“基督受难记”。耶稣是“受苦的仆人”
(sulfenngservant),背负起人类所有的罪孽,以使我们能够得到“救赎”,并免受上帝的责罚。
保罗耶稣被钉上十字架后就下葬了。几天后有人传言他已经从坟墓中复活。因此证明他并非凡人,而真正是“上帝之子”。
我们可以说复活节当天早上,人们传言耶稣复活之时就是基督教会创始之日。保罗已经断言:
“若基督没有复活,则我们所传的便是枉然,你们所信的也是枉然。”
如今全人类都可以盼望“肉体的复活”,因为耶稣正是为了拯救我们才被钉上十字架。不过,苏菲,你不要忘了:
从犹太人的观点来看,世间并没有“不朽的灵魂”,也没有任何形式的“转生”。这些都是希腊人和整个印欧民族的想法。基督教认为人并没有什么东西(如灵魂)是生来就不朽的。虽然基督教会相信“人的肉体将复活并得到永生”,但我们之所以能免于死亡与“天谴”,乃是由于上帝所行的神迹之故,并非由于我们自身的努力或先天的能力。
秉持着这种信念,早期的基督徒开始传扬相信耶稣基督即可得救的“福音”。他们宣称,在耶稣居间努力之下,“天国”即将实现。
他们想使全世界归于基督的名下。(Christ"基督”这个字是希腊文救世主”的意思。在希伯来文中,此字为messlah,即“弥赛亚”。)耶稣去世数年后,法利赛人保罗改信基督教。他在希腊罗马各地游历布道,使基督教义传遍世界各地。我们在圣经使徒行传中可以读到有关的记载。从他写给早期教会会众的多封使徒书信中,我们可以了解保罗传扬的教义。
后来,保罗来到了雅典。他直接前往这个哲学首府的市中心广场,据说当时他“看见满城都是偶像,就心里着急”。他拜访了雅典城内的犹太教会堂,并与伊比鸠鲁学派和斯多葛学派的哲学家谈话。他们带他到最高法院所在的一座小丘上,问他:
“你所讲的这新道,我们也可以知道吗?因为你有些奇怪的事传到我们耳中,我们愿意知道这些事是什么意思。”
苏菲,你可以想象吗?一个犹太人突然出现在雅典的市集,并开始谈到一个被钉在十字架上而后从坟墓里复活的救星。从保罗这次造访雅典,我们便可察觉到希腊哲学与基督教救赎的教义间即将发生的冲突。不过保罗显然办到了一件事:
他使得雅典人倾听他的言论。在最高法院小丘——卫城的宏伟神殿下——他发表了以下演讲:
众位雅典人哪,我看你们凡事很敬畏鬼神。我游行的时候,观看你们所敬拜的,遇见一座坛,上面写着未识之神。你们所不认识而敬拜的,我现在告诉你们。
创造宇宙和其中万物的神,既是天地的主,就不住人手所造的殿,也不用人手服侍,好像缺少什么,自己倒将生命、气息、万物赐给万人。他从一本造出万族的人,住在全地上,并且预先定准他们的年限和所住的疆界。要叫他们寻求神,或者可以揣摩而得,其实他离我们各人不远。我们生活、动作、存留都在乎他。就如你们作诗的,有人说,我们也是他所生的。我们既是神所生的,就不当以为神的神性像人用手艺、心思所雕刻的金、银、石。世人蒙昧无知的时候,神并不监察,如今却吩咐各处的人都要悔改。
因为他已经定了日子,要借着他所设立的人,按公义审判天下。并且叫他从死里复活,给万人作可信的凭据。
从保罗到雅典传教开始,基督教会就逐渐渗透希腊罗马地区。
它虽不同于希腊原有的伊比鸠鲁学派、斯多葛学派或新柏拉图哲学,但保罗仍然在两者间找到了共同点。他强调世人皆试图寻找上帝。对希腊人而言这并非新的概念,但是保罗声称上帝已经向人类显现他自己,并且实际上已经把手伸给人类,因此他不再是一位人们可用理性来了解的“哲学的上帝”,也不是“金、银、石雕刻的偶像”(这两者在希腊的卫城与市集中到处都是),而是一位“不住人手所造殿”的神,也是一位会干预历史发展方向,并为世人而死在十字架上的人形的神。
根据使徒行传的记载,保罗在最高法院小丘发表演讲,提到耶稣死而复活的事时,有人就讥笑他,但也有人说:
“我们再听你讲这个吧。”有些人后来追随保罗,开始信奉基督教,其中有一个女人名叫大马哩(Damaris)。这件事之所以特别值得一提,是因为妇女是最热切信奉基督教的族群之一。
就这样,保罗继续他的传教活动。耶稣受难数十年后,雅典、罗马、亚力山卓、以弗所(Ephesus)与哥林多(Corinth)等重要的希腊罗马城市都成立了基督教会。在后来的三四百年之间,整个希腊文化地区都成为基督教的世界。
教义保罗对基督教的贡献不仅是做一个传教士而已,他对基督教的教会也有很大的影响。因为当时的教徒普遍需要灵性上的指引。
耶稣受难后的最初几年中,基督教面临一个很重要的问题是:
非犹太人(外邦人)是否可以成为基督徒?还是一定要先归化为犹太人才可以?又,外邦人——如希腊人——应该遵守十诫吗?保罗认为,外邦人不一定要成为犹太人才可以信奉基督教,因为基督教不只是犹太人的宗教。它的目标在拯救全体世人。上帝与以色列订的“旧约”已经由耶稣代表上帝与人类订的“新约”所取代。
无论如何,基督教并非当时唯一的宗教。我们已经看到希腊文化如何受到各种宗教的影响,因此,为了显示与其他宗教有别,也为了防止教会内部分裂,基督教会认为有必要提出一套简明扼要的教义。因此他们写成了第一部《使徒信经》(Creed),总结基督徒教义的中心“信条”或主要教义。
其中一条是:
耶稣是神,也是人。他不仅是凭借上帝之力的“上帝之子”,他也是上帝本身。然而,他同时也是一个为人类分担灾祸并因此在十字架上受苦的“真人”。
乍听之下,这话也许有自相矛盾之嫌,但教会的意思正是:
上帝已经变成了人,耶稣不是一位“半人半神”(当时希腊与地中海东岸的许多宗教都相信宇宙有此类“半人半神”的存在),教会宣称耶稣乃是“完全的神,完全的人”。
后记亲爱的苏菲,让我再描述一下当时的整个情况。当基督教进入希腊罗马地区后,两种文化于是浩浩荡荡地交会融合,形成了历史上的一大文化革命。
此时,距早期希腊哲学家的年代已经大约有一千年了。古代时期就要过去,历史将进入以基督教为重心的中世纪。这段期间同样维持了将近一千年之久。
德国诗人歌德曾经说过:
“不能汲取三千年历史经验的人没有未来可言。”我不希望你成为这些人当中之一。我将尽我所能,让你熟悉你在历史上的根。这是人之所以为人(而不仅是一只赤身露体的猿猴)的唯一方式,也是我们避免在虚空中飘浮的唯一方式。
“这是人之所以为人(而不仅仅是一只赤身露体的猿猴)的唯一方式……”
苏菲坐了一会儿,从树篱的小洞中凝视着花园。她开始了解为何人必须要了解自己在历史上的根。对于以色列的子民来说,这当然是很重要的。
她只是一个平凡的人而已。不过,如果她了解自己在历史上的根,她就不至于如此平凡了。
同时,她生活在地球上的时间也不会只有几年而已。如果人类的历史就是她的历史,那么从某方面来说,她已经有好几千岁了。
苏菲拿着所有的信纸,爬出密洞,蹦蹦跳跳地穿过花园,回到楼上的房间。
 楼主| 发表于 2019-1-20 13:05:26 | 显示全部楼层
The Middle Ages

... going only part of the way is not the same as going the wrong way

A week passed without Sophie hearing from Alberto Knox. There were no more postcards from Lebanon either, although she and Joanna still talked about the cards they found in the major's cabin. Joanna had had the fright of her life, but as nothing further seemed to hap-pen, the immediate terror faded and was submerged in homework and badminton.

Sophie read Alberto's letters over and over, looking for some clue that would throw light on the Hilde mystery. Doing so also gave her plenty of opportunity to digest the classical philosophy. She no longer had difficulty in distinguishing Democritus and Socrates, or Plato and Aristotle, from each other.

On Friday, May 25, she was in the kitchen fixing dinner before her mother got home. It was their regular Friday agreement. Today she was making fish soup with fish balls and carrots. Plain and simple.

Outside it was becoming windy. As Sophie stood stirring the casserole she turned toward the window. The birch trees were waving like cornstalks.

Suddenly something smacked against the window-pane. Sophie turned around again and discovered a card sticking to the window.

It was a postcard. She could read it through the glass: "Hilde Moller Knag, c/o Sophie Amundsen."

She thought as much! She opened the window and took the card. It could hardly have blown all the way from Lebanon!

This card was also dated June 15. Sophie removed the casserole from the stove and sat down at the kitchen table. The card read:

Dear Hilde, I don't know whether it will still be your birthday when you read this card. I hope so, in a way; or at least that not too many days have gone by. A week or two for Sophie does not have to mean just as long for us. I shall be coming home for Midsummer Eve, so we can sit together for hours in the glider, looking out over the sea, Hilde. We have so much to talk about. Love from Dad, who sometimes gets very depressed about the thousand-year-long strife between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. I have to keep reminding myself that all three religions stem from Abraham. So I suppose they all pray to the same God. Down here, Cain and Abel have not finished killing each other.

P.S. Please say hello to Sophie. Poor child, she still doesn't know how this whole thing hangs together. But perhaps you do?

Sophie put her head down on the table, exhausted. One thing was certain--she had no idea how this thing hung together. But Hilde did, presumably.

If Hilde's father asked her to say hello to Sophie, it had to mean that Hilde knew more about Sophie than Sophie did about Hilde. It was all so complicated that Sophie went back to fixing dinner.

A postcard that smacked against the kitchen window all by itself! You could call that airmail!

As soon as she had set the casserole on the stove again, the telephone rang.

Suppose it was Dad! She wished desperately that he would come home so she could tell him everything that had happened in these last weeks. But it was probably only Joanna or Mom. Sophie snatched up the phone.

"Sophie Amundsen," she said.

"It's me," said a voice.

Sophie was sure of three things: it was not her father. But it was a man's voice, and a voice she knew she had heard before.

"Who is this?"

"It's Alberto."

"Ohhh!"

Sophie was at a loss for words. It was the voice from the Acropolis video that she had recognized.

"Are you all right?"

"Sure."

"From now on there will be no more letters."

"But I didn't send you a frog!"

"We must meet in person. It's beginning to be urgent, you see."

"Why?"

"Hilde's father is closing in on us."

"Closing in how?"

"On all sides, Sophie. We have to work together now."

"How...?"

"But you can't help much before I have told you about the Middle Ages. We ought to cover the Renaissance and the seventeenth century as well. Berkeley is a key figure..."

"Wasn't he the man in the picture at the major's cabin?"

"That very same. Maybe the actual struggle will be waged over his philosophy."

"You make it sound like a war."

"I would rather call it a battle of wills. We have to attract Hilde's attention and get her over on our side before her father comes home to Lillesand."

"I don't get it at all."

"Perhaps the philosophers can open your eyes. Meet me at St. Mary's Church at eight o'clock tomorrow morning. But come alone, my child."

"So early in the morning?"

The telephone clicked.

"Hello?"

He had hung up! Sophie rushed back to the stove just before the fish soup boiled over.

St. Mary's Church? That was an old stone church from the Middle Ages. It was only used for concerts and very special ceremonies. And in the summer it was sometimes open to tourists. But surely it wasn't open in the middle of the night?

When her mother got home, Sophie had put the card from Lebanon with everything else from Alberto and Hilde. After dinner she went over to Joanna's place.

"We have to make a very special arrangement," she said as soon as her friend opened the door.

She said no more until Joanna had closed her bedroom door.

"It's rather problematic," Sophie went on.

"Spit it out!"

"I'm going to have to tell Mom that I'm staying the night here."

"Great!"

"But it's only something I'm saying, you see. I've got to go somewhere else."

"That's bad. Is it a guy?"

"No, it's to do with Hilde."

Joanna whistled softly, and Sophie looked her severely in the eye.

"I'm coming over this evening," she said, "but at seven o'clock I've got to sneak out again. You've got to cover for me until I get back."

"But where are you going? What is it you have to do?"

"Sorry. My lips are sealed."

Sleepovers were never a problem. On the contrary, almost. Sometimes Sophie got the impression that her mother enjoyed having the house to herself.

"You'll be home for breakfast, I suppose?" was her mother's only remark as Sophie left the house.

"If I'm not, you know where I am."

What on earth made her say that? It was the one weak spot.

Sophie's visit began like any other sleepover, with talk until late into the night. The only difference was that when they finally settled down to sleep at about two o'clock, Sophie set the alarm clock to a quarter to seven.

Five hours later, Joanna woke briefly as Sophie switched off the buzzer.

"Take care," she mumbled.

Then Sophie was on her way. St. Mary's Church lay on the outskirts of the old part of town. It was several miles walk away, but even though she had only slept for a few hours she felt wide awake.

It was almost eight o'clock when she stood at the entrance to the old stone church. Sophie tried the massive door. It was unlocked!

Inside the church it was as deserted and silent as the church was old. A bluish light filtered in through the stained-glass windows revealing a myriad of tiny particles of dust hovering in the air. The dust seemed to gather in thick beams this way and that inside the church. Sophie sat on one of the benches in the center of the nave, staring toward the altar at an old crucifix painted with muted colors.

Some minutes passed. Suddenly the organ began to play. Sophie dared not look around. It sounded like an ancient hymn, probably from the Middle Ages.

There was silence again. Then she heard footsteps approaching from behind her. Should she look around? She chose instead to fix her eyes on the Cross.

The footsteps passed her on their way up the aisle and she saw a figure dressed in a brown monk's habit. Sophie could have sworn it was a monk right out of the Middle Ages.

She was nervous, but not scared out of her wits. In front of the altar the monk turned in a half-circle and then climbed up into the pulpit. He leaned over the edge, looked down at Sophie, and addressed her in Latin:

"Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper et in saecula saeculorum. Amen."

"Talk sense, silly!" Sophie burst out.

Her voice resounded all around the old stone church.

Although she realized that the monk had to be Alberto Knox, she regretted her outburst in this venerable place of worship. But she had been nervous, and when you're nervous its comforting to break all taboos.

"Shhh!" Alberto held up one hand as priests do when they want the congregation to be seated. "Middle Ages began at four," he said. "Middle Ages began at four?" asked Sophie, feeling stupid but no longer nervous. "About four o'clock, yes. And then it was five and six and seven. But it was as if time stood still. And it got to be eight and nine and ten. But it was still the Middle Ages, you see. Time to get up to a new day, you may think. Yes, I see what you mean. But it is still Sunday, one long endless row of Sundays. And it got to be eleven and twelve and thirteen. This was the period we call the High Gothic, when the great cathedrals of Europe were built. And then, some time around fourteen hours, at two in the afternoon, a cock crowed--and the Middle Ages began to ebb away." "So the Middle Ages lasted for ten hours then," said Sophie. Alberto thrust his head forward out of the brown monk's cowl and surveyed his congregation, which consisted of a fourteen-year-old girl.

"If each hour was a hundred years, yes. We can pretend that Jesus was born at midnight. Paul began his missionary journeys just before half past one in the morning and died in Rome a quarter of an hour later. Around three in the morning the Christian church was more or less banned, but by A.D. 313 it was an accepted religion in the Roman Empire. That was in the reign of the Emperor Constantine. The holy emperor himself was first baptized on his deathbed many years later. From the year 380 Christianity was the official religion throughout the entire Roman Empire."

"Didn't the Roman Empire fall?" "It was just beginning to crumble. We are standing before one of the greatest changes in the history of culture. Rome in the fourth century was being threatened both by barbarians pressing in from the north and by disintegration from within. In A.D. 330 Constantine the Great moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople, the city he had founded at the approach to the Black Sea. Many people considered the new city the "second Rome." In 395 the Roman Empire was divided in two--a Western Empire with Rome as its center, and an Eastern Empire with the new city of Constantinople as its capital. Rome was plundered by bar-barians in 410, and in 476 the whole of the Western Empire was destroyed. The Eastern Empire continued to exist as a state right up until 1453 when the Turks conquered Constantinople."

"And its name got changed to Istanbul?"

"That's right! Istanbul is its latest name. Another date we should notice is 529. That was the year when the church closed Plato's Academy in Athens. In the same year, the Benedictine order, the first of the great monastic orders, was founded. The year 529 thus became a symbol of the way the Christian Church put the lid on Greek philosophy. From then on, monasteries had the monopoly of education, reflection, and meditation. The clock was ticking toward half past five ..."

Sophie saw what Alberto meant by all these times. Midnight was 0, one o'clock was 100 years after Christ, six o'clock was 600 years after Christ, and 14 hours was 1,400 years after Christ...

Alberto continued: "The Middle Ages actually means the period between two other epochs. The expression arose during the Renaissance. The Dark Ages, as they were also called, were seen then as one interminable thousand-year-long night which had settled over Europe between antiquity and the Renaissance. The word 'medieval' is used negatively nowadays about anything that is over-authoritative and inflexible. But many historians now consider the Middle Ages to have been a thousand-year period of germination and growth. The school system, for instance, was developed in the Middle Ages. The first convent schools were opened quite early on in the period, and cathedral schools followed in the twelfth century. Around the year 1200 the first universities were founded, and the subjects to be studied were grouped into various 'faculties,' just as they are today."

"A thousand years is a really long time."

"Yes, but Christianity took time to reach the masses. Moreover, in the course of the Middle Ages the various nation-states established themselves, with cities and citizens, folk music and folktales. What would fairy tales and folk songs have been without the Middle Ages? What would Europe have been, even? A Roman province, perhaps. Yet the resonance in such names as England, France, or Germany is the very same boundless deep we call the Middle Ages. There are many shining fish swimming around in those depths, although we do not always catch sight of them. Snorri lived in the Middle Ages. So did Saint Olaf and Charlemagne, to say nothing of Romeo and Juliet, Joan of Arc, Ivanhoe, the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and many mighty princes and majestic kings, chivalrous knights and fair damsels, anonymous stained-glass window makers and ingenious organ builders. And I haven't even mentioned friars, crusaders, or witches."

"You haven't mentioned the clergy, either."

"Correct. Christianity didn't come to Norway, by the way, until the eleventh century. It would be an exaggeration to say that the Nordic countries converted to Christianity at one fell swoop. Ancient heathen beliefs persisted under the surface of Christianity, and many of these pre-Christian elements became integrated with Christianity. In Scandinavian Christmas celebrations, for example, Christian and Old Norse customs are wedded even to this day. And here the old saying applies, that married folk grow to resemble each other. Yuletide cookies, Yuletide piglets, and Yuletide ale begin to resemble the Three Wise Men from the Orient and the manger in Bethlehem. But without doubt, Christianity gradually became the predominant philosophy of life. Therefore we usually speak of the Middle Ages as being a unifying force of Christian culture."

"So it wasn't all gloom, then?"

"The first centuries after the year 400 really were a cultural decline. The Roman period had been a high culture, with big cities that had sewers, public baths, and libraries, not to mention proud architecture. In the early centuries of the Middle Ages this entire culture crum-bled. So did its trade and economy. In the Middle Ages people returned to payment in kind and bartering. The economy was now characterized by feudalism, which meant that a few powerful nobles owned the land, which the serfs had to toil on in order to live. The population also declined steeply in the first centuries. Rome had over a million inhabitants in antiquity. But by 600, the population of the old Roman capital had fallen to 40,000, a mere fraction of what it had been. Thus a relatively small population was left to wander among what remained of the majestic edifices of the city's former glory. When they needed building materials, there were plenty of ruins to supply them. This is naturally a source of great sorrow to present-day archeologists, who would rather have seen medieval man leave the ancient monuments untouched."

"It's easy to know better after the fact."

"From a political point of view, the Roman period was already over by the end of the fourth century. However, the Bishop of Rome became the supreme head of the Roman Catholic Church. He was given the title 'Pope'--in Latin 'papa,' which means what it says-- and gradually became looked upon as Christ's deputy on earth. Rome was thus the Christian capital throughout most of the medieval period. But as the kings and bishops of the new nation-states became more and more powerful, some of them were bold enough to stand up to the might of the church."

"You said the church closed Plato's Academy in Athens. Does that mean that all the Greek philosophers were forgotten?"

"Not entirely. Some of the writings of Aristotle and Plato were known. But the old Roman Empire was gradually divided into three different cultures. In Western Europe we had a Latinized Christian culture with Rome as its capital. In Eastern Europe we had a Greek Christian culture with Constantinople as its capital. This city began to be called by its Greek name, Byzantium. We therefore speak of the Byzantine Middle Ages as opposed to the Roman Catholic Middle Ages. However, North Africa and the Middle East had also been part of the Roman Empire. This area developed during the Middle Ages into an Arabic-speaking Muslim culture. After the death of Muhammad in 632, both the Middle East and North Africa were won over to Islam. Shortly thereafter, Spain also became part of the world of Islamic culture. Islam adopted Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, and Bagdad as holy cities. From the point of view of cultural history, it is interesting to note that the Arabs also took over the ancient Hellenistic city of Alexandria. Thus much of the old Greek science was inherited by the Arabs. All through the Middle Ages, the Arabs were predominant hi sciences such as mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, and medicine. Nowadays we still use Arabic figures. In a number of areas Arabic culture was superior to Christian culture."

"I wanted to know what happened to Greek philosophy."

"Can you imagine a broad river that divides for a while into three different streams before it once again becomes one great wide river?"

"Yes."

"Then you can also see how the Greco-Roman culture was divided, but survived through the three cultures: the Roman Catholic in the west, the Byzantine in the east, and the Arabic in the south. Although it's greatly oversimplified, we could say that Neoplatonism was handed down in the west, Plato in the east, and Aristotle to the Arabs in the south. But there was also something of them all in all three streams. The point is that at the end of the Middle Ages, all three streams came together in Northern Italy. The Arabic influence came from the Arabs in Spain, the Greek influence from Greece and the Byzantine Empire. And now we see the beginning of the Renaissance, the 'rebirth' of antique culture. In one sense, antique culture had survived the Dark Ages."

"I see."

"But let us not anticipate the course of events. We mast first talk a little about medieval philosophy. I shall not speak from this pulpit any more. I'm coming down."

Sophie's eyes were heavy from too little sleep. When she saw the strange monk descending from the pulpit of St. Mary's Church, she felt as if she were dreaming.

Alberto walked toward the altar rail. He looked up at the altar with its ancient crucifix, then he walked slowly toward Sophie. He sat down beside her on the bench of the pew.

It was a strange feeling, being so close to him. Under his cowl Sophie saw a pair of deep brown eyes. They belonged to a middle-aged man with dark hair and a little pointed beard. Who are you, she wondered. Why have you turned my life upside down?

"We shall become better acquainted by and by," he said, as if he had read her thoughts.

As they sat there together, with the light that filtered into the church through the stained-glass windows becoming sharper and sharper, Alberto Knox began to talk about medieval philosophy.

"The medieval philosophers took it almost for granted that Christianity was true," he began. "The question was whether we must simply believe the Christian revelation or whether we can approach the Christian truths with the help of reason. What was the relationship between the Greek philosophers and what the Bible said? Was there a contradiction between the Bible and reason, or were belief and knowledge compatible? Almost all medieval philosophy centered on this one question."

Sophie nodded impatiently. She had been through this in her religion class.

"We shall see how the two most prominent medieval philosophers dealt with this question, and we might as well begin with St. Augustine, who lived from 354 to 430. In this one person's life we can observe the actual transition from late antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Augustine was born in the little town of Tagaste in North Africa. At the age of sixteen he went to Carthage to study. Later he traveled to Rome and Milan, and lived the last years of his life in the town of Hippo, a few miles west of Carthage. However, he was not a Christian all his life. Augustine examined several different religions and philosophies before he became a Christian."

"Could you give some examples?"

"For a time he was a Manichaean. The Manichaeans were a religious sect that was extremely characteristic of late antiquity. Their doctrine was half religion and half philosophy, asserting that the world consisted of a dualism of good and evil, light and darkness, spirit and matter. With his spirit, mankind could rise above the world of matter and thus prepare for the salvation of his soul. But this sharp division between good and evil gave the young Augustine no peace of mind. He was completely preoccupied with what we like to call the 'problem of evil.' By this we mean the question of where evil comes from. For a time he was influenced by Stoic philosophy, and according to the Stoics, there was no sharp division between good and evil. However, his principal leanings were toward the other significant philosophy of late antiquity, Neoplatonism. Here he came across the idea that all existence is divine in nature."

"So he became a Neoplatonic bishop?"

"Yes, you could say that. He became a Christian first, but the Christianity of St. Augustine is largely influenced by Platonic ideas. And therefore, Sophie, therefore you have to understand that there is no dramatic break with Greek philosophy the minute we enter the Christian Middle Ages. Much of Greek philosophy was carried over to the new age through Fathers of the Church like St. Augustine."

"Do you mean that St. Augustine was half Christian and half Neoplatonist?"

"He himself believed he was a hundred-percent Christian although he saw no real contradiction between Christianity and the philosophy of Plato. For him, the similarity between Plato and the Christian doctrine was so apparent that he thought Plato must have had knowl-edge of the Old Testament. This, of course, is highly improbable. Let us rather say that it was St. Augustine who 'christianized' Plato."

"So he didn't turn his back on everything that had to do with philosophy when he started believing in Christianity?"

"No, but he pointed out that there are limits to how far reason can get you in religious questions. Christianity is a divine mystery that we can only perceive through faith. But if we believe in Christianity, God will 'illuminate' the soul so that we experience a sort of supernatural knowledge of God. St. Augustine had felt within himself that there was a limit to how far philosophy could go. Not before he became a Christian did he find peace in his own soul. 'Our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee,' he writes."

"I don't quite understand how Plato's ideas could go together with Christianity," Sophie objected. "What about the eternal ideas?"

"Well, St. Augustine certainly maintains that God created the world out of the void, and that was a Biblical idea. The Greeks preferred the idea that the world had always existed. But St. Augustine believed that before God created the world, the 'ideas' were in the Divine mind. So he located the Platonic ideas in God and in that way preserved the Platonic view of eternal ideas."

"That was smart."

"But it indicates how not only St. Augustine but many of the other Church Fathers bent over backward to bring Greek and Jewish thought together. In a sense they were of two cultures. Augustine also inclined to Neoplatonism in his view of evil. He believed, like Plotinus, that evil is the 'absence of God.' Evil has no independent existence, it is something that is not, for God's creation is in fact only good. Evil comes from mankind's disobedience, Augustine believed. Or, in his own words, 'The good will is God's work; the evil will is the falling away from God's work.' "

"Did he also believe that man has a divine soul?"

"Yes and no. St. Augustine maintained that there is an insurmountable barrier between God and the world. In this he stands firmly on Biblical ground, rejecting the doctrine of Plotinus that everything is one. But he nevertheless emphasizes that man is a spiritual being. He has a material body--which belongs to the physical world which 'moth and rust doth corrupt'--but he also has a soul which can know God."

"What happens to the soul when we die?"

"According to St. Augustine, the entire human race was lost after the Fall of Man. But God nevertheless decided that certain people should be saved from perdition."

"In that case, God could just as well have decided that everybody should be saved."

"As far as that goes, St. Augustine denied that man has any right to criticize God, referring to Paul's Epistle to the Romans: 'O Man, who art thou that replies! against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it; why hast thou made me thus? or Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?' "

"So God sits up in his Heaven playing with people? And as soon as he is dissatisfied with one of his creations, he just throws it away."

"St. Augustine's point was that no man deserves God's redemption. And yet God has chosen some to be saved from damnation, so for him there was nothing secret about who will be saved and who damned. It is preordained. We are entirely at his mercy."

"So in a way, he returned to the old belief in fate."

"Perhaps. But St. Augustine did not renounce man's responsibility for his own life. He taught that we must live in awareness of being among the chosen. He did not deny that we have free will. But God has 'foreseen' how we will live."

"Isn't that rather unfair?" asked Sophie. "Socrates said that we all had the same chances because we all had the same common sense. But St. Augustine divides people into two groups. One group gets saved and the other gets damned."

"You are right in that St. Augustine's theology is considerably removed from the humanism of Athens. But St. Augustine wasn't dividing humanity into two groups. He was merely expounding the Biblical doctrine of salvation and damnation. He explained this in a learned work called the City of God."

"Tell me about that."

"The expression 'City of God,' or 'Kingdom of God,' comes from the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. St. Augustine believed that all human history is a struggle between the 'Kingdom of God' and the 'Kingdom of the World.' The two 'kingdoms' are not political kingdoms distinct from each other. They struggle for mastery inside every single person. Nevertheless, the Kingdom of God is more or less clearly present in the Church, and the Kingdom of the World is present in the State--for example, in the Roman Empire, which was in decline at the time of St. Augustine. This conception became increasingly clear as Church and State fought for supremacy throughout the Middle Ages. There is no salvation outside the Church,' it was now said. St. Augustine's 'City of God' eventually became identical with the es-tablished Church. Not until the Reformation in the sixteenth century was there any protest against the idea that people could only obtain salvation through the Church."

"It was about time!"

"We can also observe that St. Augustine was the first philosopher we have come across to draw history into his philosophy. The struggle between good and evil was by no means new. What was new was that for Augustine the struggle was played out in history. There is not much of Plato in this aspect of St. Augustine's work. He was more influenced by the linear view of history as we meet it in the Old Testament: the idea that God needs all of history in order to realize his Kingdom of God. History is necessary for the enlightenment of man and the de-struction of evil. Or, as St. Augustine put it, 'Divine foresight directs the history of mankind from Adam to the end of time as if it were the story of one man who gradually develops from childhood to old age.' "

Sophie looked at her watch. "It's ten o'clock," she said. "I'll have to go soon."

"But first I must tell you about the other great medieval philosopher. Shall we sit outside?"

Alberto stood up. He placed the palms of his hands together and began to stride down the aisle. He looked as if he was praying or meditating deeply on some spiritual truth. Sophie followed him; she felt she had no choice.

The sun had not yet broken through the morning clouds. Alberto seated himself on a bench outside the church. Sophie wondered what people would think if anyone came by. Sitting on a church bench at ten in the morning was odd in itself, and sitting with a medieval monk wouldn't make things look any better.

"It is eight o'clock," he began. "About four hundred years have elapsed since St. Augustine, and now school starts. From now until ten o'clock, convent schools will have the monopoly on education. Between ten and eleven o'clock the first cathedral schools will be founded, followed at noon by the first universities. The great Gothic cathedrals will be built at the same time. This church, too, dates from the 1200s--or what we call the High Gothic period. In this town they couldn't afford a large cathedral."

"They didn't need one," Sophie said. "I hate empty churches."

"Ah, but the great cathedrals were not built only for large congregations. They were built to the glory of God and were in themselves a kind of religious celebration. However, something else happened during this period which has special significance for philosophers like us."

Alberto continued: "The influence of the Arabs of Spain began to make itself felt. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Arabs had kept the Aristotelian tradition alive, and from the end of the twelfth century, Arab scholars began to arrive in Northern Italy at the invitation of the nobles. Many of Aristotle's writings thus became known and were translated from Greek and Arabic into Latin. This created a new interest in the natural sciences and infused new life into the question of the Christian revelation's relationship to Greek philosophy. Aristotle could obviously no longer be ignored in matters of science, but when should one attend to Aristotle the phi-losopher, and when should one stick to the Bible? Do you see?"

Sophie nodded, and the monk went on:

"The greatest and most significant philosopher of this period was St. Thomas Aquinas, who lived from 1225 to 1274. He came from the little town of Aquino, between Rome and Naples, but he also worked as a teacher at the University of Paris. I call him a philosopher but he was just as much a theologian. There was no great difference between philosophy and theology at that time. Briefly, we can say that Aquinas christianized Aristotle in the same way that St. Augustine christianized Plato in early medieval times."

"Wasn't it rather an odd thing to do, christianizing philosophers who had lived several hundred years before Christ?"

"You could say so. But by 'christianizing' these two great Greek philosophers, we only mean that they were interpreted and explained in such a way that they were no longer considered a threat to Christian dogma. Aquinas was among those who tried to make Aristotle's philosophy compatible with Christianity. We say that he created the great synthesis between faith and knowledge. He did this by entering the philosophy of Aristotle and taking him at his word."

"I'm sorry, but I had hardly any sleep last night. I'm afraid you'll have to explain it more clearly."

"Aquinas believed that there need be no conflict between what philosophy or reason teaches us and what the Christian Revelation or faith teaches us. Christendom and philosophy often say the same thing. So we can frequently reason ourselves to the same truths that we can read in the Bible."

"How come? Can reason tell us that God created the world in six days or that Jesus was the Son of God?"

"No, those so-called verities of faith are only accessible through belief and the Christian Revelation. But Aquinas believed in the existence of a number of 'natural theological truths.' By that he meant truths that could be reached both through Christian faith and through our innate or natural reason. For example, the truth that there is a God. Aquinas believed that there are two paths to God. One path goes through faith and the Christian Revelation, and the other goes through reason and the senses. Of these two, the path of faith and revelation is certainly the surest, because it is easy to lose one's way by trusting to reason alone. But Aquinas's point was that there need not be any conflict between a philosopher like Aristotle and the Christian doctrine."

"So we can take our choice between believing Aristotle and believing the Bible?"

"Not at all. Aristotle goes only part of the way because he didn't know of the Christian revelation. But going only part of the way is not the same as going the wrong way. For example, it is not wrong to say that Athens is in Europe. But neither is it particularly precise. If a book only tells you that Athens is a city in Europe, it would be wise to look it up in a geography book as well. There you would find the whole truth that Athens is the capital of Greece, a small country in southeastern Europe. If you are lucky you might be told a little about the Acropolis as well. Not to mention Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle."

"But the first bit of information about Athens was true."

"Exactly! Aquinas wanted to prove that there is only one truth. So when Aristotle shows us something our reason tells us is true, it is not in conflict with Christian teaching. We can arrive successfully at one aspect of the truth with the aid of reason and the evidence of our senses. For example, the kind of truths Aristotle refers to when he describes the plant and the animal kingdom. Another aspect of the truth is revealed to us by God through the Bible. But the two aspects of the truth overlap at significant points. There are many questions about which the Bible and reason tell us exactly the same thing."

"Like there being a God?"

"Exactly. Aristotle's philosophy also presumed the existence of a God--or a formal cause--which sets all natural processes going. But he gives no further description of God. For this we must rely solely on the Bible and the teachings of Jesus."

"Is it so absolutely certain that there is a God?"

"It can be disputed, obviously. But even in our day most people will agree that human reason is certainly not capable of disproving the existence of God. Aquinas went further. He believed that he could prove God's existence on the basis of Aristotle's philosophy."

"Not bad!"

"With our reason we can recognize that everything around us must have a 'formal cause,' he believed. God has revealed himself to mankind both through the Bible and through reason. There is thus both a 'theology of faith' and a 'natural theology.' The same is true of the moral aspect. The Bible teaches us how God wants us to live. But God has also given us a conscience which enables us to distinguish between right and wrong on a 'natural' basis. There are thus also 'two paths' to a moral life. We know that it is wrong to harm people even if we haven't read in the Bible that we must 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' Here, too, the surest guide is to follow the Bible's commandment."

"I think I understand," said Sophie now. "It's almost like how we know there's a thunderstorm, by seeing the lightning and by hearing the thunder."

"That's right! We can hear the thunder even if we are blind, and we can see the lightning even if we are deaf. It's best if we can both see and hear, of course. But there is no contradiction between what we see and what we hear. On the contrary--the two impressions reinforce each other."

"I see."

"Let me add another picture. If you read a novel-- John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, for example ..."

"I've read that, actually."

"Don't you feel you know something about the author just by reading his book?"

"I realize there is a person who wrote it."

"Is that all you know about him?"

"He seems to care about outsiders."

"When you read this book--which is Steinbeck's creation--you get to know something about Steinbeck's nature as well. But you cannot expect to get any personal information about the author. Could you tell from reading Of Mice and Men how old the author was when he wrote it, where he lived, or how many children he had?"

"Of course not."

"But you can find this information in a biography of John Steinbeck. Only in a biography--or an autobiography--can you get better acquainted with Steinbeck, the person."

"That's true."

"That's more or less how it is with God's Creation and the Bible. We can recognize that there is a God just by walking around in the natural world. We can easily see that He loves flowers and animals, otherwise He would not have made them. But information about God, the person, is only found in the Bible--or in God's 'autobiography,' if you like."

"You're good at finding examples."

"Mmmm..."

For the first time Alberto just sat there thinking-- without answering.

"Does all this have anything to do with Hilde?" Sophie could not help asking.

"We don't know whether there is a 'Hilde' at all."

"But we know someone is planting evidence of her all over the place. Postcards, a silk scarf, a green wallet, a stocking ..."

Alberto nodded. "And it seems as if it is Hilde's father who is deciding how many clues he will plant," he said. "For now, all we know is that someone is sending us a lot of postcards. I wish he would write something about himself too. But we shall return to that later."

"It's a quarter to eleven. I'll have to get home before the end of the Middle Ages."

"I shall just conclude with a few words about how Aquinas adopted Aristotle's philosophy in all the areas where it did not collide with the Church's theology. These included his logic, his theory of knowledge, and not least his natural philosophy. Do you recall, for ex-ample, how Aristotle described the progressive scale of life from plants and animals to humans?"

Sophie nodded.

"Aristotle believed that this scale indicated a God that constituted a sort of maximum of existence. This scheme of things was not difficult to align with Christian theology. According to Aquinas, there was a progressive degree of existence from plants and animals to man, from man to angels, and from angels to God. Man, like animals, has a body and sensory organs, but man also has intelligence which enables him to reason things out.

Angels have no such body with sensory organs, which is why they have spontaneous and immediate intelligence. They have no need to 'ponder,' like humans; they have no need to reason out conclusions. They know everything that man can know without having to learn it step by step like us. And since angels have no body, they can never die. They are not everlasting like God, because they were once created by God. But they have no body that they must one day depart from, and so they will never die."

"That sounds lovely!"

"But up above the angels, God rules, Sophie. He can see and know everything in one single coherent vision."

"So he can see us now."

"Yes, perhaps he can. But not 'now.' For God, time does not exist as it does for us. Our 'now' is not God's 'now.' Because many weeks pass for us, they do not necessarily pass for God."

"That's creepy!" Sophie exclaimed. She put her hand over her mouth. Alberto looked down at her, and Sophie continued: "I got another card from Hilde's father yesterday. He wrote something like--even if it takes a week or two for Sophie, that doesn't have to mean it will be that long for us. That's almost the same as what you said about God!"

Sophie could see a sudden frown flash across Alberto's face beneath the brown cowl.

"He ought to be ashamed of himself!"

Sophie didn't quite understand what Alberto meant. He went on: "Unfortunately, Aquinas also adopted Aristotle's view of women. You may perhaps recall that Aristotle thought a woman was more or less an incomplete man. He also thought that children only inherit the father's characteristics, since a woman was passive and receptive while the man was active and creative. According to Aquinas, these views harmonized with the message of the Bible--which, for example, tells us that woman was made out of Adam's rib."

"Nonsense!"

"It's interesting to note that the eggs of mammals were not discovered until 1827. It was therefore perhaps not so surprising that people thought it was the man who was the creative and lifegiving force in reproduction. We can moreover note that, according to Aquinas, it is only as nature-being that woman is inferior to man. Woman's soul is equal to man's soul. In Heaven there is complete equality of the sexes because all physical gender differences cease to exist."

"That's cold comfort. Weren't there any women philosophers in the Middle Ages?"

"The life of the church in the Middle Ages was heavily dominated by men. But that did not mean that there were no women thinkers. One of them was Hildegard of Bingen..."

Sophie's eyes widened:

"Does she have anything to do with Hilde?"

"What a question! Hildegard lived as a nun in the Rhine Valley from 1098 to 1179. In spite of being a woman, she worked as preacher, author, physician, botanist, and naturalist. She is an example of the fact that women were often more practical, more scientific even, in the Middle Ages."

"But what about Hilde?"

"It was an ancient Christian and Jewish belief that God was not only a man. He also had a female side, or 'mother nature.' Women, too, are created in God's likeness. In Greek, this female side of God is called Sophia. 'Sophia' or 'Sophie' means wisdom."

Sophie shook her head resignedly. Why had nobody ever told her that? And why had she never asked?

Alberto continued: "Sophia, or God's mother nature, had a certain significance both for Jews and in the Greek Orthodox Church throughout the Middle Ages. In the west she was forgotten. But along comes Hildegard. Sophia appeared to her in a vision, dressed in a golden tunic adorned with costly jewels ..."

Sophie stood up. Sophia had revealed herself to Hildegard in a vision ...

"Maybe I will appear to Hilde."

She sat down again. For the third time Alberto laid his hand on her shoulder.

"That is something we must look into. But now it is past eleven o'clock. You must go home, and we are approaching a new era. I shall summon you to a meeting on the Renaissance. Hermes will come get you in the garden."

With that the strange monk rose and began to walk toward the church. Sophie stayed where she was, thinking about Hildegard and Sophia, Hilde and Sophie. Suddenly she jumped up and ran after the monk-robed philosopher, calling:

"Was there also an Alberto in the Middle Ages?"

Alberto slowed his pace somewhat, turned his head slightly and said, "Aquinas had a famous philosophy teacher called Albert the Great..."

With that he bowed his head and disappeared through the door of St. Mary's Church.

Sophie was not satisfied with his answer. She followed him into the church. But now it was completely empty. Did he go through the floor?

Just as she was leaving the church she noticed a picture of the Madonna. She went up to it and studied it closely. Suddenly she discovered a little drop of water under one of the Madonna's eyes. Was it a tear?

Sophie rushed out of the church and hurried back to Joanna's.
 楼主| 发表于 2019-1-20 13:06:02 | 显示全部楼层
中世纪

……对了一部分并不等于错……
一个星期过去了,艾伯特并没有来信,苏菲也没有再接到从黎巴嫩寄来的明信片。不过,她和乔安倒是还时常谈到她们在少校的小木屋中发现的那些明信片。那次乔安真的是被吓到了。不过由于后来也没有再发生什么事,于是当时的恐怖感就慢慢消退在功课与羽球之中了。
苏菲一遍遍重读艾伯特的来信,试图寻找一些线索以解答有关席德的谜,她因此有许多机会消化古典哲学。现在她已经能够轻易地辨别德谟克里特斯与苏格拉底的不同,以及柏拉图与亚理斯多德的差异了。
五月二十五日星期五那天,妈妈还没有回家。苏菲站在炉子前准备晚餐。这是他们母女订的协议。今天苏菲煮的是鱼丸萝卜汤,再简单不过了。
屋外的风愈来愈大。苏菲站在那儿搅拌着汤时,转身朝窗户看。窗外的桦树正像玉蜀黍茎一般地摇摆不定。
突然间,有个东西“啪”一声碰到窗框。苏菲再度转身来看,发现有一张卡片贴在窗户上。
那是一张明信片。即使透过玻璃,她也可以看清楚,上面写着:“请苏菲代转席德”。
她早料到了。她打开窗户取下那张明信片,它总不会是被风一路从黎巴嫩吹到这里来的吧?这张明信片的日期也是六月十五日。
苏菲把汤从炉子上端下来,然后坐在餐桌旁。明信片上写着:
亲爱的席德:
我不知道你看到这张卡片时,你的生日过了没有。我希望还没有,至少不要过大久。对于苏菲来说,一两个星期也许不像我们认为的那么漫长。我将回家过仲夏节。到时,我们就可以一起坐在秋汗上看海看几个小时。我有好多话要跟你说。对了,爸爸我有时对一千年来犹太人、基督徒与伊斯兰教徒之间的纷争感到非常沮丧。
我必须时常提醒自己,这三个宗教事实上都是从亚伯拉罕而来的。
因此,我想,他们应该都向同一个上帝祷告吧!在这里,该隐与亚伯仍然还未停止互相残杀。
P.S:请替我向苏菲打招呼。可怜的孩子,她还是不知道这到卜是怎么回事。不过我想你大概知道吧!苏菲把头趴在桌子上,觉得好累。她的确不知道这究竟是怎么回事。不过席德却好像知道。
如果席德的父亲要她向苏菲打招呼,这表示席德对苏菲的了解比苏菲对她的了解多。这件事情实在太复杂了。苏菲决定回去继续做晚饭。
居然有明信片会自己飞到厨房的窗户上来!这应该可以算是航空邮件了吧!她刚把汤锅放在炉子上,电话就响了起来。
如果是爸爸打来的该多好j她急切希望他赶快回家,她就可以告诉他这几个礼拜以来发生的事。不过她想很可能只是乔安或妈妈打来的……苏菲赶快拿起话筒。
“我是苏菲。”她说。
“是我。”电话里的声音说。
是一个男人的声音。苏菲可以确定这人不是她爸爸,而且这个声音她以前听过。
“你是哪一位?”
“我是艾伯特。”
“哦!”
苏菲讲不出话来。她这才想到原来自己是在高城的录影带上听过这个声音。
“你还好吗?”
“我没事。”
“从现在起,我不会再寄信给你了。”
“不过,我并没有寄一只青蛙给你呀]”
“我们必须见面。因为,情况开始变得比较急迫了“为什么?”
“因为席德的爸爸正在向我们逼近。”
“怎么逼近?”
“从四面八方逼近。现在我们必须一起努力。”
“怎么做呢?”
“在我告诉你有关中世纪的事以前,你是帮不上什么忙的。还有,我们也应该谈一谈文艺复兴时期和十七世纪。柏克莱是最重要的人物……”
“他不是少校的小木屋里那幅肖像画中的人吗?”
“没错。也许这场对抗就是和他的哲学有关。”
“听起来好像在打仗一样。”
“我宁可说这是一场意志之战。我们必须吸引席德的注意力,并且设法使她在她父亲回到黎乐桑之前站在我们这边。”
“我还是不懂。”
“也许那些哲学家们能够让你明白。早上四点你到圣玛莉教堂来找我,不过你只能一个人来。”
中世纪“半夜去呀?”
电话“卡!”的响了一声。
“喂?”
电话里传来嗡嗡的声音。他把电话挂上了!苏菲冲回炉子旁,汤已经沸腾,差点溢了出来。
她把鱼丸和萝卜放进汤锅中,然后开小火。
圣玛莉教堂?那是一座中世纪的古老教堂,以石材建成,现在只有在开音乐会及特殊场合时才使用,夏天有时也会开放给游客参观。不过,半夜里它不可能会开门吧?午夜约会当妈妈进门时,苏菲已经把那张黎巴嫩寄来的明信片放在与艾伯特和席德有关的档案里。晚饭后,她便前往乔安家。
乔安刚开门,苏菲便对她说:“我们必须做一个很特别的安排”
然后她便不再作声,直到乔安把卧室的门关上为止。
“这问题有点麻烦。”苏菲说。
“你就说吧尸“我必须告诉我妈,我今天晚上要睡在你这里。”
“好极了。”
“但这只是一个借口而已,你懂吗?我必须到别的地方去。”
“你好坏喔!要跟男生出去呀?”
“才不是,这件事和席德有关。”
乔安轻轻地吹了一声口哨。苏菲严肃地看着她的眼睛。
“我今天晚上会过来,”她说。“不过明天凌晨三点时,我必须溜出去。你得帮我掩护,直到我回来为止。”
“可是你要到哪里去呢?有什么事你非做不可?”
“抱歉,不能告诉你。”
对于苏菲要在同学家过夜的事,妈妈一向不曾反对。事实上有{时苏菲觉得妈妈好像满喜欢一个人在家的样子。
当苏菲出门时,妈妈只问了一句:“你会回家吃早饭吧?”
“如果没回来,那就是在乔安家。”
她为什么要这样说呢?这样可能会有破绽。
苏菲到了乔安家后,她俩就像一般的女孩一样,叽叽喳喳聊到深夜。只不过,到了晚上一点左右他们终于准备要睡觉时,苏菲把闹钟上到三点十五分。
两个小时后,苏菲把闹钟按掉,这时乔安醒了一下。
“你要小心。”她含含糊糊地说。
然后苏菲便上路了。到圣玛莉教堂要走好几英里路。不过虽然她晚上只睡了两三个小时,此刻她仍觉得自己很清醒。这时,东方的地平线上已经有一抹微红。
她到达圣玛莉教堂的入口时,已经快要四点了。苏菲推了一下那扇巨大的门,竟然没有上锁。
教堂里面安静而荒凉。一道淡蓝色的光透过彩色玻璃照进来。
照见了无数个在空中游移不定的细小尘粒。在光的照射下,这些尘粒在教堂内各处形成一道又一道粗大的光束。苏菲坐在本堂中央的一张木椅上,视线穿过祭坛,落在一个古老、已经褪色的耶稣受难像上。
几分钟过去了。突然间管风琴开始演奏,苏菲不敢环顾四周。
风琴奏出的曲调听起来颇为古老,也许是中世纪的乐曲。
不久,教堂内又恢复一片静寂,然后苏菲听到有脚步声从后面走来。她应不应该回头看呢?她决定把目光集中在十字架上的耶稣身上。
脚步声经过她,沿着侧廊前行。苏菲看到一个穿着棕色僧袍的身影乍看之下仿佛是直接从中世纪走来的一个僧侣。
她有点紧张但不很害怕。这个僧侣在祭坛前转了半圈,然后便爬上讲坛。他把身子前倾,俯视着苏菲,开始用拉丁文向她说话:“Gloria PatrietFilio etSpiritui sancto.Sicut eratin principio etnuncetsemperetinsaeculasaeculorum.Amen.”
“谁听得懂嘛!呆子!”她忍不住脱口而出。
她的声音在整座教堂内回响。
虽然她确定这个僧侣就是艾伯特,但她还是很后悔自己在如此庄严神圣的地方说出这样不恭敬的话。不过,这都是因为她太紧张的缘故。一个人紧张时,如果能打破一些禁忌就会觉得比较自在些。
黑暗时代“嘘!”艾伯特举起一只手,就像神父要群众坐好时所做的动作。
“现在几点了,孩子?”他问。
“四点五分。”苏菲回答。她不再紧张了。
“时候到了,中世纪已经开始了。”
“中世纪在四点钟开始呀?”苏菲问,觉得自己好蠢。
“是的,大约在四点钟时,然后是五点、六点、七点。不过时间就就好像静止不动一样。然后时间到了八点、九点与十点,但还是在中世纪。你也许会想,这是一个人起床展开新的一天的时刻。是的,我懂你的意思。不过,现在仍然是星期天,一长串无休无止的星期天。然后,时钟会走到十一点、十二点与十三点。这是我们所称的高歌德(HighGothic)的时期,也是欧洲各大教堂开始兴建的时候。然后,大约在十四点时,有一只公鸡开始啼叫,于是漫长的中世纪就逐渐消逝了。”
“这么说中世纪维持了十个小时啰?”苏菲说。
艾伯特把头探出棕色僧袍的头罩,打量着他面前的听众(这时只有一个十四岁的女孩而已)。
“是的,如果每一个小时代表一百年的话。我们可以假装耶稣是在午夜诞生的,快到凌晨一点半时,保罗开始四处游历传教广刻钟后死于罗马。在接近凌晨三点时,基督教教会大致上仍遭到禁止,但到了公元后三一三年时,基督教已经被罗马帝国接受。这是在君士坦丁大帝统治的时候。许多年后,这位伟大的君主在临死前受洗成为基督徒。从公元三八O年起,基督教成为罗马帝国的国教。”
“罗马帝国最后不是衰亡了吗?”
“这时它才刚开始瓦解而已。这段时期是文化史上变动最大的时期之一。第四世纪时,罗马不但外有北方蛮族进攻的威胁,内部也处于分崩离析的状态。公元三三O午时,君士坦丁大帝将罗马帝国的首都由罗马迁到他在通往黑海之处所兴建的一个城市——君士坦丁堡。许多人把这座新城市当成‘第二个罗马’。三九五年时;罗马帝国一分为二:西方帝国以罗马为中心,东方帝国则以君士坦丁堡为首都。四一O年时,罗马遭蛮族劫掠。到四七六年,整个西方帝国都被摧毁了。东方帝国则继续存在,一直到一四五三年土耳其人征服君士坦丁堡为止。”
“那时君士坦丁堡就改名为伊斯坦堡吗?”
“没错!另外一个值得注意的年代是公元五二九年,也就是教会关闭雅典的柏拉图学园那一年。同年,圣本笃修会成立,成为历史上第一个大修会。这一年、因此成为基督教会箝制希腊哲学的一个象征。从此以后,修道院垄断了所有的教育与思想。这时,时钟正滴答走向五点半……”
苏菲很快便了解艾伯特的意思。午夜是零,一点钟是公元后一百年,六点钟是公元后六百年,十四点钟则是公元后一四00年。
艾伯特继续说:“中世纪事实上指的是界于两个时代之间的一个时期。这个名词是在文艺复兴时期出现的。另外,这个时期又被称为‘黑暗时代’,因为它是古代与文艺复兴时期之间笼罩欧洲的漫长的‘一千年的夜晚’。如今英文‘medieval’(中世纪)这个字仍被用来指那些过度权威、缺乏弹性的事物,具有贬意。不过,也有些人认为中世纪泥是各项体制萌芽成长的时期。例如,学校制度就是在中世纪建立韵。历史上第一批修道院学校在中世纪初期成立,教会学校则在十仁世纪成立。在公元一二OO年左右,历史上最早的几所大学成立了。当时学校研习的科目也像今天一样分成几个不同的‘学院’。”
“一千年真的是很漫长的一段时间。”
“是的,不过基督教也需要这样的一段时间来招揽信徒。此外,许多民族也在这段时间内相继建国,拥有自己的城市、公民、民俗音乐与民俗故事。如果没有中世纪,哪来的这些民俗故事与民俗音乐呢?甚至,没有中世纪,欧洲又会变成什么模样呢?也许仍然会是罗马的一个省份吧!英国、法国或德国这些名词就是在中世纪出现的。在中世纪这个浩瀚汪洋的深处,有许多闪闪发亮的鱼儿游来游去,只是我们不见得都能看到。史特卢森就是中世纪的人,圣欧雪夫(SaintOlaf)与查里曼大帝也是,更不用提罗密欧与朱丽叶、圣女贞德、艾文豪、穿花衣服的吹笛手以及那些强大的王侯与君主、侠义的骑士、美丽的少女、不知名的彩色玻璃工匠与灵巧的管风琴师傅了。再说,我还没提到那些修道士、十字军与女巫哩!”
“你也没提到那些牧师和教士呀!”
“对。基督教直到十一世纪才来到挪威。如果说北欧马上就信奉了基督教,那是过于夸大其辞了。那时在基督教的表面之下,一些古代异教徒的信仰仍然存在,而这些早期的信仰有许多后来融入了基督教。举例来说,在斯堪地那维亚半岛上,圣诞节的庆典中至今仍可以看到基督教与古代北欧风俗结合的痕迹。俗话说,夫妻结合之后会愈来愈彼此相像。这两种文化结合后也是如此。于是我们看到耶诞饼干、耶诞小猪与耶诞麦酒等风俗,开始愈来愈像东方三智者与伯利恒的马槽。无论如何,基督教逐渐成为北欧人主要的生活哲学。因此我们通常认为中世纪是一股以基督教文化来统一欧洲的力量。”
“那么,中世纪也不算太糟啰?”
“公元四OO年以后的第一个一百年间确实是一段文化式微的时期。你要知道,在此之前的罗马时期是一个‘高等文化’,有许多大城市,城市里有大型的排水沟、公共澡堂与图书馆等,还有许多宏伟的建筑。然而,到了中世纪最初的几百年间,这整个文化都;瓦解了,贸易与经济也崩溃了。中世纪的人们又回到以物易物的交易方式。当时的经济是以‘封建制度’为特色。所谓‘封建制度’就:是所有的田产都由少数势力强大的贵族拥有,农奴必须要辛勤耕:种才能生活。除此之外,在中世纪最初的数百年间,欧洲人口大量减少。举个例子,在古代时期,罗马的人口繁盛,一度超过一百万,但到了公元六OO年时,却减少到四万人左右,真是天壤之别。当时,这些人生活在这个曾经繁华一时、建筑宏伟的城市中,需要建材时,就从到处可见的废墟中取用。对于现代的考古学家而言,这是很可悲的现象。他们多希望中世纪的人们不曾破坏这些古迹。”
“这都是后见之明呀!”
“从政治方面来说,罗马时期在第四世纪末时就结束了。不过,当时罗马主教已经成为罗马天主教教会的最高领袖。他被称为‘教宗’或‘父’,并逐渐被视为基督在世上的代理人。因此,在中世纪的大多数时间里,罗马一直是基督教的首府。不过,当各新兴民族国家的君主与主教势力愈来愈强大时,有些人就开始反抗教会的势力。”
“你说过教会关闭了雅典的柏拉图学园。那是不是从此以后希腊哲学就统统被遗忘了?”
“这倒没有。亚理斯多德与柏拉图的部分著作仍然流传下来,但古罗马帝国却逐渐分裂成三种不同的文化。其中在西欧的是拉丁式的基督文化,以罗马为首都。在东欧则是希腊式的基督文化,以君士坦丁堡为首都。君士坦丁堡后来又改为希腊名‘拜占庭’。因此我们现在一般都将欧洲的中世纪文化分成‘拜占庭的中世纪’与‘罗天主教的中世纪’。除此之外,北非与中东地区过去也曾是罗马帝国的一部分。这个地区在中世纪期间发展成为讲阿拉伯语的伊斯兰教文化。公元六三二年穆罕默德去世后,中东与北非成了伊斯兰教地区。不久后,西班牙也成为伊斯兰教世界的一部分。伊斯兰教将麦加、麦地那、耶路撒冷与巴格达视为‘圣城’。从文化史的观点来看,还有一件值得注意的事:当时阿拉伯人也占据了古代希罗马地区的城市亚力山卓。因此,古希腊科学文明有一大部分为阿拉伯人所继承。在整个中世纪期间,阿拉伯人在数学、化学、天文学与医学等方面都居于领先的地位。直到今天,我们仍然使用所谓的‘阿拉伯数字’。我们可以说,当时在若干领域中,阿拉伯文化确实是优于基督教文化。”
“我想知道后来希腊哲学怎么了。”
“你能想象一条大河一下子分成三股支流,过了一段时间后又再度汇集成一条大河吗?”
“嗯,可以。”
“那么你也应该可以了解希腊罗马文化如何分裂成三种文化,并分别在其中存活。这三种文化分别是:西边的罗马天主教文化、东边的东罗马帝国文化与南边的阿拉伯文化。大致上,我们可以说新柏拉图派哲学在西边承传了下来。柏拉图与亚理斯多德的哲学则分别在东边与南边承传了下来。不过,我们可以说,在这三种文化中,每种成分都各有一些。重要的是,在中世纪末期,这三种文化在意大利北部交会融合。阿拉伯文化的影响力来自于在西班牙的阿拉伯人,希腊文化的影响力来自于希腊和拜占庭帝国。这时,‘文艺复兴时期’(古代文化的‘再生’)就逐渐开始了。从某个角度来看,古代文化在中世纪期间可说并未消亡。”
“原来如此。”
“不过,我们还是不要先谈这个。我们应该先谈学。我不想继续站在讲坛上说话了,我要下来。”
点中世纪哲由于睡得太少,苏菲的眼皮已经渐渐沉重。现在,当她看到这个奇怪的僧侣从圣玛莉教堂的讲坛走下来时,她感觉好像在作梦一般。
艾伯特走向祭坛的栏杆。他先抬起头看着竖着古老的耶稣受难像的祭坛,而后眼光朝下看着苏菲,并慢慢走向她。最后他与她并排坐在木椅上。
苏菲头一遭如此靠近他,感觉很奇特。他的头罩下面是一双深蓝色的眼睛。这双眼睛的主人是一个中年男子,有着黑色的头发,蓄着有点削尖的胡子。
你到底是谁呢?苏菲心想。你为何要把我的生活弄得秩序大乱?“我们将会慢慢彼此了解。”他说,仿佛能够看穿她的心思。
当他们坐在一起时,透过彩色玻璃窗照进教堂的光线变得愈来愈强。艾伯特开始谈论中世纪的哲学:“中世纪的哲学家几乎认定基督教义就是真理。”他一开始时说。
“他们的问题在于:我们是否一定要相信基督教的启示?还是我们可以借助理性来探索基督教的真理?希腊哲学家与圣经的记载有何关系?圣经与理性之间有抵触吗?还是信仰与知识是可以相容的?几乎所有的中世纪哲学都围绕在这些问题上打转。”
苏菲不耐烦地点点头。她在宗教课考试时已经都谈过这些了。
圣奥古斯丁“我们将谈一谈最著名的两大中世纪哲学家如何处理这个问题。我们还是从圣奥古斯丁(St.Augustine)开始好了。他生于公元三五四年,死于四三O年。在他的一生中我们可以看到古代末期到中世纪初期的变迁。圣奥古斯丁出生于北非一个名叫塔加斯特(Tagaste)的小镇。十六岁时,他前往迦太基求学。稍后,他转往罗马与米兰,最后在迦太基西边几英里一个名叫西波(Hippo)的小镇度过他的余年。不过,他并非一生都是基督徒。他是在仔细研究各种不同的宗教与哲学后才决定信教。”
“你可以举一些例子吗?”
“有一段时间他信奉摩尼教。那是古代末期很典型的一个教派一半是宗教,一半是哲学。他们宣称宇宙由善与恶、光与暗、精神与物质等二元的事物所组成。人类可运用精神来超脱于物质世界之上,并借此为灵魂的救赎做好准备。不过,这种将善与恶一分为二的理论并不能使年轻的圣奥古斯丁完全信服。他全心思考着我们所谓的‘恶的问题’,也就是恶从何而来的问题。有一段时间他受到斯多葛派哲学的影响。斯多葛派认为,善与恶之间并没有明显的分界。然而,大致上奥古斯丁还是比较倾向于古代末期的另一派重要哲学,就是新柏拉图派的哲学。他在其间发现了神圣的大自然整体存在的概念。”
“所以他成了一位信奉新柏拉图派哲学的主教?”
“是的,可以这么说。他成为基督徒在先,不过他的基督教理念大部分是受到柏拉图派哲学观的影响。因此,苏菲,你必须了解,并非一进入基督教的中世纪,人们就与希腊哲学完全脱离了关系。希腊哲学有一大部分被像圣奥古斯丁这样的教会领袖带到这个新时代。”
“你的意思是说圣奥古斯丁一半是基督徒,一半是新柏拉图派的哲学家吗?”
“他认为他自己是百分之百的基督徒,因为他并不以为基督教的教义与柏拉图的哲学之间有所矛盾。对他而言,柏拉图哲学与天主教教义的相似之处是很明显的,以至于他认为柏拉图一定知道旧约的故事。这点当然很不可能。我们不妨说是圣奥古斯丁将柏拉图加以‘基督教化’的。”
“这么说,他开始信仰基督教以后,并没有把哲学完全抛到脑后是吗?”
“是的,但他指出,在宗教问题上理性能做的事有限。基督教是一个神圣的奥秘,我们只能透过信仰来领会。如果我们相信基督,则上帝将会‘照亮’我们的灵魂,使我们能够对上帝有一种神奇的体悟。圣奥古斯丁内心深处一直觉得哲学能做的有限。他的灵魂一直无法获得平静,直到他决定成为基督徒为止。他写道:‘我们的心无法平静,直到在你(天主)中安息。”’“我不太明白柏拉图的哲学怎能与基督教并存,”苏菲有点意见,“那关于永恒的理型又怎么办呢?”
“圣奥古斯丁当然认为上帝自虚空中创造了世界,这是圣经中的说法。希腊人则比较相信世界是一向都存在的。不过,圣奥古斯丁相信,在上帝创造世界之前,那些‘理型’乃是存在于神的心中。
因此他把柏拉图所说的理型放在上帝的心中,借此保存了柏拉图有关永恒理型的看法。”
“他很聪明。”
“这显示圣奥古斯丁与其他许多教会领袖是如何努力将希腊与犹太思想融合在一起。就某一方面来说,他们是同时属于两种文化的。在有关恶的问题上,圣奥古斯丁也比较倾向新柏拉图派哲学韵看法。他和普罗汀一样相信邪恶是由于‘上帝不在’的结果。邪恶本身并不存在。因为实际上,上帝创造的事物只有好的,没有坏韵。圣奥古斯丁认为,邪恶是来自于人类的不服从。或者,用他的话来说:‘善的意念是上帝的事功,恶的意念是远离上帝的事功。,”
“他也相信人有一个神圣的灵魂吗?”
“可以说是,也可以说不是。圣奥古斯丁主张上帝与世界之间有一道不可跨越的距离。在这方面他坚决支持圣经的说法,反对普罗汀所说‘万物皆为上帝的一部分’的主张。不过他仍然强调人是有灵性的生物。他认为人有一具由物质造成的躯体,这个躯体属于何为虫蛾铁锈所腐’的物质世界,但同时人也有灵魂,可以认识上帝。”
“我们死了以后,灵魂会怎样呢?”
“根据圣奥古斯丁的说法,自从亚当、夏娃被逐出伊甸园后,全人类都迷失了,不过上帝仍然决定要让某些人免于毁灭。”
“如果是这样,他大可以拯救所有的人呀!”
。“就这点来说,圣奥古斯丁否认人有权批评上帝,他引述保罗所写的《罗马书》中的一段句子:‘你这个人哪,你是谁?竟敢向神强嘴呢?受造之物岂能对造他的神说:你为什么这样造我呢?窑匠难道没有权柄,从一团泥里拿一块做成贵重的器皿,又拿一块做成卑贱的器皿吗?’”
“这么说上帝是高高坐在天堂里,把人类当成玩具,一旦他不满意一件造物,就把它丢掉。”
“圣奥古斯丁的观点是:没有人值得上帝的救赎。然而上帝到底还是决定拯救某些人,使他们免下地狱。因此,对他而言,谁会获救,谁会受罚,并不是秘密。这都是事先注定的。我们完全任凭他处置。”
“这样说来,从某个方面来看,他又回归到古老的迷信去了。”
“也许吧。不过圣奥古斯丁并不认为人类应该放弃对自己生命的责任。他教导众人要有自己就是少数选民之一的自觉。他并不否认人有自由意志,只不过上帝已经‘预见’我们将如何生活。”
“这不是很不公平吗?”苏菲问。“苏格拉底说我们都有同样的机会,因为我们都有同样的知识。但圣奥古斯丁却把人分成两种,一种会得救,一种会受罚。”
“在这方面你说对了。一般认为,圣奥古斯丁的神学脱离了雅典的人本主义。但是,将人类分成两种人的并非圣奥古斯丁。他只是解释圣经中有关救赎与惩罚的教义罢了。他在《上帝之城》(TheCity ofGod)这本著作中就这点做了说明。”
“书里说些什么?”
“‘上帝之城’或‘天国’这个名称来自圣经和耶稣的教诲。圣奥古斯丁相信,一部人类史就是‘天国’与‘世俗之国’之间奋战的历史。这两‘国’并非以政治区分,它们互相争夺对个人的控制权。
‘天国’或多或少存在于教会中,而‘世俗之国’则存在于各个国家,例如当时已渐趋没落的罗马帝国中,这个观念在中世纪期间变得更加清晰,因为当时教会与各国不断互争主控权。当时有一个说法是:‘除在教会之外,别无救赎。’圣奥古斯丁所说的‘上帝之城’后来成为教会的同义字。一直要到第十六世纪的宗教改革运动,才有人敢驳斥‘人们只能经由教会得救’的观念。”
“的确是应该抗议了。”
“除此之外,圣奥古斯丁也是我们迄今所谈到的第一个将历史纳入哲学理论的哲学家。他所说的善恶之争并无新意,新鲜的是他说这场战争一直在历史上演出。在这方面,圣奥古斯丁的理念并没有太多柏拉图的影子。事实上,对圣奥古斯丁影响较大的是旧约中的线性历史观,也就是‘上帝要借历史来实现天国理想’的说法。圣奥古斯丁认为,为了使人类获得启蒙,也为了摧毁邪恶,历史是有必要存在的。或者,就像圣奥古斯丁所说的;‘神以其先知先觉导引人类的历史,从亚当一直到世界末日。历史就像一个人从童年逐渐成长、衰老的故事。”’苏菲看了看手表。
“已经八点了。”她说。“我很快就得走了。”
“在此之前,我还要和你谈谈中世纪另外一个大哲学家。我们到外面去坐好吗?”
艾伯特站起身来,双掌合十,然后便大步沿着侧廊走出去,看来仿佛正在祈祷,或正深思某个关于性灵的真理。苏菲别无选择,只好跟随着他。
教堂外的地上仍然笼罩着一层薄薄的雾气。旭日早已东升,但仍躲在云层中。教堂所在的地区属于旧市区的边缘。
艾伯特在教堂外的一张长椅上坐下来。苏菲心想,如果有人打这儿经过,看见他们,不知道会怎么想呢。早上八点就坐在长椅上已经够奇怪了,再加上身边还有一个中世纪的僧侣,那更是怪上加怪了。
“已经八点了。”艾伯特开始说。“从圣奥古斯丁的时代到现在已经过了四百年了。现在,学校开始成立了。从现在起到十点钟为止,道院所办的学校将会垄断所有教育工作。在十点和十一点之间,第—所。由教堂创办的学校将会成立。到正午时,最早的几所大学将会出现,几座宏伟的歌德式大教堂也将在此时建成。这座圣玛莉教堂也是在十三世纪(或称‘高歌德时期’)兴建的。这个镇没钱盖大一点的教堂。”
“他们也不需要太大的教堂啊!”苏菲插嘴。“我讨厌空空荡荡的教堂。”
“可是兴建大教堂并不只是为了供一大群人做礼拜,另外也是为了彰显上帝的荣耀。大教堂本身就是一种宗教庆典。话说回来,这段时期内发生了一件事,对像我们这样的哲学家别具意义。”
艾伯特继续说:“在这个时期,西班牙的阿拉伯人所带来的影响开始显现。整个中世纪期间,阿拉伯人维系了亚理斯多德的传统。后来,从十二世纪末起,阿拉伯学者陆续在各王公贵族的邀请之下抵达意大利北部。许多亚理斯多德的著作因此传扬开来,并且被人从希腊文与阿拉伯文译成拉丁文。此举使得人们对于自然科学重新燃起兴趣,并为基督教教义与希腊哲学的关系注入了新生命。在科学方面,亚理斯多德的理论此时显然又再度受到重视,但是,在哲学方面,人们何时应该听从亚理斯多德的话,何时又应该谨守圣经的教诲呢?你明白问题所在吗?”
圣多玛斯苏菲点点头。艾伯特继续说:“这段时期最伟大、最重要的哲学家是圣多玛斯(ThomasAquinas)。他生于一二二五到一二七四年间,家住罗马与那不勒斯之间一个名叫阿奎诺(Aquino)的小镇,后来他在巴黎大学教书。我称他为哲学家,但事实上他也是一位神学家。当时,哲学与神学并没有明显的区分。简而言之,我们可以说圣多玛斯将亚理斯多德加以‘基督教化’,就像中世纪初期的圣奥古斯丁将柏拉图‘基督教化’一样。”
“把活在基督降生前好几百年的哲学家加以基督教化。这不是很奇怪吗?”
“你可以这么说。不过,所谓‘基督教化’的意思只是把这两位希腊大哲学家的观念,用一种不至于对基督教教义造成威胁的方式加以诠释。圣多玛斯就是那些试图使亚里斯多德的哲学与基督教教义相容共存的人之一。我们可以说他把信仰与知识巧妙的融合在一起。他采取的方式是进入亚里斯多德的哲学世界,并以他的话来诠释圣经。”.“对不起,我昨晚几乎都没睡,因此恐怕你得讲清楚一些。”
“圣多玛斯认为,哲学、理性这两者和基督教的启示与信仰之间并不一定有冲突。基督教的教义和哲学的道理,其实往往是相通的。所以我们透过理性推断的真理时常和圣经上所说的真理相同。”
“怎么会呢?难道我们可以透过理性得知上帝在六天内创造了世界,或耶稣是上帝之子吗?”.“不,这些所谓的‘信仰的事实’只能透过信仰与基督的启示得知。但圣多玛斯认为世间有若干‘自然的神学真理’。所谓‘自然的神学真理’指的是一些既可以透过基督教的信仰,也可以透过我们与生俱来的理性得知的真理,例如‘上帝确实存在’这个真理。圣多玛斯指出,我们可以透过两条途径接近上帝。一条是经由信仰和基督的启示,一条是经由理性和感官。其中,透过信仰和启示这条是比较确实可靠的,因为我们如果光依靠理性的话,会很容易迷失方向。不过他的重点还是在于像亚里斯多德这样的哲学理论和基督教的教义之间并不一定有冲突。”
“这么说我们可以在亚里斯多德的话和圣经这两者当中做一个选择啰?”
“不,绝不是这样。亚里斯多德的学说只对了一部分,因为他不曾受到基督的启示。可是对了一半并不等于错。举个例子,如果我说雅典位于欧洲,这句话并没有错,但也不算准确。如果一本书只告诉你雅典是欧洲的一个城市,那么你最好查一下地理书。书上会告诉你雅典是欧洲东南部小国希腊的首都。运气好的话,它还会告诉你有关高城的一些事情,还有苏格拉底、柏拉图和亚里斯多德等人的事迹。”
“可是那最初有关雅典的资料是正确的。”
“没错。圣多玛斯想要证明世间只有一个真理,而亚里斯多德所说的真理并未与基督教教义冲突。他指出,我们可以透过理性的思考与感官的证据推知一部分的真理,例如亚里斯多德对植物与动物王国的叙述。但另外一部分真理则是由上帝透过圣经对我们加以启示。这两方面的真理在一些重要的点上是互相重叠的。事实上,在许多问题上,圣经和理性所告诉我们的事情是一样的。”
“譬如说上帝确实存在之类的?”
“一点没错。亚里斯多德的哲学也认定上帝(或‘目的因’)是造成各种自然现象的力量。但是他对上帝并没有进一步的描述,因此,圣多玛斯认为在这方面我们只能仰赖圣经和耶稣的教诲。”
“上帝真的确实存在吗?”
“这当然是一个很值得讨论的问题。但即使在今天,大多数人仍然认为人无法凭理性证明上帝并不存在。圣多玛斯则更进一步指出,他可以用亚里斯多德的哲学来证明天主确实存在。”
“不坏嘛!”
“他认为,我们用理性可以体认到我们周遭的事物必然有个‘目的因’。这是因为上帝既透过圣经,也透过理性向人类显现,所以世上既有‘信仰神学’也有‘自然神学’。在道德方面也是如此,圣经教导我们上帝希望人类如何生活,但上帝同时也赋予我们良心,使我们自然而然会分辨是非善恶。因此,我们要过道德的生活,也有两条路可走。即使我们从来没有在圣经上读过‘己所欲者施于人’的道理,我们也知道伤害人是不对的,在这方面,比较可靠的道路仍然是遵守圣经中的十诫。”
“我懂了。”苏菲说。“这有点像是我们无论看到闪电或听到雷声,都可以知道有雷雨来临一样。”
“对,就是这样。即使我们瞎了,也可以听到雷声,即使我们聋了,也可看见闪电。当然如果我们能同时看到、听到是最好的。可是我们所听到和看到的事物两者之间并不抵触。相反的,这两种印象具有彼此增强的作用。”
“我明白了。”
“我可以再举一个例子。如果你读一本小说,例如史坦贝克(JohnSteinbeck)的《人鼠之间》.....”
“我真的读过啦。”
“你难道不觉得你可以透过这本书了解作者的一些背景吗?”
“我知道这本书一定是有人写的。”
“你就只知道这点吗?”
“你好像很关心弱者。”
“当你读这本史坦贝克的‘创作’时,应该可以约略了解史坦贝克这个人的性情。可是你无法从书中获取任何有关作者的个人资料。例如,你读了《人鼠之间》这本书后,可以知道作者在写这本书时年纪多大、住在哪里或有多少个孩子吗?”
“当然不能。”
“但是你可以在一本史坦贝克的传记里得知这些资料。唯有透过传记(或自传)你才能够更加了解史坦贝克这个人。”
“没错。”
“这多少就像是上帝的‘创作’与圣经的关系一样。我们只要在大自然中走动便可以体认到世间确实有上帝存在。我们很容易可以看出他喜欢花儿与动物,否则他不会创造它们。但有关上帝的资料,我们只能透过圣经得知。你可以说圣经就是天主的‘自传’。”
“你还真会举例子。”
“嗯……”
这是第一次艾伯特坐在那儿想事情,没有回答苏菲的话。
“这些事情和席德有关吗?”苏菲忍不住问。
“我们不知道世上是否有‘席德’这个人。”
“可是我们知道有人到处留下与她有关的证据,像明信片、丝巾、绿皮夹、袜子什么的。”
艾伯特点点头。“而且到底要留下多少线索似乎是由席德的父亲来决定的。”他说。“到目前为止,我们只知道有一个人寄给我们很多张明信片。我希望他也能够在信上写一些关于他自己的事。不过这点我们待会儿还会谈到。”
“已经十点四十五分了。我等不及谈完中世纪就得回家了。”
“我只想再谈一下圣多玛斯如何在各个不与基督教神学抵触的领域内采纳亚里斯多德的哲学。这些领域包括他的逻辑学、知识理论与自然哲学。举个例子,你是否还记得亚里斯多德如何描述从植物到动物到人类的生命层级?”
苏菲点点头。
“亚里斯多德认为,这个生命的层级显示上帝乃是最高的存在。这个理论并不难与基督教的神学取得共识。圣多玛斯认为,万物的存在分成若干渐进的层次。最低的是植物,其次是动物,再其次是人类,再其次是天使,最上面则是上帝。人像动物一样有身体和感官,但也有理性可以思考。天使既没有身体也没有感官,因此他们具有自发的、直接的智慧。他们不需要像人类一样的‘思索’,也不需要靠推理来获致结论。他们不需要像我们一样逐步学习,就可以拥有人类所有的智慧。而且由于没有身体的缘故,他们也不会死亡。他们虽然无法像上帝一样永远存在(因为他们也是天主的造物),但由于他们没有一个终有一天必须离开的身躯,因此他们也永远不会死亡。”
“这倒挺不错的。”
“高居天使之上的是掌管世间万物的天主,他可以看见、知道每一件事物。”
“所以他现在也可以看见我们哼?”
“是的,也许是这样的,但不是‘现在’。上帝的时间和人类的时间不同;我们的‘现在’不一定是天主的‘现在’,人间的几个星期并不等于天上的几个星期。”
“真恐怖!”苏菲用手掩住嘴巴。艾伯特俯视着她。她说:“我昨天接到席德的父亲寄来的一张明信片,上面也说什么‘对苏菲来说是一两星期的时间,对我们而言不见得这么长。’这几乎和你说的上帝一样。”
苏菲看到艾伯特在棕色头罩下面的脸闪过一抹不悦的神色。
“他真应该觉得惭愧尸苏菲并不完全了解艾伯特的意思。他继续说:“令人遗憾的是,圣多玛斯也采取了亚里斯多德对于女人的观点。你可能还记得亚里斯多德认为女人是一个不完整的男人。他并认为小孩子只继承父亲的特征,因为妇女是被动的、只能接受的,而男人则是积极的、具有创造力的。圣多玛斯认为这些观点与圣经的话语一致。例如,圣经上就告诉我们女人是由亚当的肋骨所造的。”
“胡说八道!”
“事实上,人类是一直到一八二七年才发现哺乳类有卵子,因此难怪人们会认为男人是生殖过程中创造生命、赋予生命的力量。
不过,圣多玛斯认为,女人只有在身体的构造上比不上男人,但在灵魂上则与男人相当。此外,在天堂里,两性是完全平等的,因为在那里所有身体上的性别差异都不存在了。”
“这点并不让人觉得好过多少。中世纪难道没有女哲学家吗?”
“中世纪的教会大部分是男人的天下,不过这并不表示当时没有女思想家。其中一位名叫席德佳(HildegardofBingen)…”
苏菲睁大了眼睛:“她和席德有什么关系吗?”
“怎么会问这种问题呢?席德佳是一O九八到一一七九年间一位住在莱茵河谷的修女。她虽然是个女人,却身兼传教士、作家、医生、植物学家与博物学者等几种头衔。通常中世纪的妇女要比男人更实际,甚至可能更有科学头脑,在这方面席德佳也许是一个象征。”
“我问她到底和席德有没有关系?”
“古代的基督徒和犹太人相信上帝不只是个男人而已。他也有女性化——或所谓‘母性’——的一面。他们认为女人也是依照上帝的形象创造的。在希腊文中,上帝女性化的那一面被称为‘苏菲亚’(Sophia)。‘苏菲亚’或‘苏菲’(Sophie)就是智慧的意思。”
苏菲无奈的摇摇头。为什么以前没有人告诉她这件事呢?她又为什么从来没问过呢?艾伯特继续说:“在中世纪期间,上帝的母性对于犹太人和希腊正教的教会而言别具意义,但在西方她则被人们所遗忘。所幸后来席德佳出现了。她宣称她在幻象中看到了苏菲亚,穿着一袭缀满华贵珠宝的金色袍子……”
苏菲从椅子上站了起来。苏菲亚在梦境中向席德佳显灵…“也许我也会向席德现身。”
她再度坐了下来。艾伯特第三次把手放在苏菲的肩膀上。
“这事我们必须好好谈一谈,不过现在已经快十一点钟,你得回家了。我们很快就要讲到一个新的纪元。下一次要讲文艺复兴时,我会通知你来。汉密士会到花园去接你。”
说完了,这位奇怪的僧侣就站了起来,开始向教堂走去。苏菲留在原地,想着有关“席德佳和苏菲亚、席德和苏菲”的事。突然间她跳了起来,追赶穿着僧侣服的艾伯特,在他身后喊道:“中世纪是不是也有一位艾伯特?”
他稍稍减缓了速度,偏了偏头说道:“圣多玛斯有一位著名的哲学老师,名叫大艾勃特(A1berttheGreat)……”
说完了,他便颔了颔首,跨进圣玛莉教堂的门,消失无踪了。
苏菲对他的回答并不满意。她也紧跟着回到教堂内,然而现在里面却空无一人。难道他钻进地板去了吗?她正要离开教堂时,看见一幅圣母像。她走近画像,仔细审视。
突然间她发现圣母的一只眼睛下面有一小滴水。那是眼泪吗?苏菲冲出教堂,跑回乔安家。
 楼主| 发表于 2019-1-22 15:04:23 | 显示全部楼层
The Renaissance

O divine lineage in mortal guise

It was just twelve when Sophie reached Joanna's front gate, out of breath with running. Joanna was standing in the front yard outside her family's yellow house.

"You've been gone for five hours!" Joanna said sharply.

Sophie shook her head.

"No, I've been gone for more than a thousand years."

"Where on earth have you been? You're crazy. Your mom called half an hour ago."

"What did you tell her?"

"I said you were at the drugstore. She said would you call her when you got back. But you should have seen my mom and dad when they came in with hot chocolate and rolls at ten this morning ... and your bed was empty."

"What did you say to them?"

"It was really embarrassing. I told them you went home because we got mad at each other."

"So we'd better hurry up and be friends again. And we have to make sure your parents don't talk to my mom for a few days. Do you think we can do that?"

Joanna shrugged. Just then her father came around the corner with a wheelbarrow. He had a pair of coveralls on and was busy clearing up last year's leaves and twigs.

"Aha--so you're friends again, I see. Well, there's not so much as a single leaf left on the basement steps now."

"Fine," said Sophie. "So perhaps we can have our hot chocolate there instead of in bed."

Joanna's dad gave a forced laugh, but Joanna gasped. Verbal exchanges had always been more robust in Sophie's family than at the more well-to-do home of Mr. Ingebrigtsen, the financial adviser, and his wife.

"I'm sorry, Joanna, but I felt I ought to take part in this cover-up operation as well."

"Are you going to tell me about it?"

"Sure, if you walk home with me. Because it's not for the ears of financial advisers or overgrown Barbie dolls."

"That's a rotten thing to say! I suppose you think a rocky marriage that drives one of the partners away to sea is better?"

"Probably not. But I hardly slept last night. And another thing, I've begun to wonder whether Hilde can see everything we do."

They began to walk toward Clover Close.

"You mean she might have second sight?"

"Maybe. Maybe not."

Joanna was clearly not enthusiastic about all this secrecy.

"But that doesn't explain why her father sent a lot of crazy postcards to an empty cabin in the woods."

"I admit that is a weak spot."

"Do you want to tell me where you have been?"

So she did. Sophie told her everything, about the mysterious philosophy course as well. She made Joanna swear to keep everything secret.

They walked for a long time without speaking. As they approached Clover Close, Joanna said, "I don't like it."

She stopped at Sophie's gate and turned to go home again.

"Nobody asked you to like it. But philosophy is not a harmless party game. It's about who we are and where we come from. Do you think we learn enough about that at school?"

"Nobody can answer questions like that anyway."

"Yes, but we don't even learn to ask them!"

Lunch was on the table when Sophie walked into the kitchen. Nothing was said about her not having called from Joanna's.

After lunch Sophie announced that she was going to take a nap. She admitted she had hardly slept at Joanna's house, which was not at all unusual at a sleepover.

Before getting into bed she stood in front of the big brass mirror which now hung on her wall. At first she only saw her own white and exhausted face. But then-- behind her own face, the faintest suggestion of another face seemed to appear. Sophie took one or two deep breaths. It was no good starting to imagine things.

She studied the sharp contours of her own pale face framed by that impossible hair which defied any style but nature's own. But beyond that face was the apparition of another girl. Suddenly the other girl began to wink frantically with both eyes, as if to signal that she was really in there on the other side. The apparition lasted only a few seconds. Then she was gone.

Sophie sat down on the edge of the bed. She had absolutely no doubt that it was Hilde she had seen in the mirror. She had caught a glimpse of her picture on a school I.D. in the major's cabin. It must have been the same girl she had seen in the mirror.

Wasn't it odd, how she always experienced mysterious things like this when she was dead tired. It meant that afterward she always had to ask herself whether it really had happened.

Sophie laid her clothes on the chair and crawled into bed. She fell asleep at once and had a strangely vivid dream.

She dreamed she was standing in a large garden that sloped down to a red boathouse. On the dock behind it sat a young fair-haired girl gazing out over the water. Sophie walked down and sat beside her. But the girl seemed not to notice her. Sophie introduced herself. "I'm Sophie," she said. But the other girl could apparently neither see nor hear her. Suddenly Sophie heard a voice calling, "Hilde!" At once the girl jumped up from where she was sitting and ran as fast as she could up to the house. She couldn't have been deaf or blind after all. A middle-aged man came striding from the house toward her. He was wearing a khaki uniform and a blue beret. The girl threw her arms around his neck and he swung her around a few times. Sophie noticed a little gold crucifix on a chain lying on the dock where the girl had been sitting. She picked it up and held it in her hand. Then she woke up.

Sophie looked at the clock. She had been asleep for two hours. She sat up in bed, thinking about the strange dream. It was so real that she felt as if she had actually lived the experience. She was equally sure that the house and the dock really existed somewhere. Surely it resembled the picture she had seen hanging in the major's cabin? Anyway, there was no doubt at all that the girl in her dream was Hilde Moller Knag and that the man was her father, home from Lebanon. In her dream he had looked a lot like Alberto Knox ...

As Sophie stood up and began to tidy her bed, she found a gold crucifix on a chain under her pillow. On the back of the crucifix there were three letters engraved: HMK.

This was not the first time Sophie had dreamed she found a treasure. But this was definitely the first time she had brought it back from the dream.

"Damn!" she said aloud.

She was so mad that she opened the closet door and hurled the delicate crucifix up onto the top shelf with the silk scarf, the white stocking, and the postcards from Lebanon.

The next morning Sophie woke up to a big breakfast of hot rolls, orange juice, eggs, and vegetable salad. It was not often that her mother was up before Sophie on a Sunday morning. When she was, she liked to fix a solid meal for Sophie.

While they were eating, Mom said, "There's a strange dog in the garden. It's been sniffing round the old hedge all morning. I can't imagine what it's doing here, can you?"

"Yes!" Sophie burst out, and at once regretted it.

"Has it been here before?"

Sophie had already left the table and gone into the living room to look out of the window facing the large garden. It was just as she thought.

Hermes was lying in front of the secret entrance to her den.

What should she say? She had no time to think of anything before her mother came and stood beside her.

"Did you say it had been here before?" she asked.

"I expect it buried a bone there and now it's come to fetch its treasure. Dogs have memories too ..."

"Maybe you're right, Sophie. You're the animal psychologist in the family."

Sophie thought feverishly.

"I'll take it home," she said.

"You know where it lives, then?"

Sophie shrugged her shoulders.

"It's probably got an address on its collar."

A couple of minutes later Sophie was on her way down the garden. When Hermes caught sight of her he came lolloping toward her, wagging his tail and jumping up to her.

"Good boy, Hermes!" said Sophie.

She knew her mother was watching from the window. She prayed he would not go through the hedge. But the dog dashed toward the gravel path in front of the house, streaked across the front yard, and jumped up to the gate.

When they had shut the gate behind them, Hermes continued to run a few yards in front of Sophie. It was a long way. Sophie and Hermes were not the only ones out for a Sunday walk. Whole families were setting off for the day. Sophie felt a pang of envy.

From time to time Hermes would run off and sniff at another dog or at something interesting by a garden hedge, but as soon as Sophie called "Here, boy!" he would come back to her at once.

They crossed an old pasture, a large playing field, and a playground, and emerged into an area with more traffic. They continued toward the town center along a broad street with cobbled stones and streetcars. Hermes led the way across the town square and up Church Street. They came out into the Old Town, with its massive staid town houses from the turn of the century. It was almost half past one.

Now they were on the other side of town. Sophie had not been there very often. Once when she was little, she remembered, she had been taken to visit an old aunt in one of these streets.

Eventually they reached a little square between several old houses. It was called New Square, although it all looked very old. But then the whole town was old; it had been founded way back in the Middle Ages.

Hermes walked toward No. 14, where he stood still and waited for Sophie to open the door. Her heart began to beat faster.

Inside the front door there were a number of green mailboxes attached to a panel. Sophie noticed a postcard hanging from one of the mailboxes in the top row. It had a stamped message from the mailman across it to the effect that the addressee was unknown.

The addressee was Hilde Moller Knag, 14 New Square. It was postmarked June 15. That was not for two weeks, but the mailman had obviously not noticed that.

Sophie took the card down and read it:

Dear Hilde, Now Sophie is coming to the philosopher's house. She will soon be fifteen, but you were fifteen yesterday. Or is it today, Hilde? If it is today, it must be late, then. But our watches do not always agree. One generation ages while another generation is brought forth. In the meantime history takes its course. Have you ever thought that the history of Europe is like a human life? Antiquity is like the childhood of Europe. Then come the interminable Middle Ages--Europe's schoolday. But at last comes the Renaissance; the long school-day is over. Europe comes of age in a burst of exuberance and a thirst for life. We could say that the Renaissance is Europe's fifteenth birthday! It is mid-June, my child, and it is wonderful to be alive!

P.S. Sorry to hear you lost your gold crucifix. You must learn to take better care of your things. Love, Dad--who is just around the corner.

Hermes was already on his way up the stairs. Sophie took the postcard with her and followed. She had to run to keep up with him; he was wagging his tail delightedly. They passed the second, third, and fourth stories. From then on there was only an attic staircase. Were they going up to the roof? Hermes clambered on up the stairs and stopped outside a narrow door, which he scratched at with his paw.

Sophie heard footsteps approaching from inside. The door opened, and there stood Alberto Knox. He had changed his clothes and was now wearing another costume. It consisted of white hose, red knee-breeches, and a yellow jacket with padded shoulders. He reminded Sophie of a joker in a deck of cards. If she was not much mistaken, this was a typical Renaissance costume.

"What a clown!" Sophie exclaimed, giving him a little push so that she could go inside the apartment.

Once again she had taken out her fear and shyness on the unfortunate philosophy teacher. Sophie's thoughts were in a turmoil because of the postcard she had found down in the hallway.

"Be calm, my child," said Alberto, closing the door behind her.

"And here's the mail," she said, handing him the postcard as if she held him responsible for it.

Alberto read it and shook his head.

"He gets more and more audacious. I wouldn't be surprised if he isn't using us as a kind of birthday diversion for his daughter."

With that he tore the postcard into small pieces and threw them into the wastepaper basket.

"It said that Hilde has lost her crucifix," said Sophie.

"So I read."

"And I found it, the same one, under my pillow at home. Can you understand how it got there?"

Alberto looked gravely into her eyes.

"It may seem alluring. But it's just a cheap trick that costs him no effort whatsoever. Let us rather concentrate on the big white rabbit that is pulled out of the universe's top hat."

They went into the living room. It was one of the most extraordinary rooms Sophie had ever seen.

Alberto lived in a spacious attic apartment with sloping walls. A sharp light directly from the sky flooded the room from a skylight set into one of the walls. There was also another window facing the town. Through this window Sophie could look over all the roofs in the Old Town.

But what amazed Sophie most was all the stuff the room was filled with--furniture and objects from various historical periods. There was a sofa from the thirties, an old desk from the beginning of the century, and a chair that had to be hundreds of years old. But it wasn't just the furniture. Old objects, either useful or decorative, were jumbled together on shelves and cupboards. There were old clocks and vases, mortars and retorts, knives and dolls, quill pens and bookends, octants and sextants, compasses and barometers. One entire wall was covered with books, but not the sort of books found in most bookstores. The book collection itself was a cross section of the production of many hundreds of years. On the other walls hung drawings and paintings, some from recent decades, but most of them also very old. There were a lot of old charts and maps on the walls too, and as far as Norway was concerned, they were not very accurate.

Sophie stood for several minutes without speaking and took everything in.

"What a lot of old junk you've collected," she said.

"Now then! Just think of how many centuries of history I have preserved in this room. I wouldn't exactly call it junk."

"Do you manage an antique shop or something?"

Alberto looked almost pained.

"We can't all let ourselves be washed away by the tide of history, Sophie. Some of us must tarry in order to gather up what has been left along the river banks."

"What an odd thing to say."

"Yes, but none the less true, child. We do not live in our own time alone; we carry our history within us. Don't forget that everything you see in this room was once brand new. That old sixteenth-century wooden doll might have been made for a five-year-old girl's birthday. By her old grandfather, maybe... then she became a teenager, then an adult, and then she married. Maybe she had a daughter of her own and gave the doll to her. She grew old, and one day she died. Although she had lived for a very long time, one day she was dead and gone. And she will never return. Actually she was only here for a short visit. But her doll--well, there it is on the shelf."

"Everything sounds so sad and solemn when you talk like that."

"Life is both sad and solemn. We are let into a wonderful world, we meet one another here, greet each other--and wander together for a brief moment. Then we lose each other and disappear as suddenly and unreasonably as we arrived."

"May I ask you something?"

"We're not playing hide-and-seek any more."

"Why did you move into the major's cabin?"

"So that we would not be so far from each other, when we were only talking by letter. I knew the old cabin would be empty."

"So you just moved in?"

"That's right. I moved in."

"Then maybe you can also explain how Hilde's father knew you were there."

"If I am right, he knows practically everything."

"But I still can't understand at all how you get a mailman to deliver mail in the middle of the woods!"

Alberto smiled archly.

"Even things like that are a pure bagatelle for Hilde's father. Cheap hocus-pocus, simple sleight of hand. We are living under what is possibly the world's closest surveillance."

Sophie could feel herself getting angry.

"If I ever meet him, I'll scratch his eyes out!"

Alberto walked over and sat down on the sofa. Sophie followed and sank into a deep armchair.

"Only philosophy can bring us closer to Hilde's father," Alberto said at last. "Today I shall tell you about the Renaissance."

"Shoot."

"Not very long after St. Thomas Aquinas, cracks began to appear in the unifying culture of Christianity. Philosophy and science broke away more and more from the theology of the Church, thus enabling religious life to attain a freer relationship to reasoning. More people now emphasized that we cannot reach God through rationalism because God is in all ways unknowable. The important thing for a man was not to understand the divine mystery but to submit to God's will.

"As religion and science could now relate more freely to each other, the way was open both to new scientific methods and a new religious fervor. Thus the basis was created for two powerful upheavals in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, namely, the Renaissance and the Reformation."

"Can we take them one at a time?"

"By the Renaissance we mean the rich cultural development that began in the late fourteenth century. It started in Northern Italy and spread rapidly northward during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries."

"Didn't you tell me that the word 'renaissance' meant rebirth?"

"I did indeed, and that which was to be reborn was the art and culture of antiquity. We also speak of Renaissance humanism, since now, after the long Dark Ages in which every aspect of life was seen through divine light, everything once again revolved around man. 'Go to the source' was the motto, and that meant the humanism of antiquity first and foremost.

"It almost became a popular pastime to dig up ancient sculptures and scrolls, just as it became fashionable to learn Greek. The study of Greek humanism also had a pedagogical aim. Reading humanistic subjects provided a 'classical education' and developed what may be called human qualities. 'Horses are born,' it was said, 'but human beings are not born--they are formed.' "

"Do we have to be educated to be human beings?"

"Yes, that was the thought. But before we take a closer look at the ideas of Renaissance humanism, we must say a little about the political and cultural background of the Renaissance."

Alberto rose from the sofa and began to wander about the room. After a while he paused and pointed to an antique instrument on one of the shelves.

"What is that?" he asked.

"It looks like an old compass."

"Quite right."

He then pointed to an ancient firearm hanging on the wall above the sofa.

"And that?"

"An old-fashioned rifle."

"Exactly--and this?"

Alberto pulled a large book off one of the bookshelves.

"It's an old book."

"To be absolutely precise, it is an incunabulum."

"An incunabulum?"

"Actually, it means 'cradle.' The word is used about books printed in the cradle days of printing. That is, before 1500."

"Is it really that old?"

"That old, yes. And these three discoveries--the compass, firearms, and the printing press--were essential preconditions for this new period we call the Renaissance."

"You'll have to explain that a bit more clearly."

"The compass made it easier to navigate. In other words, it was the basis for the great voyages of discovery. So were firearms in a way. The new weapons gave the Europeans military superiority over American and Asiatic cultures, although firearms were also an important factor in Europe. Printing played an important part in spreading the Renaissance humanists' new ideas. And the art of printing was, not least, one of the factors that forced the Church to relinquish its former position as sole disseminator of knowledge. New inventions and instruments began to follow thick and fast. One important instrument, for example, was the telescope, which resulted in a completely new basis for astronomy." "And finally came rockets and space probes." "Now you're going too fast. But you could say that a process started in the Renaissance finally brought people to the moon. Or for that matter to Hiroshima and Chernobyl. However, it all began with changes on the cultural and economic front. An important condition was the transition from a subsistence economy to a monetary economy. Toward the end of the Middle Ages, cities had developed, with effective trades and a lively commerce of new goods, a monetary economy and banking. A middle class arose which developed a certain freedom with regard to the basic conditions of life. Necessities became something that could be bought for money. This state of affairs rewarded people's diligence, imagination, and ingenuity. New demands were made on the individual."

"It's a bit like the way Greek cities developed two thousand years earlier."

"Not altogether untrue. I told you how Greek philosophy broke away from the mythological world picture that was linked to peasant culture. In the same way, the Renaissance middle class began to break away from the feudal lords and the power of the church. As this was happening, Greek culture was being rediscovered through a closer contact with the Arabs in Spain and the Byzantine culture in the east."

"The three diverging streams from antiquity joined into one great river."

"You are an attentive pupil. That gives you some background on the Renaissance. I shall now tell you about the new ideas."

"Okay, but I'll have to go home and eat."

Alberto sat down on the sofa again. He looked at Sophie.

"Above all else, the Renaissance resulted in a new view of mankind. The humanism of the Renaissance brought a new belief in man and his worth, in striking contrast to the biased medieval emphasis on the sinful nature of man. Man was now considered infinitely great and valuable. One of the central figures of the Renaissance was Marsilio Ficino, who exclaimed: 'Know thyself, O divine lineage in mortal guise!' Another central figure, Pica della Mirandola, wrote the Oration on the Dignity of Man, something that would have been unthinkable in the Middle Ages.

"Throughout the whole medieval period, the point of departure had always been God. The humanists of the Renaissance took as their point of departure man himself."

"But so did the Greek philosophers."

"That is precisely why we speak of a 'rebirth' of antiquity's humanism. But Renaissance humanism was to an even greater extent characterized by individualism. We are not only human beings, we are unique individuals. This idea could then lead to an almost unrestrained worship of genius. The ideal became what we call the Renaissance man, a man of universal genius embracing all aspects of life, art, and science. The new view of man also manifested itself in an interest in the human anatomy. As in ancient times, people once again began to dissect the dead to discover how the body was constructed. It was imperative both for medical science and for art. Once again it became usual for works of art to depict the nude. High time, after a thousand years of prudery. Man was bold enough to be himself again. There was no longer anything to be ashamed of."

"It sounds intoxicating," said Sophie, leaning her arms on the little table that stood between her and the philosopher.

"Undeniably. The new view of mankind led to a whole new outlook. Man did not exist purely for God's sake. Man could therefore delight in life here and now. And with this new freedom to develop, the possibilities were limitless. The aim was now to exceed all boundaries. This was also a new idea, seen from the Greek humanistic point of view; the humanists of antiquity had emphasized the importance of tranquility, moderation, and restraint."

"And the Renaissance humanists lost their restraint?"

"They were certainly not especially moderate. They behaved as if the whole world had been reawakened.

They became intensely conscious of their epoch, which is what led them to introduce the term 'Middle Ages' to cover the centuries between antiquity and their own time. There was an unrivaled development in all spheres of life. Art and architecture, literature, music, philosophy, and science flourished as never before. I will mention one concrete example. We have spoken of Ancient Rome, which gloried in titles such as the 'city of cities' and the 'hub of the universe.' During the Middle Ages the city declined, and by 1417 the old metropolis had only 17,000 inhabitants."

"Not much more than Lillesand, where Hilde lives."

"The Renaissance humanists saw it as their cultural duty to restore Rome: first and foremost, to begin the construction of the great St. Peter's Church over the grave of Peter the Apostle. And St. Peter's Church can boast neither of moderation nor restraint. Many great artists of the Renaissance took part in this building project, the greatest in the world. It began in 1506 and lasted for a hundred and twenty years, and it took another fifty before the huge St. Peter's Square was completed."

"It must be a gigantic church!"

"It is over 200 meters long and 130 meters high, and it covers an area of more than 16,000 square meters. But enough about the boldness of Renaissance man. It was also significant that the Renaissance brought with it a new view of nature. The fact that man felt at home in the world and did not consider life solely as a preparation for the hereafter, created a whole new approach to the physical world. Nature was now regarded as a positive thing. Many held the view that God was also present in his creation. If he is indeed infinite, he must be present in everything. This idea is called pantheism. The medieval philosophers had insisted that there is an insurmountable barrier between God and the Creation. It could now be said that nature is divine--and even that it is 'God's blossoming.' Ideas of this kind were not always looked kindly on by the church. The fate of Gior-dano Bruno was a dramatic example of this. Not only did he claim that God was present in nature, he also believed that the universe was infinite in scope. He was punished very severely for his ideas."

"How?"

"He was burned at the stake in Rome's Flower Market in the year 1600."

"How horrible ... and stupid. And you call that humanism?"

"No, not at all. Bruno was the humanist, not his executioners. During the Renaissance, what we call anti-humanism flourished as well. By this I mean the authoritarian power of State and Church. During the Renaissance there was a tremendous thirst for trying witches, burning heretics, magic and superstition, bloody religious wars--and not least, the brutal conquest of America. But humanism has always had a shadow side. No epoch is either purely good or purely evil. Good and evil are twin threads that run through the history of mankind. And often they intertwine. This is not least true of our next key phrase, a new scientific method, another Renaissance innovation which I will tell you about."

"Was that when they built the first factories?"

"No, not yet. But a precondition for all the technical development that took place after the Renaissance was the new scientific method. By that I mean the completely new approach to what science was. The technical fruits of this method only became apparent later on."

"What was this new method?"

"Mainly it was a process of investigating nature with our own senses. Since the fourteenth century there had been an increasing number of thinkers who warned against blind faith in old authority, be it religious doctrine or the natural philosophy of Aristotle. There were also warnings against the belief that problems can be solved purely by thinking. An exaggerated belief in the importance of reason had been valid all through the Middle Ages. Now it was said that every investigation of natural phenomena must be based on observation, experience, and experiment. We call this the empirical method."

"Which means?"

"It only means that one bases one's knowledge of things on one's own experience--and not on dusty parchments or figments of the imagination. Empirical science was known in antiquity, but systematic experiments were something quite new."

"I guess they didn't have any of the technical apparatus we have today."

"Of course they had neither calculators nor electronic scales. But they had mathematics and they had scales. And it was now above all imperative to express scientific observations in precise mathematical terms. 'Measure what can be measured, and make measurable what can-not be measured,' said the Italian Galileo Galilei, who was one of the most important scientists of the seventeenth century. He also said that the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics."

"And all these experiments and measurements made new inventions possible."

"The first phase was a new scientific method. This made the technical revolution itself possible, and the technical breakthrough opened the way for every invention since. You could say that man had begun to break away from his natural condition. Nature was no longer something man was simply a part of. 'Knowledge is power,' said the English philosopher Francis Bacon, thereby underlining the practical value of knowledge-- and this was indeed new. Man was seriously starting to intervene in nature and beginning to control it."

"But not only in a good way?"

"No, this is what I was referring to before when I spoke of the good and the evil threads that are constantly intertwined in everything we do. The technical revolution that began in the Renaissance led to the spinning jenny and to unemployment, to medicines and new diseases, to the improved efficiency of agriculture and the impoverishment of the environment, to practical appliances such as the washing machine and the refrigerator and pollution and industrial waste. The serious threat to the environment we are facing today has made many people see the technical revolution itself as a perilous maladjustment to natural conditions. It has been pointed out that we have started something we can no longer control. More optimistic spirits think we are still living in the cradle of technology, and that although the scientific age has certainly had its teething troubles, we will gradually learn to control nature without at the same time threatening its very existence and thus our own."

"Which do you think?"

"I think perhaps there may be some truth in both views. In some areas we must stop interfering with nature, but in others we can succeed. One thing is certain: There is no way back to the Middle Ages. Ever since the Renaissance, mankind has been more than just part of creation. Man has begun to intervene in nature and form it after his own image. In truth, 'what a piece of work is man!' "

"We have already been to the moon. What medieval person would have believed such a thing possible?"

"No, that's for sure. Which brings us to the new world view. All through the Middle Ages people had stood beneath the sky and gazed up at the sun, the moon, the stars, and the planets. But nobody had doubted that the earth was the center of the universe. No observations had sown any doubt that the earth remained still while the 'heavenly bodies' traveled in their orbits around it. We call this the geocentric world picture, or in other words, the belief that everything revolves around the earth. The Christian belief that God ruled from on high, up above all the heavenly bodies, also contributed to maintaining this world picture
 楼主| 发表于 2019-1-22 15:04:50 | 显示全部楼层
"I wish it were that simple!"

"But in 1543 a little book was published entitled On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres. It was written by the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who died on the day the book was published. Copernicus claimed that it was not the sun that moved round the earth, it was vice versa. He thought this was completely possible from the observations of the heavenly bodies that existed. The reason people had always believed that the sun went round the earth was that the earth turns on its own axis, he said. He pointed out that all observations of heavenly bodies were far easier to understand if one assumed that both the earth and the other planets circle around the sun. We call this the heliocentric world picture, which means that everything centers around the sun."

"And that world picture was the right one?"

"Not entirely. His main point--that the earth moves round the sun--is of course correct. But he claimed that the sun was the center of the universe. Today we know that the sun is only one of an infinite number of stars, and that all the stars around us make up only one of many billions of galaxies. Copernicus also believed that the earth and the other planets moved in circular orbits around the sun."

"Don't they?"

"No. He had nothing on which to base his belief in the circular orbits other than the ancient idea that heavenly bodies were round and moved in circles simply because they were 'heavenly.' Since the time of Plato the sphere and the circle had been considered the most per-fect geometrical figures. But in the early 1600s, the German astronomer Johannes Kepler presented the results of comprehensive observations which showed that the planets move in elliptical--or oval--orbits with the sun at one focus. He also pointed out that the speed of a planet is greatest when it is closest to the sun, and that the farther a planet's orbit is from the sun the slower it moves. Not until Kepler's time was it actually stated that the earth was a planet just like other planets. Kepler also emphasized that the same physical laws apply everywhere throughout the universe."

"How could he know that?"

"Because he had investigated the movements of the planets with his own senses instead of blindly trusting ancient superstitions. Galileo Galilei, who was roughly contemporary with Kepler, also used a telescope to observe the heavenly bodies. He studied the moon's craters and said that the moon had mountains and valleys similar to those on earth. Moreover, he discovered that the planet Jupiter had four moons. So the earth was not alone in having a moon. But the greatest significance of Galileo was that he first formulated the so-called Law of Inertia."

"And that is?"

"Galileo formulated it thus: A body remains in the state which it is in, at rest or in motion, as long as no external force compels it to change its state."

"If you say so."

"But this was a significant observation. Since antiquity, one of the central arguments against the earth moving round its own axis was that the earth would then move so quickly that a stone hurled straight into the air would fall yards away from the spot it was hurled from."

"So why doesn't it?"

"If you're sitting in a train and you drop an apple, it doesn't fall backward because the train is moving. It falls straight down. That is because of the law of inertia. The apple retains exactly the same speed it had before you dropped it."

"I think I understand."

"Now in Galileo's time there were no trains. But if you roll a ball along the ground--and suddenly let go..."

"... it goes on rolling ..."

"... because it retains its speed after you let go."

"But it will stop eventually, if the room is long enough."

"That's because other forces slow it down. First, the floor, especially if it is a rough wooden floor. Then the force of gravity will sooner or later bring it to a halt. But wait, I'll show you something."

Alberto Knox got up and went over to the old desk. He took something out of one of the drawers. When he returned to his place he put it on the coffee table. It was just a wooden board, a few millimeters thick at one end and thin at the other. Beside the board, which almost covered the whole table, he laid a green marble.

"This is called an inclined plane," he said. "What do you think will happen if I let go the marble up here, where the plane is thickest?"

Sophie sighed resignedly.

"I bet you ten crowns it rolls down onto the table and ends on the floor."

"Let's see."

Alberto let go of the marble and it behaved exactly as Sophie had said. It rolled onto the table, over the tabletop, hit the floor with a little thud and finally bumped into the wall.

"Impressive," said Sophie.

"Yes, wasn't it! This was the kind of experiment Galileo did, you see."

"Was he really that stupid?"

"Patience! He wanted to investigate things with all his senses, so we have only just begun. Tell me first why the marble rolled down the inclined plane."

"It began to roll because it was heavy."

"All right. And what is weight actually, child?"

"That's a silly question."

"It's not a silly question if you can't answer it. Why did the marble roll onto the floor?"

"Because of gravity."

"Exactly--or gravitation, as we also say. Weight has something to do with gravity. That was the force that set the marble in motion."

Alberto had already picked the marble up from the floor. He stood bowed over the inclined plane with the marble again.

"Now I shall try to roll the marble across the plane," he said. "Watch carefully how it moves."

Sophie watched as the marble gradually curved away and was drawn down the incline.

"What happened?" asked Alberto.

"It rolled sloping because the board is sloping."

"Now I'm going to brush the marble with ink ... then perhaps we can study exactly what you mean by sloping."

He dug out an ink brush and painted the whole marble black. Then he rolled it again. Now Sophie could see exactly where on the plane the marble had rolled because it had left a black line on the board.

"How would you describe the marble's path?"

"It's curved ... it looks like part of a circle."

"Precisely."

Alberto looked up at her and raised his eyebrows.

"However, it is not quite a circle. This figure is called a parabola."

"That's fine with me."

"Ah, but why did the marble travel in precisely that way?"

Sophie thought deeply. Then she said, "Because the board was sloping, the marble was drawn toward the floor by the force of gravity."-"Yes, yes! This is nothing less than a sensation! Here I go, dragging a girl who's not yet fifteen up to my attic, and she realizes exactly the same thing Galileo did after one single experiment!"

He clapped his hands. For a moment Sophie was afraid he had gone mad. He continued: "You saw what happened when two forces worked simultaneously on the same object. Galileo discovered that the same thing applied, for instance, to a cannonball. It is propelled into the air, it continues its path over the earth, but will eventually be drawn toward the earth. So it will have described a trajectory corresponding to the marble's path across the inclined plane. And this was actually a new discovery at the time of Galileo. Aristotle thought that a projectile hurled obliquely into the air would first describe a gentle curve and then fall vertically to the earth. This was not so, but nobody could know Aristotle was wrong before it had been demonstrated."

"Does all this really matter?"

"Does it matter? You bet it matters! This has cosmic significance, my child. Of all the scientific discoveries in the history of mankind, this is positively the most important."

"I'm sure you are going to tell me why."

"Then along came the English physicist Isaac Newton, who lived from 1642 to 1727. He was the one who provided the final description of the solar system and the planetary orbits. Not only could he describe how the planets moved round the sun, he could also explain why they did so. He was able to do so partly by referring to what we call Galileo's dynamics."

"Are the planets marbles on an inclined plane then?"

"Something like that, yes. But wait a bit, Sophie."

"Do I have a choice?"

"Kepler had already pointed out that there had to be a force that caused the heavenly bodies to attract each other. There had to be, for example, a solar force which held the planets fast in their orbits. Such a force would moreover explain why the planets moved more slowly in their orbit the further away from the sun they traveled. Kepler also believed that the ebb and flow of the tides-- the rise and fall in sea level--must be the result of a lunar force."

"And that's true."

"Yes, it's true. But it was a theory Galileo rejected. He mocked Kepler, who he said had given his approval to the idea that the moon rules the water. That was because Galileo rejected the idea that the forces of gravitation could work over great distances, and also between the heavenly bodies."

"He was wrong there."

"Yes. On that particular point he was wrong. And that was funny, really, because he was very preoccupied with the earth's gravity and falling bodies. He had even indicated how increased force can control the movement of a body."

"But you were talking about Newton."

"Yes, along came Newton. He formulated what we call the Law of Universal Gravitation. This law states that every object attracts every other object with a force that increases in proportion to the size of the objects and decreases in proportion to the distance between the objects."

"I think I understand. For example, there is greater attraction between two elephants than there is between two mice. And there is greater attraction between two elephants in the same zoo than there is between an Indian elephant in India and an African elephant in Africa."

"Then you have understood it. And now comes the central point. Newton proved that this attraction--or gravitation--is universal, which means it is operative everywhere, also in space between heavenly bodies. He is said to have gotten this idea while he was sitting under an apple tree. When he saw an apple fall from the tree he had to ask himself if the moon was drawn to earth with the same force, and if this was the reason why the moon continued to orbit the earth to all eternity."

"Smart. But not so smart really."

"Why not, Sophie?"

"Well, if the moon was drawn to the earth with the same force that causes the apple to fall, one day the moon would come crashing to earth instead of going round and round it for ever."

"Which brings us to Newton's law on planetary orbits. In the case of how the earth attracts the moon, you are fifty percent right but fifty percent wrong. Why doesn't the moon fall to earth? Because it really is true that the earth's gravitational force attracting the moon is tremendous. Just think of the force required to lift sea level a meter or two at high tide."

"I don't think I understand."

"Remember Galileo's inclined plane. What happened when I rolled the marble across it?"

"Are there two different forces working on the moon?"

"Exactly. Once upon a time when the solar system began, the moon was hurled outward--outward from the earth, that is--with tremendous force. This force will remain in effect forever because it moves in a vacuum without resistance..."

"But it is also attracted to the earth because of earth's gravitational force, isn't it?"

"Exactly. Both forces are constant, and both work simultaneously. Therefore the moon will continue to orbit the earth."

"Is it really as simple as that?"

"As simple as that, and this very same simplicity was Newton's whole point. He demonstrated that a few natural laws apply to the whole universe. In calculating the planetary orbits he had merely applied two natural laws which Galileo had already proposed. One was the law of inertia, which Newton expressed thus: 'A body remains in its state of rest or rectilinear motion until it is compelled to change that state by a force impressed on it.' The other law had been demonstrated by Galileo on an inclined plane: When two forces work on a body simultaneously, the body will move on an elliptical path."

"And that's how Newton could explain why all the planets go round the sun."

"Yes. All the planets travel in elliptical orbits round the sun as the result of two unequal movements: first, the rectilinear movement they had when the solar system was formed, and second, the movement toward the sun due to gravitation."

"Very clever."

"Very. Newton demonstrated that the same laws of moving bodies apply everywhere in the entire universe. He thus did away with the medieval belief that there is one set of laws for heaven and another here on earth. The heliocentric world view had found its final confirmation and its final explanation."

Alberto got up and put the inclined plane away again. He picked up the marble and placed it on the table between them.

Sophie thought it was amazing how much they had gotten out of a bit of slanting wood and a marble. As she looked at the green marble, which was still smudged with ink, she couldn't help thinking of the earth's globe. She said, "And people just had to accept that they were living on a random planet somewhere in space?"

"Yes--the new world view was in many ways a great burden. The situation was comparable to what happened later on when Darwin proved that mankind had developed from animals. In both cases mankind lost some of its special status in creation. And in both cases the Church put up a massive resistance."

"I can well understand that. Because where was God in all this new stuff? It was simpler when the earth was the center and God and the planets were upstairs."

"But that was not the greatest challenge. When Newton had proved that the same natural laws applied everywhere in the universe, one might think that he thereby undermined people's faith in God's omnipotence. But Newton's own faith was never shaken. He regarded the natural laws as proof of the existence of the great and almighty God. It's possible that man's picture of himself fared worse."

"How do you mean?"

"Since the Renaissance, people have had to get used to living their life on a random planet in the vast galaxy. I am not sure we have wholly accepted it even now. But there were those even in the Renaissance who said that every single one of us now had a more central position than before."

"I don't quite understand."

"Formerly, the earth was the center of the world. But since astronomers now said that there was no absolute center to the universe, it came to be thought that there were just as many centers as there were people. Each person could be the center of a universe."

"Ah, I think I see."

"The Renaissance resulted in a new religiosity. As philosophy and science gradually broke away from theology, a new Christian piety developed. Then the Renaissance arrived with its new view of man. This had its effect on religious life. The individual's personal relationship to God was now more important than his relationship to the church as an organization."

"Like saying one's prayers at night, for instance?"

"Yes, that too. In the medieval Catholic Church, the church's liturgy in Latin and the church's ritual prayers had been the backbone of the religious service. Only priests and monks read the Bible because it only existed in Latin. But during the Renaissance, the Bible was translated from Hebrew and Greek into national languages. It was central to what we call the Reformation."

"Martin Luther..."

"Yes, Martin Luther was important, but he was not the only reformer. There were also ecclesiastical reformers who chose to remain within the Roman Catholic church. One of them was Erasmus of Rotterdam."

"Luther broke with the Catholic Church because he wouldn't buy indulgences, didn't he?"

"Yes, that was one of the reasons. But there was a more important reason. According to Luther, people did not need the intercession of the church or its priests in order to receive God's forgiveness. Neither was God's forgiveness dependent on the buying of 'indulgences' from the church. Trading in these so-called letters of indulgence was forbidden by the Catholic Church from the middle of the sixteenth century." "God was probably glad of that." "In general, Luther distanced himself from many of the religious customs and dogmas that had become rooted in ecclesiastical history during the Middle Ages. He wanted to return to early Christianity as it was in the New Testament. The Scripture alone,' he said. With this slogan Luther wished to return to the 'source' of Christianity, just as the Renaissance humanists had wanted to turn to the ancient sources of art and culture. Luther translated the Bible into German, thereby founding the German written language. He believed every man should be able to read the Bible and thus in a sense become his own priest."

"His own priest? Wasn't that taking it a bit far?" "What he meant was that priests had no preferential position in relation to God. The Lutheran congregations employed priests for practical reasons, such as conducting services and attending to the daily clerical tasks, but Luther did not believe that anyone received God's for-giveness and redemption from sin through church rituals. Man received 'free' redemption through faith alone, he said. This was a belief he arrived at by reading the Bible."

"So Luther was also a typical Renaissance man?" "Yes and no. A characteristic Renaissance feature was his emphasis on the individual and the individual's personal relationship to God. So he taught himself Greek at the age of thirty-five and began the laborious job of translating the Bible from the ancient Greek version into German. Allowing the language of the people to take precedence over Latin was also a characteristic Renaissance feature. But Luther was not a humanist like Ficino or Leonardo da Vinci. He was also opposed by humanists such as Erasmus of Rotterdam because they thought his view of man was far too negative; Luther had proclaimed that mankind was totally depraved after the Fall from Grace. Only through the grace of God could mankind be 'justified,' he believed. For the wages of sin is death."

"That sounds very gloomy."

Alberto Knox rose. He picked up the little green and black marble and put it in his top pocket.

"It's after four!" Sophie exclaimed in horror.

"And the next great epoch in the history of mankind is the Baroque. But we shall have to keep that for another day, my dear Hilde."

"What did you say?" Sophie shot up from the chair she had been sitting in. "You called me Hilde!"

"That was a serious slip of the tongue."

"But a slip of the tongue is never wholly accidental."

"You may be right. You'll notice that Hilde's father has begun to put words in our mouths. I think he is exploiting the fact that we are getting weary and are not defending ourselves very well."

"You said once that you are not Hilde's father. Is that really true?"

Alberto nodded.

"But am I Hilde?"

"I'm tired now, Sophie. You have to understand that. We have been sitting here for over two hours, and I have been doing most of the talking. Don't you have to go home to eat?"

Sophie felt almost as if he was trying to throw her out. As she went into the little hall, she thought intensely about why he had made that slip. Alberto came out after her.

Hermes was lying asleep under a small row of pegs on which hung several strange-looking garments that could have been theatrical costumes. Alberto nodded toward the dog and said, "He will come and fetch you."

"Thank you for my lesson," said Sophie.

She gave Alberto an impulsive hug. "You're the best and kindest philosophy teacher I've ever had," she said.

With that she opened the door to the staircase. As the door closed, Alberto said, "It won't be long before we meet again, Hilde."

Sophie was left with those words.

Another slip of the tongue, the villain! Sophie had a strong desire to turn around and hammer on the door but something held her back.

On reaching the street she remembered that she had no money on her. She would have to walk all the long way home. How annoying! Her mother would be both angry and worried if she didn't get back by six, that was for sure.

She had not gone more than a few yards when she suddenly noticed a coin on the sidewalk. It was ten crowns, exactly the price of a bus ticket.

Sophie found her way to the bus stop and waited for a bus to the Main Square. From there she could take a bus on the same ticket and ride almost to her door.

Not until she was standing at the Main Square waiting for the second bus did she begin to wonder why she had been lucky enough to find the coin just when she needed it.

Could Hilde's father have left it there? He was a master at leaving things in the most convenient places.

How could he, if he was in Lebanon?

And why had Alberto made that slip? Not once but twice!

Sophie shivered. She felt a chill run down her spine.
 楼主| 发表于 2019-1-22 15:05:45 | 显示全部楼层
文艺复兴

……啊!藏在凡俗身躯里的神明子孙哪……
苏菲喘吁吁地跑到乔安家的前门时,刚好过了十二点。乔安正站在他们那栋小黄屋前面的院子里。
“你去了快十个小时了!”乔安提高了嗓门。
苏菲摇摇头。
“不,我去了一千多年了。”
“你究竟到哪里去了?”
“.....”
“你疯了吗?你妈妈半小时前打电话来。”
“你怎么跟她说?”
“我说你到药局去了,她说请你回来时打个电话给她。不过今天早上十点我爸和我妈端着热巧克力和面包进房里来,却发现你的床是空的。你真该看看他们脸上的表情。”
“你怎么跟他们说?”
“我很尴尬。我告诉他们说我们吵了一架,你就跑回家了。”
“这么说,我们最好赶快言归于好,而且这几天内我们不能让你爸妈和我妈说话。你想我们能不能办得到?”
乔安耸耸肩。就在这个时候,乔安的爸爸从角落里走过来,手里推着一辆独轮车。他身穿工人装,正忙着清扫去年掉下来的最后一些落叶和树枝。
“哈,你们和好了,你们看,我把地下室台阶上的落叶扫得干干净净,一片也不剩。”
“不错。”苏菲答道:“现在我们是不是可以在这边喝热巧克力了?”
乔安的爸爸勉强笑了一下,乔安则吓了一跳。乔安的爸爸是一位财务顾问,因此乔安的家境比苏菲好,而他们家人彼此之间讲话是不像苏菲家那样直来直往的。
“对不起,乔安,我只是想我该帮你圆谎才对。”
“你要不要告诉我发生了什么事?”
“当然要啦!如果你陪我回家的话。因为这些事是不能让什么财务顾问呀、超龄的芭比娃娃呀之类的人听的。”
“说这种烂话!有的人结了婚,另外一半只好去出海,这种不稳定的婚姻我看也不见得比较好吧!”
“也许是吧!不管怎么说,我昨晚几乎都没睡。还有,我开始好奇席德是不是能看到我们所做的每一件事情。”
她们开始朝苜蓿巷走去。
“你的意思是说她也许有第三只眼睛?”
“也许是,也许不是。”
很明显的,乔安对这个谜团并不热中。
“不过这并不能解释她爸爸为什么会寄那么多莫名其妙的明信片到树林里一座空着的木屋去呀!”
“我承认这一点是不太能说得通。”
“你要告诉我你到哪里去了吗?”
于是,苏菲就一五一十地告诉了乔安,连同那神秘哲学课程的事。她要乔安发誓绝对不能把这个秘密告诉别人。
她们继续向前走,有很长一段时间都没有说话。
当他们走到苜蓿巷时,乔安说:“我不怎么喜欢这件事。”
她在苏菲家的门口停下来,转身准备回家。
“没有人要你喜欢。不过哲学不是一个无伤大雅的团体游戏,它跟我们是谁、从何而来这些问题有关。你认为这方面我们在学校学的够多吗?”
“可是不管怎样都没有人能回答那些问题呀!”
“没错,但甚至没有人告诉我们应该提出这些问题!”
苏菲走进厨房时,午饭已经摆在桌上了。关于她没有从乔安家打电话回家这件事,妈妈也没说什么。
梦境午饭后,苏菲宣布她要上楼睡午觉,她老实跟妈妈说她在乔安家几乎都没睡。不过话说回来,女孩子在一起过夜时,一整个晚上不睡觉也是常有的事。
在上床前,她站在墙上那面大铜镜前看着,起先只看到自己苍白疲倦的脸,但后来,在她的脸后面,似乎隐隐约约有另外一张浮现,苏菲做了一两下深呼吸。她已经开始有幻觉了,这可不大妙。
她仔细审视着自己那张轮廓分明苍白的脸,以及脸四周那一头做不出任何发型的难缠的头发。但在那张脸之外却浮现了另外一个女孩的幽灵。
突然间,那个女孩疯狂地眨着双眼,仿佛是在向苏菲做信号,说她的确在那儿。这个幽灵出现的时间只有几秒钟,然后便消失了。
苏菲坐在床沿。她万分确信镜子里的女孩就是席德。她曾经在少校的小木屋内放着的一份成绩单上看过席德的照片,刚才她在镜子里看到的一定就是她。
为什么她总是在疲倦至极的时候遇见这类令人毛骨悚然的事呢?这不是很奇怪吗?所以,每次事情发生后,她总得问问自己那是否是真的。
苏菲把衣服放在椅子上,便爬上了床。她立刻睡着了,并且作了一个栩栩如生的梦。
她梦见自己站在一座大花园中。园里有一道山坡向下通往一座船库。船库后面的平台上坐着一个年轻的金发女孩,正在眺望着大海。苏菲走下去,坐在她身旁,但那女孩却似乎没有察觉她的到来。苏菲开始自我介绍:“我叫苏菲,”她说。但这个女孩显然既没看到她的人,也没听到她说话。“你显然又聋又瞎。”苏菲说。那女孩还是充耳不闻。突然间苏菲听到一个声音在喊:“席德!”那女孩立刻跳起来,向船库的方向飞奔。看来她既不聋也不瞎。此时一名中年男子从船库大步向她走来。他身穿卡其布制服,头戴蓝扁帽。
女孩展开双臂抱住他的脖子,他则将她抱起,转了几圈。这时,苏菲在女孩原先所坐之处看到一条小小的金色十字架链子。她将它捡起来,拿在手中,然后便醒了。
苏菲看看时钟,她已经睡子两个小时。
她坐起来,想着这个奇怪的梦。梦境里的一切是如此栩栩如生,她觉得自己好像确实到过那里一样,她也很确定那座船库和平台确实存在于某个地方。当然,它们看起来很像是她在少校的小木屋中见过的那幅风景画。无论如何,她梦中的那个女孩无疑必是席德,而那个男人则是她的爸爸,刚从黎巴嫩回来。在梦中,他的样子看起来很像艾伯特。
苏菲起床开始整理床铺时,在枕头下发现一条金色的十字架链子。十字架的背面刻着席德几个字。
这并不是苏菲第一次梦见自己捡到贵重的东西,但毫无疑问这是第一次那样东西从梦里跑了出来。
“去你的!”她大声说。
她生气地打开橱柜的门,把那条精致的十字架链子丢到最上面一格,跟丝巾、白袜子和从黎巴嫩寄来的明信片放在一起。
面授课程第二天早晨,苏菲醒来时,妈妈已经弄好了一顿可口的早餐,有热面包、橘子汁、蛋和蔬菜沙拉。通常星期天早晨妈妈很少比苏菲先起床,而每次她先起床时,总是会弄好一顿丰盛的早餐再叫醒苏菲。
她们吃着早餐时,妈妈说:“花园里有一只很奇怪的狗,整个早上都在老树篱旁边嗅来嗅去。我实在不知道它在那儿干什么,你呢?”
“我知道!”苏菲脱口而出,随即又后悔了。
“它以前来过吗?”
这时苏菲已经离开餐桌,走到客厅向着花园的那扇窗户往外看。果然不出她所料。
汉密士正躺在密洞的人口前。
她该怎么跟妈妈说呢?她还来不及想出什么借口时,妈妈已经走过来,站在她身边。
“你刚才说它以前来过这儿?”
“我想它大概是以前在那里埋了一根骨头,现在想把它挖出来。你知道,狗也有记性的……”
“大概是吧,苏菲。你是我们家的动物心理学家。”
苏菲急切的搜寻着借口。
“我带它回家好了尸她说。
“你知道它住哪里吗?”
苏菲耸耸肩。
“项圈上也许会有地址吧!”
两三分钟后,苏菲已经走到了花园。汉密士一看到她两步跑了过来,摇了摇尾巴,扑向苏菲。
“乖狗狗!”
她知道妈妈正在窗户那边看着他们。她内心暗自祈祷汉密士不要钻进树篱。还好,它只是冲向屋前的石子路,飞快地跑过前院,奔向大门。
大门关上后,汉密士继续在苏菲前面跑了几码。这段路程颇远。由于是星期天的上午,路上有一些人在散步。眼看别人全家一起共度周末,苏菲真是羡慕极了。
一路上,汉密士不时跑去嗅嗅别的狗或别人家花园篱笆旁边的有趣玩意儿。不过只要苏菲一叫,“狗狗,过来尸它就立刻回来。
不一会儿,他们已经走过了一座老旧的牧场、一座大运动场和一个游乐场,进入了人车较多的地区。他们继续沿着一条铺着圆石并有电车往来的大街向市中心走。到了市中心时,汉密士引导苏菲穿越市中心广场,走到教会街上。这里属于旧市区,四周都是十九世纪末、二十世纪初时兴建的平凡单调的大宅子。时间已经将近下午一点半了。
现在他们已经到了市区的另外一边。这里苏菲并不常来。她记得小时候有一次爸妈曾带她到这里的一条街上拜访一位年老的姨妈。
最后他们走到位于几栋旧宅子之间的一座小广场。这座广场虽然看起来非常古老,但却名为“新广场”。不过话说回来,这整座城镇历史已经很悠久了,它兴建的年代可以远溯到中世纪。
汉密士走向第十四号房屋,然后便停下来不动,等着苏菲开门。苏菲心跳开始加快。
进了前门,苏菲看到一块嵌板上钉着几个绿色的信箱,最上面一排有一个信箱口露出—张明信片。上面有邮局所盖的“地址详”的印章。
明信片上的地址写着“新广场十四号,席德收”,日期是六月十五日。事实上还有两个星期才到六月十五日,但邮差显然没有注意到。
苏菲把明信片取下来看:
亲爱的席德:
现在苏菲已经到哲学家的家里来了。她很快就要满十五岁了,但你昨天就满十五了。还是今天呢?如果是今天的话,那么信到的大迟了。不过我们两个的时间并不一定一致。下一代出来后,上一代就老了。历史就这样发展下去。你有没有想过欧洲的历史就像一个人的一生?古代就像欧洲的童年,然后到了漫长的中世纪,这是欧洲的学生时期。最后终于到了文艺复兴时期,此时,漫长的求学时期结束了。欧洲成年了,充满了旺盛的活力以及对生命的渴望。我们可以说文艺复兴时期是欧洲的十五岁生日!现在是六月中旬了,我的孩子,活着的感觉真好,不是吗?
P.S:很遗憾你丢了那条金十字架链子。你得学习照管自己的东西才行。爸爸就在你的身旁。
爱你的老爸
汉密士已经开始上楼了。苏菲拿了明信片,跟着它走。她必须跑才能赶上它。它一直快活地摇着尾巴。他们走上了二楼、三楼,到四楼后只有一道通往阁楼的楼梯。难道要上屋顶吗?汉密士沿着楼梯上去,在一扇窄门前停下来,并用爪子抓门。
苏菲听到脚步声从里面走来。门开了,艾伯特站在那儿。他已经换了服装,现在穿着另外一套衣服,包括白长袜、红膝马裤和黄色垫肩的紧身上衣。他使苏菲想起扑克牌里的小丑。如果她没记错的话,这是文艺复兴时期典型的服装。
“你这个小丑!”苏菲喊,轻轻地推了他一把,以便走进屋里。
在恐怖、害羞的情绪交集之下,苏菲又不期然地拿她可怜的哲学老师当靶子。由于刚才在玄关处发现那张明信片,苏菲现在的思绪是一片混乱。
“不要这么容易激动,孩子。”艾伯特说,一面把门关上。
“你看这张明信片!她说,一面把信交给他,好像他应该负责似的。
艾伯特看完信后摇摇头。
“他愈来愈无所忌惮了。说不定他是利用我们做为他女儿的生日娱乐。”
说完后他将明信片撕成碎片,丢进字纸篓中。
“信上说席德丢了她的十字架。”苏菲说。
“我看到了。”
“那个十字架被我发现了,就是那一个,放在我家的枕头下面。
你知道它怎么会在那里吗?”
艾伯特严肃地看着她的眼睛,“这件事看起来也许很吸引入,但只是他不费一点力气就能玩的小把戏罢了。我们还是集中精神来看那只被魔术师从宇宙的礼帽中拉出来的大白兔吧!”
他们进入客厅。那是苏菲所见过的最不寻常的房间之一。
这是一间宽敞的阁楼,四边的墙壁略微倾斜。强烈的阳光透过其中一面的窗户泻满了整个房间。另外一扇窗户则开向市区,苏菲可以从这里看到旧市区里所有房子的屋顶。
但是最让苏菲惊讶的还是房间里摆满了各种年代的家具器物。有一张三十年代的沙发,一张二十世纪初期的旧书桌和一把看起来有几百年历史的椅子。除了家具之外,还有各式各样古董,不管是实用的还是装饰的,统统凌乱地放在架子上或柜子里,包括古老的时钟与花瓶、研钵和蒸馏器、刀子和娃娃、羽毛笔和书挡、八分仪和六分仪、罗盘和气压计等。有一整面墙放满了书,而且都不是那些可以在书店里看到的书,出版的年代横跨数百年。另外一面墙则挂满了素描与图画,有些是最近几十年的,但大多数都是非常古老的作品。此外,每面墙上都挂有很多古老的图表与地图。从图上挪威的大小与位置看来,这些地图并不很精确。
有好几分钟的时间,苏菲只是站在那儿,没有说话。她东张西望了一阵子,直到她从各个角度把这个房间看过为止。
“你这里搜集的旧垃圾可真多!”
“你又来了。这个房间里保存的是几百年的历史文物。应该不算是垃圾吧?”
“你是开古董店的吗?”
艾伯特的表情几乎有点痛苦。
“我们不能让自己被历史的浪潮冲走,总得有人收拾河岸边留下来的东西。”
“这话很奇怪。”
“是很奇怪,但却一点不假。孩子,我们并不只活在我们所属的时代里,我们身上也扛着历史。不要忘记你在这个房间内看到的每一样东西都曾经是崭新的。那个十六世纪的木娃娃也许是为了某个五岁女孩的生日做的,而制造的人也许就是她年老的祖母……然后小女孩长成了青少年,然后成年了,结婚了,也许也生了一个女儿,后来她把木娃娃传给女儿,自己则渐渐老去,有一天就死了。
虽然她活了很久,但总还是难免一死,从此一去不返。事实上她只是来到人间短暂一游罢了。但是她的娃娃——你看,现在却放在那个架子上。”
“经过你这么一说,每一件事情都显得悲伤而严肃。”
“生命本来就是悲伤而严肃的。我们来到这个美好的世界里,彼此相逢,彼此问候,并结伴同游一段短暂的时间。然后我们就失去了对方,并且莫名其妙就消失了,就像我们突然莫名其妙的来到世上一般。”
“我可以问你一件事吗?”
“我们不再玩捉迷藏的游戏了。”
“你为什么会搬到少校的小木屋?”;“为了缩短我们之间的距离呀!因为那个时候我们全凭通信联络。我知道那时小木屋刚好是空的。”
“所以你就搬进去了!”
“没错。”
“那或许你也可以告诉我席德的爸爸是如何知道你在那里的。”
“如果我说的没错,每一件事情他都知道。”
“但我还是不懂你怎么有办法让邮差跑到森林里面去送信!”
艾伯特淘气地笑了一下。
“即使那样的事情,对席德的父亲来说也算不了什么,只不过是个小把戏,妙手一挥就成了。我们现在可能正受到全世界最严密的监视。”
苏菲顿时觉得一股怒气往上升。
“要是让我碰上他,一定把他的眼珠子挖出来。”
艾伯特走到房间的另外一边,坐在沙发上。苏菲跟着他,也坐在一张宽大的扶手椅上。
“只有哲学可以使我们更接近席德的父亲。”他终于说。“今天我要跟你谈文艺复兴时期。”
“快说吧!”

文艺复兴

“在圣多玛斯的时代过后不久,原本团结一致的天主教文化开始出现分裂的现象。哲学与科学逐渐脱离教会的神学,使得宗教生活与理性思考之间的关系变得比较自由。当时有愈来愈多人强调人们不能透过理性与天主沟通,因为天主绝对是不可知的。对人来说,最重要的事不是去了解神的奥秘,而是服从神的旨意。”
“嗯。”
“既然宗教与科学的关系已经变得较为自由,新的科学方法与新的宗教狂热于是逐渐产生。在这种环境下,十五与十六世纪发生了两大变动,就是文艺复兴运动与宗教改革运动。”
“我们可不可以一个一个来?”
“所谓文艺复兴运动是指十四世纪末期起文化蓬勃发展的现象,最先开始于意大利北部,并在十五与十六世纪期间迅速向北蔓延。”
“你不是告诉我‘文艺复兴’这个字是表示‘重生’的意思吗?”
“没错。它是指古代艺术与文化的再生。另外我们也说它是‘人道主义的复兴’,因为在漫长的中世纪,生命中的一切都是从神的观点来解释,但到了文艺复兴时期,一切又重新以人为中心。当时的口号是‘回归本源’,所谓本源主要是指古代的人文主义。
“在文艺复兴时期,发掘古代的经卷典籍几乎成为一种大众休闲活动,学习希腊文也变成时髦的玩意。当时的人认为,修习希腊的人文主义有教导与启发的功能,它除了可以使人了解古代的思想文化之外,也可以发展他们所谓的‘人的特质’。他们认为:‘马生下来就是马,但人要做为一个人,还需要靠后天慢慢的培养。’”
“我们一定要受教育才可以成为一个人吗?”
“是的,当时的人观念确是如此。不过在我们详谈文艺复兴时期的人文理念之前,我们必须大略了解一下文艺复兴时期的政治与文化背景。”
艾伯特从沙发上起身,开始在房间里踱步。过了一会,他停下来,指着架子上放着的一件古代仪器。
“这是什么?”他问。
“看起来像是一个很旧的罗盘。”
“没错。”
然后他又指着沙发后面的墙壁上挂着的一件古代火器。
“那又是什么?”
“一支老式的步枪。”
“没错。这个呢?”
艾伯特从书架上抽出一本大书。
“是一本古书。”
“严格地说,这是一本古版书。”
“古版书?”
“是的,就是公元一五OO年前印制的古书。当时印刷业仍处于襁褓阶段。”
“这本书真的有那么古老吗?”
“是的。罗盘、火器与印刷术这三大发明,乃是文艺复兴时期所以形成的重要因素。”
“请你说详细一些。”
“有了罗盘,航海就比较容易了,这为后来一些伟大的探险航程奠定了基础。火器也是一样,这种新式的武器使得欧洲军队的军力要比美洲和亚洲的军队强大。在欧洲内部,是否拥有火器也成为一个国家强大与否的关键因素。印刷术则在散布文艺复兴时期的人本理念方面有很重要的贡献,同时印刷术的发明也使得教会不再是唯一能够散播知识的机构。在这段时期,各项新的发明与仪器接踵而来,速度既快,数量也多。其中很重要的一项就是望远镜的发明,它使得天文学迈人了新的纪元。”
“所以现在才会有火箭和太空探险之旅。”
“你的速度未免太快了吧。不过文艺复兴时期所发生的一项转变,最后倒是把人类送上了月球,也间接导致广岛事件与切尔诺贝利核电厂爆炸事件。最初只是文化与经济上的一些改变。其中很重要的一个现象是;自给自足式的经济逐渐转型为货币经济体系。
在中世纪末期时,由于贸易制度成功、新商品交易蓬勃,再加上已经建立货币经济与银行体系,于是各城市不断发展,造成了一个新的中产阶级。他们拥有决定自己生活环境的自由,可以用钱买到各种必需晶。在这个时期,只要肯吃苦耐劳、有想像力、脑筋灵活,便可以获得报偿。因此,社会对个人的要求已经改变。”
“这和两千年前希腊各城邦发展的情况有些类似。”
“你说对了几分。我曾经说过,希腊哲学脱离了属于农民文化的神话世界观。同样的,文艺复兴时期的中产阶级也开始脱离封建贵族与教会的势力。这段期间,欧洲与西班牙的阿拉伯人和东方的拜占庭文化接触日益密切,于是欧洲人又开始注意到希腊文化的存在。”
“于是古代的三条支流又汇集成一条大河。”
“你很用心。有关文艺复兴时期的背景就讲到这里。现在我们要谈这个时期一些新的理念。”
“好,不过我很快得回家吃饭了。”
艾伯特再度坐在沙发上,眼睛看着苏菲。
“文艺复兴运动最重要的影响是改变了大家对人类的看法。文艺复兴时期的人文主义精神使得大家对人本身和人的价值重新产生了信心,这和中世纪时强调人性本恶的观点截然不同。这个时期的哲学家认为人是极其崇高可贵的。其中最主要的人物之一是费其诺(MarsilioFicino)。他告诉人们:“认识自己,呵,你这藏在凡俗身躯内的神明子孙啊!”另外一个主要人物是米兰多拉(PieodellaMirandola),他写了《颂扬人的尊贵》这篇文章,这在中世纪简直是无法想象的。
“在中世纪期间,上帝是一切事物的出发点。文艺复兴时期的人文主义则以人为出发点。”
“希腊哲学家也是一样啊!”
“这正是为什么我们会说文艺复兴时期是古代人文主义‘重生’的缘故。但文艺复兴时期的人文主义更强调个人主义。当时人的观念是:我们不仅是人,更是独一无二的个体。这种理念导致人们无限崇拜天才。理想中的人是我们所谓的‘文艺复兴人’,就是艺术、科学等十八般武艺样样精通的人。由于对人的观点改变了,于是人们开始对人体的构造产生兴趣。就像在古代一般,人们又开始解剖尸体以了解人体的结构。这对医学和艺术而言都是很有必要的。同时,这个时期也再度出现许多描绘人体的艺术作品。在历经一千年的假道学之后,这也该是时候了。人又有了胆量表现自己,不再以自己为耻。”
“太好了。”苏菲说,一边把双臂靠在她和哲学家中间的小茶几上。
“的确如此。这种对人的新观念创造了一个全新的视野。人并不只是为神而存在的,因此人也不妨及时行乐。有了这种新的自由之后,任何事情都是可能的。这个时期人们的目标是要打破所有的藩篱与禁忌。从希腊人文主义的观点来说,这倒是一个新的想法,因为古代的人文主义强调的是宁静、中庸与节制。”
“结果文艺复兴时期的人文主义者就变得很放纵了吗?”
“他们当然不是很节制的。他们的所作所为就好像整个世界重新复苏了一般。他们强烈地感受到时代的精神,这是为何他们将介于古代与文艺复兴时期之间的几百年称为‘中世纪’的缘故。在文艺复兴时期,各个领域都有无可比拟的进展。无论艺术、建筑、文学、音乐、哲学与科学都以空前的速度蓬勃发展。举一个具体的例子:我们曾经谈到古代的罗马曾有‘城市中的城市’与‘宇宙的中枢’等美称,但在中世纪期间,罗马渐渐衰微,到公元一四一七年时,人口只剩下一万七千人。”
“比席德住的黎乐桑市多不了多少嘛。”
“文艺复兴时期的人文主义者认为重建罗马是他们的文化责任,而最重要的一项工作就是在圣彼得的坟墓上建一座圣彼得大教堂。这座教堂号称世界第一,极尽富丽与堂皇之能事。许多文艺复兴时期的伟大艺术家都参与了兴建工作。这项工程从一五(•)六年开始,进行了一百二十年之久。后来,又花了五十年的时间兴建宏伟的圣彼得广场。”
“这座教堂一定很大尸“它共有两百多米长、一百三十米宽,占地二万六千平方米以上。有关文艺复兴时期人们大胆自信的心理我们就讲到这里了。还有很重要的一点是:文艺复兴运动也使得人们对大自然有了新的看法。这时候的人们比较能够尽情享受生活,不再认为人活着只是为死后的世界做准备,因此他们对物质世界的看法也完全改观了。
在人们眼中,大自然如今有了正面的意义。许多人认为上帝也存在于他所创造的事物中。因为,如果神真的是无穷无限的,他就会存在于万事万物中。这种观念称为泛神论。中世纪的哲学家一直坚持神与他的造物之间有一道不可跨越的距离。文艺复兴时期的人则认为大自然是神圣的,甚至是‘神的花朵’。这类观念有时会遭到教会的反对。布鲁诺(GiordanoBruo)的命运就是一个很极端的例子。他不仅宣称神存在于大自然中,而且相信宇宙是无限大的。结果他受到了非常严厉的惩罚。”
“什么惩罚?”
“他在一六OO午时被绑在罗马花市的一根柱子上活活烧死。”
“真是太烂了……太蠢了。这还叫人文主义吗?”
“不,绝不是。布鲁诺是人文主义者,但将他处决的人则不是。
不过在文艺复兴时期,所谓的‘反人文主义’也同样盛行。我所谓的‘反人文主义’指的是各国政府与教会的威权。在文艺复兴时期,审判女巫、烧死异教徒的风气非常盛行。魔法、迷信充斥,而且不时有人发动血腥的宗教战争。美洲也是在这段时期被欧洲人用蛮横的手段征服了。这些都是人文主义阴暗的一面。不过话说回来,没有任何一个时代是完全好或完全坏的。善恶乃是人类历史中不时交织在一起的两股线。在我们下面要讲到的另外一个文艺复兴时期的新产物‘新科学方法’方面也是如此。”
“当时的人是否兴建了人类史上最早的一些工厂?”
“还没有。不过多亏文艺复兴时期发明的新科学方法,才会有后来那些科技发展。所谓新科学方法是指以崭新的角度来看待科学,这种方法到后来才结出明显的科技果实。”
“那是什么样的新方法?”
“它最主要的一点是用我们的感官来调查研究大自然,自从十四世纪以来,愈来愈多思想家警告人们不要盲目相信权威,无论是宗教教条或亚理斯多德的自然哲学。但也有人劝告大众不要相信纯粹凭思考就可以解决问题。在整个中世纪期间,人们过度迷信理性思考的重要性。到了文艺复兴时期,则认为研究大自然现象必须以观察、经验与实验为基础。我们称之为‘实证法’。”
“意思是?”
“就是以亲身经验,而不是以古人的著作或凭空想象之物,来做为知识的基础。古代也有实证科学,但从来不曾以有系统的方式做过实验。”
“我猜他们大概没有现代这些仪器设备。”
“当然,他们没有计算机或电子尺这类工具,但是他们可以凭借数学计算和普通的尺。对他们而言,最重要的一件事就是把科学观察所得的结果用准确的数学辞汇表达出来。十七世纪的大科学家伽利略(GalileoGalilei)说:‘我们要测量那些可以测量的东西,至于那些无法测量的,也要想办法加以测量。’他并表示:‘大自然这本书是用数学的语言写的。”’“有了这些实验与测量结果之后,就自然会有新发明了。”
“新科学方法的出现促成了技术革命,这是第一个阶段。而技术革命又为后来的每一项发明打下了基础。可以说人类这时已经开始脱离自然环境了,人类不再仅仅是大自然的一部分。英国哲学家培根(FrancisBacon)表示:‘知识即力量。’这句话强调了知识的实用价值,在当时也是一个很新的观念。人们开始认真干预大自然并加以控制。”
“但这并不一定是好的,不是吗?”
“对。我曾经提到过,我们所做的每一件事情都有正反两面的作用。文艺复兴时期展开的技术革命虽然带来了纺织机,但也造成了失业;虽然带来了新的药物,但也带来了新的疾病;虽然提高了农业效率,但也榨取了许多自然资源;虽然带来了洗衣机、电冰箱等实用的器具,但也导致了污染与工业废弃物处理的问题。今天我们面临严重的环境污染问题已经使得许多人认为,技术革命乃是人类尝试调整自然环境的一种危险做法,而且已经失败,有人指出,这场革命最终将会走向失控的局面。比较乐观的人士则认为我们目前仍处于科技的襁褓阶段,同时,尽管在科学发展的过程中不免会有阵痛,但人类终将逐渐学习到如何控制大自然,而不致对环境构成威胁。”
“你觉得谁说的比较对?”
“我觉得双方的说法或许都有点道理。在某些领域内我们必须停止干预自然,但在其他领域内我们则不妨更进一步。但有一件事情是可以确定的:我们绝不可能再走中世纪的老路。自从文艺复兴时期以来,人类就不再只是创造物的一部分,而开始干预自然,并按照自己的心意来改造大自然。说真的,‘人是多么了不起呀!”
“人类已经登陆月球了。在中世纪,谁会相信人能跑到月亮上;去呀!”
新世界观“他们当然无法想象。说到这里,我们要谈谈所谓的‘新世界观’。中世纪的人虽然也会坐在天空下,看着太阳、月亮与星球。但他们从不曾怀疑‘地球是宇宙中心’的说法。他们认为地球是静止不动的,而各个‘天体’则在轨道上环绕着地球运行。这种观念被称为‘以地球为中心的世界观’,也就是‘万物皆以地球为中心’的意思。基督教相信上帝高居各天体之上,主宰宇宙,这也是当时人抱持这种观念的原因之一。”
“世界真有这么简单就好了!”
“然而,在一五四三年,有一本名叫《天体运行论》(OntheRevolutions OFtheCelestialSpheres)的小书出版了。作者是波兰天文学家哥白尼(NicolausCopernicus)。他在这本书出版当天就去世了。哥白尼在书中宣称,太阳并未绕地球运行,而是地球绕太阳运行。他根据观察各星球的心得,认为这种可能性很高。他说,人们之所以相信太阳绕着地球转,是因为地球绕着自己的轴心转的缘故。他指出,如果我们假设地球和其他星球都绕着太阳转,则我们所看到的天体运转现象将会变得容易理解得多。我们称这种观念为‘以太阳为中心的世界观’,也就是相信万物以太阳为中心的意思。”
“这个世界观应该是正确的啰?”
“也不全然。哥白尼的主要论点—一地球围绕着太阳转——当然是正确的。不过他宣称太阳是宇宙中心的说法可就错了。我们现在已经知道太阳系只是宇宙中无数个星系之一。宇宙中共有数十亿个银河系,围绕太阳的星系只是其中之一罢了。哥白尼并且相信地球和其他星球都在圆形的轨道上运转。”
“难道不是吗?”
“不。他之所以相信轨道是圆形的,只是根据‘天体是圆形的,且绕着圈圈转’这个古老的观念。自从柏拉图的时代以来,球体与圆形就被认为是最完美的几何图形。但在十七世纪初期,德国天文学家克卜勒(JohannesKepler)发表了他广泛观察的结果,显示各星球实际上是以太阳为中心,绕着椭圆形的轨道运转。他并且指出,一个星球在轨道上愈接近太阳的地方,运转的速度愈快,离太阳愈远则愈慢。在此之前从来没有人明白提出‘地球只是众多行星之一’的说法。克卜勒同时强调宇宙每个地方都适用同样的物理法则。”
“他怎么知道呢?”
伽利略“因为他用自己的感官来观察、研究星球运转的现象,而不盲目地接受古代的迷信。大约与克卜勒同一时代的还有一位意大利科学家伽利略。他也用天文望远镜来观察天体的运转。他在研究月球的表面后,宣称月球像地球一样有高山、有深谷。更重要的是,他发现木星有四个卫星。因此地球并非唯一拥有卫星的星球。然而,伽利略最伟大的成就还是他首度提出所谓的(‘惯性定律’。”
“那是什么意思?”
“伽利略的说法是:‘如果没有外力强迫一个物体改变它所处的状态,则这个物体将会一直维持它原来静止或移动的状态。”
“这谁都知道呀!”
“但这个观察很有意义。自从古代以来,反对‘地球绕着自己的轴心转’这个说法的人士所持的主要理由之一就是:地球果真绕着自己的轴心转的话,则它的速度会很快,以至于当你垂直丢一块石头到空中时,它会掉落在好几码之外。”
“那这种现象为什么不会发生呢?”
“如果你坐在火车里,把一个苹果丢在地上。苹果并不会因为火车正在移动而向后掉落,而是垂直落地。这是由于(‘惯性定律’作用所致。苹果维持在你将它丢下以前同样的速度。”
“我懂了。”
“伽利略的时代并没有火车。不过如果一个人一直向前运球一旦突然放手后……”
“……球会一直滚动……”
“……因为在你放手后球仍然维持原来的速度“不过它最后还是会停下来,如果房间够大的话。”
“那是因为有其他外力迫使它停下来。第一种力来自于地板,尤其是那种粗糙不平的木头地板。然后则是重力。在重力的作用下,球迟早会停下来,不过,请等一下,我先让你看一样东西。”
艾伯特站起身来,走到那张古老的书桌前。他从抽屉里拿出一样东西,走回原来的地方,并把那样东西放在茶几上。那是一块木头板子,一端有三、四公分厚,另一端则极薄,整张板子几乎就把茶几占满了。艾伯特在板子旁放了一个绿色的弹珠。
“这叫做斜面,”他说。“如果我在比较厚的这一端把弹珠放掉,你想会发生什么事?”
苏菲无可奈何地叹了口气。
“我跟你赌十块钱,它会一直滚到茶几上,最后掉在地板上。”
“我们试试看。”.艾伯特放掉弹珠。它果真像所说的那样滚到茶几上,然后啪一声掉在地板上,最后碰到了通往走廊的门槛。
“真了不起呀!”苏菲说。
“可不是嘛]这就是伽利略所做的实验。”
“他真的有那么笨吗?”
“别急,他是想透过各种感官来观察事物的原理。我们现在只不过刚开始而已。请你先告诉我弹珠为何会沿着斜面滚下去?”
“因为它有重量。”
“好,那么请你告诉我重量是什么。”
“这个问题问得太逊了。”
“如果你不能回答,它就不算逊。到底弹珠为什么会滚落到地板上?”
“因为重力的缘故。”
“答对了,你也可以说是地心引力。重量与重力有关,而重力就是使得弹珠移动的那个力量。”
此时艾伯特已经把弹珠从地板上捡起来了。他再度俯身站在那块斜面上方,手里仍拿着弹珠。
“现在我要试着让弹珠滚过斜面。”他说。“你注意看它怎样移动。”
他把腰弯得更低,瞄准目标,试着让弹珠滚过斜面。苏菲看到弹珠逐渐沿着坡面斜斜的滚了下来。
“发生了什么事?”艾伯特问。
“它斜斜地滚,因为板子有坡度。”
“现在我要在弹珠上涂墨汁……然后我们就可以看看到底你所谓的‘斜斜地滚’是什么意思。”
他找出一只墨水刷,把整个弹珠涂黑,然后再度使它滚动。这次苏菲很明显看到弹珠在斜面上滚动的路径,因为它滚过之处留下了一条黑线。
“现在你可不可以描述一下弹珠移动的路线?”
“是弧形的……看起来好像是一个圆圈的一部分。”
“一点也没错。”
艾伯特抬头看着苏菲,眉毛抬得高高的。
“不过那并不完全是圆形。这种图案叫做抛物线。”
“哦?”
“嗯。可是弹珠为什么会这样滚动呢?”
苏菲用心地想了一下,然后说;“因为板于有坡度,所以弹珠被重力拉往地板的方向。”
“对了!这岂不是太让人兴奋了吗?我随便拉了一个小女孩到我的阁楼来,做一个实验,她就可以领悟到伽利略所发现的原理!”
他拍拍手。有一阵子,苏菲很担心他已经疯了。他继续说:“你刚才看到的是两种力量同时作用在一个物体上时所产生的效果。伽利略发现这个原理同样也适用在炮弹等的物体上。炮弹被推入空中后在一段时间内会继续飞行,但迟早会被牵引到地面上,所以它会形成像弹珠滚过斜面一样的轨线,这是伽利略那个时代的新发现。亚理斯多德认为一个斜斜向空中抛出的抛射体会先呈微微的弧形,然后垂直地向地面降落。但实际情况并非如此。
不过没有人知道亚理斯多德的错误,除非用实验来证明。”
“这个定律有什么重要性吗?”
“当然!孩子,这件事意义非凡,而且肯定是人类史上最重要的一项科学发现。”
“为什么呢?”
牛顿“后来,在一六四二到一七二七年间,有一个名叫牛顿(IsaacNewton)的英国物理学家,他是将太阳系与星球轨道描述得最完整的一个科学家。他不但能说出各星球如何绕太阳运转,而且可以解释它们为何会如此运转。其中一部分原因就是因为他参考了我们所称的‘伽利略动力学’。”
“那些星球是不是就像滚过斜面的弹珠一样?”
“是的,有点像。不过不要急,苏菲。”
“急也没有用,是不是?”
“克卜勒曾经指出,各星球之间一定有某种力量使它们相互吸引。举例来说,太阳一定有某种力量使得太阳系内的各星球都固定在轨道上绕着它运转,这也是为何那些星球在离太阳愈远的地方移动得愈慢的缘故。克卜勒并且相信潮汐的涨落一定是受到月亮引力的影响。”
“的确是这样,不是吗?”
“没错,是这样。不过伽利略反对这种说法。他嘲笑克卜勒,说他居然赞同‘月亮掌管海洋河流’的说法。这是因为伽利略不相信别重力能够在很远的距离外或各星球之间发挥作用。”
“这回他可错了。”
“嗯。在这一点上他是错了。这事说来也满奇怪的,因为伽利略一直专心研究地球引力与落体的原理。他甚至发现在引力增强时物体的移动会如何受到影响。”
“你刚才不是已经开始谈到牛顿了吗?”
“是的。然后牛顿出现了。他提出我们所谓的‘万有引力定律’,就是说宇宙间两个物体相互吸引的力量随物体的大小而递I增,并随两物体之间的距离而递减。”
“我懂了。例如,两只大象之间的引力要比两只老鼠之间的引;力要大。而同样一座动物园内的两只大象之间的引力,又比在印度的一只印度象与在非洲的一只非洲象两者之间的引力要大。”
“没错,你的确懂了。现在我们要谈到最重要的一点。牛顿证明这种引力是存在于宇宙各处的。也就是说,它在宇宙每个地方都发生作用,包括太空中的各个星球之间。据说他是坐在一棵苹果树下悟出这个道理的。当时他看到一个苹果从树上掉下来,他便问自己:月球是否同样也受到地球力量的牵引,才会恒久绕着地球旋转?”
“聪明。不过也不算真的很聪明。”
“为什么呢?”
“这个嘛……如果月球是受到促使苹果落地的同样一种引力的影响,那么总有一天月球会撞到地球,而不会一直绕着地球转了。”
“这个我们就要谈到牛顿的行星轨道定律了。在这个问题上,你只对了一半。月球为什么不会撞到地球呢?因为地球的重力的确以强大的力量牵引着月球。你想想看涨潮的情景,要将海平面提高一两公尺需要多大的力量呀尸“这个我不太懂。”
“你还记得伽利略的斜面吗?当我让弹珠滚过斜面时会有什么现象?”
“是不是同时有两种力量在影响月球?”
“一点没错。很久以前,当太阳系形成时,月球被一股很大的力量抛离地球。由于它在真空中移动,没有阻力,因此这股力量会永远不停地产生作用……”
“但它同时也受到地球引力的影响,被拉向地球,对吗?”
“对。这两股力量都是持续不停的,而且同时发生作用,所以月球才会一直绕着地球旋转。”
“它的原理真的就这么简单吗?”
“就是这么简单。而这种‘简单性’正是牛顿学说的重点。他说明少数几种自然法则可以适用于整个宇宙。在计算行星轨道时,他只应用了伽利略所提出的两个自然法则。一个是惯性定律。牛顿说明所谓惯性定律就是‘一个物体除非受到外力的作用使它改变状态,否则它会一直处在静止或呈直线进行的状态’。另外一项定律是伽利略利用斜面证明的定律,就是:当两股力量同时作用于一个物体上时,这个物体会循椭圆形的路径移动。”
“而牛顿就以此来解释为何所有行星都围绕太阳旋转?”
“没错。由于受到两种强弱不同的力量的影响,所有的行星都在椭圆形的轨道上绕太阳旋转。其中一种是在太阳系形成时,他们呈直线进行的力量,另外一种则是他们受到太阳重力牵引的力量。”
“聪明。”
“很聪明。牛顿证明了若干关于物体移动的定律可以适用于宇宙每一个地方,他因此推翻了中世纪人们认为天上与人间分别适用两套不同法则的看法。这时候,以太阳为宇宙中心的世界观终于得到了彻底的证实以及完整的解释。”
艾伯特站起身来,把斜面放回原来的抽屉里。然后他弯腰从地上捡起那颗弹珠,把它放在他和苏菲间的茶几上。
苏菲心想,这一切居然都是科学家们从一小块斜面的木板和一个弹珠推论出来的,这是多么神奇呀!当她看着那颗仍然沾有墨水的绿色弹珠时,不禁想起地球来。她说:“于是当时的人们就不得不接受人类其实是生活在太空中某处一个偶然形成的星球上啰?”
“是的。这个新的世界观在许多方面都对人造成了很大的冲击,这个情况和后来达尔文证明人类是从禽兽进化而来时所造成的影响相当。这两个新发现都使人类失去他们在造物中的一部分特殊地位,于是也都遭遇到教会的强大阻力。”
“这是可以理解的。因为,在这些新观念中,上帝被放在哪里呢?从前人相信地球是宇宙中心,而上帝与各星球就在地球之上的想法倒是比较单纯些。”
“但这还不是当时人面临的最大挑战。当牛顿证明宇宙各处适用同样的法则时,有人可能会认为他破坏了人们心目中的上帝无所不能的形象,但是牛顿本人的信仰却从未动摇。他认为自然法则的存在正足以证明宇宙间确有一位伟大、万能的上帝。事实上,受到更大冲击的乃是人对自我的观念。”
“怎么说呢?”
“自从文艺复兴时期以来,人们就不得不逐渐接受他们所居住的地球乃是浩瀚银河中一个偶然形成的星球的说法。即使到现在,我看还是不见得大家都能够完全接受这种想法。不过,即使在文艺复兴时期,也有一些人认为,随着新世界观的产生,我们每一个人所处的地位也变得比以前更加重要。”
“我还是不太明白。”
“在此之前,世界的中心是地球。但天文学家却告诉人们,宇宙根本没有绝对的中心,因此,每一个人都是中心。”
“喔,是这个意思!”.“文艺复兴运动造成了新的宗教情感(狂热)。随着哲学与科学逐渐脱离神学的范畴,基督徒变得更加虔诚。到了文艺复兴时期,由于人类对自己有了新的看法,使得宗教生活也受到了影响。个人与上帝之间的关系变得比个人与教会组织之间的关系更加重要。”
“比如说在晚上自行祷告之类的吗?”
宗教的改革“这也包括在内。在中世纪的天主教教会中,以拉丁文念的祈祷文和教会例行祷告一直是宗教仪式的骨干。只有教士和僧侣能看得懂圣经,因为当时的圣经都是拉丁文写的。但是到了文艺复兴时期,圣经被人从希伯来文与希腊文翻译成各国语言。这是导致所谓‘宗教革命’的主要因素。”
“马丁路德……”
“是的,马丁路德是一个很重要的人物,但他并不是当时唯一的宗教改革家。另有一些改革人士选择留在罗马天主教会中。其中之一是荷兰的伊拉斯莫斯(ErasmusofRotterdam)。”
“马丁路德之所以和天主教会决裂是因为他不肯购买赎罪券,是吗?”
“是的,但这只是其中原因之一。另外还有一个更重要的原因是:马丁路德认为人们并不需要教会或教士居中代祷才能获得上帝的赦免。同时,要取得上帝的赦免也不是靠购买教会所售的‘赎罪券’。从十六世纪中期起,天主教教会就禁止买这些所谓的‘赎罪券’。”
“天主应该很乐于见到这个情况。”
“总而言之,马丁路德摒斥了教会中许多从中世纪起就形成的宗教习惯与教条。他希望回到新约中所描述的早期基督教的面貌。
他说:‘我们只信靠经文。’他希望以这个口号将基督教带回它的‘源头’,就像文艺复兴时期的人文主义者希望回到艺术与文化的古老源头一般。马丁路德将圣经译成德文,因此创造了德文的文字。他认为应该让每一个人都读得懂圣经,并从某一个意义上来说,成为自己的教士。”
“自己的教士?这不是有点太过分了吗?”
“他的意思是:教士与上帝的关系并不比一般人亲近。路德派教会之所以雇用教士,乃是因为他们需要有人做一些实际的工作,如主持礼拜或料理日常事务等。但马丁路德并不相信任何人能够透过教会举行的仪式,获得上帝的赦免与宽宥。他说,人只能透过信仰得救,这是‘无法用金钱交换的’。这些都是他在研读圣经以后的心得。”
“这么说马丁路德也是典型的文艺复兴人士啰?”
“也不尽然。马丁路德重视个人,强调个人与上帝之间的关系。
在这一点上他算是典型的文艺复兴人士。也因此他从三十五岁开始自修希腊文,并进行将圣经翻译成德文的繁重工作。他使得一般大众使用的语言取代了拉丁文的地位,这也是他与典型文艺复兴人士相像的另外一个特征。然而,马丁路德并不像费其诺或达文西一样是人文主义者。同时,他也受到伊拉斯莫斯等人文主义者的批评,因为他们认为他对人的观点太过消极了。马丁路德曾经宣称,自从亚当与夏娃被逐出伊甸园后,人类就彻底腐化了,他相信唯有透过上帝的恩典,人类才能免于罪孽。因为罪恶的代价就是死亡。”
“听起来满灰暗的。”
艾伯特起身,捡起绿黑相间的小弹珠,放在上衣的口袋内。
“天哪!已经过四点了!”苏菲惊叫。
“下一个人类史上的伟大时期叫做巴洛克时期。不过,我们只好等到下一次再谈了,亲爱的席德。”
“你说什么?”苏菲从椅子上跳了起来。“你叫我席德!”
“是我一时不小心,喊错了。”
“可是,无心之言或多或少都是有原因的。”
“也许你说得对。你可以注意到席德的父亲已经开始透过我们的嘴巴讲话了,我想他是故意趁我们渐渐疲倦,不太能为自己辩护的时候才这样做。”
“你曾经说过你不是席德的爸爸。你可以保证这是真话吗?”
艾伯特点点头。
“但我是席德吗?”
“我累了,苏菲,请你谅解。我们坐在一起已经两个多小时了,大部分的时间都是我在说话。你不是要回家吃饭吗?”
苏菲觉得艾伯特几乎像是要赶她走似的。当她走进小小的走廊时,心里一直想着他为何会喊错她的名字。艾伯特也跟着她走出来。
汉密士正躺在壁上一排衣钩的下面睡觉。衣钩上挂着几件很像是戏服的怪异服装。艾伯特朝汉密士的方向点点头说:“下次它还是会去接你。”
“谢谢你为我上课。”苏菲说。
她突然冲动地拥抱了艾伯特一下。“你是我所见过的最好、最亲切的哲学老师。”她说。
然后她把通往楼梯的门打开。在关门之际,艾伯特说:“我们不久就会再见面的,席德!”
之后门就关上了。
又喊错名字了,这个坏蛋!苏菲有一股强烈的冲动想要跑回去敲门,不过她还是没有这样做。
走到街上时,她突然想起自己身上没钱,必须一路走回家。真气人!如果她在六点前还没回到家,妈妈一定会又生气又着急的。
苏菲走了几码路后,突然看到人行道上有一枚十元的钱币,正好可以买一张公车票。
苏菲找到了公车站,等候开往大广场的公;车。从大广场那儿,她可以换车,一路坐回家门口,不必再买票。
一直到她站在大广场等候下一辆公车时,她才开始纳闷自己为何如此幸运,刚好捡到一个十块钱的铜板。
难道是席德的爸爸放在那儿的吗?他真是个高手,每次都把东西放得恰到好处。
但是这怎么可能呢?他不是还在黎巴嫩吗?艾伯特又为什么老是喊错她的名字呢?不只一次哦!苏菲打了个冷战。她觉得有一股寒气沿着她的脊梁骨一路窜下来。
 楼主| 发表于 2019-1-22 15:08:30 | 显示全部楼层
The Baroque

such stuff as dreams are made on

Sophie heard nothing more from Alberto for several days, but she glanced frequently into the garden hoping to catch sight of Hermes. She told her mother that the dog had found its own way home and that she had been invited in by its owner, a former physics teacher. He had told Sophie about the solar system and the new science that developed in the sixteenth century.

She told Joanna more. She told her all about her visit to Alberto, the postcard in the mailbox, and the ten-crown piece she had found on the way home. She kept the dream about Hilde and the gold crucifix to herself.

On Tuesday, May 29, Sophie was standing in the kitchen doing the dishes. Her mother had gone into the living room to watch the TV news. When the opening theme faded out she heard from the kitchen that a major in the Norwegian UN Battalion had been killed by a shell.

Sophie threw the dish towel on the table and rushed into the living room. She was just in time to catch a glimpse of the UN officer's face for a few seconds before they switched to the next item.

"Oh no!" she cried.

Her mother turned to her.

"Yes, war is a terrible thing!"

Sophie burst into tears.

"But Sophie, it's not that bad!"

"Did they say his name?"

"Yes, but I don't remember it. He was from Grimstad, I think."

"Isn't that the same as Lillesand?"

"No, you're being silly."

"But if you come from Grimstad, you might go to school in Lillesand."

She had stopped crying, but now it was her mother's turn to react. She got out of her chair and switched off the TV.

"What's going on, Sophie?"

"Nothing."

"Yes, there is. You have a boyfriend, and I'm beginning to think he's much older than you. Answer me now: Do you know a man in Lebanon?"

"No, not exactly..."

"Have you met the son of someone in Lebanon?"

"No, I haven't. I haven't even met his daughter."

"Whose daughter?"

"It's none of your business."

"I think it is."

"Maybe I should start asking some questions instead. Why is Dad never home? Is it because you haven't got the guts to get a divorce? Maybe you've got a boyfriend you don't want Dad and me to know about and so on and so on. I've got plenty of questions of my own."

"I think we need to talk."

"That may be. But right now I'm so worn out I'm going to bed. And I'm getting my period."

Sophie ran up to her room; she felt like crying.

As soon as she was through in the bathroom and had curled up under the covers, her mother came into the bedroom.

Sophie pretended to be asleep even though she knew her mother wouldn't believe it. She knew her mother knew that Sophie knew her mother wouldn't believe it either. Nevertheless her mother pretended to believe that Sophie was asleep. She sat on the edge of Sophie's bed and stroked her hair.

Sophie was thinking how complicated it was to live two lives at the same time. She began to look forward to the end of the philosophy course. Maybe it would be over by her birthday--or at least by Midsummer Eve, when Hilde's father would be home from Lebanon ...

"I want to have a birthday party," she said suddenly.

"That sounds great. Who will you invite?"

"Lots of people ... Can I?"

"Of course. We have a big garden. Hopefully the good weather will continue."

"Most of all I'd like to have it on Midsummer Eve."

"All right, that's what we'll do."

"It's a very important day," Sophie said, thinking not only of her birthday.

"It is, indeed."

"I feel I've grown up a lot lately."

"That's good, isn't it?"

"I don't know."

Sophie had been talking with her head almost buried in her pillow. Now her mother said, "Sophie--you must tell me why you seem so out of balance at the moment."

"Weren't you like this when you were fifteen?"

"Probably. But you know what I am talking about."

Sophie suddenly turned to face her mother. "The dog's name is Hermes," she said.

"It is?"

"It belongs to a man called Alberto."

"I see."

"He lives down in the Old Town."

"You went all that way with the dog?"

"There's nothing dangerous about that."

"You said that the dog had often been here."

"Did I say that?"

She had to think now. She wanted to tell as much as possible, but she couldn't tell everything.

"You're hardly ever at home," she ventured.

"No, I'm much too busy."

"Alberto and Hermes have been here lots of times."

"What for? Were they in the house as well?"

"Can't you at least ask one question at a time? They haven't been in the house. But they often go for walks in the woods. Is that so mysterious?"

"No, not in the least."

"They walk past our gate like everyone else when they go for a walk. One day when I got home from school I talked to the dog. That's how I got to know Alberto."

"What about the white rabbit and all that stuff?"

"That was something Alberto said. He is a real philosopher, you see. He has told me about all the philosophers."

"Just like that, over the hedge?"

"He has also written letters to me, lots of times, actually. Sometimes he has sent them by mail and other times he has just dropped them in the mailbox on his way out for a walk."

"So that was the 'love letter' we talked about."

"Except that it wasn't a love letter."

"And he only wrote about philosophy?"

"Yes, can you imagine! And I've learned more from him than I have learned in eight years of school. For instance, have you ever heard of Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake in 1600? Or of Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation?"

"No, there's a lot I don't know."

"I bet you don't even know why the earth orbits the sun--and it's your own planet!"

"About how old is this man?"

"I have no idea--about fifty, probably."

"But what is his connection with Lebanon?"

This was a tough one. Sophie thought hard. She chose the most likely story.

"Alberto has a brother who's a major in the UN Battalion. And he's from Lillesand. Maybe he's the major who once lived in the major's cabin."

"Alberto's a funny kind of name, isn't it?"

"Perhaps."

"It sounds Italian."

"Well, nearly everything that's important comes either from Greece or from Italy."

"But he speaks Norwegian?"

"Oh yes, fluently."

"You know what, Sophie--I think you should inviteAlberto home one day. I have never met a real philosopher."

"We'll see."

"Maybe we could invite him to your birthday party? It could be such fun to mix the generations. Then maybe I could come too. At least, I could help with the serving. Wouldn't that be a good idea?"

"If he will. At any rate, he's more interesting to talk to than the boys in my class. It's just that..."

"What?"

"They'd probably flip and think Alberto was my new boyfriend."

"Then you just tell them he isn't."

"Well, we'll have to see."

"Yes, we shall. And Sophie--it is true that things haven't always been easy between Dad and me. But there was never anyone else ..."

"I have to sleep now. I've got such awful cramps."

"Do you want an aspirin?" /'Yes, please."

When her mother returned with the pill and a glass of water Sophie had fallen asleep.

May 31 was a Thursday. Sophie agonized through the afternoon classes at school. She was doing better in some subjects since she started on the philosophy course. Usually her grades were good in most subjects, but lately they were even better, except in math.

In the last class they got an essay handed back. Sophie had written on "Man and Technology." She had written reams on the Renaissance and the scientific breakthrough, the new view of nature and Francis Bacon, who had said that knowledge was power. She had been very careful to point out that the empirical method came before the technological discoveries. Then she had written about some of the things she could think of about technology that were not so good for society. She ended with a paragraph on the fact that everything people do can be used for good or evil. Good and evil are like a white and a black thread that make up a single strand.

Sometimes they are so closely intertwined that it is impossible to untangle them.

As the teacher gave out the exercise books he looked down at Sophie and winked.

She got an A and the comment: "Where do you get all this from?" As he stood there, she took out a pen and wrote with block letters in the margin of her exercise book: I'M STUDYING PHILOSOPHY.

As she was closing the exercise book again, something fell out of it. It was a postcard from Lebanon:

Dear Hilde, When you read this we shall already have spoken together by phone about the tragic death down here. Sometimes I ask myself if war could have been avoided if people had been a bit better at thinking. Perhaps the best remedy against violence would be a short course in philosophy. What about "the UN's little philosophy book"-- which all new citizens of the world could be given a copy of in their own language. I'll propose the idea to the UN General Secretary.

You said on the phone that you were getting better at looking after your things. I'm glad, because you're the untidiest creature I've ever met. Then you said the only thing you'd lost since we last spoke was ten crowns. I'll do what I can to help you find it. Although I am far away, I have a helping hand back home. (If I find the money I'll put it in with your birthday present.) Love, Dad, who feels as if he's already started the long trip home.

Sophie had just managed to finish reading the card when the last bell rang. Once again her thoughts were in turmoil.

Joanna was waiting in the playground. On the way home Sophie opened her schoolbag and showed Joanna the latest card.

"When is it postmarked?" asked Joanna.

"Probably June 15 ..."

"No, look ... 5/30/90, it says."

"That was yesterday ... the day after the death of the major in Lebanon."

"I doubt if a postcard from Lebanon can get to Norway in one day," said Joanna.

"Especially not considering the rather unusual address: Hilde Moller Knag, c/o Sophie Amundsen, Fu-rulia Junior High School..."

"Do you think it could have come by mail? And the teacher just popped it in your exercise book?"

"No idea. I don't know whether I dare ask either."

No more was said about the postcard.

"I'm going to have a garden party on Midsummer Eve," said Sophie.

"With boys?"

Sophie shrugged her shoulders. "We don't have to invite the worst idiots."

"But you are going to invite Jeremy?"

"If you want. By the way, I might invite Alberto Knox."

"You must be crazy!"

"I know."

That was as far as the conversation got before their ways parted at the supermarket.

The first thing Sophie did when she got home was to see if Hermes was in the garden. Sure enough, there he was, sniffing around the apple trees.

"Hermes!"

The dog stood motionless for a second. Sophie knew exactly what was going on in that second: the dog heard her call, recognized her voice, and decided to see if she was there. Then, discovering her, he began to run toward her. Finally all four legs came pattering like drumsticks.

That was actually quite a lot in the space of one second.

He dashed up to her, wagged his tail wildly, and jumped up to lick her face.

"Hermes, clever boy! Down, down. No, stop slobbering all over me. Heel, boy! That's it!"

Sophie let herself into the house. Sherekan came jumping out from the bushes. He was rather wary of the stranger. Sophie put his cat food out, poured birdseed in the budgerigars' cup, got out a salad leaf for the tortoise, and wrote a note to her mother.

She wrote that she was going to take Hermes home and would be back by seven.

They set off through the town. Sophie had remembered to take some money with her this time. She wondered whether she ought to take the bus with Hermes, but decided she had better wait and ask Alberto about it.

While she walked on and on behind Hermes she thought about what an animal really is.

What was the difference between a dog and a person? She recalled Aristotle's words. He said that people and animals are both natural living creatures with a lot of characteristics in common. But there was one distinct difference between people and animals, and that was hu-man reasoning.

How could he have been so sure?

Democritus, on the other hand, thought people and animals were really rather alike because both were made up of atoms. And he didn't think that either people or animals had immortal souls. According to him, souls were built up of atoms that are spread to the winds when people die. He was the one who thought a person's soul was inseparably bound to the brain.

But how could the soul be made of atoms? The soul wasn't anything you could touch like the rest of the body. It was something "spiritual."

They were already beyond Main Square and were approaching the Old Town. When they got to the sidewalk where Sophie had found the ten crowns, she looked automatically down at the asphalt. And there, on exactly the same spot where she had bent down and picked up the money, lay a postcard with the picture side up. The picture showed a garden with palms and orange trees.

Sophie bent down and picked up the card. Hermes started growling as if he didn't like Sophie touching it.

The card read:

Dear Hilde, Life consists of a long chain of coincidences. It is not altogether unlikely that the ten crowns you lost turned up right here. Maybe it was found on the square in Lillesand by an old lady who was waiting for the bus to Kristiansand. From Kris-tiansand she took the train to visit her grandchildren, and many, many hours later she lost the coin here on New Square. It is then perfectly possible that the very same coin was picked up later on that day by a girl who really needed it to get home by bus. You never can tell, Hilde, but if it is truly so, then one must certainly ask whether or not God's providence is behind everything. Love, Dad, who in spirit is sitting on the dock at home in Lillesand. P.S. I said I would help you find the ten crowns.

On the address side it said: "Hilde Moller Knag, c/o a casual passer-by..." The postmark was stamped 6/15/90.

Sophie ran up the stairs after Hermes. As soon as Alberto opened the door, she said:

"Out of my way. Here comes the mailman."

She felt she had every reason to be annoyed. Alberto stood aside as she barged in. Hermes laid himself down under the coat pegs as before.

"Has the major presented another visiting card, my child?"

Sophie looked up at him and discovered that he was wearing a different costume. He had put on a long curled wig and a wide, baggy suit with a mass of lace. He wore a loud silk scarf at his throat, and on top of the suit he had thrown a red cape. He also wore white stockings and thin patent leather shoes with bows. The whole costume reminded Sophie of pictures she had seen of the court of Louis XIV.

"You clown!" she said and handed him the card.

"Hm ... and you really found ten crowns on the same spot where he planted the card?"

"Exactly."

"He gets ruder all the time. But maybe it's just as well."

"Why?"

"It'll make it easier to unmask him. But this trick was both pompous and tasteless. It almost stinks of cheap perfume."

"Perfume?"

"It tries to be elegant but is really a sham. Can't you see how he has the effrontery to compare his own shabby surveillance of us with God's providence?"

He held up the card. Then he tore it to pieces. So as not to make his mood worse she refrained from mentioning the card that fell out of her exercise book at school.

"Let's go in and sit down. What time is it?"

"Four o'clock."

"And today we are going to talk about the seventeenth century."

They went into the living room with the sloping walls and the skylight. Sophie noticed that Alberto had put different objects out in place of some of those she had seen last time.

On the coffee table was a small antique casket containing an assorted collection of lenses for eyeglasses. Beside it lay an open book. It looked really old.

"What is that?" Sophie asked.

"It is a first edition of the book of Descartes's philosophical essays published in 1637 in which his famous Discourse on Method originally appeared, and one of my most treasured possessions."

"And the casket?"

"It holds an exclusive collection of lenses--or optical glass. They were polished by the Dutch philosopher Spinoza sometime during the mid-1600s. They were extremely costly and are also among my most valued treasures."

"I would probably understand better how valuable these things are if I knew who Spinoza and Descartes were."

"Of course. But first let us try to familiarize ourselves with the period they lived in. Have a seat."

They sat in the same places as before, Sophie in the big armchair and Alberto Knox on the sofa. Between them was the coffee table with the book and the casket. Alberto removed his wig and laid it on the writing desk.

"We are going to talk about the seventeenth century--or what we generally refer to as the Baroque period."

"The Baroque period? What a strange name."

"The word 'baroque' comes from a word that was first used to describe a pearl of irregular shape. Irregularity was typical of Baroque art, which was much richer in highly contrastive forms than the plainer and more harmonious Renaissance art. The seventeenth century was on the whole characterized by tensions between irreconcilable contrasts. On the one hand there was the Renaissance's unremitting optimism--and on the other hand there were the many who sought the opposite extreme in a life of religious seclusion and self-denial. Both in art and in real life, we meet pompous and flamboyant forms of self-expression, while at the same time there arose a monastic movement, turning away from the world."

"Both proud palaces and remote monasteries, in other words."

"Yes, you could certainly say that. One of the Baroque period's favorite sayings was the Latin expression 'carpe diem'--'seize the day.' Another Latin expression that was widely quoted was 'memento mori,' which means 'Remember that you must die.' In art, a painting could depict an extremely luxurious lifestyle, with a little skull painted in one corner.

"In many senses, the Baroque period was characterized by vanity or affectation. But at the same time a lot of people were concerned with the other side of the coin; they were concerned with the ephemeral nature of things. That is, the fact that all the beauty that surrounds us must one day perish."

"It's true. It is sad to realize that nothing lasts."

"You think exactly as many people did in the seventeenth century. The Baroque period was also an age of conflict in a political sense. Europe was ravaged by wars. The worst was the Thirty Years' War which raged over most of the continent from 1618 to 1648. In reality it was a series of wars which took a particular toll on Germany. Not least as a result of the Thirty Years' War,France gradually became the dominant power in Europe."

"What were the wars about?"

"To a great extent they were wars between Protestants and Catholics. But they were also about political power."

"More or less like in Lebanon."

"Apart from wars, the seventeenth century was a time of great class differences. I'm sure you have heard of the French aristocracy and the Court of Versailles. I don't know whether you have heard much about the poverty of the French people. But any display of magnificence presupposes a display of power. It has often been said that the political situation in the Baroque period was not unlike its art and architecture. Baroque buildings were typified by a lot of ornate nooks and crannies. In a somewhat similar fashion the political situation was typified by intrigue, plotting, and assassinations."

"Wasn't a Swedish king shot in a theater?"

"You're thinking of Gustav III, a good example of the sort of thing I mean. The assassination of Gustav III wasn't until 1792, but the circumstances were quite baroque. He was murdered while attending a huge masked ball."

"I thought he was at the theater."

"The great masked ball was held at the Opera. We could say that the Baroque period in Sweden came to an end with the murder of Gustav III. During his time there had been a rule of 'enlightened despotism,' similar to that in the reign of Louis XIV almost a hundred years earlier. Gustav III was also an extremely vain person who adored all French ceremony and courtesies. He also loved the theater..."

"... and that was the death of him."

"Yes, but the theater of the Baroque period was more than an art form. It was the most commonly employed symbol of the time."

"A symbol of what?"

"Of life, Sophie. I don't know how many times during the seventeenth century it was said that 'Life is a theater.' It was very often, anyway. The Baroque period gave birth to modern theater--with all its forms of scenery and theatrical machinery. In the theater one built up an illusion on stage--to expose ultimately that the stage play was just an illusion. The theater thus became a reflection of human life in general. The theater could show that 'pride comes before a fall,' and present a merciless portrait of human frailty."

"Did Shakespeare live in the Baroque period?"

"He wrote his greatest plays around the year 1600, so he stands with one foot in the Renaissance and the other in the Baroque. Shakespeare's work is full of passages about life as a theater. Would you like to hear some of them?"

"Yes."

"In As You Like It, he says:

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.

"And in Macbeth, he says:

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more; it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."

"How very pessimistic."

"He was preoccupied with the brevity of life. You must have heard Shakespeare's most famous line?"

"To be or not to be--that is the question."

"Yes, spoken by Hamlet. One day we are walking around on the earth--and the next day we are dead and gone."

"Thanks, I got the message."

"When they were not comparing life to a stage, the Baroque poets were comparing life to a dream. Shakespeare says, for example: We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep..."

"That was very poetic."

"The Spanish dramatist Calderon de la Barca, who was bom in the year 1600, wrote a play called Life Is a Dream, in which he says: 'What is life? A madness. What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a story, and the greatest good is little enough, for all life is a dream ...' "

"He may be right. We read a play at school. It was called Jeppe on the Mount."

"By Ludvig Holberg, yes. He was a gigantic figure here in Scandinavia, marking the transition from the Baroque period to the Age of Enlightenment."

"Jeppe falls asleep in a ditch ... and wakes up in the Baron's bed. So he thinks he only dreamed that he was a poor farmhand. Then when he falls asleep again they carry him back to the ditch, and he wakes up again. This time he thinks he only dreamed he was lying in the Baron's bed."

"Holberg borrowed this theme from Calderon, and Calderon had borrowed it from the old Arabian tales, A Thousand and One Nights. Comparing life to a dream, though, is a theme we find even farther back in history, not least in India and China. The old Chinese sage Chuang-tzu, for example, said: Once I dreamed I was a butterfly, and now I no longer know whether I am Chuang-tzu, who dreamed I was a butterfly, or whether I am a butterfly dreaming that I am Chuang-tzu."

"Well, it was impossible to prove either way."

"We had in Norway a genuine Baroque poet called Fetter Dass, who lived from 1647 to 1707. On the one hand he was concerned with describing life as it is here and now, and on the other hand he emphasized that only God is eternal and constant."

"God is God if every land was waste, God is God if every man were dead."

"But in the same hymn he writes about rural life in Northern Norway--and about lumpfish, cod, and coal-fish. This is a typical Baroque feature, describing in the same text the earthly and the here and now--and the celestial and the hereafter. It is all very reminiscent of Plato's distinction between the concrete world of the senses and the immutable world of ideas."

"What about their philosophy?"

"That too was characterized by powerful struggles between diametrically opposed modes of thought. As I have already mentioned, some philosophers believed that what exists is at bottom spiritual in nature. This standpoint is called idealism. The opposite viewpoint is called materialism. By this is meant a philosophy which holds that all real things derive from concrete material substances. Materialism also had many advocates in the seventeenth century. Perhaps the most influential was the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes. He believed that all phenomena, including man and animals, consist exclusively of particles of matter. Even human consciousness--or the soul--derives from the movement of tiny particles in the brain."

"So he agreed with what Democritus said two thousand years before?"

"Both idealism and materialism are themes you will find all through the history of philosophy. But seldom have both views been so clearly present at the same time as in the Baroque. Materialism was constantly nourished by the new sciences. Newton showed that the same laws of motion applied to the whole universe, and that all changes in the natural world--both on earth and in space--were explained by the principles of universal gravitation and the motion of bodies.

"Everything was thus governed by the same unbreakable laws--or by the same mechanisms. It is therefore possible in principle to calculate every natural change with mathematical precision. And thus Newton completed what we call the mechanistic world view."

"Did he imagine the world as one big machine?"

"He did indeed. The word 'mechanic' comes from the Greek word 'mechane,' which means machine. It is remarkable that neither Hobbes nor Newton saw any contradiction between the mechanistic world picture and belief in God. But this was not the case for all eighteenth- and nineteenth-century materialists. The French physician and philosopher La Mettrie wrote a book in the eighteenth century called L 'homme machine, which means 'Man--the machine.' Just as the leg has muscles to walk with, so has the brain 'muscles' to think with. Later on, the French mathematician Laplace expressed an extreme mechanistic view with this idea: If an intelligence at a given time had known the position of all particles of matter, 'nothing would be unknown, and both future and past would lie open before their eyes.' The idea here was that everything that happens is predetermined. 'It's written in the stars' that something will happen. This view is called determinism." "So there was no such thing as free will."

"No, everything was a product of mechanical processes--also our thoughts and dreams. German materialists in the nineteenth century claimed that the relationship of thought to the brain was like the relationship of urine to the kidneys and gall to the liver." "But urine and gall are material. Thoughts aren't." "You've got hold of something central there. I can tell you a story about the same thing. A Russian astronaut and a Russian brain surgeon were once discussing religion. The brain surgeon was a Christian but the astronaut was not. The astronaut said, 'I've been out in space many times but I've never seen God or angels.' And the brain surgeon said, 'And I've operated on many clever brains but I've never seen a single thought.' " "But that doesn't prove that thoughts don't exist."

"No, but it does underline the fact that thoughts are not things that can be operated on or broken down into ever smaller parts. It is not easy, for example, to surgically remove a delusion. It grows too deep, as it were, for surgery. An important seventeenth-century philosopher named Leibniz pointed out that the difference between the material and the spiritual is precisely that the material can be broken up into smaller and smaller bits, but the soul cannot even be divided into two."

"No, what kind of scalpel would you use for that?" Alberto simply shook his head. After a while he pointed down at the table between them and said:

"The two greatest philosophers in the seventeenth century were Descartes and Spinoza. They too struggled with questions like the relationship between 'soul' and 'body,' and we are now going to study them more closely."

"Go ahead. But I'm supposed to be home by seven."
 楼主| 发表于 2019-1-22 15:09:18 | 显示全部楼层
巴洛克时期

……宛如梦中的事物……
苏菲已经有好几天没有接到艾伯特的消息了。她不时留意花园里的动静,希望能看到汉密士的影踪。她告诉妈妈那只狗已经自己找到路回家了,后来它的主人——一个退休的哲学老师一一请她进屋里去坐。他告诉苏菲有关太阳系的构造和十六世纪发展出来的新科学。
她对乔安说得更多。她告诉她上次去找艾伯特的情形、信箱里的明信片以及她在回家途中捡到十块钱的事。但她没有告诉乔安她梦见席德,并发现那条金十字架链子。
失控五月二十九日星期二那天,苏菲正在厨房里洗碗。妈妈已经到客厅里去看电视新闻了。当新闻节目的片头音乐渐弱后,她从厨房里听到主播报道挪威联合国部队的某个少校被炮弹击中毙命的消息。
苏菲把擦碗布扔在桌上,冲进客厅,刚好在荧屏上看到那名丧生少校的脸。两三秒钟后主播就开始播报其他新闻了。
“天哪!”她叫了出来。
妈妈转过身来看着她。
“是啊,战争真是一件很可怕的事!”
苏菲开始哭泣。
“可是,苏菲,事情并没有那么糟呀!”
“他们有没有报出他的名字?”
“有,不过我不记得了。只知道他好像是葛林史达那里的人。”
“那不是和黎乐桑一样吗?”
“怎么会呢?傻孩子。”
“可是如果你住在葛林史达,你不是也可能到黎乐桑来上学吗?”
苏菲已经停止哭泣,但现在轮到妈妈有反应了。她从椅子上站起来,关掉电视,问道:“苏菲,这到底是怎么回事?”
“没什么。”
“我看一定有事。你有一个男朋友对不对?我猜他的年纪比你大很多。我要你现在就回答我:你认识一个在黎巴嫩的男人吗?”
“不,不完全是……”
“你是不是认识某个在黎巴嫩的男人的儿子?”
“我没有。我甚至连他的女儿都没见过。”
“谁的女儿?”
“这件事跟你没有关系。”
“我看大有关系。”
“我看问问题的人应该是我。为什么爸爸老是不在家?是不是因为你们没有胆量离婚?也许你交了男朋友,不希望让爸爸和我知道……还有很多很多。要问就大家一起来问嘛!”
“我想我们需要好好谈一谈。”
“也许吧!不过我已经累了,我要睡觉了;我的月经来了。”
苏菲几乎是一边饮泣一边上楼。
她上完厕所,钻进被窝后,妈妈就进房里来了。
苏菲假装睡着了,虽然她知道妈妈不会相信的。她也知道妈妈知道。尽管如此,妈妈还是假装相信她已经睡着了。她坐在苏菲的床边,抚摸着她的头发。
苏菲心想一个人同时过两种生活是多么复杂呀!她开始期待哲学课程早点结束。也许在她生日时就可以上完吧。至少在仲夏节席德的父亲从黎巴嫩回来时……“我想开一个生日宴会。”她突然说。
“好啊!你想请谁呢?”
“很多人……可以吗?”
“当然可以。我们的花园很大……希望现在的好天气会一直持续下去。”
“最重要的是我希望能在仲夏节那天举行。”
“好,就这么办。”
“这是很重要的日子。”苏菲说,心里想的不只是她的生日而已。
“确实是。”
“我觉得我最近好像长大了不少。”
“很好呀!不是吗?”
“我也不知道。”
到目前为止,苏菲一直把头半蒙在枕头里讲话。现在妈妈说话了:“苏菲,你一定要告诉我你刚才为什么……为什么好像……失去控制的样子?”
“你十五岁的时候不是有时也会这样吗?”
“也许吧。可是你知道我在说什么。”
苏菲突然翻身面对着妈妈。“那只狗的名字叫汉密士。”她说。
“是吗?”
“它的主人是一个名叫艾伯特的男人。”
“原来如此。”
“他住在旧城区。”
“你那天一直跟着那只狗走到那儿去?”
“那里并不危险。”
“你说过那只狗常常到这儿来。”
“我说过吗?”
她现在得好好想一想了。她想尽可能把一切事情都告诉妈妈,但又不能全部吐露。
“你总是不在家。”她试探着。
“没错,我太忙了。”
“艾伯特和汉密士曾经到过这儿来很多次。”
“来干什么呢?他们曾经进屋子里来吗?”
“你就不能一次问一个问题吗?他们从来没有进屋里来,不过他们经常到林子里散步。这有什么神秘吗?”
“不,一点也不神秘。”
“他们散步时,就像其他人一样,会经过我们的门口。有一天我放学回家后跟那只狗说了几句话,就这样认识了艾伯特。”
“那有关白兔子和你说的那些话又是怎么回事呢?”
“那是艾伯特告诉我的。他是一个真正的哲学家,他告诉我所有哲学家的事。”
“你们只是站在树篱旁边谈吗?”
“他也写信给我。事实上,他写了很多封。有时寄来,有时他会在散步途中把信放在我们家的信箱里。”
“那就是我们说的‘情书’啰?”
“嗯,只不过那不是真正的情书。”
“他在信上只谈哲学吗?”
“是的。你能想象吗?我从他那儿学到的比我这八年来在学校里学的更多,比方说,你听说过布鲁诺吗?他在一六OO年被烧死在火刑柱上。或者,你有没有听说过牛顿的万有引力定律呢?”
“没有。有很多东西是我不知道的。”
“我敢说你一定不知道地球为什么绕着太阳转,对不对?——你看,你还住在地球上呢!”
“这个男人年纪多大?”
“不知道——大概有五十岁吧!”
“他跟黎巴嫩有什么关系呢?”
这可不容易回答。苏菲很快想了一下,决定选择一个听起来最可信的说法。
“艾伯特有一个弟弟是驻黎巴嫩联合国部队的少校,他住在黎乐桑。也许他就是从前住在小木屋里的那个少校吧。”
“艾伯特这个名字有点奇怪,是不是?”
“大概吧!”
“听起来像是意大利名字。”
“这个嘛……几乎所有重要的东西好像都来自希腊或意大利。”
“可是他会说挪威话吧?”
“当然,说得才流利呢!”
“你知道吗?苏菲,我想你应该找一天请这个艾伯特到我们家来。我从来没有遇见过真正的哲学家。”
“再说吧。”
“我们请他参加你的生日宴会,你看怎样?请各种不同年纪的人来会很好玩的。说不定我也可以参加呀!至少,我可以帮你招待客人。你说这样好不好?”
“如果他肯来的话,跟他说话比跟我们班上那些男生讲话要有意思多了。只不过……”
“怎样?”
“他们搞不好会起哄,说艾伯特是我新交的男朋友。”
“那你就告诉他们他不是呀!”
“嗯,再说吧!”
“好吧。还有,苏菲,我和你爸爸有时确实不是处得很好,但我们之间从来没有第三者……”
“我想睡了。我经痛得很厉害。”
“你要不要吃一片阿斯匹灵?”
“好。”
当妈妈拿着药片和水回到房里时,苏菲已经睡着了。

神秘的书信

五月三十一日是星期四。整个下午苏菲在学校上课时都觉得时间很难挨。自从开始上哲学课后,她在某些科目上的成绩进步了。通常她大多数科目的成绩不是A就是B,但上个月她在公民课与作文课上都拿A。不过她的数学成绩则远远落后。
最后一堂课时,老师发回上次写的一篇作文。苏菲选的题目是《人与科技》。她长篇大论地谈到文艺复兴时期的种种和当时在科技方面的突破、对大自然的新观念,以及培根所说的“知识就是力量”。她特别指出是因为有了实证法才有种种科技的发明,然后她谈了一些她认为对社会未必有利的科技发明。在最后一段,她写道:人们做的每一件事都有利有弊。善恶好坏就像一股黑线与一股白线相互交织,有时甚至紧密得无法分开。
当老师把作业本发回时,他从讲台上看着苏菲,戏谑似地向她点点头。
苏菲得了一个A。老师的评语是:“你从哪里学到这些的?”
她拿出一枝笔,在作业本旁边的空白处写:因为我正在研究哲学。
当她把作业本合上时,有一个东西从里面掉了出来。那是一张从黎巴嫩寄来的明信片。
苏菲俯身在课桌前看着信中的内容:
亲爱的席德:
当你看到这封信时,我们大概已经在电话中谈过这里发生的死亡悲剧。有时候我会问自己:如果人类的思想比较清楚的话,是否就能够避免战争与暴力?也许消除战争与暴力最好的方法,就是为人们上一门简单的哲学课程。也许我们应该出版一本《联合国哲学小册》,译咸各国语言,分发给未来每一位世界公民。我将向联合国主席提出这个建议。
你在电话上说你愈来愈会收拾照管自己的东西了。我很高兴,因为你是我所见过最会丢三落四的人。然后你又说自从我们上次通话后你只掉过一个十块钱的铜板,我会尽量帮你找回来。虽然我还在千里之外,可是我在家乡有一个帮手(如果我找到那十块钱,我会把它跟你的生日礼物放在一起)。我感觉自己好像已经开始走上漫长的归乡路了。
爱你的老爸苏菲刚看完明信片,最后一堂课的下课铃就响了。她的思绪再度陷入一团混乱。
乔安像往常一样在游乐场等她。在回家的路上,苏菲打开书包,拿明信片给乔安看。
“邮戳上的日期是几月几号?”
“大概是六月十五日吧……”
“不,你看……上面写的是5/30/90。”
“那是昨天呀……就是黎巴嫩那位少校死掉的第二天。”
“我怀疑从黎巴嫩寄来的明信片能够在一天之内寄到挪威。”
乔安继续说。
“再加上地址又很特别:请富理亚初中的苏菲代转席德…”
“你认为它会是寄来的吗?然后老师把它夹在你的作业本里?”
“我不知道。我也不知道自己敢不敢跑去问老师。”
然后,他们换了一个话题。
“仲夏节那天,我要在我家花园里举行一个宴会。”苏菲说。
“你会请男生来吗?”
苏菲耸耸肩。
“我们不一定要请那些笨蛋来。”
“可是你会请杰瑞米吧?”
“如果你想的话。还有,我可能会请艾伯特来。”
“你疯子!”
“我知道。”
谈到这里,他们已经走到超市,只好分道扬镳了。
苏菲回家后的第一件事就是看看汉密士是否在花园里。果然没错,它就站在那里,在苹果树旁边嗅来嗅去。
“汉密士]”
有一秒钟的时间,汉密士并没有动。苏菲知道为什么:它听到她的叫声、认出她的声音,决定看看她是否在声音传来的地方。然后,它看到了她,便开始向她跑来。它愈跑愈快,最后四只脚像鼓锤般地疾疾点地。
在这一秒钟的时间里,发生的事情还真不少。
汉密士冲向苏菲,忙不迭地摇着尾巴,然后跳起来舔她的脸。
“汉密士,你真聪明。下去……下去……不要,不要把口水弄得我满脸……好了,好了!够了!”
苏菲走进屋里。雪儿又从树丛里跳了出来。它对汉密士这位陌生访客相当提防。苏菲拿出猫食,在鹦哥的杯子里倒一些饲料,拿一片生菜叶子给乌龟吃,然后便留一张纸条给妈妈。
她说她要带汉密士回家。如果到七点她还没回来的话,她会打电话。
然后他们便开始穿越市区。这次苏菲特别在身上带了点钱。她本来考虑带汉密士一起坐公车,但后来决定还是问过艾伯特的意思再说。
当她跟着汉密士走的时候,脑海里一直想着动物到底是什么。
狗和猫有什么不同呢?她记得亚理斯多德说:人与动物都是自然的生物,有许多相同的特征。但是人与动物之间却有一个明显不同的地方,那就是:人会思考。
他凭什么如此确定呢?相反的,德谟克里特斯则认为人与动物事实上很相似,因为两者都由原子组成。他并不认为人或动物拥有不朽的灵魂。他的说法是:人的灵魂是由原子组成的,人一死,这些原子也就随风四散。
他认为人的灵魂与他的脑子是紧紧相连,密不可分的。
不过,灵魂怎么可能是原子做的呢?灵魂不像身体其他部位一样是可以碰触到的。它是“精神性”的东西。
他们已经走过大广场,接近旧城区了。当他们走到苏菲那天捡到十块钱的人行道上时,她自然而然的看着脚下的柏油路面。就在她那天弯腰捡钱的同一个地方,她看到了一张明信片,有风景的那面朝上。照片里是一个种有棕榈树与橘子树的花园。
苏菲弯腰捡起明信片。汉密士开始低声怒吼,仿佛不愿意苏菲碰那张明信片一般。
明信片的内容如下:
亲爱的席德;
生命是由一长串的巧合组成的。你所遗失的十块钱并非没有可能在这里出现。也许它是在黎乐桑的广场上被一位预备前往基督山的老太太捡到,她从基督山搭乘火车去探视她的孙儿。很久以后也许她在新广场这里又把那枚铜板给丢了。因此那枚铜板非常可能在当天被一名急需要钱坐公车回家的女孩捡到了。这很难说,席德,但如果真是这样,我们就必须问一问是否每一件事都是天意。现在,就精神上而言,我已经坐在咱家旁边的船坞上了。
P.S:我说过我会帮你找回那十块钱的。
爱你的爸爸地址栏上写着:“请过路人代转席德”。邮戳的日期是六月十五日。
苏菲跟在汉密士的身后跳上台阶。艾伯特一打开门,她便说:“闪开,老爹,邮差来了。”
她觉得自己现在有十足的理由生气。
苏菲进门时,艾伯特便让到旁边。汉密士像从前那样躺在衣帽钩架下面。
“少校是不是又给你一张明信片了,孩子?”
苏菲抬眼看着他,发现他今天又穿了另外一套衣服。她最先注意到的是他戴了一顶长长鬈鬈的假发,穿了一套宽松、镶有许多花边的衣服,脖子上围了一条颜色异常鲜艳的丝巾。在衣服之上还披了一件红色的披肩。另外他还穿着白色的长袜和显然是皮制的薄薄的鞋子,鞋面上还有蝴蝶结。这一整套服装使苏菲想起她在电影上看到的路易十四的宫廷。
“你这个呆子!”她说,一边把明信片递给他。
“嗯……你真的在他放这张明信片的地方捡到了十块钱吗?”
“没错。”
“他愈来愈没礼貌了。不过这样也好。”
“为什么?”
“这使我们比较容易拆穿他的面具。不过他这个把戏既夸张又不高明,几乎像是廉价香水一样。”
“香水?”
“因为他努力要显得很高雅,但实际上却虚有其表。你难道看不出来他居然厚脸皮的把他监视我们的卑鄙行为比做天意吗?”
他指着那张明信片,然后就像以前那样把它撕成碎片。为了不让他更生气,苏菲就没有再提在学校时从她作业本里掉出来的那张明信片。
“我们进房里坐吧。现在几点了?”
“四点。”
“今天我们要谈十七世纪。”
他们走进那间四面斜墙、开有天窗的客厅。苏菲发现这次房里的摆设和上次不同。
茶几上有一个小小的古董珠宝箱,里面放着各式各样的镜片。
珠宝箱旁边摆着一本摊开来的书,样子看来颇为古老。
“那是什么?”苏菲问。
“那是笛卡尔著名的《方法论》,是第—一版,印制于公元一六三七年,是我最宝贝的收藏之一。”
“那个箱子呢……?”
“……是我独家收藏的镜片,也叫做光学玻璃。它们是在十七世纪中由荷兰哲学家史宾诺莎(Spinoza)所打磨的。这些镜片价格都非常昂贵,也是我最珍贵的收藏之一。”
“如果我知道史宾诺莎和笛卡尔是谁的话,也许比较能了解这些东西到底有多珍贵。”
“当然。不过还是先让我们熟悉一下他们的时代背景好了。我们坐下来吧!”
理想与唯物主义他们坐在跟上次一样的地方。苏菲坐在大扶手椅里,艾伯特则坐在沙发上。那张放着书和珠宝箱的茶几就在他们两人中间。当他们坐下来时,艾伯特拿下他的假发。放在书桌上。
“我们今天要谈的是十七世纪,也就是我们一般所说的‘巴洛克时期(BaroquePeriod)’。”
“巴洛克时期?好奇怪的名字。”
“‘巴洛克’这个名词原来的意思是‘形状不规则的珍珠’。这是巴洛克艺术的典型特征。它比文艺复兴时期的艺术要更充满了对照鲜明的形式,相形之下,后者则显得较为平实而和谐。整体来说,十七世纪的主要特色就是在各种相互矛盾的对比中呈现的张力。
当时有许多人抱持文艺复兴时期持续不坠的乐观精神,另一方面又有许多人过着退隐山林、禁欲苦修的宗教生活。无论在艺术还是现实生活上,我们都可以看到夸张华丽的自我表达形式,但另外一方面也有一股退隐避世的潮流逐渐兴起。”
“你是说,当时既有宏伟华丽的宫廷,也有僻静的修道院?”
“是的。一点没错。巴洛克时期的口头禅之一是拉丁谚语carpediem,也就是‘把握今天’的意思。另外一句也很流行的拉丁谚语则是mementomori,就是‘不要忘记你将会死亡’。
“在艺术方面,当时的绘画可能一方面描绘极其繁华奢靡的生活,但在角落里却画了一个骷髅头。从很多方面来说,巴洛克时期的特色是浮华而矫饰的。但在同一时期,也有许多人意识到世事无常,明白我们周遭的美好事物终有一天会消殒凋零。”
“没错。我想意识到生命无常的确是一件令人伤感的事。”
“你的想法就和十七世纪的许多人一样。在政治方面,巴洛克时期也是一个充满冲突的年代。当时的欧洲可说是烽火遍地。其中最惨烈的是从一六一八年打到一六四八年的‘三十年战争’,欧洲大部分地区都卷入其中。事实上,所谓‘三十年战争’指的是一连串战役,而受害最深的是德国。由于这些战争,法国逐渐成为欧洲象强大的国家。”
“他们为什么要打仗呢?”
“有一大部分是由于基督新教与天主教之间的冲突。但也有一些是为了争夺政权。”
“就像黎巴嫩的情况。”
“除此之外,十七世纪也是阶级差距很大的时代。你一定听过法国的贵族和凡尔赛宫。但我不知道你对法国人民穷困的生活知道多少。不过财富往往建立于权力之上。人们常说巴洛克时期的政治情势与当时的艺术与建筑有几分相似。巴洛克时期的建筑特色在于屋角与隙缝有许多细部装饰。同样的,当时政治情势的特色就是各种阴谋与暗杀充斥。”
“不是有一位瑞典国王在戏院里遇刺吗?”
“你说的是古斯塔夫三世(GustavⅢ)。这是一个很好的例子。
古斯塔夫三世遇刺的时间其实是在一七九二年,但当时的情况却与巴洛克时期很像。他是在一场化装舞会中遇害的。”
“我还以为他是在戏院里被杀的。”
“那场化装舞会是在一座歌剧院举行的。我们可以说瑞典的巴洛克时期随着古斯塔夫三世的遇刺而结束。在古斯塔夫的时代已经开始有所谓的‘开明专制’政治,与近一百年前路易十四统治的时期颇为相似。古斯塔夫三世本身也是一个非常虚荣的人,他崇尚所有的法国仪式与礼节。不过,他也很喜爱戏剧……”
“……他就是因此而死的对不对?”
“是的,不过巴洛克时期的戏剧不只是一种艺术形式而已,也是当时最常使用的象征。”
“什么东西的象征?”
“生活的象征。我不知道十七世纪的人究竟说过多少次‘人生如戏’之类的话。总之,很多次就是了。现代戏剧一—包括各种布景与舞台机关——就是在巴洛克时期诞生的。演戏的人在舞台上创造一种假象,最终目的就是要显示舞台上的戏剧不过是一种假象而已。戏剧因此成为整个人生的缩影。它可以告诉人们‘骄者必败’,也可以无情的呈现出人类的软弱。”
“莎士比亚是不是巴洛克时期的人?”
“他最伟大的几出剧作是在一六OO年写成的。因此可以说,他横跨了文艺复兴时期与巴洛克时期。莎士比亚的剧本中有许多片段讲到人生如戏。你想不想听我念几段?”
“当然想。”
“在《皆大欢喜》中,他说:世界是一座舞台,所有的男男女女不过是演员:有上场的时候,也有下场的时候;每个人在一生中都扮演着好几种角色。”
“在《马克白》中,他说:人生不过是一个行走的影子,一个在舞台上高谈阔步的可怜演员,无声无息地悄然退下;这只是一个傻子说的故事,说得慷慨激昂,却无意义。”
“好悲观哪!”
“那是因为他时常想到生命的短暂。你一定听过莎士比亚最著名的一句台词吧!”
“存在或不存在,这是问题所在。”(Tobeornottobe——thatisthequestion.)“对,是哈姆雷特说的。今天我们还在世上到处行走,明天我们就死了,消失了。”
“谢啦j我明白了!”
“除了将生命比喻为舞台之外,巴洛克时期的诗人也将生命比喻为梦境。例如,莎士比亚就说:我们的本质原来也和梦一般,短短的一生就在睡梦中度过……”
“很有诗意。”
“公元一六OO年出生的西班牙剧作家卡德隆(Calder6ndelaBarca)写了一出名为《人生如梦》的戏。其中有一句台词是:‘生命是什么?是疯狂的。生命是什么?是幻象、是影子、是虚构之物。生命中至美至善者亦微不足道,因为生命只是一场梦境……,”
“他说的也许没错。我们在学校里也念过一个剧本,名叫《杰普大梦》(JeppeOntheMount)。”
“没错,是由侯柏格(LudvigHolberg)写的。他是北欧的大作家,是巴洛克时期过渡到开明时期的一个重要人物。”
“杰普在一个壕沟里睡着了……醒来时发现自己躺在男爵的床上。因此他以为他梦见自己是一个贫穷的农场工人。后来当他再度睡着时,他们把他抬回壕沟去,然后他又醒过来了。这次他以为他刚才只是梦见自己躺在男爵的床上罢了。”
“侯柏格是从卡德隆那儿借用了这个主题,而卡德隆则是借用古代阿拉伯的民间故事《一千零一夜》中的主题。不过,在此之前,早已有人将生命比喻为梦境,包括印度与中国的作家。比方说,中国古代的智者庄子就曾经说过:‘昔者庄周梦为蝴蝶,栩栩然蝴蝶也……俄然觉,则蘧蘧然周也。不知周之梦为蝴蝶欤,蝴蝶之梦为周欤?”’“这个嘛,我想我们实在不可能证明究竟哪一种情况才是真的。”
“挪威有一个巴洛克时期的天才诗人名叫达斯(PetterDass),生于一六四七年到一七O七年间。他一方面着意描写人世间的现实生活,另一方面则强调唯有上帝才是永恒不变的。
“上帝仍为上帝,即便天地尽荒;上帝仍为上帝,纵使人人皆亡。
“但他在同一首赞美诗中也描写挪威北部的乡村生活,描写鲂鱼、鳕鱼和黑鳕鱼等。这是巴洛克时期作品的典型特征,一方面描写今生与现实人间的生活,另一方面也描写天上与来世的情景。这使人想起柏拉图将宇宙分成具体的感官世界与不变的概念世界的理论。”
“这些巴洛克时期的人又有什么样的哲学呢?”
“他们的哲学特色同样也是两种完全相反的思想模式并存,而且两者之中充满了强烈的冲突。我说过,有许多人认为生命基本上具有一种崇高的特质。我们称之为‘理想主义’。另一种迥然相异的看法则被称为‘唯物主义’,就是指一种相信生命中所有的自然现象都是从肉体感官而来的哲学。十七世纪时也有许多人信奉物质主义。其中影响最大的可能是英国的哲学家霍布士(ThomasHobbes)。他相信自然界所有的现象——包括人与动物——都完全是由物质的分子所组成的。就连人类的意识(也就是灵魂)也是由人脑中微小分子的运动而产生的。”
“这么说,他赞同两千年前德谟克里特斯的说法啰?”
“在整部哲学史上你都可以看到理想主义与唯物主义的影踪。
不过两者很少像在巴洛克时期这般明显共存。由于受到各种新科学的影响,唯物主义日益盛行。牛顿证明整个宇宙适用同样的运动定律,也证明自然界(包括地理和太空)的所有变化都可以用宇宙重力与物体移动等定律来加以说明。因此,一切事物都受到同样的不变法则或同样的机转所左右。所以在理论上,所有自然界的变化都可以用数学精确地计算。就这样,牛顿成就了我们所谓的‘机械论的世界观’。”.“他是否认为整个世界就是一部很大的机器?”
“是的。mechanic(机械论的)这个字是从希腊文mechane而来的,意思就是机器。值得注意的是:无论霍布士或牛顿都不认为机械论的世界观与他们对上帝的信仰有何抵触。但十八、十九世纪的唯物主义者则不然。十八世纪的法国物理学家兼哲学家拉美特利(LaMettrie)写了一本名为《人这部机器》(L’hommemachine)的书,他认为,就像人腿有肌肉可以行走一般,人脑也有‘肌肉’可以用来思考。后来,法国的数学家拉普拉斯(Laplace)也表达了极端机械论的观点。他的想法是:如果某些神祗在某个时刻能知道所有物质分子的位置,则‘没有任何事情是他们所不知道的,同时他们也能够看到所有过去及未来的事情’。他认为所有事情都命中注定。一件事情会不会发生,都是冥冥中早有定数。这个观点被称为决定论’。”
“这么说,他们认为世间没有所谓自由意志这回事啰?”
“是的。他们认为一切事物都是机械过程的产物,包括我们的思想与梦境在内。十九世纪德国的唯物主义者宣称,思想与脑袋的关系就像尿液与肾脏、胆汁与肝的关系。”
“可是尿液和胆汁都是物质,但思想却不是。”
“你说到重点了。我可以告诉你一个类似的故事。有一次,一位俄罗斯太空人与一位脑外科医生讨论宗教方面的问题。脑外科医生是个基督徒,那位太空人不是。太空人说:‘我到过太空许多次,但却从来没有见过上帝或天使。’脑外科医生答道:‘我开过很多聪明的脑袋,也没有看过一个思想呀!”’“可是这并不代表思想并不存在。”
“没错。它强调了一个事实,那就是:思想并不是可以被开刀或被分解成较小单位的东西。举例来说,如果一个人满脑子幻想,你很难开刀将它去除。我们可以说,它生长的部位太深人了,无法动手术。十七世纪一位重要的哲学家莱布尼兹指出:物质与精神不同的地方在于物质可以不断被分割成更小的单位,但灵魂却连分割成一半也不可能。”
“是呀!要用什么样的手术刀才能分割灵魂呢?”
艾伯特只是摇头。过了一会,他向下指着他们两人中间的桌子说:“十七世纪最伟大的两位哲学家笛卡尔和史宾诺莎也曾绞尽脑汁思考灵魂与肉体的关系,我们会更详细地讨论他们的思想。”
“好吧,不过如果我们到七点钟还没结束的话,我就得借你的电话用一用。”
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