【研究生学术英语读写教程翻译 中国科学院大学Unit1】

Unit1 Descartes Was Wrong 笛卡尔错了:“他人在，故我在”

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According to Ubuntu philosophy, which has its origins in ancient Africa, a newborn baby is not a person. People are born without ‘ena’, or selfhood, and instead must acquire it through interactions and experiences over time. So the ‘self’/‘other’ distinction that’s axiomatic in Western philosophy is much blurrier in Ubuntu thought. As the Kenyan-born philosopher John Mbiti put it in African Religions and Philosophy (1975): ‘I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am.’

乌班图哲学起源于古代非洲。依据它的说法，新生儿尚不能称为“人〞。初生时，人没有自我。随着时间的推移，在互动和经受中才能习得它。因此，西方哲学中自我／他者之间清楚的分野在乌班图哲学中变得模糊起来。诞生于肯尼亚的哲学家约翰·姆比蒂〔John
Mbiti〕在著作?非洲的宗教与哲学?〔African Religions and Philosophy〕中如是说：我在，由于我们在；
由于我们在，所以我在。

We know from everyday experience that a person is partly forged in the crucible of community. Relationships inform self-understanding. Who I am depends on many ‘others’: my family, my friends, my culture, my work colleagues. The self I take grocery shopping, say, differs in her actions and behaviours from the self that talks to my PhD supervisor. Even my most private and personal reflections are entangled with the perspectives and voices of different people, be it those who agree with me, those who criticise, or those who praise me.

日常经历告知我们，一个人一局部从社会的历练中锻造出来。社会关系赐予我们自我认知。我是谁，这个问题的答案依靠于众多他者：家庭、伴侣、文化背景、同事等等。在杂货店购物的我和与博士导师交谈的我不是同一个自我。即便是私密、最个人的思绪也不同人的观点和声音纠缠在一起，无论是那些赞同我的人，还是那些批判我的人，抑或是那些赞美我的人。

Yet the notion of a fluctuating and ambiguous self can be disconcerting. We can chalk up this discomfort, in large part, to René Descartes. The 17th-century French philosopher believed that a human being was essentially self-contained and self-sufficient; an inherently rational, mind-bound subject, who ought to encounter the world outside her head with skepticism. While Descartes didn’t single-handedly create the modern mind, he went a long way towards defining its contours.

但是，自我的摇摆不定和布满歧义让人担忧。很大程度上，我们可以把这份担忧归因于笛卡尔。这位17世纪的法国哲学家认为，人类本质上是自给自足的；
而理性、受其思想约束的个体，应当以疑心的态度面对他