（杨老师SAT阅读笔记）法国哲学家笛卡儿《第一哲学沉思录

（杨老师SAT阅读笔记）法国哲学家笛卡儿《第一哲学沉思录》节录

MEDITATION 1. 沉思一.

关于那些我们存疑之事物

Of the Things of Which We May Now Doubt

1. 几年前，我就意识到我从青年时代开始就把许多谬误错当真理而接受了。结果，我随后以此为据的东西都很不可信。从那时起，我就确信有必要此生来一次摈弃我所接纳的一切信条，从基础重新开始，以便为科学建立起一个坚实可靠的超级构架。

不过对我来说，这似乎是一项浩大工程，我要长到更成熟的岁数，让自己无望在暮年任何阶段更长袖善舞。在这一点上，我拖延太久了，我要是还在把本该去行动的时间耗费在思考上，那我会自认是举措不当。

那么，既然我现在有幸可以心无旁骛（而且谢天谢地也没有情海翻波），既然我已经在颐养天年的退休阶段，我可以随心所欲推翻以前所有的成见。

I. SEVERAL years have now elapsed since I first became aware that I had accepted, even from my youth, many false opinions for true, and that consequently what I afterward based on such principles was highly doubtful; and from that time I was convinced of the necessity of undertaking once in my life to rid myself of all the opinions I had adopted, and of commencing anew the work of building from the foundation, if I desired to establish a firm and abiding superstructure in the sciences.

But as this enterprise appeared to me to be one of great magnitude, I waited until I had attained an age so mature as to leave me no hope that at any stage of life more advanced I should be better able to execute my design. On this account, I have delayed so long that I should henceforth consider I was doing wrong were I still to consume in deliberation any of the time that now remains for action.

Today, then, since I have opportunely freed my mind from all cares [and am happily disturbed by no passions], and since I am in the secure possession of leisure in a peaceable retirement, I will at length apply myself earnestly and freely to the general overthrow of all my former opinions.

2. 但我无需为此而全盘否定――这点我可能做不到。但是，即便现在，我的理性告诉我，否定那些似是而非的谬误，与否定那些不容置疑的谬误一样，都要小心行事。只要我在每一个谬误里找到一丁点破绽，就足以成为全盘否定的理由了。也不必为此逐个逐个去解决，因为那可是件没完没了的活儿。不过，正如皮之不存，毛之焉附，我先直接来对付我那些错误信条赖以立足的要旨。

2. But, to this end, it will not be necessary for me to show that the whole of these are false—a point, perhaps, which I shall never reach; but as even now my reason convinces me that I ought not the less carefully to withhold belief from what is not entirely certain and indubitable, than from what is manifestly false, it will be sufficient to justify the rejection of the whole if I shall find in each some ground for doubt. Nor for this purpose will it be necessary even to deal with each belief individually, which would be truly an endless labor; but, as the removal from below of the foundation necessarily involves the downfall of the whole edifice, I will at once approach the criticism of the principles on which all my former beliefs rested.

3. 到目前为止，那些我纳为己有的绝顶真理与硬道理，都是来自感官。但是，我发现这有时会误导我们。为小心起见，即使曾经误导过我们的那些东西，我们也不应绝对相信。

3. All that I have, up to this moment, accepted as possessed of the highest truth and certainty, I received either from or through the senses. I observed, however, that these sometimes misled us; and it is the part of prudence not to place absolute confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived.

4. 不过可能可以这么说，虽然感官偶尔会在小目标上误导我们，而且远离我们而无法仔细观察，可是依然有许多真理的资讯（呈现方式）是不容置疑的。举个例子：我现在身处此地，坐在壁炉旁，穿着一件冬衣，手中拿着这张纸，还有其它类似性质的暗示。但是我怎么能抵赖我拥有这些手和这具身体，加上躲过了被归于为与神经病人为伍。这些病人精神错乱，被暗黑胆汁质之气所笼罩，以至于一贫如洗的他们还一口咬定自己是皇亲国戚；衣衫褴褛却死认自己是穿金戴银；或声称自己是泥巴脑袋玻璃身，或者是葫芦？我要是用这么堂皇的例子来规管我的程序，那我肯定是和他们一样疯了。

4. But it may be said, perhaps, that, although the senses occasionally mislead us  respecting minute objects, and such as are so far removed from us as to be beyond the reach of close observation, there are yet many other of their informations (presentations), of the truth of which it is manifestly impossible to doubt; as for example, that I am in this place, seated by the fire, clothed in a winter dressing gown, that I hold in my hands this piece of paper, with other intimations of the same nature. But how could I deny that I possess these hands and this body, and withal escape being classed with persons in a State Of insanity, whose brains are so disordered and clouded by dark bilious vapors as to cause them pertinaciously to assert that they are monarchs when  they are in the greatest poverty; or clothed [in gold] and purple when destitute of any covering; or that their head is made of clay, their body of glass, or that they are gourds?

I should certainly be not less insane than they, were I to regulate my procedure according to examples so extravagant.

（后记） 翻译十七世纪西方哲学家的文字，真是一件吃力不讨好的苦差事：诘屈聱牙自不待说，不知所云更是捶胸顿足。心想：让现在的高中生读这种文章，不知SAT 居心何在？