2015年職稱英語考試綜合類：閱讀材料八

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　　蘇格蘭啟蒙運動

　　18世紀40年代法國著名哲學家伏爾泰曾經(jīng)說過：“蘇格蘭匯集了我們所要尋找的所有文明”。這對一個國家來說無疑是不錯的廣告，尤其可以吸引那些正在尋求一流教育的人。

　　然而有些人認為還不僅如此。據(jù)美國作家阿瑟?赫爾曼所說，是蘇格蘭人創(chuàng)造了現(xiàn)代社會的一切。他認為蘇格蘭思想家和知識分子提出了很多現(xiàn)代生活弓[以為據(jù)的思想，涵蓋科學理論到市場經(jīng)濟等多個領(lǐng)域。他們的思想不僅在學術(shù)界廣為流傳，那些構(gòu)建西方世界的商人，政府官員及科學家等也深受他們的影響。

　　各種思潮的蓬勃開始于1740年到1800年之間發(fā)生的蘇格蘭啟蒙運動。當時蘇格蘭聚集了一大批使西方哲學產(chǎn)生巨大轉(zhuǎn)變的思想家。在這之前，哲學以宗教作為它的主要研究對象。而蘇格蘭啟蒙思想家則認為人類應以人本身作為研究對象。

　　啟蒙思想家們主張分析的實用性。哲學家大衛(wèi)?休謨認為哲學應把人類作為研究對象，因為這樣我們可以審視人的行為從而求證人類究竟是如何思考和感知的。在此基礎(chǔ)上我們就可以對我們居住的社會作出評價，進而提出具體的改進意見，造福全人類。

　　休謨本身不是科學家，但他對知識性質(zhì)的研究為從經(jīng)驗中尋求真理的科學理論奠定了思想基礎(chǔ)。他的好友也是他在愛丁堡時的室友，亞當?斯密以將人類學研究應用于經(jīng)濟學而著稱。亞當斯密曾經(jīng)說過貿(mào)易是一種信息。金錢是人們相互告知自己需求的一種方式，而人們的消費金額使我們了解一個人對某種商品的需求程度的最好途徑。人們在市場貿(mào)易中尋求自身利益的過程是互利互惠的。

　　亞當斯密的啟蒙性的 “自身利益”的觀點不僅已成為現(xiàn)代經(jīng)濟學的主流，它在其他方面還有更廣的應用。他是第一個提出世界各國可以通過和平、貿(mào)易和創(chuàng)造發(fā)明而不是通過戰(zhàn)爭和掠奪來變得富裕、自由、強大的哲學家。

　　最初的蘇格蘭啟蒙運動隨著亞當斯密，休謨等在蘇格蘭居住的思想家們的去世而衰落了。但是我們?nèi)钥梢钥吹絾⒚蛇\動的痕跡，那時產(chǎn)生的思想仍是我們當今很多理論的基礎(chǔ)。在今天的蘇格蘭，其教育傳統(tǒng)仍是將學術(shù)精湛和實用目的相結(jié)合的。

　　系統(tǒng)水平整合研究所就是一個很好的例子。該所1998年由四所蘇格蘭大學創(chuàng)建，以計算機科學，電子工程和信息學為學術(shù)專長。雖然他的許多學科都走在科學前沿，其最終教學目的還是基于現(xiàn)實社會的需求，即為當今全球多變的半導體工業(yè)培養(yǎng)高水平的設計工程師和研究者。

　　雖然這只是蘇格蘭眾多教育機構(gòu)中的一個，但是該研究所的教育理念證實了蘇格蘭啟蒙運動思想在今天仍有體現(xiàn)。蘇格蘭仍然在創(chuàng)造，發(fā)展，并努力地傳播著它的啟蒙思想。

　　Finding Enlightenment in Scotland

　　In the 1740s, the famous French philosophy Voltaire said "We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilization." That's not a bad advertisement for any country, especially when it comes to attracting people in search of a first class education.

　　Yet some people go even further than that. According to the American author Arthur Herman, the Scots invented the modem world itself. He argues that Scottish thinkers and intellectuals worked out many of the most important ideas on which modem life depends - everything from the scientific method to market economics. Their ideas did not just spread amongst intellectuals, but to those people in business, government and the sciences who actually shaped the Western world.

　　It all started during the period that historians call the Scottish Enlightenment, which is usually seen as taking place between the years 1740 and 1800, At this time, Scotland was home to a number of thinkers who made an important shift in the course of Western philosophy. Before that, philosophy was mainly concerned with religion. For the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, the proper study of humanity was mankind itself.

　　Their reasoning was practical. For the philosopher David Hume, humanity was the right subject for philosophy because we can examine human behavior and so find real evidence of how people think and feel. And from that we can make judgments about the societies we live in and make concrete suggestions about how they can be improved, for universal benefit.

　　Hume was not a scientist himself, but his enquiry into the nature of knowledge laid the foundations for the scientific method - the pursuit of truth through experiment. His friend and fellow resident of Edinburgh, Adam Smith, famously applied the study of mankind to the ways in which mankind does business. Trade, he argued, was a form of information. Money is the way in which people tell each other what they want, and how much people pay is the best way we have of knowing how much somebody wants something. In pursuing our own interests through trading in markets, we all come to benefit each other.

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