Humanities

Eloquent defenses of the humanities have appeared – essays explaining why we need these subjects, what their loss would mean. 一些坚决捍卫人文学科的文章阐述为什么我们需要这些学科以及削减它们的后果。

对人文学科的有力捍卫者出现了——许多议论文阐述了为什么我们需要这些学科，以及失去它们将意味着什么。

Those of us who teach and study are aware of what these areas of learning provide:

教授和学习这些学科的人很清楚它们能带来那些方面的好处：

the ability to think critically and independently; to tolerate ambiguity; to see both sides of an issue; to look beneath the surface of what we are being told;

有独立批判性的思维能力；接受事物的不确定性；全面考虑问题；透过现象看本质

to appreciate the ways in which language can help us understand one another more clearly and profoundly –

欣赏语言的魅力，帮助我们大大增进彼此的了解

or, alternately, how language can conceal and misrepresent. They help us learn how to think, and they equip us to live in – to sustain – a democracy.

或者，相反，了解到语言的掩饰和误导作用。这些都帮助我们学会如何思考，如何更好得生活在——或者说去维护——一个民主社会。

Studying the classics and philosophy teaches students where we come from, and how our modes of reasoning have evolved over time.

学习古典文化和哲学让学生们了解人类的起源以及随着时代的变迁，理性行为方式的发展。

Learning foreign languages, and about other cultures, enables students to understand how other societies resemble or differ from our own.

学习外语或者其他文化让学生深刻体会到我们自己和其它社群的异同。

Is it entirely paranoid to wonder if these subjects are under attack because they enable students to think in ways that are more complex than the reductive simplifications so congenial to our current political and corporate discourse?

如果说这些学科被砍掉是因为它们让学生陷入了深度思考，而非现在的政府和企业发表的言论那般简化且无关痛痒，会不会显得有些偏执？

I don’t believe that the humanities can make you a decent person.

我并不相信人文会让你成为一个正牌的人。

We know that Hitler was an ardent Wagner fan and had a lively interest in architecture.

我们都知道希特勒是瓦格纳的忠实信徒并且对建筑有着浓厚的兴趣。

But literature, art and music can focus and expand our sense of what humans can accomplish and create.

但是文学、艺术和音乐可以让我们专注于人类可以成就和创造什么，并且不局限于此。

The humanities teach us about those who have gone before us; a foreign language brings us closer to those with whom we share the planet.

人文学科让我们接触到先贤；一门外语把地球上的人拉得更近。

The humanities can touch those aspects of consciousness that we call intellect and heart –

人文学科触及意识层面，也就是我们所说的智慧和情感-

organs seemingly lacking among lawmakers whose views on health care suggest not only zero compassion but a poor understanding of human experience, with its crises and setbacks.

这种智慧和情感正是法律制定者所欠缺的，他们关于医疗健康的观念不仅毫无同情心，而且表明他们对人类所经历的危机和挫折知之甚少。