阅读Bertrand Russell（1967）的A History of Western Philosophy。
他提出，哲学的定义是，以科学理性的手段探讨神学、伦理问题。
Philosophy, as I shall understand the word, is something intermediate between theology and science. Like theology, it consists of speculations on matters as to which definite knowledge has, so far, been unascertainable; but like science, it appeals to human reason rather than to authority, whether that of tradition or that of revelation. All definite knowledge--so I should contend--belongs to science; all dogma as to what surpasses definite knowledge belongs to theology. But between theology and science there is a No Man's Land, exposed to attack from both sides; this No Man's Land is philosophy.
哲学学科存在的原因，正是要探讨那些科学理性的手段无法确知的问题，但神学的答案又不那样让人相信的问题。这些问题，你如果三不管，那人活着会很困难。
Why, then, you may ask, waste time on such insoluble problems?
Ever since men became capable of free speculation, their actions, ..., have depended upon their theories as to the world and human life, as to what is good and what is evil.
人如果只有科学，会忘记我们其实对很多事情无知；只有神学，也会忘记我们其实对很多事情无知。历史上伟大的哲学家，有个特性，是他们“能知道自己不知道”，苏格拉底说，“我只知道一件事，就是我不知道。”孔子“知之者不如好知者，好知者不如乐知者”，正因为他们承认自己不知道，又乐于求知，所以踏上哲学的路途，以科学理性的手段探讨神学、伦理问题。
Science tells us what we can know, but what we can know is little, and if we forget how much we cannot know we become insensitive to many things of very great importance. Theology, on the other hand, induces a dogmatic belief that we have knowledge where in fact we have ignorance, and by doing so generates a kind of impertinent insolence towards the universe.
因此，我们可以说，哲学学科的内涵是“神学、伦理概念”+“科学理性思考方法”的综合体。
THE conceptions of life and the world which we call "philosophical" are a product of two factors: one, inherited religious and ethical conceptions; the other, the sort of investigation which may be called "scientific," using this word in its broadest sense. Individual philosophers have differed widely in regard to the proportions in which these two factors entered into their systems, but it is the presence of both, in some degree, that characterizes philosophy.
当我们学习哲学，我们要看到大哲学家如何在我们活着的世界以上，又架构了超越界，如何讲到神学问题，如何设立伦理的基础。如苏格拉底“洞穴隐喻”外的光、柏拉图“理型论”（form）、老子“道”、孔子“天”。如康德推论人能通过道德实践理解自己有灵魂会接受审判和作为审判者的上帝。如卡缪认为通过反抗、自由和热情，人可以理解人原本就不可能理解的神学和伦理问题（“不可能理解的神学和伦理问题”=“荒谬”；“可以理解”=“超越荒谬”）。
同时，我们也要学习到“科学理性思考方法”，如苏格拉底“助产士”的方法来澄清概念、设定标准、建立系统，如康德通过理性来批判，如笛卡尔通过怀疑一切最终发现“我思故我在”，如卡缪通过“荒谬”的眼光指出这一切其实不可理解，而促使人努力去理解。
引文出处
Title: A History of Western Philosophy
Author(s): Bertrand Russell
Publisher: Touchstone
Year: 1967
ISBN: 9780671201586; 0671201581
附录
Russell指出本书
- My purpose is to exhibit philosophy as an integral part of social and political life.
- I propose to use the word "Philosophy" in a very wide sense, which I will now try to explain.
网友评论