羅素經典論述How to Become a Man of Genius試譯

【中圖分類號】I046

我的讀者中無論男女如果有渴望成為他們那一代人中的思想領袖，我希望他們要避免我年輕時想得到他人的良好建議而曾犯過的一些錯誤。曾經，當我希望對一主題形成意見時，我往往先研究，權衡對立雙方的觀點，然后試圖得出中庸的結論。逐漸地我意識到這并不是處理問題的方法。有非凡才能的人不需研究就了解這一切；他的觀點不容置疑，無需與人爭辯，完全靠文學上華麗的辭藻使人信服。思想上的片面是必要的，因為這有利于激烈情緒的產生，而這也是力量的證明。必須在某種避諱的倫理的名義下去關注人們開始覺得難為情的偏見和激情。我們最好去譴責那些為求得結論而必須尋求證據的遲鈍而吹毛求疵的人。最重要的是，任何年代最久遠的東西都應該以最時新的面貌呈現。

非凡才能的秘訣并無新穎之處；我們祖父那一代卡萊爾使用過，我們父輩那一代尼采實踐過，而在我們這一代，勞倫斯一直踐行著這一秘訣。勞倫斯的追隨者們認為其詳盡地闡述了男女關系中各種人們所不了解的實情；而事實上，勞倫斯卻重新提倡會使人聯想到的史前石器時代穴居人時期的男性支配權。在他的思想體系里，女性只不過是作為男主人勞作歸來供以倚靠休憩的柔軟且豐腴的活物存在罷了。文明社會在對待女人的問題上一直在向他學習，甚至有過之而無不及；可勞倫斯的思想并沒有任何文明之處。他在全世界搜尋古老而陰暗的東西，鐘情于墨西哥阿茲特克人留下的體現其殘酷的遺跡。那些曾經一直把勞倫斯作為行事榜樣的年輕人們自然會津津有味地閱讀他的作品，而且只要文明社會的習俗允許，他們便四處實踐穴居人的那套生活理念。

要成為有非凡才能的人，其成功道路上最重要的因素之一是要學會斥責的藝術。你在斥責時總是要讓你的讀者認為是別人在受斥責而不是他在受斥責；這樣的話，他就將你這種高雅的訓斥銘記于心。然而，如果他認為你正在斥責的是他，他就會認為你是缺乏教養而大發牢騷。卡萊爾曾說過：“英國人口有兩千萬，大部分都是傻瓜。”每個看到這句話的人都認為自己是個例外，因此很享受這句話。你不能斥責界限很分明的各類人，例如高過一定收入水平的人，住在某個區域的人，或者信仰某一明確信條的人；因為如果你這樣做的話，一些讀者就知道你是針對他們在惡言謾罵。你要斥責那些情感退化的人，斥責那些只有通過單調乏味的研究才能看到真理的人，因為我們都知道這些人就是那些該受斥責的人，這樣一來，我們就會極富同情地觀察你對這個時代邪惡的深刻批判。

不要管事實和理性，完全生活在自己妙不可言的、充滿神話的激情世界里；如果你全心全意、滿懷信念地這樣做，你就會成為你那個時代的先知。

附原文： How to Become a Man of Genius

(1932)

If there are among my readers any young men or women who aspire to become leaders of thought in their generation， I hope they will avoid certain errors into which I feel in youth for want of good advice. When I wished to form an opinion upon a subject， I used to study it， weigh the arguments on different sides， and attempt to reach a balanced conclusion. I have since discovered that this is not the way to do things. A man of genius knows it all without the need of study; his opinions are pontifical and depend for their persuasiveness upon literary style rather than argument. It is necessary to be one-sided， since this facilitates the vehemence that is considered a proof of strength. It is essential to appeal to prejudices and passions of which men have begun to feel ashamed and to do this in the name of some new ineffable ethic. It is well to decry the slow and pettifogging minds which require evidence in order to reach conclusions. Above all， whatever is most ancient should be dished up as the very latest thing.

There is no novelty in this recipe for genius; it was practised by Carlyle in the time of our grandfathers， and by Nietzsche in the time of our fathers， and it has been practised in our own time by D. H. Lawrence. Lawrence is considered by his disciples to have enunciated all sorts of new wisdom about the relations of men and women; in actual fact he has gone back to advocating the domination of the male which one associates with the cave dwellers. Woman exists， in his philosophy， only as something soft and fat to rest the hero when he returns from his labours. Civilised societies have been learning to see something more than this in women; Lawrence will have nothing of civilisation. He scours the world for what is ancient and dark and loves the traces of Aztec cruelty in Mexico. Young men， who had been learning to behave， naturally read him with delight and go round practising cave-man stuff so far as the usages of polite society will permit.

One of the most important elements of success in becoming a man of genius is to learn the art of denunciation. You must always denounce in such a way that your reader thinks that it is the other fellow who is being denounced and not himself; in that case he will be impressed by your noble scorn， whereas if he thinks that it is himself that you are denouncing， he will consider that you are guilty of ill-bred peevishness. Carlyle remarked: ``The population of England is twenty millions， mostly fools.'' Everybody who read this considered himself one of the exceptions， and therefore enjoyed the remark. You must not denounce well-defined classes， such as persons with more than a certain income， inhabitants of a certain area， or believers in some definite creed; for if you do this， some readers will know that your invective is directed against them. You must denounce persons whose emotions are atrophied， persons to whom only plodding study can reveal the truth， for we all know that these are other people， and we shall therefore view with sympathy your powerful diagnosis of the evils of the age.

Ignore fact and reason， live entirely in the world of your own fantastic and myth-producing passions; do this whole-heartedly and with conviction， and you will become one of the prophets of your age.