Thoughts for Thinkers 思想家的思想

By V. M. Hillyer ——V. M. 希利爾

V. M.希利爾（1875—1931），美國著名的兒童教育家、科普作家，創(chuàng)建了卡爾弗特教育體系。他為孩子們編寫了一套趣味盎然的歷史、地理、藝術讀物，即《寫給孩子看的世界歷史》《寫給孩子看的世界地理》《寫給孩子看的藝術史》。本文選自《寫給孩子看的藝術史》。

SUPPOSE you were a sculptor and wanted to make a statue meaning thought. Thought is an idea. In grammar we would call it an abstract noun. How， then， could a sculptor make as solid a material as bronze or marble represent an abstract idea like thought？

Of course a sculptor could make a statue of a person sitting as one sits when thinking. He could label this statue “Thought”， but without the label it might just as well be “Sleep” or “Rest” or “Fatigue”.

The Greeks solved the problem in their way by imagining a goddess of thought or wisdom and then making a statue of the goddess. The statue would look wise， but still it would be just a likeness of a goddess， not of thought. Any thoughtful or wise-looking woman might serve for the model.

Lets try another way. A person who does much thinking is generally able to think easily. Often， if he is a very wise and thoughtful person， you may not see him thinking at all. Probably he would not look as if he were thinking， because he could think so easily. He thinks with his brain and not with his muscles.

But watch a boy who is not very bright at his lessons trying to do an arithmetic problem. He does not think easily. He sticks out his tongue. He twists his legs about his chair. He bends his head on one side. He holds his pencil so tight that his fingers hurt. You can see him thinking because it is hard for him to do it.

假設你是一名雕塑家，那么如果讓你雕刻一件表現(xiàn)“思想”的作品，你會怎么做呢？“思想”就是你大腦里面的觀念、想法。在語法里它被稱為“抽象名詞”。現(xiàn)在的問題是，雕塑家是否可以雕刻出表現(xiàn)思想的作品呢？他們能夠用青銅或者大理石這樣具體的物質，去表現(xiàn)“思想”這種抽象的概念嗎？

如果你要說形態(tài)，那么雕塑家肯定可以雕刻出一個人坐著思考的樣子，這點當然沒有問題。但是這座雕像必須有“思想”這個題目作為這個形象的標簽，否則，你可以說它代表的是“睡覺”“休息”“疲憊”之類的形象，不是嗎？

人們很早就開始尋找解決這個問題的路徑，古希臘人有自己的方法——他們先想象出一位思想女神或智慧女神，然后制作出這個女神的雕像。這類雕像可以被雕刻得看上去很智慧，但是她們看起來也只是像女神，而不是“思想”。因此，用這種方法制作出的任何有思想，或者看起來很聰明的女性，都可以被當成這類雕像的模特兒了。

讓我們來想想其他的辦法吧。其實對于經常思考的人而言，思考問題是一件輕松的事情。因此對于真正有智慧、有思想的人，他在思考的時候可能你根本看不出來。正因為他思考問題時不費力，所以其他人很可能根本看不出來他在思考。當然，還有一個原因就是他是用頭腦思考，而不是用我們可以看見的肌肉之類的在思考。

不過，如果你觀察一個學習成績不太好的小男孩做算術題，你很容易就會發(fā)現(xiàn)他在思考的時候一點兒也不輕松。他很可能會眉頭緊鎖，把腿盤在椅子上，頭部側向一邊，手里緊緊地握住筆，甚至把手指都握疼了。僅僅從外表你就可以明顯地看出他在思考，這是因為他思考的問題對于他來說太難了。

statue /'st?t?u?/ n. 雕塑，雕像

label /'le?bl/ v. 貼標簽于;用標簽標明

We carefully labeled each item with the contents and the date.

muscle /'m?sl/ n. 肌肉

arithmetic /?'r?θm?t?k/ n. 算術

twist /tw?st/ v.（使）彎曲變形

He grabbed me and twisted my arm behind my back.

Now， instead of the boy， imagine a cave man. His muscles are big and powerful. He is more like an animal than a man. As he is a man， however， he has a soul and sooner or later he will wonder about his life and what is going to come of it. Why is he here in this world？ What happens when he dies？ Does he just go out like a dying fire or does part of him live on in some other world that he knows nothing about？ He begins thinking， wondering， pondering with his brute-like mind. Even more than the schoolboy， you can see him thinking. The first thing you would say if you saw him would be， “How hard he is thinking！”

A statue of such a cave man would show thinking much better than a goddess of thought or a brilliant thinker. A sculptor who used this idea of showing thinking by a statue of some one trying hard to think， was a Frenchman. This sculptor died in 1917. His name was Auguste Rodin. His most famous statue is called “The Thinker”. It isnt thinking—but a man thinking—a thinker. It is probably as near as any one can get to showing thinking or thought.

The statue is of a brute-like man. It isnt smooth and pretty like Canovas “Mercury”. It is roughly and strongly modeled. This rough modeling helps make the man look more brute-like and unused to thinking. He sits pondering， head in hand， pondering so intensely that even his toes are tightly clutching the ground.

Rodin loved contrasts. Often he carved delicate and beautiful forms as though they were just coming out of the uncarved marble block. The beauty is increased by the contrast of the finished part with the unfinished.

如果是這樣，那么我們可以來想象一下洞穴人思考問題時的樣子。洞穴人頭腦簡單、四肢發(fā)達、肌肉充滿力量。相比我們現(xiàn)代人，他們更像動物一些。不過呢，他們的確是人，也有著自己的靈魂，而且遲早有一天會開始思考生命的價值，甚至是人生意義的問題。他會思考：自己為什么會來到這個世界上？死后會變成什么？是會消失得無影無蹤，就像一團熄滅的火苗那樣呢，還是會進入另外一個未知的世界繼續(xù)生活呢？雖然洞穴人與動物的智力水平相差無幾，但是他們已經會思考、質疑，并開始追問了。如果你遇到他們在思考，那么一眼就能看出來，因為他們在思考的時候比那位冥思苦想數(shù)學題的小男孩還要困難很多倍。假如你能看到這樣場景下的一個洞穴人，你肯定想說的第一句話就是：“多么努力思考的人啊！”

與智慧女神或者思想家的雕像相比，一座洞穴人的雕像能夠更好地表現(xiàn)這個“思考或思想”的概念。一位法國雕塑家就想到了這一點，并且很好地利用了這個方法雕刻出了一座正在思考的人物雕像。這個雕塑家的名字叫奧古斯特·羅丹，于1917年逝世。羅丹最著名的一件雕塑作品就是《思想者》，雕像表現(xiàn)的正是“思考”這一個抽象的概念。雖然雕像本身并不是“思考”，而是思想者——一個正在思考的人，但這可能是表現(xiàn)“思想”這個概念的所有作品中，最貼近這個抽象概念本身的作品了。

這座《思想者》雕像中的人物，是一個大腦尚不發(fā)達、智力還沒有發(fā)育完全的野人。這座雕像與卡諾瓦的《墨丘利》那座平滑圓潤的雕像相比簡直是天淵之別，羅丹雕刻的《思想者》顯得非常粗糙，不過意境卻相得益彰，粗糙的模型使得人物看起來更加粗野，也更加凸顯了雕塑人物不善于思考的一面。這個野人坐在那兒，用一只手撐著下巴，用力地想啊想。因為想得太費力，也太專注，連腳趾頭都緊緊地抓著地面，用力地繃著。

羅丹喜歡對比。在雕像完成后，羅丹常常保留后面剩下的、未經雕刻的大理石塊。于是羅丹的外形精美的雕像，看上去就像是從大理石里天然長出來似的，而已雕刻和未雕刻的大理石部分又很鮮明地形成了對比，從而更加突顯出了雕像的美感。

soul /s??l/ n. 靈魂

ponder /'p?nd?（r）/ v. 沉思;考慮;琢磨

They are pondering whether the money could be

better used elsewhere.

brilliant /'br?li?nt/ adj. 聰穎的

clutch /kl?t?/ v. 緊握;抓緊

contrast /'k?ntrɑ?st/ n. 對比