14.抽象概念／THE ABSTRACT CONCEPT

［14］抽象概念／THE ABSTRACT CONCEPT

那么我们应该怎么看待概念？它有时候很难成形。 And what should we think about concepts, sometimes so difficult to form?

比如，跟我说说，美是什么。 Tell me, for instance, what Beauty is.

拇指姑娘回答：美丽的女人，美丽的舞蹈，美丽的夕阳...... Thumbelina answers: a beautiful woman, a beautiful dance, a beautiful sunset…

停！ Stop!

我问你一个概念，你为什么给我无数个例子？你什么时候才能不要玩你的那些洋娃娃和小马驹？ Why, when I ask you about a concept, do you instead give me a million examples? When will you stop playing with your dolls and horses?

每个抽象概念都裹挟有巨大的经济思维。 Every abstract idea brings with it an immense economy of thought.

美的手里握有一千零一位美人，就像几何学者的圆包括了无数的圆形物。 Beauty holds in its hands a thousand and one beautiful women, just as the geometer’s circle includes an infinite myriad of round things.

要是必须列出数量庞大的每一位美人或者每一个圆形，我们根本没有可能写得出书来，也完全无法阅读。 We could never have written or read neither pages nor books if we had to cite each of these beauties or circularities, since their number is enormous, without limit.

而且，要是不叫停这无穷尽的枚举，我连哪怕一页的界限都无法划定。 Moreover, I would never be able to demarcate even a single page without appealing to an idea that would halt this indefinite enumeration.

所谓抽象，其作用类似于软木塞。 Abstraction functions like a cork stopper.

王晓芬：经济思维，让思考也节约起来。

“经济思维”，这是舍赫基于自己的科学研究背景而对哲学思考提出的建议。他希望哲学研究能与数学研究一样“节约”。数学教会人们快速思考，比如可以用“x”同时指代1,2,3，无穷数，有理数与超越函数，实数与复数，甚至四元数等——这种思考方式就是经济思维。舍赫说哲学家爱用中间性推论，而数学家则免去中间步骤。（1995:68）在数学中，使用专业术语是因为这是捷径，比起“一种狭长、且有两个的圆心的圆”，“椭圆”（ellipsis）显然简便多了。（1995:23）[法语中，ellipsis也有“省略”之意，在古希腊语中为ἔλλειψις，即“缺少、不足”。]形而上学家被舍赫指责在使用专业术语上毫不遵守经济节约原则，不讲究经济和速度，而是利用术语占领整个话语，为了讲更多，而不是更少，是在技术性上骄奢淫逸。而极端专业性术语，就是上文那“吓人的知识”，把人分成“使用这些词语的人”（舍赫还补充了一句，是“使用”而不是“理解”）和“缺乏某种知识、未被接纳的人”。舍赫声称自己总是尽可能使用日常语言，保证人们容易接触获取。（1995:24）读到这一段，刚写完论文不久的我很有共鸣。因为写论文时，常常需要与自己的这种不经济的思考作斗争，克制自己妄图谈论所有议题的虚荣野心。对，我觉得是虚荣。

我们是不是还需要它？ Do we still need it?

我们的机器滚动得如此之快，能无止尽地列数细目——它们知道如何防止原创。 Our machines now scroll so quickly that they are able to count particularities indefinitely—they know how to prevent originality.

要我说，“光”这个意象是否能再次被用来阐释知识，我们的先人因为光的清晰而选择它，我们却是因为光的速度才选择它。 If the image of light can again be used to illustrate—dare I say—knowledge, our ancestors chose it for its clarity, whereas we opt rather for its speed.

抽象可以被取代，至少在有些时候，被搜索引擎取代。 Abstraction can be replaced，at least sometimes， by a search engine.

正如主体已改变，认知对象也改变了。 Just as the subject has changed, so has the object of cognition.

我们对概念不再有必然的需求。有时需要，但不总是需要。 We do not have an ineluctable need for concepts.Sometimes we need them, but not always.

我们可以使用叙事、使用举例，尽情地在单异性、在事物本身中流连。 We can linger as long as necessary in narratives, examples, and singularities—the things themselves.

这种创新无论是从实践意义还是理论意义上，都恢复了描述性知识的尊严，恢复了个体知识的尊严。 Practically and theoretically, this innovation restores dignity to the knowledge of description as well as the individual.

这样一来，知识就把它的尊严给予了可能性与偶发性形式，给予了单异性。As a result, knowledge bestows its dignity upon the modalities of the possible and the contingent—to singularities.

又一次，某种等级秩序崩塌了。 Once again, a certain hierarchy collapses.

数学家在混乱状态中成为了专家，不能再怀疑地质学或生物学，它们已经依照布西科的方式实现了混合，因此必须被用综合的方式教学。 Having become experts in chaos, mathematicians can no longer distrust geology and biology, which were already sciences ofmélangeor mixture in the manner of Boucicaut, and thus had to teach in an integrated fashion.

如果活生生的现实被用分析手段切割，它就会死掉。又一次，理性秩序——当然依旧有用，只是常常是过时的——让路给一种新理性，它欢迎具体的单异事物，那自然而然形成的迷宫，进入叙事。 If a living reality is cut up in an analytic manner, it dies. Once again, the order of reasons—still useful, certainly, but often obsolete—gives way to a new reason that welcomes the concrete singular, naturally labyrinthine, into the narrative.

建筑师摧毁了大学的划分。 The architect destroys the divisions of the campus.

交际流通空间，传播中的口述，自由的移动，分科课堂的终结，杂乱的区隔，发明创造的机缘巧合，光之速度，主客体的新意义，对一种新理性的搜寻……The space of circulation, a diffuse orality, free movements, the end of classified classes, disparate distributions, the serendipity of invention, the speed of light, the novelty of both subjects and objects, the search for a new reason…

世界上任何一所大学都不再发生知识的传播，它们自己本来就被书页排列好、格式化了，旧式的理性，模仿着古罗马军队的兵营。 The diffusion of knowledge can no longer take place on any campus in the world, which are themselves ordered and formatted by the page, rational in the old manner, imitating the camps of the Roman army.

拇指姑娘的身体与灵魂就是在这个思想空间里度过了她的青春岁月。 This is the space of thought where Thumbelina, in both her body and her soul, spent her youth.

圣德尼平息了军团。 St. Denis pacified the legion.

王晓芬：我仿佛找到了不整理桌子和房间的理由。