Meet Tony. He's my student. He's about my age, and he's in San Quentin State Prison. When Tony was 16 years old, one day, one moment, "It was mom's gun. Just flash it, scare the guy. He's a punk. He took some money; we'll take his money. That'll teach him. Then last minute, I'm thinking, 'Can't do this. This is wrong.' My buddy says, 'C'mon, let's do this.' I say, 'Let's do this.'" And those three words, Tony's going to remember, because the next thing he knows, he hears the pop. There's the punk on the ground, puddle of blood. And that's felony murder -- 25 to life, parole at 50 if you're lucky, and Tony's not feeling very lucky.
這位是東尼。他是我的學生。 他大概是我的年齡, 他在聖昆廷的州立監獄。 當東尼16歲時, 有一天,一個時刻, 「 這是媽媽的槍。 只要亮一亮相,嚇嚇那傢伙。他是個小流氓。 他之前取了一些錢, 我們要拿回他的,教訓他。 然後在最後一分鐘,我在想, 『不能這樣做,這是不對的。』 我的朋友說:『來吧,讓我們去幹。』 我說,『讓我們就這樣幹。』 這句話,東尼會記得, 因為接下來的事情,便是他聽到砰的一聲。 那個小流氓在地面上, 躺在一坑血水之中。 接著是重罪謀殺-- 25年到終生,如果幸運,在50年後假釋, 而東尼不感覺幸運。
So when we meet in my philosophy class in his prison and I say, "In this class, we will discuss the foundations of ethics," Tony interrupts me. "What are you going to teach me about right and wrong? I know what is wrong. I have done wrong. I am told every day, by every face I see, every wall I face, that I am wrong. If I ever get out of here, there will always be a mark by my name. I'm a convict; I am branded 'wrong.' What are you going to tell me about right and wrong?"
所以,當我們在獄中哲學課會面時, 我說,「 在這課程中,我們將會討論道德的基礎,」 東尼打斷我, 問 :「你要教我對與錯的什麼呢? 因為我知道什麼是錯的,我已經做錯了。 我每一天, 每一個人的臉, 我對着的每一面牆, 都告訴我我錯了。 如果我有機會離開這裡,我的名字將永遠有一個標誌。 我是一個罪犯,我被烙印『 犯錯』。 你要告訴我什麼是對與不對? 」
So I say to Tony, "Sorry, but it's worse than you think. You think you know right and wrong? Then can you tell me what wrong is? No, don't just give me an example. I want to know about wrongness itself, the idea of wrong. What is that idea? What makes something wrong? How do we know that it's wrong? Maybe you and I disagree. Maybe one of us is wrong about the wrong. Maybe it's you, maybe it's me -- but we're not here to trade opinions; everyone's got an opinion. We are here for knowledge. Our enemy is thoughtlessness. This is philosophy."
我對東尼說, 「 很抱歉,但它比你想像還更糟糕。 你認為你知道對與錯? 那你能告訴我什麼是錯嗎? 不, 不要只是給我一個例子。 我想知道錯的本身, 錯的基礎理念。 那概念究竟是什麼? 什麼因素令東西成為錯呢? 我們怎樣知道錯呢? 當你和我意見分歧。 也許我們其中之一是錯上加錯。 也許是你, 也許是我--但我們在這裡不是為了要交換意見; 每個人都有自己的意見。 我們在這裡是為了知識。 我們的敵人是輕率。這就是哲學。」
And something changes for Tony. "Could be I'm wrong. I'm tired of being wrong. I want to know what is wrong. I want to know what I know." What Tony sees in that moment is the project of philosophy, the project that begins in wonder -- what Kant called "admiration and awe at the starry sky above and the moral law within." What can creatures like us know of such things? It is the project that always takes us back to the condition of existence -- what Heidegger called "the always already there." It is the project of questioning what we believe and why we believe it -- what Socrates called "the examined life." Socrates, a man wise enough to know that he knows nothing. Socrates died in prison, his philosophy intact.
東尼像有所領悟。 「可能是我錯了。我厭倦自己的錯誤。 我想知道什麼是錯的。 我想知道我知道甚麼。 」 東尼在那一刻看到的是哲學的項目, 該項目開始於奇妙的驚異-- 是康德(德國古典哲學創始人) 稱為 「 對頭上的 星空和之內的道德律欽佩和敬畏 」。 我們這樣的生物可以理解像這的樣事情嗎? 是這項目總是把我們帶回到了存在的條件 -- 是海德格(德國哲學家)稱為「 已然存在」。 這學問是要質疑我們相信什麼和為什麼相信-- 蘇格拉底稱為「檢驗的人生」。 蘇格拉底, 一個有足夠智慧是以覺悟我們什麼都不知道的人。 蘇格拉底死在獄中, 保留他完整的哲學。
So Tony starts doing his homework. He learns his whys and wherefores, his causes and correlations, his logic, his fallacies. Turns out, Tony's got the philosophy muscle. His body is in prison, but his mind is free. Tony learns about the ontologically promiscuous, the epistemologically anxious, the ethically dubious, the metaphysically ridiculous. That's Plato, Descartes, Nietzsche and Bill Clinton.
因此,東尼開始做他的作業。 他探悉了理由和原因,來頭和關連, 他的邏輯,他的謬論。 原來, 東尼具有不少哲學頭腦。 他的肉身是在監獄裡,但他的精神是自由的。 東尼了解了本體論的混雜, 知識論的焦慮, 道德上的可疑,和形而上學的荒謬。 也就是柏拉圖,笛卡爾,尼采 和比爾柯林頓。
So when he gives me his final paper, in which he argues that the categorical imperative is perhaps too uncompromising to deal with the conflict that affects our everyday and challenges me to tell him whether therefore we are condemned to moral failure, I say, "I don't know. Let us think about that." Because in that moment, there's no mark by Tony's name; it's just the two of us standing there. It is not professor and convict, it is just two minds ready to do philosophy. And I say to Tony, "Let's do this."
所以當他給我他最後的論文, 其中他認為康德的無上命令 或許對我們日常生活的衝突 顯得太不近情理時 他挑戰我要告訴他 是否我們因此被譙讓到道德上失敗, 我說,「 我不知道, 讓我們去想想這個。」 因為在那一刻, 東尼的名字沒有囚犯的標記, 只是我們兩個人站在那裡。 這不是教授和囚徒, 而是兩個頭腦準備思考哲學。 所以我對東尼說: 「 讓我們去幹。」
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)