2019-03-18

On the Uses of Philosophy

① THERE IS A PLEASURE in philosophy, and a lure even in the mirages of metaphysics, which every student feels until the coarse necessities of physical existence drag him from the heights of thought into the mart of economic strife and gain.

*【句型】 There is a pleasure in...

*【赏析】heights of thought 和 mart of economic strife and gain（柴米油盐酱醋茶） 形成对比。

王尔德：我们都生活在臭水沟里，但有一些人依然在仰望星空。

② Most of us have known some golden days in the June of life when philosophy was in fact what Plato calls it, "that dear delight"; when the love of a modestly elusive Truth seemed more glorious, incomparably, than the lust for the ways of the flesh and the dross of the world. 

*golden days 固定搭配

*elusive Truth 真理不可触摸，只能仰望

*lust n.（肉体的欲望）

*dross n. 糠，糟粕

*incomparably adv. 难以相比 →对肉身的欲望和世间糟粕的追求根本无法和哲学的荣光相比。

*【赏析】时间状语从句和地点状语从句作细节补充

③ And there is always some wistful remnant in us of that early wooing of wisdom. "Life has meaning," we feel with Browning—"to find its meaning is my meat and drink." 

④ So much of our lives is meaningless, a self-cancelling vacillation and futility; we strive with the chaos about us and within; but we would believe all the while that there is something vital and significant in us, could we but decipher our own souls. 

*all the while = all the time=constantly

*could we but decipher our own souls: 虚拟语气的省略， could but 固定搭配，表强调

⑤ We want to understand; "life means for us constantly to transform into light and flame all that we are or meet with"; we are like Mitya in The Brothers Karamazov—"one of those who don't want millions, but an answer to their questions"; we want to seize the value and perspective of passing things, and so to pull ourselves up out of the maelstrom of daily circumstance. 

*light and flame: 智慧和热情

*passing：转瞬即逝的

*so to = in order to

⑥ We want to know that the little things are little, and the big things big, before it is too late.

*【赏析】句式简单，但很有深度

【感想】

这个话题对我来讲还是有点难，但还是坚持啃吧。很喜欢哲学这种求知探索的精神。希望通过三个月的学习，能有一丁点儿思想和语言上的进步。