On the Uses of Philosophy

Shall we be more technical? 

Science is analytical description, philosophy is synthetic interpretation. 

Science wishes to resolve the whole into parts, the organism into organs, the obscure into the known. 

It does not inquire into the values and ideal possibilities of things, nor into their total and final significance; it is content to show their present actuality and operation, it narrows its gaze resolutely to the nature and process of things as they are. 

The scientist is as impartial as Nature in Turgenev's poem: he is as interested in the leg of a flea as in the creative throes of a genius, 

But the philosopher is not content to describe the fact; he wishes to ascertain its relation to experience in general, and thereby to get at its meaning and its worth; he combines things in interpretive synthesis; he tries to put together, better than before, that great universe-watch which the inquisitive scientist has analytically taken apart. 

Science tells us how to heal and how to kill; it reduces the death rate in retail and then kills us wholesale in war; but only wisdom—desire coordinated in the light of all experience—can tell us when to heal and when to kill. 

To observe processes and to construct means is science; to criticize and coordinate ends is philosophy: and because in these days our means and instruments have multiplied beyond our interpretation and synthesis of ideals and ends, our life is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. 

For a fact is nothing except in relation to desire; it is not complete except in relation to a purpose and a whole. 

Science without philosophy, facts without perspective and valuation, cannot save us from havoc and despair. Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.

Specifically, philosophy means and includes five fields of study and discourse: logic, esthetics, ethics, politics, and metaphysics. 

Logic is the study of ideal method in thought and research: observation and introspection, deduction and induction, hypothesis and experiment, analysis and synthesis—such are the forms of human activity which logic tries to understand and guide; it is a dull study for most of us, and yet the great events in the history of thought are the improvements men have made in their methods of thinking and research. 

[ 00’55” ] flow into achievement (汇成丰硕的成果)

[ 03’09” ] obscure (晦暗不明的)

[ 04’07” ] Philosophy wished to put it together from part to whole, organs to organism, known into obscure. 

[ 05’04” ] narrows its gaze (将聚焦变窄)

[ 07’12” ] ascertain (确定)

[ 07’44” ] thereby (通过……方式，于此)

[ 08’38” ] We need to read books and thereby to know the knowledge.

[ 09’45” ] inquisitive (好追根问底的，好问的)

[ 10’16” ] better than before (比之前的更好)

[ 10’32” ] heal (治愈)

[ 15’42” ] multiply (增加)

[ 15’46” ] beyond (超出，超过) 

[ 16’29” ] Our life is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. (我们的生活充满着各种喧嚣与躁动，而这些都是没有意义的。)

[ 19’09” ] In our life, full of sound and fury...

[ 19’24” ] For a fact is nothing except in relation to desire. (事实是毫无价值的，除非它与欲望建立联系。)

[ 21’57” ] It is not complete except in relation to a purpose and a whole. (事实是不完整的，除非它与目的和整体建立联系。)

[ 22’43” ] havoc (破坏，废墟)

[ 22’49” ] havoc and despair (虚无和绝望)

[ 23’40” ] specifically (具体来说)

[ 24’00” ] discourse (对话)

[ 24’07” ] logic (逻辑学) esthetics (美学) ethics (伦理学) politics (政治学) metaphysics (形而上学) 

[ 25’00” ] observation and introspection (观察与反思)

[ 25’06” ] deduction and induction (演绎与推理)

[ 25’34” ] hypothesis and experiment (假设与试验)

[ 25’43” ] analysis and synthesis (分析和综合)

[ 26’18” ] understand and guide (理解与指导)

[ 26’56” ] and yet (递进转折)

备注：音频 07:12 处 ascertain 【 /ˌæsəˈteɪn/ 】夏老师读音错误