早上起来，看到争议又起：

爱因斯坦给斯威泽回信中的“those discoveries"的翻译

科学发展的基础

再次讨论一下爱因斯坦给斯威泽的回信

爱因斯坦给斯威泽回信的翻译之我见

爱因斯坦给斯威策回信原文：

Development of Western science is based on two great achievements: the invention of the formal logical system (in Euclidean geometry) by the Greek philosophers, and the discovery of the possibility to find out causal relationships by systematic experiment (during the Renaissance). In my opinion one has not to be astonished that the Chinese sages have not made those steps. The astonishing thing is that those discoveries were made at all.

争议最大的是最后两句，我们来看一下爱因斯坦研究专家许良英对“In my opinion one has not to be astonished that the Chinese sages have not made those steps. The astonishing thing is that those discoveries were made at all.”的两次翻译：

1、  许良英、范岱年编译《爱因斯坦文集》，第一卷，574页，北京商务印书馆，1976。

“在我看来，中国的贤哲没有走上这两步，那是用不着惊奇的。令人惊奇的倒是这些发现毕竟是有人做出来了。”

2、  许良英、刘明编《爱因斯坦文录》，浙江文艺出版社，2004年第一版，在201页。

“在我看来，中国的贤哲没有走上这两步，那是用不着惊奇的。要是这些发现果然都作出了，那倒是令人惊奇的事。”

看起来，those discoveries是指什么，谁做出的，仍然是个问题。许只是模糊处理。