博文

听《通往奴役之路》

已有 342 次阅读 2024-11-29 22:53 |个人分类:休闲阅读|系统分类:人文社科

这本书过去反复读过，较为熟悉，也很喜欢。但是出乎意料地用了很长很长的时间。原因或许有两点。其一，《丢耳机》后情绪大受影响，没有启用新耳机，用丢剩的一只耳机对付；其二，要考虑的事情比较多，走路乘车家务时也在想，就没有听。这种状态似乎有几个月。不管怎样，总算过去了。虽然仍没有用新耳机，但听书基本上恢复正常。

该书的总体思路特别清晰。所谓“通往奴役之路”就是当时英国所谓的社会主义运动。在作者看来，与刚刚被击败的德国纳粹没有本质区别，只是程度和阶段不同。都是某些思想家为社会总体理想设计的一种制度，而不是在竞争过程中自发形成的制度。这种制度无法整合亿万人交互作用所产生和需要的信息，必然是有一部分人将自己的欲求和偏好强加给其他人。这样就产生了奴役。

该书最值得注意的就是方法论意义上的个人主义，本质上是个人知识的有限性。“我们不仅没有这样包罗万象的价值尺度，而且对任何有才智者而言，去理解竞取可用资源的不同人们的无穷无尽的不同需求，并一一定出轻重，将是不可能的。对我们的问题来说，任何人所关注的目标是否仅仅包括他自己的个人需求，还是包括他所亲近甚至疏远的伙伴的需求—就是说，就这些字眼的通常意义而言，他是一个利己主义者，还是一个利他主义者—是无足轻重的。十分重要的东西是这个基本事实，即任何人都只能考察有限的领域，认识有限需求的迫切性。无论他的兴趣以他本人的物质需求为中心，还是热衷于他所认识的每个人的福利，他所能关心的种种目标对于所有人的需求而言，仅仅是九牛一毛而已。

这就是整个个人主义哲学所根据的基本事实。它并不像通常人们所断言的那样，假定人是或应该是利己的或自私的。它仅仅从这个毫无争议的事实出发，即我们想象力的限制，使我们只能在我们的价值尺度中包含全社会需求的部分，而且严格地说，由于价值尺度仅能存在于个人头脑中，除了种种局部的价值尺度，没有任何别的东西存在，而这些价值尺度不可避免地有所不同并常常相互矛盾。由此，个人主义者得出结论说，在限定的范围内，应该允许个人遵循自己的而不是别人的价值和偏好，而且，在这些领域内，个人的目标体系应该至高无上而不屈从于他人的指令。就是这种对个人作为其目标的最终决断者的承认，对个人应尽可能以自己的意图支配自已的行动的信念，构成了个人主义立场的实质。”

英文如下：

Not only do we not possess such an all-inclusive scale of values: it would be impossible for any mind to comprehend the infinite variety of different needs of different people which compete for the available resources and to attach a definite weight to each. For our problem it is of minor importance whether the ends for which any person cares comprehend only his own individual needs, or whether they include the needs of his closer or even those of his more distant fellows-that is, whether he is egoistic or altruistic in the ordinary senses of these words. The point which is so important is the basic fact that it is impossible for any man to survey more than a limited field, to be aware of the urgency of more than a limited number of needs. Whether his interests centre round his own physical needs, or whether he takes a warm interest in the welfare of every human being he knows, the ends about which he can be concerned will always be only an infinitesimal fraction of the needs of all men.

This is the fundamental fact on which the whole philosophy of individualism is based. It does not assume, as is often asserted, that man is egoistic or selfish, or ought to be. It merely starts from the indisputable fact that the limits of our powers of imagination make it impossible to include in our scale of values more than a sector of the needs of the whole society, and that, since, strictly speaking, scales of value can exist only in individual minds, nothing but partial scales of values exist, scales which are inevitably different and often inconsistent with each other. From this the individualist concludes that the individuals should be allowed, within defined limits, to follow their own values and preferences rather than somebody else's, that within these spheres the individual's system of ends should be supreme and not subject to any dictation by others. It is this recognition of the individual as the ultimate judge of his ends, the belief that as far as possible his own views ought to govern his actions that forms the essence of the individualist position.

那种英国社会主义，必然摧毁社会中的竞争性，形成垄断，“在一个竞争性的社会中，我们的选择自由是基于这一事实：如果某一个人拒绝满足我们的希望，我们可以转向另一个人。但如果我们面对一个垄断者时，我们将唯他之命是听。” Our freedom of choice in a competitive society rests on the fact that, if one person refuses to satisfy our wishes we can turn to another. But if we face a monopolist we are at his mercy.

英国社会主义不仅将摧毁自由社会的经济基础，而且也毁灭社会的道德基础。“独立，自力更生，甘愿担当风险，愿意顶住多数的意见而坚持自己的信仰，愿意和邻人自愿地合作—这些实质上都是个人主义社会据以运作的基础。” It is true that the virtues which are less esteemed and practised now-independence, self-reliance, and the willingness to bear risks, the readiness to back one's own conviction against a majority, and the willingness to voluntary co-operations with one's neighbours-are essentially those on which the working of an individualist society rests. 这些美德也是英国国民性所在。“英国人所持有的、在很大程度上比其他大多数民族——除了诸如瑞士和荷兰等少数几个较小的国家以外——守持得更好的这些美德，就是独立和自力更生，一个人的首创性和地方的自我负责，成功地依靠自愿的活动，不干涉邻人事务和宽容异端，尊重风俗习惯和传统，以及对权力和权威的适度怀疑。不列颠的强大，不列颠的民族性，还有不列颠的成就，在很大程度上是自发努力的结果。”The virtues possessed by the British people possessed in a higher degree than most other people, excepting only a few of the smaller nations, like the Swiss and the Dutch, were independence and self-reliance, individual initiative and local responsibility, the successful reliance on voluntary activity, non-interference with one's neighbour and tolerance of the different and queer, respect for custom and tradition, and a healthy suspicion of power and authority. British strength, British character, and British achievements are to a great extent the result of a cultivation of the spontaneous.

这本书不仅逻辑清晰流畅，而且堪称金句迭出字字珠玑。听了一遍却拖了这么久，真是不可思议。为明年可能的不列颠三城行准备，听听狄更斯的经典小说。初步计划三部。第一部自传体小说《大卫·科波菲尔》。四十多年前读过，后来想读英文原著，书都准备了，但一直没有读。现实些，先听听汉译本。

听书系列博文