Thomas H. Huxley在A literal education中说，人生取决于一盘棋的输赢，不过是一盘大棋，天地为棋盘，万象为棋子，而下棋的规矩是自然律（The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of theuniverse, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature）。

Liberal education，过去多译作“通识教育”，现在也有人建议“心智教育”。AACU（Associationof American Colleges and Universities）说它是

a philosophy of education that empowers individuals with broad knowledge and transferable skills, and a stronger sense of values, ethics, and civic engagement ... characterised by challenging encounters with important issues,and more a way of studying than a specific course or field of study.

这段话说明了它的“通”（broad and transferable），也指出了它的价值意义。AAAS则指出它培养的是思想解放和自由的人：

a liberal education produces persons who are open-minded and free from provincialism,dogma, preconception, and ideology; conscious of their opinions and judgments;reflective of their actions; and aware of their place in the social and natural worlds.

那种人的特点是怀疑，怀疑传统，自我思想，不盲从权威（Liberally educated people are skeptical of their own traditions;they are trained to think for themselves rather than conform to higher authorities）。这些描述互为补充和因果，因为见识多了才有怀疑，意识强了才享自由。

还回到老赫的“棋论”，人生如棋的比喻不新鲜，但“如”的感觉却会改变。输赢骄馁不说了，近来跟电脑玩儿围棋，想修炼“境界”，最高境界是什么呢？“不吃一子，尽得风流”——在这一点上，围棋比“杀戮”的象棋自然中正平和得多。而且，围棋几乎是“无法”的，没有人为的规定，正如老赫说的，它的法则就是自然律。可怜却现实的是，在棋盘上起杀心容易，求和气很难。这里如何选择，才是人生的大问题。