在卓越网上新发现一本企鹅的《纯粹理性批判》英译本，下了单子，顺便查阅其他英译本（不懂德文，只好如此了），传说有6种：

Kant, Immanuel. Critick of Pure Reason. Second edition with notes and explanation of Terms. Translated by Francis Haywood. London: William Pickering, 1848.

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Translated by John Muller Dow Meiklejohn. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855. Revised and expanded translation based on Meiklejohn, edited by Vasilis Politis, London: J. M. Dent, 1993.

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Translated by F. Max (Friedrich Maximilian) Muller. London: Macmillan, 1881. Translated, edited, and with an Introduction, based on the translation by MaxMu¨ ller, by Marcus Weigelt. London: Penguin Group, 2007.

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Translated by Norman Kemp Smith. London: Macmillan, 1929. Second impression with corrections, London: Macmillan, 1933.

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason: Unified Edition. Translated by Werner S. Pluhar, Introduction by Patricia Kitcher. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Co., 1996.

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Translated and edited by Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

企鹅版的正是Muller译本的修订，书还没看到。

很多读康师傅的人都说读英译本比读中译本好——我想大概是因为我们对英文不敏感，也缺乏足够的判断力，但中文却是看几眼就能判断的。为了检验对比的效果，我随便翻阅了第一版序言的一段话：

这种态度 [对科学的无所谓态度] 显然不是思想轻浮的产物，而是这个时代的成熟的判断力的结果，这个时代不能够再被虚假的知识拖后腿了，它是对理性的吁求，要求它重新接过它的一切任务中最困难的那件任务，即自我认识的任务……（邓晓芒译，人民出版社，2004）

拿这段话出来，是因为我能判断它当然是不好的中文：一句话里换了几个主语。从它的结构，我猜想中间“这个时代”那句，是一个定语从句，中文将它这样夹在中间，只能破坏前后的连贯和语气；而后面那个“它”，在这儿就很尴尬了——“它”前面有三个名词：态度、时代、判断力。从严格的语法讲，“它”应该指“时代”，但如果说“时代是对理性的吁求”又不对，所以只好指开始的“态度”了。这样的句子结构，在小学语文里是错误，在大学教授那儿，却是流行病——“这个时代”真是脱了节了。看来，我们造句的时候，要多想想小时候学过的法则。

对照英文来看，那病似乎从外伤转成了内伤——原来，“不能再被拖后腿”的不是那个“时代”，而是我们成熟的“判断力”：

This is evidently the effect not of the thoughtlessness of our age, but of its ripened power of judgment, which will no longer be put off with illusory knowledge, and which demands that reason should take on anew the most difficult of all its tasks…（剑桥版康德，Paul Guyer译）

对比另一个译本，问题就清楚了：

It is evidently the effect not of the heedlessness but of the matured judgment of our age, which is no longer willing to be put off with seeming knowledge. And it is a call to reason to take on once again the most difficult of all its tasks … （Werner S. Pluhar英译）

在这儿，it显然与前面的it对应（尽管样子像形式主语，等于后面的to take on…）。Norman Kemp Smith的译本也是如此：

It is obviously the effect not of levity but of the matured judgment of the age, which refuses to be any longer put off with illusory knowledge. It is a call to reason to undertake anew the most difficult of all its tasks, namely, that of self-knowledge…

蓝公武的中译本就是根据Smith的英译：“此非由轻率所致，乃由时代之成熟的判断力所致，彰彰明甚，盖时代之判断力，已不再为虚妄之知识所欺矣。且此为对于理性之一种要求……”

还有一个J. M. D. Meiklejohn的英译，把it那句话分开来，更说明了“它”的意思：

It is plainly not the effect of the levity, but of the matured judgement of the age, which refuses to be any longer entertained with illusory knowledge, It is, in fact, a call to reason, again to undertake the most laborious of all tasks—that of self-examination, and to establish a tribunal….

这几句很简单，几个英译本还分不出高下来，但确证了一点：要求纯粹理性的乃是对当下科学的“冷漠”（it），而新的中译本却有点儿模糊和错误。英文能把很多东西塞进一个句子里，而中文没有那个功能——如果硬要让它去担当那个重任，就只好跛足蹒跚地走路，诘屈聱牙地说话了。