評論
打印
We have historical records that allow us to know how the ancient Greeks dressed,
我們有歷史紀錄可循，可以讓我們知道古希臘人如何穿著、
how they lived, how they fought, but how did they think?
如何生活、如何打仗，但他們如何思考呢？
One natural idea is that the deepest aspects of human thought
有一個很自然的方法就是，去探索人類最深層的想法
our ability to imagine, to be conscious, to dream, have always been the same.
我們的想象力、自覺力、夢想力，是否是一樣的。
Another possibility is that the social transformations that have shaped our culture
另一種可能是，去探索造就我們文化的社會變革，
may have also changed the structural columns of human thought.
這些變革也許就是，改變人類想法的主要因素。
We may all have different opinions about this.
對這一點，大家或許有不同的看法。
Actually, it's a long-standing philosophical debate.
實際上，這是一個存在已久的哲學辯論。
But is this question even amenable to science?
究竟這個問題是否可以，經由科學來處理？
Here I'd like to propose that in the same way we can reconstruct how the ancient Greek cities looked just based on a few bricks,
我的建議是，如同僅藉由一些磚頭，我們得以重建希臘古都的外貌，也可用同樣的方式，
that the writings of a culture are the archaeological records, the fossils, of human thought.
藉由一些文化作品、建筑歷史、化石，來了解人類的想法。
And in fact,
而實際上，
doing some form of psychological analysis of some of the most ancient books of human culture,
因為做了一些人類古老文化書籍的心理分析，
Julian Jaynes came up in the '70s with a very wild and radical hypothesis:
裘利安·杰尼斯在70年代發表了一個相當大膽激進的假說：
that only 3,000 years ago, humans were what today we would call schizophrenics.
他說，3000年前的人類，是我們現在俗稱的“精神分裂癥患者”。
And he made this claim
他會如此主張的原因是，
based on the fact that the first humans described in these books behaved consistently,
在世界各地不同的傳統及地方，這些書籍里面所描述的人類行為
in different traditions and in different places of the world,
似乎不約而同地都會服從
as if they were hearing and obeying voices that they perceived as coming from the Gods, or from the muses
他們認為是從神祗那邊傳來的聲音。
what today we would call hallucinations.
而如今，我們會稱之為幻聽或幻覺。
And only then, as time went on,
隨著時間的洗禮，
they began to recognize that they were the creators,
他們開始認知到，那些聲音是他們自己創造的，
the owners of these inner voices.
他們就是那些內在聲音的主人。
And with this, they gained introspection:
有了這樣的認知，他們學會了自省：
the ability to think about their own thoughts.
一種反思自己想法的能力。
So Jaynes's theory is that consciousness,
所以杰尼斯對“意識”的理論就是，
at least in the way we perceive it today,
至少現今我們覺察到“意識”、
where we feel that we are the pilots of our own existence --
感受到我們自己就是，
is a quite recent cultural development.
人生導師的體悟是相當近代的文化發展。
And this theory is quite spectacular,
這理論相當特別，
but it has an obvious problem which is that it's built on just a few and very specific examples.
但它有一個很明顯的問題就是，它是建立在極少又特定的案例上。
So the question is whether the theory that introspection built up in human history only about 3,000 years ago
所以問題是，3000年來人類才建立起，自省能力的這個理論，
can be examined in a quantitative and objective manner.
是否可以經得起“量化”且“客觀”的考驗。
