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发表于 2002-6-3 10:20
Re:东方就是东方...
The Scientist 16[11]:12, May. 27, 2002
OPINION: East is East, ...
By T.V. Rajan
I have lived in this country somewhat longer than in the country of my birth. There are times when I wonder, as is probably true of many expatriates, what I really am. Am I Indian, American, or some bastardized version that is neither? There is not very much in my behavior now that is completely Indian, at least to the casual observer. But at a deeper level, I realize that my reactions to many situations seem to be informed more by my cultural heritage, than by the culture in which I live.
我在这个国家比在我出生的国家生活的年头还多. 有时我在想, 可能每个离开家乡的外国人都会象我一样
这样想, 我到底是印度人, 美国人, 或什么都不是的一个变形杂种? 我现在的许多习惯和印度人完全不同,
特别是一名普通事物观察者时. 但是, 更深入一层讲, 我对许多事物的反应是受我祖先文化的支配多于现
居文化.
I think I had glimmerings of this perception many years ago when I was a graduate student. A group of us went to see the first episode of Star Wars. When we left the theater, one of my fellow graduate students remarked, in an awestruck tone, "I did not realize that the movie dealt with such classical themes." I looked at her quizzically, wondering what she could mean. She returned my look and said, "You know? Classical themes like the eternal struggle between Good and Evil?" As I thought about this over the next several days, I realized that this concept of an eternal fight between "good" and "evil" was not inherent in my view of the world. Indeed, the ideas that there are some entities that embody goodness and others that embody evil, that these exist in eternal conflict with each other, with the good almost inevitably winning at the end, were not ones that had been inculcated in me.
我想我是在多年前读研究生时有了这种想法的苗头。我们一群人去看《星战前传》。当我们离开剧院时，
一个研究生以敬畏的口气评论道：“我不相信电影如此处理这样的经典主题”。我古怪地看着她，猜想她
的意思到底是什么。她注意到了我的眼光，说：“你知道吗，正与邪的永恒斗争的经典主题？”。当我过后
几天回想这些的时候，我相信这种正邪永恒斗争的概念不是我世界观中固有的。确实，我不曾被教导这种
思想，存在着代表善良的实体和代表邪恶的实体，他们在不停冲突，并且正义总是最终战胜邪恶。
I realize that even after all my years in the United States, surrounded by the Judeo-Christian schema of a dichotomous universe, I have remained uncomfortable with dualistic doctrines. Most Americans are probably familiar with the famous yin-yang icon of Chinese-Buddhist origin—a circle containing dark (yin) and light (yang) fish-like figures, forming a circular whole. Any radial line intersects both yin and yang, and the amount of
whiteness or blackness depends on where one draws the line. In Hinduism as well, the concept of the continuum of good and evil, rather than categorical states, is inherent in the
我相信甚至所有我在美国的日子里，被犹太教和基督教共有的二元宇宙观环抱时，我仍不满意二元学说。
多数美国人都熟悉著名的阴阳图——中国宗教的源头——由明（阳）、暗（阴）的类似鱼状图形组成的圆，
任何射线都贯穿阴和阳，白和黑的数量取决于图在哪画。在印度教，正和邪的连续和统一，而不是绝对
状态，在哲学学校占有统治地位。
dominant philosophical school of advaita, literally nondualism. Unlike Judeo-Christian philosophy, there is no Satan figure in Hinduism. There are numerous characters who are evil, but no centralized figure who embodies evil and who is in dynamic opposition to the good that is God. There is no eternal struggle; instead, good and evil coexist in a less than perfect universe. The great conundrum that seems to occupy Judeo-Christian theologians—if God is perfectly good, why did he create Evil and permit its continued existence—does not puzzle Hindu philosophers at all. Since good and evil are two aspects of only one reality, neither has any existence apart from the other.
不象犹太-基督哲学，印度教没有撒旦的形象。有很多人物是邪恶的，但没有集中的邪恶形象代表恶势力同
善良的神争斗。没有永恒的冲突；代替的是，善与恶共存于并不完美的世界。巨大的难题摆在犹太-基督
神学家面前——如果上帝是完美的，为什么他还创造邪恶并允许它持续存在，而这压根没有困扰印度哲
学家。因为善与恶是现实的两方面，任一方都不能独立存在。
It is perhaps not surprising that empirical science has developed and thrived primarily as a Western enterprise. Science studies and then divides phenomena into smaller and smaller entities, isolating them from the large, messier realities of life in order to understand them in their entirety. This reductionism brings in apparent dualisms, with which my Judeo-Christian colleagues seem comfortable. Take, for instance, the roles of insulin and glucagon. I remember being taught in medical school that insulin and glucagon were antithetical to each other, and this is indeed true—insulin causes a decrease in the blood glucose level, but glucagon increases it. However, from the perspective of the target cell whose function depends on obtaining appropriate amounts of glucose on demand, these two hormones actually work together—glucagon causes an increase in the release of glucose from the liver, whereas insulin helps the target cells import circulating glucose so that they can metabolize it. Their apparent antagonism, true while examined in a reductionist view, disappears in the "big picture."
并不奇怪，实验科学首先在西方发展繁荣。科学对现象研究并分辨为更小的实体，从大的杂乱的事实中
分离出来，以便从整体上理解他们。这种简化法引进了明显的二元论，我基督教的同事更感适应。以胰岛
素和胰增血糖素为例。我记得医学院教我们，胰岛素和胰增血糖素是相反的，确实是这样——胰岛素导致
血中葡萄糖水平降低，而增血糖素使之升高。然而，从目标细胞的观点看，它的功能依赖于得到合适葡萄
糖，这两种激素要一起作用——胰增血糖素导致肝脏释放葡萄糖增加，胰岛素帮助目标细胞向内输入循环
葡萄糖。这样他们能进行糖的新陈代谢。他们表面上的相对性，已在生物观察中确认，
Perhaps nowhere does categorical dualism trouble me more than in my chosen field of infectious disease. Here, there are a number of instances where things seen as evil have important positive influences. Let us take, for instance, the case of nematode infections of childhood and young adulthood. Virtually every mammal living in the wild harbors at least one nematode species and one cestode species. In our own species, there is little doubt that our forefathers were often parasitized by roundworms and perhaps tapeworms as well.
也许没有什么地方的绝对性二元论象我所在的传染病领域更加困扰我。这里有很多例子，看起来坏的事物
有好的作用。举例来说，儿童期和青年期的线虫类感染。事实上每个野生哺乳动物都寄生有至少一种线虫
和绦虫。对我们人类来说，我们的祖先无疑经常寄生有蛔虫和绦虫。
It is only with the emergence of improved sanitation conditions over the past century that these nematode and cestode parasites have disappeared from much of the developed world. Here then is a clear-cut example of the victory of good (read: we humans) over evil (read: worms). However, many researchers, including myself, have alerted the medical community to the striking correlation between the absence of nematode infections and the emergence of autoimmune and other immunological disorders.
只是在上个世纪里，随着卫生条件的改善，蛔虫和绦虫从大部分发达国家消失了。那么这是个明显的例子
善（我们人类）战胜了恶（寄生虫）。然而，很多研究人员，包括我自己，都警告医学团体注意，线虫感染
的消失同自体免疫和其他免疫紊乱显著相关。
Many have raised the idea of a so-called hygiene hypothesis to explain autoimmunity. One researcher has recently shown that in patients with ulcerative colitis who were administered eggs of the pig parasite Ascaris suum, an infection that is self-limiting in humans, the patients dramatically improve as long as the infection persists; they then revert to their pretreatment state once the parasite is eliminated. To the best of my knowledge, this experimental protocol has not been repeated since its initial announcement but is deserving of further study.
很多人提出所谓的卫生 |
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文章片断:
我在这个国家比在我出生的国家生活的年头还多. 有时我在想, 可能每个离开家乡的外国人都会象我一样这样想, 我到底是印度人, 美国人, 或什么都不是的一个变形杂种? 我现在的许多习惯和印度人完全不同, 特别是一名普通事物观察者时. 但是, 更深入一层讲, 我对许多事物的反应是受我祖先文化的支配多于现居文化.
......
I have lived in this country somewhat longer than in the country of my birth. There are times when I wonder, as is probably true of many expatriates, what I really am. Am I Indian, American, or some bastardized version that is neither? There is not very much in my behavior now that is completely Indian, at least to the casual observer. But at a deeper level, I realize that my reactions to many situations seem to be informed more by my cultural heritage, than by the culture in which I live.
.....
