Unit 8 knowledge and wisdom

1、Knowledge and Wisdom(abridged)Bertrand RussellPhilosophy=philo+sophia Love of wisdom pursuit of wisdomTeaching ObjectivesBy the end of this unit, you are supposed to uunderstand the main idea, structure of this text and Russells writing styleumaster the key language points and grammatical structures

2、 in the textube able to discuss the philosophical concept of wisdomupassage translationTeaching Procedure1. Group Presentation2. Pre-reading Questions3. Text Analysis Main idea of the text Structure analysis Text analysis4. Language Points5. Translation6. RevisionPre-reading Questions Who is Russell

3、? What do you know about him? 2+2=4? 闻知，说知，亲知。墨经 三十辐共一毂，当其无，有车之用。埏埴以为器，当其无，有器之用。凿户牖以为室，当其无，有室之用。故有之以为利，无之以为用。道德经 学而不思则罔，思而不学则殆。论语 道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。道德经 Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)Philosopher, mathematician, logician, the Noble Laureate in Literature (1950) A proponent of nuclear disarmament and outsp

4、oken critic of American War in Vietnam An atheist: Is There a God?Main IdeaAccording to Russell, which one(s) of the following items constitute(s) wisdom? A. Comprehensiveness mixed with a sense of proportion B. A full awareness of the ends of human life C. Emancipation from personal prejudice D. Im

5、partialityKey: A. B. C. DStructure AnalysisWork out the outline of this text with your partners1. Thesis:_.2. Factor one:_. Coherence device:_.3. Factor two:_. Coherence device:_.4.Factorthree:_.5. Factor four:_.several factors that contribute to wisdoma sense of proportionhowever, alsoawareness of

6、the ends of human lifenot only.butemancipation from personal prejudiceimpartialityKnowledge and Wisdom1. Most people would agree that, although our age far surpasses (be greater than) all previous ages in knowledge, there has been no correlative (have relation to) increase in wisdom. But agreement c

7、eases (there are various opinions) as soon as we attempt to define wisdom and consider means (a method) of promoting it. I want to ask first what wisdom is, and then what can be done to teach it.sur-:over, abovee.g. surcharge1. What is the theme of this paragraph? Most people would agree that, altho

8、ugh our age far surpasses all previous ages in knowledge, there has been no correlative increase in wisdom. 2. What is the purpose of this writing? Russell would like to discuss what contributes to wisdom and hot to teach wisdom. 2. There are, I think, several factors that contribute to (help cause

9、sth.) wisdom. Of these I should put first a sense of proportion: the capacity to take account of all the important factors in a problem and to attach to each its due weight. (the ability to consider all the significant factors in a problem and to analyze theirs importance respectively) This has beco

10、me more difficult than it used to be owing to the extent and complexity of the specialized knowledge required of various kinds of technicians. Suppose, for example, that you are engaged in (be busy) research in scientific medicine. The work is difficult and is likely to absorb (occupy) the whole of

11、your intellectual energy. You have not time to consider the effect which your discoveries or inventions may have outside the field of medicine. You succeed (let us say), as modern medicine has succeeded, in (achieve aims) enormously lowering the infant death-rate, not only in Europe and America, but

12、 also in Asia and Africa. This has the entirely unintended result of making the food supply inadequate and lowering the standard of life in the most populous (densely populated) parts of the world. -ous: characterize by, of the naturee.g. mountainous, poisonousTo take an even more spectacular exampl

13、e, which is in everybodys mind at the present time: You study the composition of the atom from a disinterested (fair, objective) desire for knowledge, and incidentally place in the hands of powerful lunatics the means of destroying the human race. disinterested vs. uninterestedfair, objective vs. no

14、t interested inIn such ways the pursuit of knowledge may become harmful unless it is combined with wisdom; and wisdom in the sense of comprehensive vision is not necessarily present in specialists in the pursuit of knowledge. ?Paragraph Development Topic: _. How does Russell developed his point? _Gi

15、ve examples_. _Scientific medicine research. _Atom research_. What is the relationship between these two examples?A sense of proportion3. Comprehensiveness alone, however, is not enough to constitute wisdom. There must be, also, a certain awareness of the ends of human life. (the ultimate goal of hu

16、man life) This may be illustrated by the study of history. Many eminent (famous and admired) historians have done more harm than good because they viewed facts through the distorting medium of their own passions. Hegel had a philosophy of history which did not suffer from any lack of comprehensivene

17、ss, since it started from the earliest times and continued into an indefinite future. But the chief lesson of history which he sought to inculcate (fix idea, belief by repeating) was that from the year 400AD down to his own time Germany had been the most important nation and the standard-bearer (a l

18、eading figure) of progress in the world. P e r h a p s o n e c o u l d s t r e t c h t h e comprehensiveness that contitutes wisdom to include not only intellect but also feeling. It is by no means uncommon to find men (litotes: 反义法，曲意法。 It is common that.) whose knowledge is wide but whose feelings

19、 are narrow. Such men lack what I call wisdom.Paragraph DevelopmentTopic: _.How does Russell develop his point? Give example HegelWhat is his attitude towards Hegel? Negative; wide knowledge but narrow feelingsa certain awareness of the ends of life4. It is not only in public ways, but in private li

20、fe equally, that wisdom is needed. It is needed in the choice of ends to be pursued and in emancipation from ( freedom from) personal prejudice. Even an end which it would be noble to pursue if it were attainable may be pursued unwisely if it is inherently impossible of achievement. (It would be unw

21、ise to pursue a goal that is bound to fail though it might be noble to do so.)Many men in past ages devoted their lives to a search for the philosophers stone and the elixir of life. (tell us story about 秦始皇) No doubt, if they could have found them, they would have conferred (given, grant) great ben

22、efits upon mankind, but as it was (in reality, in the actual situation) their lives were wasted. (They would have given great benefits to human beings, but in reality their lives were wasted.)To descend to less heroic matters, consider the case of two men, Mr A and Mr B, who hate each other and, thr

23、ough mutual hatred, bring each other to destruction. Suppose you dgo the Mr A and say, Why do you hate Mr B? He will no doubt give you an appalling (horrifying, shocking) list of Mr Bs vices, (moral faults) partly true, partly false. And now suppose you go to Mr B. He will give you an exactly simila

24、r list of Mr As vices with an equal admixture of truth and falsehood. Suppose you now come back to Mr A and say, You will be surprised too learn that Mr B says the same things about you as you say about him, and you go to Mr B and make a similar speech. The first effect, no doubt, will be to increas

25、e their mutual hatred, since each will be so horrified by the others injustice. But perhaps, if you have sufficient patience and sufficient persuasiveness, you may succeed in convincing each that the other has only the normal share of human wickedness, and that their enmity is harmful to both. If yo

26、u can do this, you will have instilled (gradually but firmly establish in ones mind) some fragment of wisdom.Paragraph Development Topic: Examples 1. 2.5. I think the essence of wisdom is emancipation, as fat as possible, from the tyranny of the here and now. (I think the key to wisdom is to free on

27、eself from the control and limitation of ones physical and emotional world.) We cannot help the egoism of our senses. Sight and sound and touch are bound up with (connect with) our own bodies and cannot be impersonal. Our emotions start similarly from ourselves.An infant feels hunger or discomfort,

28、and is unaffected except by his own physical condition. Gradually with the years, his horizon widens, and, in proportion as his thoughts and feelings become less personal and less concerned with his own physical states, he achieves growing wisdom. This is of course a matter of degree. No one can vie

29、w the world with complete impartiality; (judge situation with fairness) and if anyone could, he would hardly be able to remain alive. But it is possible to make a continual approach towards impartiality, on the one hand, by knowing things somewhat remote in time or space, and on the other hand, by g

30、iving to such things their due weight in our feelings. It is this approach towards impartiality that constitutes growth in wisdom.Paragraph Development Topic: Development:Writing Style1. Logical structure2. Persuasive examples3. Concise languageAssignment Group Task Translate this passage into Chine

31、se. Individual Task Language pointsLanguage Pointssurpass v. exceed, be greater thane.g. The student was surpassing himself in mathematics. Toms performance surpassed all expectations. correlative a.having or showing a relation to sth. elsee.g. Rights, whether moral or legal, can involve correlative

32、 duties.Comparison: relative (to) a. If sth. is relative to sth. else, it varies according to the speed or level of the other thing.e.g. The amount of petrol a car uses is relative to its speed.cease e to an ende.g. At one oclock the rain had ceased. He never ceases to amaze me.contribute tohelp to

33、cause or bring aboute.g. Poor food contributed to her illness.take account oftake into consideratione.g. The Scottish Qualifacations Authority has urged teachers to take account of mistakes which can undermine pupils.be engaged in be busye.g. In 2008, 81% of seniors indicated they were engaged in th

34、e presidential race.absorb v.take up all your attention and energye.g. Cooking is a second career which absorbed her more completely than her acting ever had.succeed inachieve waht one aimse.g. All of us want to succeed in life.disinterested a.having no personal involvement or receiving no personal

35、advantage, and therefore able to judge a situation fairlye.g. a disinterested observer/judgment a piece of disinterested adviceend n.a goal or desired resulte.g. Do you have a particular end in mind? He wanted science students to take an interest in the arts, and to this end he ran literature classe

36、s at his home on Sunday afternoons.inculcate v.fix beliefs or ideas in sb.s mind, especially by repeating them oftene.g. Our football coach has worked hard to inculcate a team spirit in/into the players. They will try to inculcate you with a respect for culture.emancipation n.freedom from political, moral, intellectual or social restraints offensive to reason or justicee.g. womens / female emancipation black emancipation the emancipation of mankind the emancipation of the serfsconfer on / upon give or grant (an official title, degre