跳至主要内容

《爱因斯坦:我的世界观》

   我们这些总有一死的人,命运是多么的奇特!我们每个人在这个世界上都只作一个短暂的逗留;目的何在,却无从知道,尽管有时自以为对此若有所感。但是,不必深思,只要从日常生活中就可以明白:人是为别人而生存的──首先是为那样一些人,我们的幸福全部依赖于他们的喜悦和健康;其次是为许多我们所不认识的人,他们的命运通过同情的纽带同我们密切结合在一起。我每天上百次的提醒自己:我的精神生活和物质生活都是以别人(包括生者和死者)的劳动为基础的,我必须尽力以同样的分量来报偿我所领受了的和至今还在领受着的东西。我强烈地向往着俭朴的生活。并且时常发觉自己占用了同胞的过多劳动而难以忍受。我认为阶级的区分是不合理的,它最后所凭借的是以暴力为根据。我也相信,简单淳朴的生活,无论在身体上还是在精神上,对每个人都是有益的。

  我完全不相信人类会有那种在哲学意义上的自由。每个人的行为不仅受着外界的强制,而且要适应内在的必然。叔本华说:“人虽然能够做他所想做的,但不能要他所想要的。”这句格言从我青年时代起就给了我真正的启示;在我自己和别人的生活面临困难的时候,它总是使我们得到安慰,并且是宽容的持续不断的源泉。这种体会可以宽大为怀地减轻那种容易使人气馁的责任感,也可以防止我们过于严肃地对待自己和别人;它导致一种特别给幽默以应有地位的人生观。

  要追究一个人自己或一切生物生存的意义或目的,从客观的角度来看,我总觉得是愚蠢可笑的。可是每个人都有一些理想,这些理想决定着他的努力和判断的方向。就在这个意义上,我从来不把安逸和享乐看作生活目的本身──我把这种伦理基础叫做“猪栏的理想”。照亮我的道路,是善、美和真。要是没有志同道合者之间的亲切感情,要不是全神贯注于客观世界──那个在艺术和科学工作领域里永远达不到的对象,那么在我看来,生活就会是空虚的。我总觉得,人们所努力追求的庸俗目标──财产、虚荣、奢侈的生活──都是可鄙的。

  我有强烈的社会正义感和社会责任感,但我又明显地缺乏与别人和社会直接接触的要求,这两者总是形成古怪的对照。我实在是一个“孤独的旅客”,我未曾全心全意地属于我的国家、我的家庭、我的朋友,甚至我最为接近的亲人;在所有这些关系面前,我总是感觉到有一定距离而且需要保持孤独──而这种感受正与年俱增。人们会清楚地发觉,同别人的相互了解和协调一致是有限度的,但这不值得惋惜。无疑,这样的人在某种程度上会失去他的天真无邪和无忧无虑的心境;但另一方面,他却能够在很大程度上不为别人的意见、习惯和判断所左右,并且能够避免那种把他的内心平衡建立在这样一些不可靠的基础之上的诱惑。

  我的政治理想是民主政体。让每一个人都作为个人而受到尊重,而不让任何人成为被崇拜的偶像。我自己一直受到同代人的过分的赞扬和尊敬,这不是由于我自己的过错,也不是由于我自己的功劳,而实在是一种命运的嘲弄。其原因大概在于人们有一种愿望,想理解我以自已微薄的绵力,通过不断的斗争所获得的少数几个观念,而这种愿望有很多人却未能实现。我完全明白,一个组织要实现它的目的,就必须有一个人去思考,去指挥、并且全面担负起责任来。但是被领导的人不应当受到强迫,他们必须能够选择自己的领袖。在我看来,强迫的专制制度很快就会腐化堕落。因为暴力所招引来的总是一些品德低劣的人;而且我相信,天才的暴君总是由无赖来继承的,这是一条千古不易的规律。就是由于这个缘故,我总强烈地反对今天在意大利和俄国所见到的那种制度。像欧洲今天所存在的情况,已使得民主形式受到怀疑,这不能归咎于民主原则本身,而是由于政府的不稳定和选举制度中与个人无关的特征。我相信美国在这方面已经找到了正确的道路。他们选出了一个任期足够长的总统,他有充分的权力来真正履行他的职责。另一方面,在德国政治制度中,为我所看重的是它为救济患病或贫困的人作出了可贵的广泛的规定。在人生的丰富多彩的表演中,我觉得真正可贵的,不是政治上的国家,而是有创造性的、有感情的个人,是人格;只有个人才能创造出高尚的和卓越的东西,而群众本身在思想上总是迟钝的,在感觉上也总是迟钝的。

  讲到这里,我想起了群众生活中最坏的一种表现,那就是使我厌恶的军事制度。一个人能够洋洋得意的随着军乐队在四列纵队里行进,单凭这一点就足以使我对他鄙夷不屑。他所以长了一个大脑,只是出于误会;光是骨髓就可满足他的全部需要了。文明的这种罪恶的渊薮,应当尽快加以消灭。任人支配的英雄主义、冷酷无情的暴行,以及在爱国主义名义下的一切可恶的胡闹,所有这些都使我深恶痛绝!在我看来,战争是多么卑鄙、下流!我宁愿被千刀万剐,也不愿参与这种可憎的勾当。尽管如此,我对人类的评价还是十分高的。我相信,要是人民的健康感情没有遭到那些通过学校和报纸而起作用的商业利益和政治利益的蓄意败坏,那么战争这个妖魔早就该绝迹了。

  我们能拥有的最美好的体验是探求奥秘的体验。它是坚守在真正艺术和真正科学发源地上的基本感情。谁要是体会不到它,谁要是不再有好奇心,也不再有惊讶的感觉,谁就无异于行尸走肉,他的眼睛便是模糊不清的。就是这种奥秘的体验──虽然掺杂着恐惧──产生了宗教。我们认识到有某种为我们所不能洞察的东西存在,感觉到那种只能以其最原始的形式接近我们的心灵的最深奥的理性和最灿烂的美──正是这种认识和这种情感构成了真正的宗教感情;在这个意义上,而且也只是在这个意义上,我才是一个具有深挚的宗教感情的人。我无法想象存在这样一个上帝,它会对自己的创造物加以赏罚,会具有我们在自己身上所体验到的那种意志。我不能也不愿去想象一个人在肉体死亡以后还会继续活着;让那些脆弱的灵魂,由于恐惧或者由于可笑的唯我论,去拿这种思想当宝贝吧!我自己只求满足于生命永恒的奥秘,满足于觉察现存世界的神奇结构,窥见它的一鳞半爪,并且以诚挚的努力去领悟在自然界中显示出来的那个理性的一部分,倘若真能如此,即使只领悟其极小的一部分,我也就心满意足了。

Popular posts from 产品随想的博客

Interview at the All Things Digital D5 Conference, Steve and Bill Gates spoke with journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg onstage in May 2007.

Kara Swisher: The first question I was interested in asking is what you think each has contributed to the computer and technology industry— starting with you, Steve, for Bill, and vice versa. Steve Jobs: Well, Bill built the first software company in the industry. And I think he built the first software company before anybody really in our industry knew what a software company was, except for these guys. And that was huge. That was really huge. And the business model that they ended up pursuing turned out to be the one that worked really well for the industry. I think the biggest thing was, Bill was really focused on software before almost anybody else had a clue that it was really the software that— KS: Was important? SJ: That’s what I see. I mean, a lot of other things you could say, but that’s the high-order bit. And I think building a company’s really hard, and it requires your greatest persuasive abilities to hire the best ...

Commencement Address at Stanford University--“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

I am honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told— I never graduated from college. This is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months but then stayed around as a drop-in for another eighteen months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting...

产品随想 | 周刊 第43期:历史上的今天

Products Huberman Lab   https://hubermanlab.com/ 一款聚焦于健康的播客 今日热榜   https://tophub.today/ 聚合展示,国内各热门榜单,对跟进热点非常有帮助,热点运营的好帮手 SketchyBar   https://github.com/FelixKratz/SketchyBar A highly customizable macOS status bar replacement Mac菜单栏定制 自定义程度很高,看作者展示的案例,暂时没想出这样的好处(不过应用本身的编辑,确实也没啥意义)生命在于折腾吧! Thanks-Mirror   https://github.com/eryajf/Thanks-Mirror 整理记录各个包管理器,系统镜像,以及常用软件的好用镜像,Thanks Mirror。 Musicn   https://github.com/zonemeen/musicn 一个下载高品质音乐的命令行工具,音乐来源: 咪咕 Planet Minecraft A creative Minecraft community fansite sharing maps, minecraft skins, resource packs, servers, mods, and more. 里面有很多动人的故事 可能是世界上最大的Minecraft社区,从2010年至今 The Uncensored Library   https://www.uncensoredlibrary.com/en blockworks   https://www.blockworks.uk/ "Distinctive maps for Minecraft that have educated players and risen to the level of art" 游戏也可以让人有更高的实现,而不仅仅是沉迷其中,国外游戏厂商比我们做的好太多 Minecraft_Memory_Bypass_GUI   https://github.com/xingchuanzhen/Minecraft_Memory_Bypass_GUI 绕过Minecraft...

巴菲特致股东信-1976年

 笔记: 为什么选择轻资产行业:当竞争疯狂时,不会强迫加入降价大战 最终选择了费雪的思想,选择能理解的优秀企业,以合理的价格买入并长期拥有 翻译: 雪球:https://xueqiu.com/6217262310/131440258 备份:https://archive.ph/XLK0S 原文: To the Stockholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, After two dismal years, operating results in 1976 improved significantly. Last year we said the degree of progress in insurance underwriting would determine whether our gain in earnings would be "moderate" or "major." As it turned out, earnings exceeded even the high end of our expectations. In large part, this was due to the outstanding efforts of Phil Liesche's managerial group at National Indemnity Company. In dollar terms, operating earnings came to $16,073,000, or $16.47 per share. While this is a record figure, we consider return on shareholders' equity to be a much more significant yardstick of economic performance. Here our result was 17.3%, moderately above our long-term average and even further above the average o...

巴菲特致股东信-1973年

 笔记: 在上一年度预测的今年竞争加剧导致利润下滑,真的发生了 翻译Link: 雪球:https://xueqiu.com/6217262310/131257618 备份:https://archive.ph/KIfdT 原文: To the Stockholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: Our financial results for 1973 were satisfactory, with operating earnings of $11,930,592, producing a return of 17.4% on beginning stockholders' equity. Although operating earnings improved from $11.43 to $12.18 per share, earnings on equity decreased from the 19.8% of 1972. This decline occurred because the gain in earnings was not commensurate with the increase in shareholders' investment. We had forecast in last year's report that such a decline was likely. Unfortunately, our forecast proved to be correct. Our textile, banking, and most insurance operations had good years, but certain segments of the insurance business turned in poor results. Overall, our insurance business continues to be a most attractive area in which to employ capital. Management'...

巴菲特致股东信-1975年

 笔记: 华盛顿邮报已成为伯克希尔第一重仓股 翻译: 雪球:https://xueqiu.com/6217262310/131409324 备份:https://archive.ph/4hgK3 原文: To the Stockholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: Last year, when discussing the prospects for 1975, we stated “the outlook for 1975 is not encouraging.” This forecast proved to be distressingly accurate. Our operating earnings for 1975 were $6,713,592, or $6.85 per share, producing a return on beginning shareholders ’ equity of 7.6%. This is the lowest return on equity experienced since 1967. Furthermore, as explained later in this letter, a large segment of these earnings resulted from Federal income tax refunds which will not be available to assist performance in 1976. On balance, however, current trends indicate a somewhat brighter 1976. Operations and prospects will be discussed in greater detail below, under specific industry titles. Our expectation is that significantly better results in textiles, earnings added from recent acquisitio...

Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone on January 9, 2007.

This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two and a half years. Link Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. And Apple has been— well, first of all, one’s very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple’s been very fortunate. It’s been able to introduce a few of these into the world. In 1984, we introduced the Macintosh. It didn’t just change Apple, it changed the whole computer industry. In 2001, we introduced the first iPod, and it didn’t just change the way we all listen to music, it changed the entire music industry. Well, today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough internet communications device. So, three things: a widescreen iPod with touch controls; a revolutionary mobile phone; and a breakthrough internet communicat...

产品随想 | 周刊 第90期:史家之绝唱,无韵之离骚

Why AI Will Save the World   https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/ Marc Andreessen的雄文,十分有說服力,邏輯清晰 辯證了現今AI監管拋出的5個可能的AI問題 讀的過程中,腦海裏浮現的都是編程隨想那篇文章 为什么马克思是错的?——全面批判马列主义的知名著作导读   https://program-think.blogspot.com/2018/09/Book-Review-The-Errors-of-Marxism-Leninism.html 兩者的思維鏈條、敘事方式,非常相似 人民聖殿教   https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/人民圣殿教?useskin=vector 瓊斯自稱是神的化身,幾千年前轉世為釋迦牟尼,創建了佛教;後來又轉世為耶穌基督,創建了基督教;之後短期化身轉世為巴孛,建立巴哈伊信仰;最後轉世為列寧,將社會主義發揚光大。 邪教徒聲稱自己轉世成了列寧,這說明了什麼? Apple Vision   https://stratechery.com/2023/apple-vision Omnivore   https://github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore Omnivore is a complete, open source read-it-later solution for people who like reading. How the YouTube Algorithm Works in 2023: The Complete Guide   https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-the-youtube-algorithm-works/#A_brief_history_of_the_YouTube_algorithm 外人眼中的YouTube推薦算法變遷 Histography   https://histography.io/ “Histography" is interactive timeline that spans across 14 billion years of history, f...

巴菲特致股东信-1974年

 笔记: 价格战企业的逻辑:需要降价获取销量--->需要降低成本--->怎么降?扩大规模以摊低成本--->提高固定资产投入--->净资产回报率会降低 翻译: 雪球:https://xueqiu.com/6217262310/131257947 备份:https://archive.ph/5CEP6 原文: To the Stockholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: Operating results for 1974 overall were unsatisfactory due to the poor performance of our insurance business. In last year's annual report some decline in profitability was predicted but the extent of this decline, which accelerated during the year, was a surprise. Operating earnings for 1974 were $8,383,576, or $8.56 per share, for a return on beginning shareholders' equity of 10.3%. This is the lowest return on equity realized since 1970. Our textile division and our bank both performed very well, turning in improved results against the already good figures of 1973. However, insurance underwriting, which has been mentioned in the last several annual reports as running at levels of unsustainable profitability, turned dramatically worse...

Interview with Steve Jobs, WGBH, 1990

Interviewer: what is it about this machine? Why is this machine so interesting? Why has it been so influential? Jobs: Ah ahm, I'll give you my point of view on it. I remember reading a magazine article a long time ago ah when I was ah twelve years ago maybe, in I think it was Scientific American . I'm not sure. And the article ahm proposed to measure the efficiency of locomotion for ah lots of species on planet earth to see which species was the most efficient at getting from point A to point B. Ah and they measured the kilocalories that each one expended. So ah they ranked them all and I remember that ahm...ah the Condor, Condor was the most efficient at [CLEARS THROAT] getting from point A to point B. And humankind, the crown of creation came in with a rather unimpressive showing about a third of the way down...