[bssd]极左的理论巨擘# Stock
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选自Albert Einstein: <>:
Man is, at one and the same time, a solitary being and a social being. As a
solitary being, he attempts to protect his own existence and that of those
who are closest to him, to satisfy his personal desires, and to develop his
innate abilities. As a social being, he seeks to gain the recognition and
affection of his fellow human beings, to share in their pleasures, to
comfort them in their sorrows, and to improve their conditions of life. Only
the existence of these varied, frequently conflicting, strivings accounts
for the special character of a man, and their specific combination
determines the extent to which an individual can achieve an inner
equilibrium and can contribute to the well-being of society. It is quite
possible that the relative strength of these two drives is, in the main,
fixed by inheritance. But the personality that finally emerges is largely
formed by the environment in which a man happens to find himself during his
development, by the structure of the society in which he grows up, by the
tradition of that society, and by its appraisal of particular types of
behavior. The abstract concept “society” means to the individual human
being the sum total of his direct and indirect relations to his
contemporaries and to all the people of earlier generations. The individual
is able to think, feel, strive, and work by himself; but he depends so much
upon society—in his physical, intellectual, and emotional existence—that
it is impossible to think of him, or to understand him, outside the
framework of society. It is “society” which provides man with food,
clothing, a home, the tools of work, language, the forms of thought, and
most of the content of thought; his life is made possible through the labor
and the accomplishments of the many millions past and present who are all
hidden behind the small word “society.”
Man is, at one and the same time, a solitary being and a social being. As a
solitary being, he attempts to protect his own existence and that of those
who are closest to him, to satisfy his personal desires, and to develop his
innate abilities. As a social being, he seeks to gain the recognition and
affection of his fellow human beings, to share in their pleasures, to
comfort them in their sorrows, and to improve their conditions of life. Only
the existence of these varied, frequently conflicting, strivings accounts
for the special character of a man, and their specific combination
determines the extent to which an individual can achieve an inner
equilibrium and can contribute to the well-being of society. It is quite
possible that the relative strength of these two drives is, in the main,
fixed by inheritance. But the personality that finally emerges is largely
formed by the environment in which a man happens to find himself during his
development, by the structure of the society in which he grows up, by the
tradition of that society, and by its appraisal of particular types of
behavior. The abstract concept “society” means to the individual human
being the sum total of his direct and indirect relations to his
contemporaries and to all the people of earlier generations. The individual
is able to think, feel, strive, and work by himself; but he depends so much
upon society—in his physical, intellectual, and emotional existence—that
it is impossible to think of him, or to understand him, outside the
framework of society. It is “society” which provides man with food,
clothing, a home, the tools of work, language, the forms of thought, and
most of the content of thought; his life is made possible through the labor
and the accomplishments of the many millions past and present who are all
hidden behind the small word “society.”