#读书写字24 –MereChristianity” – Boo

【背景】四月份收到的礼物--这本C.S.Lewis的经典合集，惊喜地发现身边居然不少C.S.Lewis的粉丝；七月份组织了一个英文读书会Book Club，计划从第一本Mere Christianity开始慢慢读。于是就有了这个 “Daily Post”系列。

Book 1 Chapter 2 -- Some Objections第一卷 第二章 :一些反对意见

In this Chapter, Lewis stars with further strengtheningthe established foundations:这一章Lewis首先进一步巩固第一章已经建立的基本点：

1. The Law of Nature is distinct from “our herd instinct.” An instinct is a strong desire to act in a certain way, similar to mother love or sexual instinct. However, feeling a desire to help is quite different from feeling that you ought to help. When two conflicting desires arise, a third impulse emerges, instructing you to follow one desire and suppress the other. The Moral Law dictates the tune we must play; our instincts are merely the keys.自然法则与“我们的群体本能”是不同的。本能是以某种方式行动的强烈欲望，类似于母爱或性本能。然而，“感到想要帮助他人”与“感到应该帮助他人”截然不同。当两种相互冲突的欲望出现时，会有第三种冲动出现，指示你追随一种欲望并压制另一种欲望。用钢琴做比喻:道德法则规定了我们应该演奏的旋律，而我们的本能只是钢琴上的音符。

2. The Moral Law is not merely one of our instincts. When two instincts conflict, and a creature’s mind contains nothing but those two instincts, the stronger one naturally prevails. However, the Moral Law often seems to urge us to side with the weaker impulse.  The thing that tells you which note on the piano should be played louder cannot itself be that note.道德律不仅仅是我们的本能之一。当两种本能发生冲突，而一个生物的头脑中只有这两种本能时，较强的本能自然会占上风。然而，道德法则往往促使我们支持较弱的冲动。告诉你哪个钢琴键应该弹得更响的东西，不能是那个键本身。

3. The 3rd way of seeing the Moral Law is different with our impulses is to recognize that it is a mistake to label some impulse as good and others a bad. Consider a piano: it doesn’t have the ‘right’notes and the ‘wrong’ notes; Each note can be right at one time and wrong at another. The Moral Law is not any one instinct or sets of instincts; It orchestrates the instincts to create a tune.认识到道德法则与我们的冲动不同的第三种方式是，将某些冲动标记为好而将其他冲动标记为坏是错误 的。想想一架钢琴：它没有“正确”的音符和“错误”的音符；每个音符在某个时间点可以是正确的，而在另一个时间点则是错误的。道德法则不是任何一种本能或一组本能；它协调这些本能，从而创造出和谐的旋律。

 He keeps explaining on this 3rd point, quote:

Thispoint is of great practical consequence. The most dangerous thing you can do isto take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you oughtto follow at all costs. There is not one of them which will not make us intodevils if we set it up as an absolute guide.

This serves as acrucial reminder and warning to us all. Looking back at the history of mankind and observing our current world, we can see that nearly all evil deeds are rooted in what are considered 'good' or 'right' motives. Thanks to Lewis's examples here, even 'love of humanity in general' or 'patriotism,' if left unchecked or pursued solely for 'humanity' or 'patriotism,' can lead to evil actions. Lewis继续论述以上第三点；

这一点具有重要的实际意义。你能做的最危险的事情就是将你自身本性的某一种冲动设定为你不惜一切代价都应该遵循的东西。如果我们把任何一种冲动设定为绝对的指引，它们都会使我们变成恶魔。

—这是对我们所有人的重要提醒和警告。回顾人类历史，并观察我们当前的世界，我们可以看到几乎所有的恶行都根植于被认为是“好的”或“正确的”动机。感谢Lewis在此提供的例子--即使是‘普遍的人性之爱’或‘爱国主义’，这样的特质，如果不加以控制或单纯为了‘人性’或‘爱国主义’而加以追求，也会导致邪恶的行为。

Lewis continuously deliberates the difference between the Moral Law and social convention.  He discusses two types of social conventions: absolute ones, which are real truths like mathematical conventions, and relative ones, such as whether to walk on the left or right side of the road. He argues that the Moral law aligns to the former, the mathematical type. And by comparing one moral law to another, we imply a standard or real truth exists to measure their goodness or badness. Lewis继续讨论道德律与社会习俗之间的区别。他讨论了两种类型的社会习俗：绝对的习俗，比如数学公理；以及相对的习俗，比如在道路的左侧或右侧行走。他认为，道德律与前者，即数学类型的绝对真理相符。而通过将一种道德律与另一种进行比较，我们其实隐含地认为存在一个衡量它们好坏的标准或真实的真理。

Lewis’ clarification of the two types of social conventions—absolute versus relative—helps us counter the prevailing relativism in current socialnorms, which suggests that 'you have your truth and I have my truth' and‘something may be true in one circumstance but not in another’ etc. However,the existence of 'relative truth' does not deny the existence of absolute truth. Absolute truths and falsehoods exist in this universe. We cannot simply turn a blind eye and choose what is true for our own advantage. Lewis对两种社会习俗——绝对与相对——的澄清，有助于我们反驳当前社会规范中普遍存在的相对主义，这种相对主义认为“你有你的真理，我有我的真理”，以及“某些观念在一种情况下是真实的，但在另一种情况下就未必”等等。然而，相对真理的存在并不否认绝对真理的存在；在这个宇宙中，绝对的真与假是存在的。我们不能简单地视而不见，也不能为了自己的利益选择对我们有利的真理。这种观念挑战了当前流行的道德相对主义；在这种相对主义中，个人的信念和观点被视为等同于客观的现实。然而，Lewis通过将道德律与数学公理进行类比，强调了某些真理具有普遍的有效性和不可动摇的真实性；他提醒我们，在评判不同的道德律时，我们实际上是在暗示存在一个衡量其善恶的标准或真实的真理。因此，我们必须认识到，尽管在某些情况下，相对真理可能有其适用性，但绝对真理是不可忽视的存在，并且这种存在为我们的道德和行为提供了一个不可或缺的框架和指南。

Inconclusion, though people’s ideas of decent behavior vary, these differences actually underscore the existence of a natural Moral Law. Ultimately, he notes that those who exaggerate the differences often fail to distinguish between morality and different beliefs about facts. We no longer execute witches because we do not believe in their existence, not because our morals havechanged. 总的来说，尽管人们对体面（正确）行为的看法各不相同，但这些差异实际上强调了自然道德法则的存在。最终，Lewis指出，那些夸大这些差异的人常常是由于未能区分对道德和对事实的不同信念。我们不再处决女巫，不是因为我们的道德观念发生了变化，而是因为我们不再相信她们的存在。