哈佛大學 Michael Sandel 教授《正義：一場思辨之旅》開放式課程名聞遐邇座無虛席，一十二講談論『道德決定』的『困境』。

如果我們連『美德』是什麼都不知道︰

美諾篇

《美諾篇（Meno）》，是柏拉圖記載的蘇格拉底對話錄，以蘇格拉底對話體寫成。其試圖確定德行（virtue）的定義。是德行的本質定義，而非某些特定的美德（如正義與節制等）。目標在於一個普適的定義，適用於一切特定的德行。

簡介

開篇

• 美諾向蘇格拉底請教：「德行是什麼？」
• 蘇格拉底一如既往地回答：「不知道。」
• 美諾便列舉了很多類型的例子：男人德、女人德、奴隸德、兒童德等。蘇格拉底並不接受這些解說。他想知道，到底是什麼特性（quality）使得這些行為被稱做德行。

 

將要如何免於『悖論』的呢？

Meno’s paradox

Meno asks Socrates: “And how will you inquire into a thing when you are wholly ignorant of what it is? Even if you happen to bump right into it, how will you know it is the thing you didn’t know?“^[9] Socrates rephrases the question, which has come to be the canonical statement of the paradox: “[A] man cannot search either for what he knows or for what he does not know[.] He cannot search for what he knows–since he knows it, there is no need to search–nor for what he does not know, for he does not know what to look for.“^[10]

 

真相真的是『靈魂』之『遺忘』與『回憶』耶？？

Dialogue with Meno’s slave

Socrates responds to this sophistical paradox with a mythos (poetic story) according to which souls are immortal and have learned everything prior to transmigrating into the human body. Since the soul has had contact with real things prior to birth, we have only to ‘recollect’ them when alive. Such recollection requires Socratic questioning, which according to Socrates is not teaching. Socrates demonstrates his method of questioning and recollection by interrogating a slave who is ignorant of geometry.

Socrates begins one of the most influential dialogues of Western philosophy regarding the argument for inborn knowledge. By drawing geometric figures in the ground Socrates demonstrates that the slave is initially unaware of the length that a side must be in order to double the area of a square with two-foot sides. The slave guesses first that the original side must be doubled in length (four feet), and when this proves too much, that it must be three feet. This is still too much, and the slave is at a loss.

Socrates claims that before he got hold of him the slave (who has been picked at random from Meno’s entourage) might have thought he could speak “well and fluently” on the subject of a square double the size of a given square.^[11] Socrates comments that this “numbing” he caused in the slave has done him no harm and has even benefited him.^[12]

Socrates then draws a second square figure using the diagonal of the original square. Each diagonal cuts each two foot square in half, yielding an area of two square feet. The square composed of four of the eight interior triangular areas is eight square feet, double that of the original area. He gets the slave to agree that this is twice the size of the original square and says that he has “spontaneously recovered” knowledge he knew from a past life^[13] without having been taught. Socrates is satisfied that new beliefs were “newly aroused” in the slave.

After witnessing the example with the slave boy, Meno tells Socrates that he thinks that Socrates is correct in his theory of recollection, to which Socrates replies, “I think I am. I shouldn’t like to take my oath on the whole story, but one thing I am ready to fight for as long as I can, in word and act—that is, that we shall be better, braver, and more active men if we believe it right to look for what we don’t know…”^[14] It has been argued variously that this implies Socrates is skeptical regarding knowledge or that he is a pragmatist.^{[citation needed]} It also prepares us for the subsequent discussion of knowledge by hypothesis.

This demonstration shows the slave capable of learning a geometrical truth, because “he already has the knowledge in his soul.”^{[citation needed]} In this way, Socrates shows Meno that learning is possible through recollection, and that the learner’s paradox is false. Meno’s paradox claims that learning is impossible, but the examination of the slave shows that it is possible.

───

 

既然人類身體百分之六十是『水』

Elements of the body by mass

 

焉不先想水是什麼乎！

 

“Quantum Water” Discovered in Carbon Nanotubes

A new quantum state of water found in carbon nanotubes at room temperature could have important implications for life

• January 28, 2011

Many astrobiologists think that water is a key ingredient for life. And not just because life on Earth can’t manage without it.

 

Water has a weird set of properties that other chemicals simply do not share. One famous example is that water expands when it freezes, ensuring that ice floats rather than sinks. That’s important because if it didn’t, lakes and oceans would freeze from the bottom upwards, making it hard for complex life to survive and evolve.

These and other properties are the result of water molecules’ ability to form hydrogen bonds with each other and this gives these molecules some very special properties.

Today, George Reiter at the University of Houston and a few buddies put forward evidence that water is stranger than anybody thought. In fact, they go as far as to say that when confined on the nanometre scale, it forms into an entirely new type of quantum water.

 

或許那靈魂正在觀水也！！

《 論水 》

【論語 ‧雍也第六】

子曰：知者樂水，仁者樂山；知者動，仁者靜；知者樂，仁者壽。

老子【道德经第八章】

上善若水，水善利萬物而不爭，處為人之所惡，故幾於道。居善地 ，心善淵，與善仁，言善信，正善治，事善能，動善時。夫唯不爭 ，故無尤。

【荀子‧王制】

君者，舟也；庶人者，水也；水則载舟， 水則覆舟。

漢朝 韓嬰【韓詩外傳‧卷三】

問者曰：「夫智者何以樂於水也？」曰：「夫水者，緣理而行，不遺小間，似有智者；動而下之，似有禮者；蹈深不疑，似有勇者 ；障防而清，似知命者；歷險致遠，卒成不毀，似有德者。天地以成，群物以生，國家以寧，萬事以平，品物以正。此智者所以樂於水也。」《詩》曰：「思樂泮水，薄采其茆。魯侯戾止，在泮飲酒。」樂水之謂也。

問者曰：「夫仁者何以樂於山也？」曰：「夫山者、萬民之所瞻仰也 。草木生焉，萬物植焉，飛鳥集焉，走獸休焉，四方益取與焉 ，出雲道風，嵷乎天地之間。天地以成，國家以寧。此仁者所以樂於山也。」《詩》曰：「太山巖巖，魯邦所瞻。」樂山之謂也。

─── 摘自《觀水》