直觉与潜意识（三）

这就是事实。现在说说从这之中我们不得不接受的东西。潜意识，或者说，潜意识的自我在数学创造中扮演着重要的角色，这是我们所说的。但通常潜意识自我被认为是完全自动的。现在我们已经知道，数学工作不是简单的机械工作，它无法由机器完成，无论这台机器多么完美。数学工作不仅仅是一个应用规则的问题，也不仅仅是一个根据某些固定的法则进行最多的组合的问题。这样得到的组合将是非常多的，无用的且累赘的。创造者的真正工作是在这些组合中进行选择，以消除无用的组合，或者更确切地说，避免创造出它们，因为这很麻烦，而指导这种选择的规则是非常精细和细致的。要精确地描述它们（指潜意识的指导）几乎是不可能的，它们是一种感觉，没法形式化地表达出来。你能够想象出一个能够自动将这些组合筛选出来的筛子吗？

A first hypothesis now presents itself; the subliminal self is in no way inferior to the conscious self; it is not purely automatic; it is capable of discernment; it has tact, delicacy; it knows how to choose, to divine. What do I say? It knows better how to divine than the conscious self, since it succeeds where that has failed. In a word, is not the subliminal self superior to the conscious self? You recognize the full importance of this question...

现在出现了第一个假设：潜意识的自我并不亚于意识的自我、它不是完全自动的、它有辨别能力、它机智且细腻、它懂得如何选择，如何占卜。我该说什么？它比有意识的自我更懂得如何占卜，因为它在有意识失败的地方成功了。总而言之，潜意识的自我难道不高于意识的自我吗？你意识到了这个问题的全部重要性……

Is this affirmative answer forced upon us by the facts I have just given? I confess that, for my part, I should hate to accept it. Re-examine the facts then and see if they are not compatible with another explanation.

通过我刚才所讲的事实，能给出这个肯定的回答吗？我承认，就我而言，我不愿接受它。然后重新检查这些事实，看看它们是否与另一种解释不一致。

It is certain that the combinations which present themselves to the mind in a sort of sudden illumination, after an unconscious working somewhat prolonged, are generally useful and fertile combinations, which seem the result of a first impression. Does it follow that the subliminal self, having divined by a delicate intuition that these combinations would be useful, has formed only these, or has it rather formed many others which were lacking in interest and have remained unconscious?

可以肯定的是，这种经过长时间的无意识工作后，以一种突然的顿悟的方式出现在头脑中的组合，通常都是有用的、丰富的组合，这似乎是第一印象的结果。这是否意味着，潜意识的自我，究竟是已经通过一种微妙的直觉推测出这些组合是有用的，所以只形成了这些组合，还是在这过程中也形成了许多无用的组合，但它们被留在了潜意识中？

In this second way of looking at it, all the combinations would be formed in consequence of the automatism of the subliminal self, but only the interesting ones would break into the domain of consciousness. And this is still very mysterious. What is the cause that, among the thousand products of our unconscious activity, some are called to pass the threshold, while others remain below? Is it a simple chance which confers this privilege? Evidently not; among all the stimuli of our senses, for example, only the most intense fix our attention, unless it has been drawn to them by other causes. More generally the privileged unconscious phenomena, those susceptible of becoming conscious, are those which, directly or indirectly, affect most profoundly our emotional sensibility.

从另一种角度来看，所有的组合都是由潜意识自我的自动性形成的，但只有有趣的组合才会进入意识领域。这仍然很神秘。在我们潜意识活动的上千个产物中，有一些能够跨过门槛走进意识，而另一些则被留在了潜意识中，这是什么原因呢？是一个简单的机会赋予这种通向意识的特权吗？显然不是。例如，在我们所有的感官刺激中，除非被其他原因吸引，否则只有最强烈的刺激能吸引我们的注意力。更普遍地说，那些拥有特权的无意识现象，就是那些容易变得有意识的现象，是那些直接或间接地最深刻地影响我们的情感敏感性的现象。

It may be surprising to see emotional sensibility invoked à propos of mathematical demonstrations which, it would seem, can interest only the intellect. This would be to forget the feeling of mathematical beauty, of the harmony of numbers and forms, of geometric elegance. This is a true esthetic feeling that all real mathematicians know, and surely it belongs to emotional sensibility.

在数学论证上提到情感敏感性可能会使人感到惊讶，因为数学论证似乎只与智力有关。但这样说的话就忽略了数学之美，忽略了数与形的和谐、几何的优雅。而这是所有真正的数学家都能感受到的一种真实的美感，所以这当然也属于情感上的感性。

Now, what are the mathematic entities to which we attribute this character of beauty and elegance, and which are capable of developing in us a sort of esthetic emotion? They are those whose elements are harmoniously disposed so that the mind without effort can embrace their totality while realizing the details. This harmony is at once a satisfaction of our esthetic needs and an aid to the mind, sustaining and guiding. And at the same time, in putting under our eyes a well-ordered whole, it makes us foresee a mathematical law... Thus it is this special esthetic sensibility which plays the role of the delicate sieve of which I spoke, and that sufficiently explains why the one lacking it will never be a real creator.

那么，是什么数学实体让我们能够赋予它们美丽和优雅的特性，哪些数学实体能够在我们身上发展一种审美情感？是那些被和谐地摆放的元素，这样头脑才可以毫不费力地拥抱它们的整体，同时掌握细节。这种和谐既满足了我们的审美需要，又帮助了我们思考，使我们能够跟上节奏并提供指导。同时，在审视这些有序的整体时，我们预见了一个数学定律……因此，正是这种特殊的审美敏感性发挥了我之前所说的精致的筛子的作用，这充分解释了为什么没有它的人永远无法成为一个真正的创造者。

Yet all the difficulties have not disappeared. The conscious self is narrowly limited, and as for the subliminal self we know not its limitations, and this is why we are not too reluctant in supposing that it has been able in a short time to make more different combinations than the whole life of a conscious being could encompass. Yet these limitations exist. Is it likely that it is able to form all the possible combinations, whose number would frighten the imagination? Nevertheless that would seem necessary, because if it produces only a small part of these combinations, and if it makes them at random, there would be small chance that the good, the one we should choose, would be found among them.

然而，所有的困难并没有消失。有意识的自我是狭隘且受限的。至于潜意识自我，我们不知道它的局限性，这就是为什么我们不太情愿做出之前的假设，因为它似乎可以在很短的时间内产生许多组合数量，比意识自我一生中所能产生的组合数量还要多。然而，潜意识的局限性问题仍然存在。它是否可能形成所有可能的，超乎你想象之多的组合？这似乎必需的，因为如果它只产生这些组合中的一小部分，如果它只是随机产生这些组合，那么在这些组合中找到我们需要的那个好的组合的概率就很小。

Perhaps we ought to seek the explanation in that preliminary period of conscious work which always precedes all fruitful unconscious labor. Permit me a rough comparison. Figure the future elements of our combinations as something like the hooked atoms of Epicurus. During the complete repose of the mind, these atoms are motionless, they are, so to speak, hooked to the wall...

也许我们应该向最初有意识工作的阶段寻求解释，它总是先于所有卓有成效的无意识劳动。请允许我做一个粗略的比较。把我们未来的组合元素想象成伊壁鸠鲁的钩状原子。在思想完全休息的时间内，这些原子是静止的，可以说，它们是挂在墙上的……

On the other hand, during a period of apparent rest and unconscious work, certain of them are detached from the wall and put in motion. They flash in every direction through the space (I was about to say the room) where they are enclosed, as would, for example, a swarm of gnats or, if you prefer a more learned comparison, like the molecules of gas in the kinematic theory of gases. Then their mutual impacts may produce new combinations.

另一方面，在一段明显的休息和无意识的工作期间，它们中的某些原子会脱离墙壁，开始活动。它们在封闭的空间（我正想说房间）中向各个方向闪去，就像一群蚊子，或者，如果你喜欢更有学问的比较，就像气体运动学理论中的气体分子。然后，它们的相互影响可能产生新的组合。

What is the role of the preliminary conscious work? It is evidently to mobilize certain of these atoms, to unhook them from the wall and put them in swing. We think we have done no good, because we have moved these elements a thousand different ways in seeking to assemble them, and have found no satisfactory aggregate. But, after this shaking up imposed upon them by our will, these atoms do not return to their primitive rest. They freely continue their dance.

数学联邦政治世界观提示您：看后求收藏（笔尖小说网http://www.bjxsw.cc），接着再看更方便。