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說到Tony,他是我的學生,跟我差不多年紀,他在聖昆汀州立監獄服刑。Tony十六歲時,在某天某個時刻-「這是我媽的槍,把它亮出來嚇嚇那個傢伙,他是個小流氓,他偷了點錢,我們也如法炮製,給他點教訓。然而,在最後一刻,我想,『不能這麼做,這是不對的。』我朋友說,『來吧,快動手。』於是我說,『動手吧!』」Tony永遠忘不了這三個字,因為接下來他只聽見砰的一聲,那個小流氓倒在地上,躺在一灘血泊中。這是謀殺重罪-刑度是25年到終生監禁,幸運的話能在50歲假釋,而Tony不覺得這有什麼幸運。
所以,當我們在獄中的哲學課見面時,我說,「在這堂課中,我們將會討論道德的基礎。」Tony打斷我的話,「你打算教我對錯是什麼嗎?我知道什麼是錯,我已經錯了,每一天,我看到的每一張臉,我面對的每一堵牆,都告訴我我錯了。如果我有機會離開這裡,我的名字將永遠帶著一個標記;我是個罪犯,我早已被烙上『犯錯』的標籤,你還能告訴我什麼關於對錯的事?」
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以下為系統擷取之英文原文
Meet Tony. He's my student. He's about my age, and he's in San Quentin State Prison.When Tony was 16 years old, one day, one moment, "It was mom's gun. Just flash it, scare the guy. He's a punk. He took some money; we'll take his money. That'll teach him.Then last minute, I'm thinking, 'Can't do this. This is wrong.' My buddy says, 'C'mon, let's do this.' I say, 'Let's do this.'" And those three words, Tony's going to remember, because the next thing he knows, he hears the pop. There's the punk on the ground, puddle of blood. And that's felony murder -- 25 to life, parole at 50 if you're lucky, and Tony's not feeling very lucky.
So when we meet in my philosophy class in his prison and I say, "In this class, we will discuss the foundations of ethics," Tony interrupts me. "What are you going to teach me about right and wrong? I know what is wrong. I have done wrong. I am told every day, by every face I see, every wall I face, that I am wrong. If I ever get out of here, there will always be a mark by my name. I'm a convict; I am branded 'wrong.' What are you going to tell me about right and wrong?"
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我對Tony說,「抱歉,但它比你想像的還糟。你認為你知道什麼是對錯?那你能告訴我什麼是錯嗎?不,不要單給我一個例子,我想知道錯的本質,錯的概念。其中的概念是什麼?什麼因素導致錯誤的形成?我們怎麼知道那是錯的?也許你和我有不同的看法,也許我們其中一個對錯的理解是錯的,也許是你,也許是我-但我們來這裡不是為了交換意見,每個人都有自己的意見,我們是為了知識而來,我們的敵人是拒絕思考,這就是哲學。」
Tony似乎有所領悟。「或許是我錯了,我不想再錯下去了,我想知道什麼是錯,我想知道我瞭解些什麼。」在那一刻,Tony明白了哲學這門學科的概念。這門始於懷疑的學科-這就是康德(德國哲學家)所謂的「欽佩和敬畏上方廣闊的星空,及其中所蘊含的道德法則。」像人類這樣的生物對這種事能理解多少?這是門總是將我們帶往存在問題的學科-這就是海德格(德國哲學家)所謂的「已然存在」。這是門質疑我們相信什麼和為什麼相信的學科,也就是蘇格拉底所謂的「經檢視的人生」。蘇格拉底,一位有足夠智慧瞭解自己一無所知的人。蘇格拉底死在獄中,但他的哲學長存於世。
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So I say to Tony, "Sorry, but it's worse than you think. You think you know right and wrong?Then can you tell me what wrong is? No, don't just give me an example. I want to know about wrongness itself, the idea of wrong. What is that idea? What makes something wrong? How do we know that it's wrong? Maybe you and I disagree. Maybe one of us is wrong about the wrong. Maybe it's you, maybe it's me -- but we're not here to trade opinions; everyone's got an opinion. We are here for knowledge. Our enemy is thoughtlessness. This is philosophy."
And something changes for Tony. "Could be I'm wrong. I'm tired of being wrong. I want to know what is wrong. I want to know what I know." What Tony sees in that moment is the project of philosophy, the project that begins in wonder -- what Kant called "admiration and awe at the starry sky above and the moral law within." What can creatures like us know of such things? It is the project that always takes us back to the condition of existence -- what Heidegger called "the always already there." It is the project of questioning what we believe and why we believe it -- what Socrates called "the examined life." Socrates, a man wise enough to know that he knows nothing. Socrates died in prison, his philosophy intact.
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因此,Tony開始進行他的探索。他探索自己行事的原因和理由、前因和後果,他的邏輯、他的謬論,事實證明,Tony有哲學頭腦。他身處監獄,但心卻是自由的。Tony學習到本體論的繁雜、知識論的焦慮、道德論的曖昧和形而上學的荒謬,代表人物分別為柏拉圖、笛卡爾、尼采和比爾.柯林頓。
所以他交給我的期末報告裡,闡述康德的定然律令或許對處理日常生活衝突來說顯得太不近情理,並挑戰我告訴他,這是否就是導致我們道德失敗的原因?我說,「我不知道,我們不妨一起想想這個問題。」因為在那一刻,Tony的名字不帶有任何標記,僅僅是我們兩個人站在那裡,不是教授和罪犯,只是兩個準備探索哲學的心靈。於是,我對Tony說,「動手吧!」
謝謝。
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So Tony starts doing his homework. He learns his whys and wherefores, his causes and correlations, his logic, his fallacies. Turns out, Tony's got the philosophy muscle. His body is in prison, but his mind is free. Tony learns about the ontologically promiscuous, the epistemologically anxious, the ethically dubious, the metaphysically ridiculous. That's Plato, Descartes, Nietzsche and Bill Clinton.
So when he gives me his final paper, in which he argues that the categorical imperative is perhaps too uncompromising to deal with the conflict that affects our everyday and challenges me to tell him whether therefore we are condemned to moral failure, I say, "I don't know. Let us think about that." Because in that moment, there's no mark by Tony's name; it's just the two of us standing there. It is not professor and convict, it is just two minds ready to do philosophy. And I say to Tony, "Let's do this."
Thank you.