赤陶学派的意识论基础 Foundations of Erythrokeramism's Theory of Consciousness

一篇由绳结学派贤人撰写，为赤陶学派的存在意义进行辩护的文章。哲学意味浓厚。 An article written by a Nodist sage to defend the existence of Erythrokeramism. It is rich with philosophical meaning.

作者：绳结学派传人，阿普列尤斯

Author: Successor of the School of Nodism, Apuleius

赤陶学派从不为自己著书立说。这难免引人非议，使得「赤陶学派是否应该存在」这一争论，自从它诞生之初就不绝于耳。有鉴于此，鄙人撰写了这篇小文，以求从绳结学派的角度分析赤陶学派的存在合理性。本文不涉及任何复杂的数学知识，请各位学人放心阅读。

The School of Erythrokeramism has never published any monographs. This fact inevitably attracts criticism and means that the debate of "whether Erythrokeramism should even exist" has persisted since its conception. In light of this, I am writing this short article to analyze the rationality of the existence of the School of Erythrokeramism from the point of view of Nodism. This article will not contain any complex mathematical knowledge, so please read ahead without concern.

让我们先回忆一下赤陶学派的立派宗旨。据称，建立赤陶学派的贤者对此概括为：「通过感官直接提取的信息最为精炼，这些未经过度处理的素材构成了我们眼中最为宁静的世界。」也就是说，与绳结学派相反，赤陶学派拒绝从理性的角度理解、分析万物之间的关系，只考察自己的感官能够辨识到的那部分「世界」。

Let us first recall the original purpose of Erythrokeramism's founding. It is said that the sage who founded Erythrokeramism summarized this as being: "The information that we receive directly through our senses is the most pure. It is these materials that have not undergone excessive processing that form the most peaceful world we see." In other words, Erythrokeramism is in direct disagreement with Nodism and refuses understanding based on reason and the analysis of relationships between all things. They only examine the portion of the "world" that they can witness with their senses.

因此，非议者往往认为，在我等绳结学派的眼中，赤陶学派最为不值一哂——也因此总有人怂恿我等出面「提案撤销这一浪费树庭资源的学派」。

It is for this reason that critics often believe that Erythrokeramism must have the least value and validity in the eyes of us Nodists. It is also for this reason that people encourage us to "make a proposal to revoke the rights of this school which wastes the Grove's resources."

但很可惜，即使是单纯从学术价值考虑，绳结学派也并不赞同此种观点。于我等而言，赤陶学派恰恰是这样的一个绝佳范本：它力求保留下人类对于万物的潜意识反应，并以此帮助我们更精确地认知自己的心智究竟为何物。

Unfortunately for these people, if we are talking solely in terms of academic value, the Nodist School does not agree with this perspective. To us, the Erythrokeramists happen to be an outstanding example: They strive to preserve human subconscious reactions to all things and use this to obtain a clearer recognition of the exact nature of our minds.

说理难免抽象，还是举一个例子（或者说讲一个故事）吧。鄙人曾和赤陶学派的苏鲁琦珮女士等人共游奥赫玛，我们之间发生了如下这样的对话——

It is hard to expand on this without becoming overly abstract, so allow me to raise an example (or perhaps I should say tell a story). I once toured Okhema alongside Madam Socrippe of the Erythrokeramist School, and we had the following discussion:

阿普列尤斯（以下简称「阿」）：逻辑推理对于万物的意义，正如负世泰坦挺立云端。

Apuleius (Hereon shortened to "A"): Logical deduction is to all things, as the Worldbearing Titan raising the heavens is to humanity.

苏鲁琦珮（以下简称「苏」）：我同意，它们都是空中楼阁。

Socrippe (Hereon shortened to "S"): I agree, as they are no more than castles in the sky.

阿：此话怎讲？

A: What do you mean by this?

苏：负世泰坦虽挺立云端，云端之下却依旧黑潮汹涌。它拯救我们的方式，就是将我们保护在云端。楼阁可以建在空中——只不过它的用法必然是在下面搭个梯子。

S: Though the Worldbearing Titan has lifted the clouds, the black tide still rages beneath them. The method they used to rescue us was to raise us into the sky for our protection. A castle can be built in the sky — they just require a ladder to be of any use.

苏：至于你们绳结学派的主张，同样也是如此——你们的理智幸运地找到了一些永恒的真理，于是就紧抱它们不放，认为这样就能在变幻莫测的世间获得心灵的保全。

S: The same can be said for the views of you Nodists — you were fortunate enough to discover a number of eternal truths, so you cling to them. You believe that these truths will grant you spiritual safety in a world of constant change.

阿：真理就是真理，无所谓人是否拥抱它。

A: Truth is truth, whether people cling to it or not.

苏：所以真理对你来说是自然之美。

S: So truth to you is natural beauty.

阿：我不排斥这种说法。

A: I would not deny that claim.

苏：那么在我看来，绳结学派只不过给自己想象出了一套感官：它比眼睛看得更透彻，也比耳朵听得更清晰。

S: Then, in my eyes, the Nodist School has done no more than imagine a new set of senses for themselves: Senses that see in greater detail than the eyes and hear more clearly than the ears.

苏：——可恕我直言，这仍然是一个为了自我保护而搭建的空中楼阁。

S: ...But frankly, I still believe this to be no more than a castle in the sky built to protect yourselves.

阿：保护什么？

A: What is it that we are protecting?

苏：保护你们的心智，以弃绝泰坦赐予你们的一切感官的方式。你们的美学是通过幻想来实现的——现实中可不存在直线和圆，也不存在无穷和负数。

S: You are protecting your minds by abandoning the sensory functions that the Titans gifted you. Your aesthetics are realized through fantasy — there is no such thing as a perfectly straight line or round circle in this world, just as infinity or negative values do not truly exist.

阿：正因为现实中不存在这些，我们才需要它们来理解现实。

A: It is precisely because these things do not exist in reality that we require them to comprehend reality.

苏：那你们不过是在一个球上倒着行走。走了最远的路，只为了达到一个转身就能触碰的目标。

S: Then you are doing nothing more than walking backwards on a sphere. You took the longest possible route to arrive at a destination that would have been right behind you if you'd looked.

阿：即使你这样说，我也不认为放弃思考就能让我获得宁静。

A: You say that, but I do not believe that abandoning all thought will bring me peace.

苏：我没让你放弃思考。我只是建议你，去倾听感官都对你说些什么。你首先要容忍矛盾的存在，以此为前提，你才能拥有欣赏矛盾的眼睛。

S: I am not asking you to give up on all thoughts. I am just suggesting that you listen to what it is that your senses are telling you. You must first be able to accept the existence of contradictions. That is the prerequisite for being able to appreciate them.

苏：…啊。为了让你听懂，用你们学派的方式说话可真累。

S: ...Ah. Speaking in the manner of your school, just so you can understand me, is so exhausting.

阿：哦？用贵学派的方式，刚才的观点又应该如何表达？

A: Oh? Then how would you express the perspective you were proposing in your school's words?

苏：如果你是我的学生，我就让你坐在这里，什么也不要想，而是用你的眼睛去倾听风声，用你的耳朵去嗅闻花香。

S: If you were my student, I would have you sit here completely without thinking. You would use your eyes to listen to the sound of the wind and use your ears to savor the fragrance of incense.

阿：我不理解。

A: I don't understand.

苏：世界本来也没有要求我们理解。你的感官能为你提供的信息，其实远远超过你的理智能进一步提炼的内容。你只是在思考中主动拒绝了它们。

S: The world has never asked us to understand it. Your senses are capable of providing you with information that is far purer than any that your mind can distil. It's just that you have used thought to actively deny it.

阿：我并不认为你暗指的那些事物是可以被理智分析的。

A: I do not think that these things that you are referring to can be subject to intellectual analysis.

苏：哦，那我要恭喜你——你终于迈出了理解赤陶学派的第一步。

S: Oh, then congratulations! You have finally taken your first step towards understanding Erythrokeramism.

苏：没错，正因为「理智」不是万能的，我们才需要时时警惕，避免它自高自大地认为自己什么都能。

S: That's right. It is precisely because "intellect" is not all-powerful that we need to remain wary and not allow it to believe itself omnipotent.

苏：人们常说，理智使人谦卑。但在我看来，这种谦卑不过是一种换了形式的自大：我们正是在这样的幻觉中，误以为自己真的能够和一切至高的存在平起平坐。

S: People often say that intelligence makes one humble. However, I believe that this humble attitude is no more than another form of arrogance: It is precisely through this sort of illusion that we mistakenly believe that we can stand on the same platform as all supreme beings.

苏：用我们学派的话来说，你们关于「我」的执着太重。你们因为觉得云端的泰坦非常美丽，所以自己想象出了一片云彩，然后再把自己和泰坦并肩供奉在上面。

S: To explain in the words of my school, your obsession with the concept of "self" is too strong. You consider the Titan raising the heavens extremely beautiful, so you imagine a cloud and place yourself shoulder-to-shoulder with them upon it.

阿：你不能否认负世泰坦的壮丽。它就在我们眼前。至于我们创造的云彩，那也不是想象，而是另一种现实。

A: You cannot deny the beauty of the Worldbearing Titan. It is right there before your eyes. As for the clouds that we create, that is not imagination either. It is another form of reality.

苏：你说的没错。但不去完成这些创造也同样能获得内心的宁静——这正是我们两个学派的本质不同。

S: You are quite right. But you can still obtain inner peace without these creations. That is the essential difference between our two schools.

考虑到或许难免有读者没能看懂这段对话中，苏鲁琦珮女士和我究竟在讨论什么，我愿意在此做出简单（然而并不精确）的翻译：赤陶学派之所以拒绝分析性的思维，是在用身体力行的方式告诉我们，分析性的思维并不万能，这个世界上有太多知识（在赤陶学派看来，艺术、情感、欲望均是变相的知识）都不能用分析性思维加以总结。赤陶学派绝非不擅长分析性思维（比如在我记录的这段对话中，显而易见，苏鲁琦珮女士的分析性思维毫不弱于鄙人），他们只是拒绝用分析性的标尺丈量这个世界，或者说，拒绝把思维还原成更简单的思维（这正是绳结学派的要义）。

Considering that there may be some of you that were not able to fully understand this dialogue and what Madam Socrippe and I were discussing, allow me to provide a simple (yet not entirely accurate) translation: The reason the Erythrokeramists reject analytical thought is that taking a practical approach to life shows us that analytical thought is not omnipotent. There are too many kinds of knowledge in this world (in the eyes of the Erythrokeramists, art, emotions, and desires are all alternative forms of knowledge) that cannot be summarized through analytical thought. It is not that the Erythrokeramists cannot carry out intellectual analysis (as you can see in this recorded conversation, Madam Socrippe's analytical skills are on par with my own), but they refuse to use intellectual analysis to measure the world around us. Or, perhaps I should say, they refuse to reduce thoughts down to basic original knowledge (which is the core concept behind the Nodist School).

这也是为什么，鄙人的这篇小文会叫做《赤陶学派的意识论基础》。以绳结学派的理路来说：为了彰显潜意识的存在，赤陶学派不得不和意识正面对抗。

This is also why I will refer to this article as: Foundations of Erythrokeramism's Theory of Consciousness. To express this in the Nodists' phraseology: In order to expose the existence of the subconscious, the Erythrokeramists must confront the conscious mind head-on.

如果赤陶学派不复存在，那么树庭就不会再有任何人实践这一行为。

If the Erythrokeramists were to exist no more, no one in the Grove would ever follow this practice again.

鄙人希望从这个角度让大家理解赤陶学派存在的价值（如果您实在无法欣赏他们的艺术作品）。

I hope that this view of mine has helped you all to understand the value of the existence of the Erythrokeramists (that is, if you truly cannot appreciate their works of art).