<<道德之狂怒>>

古月語 寫到:chl兄，您終於來了，實在是令人驚喜。近來都好嗎？
 
這裡想和您探討一個認知的課題，不是古月語好高騖遠，而是一個從公元前六世紀就一直一代又一代被希臘和歐洲人探討過的一個古老卻到現在仍然被人們忽視的認知課題：我們通過自己的感官獲得的世界認識更真實呢，還是通過自己的思維認識的世界更真實？
 

Thales of Miletus (/ˈθeɪliːz/; Greek: Θαλῆς (ὁ Μιλήσιος), Thalēs; c. 624 BC – c. 546 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Miletus in Asia Minor, and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition. According to Bertrand Russell, "Western philosophy begins with Thales." Thales attempted to explain natural phenomena without reference to mythology and was tremendously influential in this respect. Almost all of the other Pre-Socratic philosophers follow him in attempting to provide an explanation of ultimate substance, change, and the existence of the world—without reference to mythology. Those philosophers were also influential, and eventually Thales' rejection of mythological explanations became an essential idea for the scientific revolution. He was also the first to define general principles and set forth hypotheses, and as a result has been dubbed the "Father of Science", though it is argued that Democritus is actually more deserving of this title.   Parmenides of Elea (/pɑrˈmɛnɨdiːz əv ˈɛliə/; Ancient Greek: Παρμενίδης ὁ Ἐλεάτης; fl. early 5th century BCE) was an ancient Greek philosopher born in Elea, a Greek city on the southern coast of Italy. He was the founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy. The single known work of Parmenides is a poem, On Nature, which has survived only in fragmentary form. In this poem, Parmenides describes two views of reality. In "the way of truth" (a part of the poem), he explains how reality (coined as "what-is") is one, change is impossible, and existence is timeless, uniform, necessary, and unchanging. In "the way of opinion," he explains the world of appearances, in which one's sensory faculties lead to conceptions which are false and deceitful. These ideas strongly influenced the whole of Western philosophy, perhaps most notably through their effect on Plato.   Plato, in The Republic (507b-509c [book VI]), uses the sun as a metaphor for the source of "illumination", arguably intellectual illumination, which he held to be The Form of the Good, which is sometimes interpreted as Plato's notion of God. The metaphor is about the nature of ultimate reality and how knowledge is acquired concerning it. Socrates is the speaker of The Republic, but it is generally believed that the thoughts expressed are Plato's.   The eye, Plato says, is unusual among the sense organs in that it needs a medium, namely light, in order to operate. The strongest and best source of light is the sun; with it, objects can be discerned clearly. Analogous things, he writes, can be said of intelligible objects (i.e., the fixed and eternal forms that are the ultimate objects of scientific and philosophical study):

When [the soul] is firmly fixed on the domain where truth and reality shine resplendent it apprehends and knows them and appears to possess reason, but when it inclines to that region which is mingled with darkness, the world of becoming and passing away, it opines only and its edge is blunted, and it shifts its opinions hither and thither, and again seems as if it lacked reason. (The Republic bk. VI, 508d; trans. Paul Shorey)

By "the world of becoming and passing away" Plato means the familiar visual or perceptual world we see around us. Thus if we attempt to understand why things are as they are, and what general categories can be used to understand various particulars around us, without reference to any forms (universals), we will fail completely, as if [we] lacked reason. By contrast, "the domain where truth and reality shine resplendent" is none other than Plato's world of forms--illuminated by the highest of the forms, that of the Good. Since true being resides in the world of the forms, we must direct our intellects there to have knowledge, in Plato's view; otherwise, we are stuck with mere opinion of what may be likened to passing shadows   In contrast to Plato and other earlier philosophers, Augustine(In contrast to Plato and other earlier philosophers, Augustine recognizes the centrality of testimony to human knowledge and argues that what others tell us can provide knowledge even if we don't have independent reasons to believe their testimonial reports.( King, Peter; Nathan Ballantyne (2009). "Augustine on Testimony")) recognizes the centrality of testimony to human knowledge and argues that what others tell us can provide knowledge even if we don't have independent reasons to believe their testimonial reports.( King, Peter; Nathan Ballantyne (2009). "Augustine on Testimony")   To further demonstrate the limitations of the senses, Descartes(31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings) proceeds with what is known as the Wax Argument. He considers a piece of wax; his senses inform him that it has certain characteristics, such as shape, texture, size, color, smell, and so forth. When he brings the wax towards a flame, these characteristics change completely. However, it seems that it is still the same thing: it is still the same piece of wax, even though the data of the senses inform him that all of its characteristics are different. Therefore, in order to properly grasp the nature of the wax, he should put aside the senses. He must use his mind. Descartes concludes:

“ And so something that I thought I was seeing with my eyes is in fact grasped solely by the faculty of judgment which is in my mind. ”

In this manner, Descartes proceeds to construct a system of knowledge, discarding perception as unreliable and instead admitting only deduction as a method. All En quote fr: wikipedia.org

在所有關於snowden的評論裡，古月語確實見過一篇香港學者寫的評論，可惜古月語沒有存檔，他是這樣寫道：『人們到底願意以自己的多少私隱來換取自己的安全？』注意，這裡說的是『私隱』，而不是行動自由。保留自己的私隱是不是一種自由？真的是見仁見智了。極權和分權制度的區別就在於：極權是為了自己的統治地位而對子民的監視和控制，而分權制度是為了保護子民的安全而對子民僅僅是監視而已，不僅要通過恰當的立法程序，而且反過來要被自由的輿論、國會、法院監視，他們美國國會、法院都不吭聲，幾時輪到我們這些在極權下生活慣的人來吭聲？

falaony 寫到:falaony 似懂非懂的拜读了楼上各位高手们的高见，似乎皆有理。

自Snowden事件曝光至今每天都关注他的消息，但与其关注《棱镜事件》，更关注的是他本人的结局去向。

原因：《棱镜事件》曝不曝光，对falaony来讲皆不稀奇，早在几十年前，就对【政治】下过定义：政治=搞阴谋诡计---对古今中外的无论什么样的统治者皆是。上世纪80年代看过一部法国片《为了国家的利益》非常淋漓尽致的描绘了这个等式。

至于Snowden本人，说实话确实很关注他的命运。