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Georg Friedrich Hegel was born in Stuttgart in 1770. Intellectually he was adventurous, but in externals, respectable, conventional, and proud of it.
黑格尔1770年生于斯图加特 他在知识上大胆冒险在外表上则体面、传统且引以为傲
He ascended the academic tree and reached the top most branch, head of the University of Berlin, when he was sixty years old; he died the following year.
他达到了学术成就的顶峰 60岁时成为柏林大学校长隔年去世
Hegel wrote some very long and very famous books, among them, The Phenomenology of Spirit, "The Science of Logic", and "Elements of the Philosophy of Right";
黑格尔写了几部著名的长篇著作，如《精神现象学》、《逻辑学》、《法哲学原理》
but, we'll be frank: he wrote horribly; his work is confusing and complicated when it should be clear and direct.
老实说，他的文笔非常可怕 他的写作在应该要清楚、直接的时候却是混乱、难懂的
He tapped into a weakness of human nature: to be trustful of grave-sounding, incomprehensible prose.
他利用着人性的弱点：容易信任看起来严肃、深奥难解的文章
This has made philosophy much weaker in the world than it should be,
那也使得哲学在世界上无法达到哲学应有的力量
and it's made it much harder for us to hear the valuable things that Hegel has to say to us, amongst which a small number of lessons stand out.
也让我们更难听见黑格尔的灼见 那其中有一些特别突出的课题
Firstly, important part of ourselves can be found in history.
第一，我们可以在历史中找到我们的一些重要的部分。
In Hegel's day, a standard European Way of looking at the past was to consider it as primitive, and to feel proud of how much progress has been made to get us to the modern age.
在黑格尔的年代，欧洲的史观将过去视为原始未开化的 并对现代的进步感到骄傲
But in his book, "The Phenomenology of Spirit", published in 1807, Hegel argued that every era can be looked at as a repository of a particular kind of wisdom.
但在1807年的《精神的现象学》中黑格尔提出：每一个时代都可以被视为存放某种智慧的容器
This means we need to go back in time to rescue things which have gone missing.
这意味着我们应该回到过去拯救逝去的事物
So, for example, we might need to mine history of ancient Greece to fully grasp the idea of what community can be, something which has been lost in the modern age.
例如我们可能需要挖掘古希腊的历史来掌握社群组成的可能性 那在现代已经消失了
Or, the Middle Ages can teach us, as no other era can, about the role of honor, even if this period featured appalling attitudes to children or the rights of women.
中世纪能够教导我们其他时代没有的荣耀 尽管那个时代对待小孩和女性的方式极其可怕
Progress is never linear, Hegel tells us; "there is wisdom at every stage", which, says Hegel "points us to the task of the historian."
“进步从来不是线性的”黑格尔告诉我们“每一个阶段都有其智慧” “那向我们指出历史学家的任务”黑格尔说
To be a historian is to be someone who should rescue, from the past, those ideas that're most needed to compensate for the blind spots of the present.
“作爲一个历史学家要从过去拯救那些我们需要的想法” “以补足现代的盲点。”
Secondly, learn from ideas you dislike.
第二，从你厌恶的想法中学习
Hegel was a great believer in learning from one's intellectual enemies, from points of view we disagree with, or that feel alien.
黑格尔深信从思想的敌对方、我们不同意的观点、陌生的感受中学习
That's because he held, "the bits of the truth are always getting scattered even in unappealing, or peculiar places,"
那是因为他认为：“真相的碎片总是散布在那些不讨喜的、奇怪的地方”
"and we should dig them out by asking always, what sliver of sense and reason might be contained in otherwise frightening or foreign phenomena?'".
“而我们应该将它们挖掘出来，永远要问：……”“令人害怕或陌生的现象中蕴藏着哪些感性和理性的财宝？”
Nationalism, for instance, has had many terrible manifestations even in Hegel's day,
比如在黑格尔的年代民族主义有着非常糟糕的表现
but Hegel's move was to ask what underlying good idea or important need might be hiding within the bloody history of nationalism.
但黑格尔的做法是试问在民族主义血腥的历史底下隐藏了哪些好的概念或重要的需求
He proposed that it's the need for people to feel proud of where they come from, to identify with something beyond merely their own achievements, and to anchor their identities beyond the ego.
他提及人们心理需要为他们从哪里而来感到骄傲 需要寻求超越自身能企及之成就的认同感 需要比自我的自尊更强大的靠山支撑自己的身份认同
Hegel is a hero of the thought that really important ideas may be in the hands of people you regard, at first glance, as beneath contempt.
黑格尔的灼见之一便是：真正重要的概念可能在我们乍看下感到轻蔑的对象手中
Thirdly, Progress is Messy
第三，进展是混乱的
Hegel believed the world makes progress, but only by lurching from one extreme to another. As it seeks to overcompensate for a previous mistake.
黑格尔相信世界在进展之中 但进展的方式是在两个极端间摆荡，不断过度修正前一个错误
He proposed that it generally take three moves. Before the right balance on any issue can be found. A process that he named the DIALEKTIK.
他认为这通常要经过三个步骤 才能在任何议题上找到正确的平衡点 这个过程他命名为DIALEKTIK(辩证法)
He was often thinking of the complex twist and turns that brought about the modern state.
他经常思考带来现代状态的那些复杂转折
We can also think the slow path towards sensible attitudes to sex in our own time.
想想那条带我们缓慢来到现在对"性"的合理态度的路径
The Victorians impose too much repression, yet the 1960s may have turn out to be too liberal.
维多利亚时代过度压抑，而1960年代又太过开放
It might only be by 2020s that we`ll find the right balance between extremes.
或许直到2020年代我们才会找到极端间的正确平衡
All this can seem the most appalling waste of time, but Hegel insists that the painful stepping from era to era is inevitable.
这些看来非常浪费时间，但黑格尔认为时代之间这些痛苦的过程是必然的
Something we must expect and reconcile ourselves to when planning our lives or contemplating history books.
因此我们在人生的规划中要预期和理解它们的存在 在对历史书的理解中也是如此
And sometimes in this process of moving from era to era we`ll find a new solution, that manages to synthesize the good qualities of the previous solutions, to make something really new, and different and better.
有时候在年代演变之间我们也会得到新的解答 能够综合前一代解答中的优点得到一个更新的、不同的、更好的解答
Four, Art has a purpose.
第四，艺术有其目的
Hegel vigorously rejected the idea of art for art sake. Painting, Music, Architecture, Literature and Design: all have a major job to do.
黑格尔强烈的反对艺术只是艺术 绘画、音乐、建筑、文学、设计，都有重要的职责所在
We need them so that important insights can become powerful and helpful in our lives.
我们需要它们将生活中的重要洞见强化和使其易于使用
Art is in Hegel's formulation: "the sensuous presentation of ideas".
艺术存在于黑格尔的构想之中 是“将概念诉诸美感的表现方式”
Just knowing ideas often leaves us cold, for example in theory we believe the conflict in Syria is an important one. In practice however we just switch off.
概念常常让我们冷感 我们理论上相信关注叙利亚战争是很重要的 但在现实中我们会轻易地视而不见
In principle we know we should be more forgiving to our partners, but this abstract conviction gets forgotten at the least provocation.
我们知道我们原则上应该对伴侣更宽容 但在一点点挑衅之下那就被抛在脑后了
The point of art Hegel realized, is not so much to come up with startling new strange ideas but to take the good, helpful,
黑格尔所理解到的艺术之意义，并不是寻求最新奇的概念 而是着手于那些已知是好的、
important thoughts we already think we know, and make them stick more imaginatively in our minds.
有帮助的、重要的想法……然后将它们更有创意的植入我们的脑海之中
Five. We need new institutions.
第五，我们需要新的公共团体
Hegel took a very positive view of institutions and of the power then can wield.
黑格尔对公共团体和它们的权力抱持很正面的看法
This is a point Hegel made again and again in different ways.
黑格尔一再的重述这个观点
For ideas to be active and effective in the world, a lot more is needed then the ideas are simply correct;
为了让各种概念在世界中有效的实现，需要许多比“概念本身正确”更大的力量存在
to make major truths powerful in society they need employees and building and budgets and legal advices;
为了使重要的真理在社会中强大，它们必须借助职员、建筑、经费、法律的力量
institutions allow for the scale of time and power the big projects need to become effective in the world.
公共团体让大型的计划有足够的时间和规模与力量在世界上得到成效
So, as new needs of a society get recognized, they should ideally lead not just to new books but to the formation of new institutions.
因此，当社会中新的需求产生，它们不应仅是创造出新书，而是要建立起新的公共团体
Nowadays we might say we need major new institutions to focus on relationships, consumer education, career choice, mood management and how to bring up less damaged children.
今日我们可能认为我们需要新的大型公共团体来关注人际关系、消费者教育、生涯选择、情绪管理和养育不受伤害的孩童
Hegel help us to see valuable insights what we might initially resist them, in art in institutions in the ideas of our enemies and in the strange mistakes of the past.
黑格尔帮助我们看见一些我们原来会拒斥的有价值的洞见 在艺术中、在习俗之中、在敌人的想法中，以及以前的奇怪的错误之中。
His insight is the growth requires that clash of divergent ideas and therefore that will be painful and slow.
他的洞见在于：由于成长需要歧异概念的冲撞，因此会是痛苦且缓慢的。
But at least once we know this we don`t have to compound our troubles by thinking them abnormal.
但至少当我们知道了这个过程，我们便不需要再自己强化这些困扰了。
Hegel gives us a more accurate and hence more manageable view of ourselves, our difficulties and where we are in history.
黑格尔给了我们更精准且可控制的观点来看待我们自己、我们的难题以及我们在历史中的定位。
