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It was formerly "obvious" that the heart—and not the brain—was the organ of consciousness. To most people today it seems equally "obvious" that we think with our brains. Many modern persons find it very difficult to credit the fact that men can ever have supposed otherwise. Yet—they did.
心脏--而非大脑--是意识的器官，这在以前是“显而易见的”。如今对大多数人来说我们用大脑思考同样地“显而易见”。许多现代人觉得很难相信人们曾做出另一种设想。然而--人们的确这样做过。
That the earth must be flat, formerly seemed so obvious and self-evident that the very suggestion of any other possibility would have been—and was—regarded as a joke.
地球一定是平的，过去在人们看来，这是显而易见且不言自明的，而任何其他可能的说法都会--事实上也的确--被认为是个玩笑。
It was for two thousand years "taken for granted" as "obvious" that a heavy weight must fall faster than a light one. An assumed or dogmatic proposition which had been universally accepted as "obvious"； and which, when challenged, was supported by reference to a dogma of Aristotle. Until Galileo actually demonstrated the contrary, nothing could have seemed more beyond possibility of doubt.
一个重物体一定会比轻物体下落的速度快，两千年来这种观点一直被认为是“理所当然”且“显而易见”的。这个设想或教条性的观点已作为“显而易见”的事实而被普遍接受；当它面临挑战时，人们就会引述亚里士多德的教条来加以支持。在伽利略证明与之完全相反的事实之前，人们认为，世上没有比这更加无可置疑的了。
Propositions which are accepted blindly, without question, on the grounds of mere assumption or dogma, need to be frankly recognized as such. Progress in human thought seems to consist mainly in getting rid of such ideas.
所有那些被盲目地、不加质疑地、仅凭假设或教条而接受的观点都需要人们像这样坦率地正确认识。人类思想的进步似乎主要在于摒弃这样盲目的观点。
