林炎平博士應邀於2019年6月16日在斯坦福大學古典學系畢業典禮上作演講，在此刊登演講全文和中文譯文，以饗讀者。中文由作者本人親自翻譯，英文原文附在後面。

現代文明的DNA

在斯坦福大學古典學系畢業典禮上的講演

2019年6月16日

我非常榮幸在這個偉大的大學和這個神奇的系做畢業典禮講演。

你們現在也許會懷疑今年系裡是否把講演者搞錯了，因為看起來他既不像希臘人，他的博士學位也和古典學無關。不錯，難道一個具有亞洲文化和冶金工程領域背景的人與古典學或古希臘有什麼關係嗎？

這樣的懷疑顯然是合理的。正是為了這些理由，今天我要告訴你們，古希臘和古羅馬文明對我們每個人都很重要，無論他是希臘人還是中國人，無論他的學科是古典學還是工程。原因很簡單，古典文明是我們現代文明的DNA。它對我們所有人都很重要，它屬於整個人類社會，從北到南，從西到東。

為了證明這一點，我帶給你一個令人興奮的東西例子：中國浙江大學剛剛贊助翻譯並出版了著名的世界級學者的一系列作品，約書亞·奧博【1】的書是其中的重要組成部分。這就是他精彩的中譯本《民主與知識- 古典雅典的創新與學習》。完成這項工作花了6年時間，期間我們有時覺得由於客觀環境而無法完成。但我們最終做到了。那麼，現在我們有了另一個類似於先前的問題：為什麼我們需要將古典研究和學術引入中國？

我將嘗試通過兩個有趣的視角提供答案，這兩個視角是：中國文化和工程。

自從我接觸到古希臘以來，我一直非常喜歡古希臘文明，我懷疑我的前世一定與此有某種聯繫。我記得一個關於第二次世界大戰中美國巴頓將軍的故事：他確信他曾經是古羅馬軍官，曾在2000年前在北非參加了羅馬人和迦太基人之間的戰爭。我不確定一個人是否可以擁有前世，但是當我2004年第一次訪問希臘時，我覺得它是如此似曾相識，以至於我肯定以前曾到此地。當然，我此前從未涉足。這種熟悉感可能來自我對希臘文明的認識和熱情。當然，如果巴頓的信念是現實的，那麼我也可能在2500年前在伯里克利時代就在古雅典。在他那著名的“葬禮演說”【2】中，我也許就在觀眾席上。誠然，我們不管過去是否和古希臘文明有聯繫，但只要我們熱愛自由和持有對自由的理念，那麼我們都是希臘人。

我不得不說，對古典文明的熱愛是沒有時間限制和地域邊界的。著名的華裔美國數學家陳省身在臨終前告訴他的親密朋友和家人：“我要回希臘去了，那裡是數學的故鄉”。我有幸在中國攻讀碩士學位時聽過他感人至深的講演。他既愛中國也愛希臘。在中國傳統中，一個人在他去世後應該被埋葬在他的家鄉，但陳教授選擇了永遠與希臘在一起。這個故事告訴我們有些事物和理念超越了你的家鄉、你的文化、你的種族、你的國家、你的信仰。對我來說，這就是古希臘。

類似這樣的經歷令我希望親身體驗西方，因為那裡是希臘文明得到繼承、發展和弘揚的地方。這就是我去加拿大的原因。我有幸獲得加拿大大學的贊助，得以前去攻讀博士。我一無所有地來到了加拿大蒙特利爾，除了一張耗費了我父母一生積蓄的單程機票和口袋裡的60美元。

我對古希臘文明可以說是一見鍾情。拜倫勳爵的詩很好地表達了我的感情：

    雅典的少女呵，

    在我們分別以前，

    把我的心，把我的心交還！

    或者，既然它已經和我脫離，

    留着它吧，把其餘的也拿去！

    請聽一句我臨別前的誓語：

    你是我的生命，我愛你。

也許你會問我為什麼這麼熱愛希臘。簡短的回答是：在黑暗中度過最長時間的人最熱愛陽光。

在災難性的人為的政治動盪期間，我父親因言獲罪被送到勞改營，而我被送到一個偏遠的山區小村莊去當農民。我的生活比驢更糟，而且由於父親的背景，我幾乎沒有希望離開那裡。它實際上是一個勞改營，另一個村莊有一位學生絕望而自殺。這是一個非常悲慘的時期，除非經歷，否則難以置信。我試着對我孩子談這些事情，他們無法理解。

後來，事情開始發生變化。我進入中國的大學後，第一次遭遇古希臘文明。那時年輕的學生們正在尋找答案：為什麼像中國這樣偉大民族居然會如此自虐。那是一個艱難的反省時期，我意識到中國在其悠久歷史中一再經歷這樣的災難。而且，不僅中國，在幾乎所有的人類歷史中，幾乎所有民族都遭受了基本相同的災難。但是有一個例外，那就是古希臘。

毋庸諱言，古希臘文明並不完美，因為它有奴隸，而婦女也沒有選票。但我們不應該因為其奴隸的存在和對婦女的歧視而貶損古希臘文明。理由很簡單，所有其它文明都有類似古希臘的問題，但古希臘所作出的貢獻卻獨一無二。

我們必須把歷史事件放在其當時的背景下進行評估，我們不能用今天的道德標準去衡量它們。如果我們不遵循這一原則，那總有一天我們都將被視為罪犯。我預測，在100年內，屠殺哺乳動物將是犯罪，更不用說食用它們了。

我們無需粉飾古希臘，但是，正是這個獨特的文明為我們提供了我們現在稱之為“現代”的理念。而它們正是我們現代文明的DNA。如果沒有它們，我們的現代文明將不復存在。

當我還在中國念大學時，有一門哲學課，其主要目的是為了教我們馬克思主義。古希臘歷史只是該課中的極小一部分。但正是這一丁點關於古希臘及其後來的文藝復興的蛛絲馬跡引起了我的注意，使我聯想到了所有那些數學中的希臘符號和人物。這一切都指向一個嚴肅的問題：古希臘人做了什麼，他們對我們意味着什麼？

經過多年的探索、思考和反思，我從不同的立場和視角得出了以下結論，並與我所知的中國文化進行了比較。古希臘文明的獨一無二體現在了如下的4個公理、2個定理和1個原則：

這是4個公理：

1）批判精神：
沒有任何其它文化如此推崇批判。在別的文化中，如果你批判，你會受到懲罰。

2）競爭精神：
奧運會是最好的例子。競爭，公平公正，而不是鬥爭。

3）思辨精神：
歐幾里德的幾何學是至高無上的例子。

4）人本主義精神：
伯里克利的葬禮演說和希波克拉底誓言就是最好的例子，人是衡量萬物的尺度。

以下是從公理推導出的2個定理：

1）科學：

沒有任何其它文明接近過這一境界。

2）民主：
沒有任何其他民族敢於夢想這種形式，而古希臘人竟然付諸實踐。

由以上，得出一個原則：

1）公民：
這一切都歸結為人類的價值。當其他民族只有統治者和臣民時，古希臘發明了這種獨特而現代的概念——公民。

有些看起來理所當然的理念，如果你不從不同的文化視角去觀察，便可能錯過一些東西。在這裡，我想舉幾個例子：

1）白痴：

在別處，人們稱一個非常關注公共事務的人是“白痴”。在古希臘，他們稱一個不關心公共事務的人是“白痴”。

2）劇院：
在別處，劇院的舞台比觀眾席高。而在古希臘，舞台處於最低位置，觀眾席比舞台高而且越遠的座席越高。

3）自由與食物：
在別處，如果你想用自由作為激勵人們戰鬥的口號，你幾乎找不到志同道合者。而希波戰爭期間的古希臘的戰士只為自由而戰。

4）對話與一言堂：
對話是希臘人崇尚的方式。世界上別的地方找不到這樣的想法或實踐。孔子不要對話，他只要弟子遵循他的說教。

5）有用與無用

在別處，如果某樣事物不能立即產生實效，那麼它就被視為“屠龍之術”。由於龍不存在，它就意味着“無用”。這就是為什麼華夏從未有過真正的數學或科學的原因。然而，希臘人從不介意無用。阿波羅尼研究的圓錐曲線，當時毫無用處，而且它此後1500年內仍然無用。那又怎樣？在開普勒和牛頓之後，我們開始知道太空中的物體必須遵循圓錐曲線，即圓、橢圓、拋物線或雙曲線之一。

這幾個古希臘科學巨匠是我們工程人永遠景仰的：

1）阿里斯塔克：
他測量了地球與太陽，地球和月球之間的距離，並得出宇宙中心是太陽而不是地球的結論。

2）埃拉托塞尼：
他通過觀察這樣一個事實來計算地球的周長：在夏天的中午，亞歷山大的一個旗杆有一段陰影，但在賽恩（現代的阿斯旺）卻沒有。

3）歐幾里得：
他為科學提供了最強大的邏輯工具。如果沒有他的《幾何原本》，科學就不可能誕生。

4）阿基米德：
大家都耳熟能詳，我不再贅述。

不勝枚舉，古希臘產生了這麼多偉大的學者，他們改變了世界，並給了我們現代性的基本概念。當然，我只提到了一些自然科學方面的巨匠。我在這裡並沒有提到蘇格拉底、柏拉圖或亞里士多德或其他偉大哲學家，因為我仍然不太了解它們。你們對他們的了解應該遠遠超過我。

這也是為什麼我一直認為在科學與人文之間，工程與藝術之間應該架起橋梁，這些學科在古希臘曾經渾然一體，現在是時候讓它們破鏡重圓了。

我們可以將歷史上的人類社會分為3類：

1）以統治者為中心的社會：
我認為這是最糟糕的社會形式，統治者就是一切。今天的北朝鮮就是一個例子。

2）以神為中心的社會：
這個形式雖有問題，但比前一個更好，因為至少被統治者仍然有機會以上帝的名義質問統治者。

3）以人為中心的社會：

這是古希臘首先發明的獨特形式，人是社會的中心，公民是社會最終目的，而不是神，更不是統治者。古希臘開創性地為人類社會提供了這個社會形式，它至今仍然是我們的目標。

我想現在我已經回答了之前提出的問題。

由於所有這些原因，我不認為所有形式的社會都具有相同的價值。由於我非常推崇古希臘文明，因此受到了一些中國同胞的批評。我知道我的說法讓他們感到不安，甚至生氣。但我這樣做是因為關心中國民眾，因為我相信批判是一種關心的形式。我認為：我們只有一個地球，我們應該只把自己視為人類，而不是按國家、膚色、文化或宗教來把我們割裂為對立的群體。我們應該客觀地評估不同的文明和文化，而不會因此感到被冒犯。

不幸的是，在21世紀，許多人拋棄了古希臘的價值。正如歐洲千年前所做的那樣，歐洲直到文藝復興時期才看到了古希臘價值觀的重生。從此開始，我們進入了啟蒙，然後進入了工業革命。其餘都是歷史。

但是，我們可能會再次失去這些價值觀。我覺得批判精神和競爭精神都處於危險之中。如果我們失去了科學和民主，那將會是一個什麼樣的世界？如果失去了公民理念，我們會成為什麼樣的人？如果沒有對話，我們的自由表達又會在哪裡？但是，當我看到在我面前的畢業生時，我重新獲得了希望。

我們有責任接過這文明的火炬並將其傳遞給下一代。對於今天即將畢業的人來說，今後這也是你的責任：你不能讓希望之火熄滅。

你們都將開始新的生活，開始你們的職業生涯或繼續深造。你們可能將成為教授、教師、教育家、學者和企業家。憑藉你們具有的古希臘精神，無論你選擇做什麼，你們都應該所向披靡。對於你們來說，你們已經具備了批判精神、競爭精神，思辨精神和人本主義精神，因此你們沒有理由不成功。

經典意味着久經考驗，飽受風霜，去偽存真。你們將為我們的社會帶來其迫切之需要。我衷心祝願你們在未來的奮鬥中碩果纍纍！

最後，寄語我們所有人：讓我們共同努力，走向再次文藝復興，讓世界變得比現在更美好。

注【1】斯坦福大學古典系主任

注【2】公元前431年伯里克利的《在陣亡將士的葬禮上的演說》

附講演英文原文：

The DNA of Modern Civilization

The Commencement Address at

Department of Classics

Stanford University, June 16, 2019

It is great honour for me to give this commencement address here at this great university and wonderful department.

It is justified for you to question that why the hell this guy should address us in classics, because it seems that he neither looks like a Greek nor is his Ph.D. related to classics. Indeed, what does a guy with an Asian cultural background and in metallurgical engineering field have anything to do with classics or Greece?

This is a legitimate suspicion. Exactly for these reasons and doubts, today I am going to tell you that Greek and Roman civilization is important to each of us, regardless if he is Greek or Chinese, or his discipline is classics or engineering. The reason is very simple. Classical civilization is the DNA of our modern civilization. It matters to all and everyone of us, and it belongs to whole human society, from north to south and from west to east.

To prove this point, I bring you something exciting. Here is an example, Zhejiang University in China just sponsored the publication of a series of works by renowned world-class scholars, of which Josh is an important part. Here is his wonderful book translated into Chinese, “Democracy and Knowledge – Innovation and Learning in Classical Athens”. It was translated by a very good scholar in China. It took 6 years to complete the work. Sometimes we thought it would not be done because of the political situation there. But we have done it. Now we have another question which is similar to the previous doubts: Why do we need to introduce Greek studies and classical scholarship into China?

I will try to provide the answers by 2 interesting perspectives: Chinese culture and engineering.

I have been so fond of Greece and Greek civilization since my university years in the Far East that I suspected that I must be somehow related to them in my previous life. I remember a story about General Patton, a WWII American general, who was convinced that he was in North Africa 2000 years ago in the battle between Romans and Carthaginians, as a commander on the side of Roman army. I am not sure if a person can have a previous life, but when Ifirst visited Greece in 2004, I felt it was so familiar and amiable that I must have come here before. Of course, physically I had not. The feeling of such familiarity could be from my acquired knowledge and passion for Greek civilization. Certainly, if Patton’s conviction were real, I could be there 2500 years ago during Pericles’ time. I could be there in the audience during his renowned Funeral Oration. We may or may not have previous connections to Greek civilization, but we share the value of freedom. As long as we love Freedom, we are all Greeks.

I have to say that the love of classical civilization is beyond the limit of time and border. The famous Chinese American mathematician Shiing-Shen Chern told his close friends and loved one in his death bed that “I am going back to Greece, the birthplace of mathematics”. I was moved by his story. I happened to listen his lecture in China when I was doing my Master’s degree there. He loved both China and Greece. In the Chinese tradition, a person should be buried in his hometown after his death. But Prof. Chern chose to be with Greece forever. This story tells us something. Something is beyond your hometown, your culture, your race, your nation, your faith. For me, it is Greece.

Many such things convinced me to experience for myself the West, where Greek civilization was inherited, advanced and expanded. This was why I went to Canada. Two universities in Canada agreed to sponsor my Ph.D. program, so I went to Montreal with one-way ticket that cost my parents all their savings and with $60 in my pocket.

It has been a love affair for me with Greek civilization. Iliked Lord Byron’s poem immediately when I read it and I can recite it since:

    Maid of Athens, ere we part,

    Give, oh give me back my heart!

    Or, since that has left my breast,

    Keep it now, and take the rest!

    Hear my vow before I go,

    Ζωή μου σας αγαποώ

Maybe you will ask why I love Greece so much. Let me tell you this in short: The person who has travelled through the darkness for the longest time will love the sunshine the most. During the disastrous Chinese Cultural Revolution and other manmade political turmoil, my father was sent to labor camp for his criticizing people in the government and I was sent to a small remote mountainous village, forced to live like a peasant. My life was even worse than that of a donkey and with my father’s background I had little hope to get out of that situation. A student at another village hanged himself. It was literally a labor camp. I could have died there. It was a very miserable period. If you did not live through it, you would have difficulties to believe it. I tried to talk this to my sons. I realized that I had little chance to convince them all these were true. I will wait a bit longer and try again.

Then Mao died in time, which was too late anyway, and things started to change. I first encountered Greek civilization when I entered a university in China. Young students were seeking the answers to why a great nation like China could do such irrational things to itself. It was a difficult soul-searching time. I realized that China had experienced such disasters through out its long history of autocratic government. And it was not only China, almost all nations, during almost all of human history, had had suffered basically the same things. There was one great exception and that is ancient Greece.

We can always argue that Greek civilization was not perfect because it had slaves and women had no votes. I agree that it was not perfect, but we should not discount Greece because of its systemic slavery and discrimination against women. All other cultures had problems similar to those of Greece, but Greece contributed what other cultures never did.

We have to evaluate the historical practices in their context. We cannot use our moral standards of today to measure them then. If we do not follow this principle, one day we all will be regarded as criminals; I predict that in less than 100 years, killing mammals will be a crime, let alone eating them.

While we should not paint Ancient Greece with rosy colors, it was the unique civilization that provided us with the concepts that we now call modern. Those concepts are the DNA of our modern civilization, and without them our modernity would be impossible.

When I was still at my Chinese university, I took a philosophy class that was mainly aimed at teaching us Marxism. Greek history was a tiny part of that class. But it was that tiny mention of Ancient Greece and its later Renaissance that caught my attention. I thought of all those Greek symbols and characters in mathematics. And it all gave me a question: what did Ancient Greeks do and what do they mean to us?

I came to the following conclusions after many years of searching, thinking and reflection, from a very different angle and perspective and compared with the Chinese culture that I know. I concluded Greek civilization is unique and I summed up that uniqueness in 4 axioms, 2 theorems, and 1 principle:

Here are the 4 axioms:

1）The spirit of criticism:

No other culture fully appreciates and promotes criticism. In other cultures, if you criticized, you would be punished.

2）The spirit of competitiveness:

Olympic games is the best example.

3）The spirit of rationality:

Euclid’s geometry is a supreme example.

4）The spirit of humanism:

Think about Pericles’ oration and the Hippocratic oath.

Here are 2 theorems that are deduced from the axioms:

1）Science:

No other early culture had such a rich concept of science.

2）Democracy:

No other nations dared to dream about this form of government, but Greeks put this into practice.

Then, there is 1 principle:

1）Citizenship:

It all came down to the value of human. When other nations had only rulers and subjects, Greece invented this unique and modern concept, the citizen.

You know a lot more than I do about classics and Ancient Greece and Rome, but you may miss something if you do not observe from a different culture. Something that you take for granted may not be so on the other side. Here I would like to just give you some examples:

1) Idiot:

In China, they call a person who pays much attention to public affairs an “idot”. In Greece, they call a person who does not care public affairs “idot”.

2) Theater:

In China, the stage in a theater is higher than audience who are on ground. In Greece, the stage is on the lowest position and the audience is sitting on the raising seats.

3) Freedom vs food:

In China, if you want to use freedom as a slogan to motivate people to fight, you will get few. Think of the contrast in ancient Greece during Greek-Persian Wars.

4) Dialogue vs. monologue

Dialogue is a central Greeks idea and practice. I find no such idea or practice in Chinese history. Confucius did not engage in dialogue; he never encouraged or promoted dialogue; perhaps he lacked the very idea of dialogue.

5) Useful vs. useless

In China if something that cannot be applied to generate some practical merits, then it is dismissed as a “Dragon killing skill“. Since dragons do not exist, it means “useless”. This was why China never had real mathematics. However, Greeks never mind uselessness. Apollonius was studying conic curves, when such study was practically useless then and it remained useless for another 1500 years. Then what? After Kepler and Newton, we started to know that a body in space must follow one of the conic curves, circle, ellipse, parabola or hyperbola.

Let me remind you of the names of just a few giants of Greek science and engineering:

1）Aristarchus:

He measured the distances between Earth and Sun, Earth and Moon, and concluding the center of universe was Sun not Earth.

2）Eratosthenes:

He measured the circumference of Earth by observing the fact that on the summer day at noon a flagpole in Alexandria had a shadow but in Syene (modern Aswan) it did not.

3）Euclid:

He provided the most powerful tools of logic for science. Without his “Element”, nothing would be possible in science.

4）Archimedes:

He contributed too many to mention and you know probably many of them.

There are too many more of them to mention. I remain astounded by the fact that Greece could produce so many great scholars who actually changed the world and gave us concepts fundamental to modernity. I only mentioned a few great scholars on natural science side.

I hesitate even to mention Socrates, Plato, Aristotle or other great philosophers here because I still do not really understand them. You know much more about them than I do.

This is also why I have been thinking that building bridges between science and humanity, between engineering and arts, is so badly needed today. These disciplines were united in ancient Greece. It is the time to bring them together again.

I suggest that we can categorize historical human societies into 3 kinds:

1）Ruler centered society:

This I consider the worst form of society, godless and inhumane. The ruler is everything, an example is modern North Korea.

2）God centered society:

Whoever has the power to interpret the god, rules the society. This is better than the previous one, because at least the subjects still have the chance to question the rulers in the name of god.

3）Human centered society:

This is the unique approach that was first formed in Ancient Greece. The human is the center of the society and citizens give society its ultimate purpose, not god, even less a ruler. This was what Greece first brought to human society. It remains the goal of our Western society today.

I think by now I have answered the questions raised before.

For all these reasons, I do not think every form of society has the same value. Since I value Greek culture so highly, I have been criticized by my fellow Chinese. I know that I made them feel uneasy and sometimes even angry, but I do that because I care for them, because I believe that criticism is a form of caring. I always tell them this: We have only one earth and we should consider ourselves only human beings rather than dividing us by nations, colors, cultures or religions. We should be able to objectively evaluate different civilizations and cultures without feeling offended.

The tragedy is that in the 21st century many people have lost sight of Ancient Greek values. We may lose Greece, just as Europe did over thousand years ago. We lived without it, until the Renaissance saw the rebirth of Greek values, which took us into the enlightenment and then the industrial revolution. The rest is history.

But, we may lose those values again. I say this because I feel the spirit of criticism and the spirit of competition are in danger. Without science and democracy, what kind of world would it be? Without citizenship, what kind people would we be? Without dialogue, where would free expression be? But when I see before me students who have studied the classics, I regain hope.

So speaking first for myself and for your teachers: It has been our duty to carry the torch and to relay it to the next generation. And, speaking to you who are graduating today, that duty is now also yours: you must not let the light go out.

You all will start new lives, beginning your careers or continuing further study. You may be on the way to becoming professors, teachers, educators, scholars and entrepreneurs. With the spirit of classics, you should be able to do very well regardless what you choose to do. For eachone of you, with such preparation in the spirit of criticism, competitiveness, rationality and humanity, there is no reason for you not to do well.

Classics means tested, seasoned and true. You will bring our society much that it badly needs. My best wishes to your future endeavours!

Speaking finally, for all of us together: let us work together to build the bridges to a second Renaissance: Let us make the world a better place than it is now.