Universities and Their Function 大学的意义
◎ Alfred North Whitehead
The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest of life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. The university imparts information, but it imparts it imaginatively. At least, this is the function which it should perform for society. A university which fails in this respect has no reason for existence. This atmosphere of excitement, arising from imaginative consideration, transforms knowledge. A fact is no longer a bare fact: it is invested with all its possibilities. It is no longer a burden on the memory: it is energizing as the poet of our dreams, and as the architect[61]of our purposes.
大学存在的理由在于它让新老两代人在想象中学习，从而让知识和生活的热情连结起来。大学是传授知识的，但它是以一种富有想象力的方式进行传授。至少，这是它应该为社会发挥的作用。一所大学若连这点都无法做到，那它就毫无存在的理由。一个富于想象的人很容易感到兴奋激动，从而使知识得以彻底转化。事实也远非事实本身，它具有了所有潜在的可能。它不再是记忆的负担，而是像描绘我们美梦的诗人和实现我们心愿的设计师那样充满活力。
Imagination is not to be divorced from the facts: it is a way of illuminating[62]the facts. It works by drawing the general principles which apply to the facts, as they exist, and then by an intellectual survey of alternative possibilities which are consistent with those principles. It enables men to construct an intellectual vision of a new world, and it preserves the zest of life by the suggestion of satisfying purposes.
想象与事实不可分离：是它让事实变得鲜明。它让人们获得与存在的事实相一致的一般原则，让人们能够理性地审视那些和一般原则相一致的各种可能性。它让人们构建出一个关于新世界的理性视觉。它用一些令人满意的方法让生活的激情得以持续。
Youth is imaginative, and if the imagination be strengthened by discipline this energy of imagination can in great measure be preserved through life. The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience, and those who are experienced have feeble[63] imaginations. Fools act on imagination without knowledge; pedants act on knowledge without imagination. The task of a university is to weld together imagination and experience.
青年是富有想象力的。假使加强想象的训练，那么它就能在生活中得以完好地保存。这个世界的悲剧在于：那些富有想象力的人却经验不足，而那些富有经验的人却缺乏想象。没有知识的傻瓜全凭想象办事，没有想象力的书呆子则只凭知识办事。大学的任务就是让想象和经验结合在一起。
美丽语录
A soul without imagination is like an observatory without the telescope.
没有想象力的灵魂，就像没有望远镜的天文台。
