爱得真挚 爱得疯狂 爱得深刻

 　　Take a chance on me 交个朋友吧，或许我就是你的真命天子哦！

　　PLATO described love as a serious mental disease. Aristotle saw it as a single soul inhabiting two bodies. Tina Turner dismissed the feeling as a second-hand¹ emotion. The nature of love—how and when and why and with whom humans fall for each other—has preoccupied² thinkers through the ages. Now a philosopher and a scientist have a go in two new and markedly different books. 柏拉图将爱情描述为一种严重的精神疾病；亚里士多德认为爱情是一个灵魂孕育在两个躯体里；蒂娜?特纳则对爱情不屑一顾，视之为二手的情感。古往今来，所有思想家都在思索爱情的本质：人们如何相爱？何时坠入爱河？为何相爱？与谁相爱？如今，一名哲学家和一名科学家各自发表了一本显著不同的新书，试图回答这一难题。

　　In his latest work, "In Praise of Love", Alain Badiou, a French philosopher, identifies three prevailing³ philosophical⁴ views of love. It can be an ecstatic encounter; an unsentimental contract; or an illusion, best treated with scepticism. He rejects all three. For Mr Badiou, love is the decision to live life through two perspectives, that of both the lover and the beloved. As such, it is more than the sum of its parts. Love "is a construction," he writes, "a life that is being made, no longer from the perspective of One but from the perspective of Two." 法国哲学家阿兰. 巴迪乌(Alain Badiou)最近出版了新书《歌颂爱情》，他在书中提到了哲学界三个主流的爱情观。爱情可能萌生于一次心动的邂逅，也可能是一个不动情绪的契约或一种似是而非的美好幻觉。巴迪乌对这三种观点都不以为然。在他看来，爱情就意味着相爱的两人要选择从两种角度来生活：即爱与被爱的角度。所以，爱情并不只是两个人生活片段的简单拼凑。巴迪乌写道：“爱情是‘一种建构'，恋爱双方不再单从各自的角度生活，而是从双方的角度，创造出一种全新的生活方式。”

　　Mr Badiou sees risk as central to love. A loving relationship demands multiple and shared perspectives, which always give rise to incongruences and tensions. He reserves special scorn for dabblers in internet dating, who evidently believe that the search for "a photo, details of his or her tastes, date of birth, horoscope sign, etc" will ultimately net "a risk-free option". This is to neglect the very essence of love, according to Mr Badiou, which involves the presence of risk, the possibility of failure and the need for vulnerability. 巴迪乌认为爱情必然存在风险。恋爱关系的维持需要恋爱双方从多个角度看待问题，互相理解，这也常常导致冲突和争执。巴迪乌尤为鄙视通过网络寻找恋爱对象的人，这些人视爱情如儿戏。显然，他们认为：只要搜索到“照片、喜好、年龄、星座等信息”与自己要求相符合的他或她，就能谈一场毫无风险的恋爱。巴迪乌认为，这种行为忽略了爱情的本质：爱情本就存在风险，可能失败，需要双方适时地展示自己脆弱的一面。

　　The book's chatty style (it is based on a conversation with Nicolas Truong, a French journalist) lends a deceptive⁵ simplicity⁶ to the ideas within. Get to work unpicking these concepts and it soon becomes plain that, like many French philosophers, Mr Badiou sacrifices clarity for linguistic⁷ zip and sparkle. Nonetheless, he leaves the reader with an incisive⁸ overview⁹ of philosophical thinking on love, from Plato to Kierkegaard to Lacan. 这本书语言亲切（主要内容基于与法国记者Nicolas Truong的谈话），朴实简单的文字下蕴含着深刻的思想。如若将这些概念分开来看，很快就可以发现：与很多法国哲学家一样，巴迪乌并未选择一语道破，而是玩弄起辞藻，妙语连珠，意味深长。尽管如此，他在书中对自古以来关于爱情的各种哲学思考做了犀利的总结，从柏拉图到齐克果再到拉康，一应俱全，读者可借机一窥究竟。

　　Robin¹⁰ Dunbar's book, "The Science of Love and Betrayal", is—perhaps surprisingly—easier to get to grips with. Dr Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary¹¹ anthropology¹² with a study in this week's science section (see article), is best known for "Dunbar's number", the limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. He laments¹³ that scientists have largely ignored the concept of love. In this book he bridges the gap between the biological explanations for humans' romantic behaviour and the psychological, historical, social and evolutionary contexts that help to shape it. 相比之下，罗宾.邓巴（Robin Dunbar）的书《爱与背叛的科学》更容易理解，这一点或许出人意料。邓巴是一名进化人类学教授，他在本期杂志的科技部分也发表了一篇研究。邓巴以其提出的“邓巴人数（Dunbar's number）”最为出名。邓巴人数指能与某个人维持稳定人际关系的人数上限。他感到遗憾的是，科学家们大都忽略了爱情的含义。邓巴在书中不仅探讨了人类做出浪漫行为的生物学原因，还将这些原因与起到推波助澜作用的心理、历史、社会和进化环境等因素更为紧密地联系起来。

　　In particular, he is interested in why humans have developed such an affinity¹⁴ for "pairbonding", despite the fact that strictly¹⁵ monogamous mating and rearing systems are not terribly advantageous¹⁶ in evolutionary terms. Monogamy is not unique to humans. What is unique, however, is the intensity¹⁷ with which the species falls in love. Nearly every human culture in history exhibits this complex sense of longing¹⁸, Dr Dunbar observes. 尽管严格的一夫一妻婚育制度并非十分有利于人类的进化，但人们还是喜欢有固定的配偶，邓巴对这一现象的原因尤其感兴趣。一夫一妻制并非只存在于人类社会，其它物种之间也有，但人与人相爱的深度却是其它物种不可比拟的。据邓巴观察，从古至今，几乎每个时期的人类文明都显示出了这种渴望爱情的复杂情感。

　　To understand this predisposition for monogamy, he takes readers through the myriad¹⁹ feelings of love, from the heady, breathless exhilaration of falling, to the stubborn persistence²⁰ of familial affection, to the bitterness of betrayal. Throughout the book Dr Dunbar excels at taking obvious and familiar information—men prefer curvy women; women prefer men who dance well; older women rarely reveal their ages in lonely-hearts columns—and explaining the complex and often unexpected evolutionary science that lies behind it all. 为了弄清楚人类社会一夫一妻传统的起源，邓巴向读者阐述了恋爱过程所包含的各种错综复杂的情感：刚坠入爱河时的恋人陶醉其中，激动得无法呼吸；组成家庭后双方视彼此为亲人，不离不弃；遭到爱人背叛后，前尘往事如尘埃、内心唯有苦涩酸楚。邓巴擅于在整本书中运用显而易见的常识——男人喜欢曲线美的女人；女人喜欢舞技高超的男人；年龄稍大的女性很少会在有情人专栏透露自己的年龄——并解释这些现象背后所隐藏的复杂的进化科学，往往出人意料。

　　Love is a journey, a game, a many-splendoured thing. Though some give it a bad name (if Jon Bon Jovi is to be believed), the rest of us find the subject endlessly fascinating. The struggle to understand such a mystifying phenomenon invariably requires the help of philosophers and scientists, and others besides. Good news for Mr Badiou and Dr Dunbar. 爱情是一次旅行，一场游戏，一件充满奇妙的事。尽管有人诋毁爱情（如Jon Bon Jovi的歌曲所唱），其它人则认为它永远充满魅力。爱情如此神秘，要弄懂它，哲学家和科学家的帮助必不可少。同时还需要其它人的帮助，巴迪乌和邓巴的努力可算是没有白费。

1 second-hand   

adj.用过的，旧的，二手的

参考例句：

• I got this book by chance at a second-hand bookshop.我赶巧在一家旧书店里买到这本书。
• They will put all these second-hand goods up for sale.他们将把这些旧货全部公开出售。

2 preoccupied   

adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式)

参考例句：

• He was too preoccupied with his own thoughts to notice anything wrong. 他只顾想着心事，没注意到有什么不对。
• The question of going to the Mount Tai preoccupied his mind. 去游泰山的问题盘踞在他心头。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 prevailing   

adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的

参考例句：

• She wears a fashionable hair style prevailing in the city.她的发型是这个城市流行的款式。
• This reflects attitudes and values prevailing in society.这反映了社会上盛行的态度和价值观。

4 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。

5 deceptive   

adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• His appearance was deceptive.他的外表带有欺骗性。
• The storyline is deceptively simple.故事情节看似简单，其实不然。

6 simplicity   

n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯

参考例句：

• She dressed with elegant simplicity.她穿着朴素高雅。
• The beauty of this plan is its simplicity.简明扼要是这个计划的一大特点。

7 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

8 incisive   

adj.敏锐的，机敏的，锋利的，切入的

参考例句：

• His incisive remarks made us see the problems in our plans.他的话切中要害，使我们看到了计划中的一些问题。
• He combined curious qualities of naivety with incisive wit and worldly sophistication.他集天真质朴的好奇、锐利的机智和老练的世故于一体。

9 overview   

n.概观，概述

参考例句：

• The opening chapter gives a brief historical overview of transport.第一章是运输史的简要回顾。
• The seminar aims to provide an overview on new media publishing.研讨会旨在综览新兴的媒体出版。

10 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

11 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

12 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

13 laments   

n.悲恸，哀歌，挽歌( lament的名词复数 )v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• In the poem he laments the destruction of the countryside. 在那首诗里他对乡村遭到的破坏流露出悲哀。
• In this book he laments the slight interest shown in his writings. 在该书中他慨叹人们对他的著作兴趣微弱。 来自辞典例句

14 affinity   

n.亲和力，密切关系

参考例句：

• I felt a great affinity with the people of the Highlands.我被苏格兰高地人民深深地吸引。
• It's important that you share an affinity with your husband.和丈夫有共同的爱好是十分重要的。

15 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

16 advantageous   

adj.有利的；有帮助的

参考例句：

• Injections of vitamin C are obviously advantageous.注射维生素C显然是有利的。
• You're in a very advantageous position.你处于非常有利的地位。

17 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

18 longing   

n.（for）渴望

参考例句：

• Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
• His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。

19 myriad   

adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量

参考例句：

• They offered no solution for all our myriad problems.对于我们数不清的问题他们束手无策。
• I had three weeks to make a myriad of arrangements.我花了三个星期做大量准备工作。

20 persistence   

n.坚持，持续，存留

参考例句：

• The persistence of a cough in his daughter puzzled him.他女儿持续的咳嗽把他难住了。
• He achieved success through dogged persistence.他靠着坚持不懈取得了成功。