新世纪研究生公共英语教材阅读b原文翻译unit-10

Unit 10 Is Science Dangerous? Uite10课文译文科学危险吗？

Lewis Wolpert 刘易斯·沃尔珀特

Does society need protecting from scientific advances? Most emphatically not, so long as scientists themselves and their employers are committed to full disclosure of what they know.

人类社会需要保护以抵挡科学发展带来的危险吗？当然不需要，只要科学家及其雇主们致力于公开他们所知道的一切详情。

1. The idea that knowledge is dangerous is deeply embedded in our culture. Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat from the biblical Tree of Knowledge, and in Milton’s Paradise Lost the ser pent addresses the Tree as the ―Mother of Science‖. The archangel Raphael advises Adam to be ―lowly wise‖when he tries to question him about the nature of the Universe. Indeed, Western literature is filled with images of scientists meddling with nature, with disastrous results. Scientists are portrayed as a soulless group, unconcerned with ethical issues.

1．知识是危险的这一观念在我们的文化中根深蒂固。圣经中的亚当和夏娃被禁食“智慧之树”上的果实，而弥尔顿《失乐园》中的蛇将此树称为“科学之母”。当亚当试图向天使长拉斐尔询问有关宇宙本质的问题时，拉斐尔建议他最好“知之甚少”。事实上，西方文献中有大量关于科学家扰乱自然界，而后导致灾难后果的记载。科学家被描绘成一群冷酷和无视伦理道德的人。

2. But is science in fact dangerous, and do scientists have special social responsibilities? It is essential to recognize that reliable scientific knowledge has no moral or ethical value. Science tells us how the world is: that we are not at the center of the Universe is neither good nor bad, nor is the possibility that genes could influence our intelligence or behavior.

2．那么科学真地是危险的吗？科学家需要肩负起特定的社会责任吗？我们必须认识到，可靠的科学知识并不负载道德或伦理的价值。科学只告诉我们世界为何等模样：我们人类不处于宇宙的中心这一事实本身无好坏之分；基因会影响我们的智力和行为这一可能性亦无优劣之别。

Moral Obligations 道德义务

3. Dangers and ethical issues come into play when scientific research is done in practice, for example in experiments involving humans and other animals or when science is applied to technology, or in issues related to safety. There is thus an important distinction between science and technology: between knowledge andunderstanding on the one hand, and the application of that knowledge to making something, or using it in some practical way, on the other.

3．当科学研究在现实生活中进行时，就会带来危害性及有关的伦理问题，例如涉及人或其它动

物的实验；或是将研究成果用于技术实施；又或是相关的研究涉及到人们的安全问题。由此可见，科学和技术之间有一重要区别：科学知识旨在了解自然，而技术却是运用这一知识制造产品或将这一知识运用于实际目的。

4. Science produces ideas about how the world works, whereas the ideas in technology result in usable objects. Technology is much older than science and, unaided by any science, it gave rise to early crafts such as agriculture and metalworking. I would argue that science mad virtually no contribution to technology until the nineteenth century –even the great triumphs of engineering such as the steam engine and Renaissance cathedrals were built with imaginative trial and error, virtually without any impact of science.

4．科学研究推导有关世界本质的观念，而技术观念则旨在制造可使用的产品。技术远比科学源远流长。而且没有科学的指引，单凭技术也发展了诸如农业和金属制造业之类的行业。我认为19世纪之前，科学实际上未对技术做出太多的贡献——即使是那些辉煌的技术成果，如蒸汽机和文艺复兴时期的大教堂，也是在没有任何科学观念的影响下，通过当时人们富于想象的反复试验完成的。

5. Whatever new technology is introduced, it is not for scientists to make moral or ethical decisions about its use, as they have no special rights or skills in this regard. There is grave danger in asking scientists to be more socially responsible if they would also be given the right and authority to make such decisions on their own. The social obligations that scientists have, as distinct from those responsibilities they share with all citizens (such as supporting a democratic society and taking care of the rights of others), come from them having access to specialized knowledge of how the world works that is not easily accessible to others. Their obligation is to make public any social implications of their work and its technological applications, and to give some assessment of its reliability. In most areas of science it matters little to the public whether a particular theory is right or wrong, but in some areas, such as human and plant genetics, it matters a great deal.

5．无论发明什么样的技术，科学家均不应该对该技术的运用做涉及道德伦理方面的决策，因为他们在这方面没有任何特殊的权利或能力。如果要求科学家承担更多的社会义务，并赋予他们特权进行相关的决策，那么将会出现严重的危机。科学家所承担的社会责任有别于他们与其他公民共同分担的社会义务（例如支持民主社会或尊重他人权益），这种责任源于他们具备专业的知识去了解世界的本质，而普通人未能拥有这些知识。科学家的义务是公开他们的研究成果以及有关的技术应用对社会可能产生的影响，同时还需对研究的可靠性加以评价。在大多数的科学研究领域，就公众而言，某一理论的对错无关紧要，然而在某些领域，如有关人类和植物基因的研究，理论的是非会变得至关重要。

6. When the facts are examined dispassionately, it is not easy to find cases wherescientists have behaved unethically in relation to the public. Contrary to some