Book Review;Meditations onlove;Truly, madly, deeply

　　書評;愛的沉思;愛得真摯，瘋狂，深刻;

　　Plato described love as a serious mental disease.Aristotle saw it as a single soul inhabiting twobodies. Tina Turner dismissed the feeling as asecond-hand emotion. The nature of lovehow andwhen and why and with whom humans fall for eachotherhas preoccupied thinkers through the ages.Now a philosopher and a scientist have a go in twonew and markedly different books.

　　柏拉圖曾經將愛描述為嚴重的心理疾病。亞里士多德認為愛是一靈棲兩軀。蒂娜特納并不認為這種感覺是種二手情感。愛的本質便是人們怎樣，何時，為何，與誰共浴愛河，而這種本質已讓思想家們研究了好幾個世紀。如今，一位哲學家和一位科學家在其兩本截然不同的新書中嘗試著探求愛的本質。

　　In his latest work, In Praise of Love, Alain Badiou, a French philosopher, identifies threeprevailing philosophical views of love. It can be an ecstatic encounter; an unsentimentalcontract; 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 thebeloved. As such, it is more than the sum of its parts. Love is a construction, he writes, alife that is being made, no longer from the perspective of One but from the perspective ofTwo.

　　法國哲學家阿蘭巴迪歐在其新作《愛的禮贊》中指出，關于愛，有3種被普遍認同的哲學觀點：愛是一種令人欣喜的邂逅;一種理性的維系;一種與懷疑主義共存的幻覺。不過，這三種觀點都被巴迪歐否定了。對他而言，愛是決定在以后的生命中，同時擁有兩個人的思想。因此，愛，不止于是部分的疊加而已。愛是建造，他寫道，愛不再是一個人的思想能夠孕育出的生命，它需要兩個人。

　　Mr Badiou sees risk as central to love. A loving relationship demands multiple and sharedperspectives, which always give rise to incongruences and tensions. He reserves specialscorn 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-freeoption. This is to neglect the very essence of love, according to Mr Badiou, which involvesthe presence of risk, the possibility of failure and the need for vulnerability.

　　巴迪歐認為愛的核心便是風險。一段戀愛關系講求既多樣又相同的思想，這便總會讓兩人感覺不合適，導致關系緊張。他一直都鄙視婚戀網上馬虎配對的人。顯然，這些人相信只需搜集未來另一半的照片，喜好，生日，星座之類的，終會成功地篩選出一個零風險的選項。他認為，這樣做忽視了愛的本質愛中存在著風險，有可能以分手告終，它也需要其中一方的示弱。

　　The book s chatty style lends a deceptive simplicity to the ideas within. Get to work unpicking theseconcepts and it soon becomes plain that, like many French philosophers, Mr Badiou sacrificesclarity for linguistic zip and sparkle. Nonetheless, he leaves the reader with an incisiveoverview of philosophical thinking on love, from Plato to Kierkegaard to Lacan.

　　該書的閑談式風格會讓人誤以為：書中的思想都很簡單。先得摒棄掉這些觀點，之后，明顯可以看到，巴迪歐與許多法國哲學家一樣，追求的不是清晰明確，而是語言上的表現力與閃光點。不過，對于從柏拉圖到克爾凱郭爾再到拉康關于愛的哲學思想，他的概述可謂鞭辟入里。

　　Robin Dunbar s book, The Science of Love and Betrayal, isperhaps surprisinglyeasier toget to grips with. Dr Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary anthropology with a study in thisweek s science section , is best known for Dunbar s number, the limit to thenumber of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. He laments thatscientists have largely ignored the concept of love. In this book he bridges the gap betweenthe biological explanations for humans romantic behaviour and the psychological,historical, social and evolu- tionary contexts that help to shape it.

　　羅賓鄧巴的新書《愛與背叛的科學》更容易理解，或許這有點令人驚訝。鄧巴博士是進化人類學的教授，本期科學專欄刊登了一篇他的研究。令他廣為人知的是鄧巴數字，即一個人最多可以擁有的穩定社交關系的人數。他感到惋惜的是，科學家幾乎忽略了愛的概念。生物學上對人類浪漫行為做出了解釋，這與有助于塑造這種行為的心理，歷史，社會，及進化因素本毫無關聯，但在該書中，他將兩者聯系了起來。

　　In particular, he is interested in why humans have developed such an affinity forpairbonding, despite the fact that strictly monogamous mating and rearing systems are notterribly advantageous in evolutionary terms. Monogamy is not unique to humans. Whatis unique, however, is the intensity with which the species falls in love. Nearly everyhuman culture in history exhibits this complex sense of longing, Dr Dunbar observes.

　　鄧巴博士尤為感興趣的是，雖然就進化角度而言，嚴格的一夫一妻制及養育制并不占多大優勢，但為何人類還如此熱衷于培養兩個人的情侶關系。一夫一妻制并不只是人類特有。不過，人類特有的是這個物種愛火燃燒的熾熱。鄧巴博士觀察到，歷史上，幾乎人類的每種文化都表現出了這種復雜的渴望。

　　To understand this predisposition for monogamy, he takes readers through the myriadfeelings of love, from the heady, breathless exhilaration of falling, to the stubbornpersistence of familial affection, to the bitterness of betrayal. Throughout the book DrDunbar excels at taking obvious and familiar informationmen prefer curvy women; womenprefer men who dance well; older women rarely reveal their ages in lonely-heartscolumnsand explaining the complex and often unexpected evolutionary science that liesbehind it all.

　　為了理解一夫一妻制的偏向，鄧巴博士帶領讀者體味了愛的各種感覺，從初墜愛河時忘乎所以，呼吸困難的興奮，到義無反顧地維持家庭關系，再到遭到背叛時的心如刀割?？v觀全書，鄧巴的高超之處在于利用人們常見且熟悉的信息男人偏好曲線玲瓏的女人; 女人喜歡舞技出眾的男人;年齡稍大的女人很少在征友專欄揭露自己的年齡同時解釋了這些現象背后復雜且常出人意料的進化科學。

　　Love is a journey, a game, a many-splendoured thing. Though some give it a bad name , the rest of us find the subject endlessly fascinating. Thestruggle to understand such a mystifying phenomenon invariably requires the help ofphilosophers and scientists, and others besides. Good news for Mr Badiou and Dr Dunbar.

　　愛是一次旅行，一場游戲，一件美妙的事。盡管有人給予愛很低的評價，但是其余人都認為愛是一個永恒迷人的主題。當人們竭盡全力理解這迷一樣的現象時，總是需要哲學家，科學家，及其他專家的幫助。這對巴迪歐和鄧巴來說，是個好消息。

　　Book Review;Meditations onlove;Truly, madly, deeply

　　書評;愛的沉思;愛得真摯，瘋狂，深刻;

　　Plato described love as a serious mental disease.Aristotle saw it as a single soul inhabiting twobodies. Tina Turner dismissed the feeling as asecond-hand emotion. The nature of lovehow andwhen and why and with whom humans fall for eachotherhas preoccupied thinkers through the ages.Now a philosopher and a scientist have a go in twonew and markedly different books.

　　柏拉圖曾經將愛描述為嚴重的心理疾病。亞里士多德認為愛是一靈棲兩軀。蒂娜特納并不認為這種感覺是種二手情感。愛的本質便是人們怎樣，何時，為何，與誰共浴愛河，而這種本質已讓思想家們研究了好幾個世紀。如今，一位哲學家和一位科學家在其兩本截然不同的新書中嘗試著探求愛的本質。

　　In his latest work, In Praise of Love, Alain Badiou, a French philosopher, identifies threeprevailing philosophical views of love. It can be an ecstatic encounter; an unsentimentalcontract; 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 thebeloved. As such, it is more than the sum of its parts. Love is a construction, he writes, alife that is being made, no longer from the perspective of One but from the perspective ofTwo.

　　法國哲學家阿蘭巴迪歐在其新作《愛的禮贊》中指出，關于愛，有3種被普遍認同的哲學觀點：愛是一種令人欣喜的邂逅;一種理性的維系;一種與懷疑主義共存的幻覺。不過，這三種觀點都被巴迪歐否定了。對他而言，愛是決定在以后的生命中，同時擁有兩個人的思想。因此，愛，不止于是部分的疊加而已。愛是建造，他寫道，愛不再是一個人的思想能夠孕育出的生命，它需要兩個人。

　　Mr Badiou sees risk as central to love. A loving relationship demands multiple and sharedperspectives, which always give rise to incongruences and tensions. He reserves specialscorn 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-freeoption. This is to neglect the very essence of love, according to Mr Badiou, which involvesthe presence of risk, the possibility of failure and the need for vulnerability.

　　巴迪歐認為愛的核心便是風險。一段戀愛關系講求既多樣又相同的思想，這便總會讓兩人感覺不合適，導致關系緊張。他一直都鄙視婚戀網上馬虎配對的人。顯然，這些人相信只需搜集未來另一半的照片，喜好，生日，星座之類的，終會成功地篩選出一個零風險的選項。他認為，這樣做忽視了愛的本質愛中存在著風險，有可能以分手告終，它也需要其中一方的示弱。

　　The book s chatty style lends a deceptive simplicity to the ideas within. Get to work unpicking theseconcepts and it soon becomes plain that, like many French philosophers, Mr Badiou sacrificesclarity for linguistic zip and sparkle. Nonetheless, he leaves the reader with an incisiveoverview of philosophical thinking on love, from Plato to Kierkegaard to Lacan.

　　該書的閑談式風格會讓人誤以為：書中的思想都很簡單。先得摒棄掉這些觀點，之后，明顯可以看到，巴迪歐與許多法國哲學家一樣，追求的不是清晰明確，而是語言上的表現力與閃光點。不過，對于從柏拉圖到克爾凱郭爾再到拉康關于愛的哲學思想，他的概述可謂鞭辟入里。

　　Robin Dunbar s book, The Science of Love and Betrayal, isperhaps surprisinglyeasier toget to grips with. Dr Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary anthropology with a study in thisweek s science section , is best known for Dunbar s number, the limit to thenumber of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. He laments thatscientists have largely ignored the concept of love. In this book he bridges the gap betweenthe biological explanations for humans romantic behaviour and the psychological,historical, social and evolu- tionary contexts that help to shape it.

　　羅賓鄧巴的新書《愛與背叛的科學》更容易理解，或許這有點令人驚訝。鄧巴博士是進化人類學的教授，本期科學專欄刊登了一篇他的研究。令他廣為人知的是鄧巴數字，即一個人最多可以擁有的穩定社交關系的人數。他感到惋惜的是，科學家幾乎忽略了愛的概念。生物學上對人類浪漫行為做出了解釋，這與有助于塑造這種行為的心理，歷史，社會，及進化因素本毫無關聯，但在該書中，他將兩者聯系了起來。

　　In particular, he is interested in why humans have developed such an affinity forpairbonding, despite the fact that strictly monogamous mating and rearing systems are notterribly advantageous in evolutionary terms. Monogamy is not unique to humans. Whatis unique, however, is the intensity with which the species falls in love. Nearly everyhuman culture in history exhibits this complex sense of longing, Dr Dunbar observes.

　　鄧巴博士尤為感興趣的是，雖然就進化角度而言，嚴格的一夫一妻制及養育制并不占多大優勢，但為何人類還如此熱衷于培養兩個人的情侶關系。一夫一妻制并不只是人類特有。不過，人類特有的是這個物種愛火燃燒的熾熱。鄧巴博士觀察到，歷史上，幾乎人類的每種文化都表現出了這種復雜的渴望。

　　To understand this predisposition for monogamy, he takes readers through the myriadfeelings of love, from the heady, breathless exhilaration of falling, to the stubbornpersistence of familial affection, to the bitterness of betrayal. Throughout the book DrDunbar excels at taking obvious and familiar informationmen prefer curvy women; womenprefer men who dance well; older women rarely reveal their ages in lonely-heartscolumnsand explaining the complex and often unexpected evolutionary science that liesbehind it all.

　　為了理解一夫一妻制的偏向，鄧巴博士帶領讀者體味了愛的各種感覺，從初墜愛河時忘乎所以，呼吸困難的興奮，到義無反顧地維持家庭關系，再到遭到背叛時的心如刀割?？v觀全書，鄧巴的高超之處在于利用人們常見且熟悉的信息男人偏好曲線玲瓏的女人; 女人喜歡舞技出眾的男人;年齡稍大的女人很少在征友專欄揭露自己的年齡同時解釋了這些現象背后復雜且常出人意料的進化科學。

　　Love is a journey, a game, a many-splendoured thing. Though some give it a bad name , the rest of us find the subject endlessly fascinating. Thestruggle to understand such a mystifying phenomenon invariably requires the help ofphilosophers and scientists, and others besides. Good news for Mr Badiou and Dr Dunbar.

　　愛是一次旅行，一場游戲，一件美妙的事。盡管有人給予愛很低的評價，但是其余人都認為愛是一個永恒迷人的主題。當人們竭盡全力理解這迷一樣的現象時，總是需要哲學家，科學家，及其他專家的幫助。這對巴迪歐和鄧巴來說，是個好消息。