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1、皮尔士论如何把我们的观念弄清楚摘自皮尔士“如何把我们的观念弄清楚”（思维清晰能够为重要的思想奠定牢固的基础；思维混乱会导致时间和精力的无谓浪费。 思维清晰对年轻人尤其重要，因为他们还有一番事业要做。 ）我们有正当理由要求逻辑教给我们的第一课是： 怎样把我们的观念弄明白。 这是极重要的一课，它只是受到未上这一课的人的轻蔑。知道了我们的思想，把握了我们自己所指的意思，就将为伟大的、 重要的思想奠定牢固的基础。 那些思想单纯而且有限的人最容易学会这一课；他们比起那些无可救药地沉溺于一堆概念泥潭中的人要幸运得多。确实，一个民族，经过几代人的努力， 可以克服由过多的语言财富和这种语言必然会伴随有的广阔无
2、边、 深不可测的观念所带来的不便。 我们在历史上或许会看到这个民族在慢慢地完善着它的文字形式， 最后抛弃了形而上学， 并通过通常代之而起的坚忍不拔的耐心， 在精神探究的每一个领域都获得极其辉煌的成就。虽然历史至今没有告诉我们，这样一种民族最终能否胜过那些观念（同他们语言中的词一样）极少但对这些观念把握得极好的民族。对每一个人来说，几个清楚的观念无疑要比许多混乱的观念更有价值。劝一个年轻人牺牲其大部分思想以拯救其余思想， 真是难乎其难。头脑浑浑噩噩的人最不容易看到这样一种牺牲的必要性。对这样的人，我们通常只能将他作为有先天缺陷的人而加以怜悯。 时间是会帮助他的， 但他的思想在明确性方面的成熟通常
3、是来得很迟的。 这似乎是大自然的一种不幸安排， 因为明确性对一些人比对另一些人用途较少，前一种人已安于生活，他们所犯的错误大多已产生了结果，而后一种人则还有一番事业要做。可怕的是，我们看到，潜藏在年轻人头脑中的一个不清楚的观念，一条没有意义的准则，有时竟会像动脉中的惰性物质那样起阻碍作用，妨碍大脑的营养供给，并使它的受害者在精力充沛、思想丰富的时刻便枯萎下去。许多人多少年来珍藏某些模糊、混沌的观念作为嗜好。实际上这些观念太没有意义了，甚至我们说它是绝对假的。尽管如此， 他仍一直热情奔放地珍爱着它，日日夜夜陪伴着它，对它倾注了全部的精力和生命，并为它之故而放弃了一切其他观念。总之，与它相依为命，
4、直到仿佛与它融为一体为止。然后在一个明亮的早晨，他醒来发现它不见了，就像寓言中美丽的梅卢西那一样消失得无影无踪，他生命的精华于是也随之逝去。我自己就认识这样一个人。谁能说得清有多少关于圆的正方形，关于形而上学家， 关于占星学家的故事呢？在古老的德国的传说中又有什么不曾说过或不可能说过呢？The very first lesson that we have a right to demand that logic shall teach us is, howto make our ideas clear; and a most important one it is, depreciated o
5、nly by mindswho stand in need of（需要） it.Toknow what we think, to be masters of our ownmeaning, will make a solid foundation for great and weighty thought. It is mosteasily learned by those whose ideas are meagre and restricted; and far happier theythan such as wallow（沉迷） helplessly in a rich mud of
6、conceptions. A nation, it istrue, may, in the course of generations, overcome the disadvantage of an excessivewealth of language and its natural concomitant, a vast, unfathomable deep of ideas.We may see it in history, slowly perfecting its literary forms, sloughing（抛弃） atlength its metaphysics, and
7、, by virtue of the untirable patience which is often acompensation, attaining great excellence in every branch of mental acquirement.The page of history is not yet unrolled（展开） that is to tell us whether such apeople will or will not in the long run prevail over one whose ideas (like the wordsof the
8、ir language) are few, but which possesses a wonderful mastery over thosewhich it has. For an individual, however, there can be no question that a few clearideas are worth more than many confused ones. A young man would hardly bepersuaded to sacrifice the greater part of his thoughts to save the rest
9、; and themuddled head is the least apt to see the necessity of such a sacrifice. Him we canusually only commiserate, as a person with a congenital defect（ 先天缺陷） . Time willhelp him, but intellectual maturity with regard to clearness is apt to come ratherlate. This seems an unfortunate arrangement of
10、 Nature, inasmuch as clearness is ofless use to a man settled in life, whose errors have in great measure had their effect,than it would be to one whose path lay before him. It is terrible to see how a singleunclear idea, a single formula without meaning, lurking in（潜伏） a young manshead, will someti
11、mes act like an obstruction of inert matter in an artery, hinderingthe nutrition of the brain, and condemning（ 宣告患不治之症）its victim to pine awayin the fullness of his intellectual vigor and in the midst of intellectual plenty. Many aman has cherished for years as his hobby some vague shadow of an idea
12、, toomeaningless to be positively false; he has, nevertheless, passionately loved it, hasmade it his companion by day and by night, and has given to it his strength and hislife, leaving all other occupations for its sake, and in short has lived with it and for it,until it has become, as it were, fle
13、sh of his flesh and bone of his bone; and then hehas waked up some bright morning to find it gone, clean vanished away like thebeautiful Melusina of the fable, and the essence of his life gone with it. I havemyself known such a man; and who can tell how many histories of circle-squarers,metaphysicia
14、ns, astrologers, and what not, may not be told in the old Germanstory?（没有差别就没有意义，没有可以感觉得到的后果或效果上的差别，就没有真正的差别。 因此我们要判断一个命题有没有意义，我们只需问，这个命题在什么情况下成立，在什么情况下不成立，而这两种情况是不是有真正的差别。如果两个命题成立的条件完全一样，那么这两个命题就是同一个命题。 ）设想一下，我们概念的对象会有什么样的可以想像的有实际意义的效果。这样，我们关于这些效果的全部概念也就是我们关于对象的全部概念。思想的全部作用就在于产生行动的习惯，任何与思想有关但与思想的目的
15、无关的事情，就只是思想的一种附加物，而不是它的一部分。因此要说明其意义，我们只需确定它会产生什么习惯，因为一件事情的意义就在于它所造成的习惯。 一个习惯的特性就在于它如何引导我们去行动， 不仅仅是在那些经常出现的情况下，而且也在那些仅仅有出现的可能性（不管这种可能性是多么小）的情况下。习惯的内容取决于它在何时并如何促使我们行动。无论何时，行动的每一个刺激都来自知觉；无论如何，行动的每一个目的都是要产生某种可以感觉得到的结果。这样，我们就得到了可以感觉到的并可以说是实际的东西， 把它们看作是思想的每一个实际差别的根源， 不管这种差别可能是多么微妙， 因为除了某种可能有的实际的差别之外， 就没有什
16、么真正的意义上的差别。Consider what effects, that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceivethe object of our conception to have. The whole function of thought is to producehabits of action; and that whatever there is connected with a thought, but irrelevantto its purpose, is an accretion to it, but no part of it.Todevelop its meaning, wehave, therefore, simply to determine what habits it produces, for what a thingmeans is simply what habits it involves. Now, the identity of a habit depends on
