題組內容
以下兩題,第1.題請主要用中文答,第2.請只用英文答,
1.亞當·史密斯《道德情感論》第四部的開頭如此討論美(略有修改):
That utility is one of the principal sources of beauty, has been observed by every body; that the
fitness of any system or machine to produce the end for which it was intended, bestows a certain
propriety and beauty up e, and renders the the very thought and contemplation of it
agreeable, is so very obvious, that nobody has overlooked it. But that this fitress, this happy
upon the whole.
contrivance of any production of art, should often be more valued than the very end for which it
was intended; and that the exact adjust nnt fek ent of the means for attainine an ny conveniency or pleasure
should frequently be more regarded than that very conveniency or pleasure, in the attainment of
which their whole merit would seem to consist, has not been yet taken notice of by any body.
For example, a watch that falls behind above two minutes in a day, is despised by one curious in
watches. He sells it perhaps for a couple of guineas (=「 堅尼」 ), and purchases another at fifty,
which will not lose above a minute in a fortnight (= 兩週). The sole use of watches, however, is to
tel! us what o'clock it is, and to hinder us from breaking any engagement. But the person so nice
with regard to this machine will not always be found either more scrupulously punctual than other
men, or more anxiously concerne ed upon any other ad account to know precisely what time of day it
is. What interests him is not so much the attainment of this piece of knowledge, as the perfection
of the machine which serves to attain it.
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