SDcamps•演辩营全国英语演讲与辩论赛
The other great principle of evolution is sexual selection, and it operates very differently. 进化的另一大原则是性选择，它运作的方式则大相径庭。 The peacock’s magnificent tail is the most famous example of this. 孔雀那华丽的尾巴就是最著名的例子。 It did not evolve for natural survival. 这不是为了自然生存而进化出来的。 In fact, it goes against natural...
But, someone might argue, that’s natural beauty. 但有人也许会争辩，那是自然美。 How about artistic beauty? Isn’t that exhaustively cultural? 艺术的美又如何呢？那难道不是纯粹的文化影响吗？ No, I don’t think it is. And once again, I’d like to look back to prehistory to say something about it. 不，我不这么认为。再次，我们回到史前，聊聊史...
I can, however, give you at least a taste of what I regard as the most powerful theory of beauty we yet have. 然而，我能给大家体会一下我认为迄今为止我们所有的最有力的关于‘美’的理论。 And we get it not from a philosopher of art, not from a postmodern art theorist or a bigwig art critic. 这一理论不是来自艺术哲学家，也不是来自后现代艺术理论家或是有名的艺术评论家。 ...
Delighted to be here and to talk to you about a subject dear to my heart, which is beauty. 很高兴来到这里与大家探讨我至为关心的一个主题，那就是“美”。 I do the philosophy of art, aesthetics, actually, for a living. 我研究艺术与审美哲学，事实上，这是我的工作。 I try to figure out intellectually, philosophically, psychologically, what the experience of beauty is, ...
How can we explain this universality? 我们如何解释这一普世性呢？ The best answer lies in trying to reconstruct a Darwinian evolutionary history of our artistic and aesthetic tastes. 最佳答案存在于对我们艺术和审美品味的达尔文主义进化过程的重新构建的尝试中。 We need to reverse-engineer our present artistic tastes and preferences 我们需要进行逆向组建我们当前的艺...
So the next time you pass a jewelry shop window displaying a beautifully cut teardrop-shaped stone, 因此，下次你经过陈列着切成泪滴形的漂亮宝石的珠宝店橱窗时， don’t be so sure it’s just your culture telling you that that sparkling jewel is beautiful. 不要太肯定这只是你所接收到的文化影响了你，告诉你闪闪发光的珠宝是美丽的。 Your distant ancestors loved...
Except, of course, what’s interesting about this is that we can’t be sure how that idea was conveyed, 当然，有趣的是，我们无法确认这样的观点是如何传播的， because the Homo erectus that made these objects did not have language. 因为制作这些物品的直立人没有语言。 It’s hard to grasp, but it’s an incredible fact. 这很难理解，但这也是难以置...
So what were these ancient — I mean, they’re ancient, they’re foreign, but they’re at the same time somehow familiar. 因此这些古老的–我是说，它们是古老的，异域的，但同时它们也是我们熟悉的。 What were these artifacts for? 这些人工制品的用途是什么？ The best available answer is that they were literally the earliest known works of art,...
Consider briefly an important source of aesthetic pleasure, the magnetic pull of beautiful landscapes. 想一下简单且重要的审美愉悦的来源，美丽风景的吸引力。 People in very different cultures all over the world tend to like a particular kind of landscape, 全世界在完全不同的文化背景下的人们，都倾向于某种特定的风景， a landscape that just happens to be similar to th...
达尔文的大胆预测 作者:赵元波 1862年，达尔文发现了一种原产于马达加斯加的奇异植物：彗星兰,这种兰花的拉丁文学名意思是“一尺半”，其名称源自它那“令人惊骇”的花形：这种兰花有着又长又细的花距，花蜜就深深地藏在长达25厘米深处细长的花冠底部。如此长的花距，昆虫需要多长的喙才够得着花冠底部的花蜜呢？深知自然选择威力的达尔文于是作出了一个大胆的预测：在马达加斯加肯定有一种喙至少有25厘米长的...