This is the year of 2009. Two hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same date February 12, 1809. It was a very good day for our planet because Lincoln became the great emancipator of the slaves in America, and Darwin became the great emancipator of the human mind, so they both deserve to be celebrated.
Time magazine had one article in July issue of 2008, talks about the greatness of both men. The article seemed to indicate Lincoln is more influential. New Yorker reports there are 15,000 books about Abraham Lincoln in existence. It has been estimated that more books have been written about him than any other human being except Jesus. With our economic situation in dire condition, most college graduates are worrying about their jobs. Someone got a new idea of getting a stress-free career: get yourself a job in the Abraham Lincoln book publishing business and stay there for the rest of your life.
If they were not born on the same date, who will think about comparing their greatness? Of course, both of them are great men, but isn’t it true that compare Lincoln and Darwin is like compare orange and apple? Both of them are human beings but their profession and field of activities are quite different. However, comparing their influences on our civilization perhaps can be done.
American people tend to overemphasize the importance of their culture. I bet people outside America know Darwin more than Lincoln. Darwin’s influence on human thought has been great and huge. He revolutionized the entire subject of biology. Natural selection is a very broad and versatile principle indeed, and attempts have been made to apply it to other fields, such as anthropology, sociology, political science and economics. “Darwinian” becomes very popular in our common vocabulary. Even more important has been the impact of his theory upon religious thought. Until today, some states like Kansas or Mississippi still argue whether the evolution theory should be taught in the school. Some states introduce Intelligent Design Theory or Creation Theory in parallel with Evolution Theory in the school curriculum.
Both of them are great men. However, I rate Darwin’s influence to our civilization one level higher than Lincoln.
PS0: A good old movie (1960) “Inherit the Wind” documented the “Scopes Monkey Trial” of 1925. This is the Evolution versus Bible played out in the court. If you haven’t seen this movie, you should get one from Netflix. I watched it in 1961 and used to talk about it with 王澤霖 while riding bicycle back home from Taida.
PS1: As to Lincoln, there is a little book “Lincoln The Unknown” by Dale Carnegie. Chinese translation by 張心漪 titled "林肯外傳". This is a very good book about Lincoln & civil war. I read it in 1956. Dale Carnegie was the same author who wrote “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. It was on the best-seller list for several years (Chinese translation title: 處世教育).
PS2: The following persons were also born in 1809:
Felix Mendelssohn: Great composer, "Mid-Summer Night's Dream"
Alfred Lord Tennyson: English poet, "Charge of the Light Brigade"
Edgar Allan Poe: Thriller short stories writer, 愛倫坡
Oliver Wendell Holmes: Writer & poet, mentioned in the movie "Judgement at Nuremberg"
William Gladstone: Prime minister during Queen Victoria's era
10 comments:
I totally agree with Mark regarding Lincoln and Darwin. What Lincoln did was for America, while Darwin's influence has been universal. Both had great courage, one placed his life on the line, the other placed his reputation on the line.
"Inherit the Wind" was indeed a rare classic. I was so impressed by the performances of Spencer Tracy, Fredric March and Gene Kelly, I went to see it again the next day. The whole movie was a beauty. Well, at least it was a nice memory for me.
一維以上的評價沒有不等式。達爾文與林肯，一在科學，一在政治，誰高誰底，數學不能解決，也就是沒有放諸四海皆準的答案。達爾文 (and Wallace) 的發現滿足了人類一個永恆的懸念。人從哪裡來？又往哪裡去？就此，我們比古人幸福得太多了。
我想古人一定想要知道，天有多高？地有多厚？東到西有多遠？人從哪裡來？又往哪裡去？當然也有些答案，但聰明的人知道那是靠不住的。他們會懷疑，日近長安遠，還是日遠長安近？會寫，明月几時有，把酒問青天，不知天上宮闕，今夕是何年？會長嘆。前不見古人，後不見來者，念天地之悠悠，感滄然而涕下。
如果我生在古代，我會對找不到這些答案感到死不瞑目。朝聞道，才夕死可也。
地有多厚？東到西有多遠？麥哲倫航行世界一周算是解決了。天有多高？還沒有完全解決， 但我已經很滿意了。
人從哪裡來？又往哪裡去？是達爾文與 George Gamow用科學的態度找到了答案。後者用 Big Bang的推導出 3K全方位輻射，得道了證實。
不知為甚麼，每次想道我有這些問題的答案，就覺得生對了時代。為此，我感謝不已。
I am glad Wei likes the movie. Those three actors are all passed away but they will be remembered because of “Inherit the Wind”. The fictional characters Matthew Harrison Brady, Henry Drummond, Bertram Cates and E. K. Hornbeck correspond to the historical figures of William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow, John Scopes & H. Mencken. Tracy portrayed Darrow, a defence lawyer, March acted as Bryan, a Christian fundamentalist & Kelly acted as Mencken, a journalist & reporter. Their actings are impeccable & superb. There is a book “Summer for the Gods” by E.J. Larson (Pulitzer prize for history, 1998). It documented the trial in details. There is even a Chinese translation titled "眾神的審判”from 知書房出版社. However, I will do the same as Wei, just watch the movie twice instead of reading the books. The book is reserved for later when you have more leisure time. If you really interested in Clarence Darrow, there is another book “The Story of my Life” by Clarence Darrow. Chinese translation is titled “丹諾自傳”. Per preface, this book is highly recommended by 胡適 & 陳之藩. As to why Darrow is translated as 丹諾, I have no idea. I always think the Chinese translation of foreign name is a kind of art instead of science.
As to Lincoln, he is getting more popular these days. Obama is from Illinois like Lincoln. Although Lincoln was born in Kentucky, he spent most of the time in Springfield, Illinois before becoming the president. Obama took a train to Washington DC just as Lincoln did in 1860. Obama visited Lincoln Memorial, that was the first thing he did in DC. He already mentioned Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: Four score & seven years ago… government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. According to some report, the reason Lincoln is so popular is that he was a republican whom democrats do not think of as a republican. So people on both the left and the right feel free to adore him. He is also a white man that black people respect. To a foreigner like Chinese, he has a last name 林 that is short, easy to remember & is also a common Chinese last name. No wonder he is popular in China.
PS1: The last reason I mentioned sounds like a joke. Yes, I just made it up by myself. Lincoln is not the only one with this attribute. I found the following famous men also associate to 林家:
Lindbergh (林白): first pilot to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic
Rembrandt (林布蘭): a great painter from Holland
Linnaeus (林內): Swedish bobanist, 分類学始祖
PS2: Springfield has been translated as 春田城 in most cases (include 林肯外傳). But lately someone found out that actually it should be 泉野市, since there are a lot of springs (噴泉) near the city that have nothing to do with 春天. In order to satisfy everybody, perhaps it shoud be translated as 思不靈飛而得.
PS3: Just read Markyang's comment. He is right we can't compare the greatness of Darwin & Lincoln. My comments mainly focus on the magnitude of the "Influence to Our Civilization". Even with this premise, it is just my personal opinion. Markyang is a scholar with clear thinking meanwhile full of emotion. I think I understand most of what he said.
Shing,
Thanks for the title "scholar". All my classmates are more qualified than I for this title. It seems that you could not completely understand what I try to say. I should have explain myself better.
子曰:朝聞道,夕死可也. This implies that the reason we live is to hear 道. What is it? To me, 道 are the answers of a few fundamental curiosities our ancestors were eager to know when they were able to think. One of them is, where did out father's father's father... come from and how will it end with my children's children's children ...?
When one knows the answer, his life is fulfilled.
The more we learn, the more we know, and the more we know what we don't know. I do have a little disagreement with Master Confucius. Unless you have gotten the ultimate truth which I doubt any human being can ever have achieved you really don't want to die. If one thinks that he has known enough, then the door to his mind is shut. So, I would much rather "during the day if I learned a truth, I will have a good night's sleep". How the concept of "god" got started is beyond me, (religious folks out there, please don't preach me on that), but it certainly relieves the stress human beings have in pursue of the truth. Upon the frustration of the pursuing of truth one may resort to "god" such as "God made it so" or " God knows...". How convenient.
Mark Yang mentioned some of the eternal questions. How far is from east to west, and how high is the sky? Ever since we took the geometry class, we learned that in posting a question there is a set of assumptions to go with it. So, where is "east" and "west" we assume to be? Do we assume sky has a ceiling so we can measure? And when physicits said that the universe expands at the speed of light, does that mean the universe has a boundary such as shell? Well, unless someone comes up with an instrument that can measure a speed far exceeding light, we probably will never know how high the sky is. This kind of curiosity goes on and on, and if someone happens to find the answer to questions whose answers are classified as "only god knows...", does he or she become god?
Like Mark Yang, I am just happy when I "hear" an answer to my question. Though most of my questions have already had answers somewhere and I am slow to know, no matter, I am happy to go to bed at night. As for the bunch of new questions sprouted from an answer, those are for another day.
I did watch on TV the inauguration the day before yesterday. After the poet read her poem, I felt so lucky to have been born a Chinese and know some Chinese poetry. There is no other language that I know of that can form a poetry so precise and rhythmic yet express so much. No, I am not talking about the "new poetry". The beauty of our poetry can't be found anywhere else.
I have noticed that Mark Yang's Chinese writing uses Chinese punctuations too.
朝聞道,夕死可也, it means if we learn the truth in daytime, it is ok to die in evening. It doesn’t mean we want to die after we learn the truth. It implies if we know more truth, we tend to have less regret when we die. In other words, if we learn the truth, we sure will sleep better, and if we die, we will die peacefully. With this context, the opinions of Markyang & Wei are not in conflict.
After all these comments, it reminds me a TV series “COSMOS” in 1980 by Carl Sagan. Before delving into deep cosmos, I do like to say something about East & West. Wei asked where is "east" and "west" we assume to be? People in California say let’s go to Far East by going west. In geography, we say the earth rotates from west to east. So the direction is defined based on the axis of the earth rotation and the north is the north pole. Without this reference, direction is meaningless. If we are in the outer space, the east & west mean nothing. Here is a good old question we encountered in high school geography. How many points on the surface of earth meet the requirement of the following statement (assume the earth is a complete sphere): Start from a point A on earth, go south one mile, then go east one mile & then go north one mile, it returns to the starting point A.
You two are far more advanced than 古人. They did not know that the earth is round. So the sky is like a half-spherical cover. 詩云,
「敕勒川，陰山下，天似穹廬，籠罩四野，天蒼蒼，野茫茫，風吹草低見牛羊。」
穹廬＝蒙古包
So the farthest east is the east side of this cover where the sun rises and the farthest west is the west side of this sphere where the sun sets. So it make sense to ask how far is it from the east to west. They felt that if you went east, eventually, you would meet the sun. That's why they ask 日輿長安熟遠? They were surprised that no one ever comes from the sun.
Logically, it should be the more we konw the less we don't know. But what Wei said "The more we learn, the more we know, and the more we know what we don't know. " can still be correct, because knowledge cannot be quantified.
If one knows nothing, he probably does not have any question. Generally, if we ask a question and get the answer, we will end it there. However, once we got an answer, we become better equipped to ask a little more complicated question, meaning we actually realize there is more that we don't know. This is what excites me the most, there is endless unknowns to be explored. Sure, I often find formulating a question becomes more and more difficult due to too much that I still don't know is involved. It's a wonderful game; sometimes, just being able to come up with a question is in itself quite satisfying.
謹受教。
維龍兄說得好。知道的越多，問題越多。但也愈有深度，愈接近於「大哉問」﹗
小時候不知道天高地厚，現在要問Big Bang之前是什麼？宇宙是繼續膨脹，還是會再向內收縮？有多少 dark matter and dark energy?
小時候不知道人從哪裡來？現在要問第一個可以自我復製的分子是什麼構造？第一個細胞如何能夠形成？
正如幸峰所說。 「朝聞道，夕死可也」要改。「道」無止境 （至少目前還看不見盡頭），苟日新，日日新，又日新。「朝聞道，夕可睡得甘甜也」。不可死，不可死。
Mark Yang, please don't take me seriously. If not for you and Mark Lin, I probably wouldn't have expressed my humble thoughts so openly.
Sure enough, as Mark Lin predicted, we are seeing quite a bit about Darwin and Lincoln on all sorts of media lately. If you come across something weird about them, please share with us for a laugh.
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