..續本文上一頁entists brought into view nearly 10,000 galaxies, some of them existing when the universe was only 800 million years old. The whole sky contains 12.7 million times more area than this Ultra Deep Field. Scientists expect that such observations will offer new insights into the birth and evolution of galaxies.

　　近期的太空深度探索，即2003-2004年間哈勃望遠鏡的觀察，提供了人類有史以來對可視的宇宙最詳細的描繪。哈勃超級景深工程，即由400臺圍繞地球運轉的哈勃望遠鏡，以一百萬米的曝光時間拍攝，解釋了從所謂“黑暗時代”開始的第一批星系，即大爆炸之後，第一批爲冰冷黑暗的宇宙帶來熱量的星星們。望遠鏡對準的是天爐座，地面的望遠鏡觀察這個方向基本看不到什麼，哈勃望遠鏡能接受到最弱的發光體發出的光，速度慢到幾乎每分鍾一個光子，就這樣通過接受幾百萬光年外的光得到一個深度的宇宙核心樣本。僅僅對于月球直徑十分之一的寬度進行觀察，科學家們發現了1000個星系，有些星系在宇宙僅僅8億歲的時候就存在了。整個天空的面積是這個縱深區域的1270萬倍，科學家們預測如果對這樣廣大的區域進行觀察會對星系的進化有更深的發現。

　　This brief history of astronomy gives some idea of the importance of sophisticated, penetrating observation for exploring the depths of space and the evolution of the physical universe. But such objective observations tell us nothing about the role of the observer in relation to the quantum fl uctuations in the last stages of inflation after the big bang, without which there would be no galaxies and no matter in our universe.

　　對天文學的曆史的簡單回顧，表明對于宇宙深處以及進化的綜合的、透徹的探索是多麼重要。不過這類觀察並沒有提供給任何大爆炸後，最後幾個膨脹階段的量子浮動與我們觀察到的有什麼關系，沒有大爆炸也就沒有星系乃至物質。

　　Philosophical Resistance to Introspection

　　對于內省的哲學抵抗

　　As discussed in the first chapter, since the time of Descartes, scientists have taken on the challenge of exploring the world of objective physical phenomena, leaving the world of subjective mental phenomena to philosophers. Renaissance philosophers such as Paracelsus, who advocated an organic philosophy in contrast to the mechanistic philosophy of Descartes, did emphasize the first-person observation of the mind and fi rst-person experimentation using the power of imagination (vis imaginativa). But they lived in the tragically psychotic era of witch hunting, during which any such notions were suspiciously regarded as magic. Protestant reformers were especially quick to condemn anything of that sort as impious, useless, and potentially demonic, and those who advocated such theories and methods could find their lives imperiled. In contrast, Bacon”s empiricism, which was confined to the objective world, was perfectly consistent with the new Protestant work ethic and the prevalent fear of probing the depths of the human psyche.

　　如第一章所述，從笛卡爾時代，科學家接過了探索客觀物理世界的任務，把探索心智現象的任務留給了哲學家。文藝複興時代的哲學家如帕拉塞爾蘇斯(Paracelsus)主張器質性哲學，而非笛卡爾所主張機械類哲學，強調的確應該用想象力(vis imaginativa)對心進行第一人稱的觀察和第一人稱的實驗。不幸的是他生活在以巫術指導狩獵的心智錯亂年代，這樣的觀念被視爲太魔幻。新教改革者則非常基于判定爲不虔誠、不實用、有魔鬼驅使的可能，主張這些觀念的人可能存在生命危險。比較來說，培根的經驗主義雖然限于對客觀世界的範圍，卻完美的順應了新教主張的職業道德以及對人類內心心智的深入探索的恐懼。

　　Since that time, instead of developing rigorous means to experientially explore the subjective dimensions of the natural world, generations of philosophers have devised ingenious arguments for denying that the mind can be explored from a first-person perspective. Immanuel Kant, for instance, claimed that due to the subjective nature of mental phenomena, any introspective observations could at most provide a historical account, not a true, “objective” science. But if “real-time” observations were a requirement for any objective science, the whole of astronomy would fail to meet it. Even observations of the moon entail a time lag of more than a second, observations of the sun and planets record events minutes after they have taken place, and our knowledge of distant galaxies is billions of years old. Due to delays caused by the speed of light, astronomers may be regarded as “celestial journalists” with regard to the solar system and “historians” with regard to their observations of the rest of the universe.

　　從那時開始，哲學家們不但沒有投入精力開發任何可以探索自然界中主觀這個維度，而是發明了一些巧妙的辯解來規避以第一人稱進行探索。比如康德( Immanuel Kant)就主張因爲精神現象的客觀特性，任何內省的觀察至多可以得到一個曆史記錄，並非一個真實的，客觀的科學。事實上，如果“實時”的觀察是客觀科學的必要條件話，整個天文學的研究並不符合這個條件。對于月亮的觀察也有一秒鍾左右的之後，對于…

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