在整个思想史中，形而上学本身的意义是想讨论世界存在的本原为何。后来人们才明白所有存在的形式都是不能被人的经验所体会的，即世界的本源就是本体，这个本体是能够被假设和体验但是无法被了解的。但当时的一代人都沉醉于一种绝对理念中，这时欧洲的思想界开始对任何的形而上学进行反抗。而被称为“社会达尔文主义之父”的赫伯特·斯宾塞当时就身处于这样一个对形而上学“拨乱反正”的时代。

Herbert Spencer

I. Comte and Darwin

The Kantian philosophy which announced itself as "prolegomena to all future metaphysics," was, by malicious intent, a murderous thrust at traditional modes of speculation; and, contrary to intent, a damaging blow to all metaphysics whatsoever. For metaphysics had meant, throughout the history of thought, an attempt to discover the ultimate nature of reality; now men learned, on the most respectable authority, that reality could never be experienced; that it was a "noumenon," conceivable but not knowable; and that even the subtlest human intelligence could never pass beyond phenomena, could never pierce the veil of Maya. The metaphysical extravagances of Fichte, Hegel and Schelling, with their various readings of the ancient riddle, their Ego and Idea and Will, had canceled one another into zero; and by the eighteen-thirties the universe was generally conceded to have guarded its secret well. After a generation of Absolute intoxication, the mind of Europe reacted by taking a pledge against metaphysics of any kind.

Since the French had made a specialty of scepticism, it was natural that they should produce the founder (if there are such persons in philosophy, where every idea is hallowed with years) of the "positivist" movement. Auguste Comte—or, as his parents called him, Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte—was born at Montpellier in 1798. The idol of his youth was Benjamin Franklin, whom he called the modern Socrates. "You know that at five-and-twenty he formed the design of becoming perfectly wise, and that he fulfilled his design. I have dared to undertake the same thing, though I am not yet twenty." He made a fair start by becoming secretary to the great Utopian, Saint-Simon, who passed on to him the reforming enthusiasm of Turgot and Condorcet, and the idea that social, like physical phenomena, might be reduced to laws and science, and that all philosophy should be focused upon the moral and political improvement of mankind. But, like most of us who set out to reform the world, Comte found it difficult enough to manage his own home; in 1827, after two years of marital infelicity, he suffered a mental break-down, and attempted suicide in the Seine. To his rescuer, therefore, we owe something of the five volumes of Positive Philosophy which appeared between 1830 and 1842, and the four volumes of Positive Polity which appeared between 1851 and 1854.

▍语言点

prolegomena: n. 先河；序言

metaphysics: n. 形而上学

malicious: adj. 恶意的

malicious intent: 险恶的用心

murderous: adj. 致命的

thrust: n. 捅刀子

contrary to intent: 事与愿违

a damaging blow: 对应 a murderous thrust

extravagance: n. 铺张浪费

one another: pro. 相互

intoxication: n. 中毒

take a pledge: 发誓

scepticism: n. 怀疑主义

founder: n. 创建者；创始人

positivist: adj. 实证主义的

positivist movement: 实证主义运动

five-and-twenty: 25岁

fair: adj. 漂亮的；好的

break-down: n. 崩溃

owe: vt. 欠；感激

Positive Philosophy: 实证主义哲学

Positive Polity: 实证体系