学生之家

过去几年，我在一些学校给同学讲过《科学研究的动力》，以“好奇、敬业、求胜”总结科学研究工者的动力，但尚未写成文。

2009年4月18日，北大生命科学学院学生组织了辩论赛，题目是“科学是为了功利 还是好奇”。(如果要用二元论，“敬业”和“求胜”都可以归为“功利”)。

辩论赛中穿插同学表演，很好笑，录像链接：cuturl('http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XODc5NzM3MTY=.html')

辩论赛中，我引用了1918年，爱因斯坦在德国物理学家普朗克(Max Planck)六十岁生日上的讲话。他认为科学工作者有三种：第一种是用脑得到雄心壮志的满足感;第二种是纯粹实用主义;第三种，爱因斯坦认为没有单一的回答，但是他同意叔本华的意见，是有些人以从事科学和艺术来逃脱日常生活和自身的欲望。

爱因斯坦认为第一和第二种为主，第三种很少：如果科学的庙堂里，把第一种和第二种赶出去，就没有几个人了。但是还有很少几个在世的和以前的，其中就有我们可爱的普朗克。

Einstein讲话的英文版如下：

In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they

that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither. Many take to

science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is

their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the

satisfaction of ambition; many others are to be found in the temple who

have offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely

utilitarian purposes. Were an angel of the Lord to come and drive all the

people belonging to these two categories out of the temple, the assemblage

would be seriously depleted, but there would still be some men, of both

present and past times, left inside. Our Planck is one of them, and that is

why we love him.

I am quite aware that we have just now light-heartedly expelled in

imagination many excellent men who are largely, perhaps chiefly,

responsible for the building of the temple of science; and in many cases

our angel would find it a pretty ticklish job to decide. But of one thing I

feel sure: if the types we have just expelled were the only types there

were, the temple would never have come to be, any more than a forest can

grow which consists of nothing but creepers. For these people any sphere of

human activity will do, if it comes to a point; whether they become

engineers, officers, tradesmen, or scientists depends on circumstances. Now

let us have another look at those who have found favor with the angel. Most

of them are somewhat odd, uncommunicative, solitary fellows, really less

like each other, in spite of these common characteristics, than the hosts

of the rejected. What has brought them to the temple? That is a difficult

question and no single answer will cover it. To begin with, I believe with

Schopenhauer that one of the strongest motives that leads men to

art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless

dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever shifting desires. A finely

tempered nature longs to escape from personal life into the world of

objective perception and thought; this desire may be compared with the

townsman's irresistible longing to escape from his noisy, cramped

surroundings into the silence of high mountains, where the eye ranges

freely through the still, pure air and fondly traces out the restful

contours apparently built for eternity.

(辩论赛录像中的演员：

正方“科学为功利”，诗朗诵表演者：

田峰(北京大学计算机科学学院)

冯若谷(北京大学国际关系学院)

程韶涵(北京林业大学)

蔡昌祖(厦门大学)

反方“科学为好奇”，小品《不差钱》演员：

刘天舒(北京大学生命科学学院)(饰“饶毅”)

陈龙(北京大学生命科学学院) (饰小沈阳版“饶毅秘书”)

王一帆(北京大学生命科学学院)(饰“爷爷”)

侯华芸(北京大学生命科学学院)(饰“孙女”)