tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jan 24 09:19:51 2006
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Philosophical translation
Hello everybody,
I am a student in philosophy living in Canada and I would need your help.
My department is organizing for the second time an event called "Nuit de la
philosophie" (Philosophy Night) involving 24 straight hours of philosophical
mayhem. Last year I presented a conference at 5 in the morning and wrapped a
furry rabbit in paper to prove one of Wittgenstein's theories (which
succeeded).
This year I will be giving an international conference all by myself, giving
a short talk in as much languages as I can (at least 20). Until now I have
french, english, italian, dutch, spanish, magyar, german, indonesian,
malagasy and georgian. Among those, I'd like to include Klingon, as it is
spoken by renowed and important scientists in the galaxy and I really don't
want to disappoint them.
So now you know where I'm going... This is a short text, and you will two
version of it, the original in laborious English, and a greatly simplified
text, to help you if you have trouble finding translation for the more
complex words or propositions.
In our case I will use two text versions :
- one would be the normal translation, displayed in the Klingon alphabet,
and will be projected behind me on a screen as I read. I will produce that
using web ressource from the plain text version.
- the second version of the text will be the phonetized version which I will
actually read. I will try to do my best to find pronounciation tips on the
web, including here.
The translator(s) name(s), unless you choose not to, will be displayed under
the projected text, along with your email address if you wish.
Thanks for any help or pointers.
Original text follows.
Florian
(ENGLISH VERSION FOLLOWS)
Why are we conscious? Why should we suffer, experience fear or jalousy? Why
cannot we simply get through life, never consciously experiencing what we
do? Even if that was possible, would it be desirable? It seems not.
Of course though, how could be wish to give up something given to us.... And
precisely, how did we reach that state? How did the human species came about
to be gifted with such a burden?
Let's go back a few million years. One thing is certain, our species is
characterized by its highly developped brain, but also by its body layout :
arms, hands, eyes, upright position. I put forward the following hypothesis:
the developmental path we have followed during our adaptation is one of
flexibility, that is the development of strong learning abilities to
innovate and react to new conditions, rather than numerous, but fixed
abilities. This requires highly complex cognitive abilities, and the
relationship that this flexibility affords with regards to the environment
is one of manipulation, rather than adaptation or reaction. In turn, this
sets up a situation of detachment from the environment, and constitutes the
interiority of our experience, what we refer to as 'consciousness'.
Hence one may say that our conscious features are ultimately the result of
the structure of our organism and the path taken by our evolution. This is
at the same time a reassuring and frightening thought. Reassuring, because
replacing our existence thusly in evolution scares off the ghost of
futility, and answers the "why" question with a "how". Indeed, if need be
to understand the reason why we are thusly thrown into the world, faced with
a compelling consciousness, one can see how this odd faculty fits in the
development of our species. Maybe we could even paint the picture of a
higher-scale evolutionnary process that would have unerringly lead to
consciousness.
Now here is where this reassuring explanation turns disturbing. Indeed,
even if the process of evolution obeys to inflexible principles, this does
not entails that it thrives for the best or for that matter, has any aim at
all. Therefore, placing our hopes on the evolutionary foundations of our
existence is but a false hope, if what is at stake involves justification
rather than explanation. Evolution allows us to understand how we reached
that state, but not why, that is what could justify the current state of
affairs.
Finally, to the question that headed this presentation, why are we
conscious, we can provide some satisfying answers, but these would not
suppress the underlying interrogation. According to this overview,
consciousness and what it elicits is but a cursed gift.
Thank you
(ENGLISH VERSION ENDS)
(SIMPLIFIED ENGLISH VERSION FOLLOWS)
Greetings,
Why are we conscious? Why suffer, or fear? Why we cannot simply live,
without consciousnes? If that is possible, is it good? No.
But can we want to not have something given to us... And how did we became
that way? How did the human species receive this dangerous gift?
We go back several million years. The human species had a very complex(/big)
brain, but also arms, hands, eyes, and legs. I think that we have
flexibility (/ability to do many things): we can learn many skills, we can
invent, we can act on new situations. We are not like other species, which
have many skills, which are fixed (/cannot change). For this we have many
mental skills, and we always change the environment (/world, nature) , not
change ourselves when the environment changes. This is why we are distant
from the environment and separate (/not within) the environment, and this
creates consciousness.
So the structure of our body and our history of development (/growth)
creates consciousness. This idea is heartening and frightening. It is
heartening because this history and this development makes our existence
useful, and answers the 'why' question with a 'how'. See, the evolution
(/development, growth) tells us why we are thrown (/fallen) into this world,
with consciousness. Also we can say that consciousness is necessary in the
history of the world.
But now the idea is firghtening. Has strong laws, but however it does not
want good and does not have goals. So, evolution is not a good hope for us.
Evolution gives us understanding (/ideas, wisdom), but not reasons.
Evolution tells us how we developed, but not why.
We asked why are we conscious. We can answer this question (/we can say),
but not answer the deeper (/bigger) issue (/question). It seems that
consciousness is a curse (/dangerous gift).
Thank you
(SIMPLIFIED ENGLISH ENDS)