Universities and Their Function大學及其功用

By Alfred North Whitehead

The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest of life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. The university imparts information, but it imparts it imaginatively. At least, this is the function which it should perform for society. A university which fails in this respect has no reason for existence. This atmosphere of excitement, arising from imaginative consideration, transforms knowledge. A fact is no longer a bare fact: it is invested with all its possibilities. It is no longer a burden on the memory: it is energising as the poet of our dreams, and as the architect of our purposes.

大學之所以有理由存在，就在于它使新老兩代在富于想象中學習，從而使知識與生活熱情之間得以彼此相連。大學是傳授知識的，但它以富有想象力的方式進行傳授。至少，這是它應該為社會發揮的作用。一所大學若不能如此就毫無存在的理由。人富于想象后便會感到興奮激動，使知識得以徹底轉化——事實已不再僅僅為事實，它具有了所有替在的可能。它不再是記憶的累贅，而是充滿了活力，猶如能描繪我們美夢的詩人和實現我們心愿的設計師。