英语长难句阅读之：知识在社会中的应用（二）

本期继续和大家分享的是哈耶克的经济学文章《知识在社会中的应用》。上期我们看了一段，说的是一个假设：如果能够掌握所有的信息，就能构建理性的经济秩序。那么我们接下来看一下真实的情况又是如何。

我们来看原文：

This, however, is emphatically not the economic problem which society faces. And the economic calculus which we have developed to solve this logical problem, though an important step toward the solution of the economic problem of society, does not yet provide an answer to it. The reason for this is that the "data" from which the economic calculus starts are never for the whole society "given" to a single mind which could work out the implications and can never be so given.

可以理解为：然而这并不是经济问题，什么经济问题呢，社会所面对的。并且，这个经济运算，什么经济运算呢，我们发展它解决逻辑问题的，尽管这种经济运算是朝着解决社会经济问题方向所迈出的重要一步，但是并没有提供一个解决这个社会经济问题的答案。其原因是，这个数据在经济运算前就不是为了整个社会“给予”一个单一的能给出答案的大脑，也从来没有如此给过。有几个语言点跟大家讲一下，第二句话中间有一个，though an important step toward the solution of the economic problem of society，这个我们通常把它称为“插入语”，所谓的“插入语”是用来对前面内容的解释说明。第二句告诉我们说，这个经济运算没有告诉我们答案，紧接着第三句就说明其原因。原因就是，这个经济运算所使用的数据没有集中到一个大脑里。结合前段内容就可以联系起来说，我们不可能掌握社会所有的信息，进而前面的假设是不成立的。

继续往下，看作者是怎样进一步解释的，原文如下：

The peculiar character of the problem of a rational economic order is determined precisely by the fact that the knowledge of the circumstances of which we must make use never exists in concentrated or integrated form but solely as the dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge which all the separate individuals possess. The economic problem of society is thus not merely a problem of how to allocate "given" resources — if "given" is taken to mean given to a single mind which deliberately solves the problem set by these "data." It is rather a problem of how to secure the best use of resources known to any of the members of society, for ends whose relative importance only these individuals know. Or, to put it briefly, it is a problem of the utilization of knowledge which is not given to anyone in its totality.

参考解释：合理的经济秩序问题之所以有这么一个独特的性质，是因为我们所必须利用的关于各种具体情况的知识，从未以集中的或完整的形式存在，而只是以不全面而且时常矛盾的形式为各自独立的个人所掌握。这样，如果“赋予”在此指赋予一个能有意识地解决这些“数据”所构成的问题的单一头脑，社会的经济问题就不只是如何分配所“赋予”的资源，而是如何确保充分利用每个社会成员所知道的资源，因为其相对重要性只有这些个人才知道。简而言之，它是一个如何利用并非整体地赋予任何人的知识的问题。

这段话的第一句比较长，切分一下方便大家理解：

A. The peculiar character of the problem of a rational economic order

B. is determined precisely by the fact

C. that the knowledge of the circumstances of which we must make use never exists in concentrated or integrated form

D. but solely as the dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge which all the separate individuals possess

A&B可以看成句子的主干，C&D可以看成一个整体作为the fat的具体内容。

第二句和第三句是一个逻辑整体，说的是个体社会成员应当充分利用手中所掌握的资源，第四句是对这整段的一个概括。

继续往下：

This character of the fundamental problem has, I am afraid, been obscured rather than illuminated by many of the recent refinements of economic theory, particularly by many of the uses made of mathematics. Though the problem with which I want primarily to deal in this paper is the problem of a rational economic organization, I shall in its course be led again and again to point to its close connections with certain methodological questions. Many of the points I wish to make are indeed conclusions toward which diverse paths of reasoning have unexpectedly converged. But, as I now see these problems, this is no accident. It seems to me that many of the current disputes with regard to both economic theory and economic policy have their common origin in a misconception about the nature of the economic problem of society. This misconception in turn is due to an erroneous transfer to social phenomena of the habits of thought we have developed in dealing with the phenomena of nature.

参考解释：上述基本问题的这一特点，恐怕非但没有为经济理论中的许多新方法——尤其是许多利用数学的新方法——所澄清，它反而被搞混了。虽然我在本文中主要想阐述合理的经济体制问题，但在阐述时我将多次涉及它与某些方法论问题的密切联系。我想说明的许多论点，其余是各不相同的推理途径不期而遇地汇集所得出的结论，但就我现在对这些问题的理解，这决不是偶然的。我认为，目前许多关于经济理论和经济政策的争论，都源于对社会问题的本质的误解，而这种误解又源于我们把处理自然现象时养成的思维习惯，错误地转用于社会现象。

这段主要是说，我们被一些数学的计算方法给搞糊涂了，不能用研究自然现象的方法来单纯研究社会现象这是一个误解。

好，到这为止我们把哈耶克的《知识在社会中的应用》（The use of knowledge in society）这篇文章，花了两期的时间把它的第一部分给读完。越到后面我们会把注意力集中在内容本身而不只是语言上了，因此在语言点上就不会解释的和前面一样那么细致了，除非遇到个别比较难的句子我们可以一起来分析一下。

那么这篇文章的第一部分就给大家分享到这里了，我们下期再会！

See you next time, by for now.