【原版第7页】
...The former deals with how the economic problem is solved; the latter deals with how the economic problem should be solved. For example, the effects of price or rent control on the distribution of income are problems of positive economics. On the other hand, the desirability of these effects on income distribution is a problem of normative economics. This course deals solely with positive economics.
"How... is solved"翻译成"解决情况",即现状。而"现状"的意思其实是含在这句一般现代时的简单句中的。"How... should be solved"翻译成"解决问题的理想方案"。而"理想方案"的意思其实是含在"should"这个情态动词中的。所以"solve"一词毫无争议还是"解决"的意思,用"解释"一词肯定不妥。陈先生的翻译未能把"前者"和"后者"的区别和联系明确体现出来。
"the/these effects"都要翻译成“这些影响”。"on the other hand"翻译成“而”。"Desirability"翻译成"可取程度"比翻译成"可取与否"贴切。"deal with"翻译成"涉及"显得照本宣科了,还是用"研究"或"探讨"比较明确。
...But these different societies use different institutional arrangements to solve their economic problems. Thus there is need for a different economics-or a different chapter in economics-for each kind of society. There turns out, in fact, to be much that is common to the various chapters, but this cannot be required in advance; it is, rather, one of the conclusions of economic science.
关键短语“Turn out”的意思是“结果是, 生产, 出现, 证明是”等等。这里可以翻译成“人们最终发现。。。”。注意,文中是先用“科学”和“章节”两个级别来阐述不同社会的经济学。最后选择用一个“章节”对应“一种社会的经济学”来具体阐述。“conclusions”未必要翻译成结论,用“研究发现”更好理解。我们很容易被最后一句中的许多插入语迷惑,其实把“in fact”移到句子外面就是完整的一句,即“In fact, There turns out to be much that is common to the various chapters”,是“there be”的简单句,即“有”的意思。 插入“turn out”就是“发现有...”的意思。陈先生的翻译在大意上是跟本人的翻译相近的,但初看了还是会觉得含糊的。 我觉得本段理解的另一个关键是代词“this”指的是谁,应该是指“much that is in common”,可翻译为“许多共性”,注意这里的much是名词,不信可以查字典。而且采用了定语从句。陈先生用“流派”一词显然不妥,这里不存在流派之争,只有不同社会制度形态所产生的不同经济学之间的差异和共性的讨论。
【原文第3页】
A more satisfactory criterion is the means of organization studied, economics being mainly concerned with market mechanisms of purchase and sale as devices for organizing the use of resources. Political science is mainly concerned with mechanisms involving commands, whether by a constituted authority or by explicit voting. But even this distinction is much less than fully satisfactory. Economics has much to say about the consequences of different sets of commands; political science has to encompass governmental interventions into market arrangements.
原文中其实含有一个省略句,为的是句子的简洁起见。但陈先生的翻译中没有把省略的部分体现出来。即“Political science is mainly concerned with mechanisms involving commands”的后面,作者省略了“as devices for organizing the use of resources”。而“constituted authority”实际上是“legally constituted authority”的简略说法。“devices”实际是“means”的具体化,个人以为翻译为“工具”比较合适。device本身有“仪器、装置”的意思,也就是比较高级的工具而已。我在译文最后还加了一句作为补充,是对原文中隐含意思的表述,便于读者更好的理解原文这段话中详尽的辨析含义。
【原文第2页】
Our definition of economics can be viewed as something of a compromise between a completely general definition of the economic problem and an opposing desire for concreteness of application.
【注释】
completely 翻译成“纯粹地”更贴切。而“opposing”是相对于前一种定义而言的,故翻译成“正相反”,但不要死译成形容词。desire翻译成“愿景”显然不合适,而是一种“强烈要求”的意思。“concreteness”其实是相对于前者的“general”一词的。故“concreteness of application”其实可以改写为“the concrete applicaiton of economics”。
【原文第2页】
The emphasis on "alternative" ends, which introduces value judgments distinguishes it from the technological and physical sciences, which are concerned with the relation between scarce resources and single ends. The acceptance of the ends as given distinguishes it from psychology, which deals with the formation of preferences, and from ethics, which deals with the evaluation of preferences.
【注释】
"end”是本段原文的首要关键字。经过仔细推敲,本人认为翻译成“目标”很不好!甚至是个错误!!!翻译成“结果”可以使译文的条理顺畅些。否则,作者为什么不用“Target”呢,岂不更直接明确?而且由于这段原文是拿经济学和其它学科作区分,因此有很深的辨析和对比含义,译文必须把这点清晰的体现出来。而且正因为有了这种明显的“辨析和对比”含义,给本段原文的翻译提供了很好的线索。比如,“preferences”的意思就是“人们偏爱的结果”的意思,可理解为“preferred ends”,它与“The acceptance of the ends as given ”这种客观的态度形成鲜明对比,因此我也在译文中加入了“客观”一词。acceptance就简单地翻译成“接受”是最贴切的。“as given”也是一个难点,直译成“既定”又给人迷失上下文的感觉,个人认为要明确翻译成“已知的”,即指向段首的“其它可选的结果”,即“alternative" ends。
Alternative一词确实难译,我选择了“其它可选的”。
因此,我们可以从这段原文归纳出以下几点认识:
1) Economics is concerned with any alternative ends;
2) Economics accepts any given alternative ends, that is, economics accepts multiple ends; while the technological and physical sciences accept only single ends;
3) Psychology deals with the formation of only preferred ends, while ethics deals with the evaluation of those preferred ends.
15楼“要求能够定义出(经济学的)具体应用”中的“定义”的确是有来头的,它就隐藏在句子中。一个Between就说明确实存在这个“定义”。也就是between联系起二个对经济学的极端的定义,即一个极端是对经济学进行“completely general ”的定义,另一个极端是对经济学进行“concrete”的定义。“our defination of economics"就是取这二个极端定义的折中点来定义,你说是否存在这个“定义”呢?
"between"是个奇妙的词,其意思中包含有一种这样的逻辑,即between前后的论述对象是对等的。结合本例就是这样,也就是between前的“Our definition of economics”中“definition”规定了between后的论述对象都是“definition”,但弗老作为大师肯定不会罗里罗嗦地去反复强调这个defination,况且还有“compromise”一词作提示,因此不能看到Between就想到“界定”。其实实在要啰嗦的话,原文可以这样改写,也就是加一小句补充,见括号部分:Our definition of economics can be viewed as something of a compromise between a completely general definition of the economic problem and an opposing desire for concreteness of application (while defining economics)。即翻译成:“我们对经济学的定义可以看作是对经济学两种(极端)定义的某种折中,即一种认为,经济学是对经济问题进行纯粹一般性的定义,另一种则正相反,认为经济学的定义有必要给出具体的应用。”我15楼的翻译直接用了“定义出”来翻译也是一样的。这里的 desire翻译成了“认为有必要...”,反正都是表示强烈要求的意思。我觉得经过陈先生的质疑,我的后一种翻译反而让自己更满意,呵呵,谢谢,希望陈先生能有所认同。
16楼"end”翻译成“结果”也是有原文作支持的,或者说是有佐证的,也就是原文中这句有关技术科学和物理科学论述:the technological and physical sciences are concerned with the relation between scarce resources and single ends。科学研究的对象应该是现实的存在,而不是主观的目标。目标是愿景,不是现实,没法作为科学来研究。而现实的存在就是“结果”。我本来想用“结局”,但觉得“结局”不象是个学术的用词,以此引申为“结果”,二者意思没多大变化,但看上去“学术”多了,呵呵。
Economics is the science of how a particular society solves its economic problems. An economic problem exists whenever scarce means are used to satisfy alternative ends. If the means are not scarce, there is no problem at all; there is Nirvana: If the means are scarce but there is only a single end, the problem of how to use the means is a technological problem. No value judgments enter into its solution, only knowledge of physical and technical relationships. For example, suppose given amounts of iron, labor, etc. areavailable and are to be used to build an engine of maximum horsepower. This is a purely technical problem that requires knowledge solely of engineering and of physical science. Alternatively, let the objective be to build the "best" engine, where the concept of "best" involves not only horsepower, but also weight, size, ete. There is no longer a single end. No amount of purely physical and technical knowledge can yield a solution, since such knowledge cannot tell you how much power it is"
闲话少说,接着说我查到的线索。韦氏大学字典对end有这样的解释:“an outcome worked toward: Purpose”,也就是“努力想达到的一个结果,即目的”。似乎又回到了陈先生的“目标”,呵呵。奇妙的是这个解释竟然也包含有“结果”的含义,正好把我和陈先生的理解都包括了。让人不知所措,唉,继续推敲中。
【AIM】 [usually plural] 【目的】 [通常是复数]
an aim or purpose, or the result you hope to achieve 一种目的或意图,或你希望实现的结果
political/military etc ends 政治/军事等的目的
- 40% of all research is undertaken for military ends. 40%的所有调研是出于军事目的进行的。
- She'll do anything to achieve her own ends . 她将为实现自己的目的做任何事情。
- Every task has a clear end in view . 可看到每个任务都有一个清晰的目的。
【原文第2-3页】
The most difficult line to draw is between economics and political science. Certainly governmental institutions of the kind studied by politicalscience are means whereby a particular society uses scarce means to satisfy alternative ends. The title of a well-known book by Harold Lasswell is Politics: Who gets What) When) How. Replace politics by economics and the title would clearly be equally appropriate-yet the book so labelled would be altogether different.
【原文第3页】
Or consider Alfred Marshall's definition of economics: "A Study of mankind in the ordinary business of life; it examines that part of individual and social action which is most closely connected with the attainment and-with the use of the material requisites of well-being." In the Great Britain of Alfred Marshall's day, this definition may have served rather well. But today, when the government plays so large a role in the attainment and the use of the "material requisites of well-being," it too does not distinguish between economics and political science.
这段原文不难翻译,关键处是对“material requisites of well-being”的翻译。本人觉得这里倒是直译为好,即翻译为“福利物质必需品”。但陈先生译为“生活必需的物质条件”,这跟“获取和使用”这两个动词不太好匹配,而且是否也把原来具体的意思搞得抽象了呢?不易理解。其实,requisites是用了复数形式,更印证了它是确切可数的,译为“必需品”显然更合适。注意,译文中的ZF是指“政”“府”。
【原文第3页】
More fundamentally, Marshall's definition implies that the fundamental difference between the two disciplines is in the character of the ends pursued, that economics is concerned with the "material requisites" and other disciplines with the "immaterial" requisites. But this is not a satisfactory criterion. Economics has as much to say about the use of resources for art, literature, thearer.schooling, and other aspects of the "immaterial" requisites as for the material requisites. And clearly, governmental agricultural policies deal with "material" requisites.