J.S.ミルの文章を少しだけ訳してみる 01

J.S.ミルの『大学教育について』を岩波文庫で読んでいるが、一部分だけ原書でも読むことを試みたく思い、原文をwikisourceからひっぱってきた。素人が岩波文庫の訳とも照らし合わせながら一文ずつ精読していく感じなので、間違っていても特に責任は取らない。

Much more might be said respecting classical instruction, and literary cultivation in general, as a part of liberal education. But it is time to speak of the uses of scientific instruction: or rather its indispensable necessity, for it is recommended by every consideration which pleads for any high order of intellectual education at all.

The most obvious part of the value of scientific instruction, the mere information that it gives, speaks for itself. We are born into a world which we have not made; a world whose phenomena take place according to fixed laws, of which we do not bring any knowledge into the world with us. In such a world—we are appointed to live, and in it all our work is to be done. Our whole working power depends on knowing the laws of the world in other words, the properties of the things which we have to work with, and to work among, and to work upon. We may and do rely, for the greater part of this knowledge, on the few who in each department make its acquisition their main business in life. But unless an elementary knowledge of scientific truths is diffused among the public, they never know what is certain and what is not, or who are entitled to speak with authority and who are not: and they either have no faith at all in the testimony of science, or are the ready dupes of charlatans and impostors. They alternate between ignorant distrust, and blind, often misplaced, confidence. Besides, who is then who would not wish to understand the meaning of the common physical facts that take place under his eye? Who would not wish to know why a pump raises water, why a lever moves heavy weights, why it is hot at the tropics and cold at the poles, why the moon is sometimes dark and sometimes bright, what is the cause of the tides? Do we not feel that he who is totally ignorant of these things, let him be ever so skilled in a special profession, is not an educated man but an ignoramus? It is surely no small part of education to put us in intelligent possession of the most important and most universally interesting facts of the universe, so that the world which surrounds us may not be a sealed book to us, uninteresting because unintelligible. This, however, is but the simplest and most obvious part of the utility of science, and the part which, if neglected in youth, may be the most easily made up for afterwards. It is more important to understand the value of scientific instruction as a training and disciplining process, to fit the intellect for the proper work of a human being. Facts are the materials of our knowledge, but the mind itself is the instrument: and it is easier to acquire facts, than to judge what they prove, and how, through the facts which we know, to get to those which we want to know.

今回はこの太字にした一文のみを取り上げて理解することを試みる。

Much moreが主語、might be saidが動詞なので、「とてもたくさんのことが言われるだろう」のようなことが書かれていることが推測できる。mightがここで使われていることから、仮定法が予想される。次の文は現在形なので、なおさら仮定法の味を出したほうがそれっぽくなる気がする。

そのあとのrespectingは前置詞で「～に関して」という意味なので、そのあとには名詞が続く。classical instructionは古典の指導みたいなことだろうから「古典教育」、literary cultivationは文学を耕すとかそういう感じだから「文学教育」とひとまずおく。これは岩波文庫の訳もそうなっていた。後ろに続くin generalは「一般的な/に」という意味だが、これはコンマの位置を見るとliterary cultivationのみにかかっているような気がする。まとめると「古典教育や一般的な文学教育に関して」となるだろうか。

as a part of liberal educationはそのまま「一般教養の一部として」。liberal educationはいわゆるリベラルアーツの教育であり、一般教養と訳してかまわないと思われる。

これらをつなげると、「古典教育や一般的な文学教育に関しては、一般教養の一部としてまだまだ言うことがあるのかもしれない」となる。「とてもたくさんのことが言われるかもしれない」ではあまりにも直訳すぎるので能動的に変えてみた。もしかしたら「言うべきことがあるだろう」くらいまで強めてもいいのかもしれないが、あくまで仮定法なので。

日本語に訳すると古典教育も文学教育も同じ教育だが、どちらもeducationではない。もしかしたら意図的にinstructionやcultivationとeducationとの間に差を設けているのかもしれないがこれは深読みのし過ぎの可能性もある。