【金句】Friedrich Hayek - There has been a belief, seemingly shared by many scientists, that the range..

連結

• 來源1 - x.com/FAHayekSays/st...

• 來源2 - The Constitution of Liberty - www.mises.at/static/...

圖中被編輯過的版本

There has been a belief, seemingly shared by many scientists, that the range of our ignorance is steadily diminishing and that we can therefore aim at more comprehensive and deliberate control of all human activities. It is for this reason that those intoxicated by the advance of knowledge so often become the enemies of freedom.

許多科學家似乎相信，我們的無知範圍正在不斷縮小，因此我們可以旨在更全面、更刻意地控制所有人類活動。正因為這個原因，那些醉心於知識進步的人常常成為自由的敵人。

原書版本

The identification of the growth of civilization with the growth of knowledge would be very misleading, however, if by "knowledge" we meant only the conscious, explicit knowledge of individuals, the knowledge which enables us to state that this or that is so-and-so. Still less can this knowledge be confined to scientific knowledge. It is important for the understanding of our argument later to remember that, contrary to one fashionable view, scientific knowledge does not exhaust even all the explicit and conscious knowledge of which society makes constant use. The scientific methods of the search for knowledge are not capable of satisfying all society's needs for explicit knowledge. Not all the knowledge of the ever-changing particular facts that man continually uses lends itself to organization or systematic exposition; much of it exists only dispersed among countless individuals. The same applies to that important part of expert knowledge which is not substantive knowledge but merely knowledge of where and how to find the needed information. For our present purpose, however, it is not this distinction between different kinds of rational knowledge that is most important, and when we speak of explicit knowledge, we shall group these different kinds together.

The growth of knowledge and the growth of civilization are the same only if we interpret knowledge to include all the human adaptations to environment in which past experience has been incorporated. Not all knowledge in this sense is part of our intellect, nor is our intellect the whole of our knowledge. Our habits and skills, our emotional attitudes, our tools, and our institutions - all are in this sense adaptations to past experience which have grown up by selective elimination of less suitable conduct. They are as much an indispensable foundation of successful action as is our conscious knowledge. Not all these non-rational factors underlying our action are always conducive to success. Some may be retained long after they have outlived their usefulness and even when they have become more of an obstacle than a help. Nevertheless, we could not do without them: even the successful employment of our intellect itself rests on their constant use. Man prides himself on the increase in his knowledge. But as a result of what he himself has created, the limitations of his conscious knowledge and therefore the range of ignorance significant for his conscious action have constantly increased. Ever since the beginning of modern science, the best minds have recognized that "the range of acknowledged ignorance will grow with the advance of science." Unfortunately, the popular effect of this scientific advance has been a belief, seemingly shared by many scientists, that the range of our ignorance is steadily diminishing and that we can therefore aim at more comprehensive and deliberate control of all human activities. It is for this reason that those intoxicated by the advance of knowledge so often become the enemies of freedom. While the growth of our knowledge of nature constantly discloses new realms of ignorance, the increasing complexity of the civilization which this knowledge enables us to build presents new obstacles to the intellectual comprehension of the world around us. The more men know, the smaller the share of all that knowledge becomes that any one mind can absorb. The more civilized we become, the more relatively ignorant must each individual be of the facts on which the working of his civilization depends. The very division of knowledge increases the necessary ignorance of the individual of most of this knowledge.

將文明的成長與知識的成長當成相同事物會是非常誤導，如果我們只將「知識」解讀為個體意識、明確的知識，即讓我們能宣稱某事是如此這麼的知識。更不用說，這種知識也不應局限在科學知識上。後來理解我們論點時，必須記住，與一種流行觀點相反，科學知識並不涵蓋社會所有明示和意識的知識。尋找知識的科學方法無法滿足社會對明確知識的所有需求。並非所有人類持續使用的、不斷變化的具體事實都適合組織或系統性地陳述；其中許多知識只有分散在無數個體中存在。同樣，專家知識的重要部分並非只是實體知識，而是知道如何及在哪裡找到所需資訊的知識。然而，對我們現在要討論的目標而言，最重要的是，不同類型的理性知識之間的區別並不是最重要的，當我們提到明確知識時，我們會將這些不同類型聚在一起。

知識的成長和文明的成長只有在我們將知識解釋為包括所有過去經驗融入的人類環境適應才相同。以這種意義來說並非所有知識是我們心智的一部分，我們的心智也不是我們知識的全部。我們的習慣、技能、情感態度、工具和制度——所有這些都是過去經驗融入的適應，通過選擇性地消除更不適合的行為而成長。它們和我們意識知識一樣，是成功行動不可或缺的基礎。並非所有這些潛在我們行動下的非理性因素總是有利於成功。有些可能被保留遠遠超出它們有用性的時間，甚至當它們成為阻礙而非幫助時。然而，我們無法沒有它們：即使我們心智的成功運用本身也依賴於它們的持續使用。人類為知識的增加而自豪。但作為它自己創造的結果，我們意識知識的限制和因此我們意識行動忽略的範圍不斷增大。自現代科學開始，最優秀的心智就認識到，「被承認的無知範圍將隨著科學的進步而增長」。不幸的是，這種科學進步的流行效應是，許多科學家似乎也相信，我們的無知範圍正在穩步縮減，因此我們可以旨在更全面、更故意地控制所有人類活動。正是因為這個原因，那些醉心於知識進步的人常常成為自由的敵人。隨著我們對自然知識的成長不斷揭示新的無知領域，這份知識讓我們能夠建立越來越複雜的文明，為我們理解周圍世界帶來新的障礙。人們越是知道更多，任何一個心靈能吸收的全部知識的比例就越小。我們越文明，每個個體在他們文明運作依賴的事實中必須是相對無知。知識的分割本身增加了個體對大部分知識的必要無知。