投資界常常說:
投資要看大勢,但落實投資一定要看細節。
無論是關心教書還是關心教育的人都清楚,
訓練「思考」已經這個時代教學方向的大勢。
至於校監、校長、主任這些大小掌權者的心態,
現任老師及現時學生家長的心態,
未來老師的挑選和培訓,
圍繞著「思考」重新編寫課程和考試題目,
這些全部都是關鍵的細節。
每一個細節都有左右大勢的力量。
所謂「以大局為重」其實是一個笑話,
因為沒有人願意說清楚「大局」是甚麼,
並且擁抱隨之而起的批判。
所以落實「思考」訓練,的確要仔細地看每一個細節,
因為魔鬼就在細節之中!
[ 及早訓練 ]
理性及抽象思維,需要在年青時及早訓練,
好奇心和創意思維,則需要避免在童年時被老師扼殺。
所以思考能力的三大類──理性、抽象思維、創意思維
──都和教育制度有密不可分的關係。
Disinterested intellectual curiosity
is the life blood of real civilization.
( G. M. Trevelyan )
When you want to teach children to think,
you begin by treating them seriously when
they are little, giving them responsibilities,
talking to them candidly, providing privacy
and solitude for them, and making them
readers and thinkers of significant thoughts
from the beginning.
That’s if you want to teach them to think.
( Bertrand Russell )
Creativity is often obvious in young children,
but it may be harder to find in older children
and adults because their creative potential
has been suppressed by a society that
encourages intellectual conformity.
( Robert J. Sternberg,
Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized,
Cambridge University Press, 2003, p.109-110 )
參考:《智慧沒法請人代勞》
創意思維表面上看起來儀態萬千,極度吸引,
但玫瑰怎可能沒有刺?
創意思維令人頭痛的地方有幾個:
其一就是「個人色彩濃厚」,
各花入各眼,青菜蘿蔔各有所愛,因此難以客觀評估。
Every man’s work, whether it be literature,
or music or pictures or architecture
or anything else,
is always a portrait of himself.
( Samuel Butler )
音樂就是「個人色彩濃厚」的表表者。
如果沒有選擇導師的自由,如果導師掌握生殺大權,
嚴重的問題就會浮現。
其二就是要靠創意思維謀生的人需要考慮「市場需要」,
影響到創作的方向。
所以有人說:一個時代有一個時代的藝術。
其三就是靠創意思維謀生,而名利權慾望重的人,
為了爭名、爭權、奪利,讓人格貶值,
往往就會傾向於依附權勢,隨而擁抱虛偽,
完全失去了創意思維的精髓:真和誠。
A piece of art could only be considered good
in so far as it is authentic.
The great enemy of art is insincerity.
An artist should create his work of art
out of his own experience and
his own understanding of life.
If an artist is shallow,
then his work of art has to be shallow.
There is always some artist who cannot
grasp an important message, a great idea
or certain demanding phiosophical thoughts,
but who is so desperate to show off
himself as a great thinker of his time.
He ends up pretending to be someone
bigger than himself with all his might.
There is a place for hypocrisy
in any great piece of art but
there is no place for hypocrisy in an artist.
( Jason Ling )
從事文學和藝術創作的人,多數會重視「美」,
但不一定擁抱其他的神聖價值:真、誠、愛、智慧。
創意文學,可以寫幻想、鬼怪、輪迴,風花雪月,
可以過度誇張,可以十分抽象,可以弄虛作假,
不一定需要展示道德,或者需要有深刻的思想,
只需要讀者看得舒服,看得過癮。
沒有哲學思考訓練和感受的文人,
何必插足和人生哲學有關的這淌渾水?
廣東俗語說:「冇咁大個頭唔好戴咁大頂帽!」
最常見的例子就是哲學思考能力不足的著名文人寫新詩!
歷史遲早會給他們和他們的諂媚者一個公平的評價。
同樣的情況出現在音樂界。
不少人完全忘掉了音樂和個人喜好及性格有關這種現象,
有一些人喜歡隨波逐流,
有一些人喜歡聽現代音樂,
有一些人則堅持凡古典音樂必屬佳品,
更有人意圖將音樂抬上天堂的位置,
認為音樂可以表達思想,可以展示道德。
音樂在表達情緒和感覺方面,的確比語言和文字優勝,
沒有人會反對,但這亦成為音樂的弱點。
音樂本來就不太需要深刻的思考,亦無法表達深刻的思考;
音樂只能夠鼓勵思考。
所以千萬不要說所有音樂都可以表達思想,
也千萬不要說所有音樂都可以展示道德!
只有當一位作曲家具備優秀的心靈,嚮往神聖的感覺,
他的作品才能夠展示神聖和抽象的道德!
任何文學家、音樂家或者畫家,
如果並不具備深刻思考和表達的能力,
一旦誇張其作品在思考上和道德上的功能,
就肯定是大言不慚地在行騙和做廣告。
藝術家一「扮野」,就失去了「赤子之心」,
而其作品一定美中帶醜,
只能夠靠同樣喜歡「扮野」的觀眾來捧場!
We are what we pretend to be,
so we must be careful about
what we pretend to be.
( Kurt Vonnegut )
Poets utter great and wise things
which they do not themselves understand.
( Plato )
一切藝術作品,
以真摯,以悲慟,以愛心,以洞見鑄成者,感人最深。
這是筆者對文藝作品例如文學、音樂、繪畫、雕塑……
等等藝術的批判基礎。
「東風夜放花千樹,更吹落星如雨。
寶馬雕車香滿路,鳳簫聲動,玉壺光轉,一夜魚龍舞。
蛾兒雪柳黃金縷,笑語盈盈暗香去。
眾裏尋他千百度,驀然回首,那人卻在,燈火闌珊處。」
《青玉案》(辛棄疾)
沒有「科學哲學及歷史」訓練的藝術家,尤其經不起批判。
I have a friend who’s an artist and has sometimes
taken a view which I don’t agree with very well.
He’ll hold up a flower and say
“look how beautiful it is,” and I’ll agree.
Then he says “I as an artist can see how beautiful
this is but you as a scientist take this all apart
and it becomes a dull thing,”
and I think that he’s kind of nutty.
First of all, the beauty that he sees is available
to other people and to me too, I believe…
I can appreciate the beauty of a flower.
At the same time, I see much more about the flower
than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there,
the complicated actions inside,
which also have a beauty. I mean it’s not just
beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter;
there’s also beauty at smaller dimensions,
the inner structure, also the processes. The fact
that the colors in the flower evolved in order to
attract insects to pollinate it is interesting;
it means that insects can see the color.
It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also
exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic?
All kinds of interesting questions which
the science knowledge only adds to the excitement,
the mystery and the awe of a flower.
It only adds. I don’t understand how it subtracts.
( Richard Feynman )
The Feynman Series – Beauty