Using Swedenborg to Understand the Quantum World II: Desire and Energy
By Ian Thompson, PhD, Nuclear Physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
从史威登堡来理解量子世界（二）：愿望和能量
作者：伊恩·汤普森博士
劳伦斯·利弗莫尔国家实验室核物理学家
翻译：迂夫
In the previous post of this series, we saw how Swedenborg’s theory of correspondences could help us to better understand the physical world from a quantum perspective. If our mental processes consist of desire acting by means of thoughts and intentions to produce physical effects, then these physical actions should manifest themselves according to a corresponding pattern. More specifically, if the components of our mental processes occur at variable finite intervals, so too should the expected physical events.
在本系列的前一篇文章中，我们看到了史威登堡的对应理论如何帮助我们从量子的角度更好地理解物理世界。如果我们的心理过程包括通过思想和意图来产生物理效果的欲望，那么这些实际行动就应该按照相应的模式表现出来。更具体地说，如果我们的心理过程的组成部分发生在不同的有限期间内，那么预期的物理事件也应该发生。
According to many thinkers throughout history, mental and physical are not identical but instead are two different kinds of substances that relate with each other. Swedenborg describes the mental (spiritual) and physical (natural) as distinct but says that they interact by discrete degrees:
根据历史上许多思想家的观点，心理和身体并非完全相同的，而是两种相互关联的不同物质。史威登堡将心理(灵性)和身体(物质)描述为有明显区分的，但说它们是以离散层级相互作用的：
A knowledge of degrees is like a key to lay open the causes of things, and to give entrance into them. . . . For things exterior advance to things interior and through these to things inmost, by means of degrees; not by continuous degrees but by discrete degrees. “Continuous degrees” is a term applied to the gradual lessenings or decreasings from grosser to finer . . . or . . . to growths and increasings from finer to grosser . . . precisely like the gradations of light to shade, or of heat to cold. But discrete degrees are entirely different: they are like things prior, subsequent and final; or like end, cause, and effect. These degrees are called discrete, because the prior is by itself; the subsequent by itself; and the final by itself; and yet taken together they make one. (Divine Love and Wisdom §184)
层级的知识就像一把钥匙，可以解开事物的起因，让人进入其中。。。。因为事物从外向内，并达到至内，是经由层级进行的，不是以连续的层级，而是以离散的层级。“连续层级”这个概念，指的是从粗略到精细的逐渐减少或下降，或者，从精细到粗略的增长和上升。。。就像从光到暗，从热到冷的梯度。但离散的层级是完全不同的：它们类似于事物的在先、随后和终末；或者类似于目的、起因和结果。这些层级被称为离散的，因为在先独自存在，随后独自存在，终末也独自存在，但它们加在一起就成为了一体。(圣爱与圣智184)
The mental can never be continuously transformed into something physical, nor can the physical be continuously transformed into something mental. They are connected, however, by virtue of their causal relationship: all physical processes are produced, or generated, by something mental. As described in my previous post, this relationship is what gives rise to our correspondences in the first place.
心理永远不能连续地转化为物质的东西，物质也不能连续地转化为心理的东西。然而，它们之间却由于因果关系，而相互联系起来：所有物质过程都是由某种心理因素产生或导致的。正如我在上一篇文章中所描述的，这种关系就导致了我们的根本对应。
Most of us can realize that the mental and the physical are distinct, even though this may be denied by materialists (for whom the mental is merely an emerging product of the physical) and also by monistic idealists (for whom the physical universe is merely a representation in the mind). The latter view is common in many New Age circles today, and it is even thought to be implied by quantum physics. In this series of posts, by contrast, I want to show how Swedenborg’s ideas give us a new understanding of how mental and physical things can both exist in fully-fledged ways and with serious connections between them that are not deflating or reductionist.
我们大多数人可以意识到，心理和物质是不同的，尽管这可能被唯物主义者(对他们来说，心理只是物质生成的一种产物)和一元论理想主义者所否定(对他们来说，物质宇宙只是头脑中的一种表像)。后一种观点在今天的许多新时代圈子里都很普遍，甚至被认为这正是量子物理学所提示的。与此形成对比的是，在这一系列的文章中，我想要展示的是，史威登堡的思想如何给我们一个新的认知：心理和物质的事物如何以全然丰满的方式共存，它们之间有着紧密的联系，而不是降级或还归本原。
Mental and physical things can both be substances but, they have very different characteristics:
心理和物质上的东西都可以是实体，但它们有着非常不同的特点：
·Mental things are conscious, whereas physical things are unconscious.
·心理之事物是有意识的，而物质的事物是无意识的。
·Mental beings can think and make deductions using reason, whereas physical beings can only make logical deductions if they are designed that way.
·心理存在可以思想，用理性推论；而物质存在只能按其设计的方式进行逻辑推论。
·Mental beings can use symbols and language to refer to objects and ideas outside themselves, whereas physical beings have no intrinsic ability to refer to anything.
·心理存在可以使用符号和语言来指称自身以外的对象和意念，而物质存在没有内在的能力来指称任何东西。
·Mental processes are motivated by purposes and intentions, whereas physical processes are determined by physical causes that supposedly exclude purposes and intentions.
·心理过程是由目的和意图驱动的，而物质过程是由物理起因所决定的，认为其中不包括目的和意图。
·Mental processes tend to produce results according to some conception of what is good, whereas physical processes have no need for any such concept.
·心理过程往往根据对何为良善的观念产生结果，而物质过程则不需要任何这类的概念。
As already discussed in the previous post, desire is a component of all mental processes, and we recognize “something physical like desire” as energy or propensity. Swedenborg sees desire, or affection, as a specific kind of love:
正如上文中已经讨论过的，欲望是所有心理过程的一个成分，我们认识到“如欲望一类的实际事物”是能量或倾向。史威登堡认为欲望或感情是一种特别的爱：
That love and wisdom from the Lord is life can be seen also from this, that man grows torpid as love recedes from him, and stupid as wisdom recedes from him, and that were they to recede altogether he would become extinct. There are many things pertaining to love which have received other names because they are derivatives, such as affections, desires, appetites, and their pleasures and enjoyments. (Divine Love and Wisdom §363)
来自主的爱和智慧就是生命，从这一点上也可以看出，当爱从他褪去时，人会变得麻木不仁；当智慧从他褪去时，他会变得愚蠢，如果它们完全褪除，他就会毁灭。有许多与爱有关的事物，因为它们是衍生的，如感情，欲望，嗜好，及其快乐和享受，所以得到了其他相应的名字。（圣爱与圣智363）
For desire and energy to correspond to each other in the sense that Swedenborg describes, the function of desire as a cause must be similar to the function of energy as a cause. That is, the way in which desire causes mental processes must be similar to the way in which energy causes physical processes. This is not to say that desire is the same as energy but only that desire’s pattern of operation is similar to that of energy. The common pattern is that desire (energy) persists between events, then explores multiple possibilities for those events by means of thoughts (fields of energy), and finally becomes manifest in the physical events produced。
要使欲望和能量按照史威登堡所描述的意义相对应，欲望作为一种起因的功能必须类似能量作为一种起因的功能。也就是说，欲望引起心理过程的方式必须与能量引起物理过程的方式相似。这并不是说欲望和能量是一样的，而只是说欲望的运作模式相似于能量的运作模式。其共同模式是欲望(能量)在事件之间持续存在，然后通过思想(能量场)探索这些事件的多种可能性，最后彰显于所产生的物理事件中。
Up until now, the idea of substance has been rather obscure in both physics and philosophy, and it has not been developed significantly. From an ontological perspective, substance is that which endures between events. It is what individuates and bears the intrinsic properties of those events. We are not necessarily talking about a substance that endures forever or about a substance that exists independently of everything else. Based on the common pattern described above, we can arrive at the idea of a created substance that persists, or endures, as a thing at least for some finite time between events. And such a substance would be the capability, or disposition, for action or interaction in that time interval.
到目前为止，物质的概念在物理学和哲学中都是相当模糊的，并且没有取得显著进展。从本体论的角度来看，物质是事件之间持续存在的东西。它们赋予每个事件特征并承担其内在属性。我们无需讨论一种永远存在的物质，或一种独立于所有其他事物的物质。基于上面描述的共同模式，我们可以得出一个被造之物的概念，此被造物至少在事件之间，持续或经历一个有限的时间。这样一种造物就是在这段时间内采取行动或相互作用的能力或倾向。
This relates to the idea of “dispositional essentialism” that has been put forth by philosophers in recent years.[1] Dispositional essentialism is the notion that some kind of power or disposition (such as a cause or energy) must be an essential part of something. Some philosophers take this idea even further, saying that disposition must be the individual essence of something. In much the same way, I am saying that disposition is what constitutes the substance of something.[2] So if the main similarity between desire and energy is that they both persist between events, then both desire and energy are substances.
这与哲学家近年来提出的“意向性本质论”的概念有关。[1]意向性本质论的概念指的是某种能力或意向 (如起因或能量)必须是某种事物的重要组成部分。有些哲学家甚至更进一步，认为意向必须是某种事物的个体本质。依照同样的方式，我说，意向是构成事物实质的东西。[2]因此，如果欲望和能量的关键相似之处在于它们在事件之间持续存在，那么欲望和能量都是物质。
By using ideas from Swedenborg to understand the world, we have a new way of grasping the mental and physical and perhaps of understanding quantum physics. Either one of these results would be very useful; to have both is to be extremely fortunate.
通过运用史威登堡的思想来理解这个世界，我们有了一种新的方法来理解心理和物质，也许还可以理解量子物理学。这两种成就的任何一个都是非常有价值的；如果拥有两者就太幸运了。
In the next post of this series, I will discuss how and in what form both desire and energy persist between events.
在本系列的下文中，我将讨论在事件之间，欲望和能量如何并以何种形式持续存在。
Ian Thompson is also the author of Starting Science from God, as well as Nuclear Reactions in Astrophysics(Univ. of Cambridge Press) and more than two hundred refereed professional articles in nuclear physics.
[1] B. Ellis and C. Lierse, “Dispositional Essentialism,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy (72, 1994): 27–45.
[2] See Ian J. Thompson, “Power and Substance”