The Impotence of truth 3

真理的无能
From The Other Side of Psychoanalysis
精神分析学的另一面
By Jacques Lacan
雅克、拉岡

Work has never given such credit ever since humanity has existed. It is even out of the
question that one should not work.

自从人类存在於世界上，工作從来没有给予如此崇高的地位。甚至於人类想不要
工作，都是不可能的事情。

This is surely an accomplishment of what I am calling the master’s discourse.

这的確是我所谓的主人的真理论述的辉煌成就。

For this to be the case it needed to go beyond certain limits. In a word, it comes down
to something whose mutation I have tried to point out for you. I hope you remember
it, and in case you can’t –which is quite possible—I am going to go back over it
straight away. I am speaking of this capital mutation, also, which gives the master’s
discourse its capitalist style.

要让这样的情况发生，它需要跨越某些限制。总之，它会演变成为我曾经跟你们
提到过的突变，我希望你们还记得。假如你们忘记了，这是可能的，我将马上为
你们温习一遍。我现在也正在说到这个资本的突变，让主人的真理论述发挥它资
本主义的风格。

Why, good heavens, is this taking place, and why is it not taking place by chance?

我的天呀！为什麽会发生这样的事情？为什麽它的发生不是一种意外？

You would be wrong to think that there are knowledgeable politicians somewhere
who are calculating exactly how everything has to be done. You would be equally
wrong to think that there are none—there are some. It is not clear that they are always
in a place where one can engage in suitable action. But, ultimately, it is perhaps not
this that is so important. That they exist, even if in another place,, suffices for what is
of the order of the displacement of discourse to be transmitted nevertheless.
假如你们认为是，在某个地方，有一些学识渊博的政治家，将所必需要做的事
情，详细地规劃，那你就大错特错了。假如你认为，都没有任何学识渊博的政治
家正在规劃，你也将是同样错误，事实上是有一些。至於他们是否适在其位适得
其所地发挥他们所长，那就不得而知了。但是，追根究底，可能重要的地方还不
是这个。重要的是，他们只要存在，即使是在另一个地方，都已经足够让真理论
述的替代位置受到转移。

Let’s now ask how this society called capitalist society can afford to allow itself a
relaxation of the university discourse.

现在让我们问一下，这个所谓的资本主义的社会，能够担负得起让自己成为大
学的真理论述所懈怠的地带吗？

This discourse is nevertheless merely one of these transformations that I have been
expounding all along. It’s the quarter turn in relation to the master’s discourse. Hence
a question which it is worth making the effort to envisage—if we embrace this
relaxation which, it has to be said, has been offered, aren’t we falling into a trap? The
idea is not new.

可是，这个大学的真理论述，仅是我曾经一再阐述的真理论述的转移的替代位
置之一。它跟主人的真理论述一样，各占四分之一的位置。因此，这是一个值得
我们费心思努力去拟想的问题：假如我们持续我们所享有的这样的懈怠（我们
必需如此说），我们难道不就是掉入一个陷阱当中？

As it happens, I have written a short article on university reform, which I had been
invited to write for a newspaper, the only one to have a reputation for balance and
honesty, by the name of Le Monde. They had insisted that I write this little page
concerning the reorganization of psychiatry, concerning reform. Now, it is quite
striking that despite this insistence this little article, which I will publish some day, did
not get through.

恰巧地，我曾经应邀替报纸写了一篇讨论大学改革的短文。那是仅有的一家具有
平衡及诚实报導的报纸，报纸名叫 Le Monde。他们坚持我应该写这一篇短论，
关於精神分析学系的重新规劃，以及关於大学的改革。现在，耐人寻味的是，儘
管他们一再地坚持，这篇短论论当时並没有刊登。将来有一天，我会让它出版出
来。
In it I speak of “ a reform in its hole.” Precisely, it was obviously a matter of using
this whirlwind of a hole to take a number of measures concerning the university. And
good heavens, by correctly referring to the terms of certain fundamental discourses
one might have certain scruples, let’s say, about acting, one might look twice before
jumping in to profit from the lines that have opened up. It is quite some responsibility
to transport carrion down these corridors.

在那一篇短论当中，我提到「在自己洞中的改革」。準確地说，假如仅是採用许
多的措施，来做大学的改革，那顯而易见是一件自家内的洞中的风暴。我的天啊
光是明確地指出某些基本的真理论述的单位名称，我们就得瞻前顾後地谨慎，
例如，我们必须三思而後行，才能够对於所提出的建言，发挥它们内涵应有的
利益。要将死而不僵的腐尸运送出这些穿堂，还真有一点任重道远。

That is what our remarks today, which are not usually, not commonly said, must be
linked up with.

那些都是跟我们今天的谈话有密切关係，虽然我通常並不随便说。

This is like an apparatus. You should, at least, get the idea that it could be used as a
lever, as a pair of pliers, that it can be screwed down, assembled in one way or
another.

这就像是一台仪器。至少，你应该有这样的观念，它能够充当一种槓杆，或当一
对钳子，这样，它才能够用某种方式锁紧，或装配起来。

There are several terms. It’s no accident if I have given only these little letters here.
It’s because I do not want to put things up that might give the appearance of
signifying. I do not at all want to signify them, but to authorize them. Writing them is
already to authorize them a bit more.

要批判的单位名称有好几个。但是，我在这裡只列举这几个字母，那並不是偶然
的，因为我不想要展现它们，看起来像是意符的外观。我根本不想要将它们意符
化，而只是要授权它们。将它们书写下来，就已经是有一点在授权它们。

I have already discussed what constitutes the places in which these non-signifying
things are inscribed, and I have already spelt out what it is that is the agent.

我已经讨论过，是什麽组成这些非意符的东西所铭记的位置。我已经说明过那个
代理的人是什麽。

This term carries a connotation as if it were a sort of enigma of the French language—
the agent is not at all necessarily someone who does but someone who is caused to
act.

这个单位名称具有内涵，好像它是一种法国语言的谜团。代理的人根本就不需要
是某一位实际在做的人，而是某一位被驱使去做的人。

As a consequence, and as you may already suspect, it is not at all clear that the master
functions. This, in all probability, defines the place of the master. This is the best thing
one can ask oneself concerning him, and naturally people didn’t wait for me to do it.
A certain Hegel had a go at it, though you have to take a closer look.

结果是，如你们已经猜疑到，主人论述的功用根本就模糊不清。很有可能，这就
是主人论述的位置。我们最好的表现，就是问一问自己，作为我们生命的主人是
谁？当然，有些人不必等待我的提醒，就已经这样问了。黑格尔就曾经这样尝试
问过，虽然你们要仔细观察，才看得出来。

It is very irritating to think that there are perhaps not five people here who have fully
read The Phenomenology of Spirit since I have been talking about. I won’t ask them to
raise their hand.

这实在是令人抑郁不乐，当我想到现场完完整整读过黑格尔的「精神现象学」的
人，可能不到五位，因为我曾经一再地谈论过这本书。我就不再要求你们再举一
次手了。

It pisses me off that I have until now only come across two people who have read it
completely, since I too, I have confess, have not peered into every corner. I have in
mind my master, Alexandre Kojieve, who has demonstrated this a thousand times
over, and one other person, of a kind that you won’t believe. The latter has truly read
The Phenomenology of Spirit in an illuminating manner, to the extent that everything
that might be in Kojeve’s notes, which I had and which I passed onto him, was truly
superfluous.

我实在感到懊恼，直到现在，我只遇到过两个人，完整地读过这本书，因为我
也读过，我必须承认，我也没有巨细弥遗地读。我心目中的大师是柯爵比，他曾
经读过一千多遍，还有另外一个人，你们不相信，也是同样读过一千多遍。後者
读过「精神现象学」的方式，確实令人肃然起敬。柯爵比的注释、我的注释、以及
我留给他的注释，对他简直是多余。

What is unheard of is that, even though at one stage I wore myself out making people
aware of the fact that The Critique of Practical Reason is manifestly a book of
eroticism that is extraordinary more amusing than what Eric Losfeld has published, it
has no kind of effect, and that, if I say to you that The phenomenology of Spirit is
hysterically funny, well then, this won’t fare any better. And yet, that is what it is.

前所未闻的是，即使当我不厌其烦地正在使人们了解到，康德的「实践理性批
判」可证明是一本色情的书，比乐斯菲德所出版的漫画内容更加有趣得多了，
「精神现象学」始终没有这样的效果。容我这样跟你们说，「精神现象学」的可笑
处，在於它一板正经到歇斯底里的程度。这种书读起来无趣得很。可是，它確实
就是这个样子。

雄伯译
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