去年夏天,美国国家人文科学基金会在加利福尼亚大学筹办了一个形式特别的学术会议,长达月余、且时断时续。被约请到会的数名主讲人均为美国当代最知名的哲人或社会科学家,包括托马斯·库恩、R·罗提、及C·泰勒等人。他们一边携带家人在海滨度假,打赤脚,着短衫,漫步海滩,无异于游客,一边却个个在思想上背负着几个困扰着当代社会的重大课题,思考着、探求着出路。每隔一周,他们相聚在一起,在大学的会议厅中或教室里,举行一次小型的讲演讨论会。每人从海边带回 Last summer, the National Foundation for the Humanities organized a special academic conference at the University of California for more than a month, with intermittent interruptions. Several of the keynote speakers who were invited to attend the meeting were the most prominent contemporary philosophers or social scientists in the United States, including Thomas Kuhn, R. Lawault, C. Taylor and others. While carrying their family on beach holidays, playing barefoot, wearing shorts and walking the beach, they are tantamount to carrying a few major issues that plague contemporary society while thinking and searching for solutions. Every other week, they get together and hold a small speech seminar in a college conference room or in a classroom. Each person brought back from the sea