TED演讲:出身决定命运?(4)

 　　And that was democracy growing up,  民主制度在当时正在形成

　　but it was also science growing up at the same time.  但同时科技也在发展

　　And it's really clear, if you look at the history of the Founding Fathers,  非常明显的是，如果你注意一下建国者的历史

　　a lot of them were very interested in science,  他们中的许多人都对科学很感兴趣

　　and they were interested in a concept  并且他们都对自然主义世界这个概念

　　of a naturalistic world.  很感兴趣

　　They were moving away from supernatural explanations,  他们摒弃超自然的说法

　　and they were rejecting things like a supernatural concept of power,  他们排斥那些关于超自然力量的说法

　　where it transmitted  因为超自然力量的概念被传播

　　because of a very vague concept of birthright.  是基于非常模糊的身世的理念

　　They were moving towards a naturalistic concept.  他们倡导自然主义的概念

　　And if you look, for example, in the Declaration of Independence,  如果你观察会发现，例如在独立宣言中

　　they talk about nature and nature's God.  他们提及到自然和自然之神

　　They don't talk about God and God's nature.  他们没有提到上帝和上帝的自然

　　They're talking about the power of nature  他们提到自然的力量

　　to tell us who we are.  来解释我们是谁

　　So as part of that,  因此作为其中的一部分

　　they were coming to us with a concept  他们为我们带来一个概念

　　that was about anatomical commonality.  那就是人人生来平等

　　And in doing so, they were really setting up in a beautiful way  为此，他们确实为将来的民权运动

　　the Civil Rights movement of the future.  铺垫了一个很美好的道路

　　They didn't think of it that way, but they did it for us, and it was great.  他们想不到将来会怎样，但是他们为我们奠定了基础，这是非常伟大的

　　So what happened years afterward¹?  那么数年后发生了什么呢？

　　What happened was women, for example,  例如在女性身上都发生了什么

　　who wanted the right to vote,  她们渴望投票的权利

　　took the Founding Fathers' concept  按照建国者的概念

　　of anatomical commonality being more important  人人平等要远重要于

　　than anatomical difference  人的出身

　　and said, "The fact that we have a uterus and ovaries  她们说：“我们有子宫和卵巢是事实

　　is not significant enough in terms of a difference  这些不同完全不足以

　　to mean that we shouldn't have the right to vote,  意味着我们没有投票权

　　the right to full citizenship,  没有充分的公民权利

　　the right to own property, etc., etc."  没有私人财产权等等”

　　And women successfully argued that.  女性的主张获得了成效

　　Next came the successful Civil Rights movement,  接下来便是成功的民权运动

　　where we found people like Sojourner² Truth  运动中出现了像索杰纳·特鲁思这样的人

　　talking about, "Ain't I a woman?"  她的名言“我就不是女人吗？”

　　We find men  我们知道男人

　　on the marching lines of the Civil Rights movement  曾经在民权运动的发展路线上

　　saying, "I am a man."  有句名言“我是个男人”

　　Again, people of color  此外，有色人群

　　appealing to a commonality of anatomy³ over a difference of anatomy,  呼吁人人平等而不应种族歧视

　　again, successfully.  再者，

　　We see the same thing with the disability rights movement.  我们看到同样的成功案例发生在伤残人士的权利运动中

　　The problem is, of course,  问题是，当然

　　that, as we begin to look at all that commonality,  当我们开始去审视所有的公民

　　we have to begin to question  我们不得不开始质疑

　　why we maintain certain divisions.  为什么我们去维护一个固定的界限

　　Now mind you, I want to maintain some divisions,  现在，需要提醒大家的是，我希望去保持一些界限

　　anatomically, in our culture.  身体结构上的，在我们的文化范围被内

　　For example, I don't want  举个例子，我不希望

　　to give a fish the same rights as a human.  给予鱼和人类一样的权利

　　I don't want to say we give up entirely⁴ on anatomy.  我不希望我们放弃一切在解剖学上的区分界限

　　I don't want to say five-year-olds  我不希望，一个五岁的孩子

　　should be allowed to consent to sex or consent to marry.  可以被允许有性行为或者说允许结婚

　　So there are some anatomical divisions  所以说，有一些在解剖学上的界限

　　that make sense to me and that I think we should retain.  对我们来说是有意义的，我想那些应该被保留

　　But the challenge is trying to figure out which ones they are  但是，艰巨的任务是试着去找出哪些是应该保留的

　　and why do we retain them and do they have meaning.  为什么我们要保留它们，它们有什么意义

　　So let's go back to those two beings  所以，让我们回到刚才说到的那两人

　　conceived at the beginning of this talk.  就是演讲一开始所虚构的那两个人

　　We have two beings, both conceived  我们有两对夫妇

　　in the middle of 1979 on the exact same day.  都在1979年年中的同一天怀孕了

　　Let's imagine one of them, Mary,  让我们设想一下，玛丽

　　is born three months prematurely⁵,  提前三个月出生了

　　so she's born on June 1, 1980.  因此她出生于1980年6月1日

　　Henry, by contrast, is born at term,  亨利，相反的，足月出生

　　so he's born on March 1, 1980.  他出生于1980年3月1日

　　Simply by virtue⁶ of the fact  仅仅是由于

　　that Mary was born prematurely three months,  玛丽早出生了三个月这个事实

　　she comes into all sorts of rights  她获得各种权利的时间

　　three months earlier than Henry does --  要比亨利早三个月

　　the right to consent to sex,  允许有性行为的权利

　　the right to vote, the right to drink.  选举的权利，喝酒的权利

　　Henry has to wait for all of that,  亨利就不得不等待

　　not because he's actually any different in age, biologically,  他的生理学年龄没有任何不同

　　except in terms of when he was born.  只是因为他出生的时间不同

　　We find other kinds of weirdness⁷ in terms of what their rights are.  我们还发现其他一些离奇的权利问题

　　Henry, by virtue of being assumed to be male --  亨利，由于被假定为男性--

　　although I haven't told you that he's the XY one --  尽管我没有告诉过大家他是XY型染色体——

　　by virtue of being assumed to be male  由于被假定为男性

　　is now liable to be drafted,  所以现在要应征入伍

　　which Mary does not need to worry about.  玛丽就不需要去担心这些

　　Mary, meanwhile, cannot in all the states  与此同时，玛丽不能在所有的州

　　have the same right that Henry has in all the states,  像亨利一样享受同样权利

　　namely, the right to marry.  也就是，结婚的权利

　　Henry can marry in every state a woman,  亨利可以在任何一个州结婚

　　but Mary can only marry today in a few states a woman.  但是玛丽如今只能在少数几个州娶一位女性

　　So we have these anatomical categories that persist  因此我们所坚持的一些结构上的生物分类

　　that are in many ways problematic and questionable⁸.  它们在很多方面是有问题并且需要质疑的

1 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

2 sojourner   

n.旅居者，寄居者

参考例句：

• The sojourner has been in Wales for two weeks. 那个寄居者在威尔士已经逗留了两个星期。 来自互联网
• A sojourner or a hired servant shall not eat of it. 出12:45寄居的、和雇工人、都不可吃。 来自互联网

3 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

4 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

5 prematurely   

adv.过早地，贸然地

参考例句：

• She was born prematurely with poorly developed lungs. 她早产，肺部未发育健全。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His hair was prematurely white, but his busy eyebrows were still jet-black. 他的头发已经白了，不过两道浓眉还是乌黑乌黑的。 来自辞典例句

6 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。

7 weirdness   

n.古怪，离奇，不可思议

参考例句：

• The weirdness of the city by night held her attention. 夜间城市的古怪景象吸引了她的注意力。
• But that's not the end of the weirdness feasible in evolutionary systems. 然而这还不是进化系统居然可行的最怪异的地方呐。

8 questionable   

adj.可疑的，有问题的

参考例句：

• There are still a few questionable points in the case.这个案件还有几个疑点。
• Your argument is based on a set of questionable assumptions.你的论证建立在一套有问题的假设上。