「專家不過是一隻訓練有素的狗。」這句話我們常常聽到，但是它的出處與目的卻鮮少有人得知。前陣子我上了 Vampire 的 blog 看到了「陳之藩，你糗了」，我這才知道這句話是陳之藩在「哲學家皇帝」一書裡面引用了愛因斯坦的名句。
愛因斯坦的原文是這樣的：
”It is not enough to teach a man a specialty. Through it he may become a kind of useful machine but not a harmoniously developed personality. It is essential that the student acquire an understanding of and a lively feeling for values. He must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiul and of the morally good. Otherwise he - with his specialized knowledge - more closely resembles a well-trained dog than a harmoniously developed person. He must learn to understand the motives of human beings, their illusions, and their sufferings in order to acquire a proper relationship to individual fellow-men and to the community.
These precious things are conveyed to the younger generation through personal contact with those who teach, no - or at least not in the main - through textbooks. It is this that primarily constitutes and preserves culture. This is what I have in mind when I recommend the ”humanities” as important, not just dry specialized knowledge in the fields of history and philosophy.
Overemphasis on the competitive system and premature specialization on the ground of immediate usefulness kill the spirit on which all cultural life depends, specialized knowledge included.
It is vital to a valuable education that independent critical thinking be developed in the young human being, a development that is greatly jeopardized by overburdening him with too much and with too varied subjects (point system). Over-burdening necessarily leads to superficiality. Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.”
其中陳之藩引用的是這段：「......It is essential that the student acquires an understanding of and a lively feeling for values. He must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiful and of the morally good. Otherwise he----with his specialized knowledge----more closely resembles a well-trained dog than a harmoniously developed person.」
中文解釋是這樣的：「讓學生獲得對各種價值的理解和感受是很重要的，他必須能真切地感受到美麗與道德的良善，否則他的專業知識只是使他更像一隻受過良好訓練的狗，而不是一個和諧發展的人。」
（引
http://reffaq.ncl.edu.tw/hypage.cgi?HYPAGE=faq_detail.htm&idx=1797）
我第一次聽到「專家不過是一隻訓練有素的狗」這句話的時候，心裡想的是：「不做專家，難道做雜家嗎？做雜家哪裡比專家好？」所以從來都不敢亂引用，至今我才知道原來聽到的是被曲解的詮釋。愛氏要告訴我們的是一個人不但應該具有專業知識「之外」，也不能忽略了人文素養與個人修養。這是很重要的教育觀念—我們不要人格有重大缺失的學生，即使他是第一名。但是這段話卻也不是只強調人文素養，而忽略了專業知識的培養。又，陸遊也曾經告訴兒子「汝果欲學詩，功夫在詩外。」這句話具有同樣的深意，學習一專業功夫絕對不只是在專業功夫本身而已。
至於有關學校教育的部分，神力超人說過一句話讓我很玩味：「如果學校不能讓我有效學習，我為什麼要上學？」這句話很值得我們檢討，包括人格的養成都應該是透過學校教育（當然也包括家裡啦），如果學校不能做到輔助人格教育的成長，為什麼我要上學？美國有很多學子在家上課、和家人到戶外學習如何待人接物，一點也不比在學校差，在社會化的部分甚至更好。倘若如此學校到底有什麼用，變相的托兒所或聯誼會？一個無法正視這樣教育理念的學校，只會叫你讀書、考試、寫測驗卷，基本上只是二流的補習班罷了。
我看完原文所表達的，除了佩服愛氏的教育思想之外，更令我訝異的是那麼多引用這句話的人竟然從未思考這句話的合理性。思而不學則惘，說文解字、斷章取義的用這句話去批評專家，除了本身不具備專業知識很可悲之外，連這句話隱含有關於人文素養的理念都破壞的乾乾淨淨。我想引用一定要瞭解而且忠實，如果不能明瞭它的本意，結果可能像是美國漢德法官的名言：「自由的精神就是不確定對錯的精神。」深層權利保護的意旨，被硬生生曲解為另一個權利侵害的凶器。
註：照片是數人合力繪製合成，東吳大學法律服務社第一美人，感謝歐家佑大攝影師的攝影。
