各位校友、毕业生、家人和朋友们：

　　大家好！很高兴今天看到大家欢聚一堂。在史上最会讲故事的人出场之前（指稍后的演讲嘉宾、好莱坞电影导演——斯皮尔伯格），我先给他暖暖场。话虽如此，但今天，我想站在这个历史节点，回望这所伟大的学校（哈佛大学）一些值得我们思考的点滴，看看我们所处的是什么样的时代。

　　有一个迷题时常在我们头顶盘旋，经验丰富的时事评论家们为之焦头烂额，我们身旁的亲朋好友更是摸不着头脑：现如今这到底是个什么世道？这个世界究竟怎么了？美国政治吵闹喧嚣，总统选举争议重重；全球的政治动荡，从巴西的总统弹劾到英国的退欧风波1；中东的战火连连，欧洲的难民危机；恐怖主义利用新媒体继续放肆作乱，气候问题接连引发了非洲饥荒和加拿大火灾。仿佛世界末日已经来临2，战火、饥荒、自然灾害——是的，还有瘟疫。政治上的动乱和瘫痪，为茲卡病毒的蔓延推波助澜。

　　世事荒诞至此，哈佛却时刻提醒我们，大风大浪我们不是没见过。在今天的第365届毕业典礼上，回望哈佛数百年来挺过的种种困难，我们不禁感到一丝宽慰。多少次，哈佛的毕业典礼上弥漫着战火的阴云；多少次，我们正经受着金融危机和大萧条；多少次，我们面临着流行病的侵袭——从17世纪的天花，到1918年的致命流感，到几年前的H1N1病毒……哈佛不仅仅战胜了这些巨大的挑战，而且还帮助世人去大胆地面对这些难题。正如我们的校歌所唱：在变革和风浪中镇定自若。那么在当今的这些危机中，大学该如何自处？我们能做什么？我们该做什么？我们必须做什么？今天我们汇聚一堂，看着Widener图书馆和纪念教堂傲然屹立3，彰显着哈佛崇高的身份和使命，印证着着高等学府的作为与信仰。这个世界从来没有像今天一样这么需要大学的存在。无论是对于我们，还是对于世界，这都事关重大。

　　让我们先来看看Widener图书馆这座宏伟的建筑，巨大的石柱和二十七层台阶上，承载着无数照片的光影，无数学生学者的脚印。这是一个巨大的智囊，汇集着连起来长达57英里的书架和一千七百万书籍，这里是理性和知识的明证。它保存着世界上最针锋相对的信仰和最广博多元的经验，无数的事实和证据用以支持自由的质疑和渐进的领悟。它只为真理服务，在探寻真理的征程中，无所畏惧。它向知识致敬、向事实致敬，在今时今日，这是个人、社会以及国家做出决断时的基石；而在未来，更是萌发崭新见解的土壤。正如詹姆斯·麦迪逊在1822年写道：“一个民族若想成为自己的主宰，必须用知识的力量武装自己。”亦如20世纪早期民权运动家Nannie HelenBurroughs4所言：“教育是民主的生命保障。”

　　证据、理性、事实、逻辑，对历史和科学的理解，以及分辨他人是否在妄言——用前院长Jeremy Knowles5的话说，是不是在”胡说八道”——的能力。这些是教育的基石，也是一个社会不断引领潮流、探索新知和发明创造的根本。然而，这种对于理性和真理的责任感，却在今天渐渐变成了少数人的坚持。在最近一篇专栏文章里，George Will6强烈谴责了当下这种显而易见的对”实事求是”精神的摒弃，或者用他的话说是对“现实原则”的摒弃——人们不再对事实进行评估和适应。大学恰恰是被这种“现实原则”所定义的，从我们提供的一系列的证据和洞悉之中，一个更美好的世界得以应运而生。

　　那么，当我们的追求遭受阻碍时，我们该如何思考，如何行动呢？首先，我们必须在学校里坚定不移地投身于对真理的考究与思辨。我们必须坚信，只有经受过挑战的思想才能够得到真正的发展。即便道阻且长，但真理只能一步一步地建立起来，我们绝不能信口开河。大学不仅仅向我们提供客观事实，更教导我们如何评价、试探、挑战并提炼真理。只有当我们自己能够坚守真理，不被表面迷惑7，我们才能理直气壮地号召世人来和我们一起坚守真理。作为大学，我们必须以身作则，才能让我们的学生无论是在校园里，还是在将来在走入社会，成为领袖后，都同样坚守这些原则。我们对真理和理性的坚守不应囿于校园之内，而必须延伸至更广阔的空间，永不停歇。

　　面朝着Widener图书馆的，是建于一战结束后的纪念教堂，它不仅纪念那些卓越的思想，更如前校长James Conant8所说，是纪念那些“光辉的作为”。这面墙上镌刻着一千一百多名哈佛学生、学者和校友的名字，他们把自己的生命奉献给了国家，只因他们坚信有高于个人性命的召唤。今天，我把Widener图书馆和纪念教堂二者并列提出，是因为我们需要它们各自所代表的精神，是因为理性和知识必须伴随着价值观。我们有幸成为哈佛的一员，也必须承担着相应的责任。

　　你们可能会说，这难道不是显而易见的吗？然而事实并非如此。在今天上午的毕业仪式上，我身着哈佛校长传统长袍，清教牧师风格，象征着哈佛的起源。价值观是哈佛早年不可或缺的一部分，旨在教育基督教牧师。直到十九世纪末期，大多数美国大学校长都会向毕业生传授一门道德哲学课程。十九世纪晚期到二十世纪初期，随着研究型大学的兴起，科学思想引领着高等教育改革的高歌，而道德和伦理则渐渐被视为与科学相悖。

　　但在当今世界，如果大学不能够充分认识并承担起自身对价值观、奉献精神、理性和探索的责任，我认为是很危险的。世间无不具价值判断之科学，就像没有一种算法是天然生成的。我们选择为什么样的问题，选择支持什么样的研究，如何要求我们学者和学生，我们建立什么样团体，提供什么样的模范……这些都是我们的核心所在。学者和学生的抉择和热忱，恰恰体现着他们的价值观。哈佛商学院的院训是要让这个世界变得有所不同，这也是哈佛大多数人的愿望。在学生和学者们的热忱中，我们看到了这样的愿望。纵观整个哈佛，研究生、职业人士、本科生……我们看到了他们对于追寻意义和使命感的非凡热忱，例如在卫生健康领域，就聚集了知识和科学的力量，和对改变世界的深切的渴望。这样的精神不仅仅刺激着环球的卫生健康发展，更影响着我们的方方面面。哈佛是，也必须是，一个理想主义者的聚集地。医生、律师、教师、艺术家、哲学家、商人、流行病学家、公务员……今天，我们把几千名毕业生输送到世界各地。

　　而对于最年轻的这批本科毕业生，他们才刚开启漫长人生，拿到人生中第一个学位，这些关于价值观和责任感的问题对于他们尤为重要。本科四年里，同学们一起生活、一起学习，共同努力为个人、社会、以及学术领域带来转变。背景各异的学生们齐聚一堂，互相学习，我们致力于让他们跨越差异、融为一体。在一个被种种差异所隔绝的世界，哈佛要因为差异而更加团结。我们通过无数种方式来挑战我们的学生，让他们成为独特的个体和学习的主体。我们致力于建立一个推动哈佛使命感和价值观的本科群体。我们不仅教书，更育人，我们最高远的渴求不只是知识，更是智慧。

　　理性与责任；图书馆与纪念教堂；哈佛和世界。在今天这极为特殊的困难时期，我们有着极为特殊的使命。愿今天离开哈佛的毕业生们，以及我们所有人，都能勇敢迎接这份使命。

 

注释：

1.      原文为：from Brazil to Brexit, 译者做了适当补充。

2.      原文中引用了《启示录》中的四骑士（英语：Four Horsemenof the Apocalypse），传统上被解释为瘟疫、战争、饥荒和死亡。

3.      典礼地点为哈佛校园内TercentenaryTheatre，校长所站的讲台位置恰好直视Widener图书馆，背靠纪念教堂。

4.      Nannie Helen Burroughs，1879-1961，美国非裔教育家、演说家、宗教领袖、女权主义者、商人。

5.      Jeremy Knowles，哈佛大学FAS院长，任期1991 至2002年。

6.      乔治威尔，生于1941，美国时事评论家，政论评论家，普利策奖得主。

7.      原文中使用的是美国知名脱口秀主持人Stephen Colbert在节目中所创造的词汇truthiness或Veritasiness，意为“貌似是真的”。而Veritas 恰好是哈佛校训，拉丁文中“真理”的意思。

8.      James Bryant Conant, 詹姆斯·布莱恩特·科南特 (1893-1978），美国化学家、政治家和教育家，曾于1933–1953年任哈佛大学校长，1955 – 1957任美国首位驻西德大使。

 

译文：Shuyi Zhao

欢迎指正、探讨、交流：shuyi_zhao@mail.harvard.edu , wechat: zzzooey5

 

 

附演讲原文：

 

As delivered.

 

Greetings alumni, graduates, families, and friends. Itis such a pleasure to see you all here and offer congratulations on this day ofcelebration. I am in the unenviable role of warm-up act for one of the greateststorytellers of our—or any other—time. Nevertheless, my assignment is to offera few reflections on this magnificent institution at this moment in itshistory. And what a moment it is.

From comments of astonished pundits on television, inprint, and online, to conversations with bewildered friends and colleagues, thequestion seems unavoidable—and mesmerizing: What is going on? What is happening tothe world? The tumultuous state of American politics, spotlighted in thiscontentious presidential contest; the political challenges around the globefrom Brazil to Brexit; the Middle East in flames; a refugee crisis in Europe;terrorists exploiting new media to perform chilling acts of brutality andmurder; climate-related famine in Africa and fires in Canada. It is as if weare being visited by the horsemen of the apocalypse with war, famine, naturaldisaster—and, yes,even pestilence—as Zika spreads, aided by political controversy and paralysis.

 

As extraordinary as these times may seem to us,Harvard reminds us we have been here before. It is in some ways reassuring atthis 365th Commencement to recall all that Harvard has endured over centuries.A number of these festival rites took place under clouds of war; others intimes of financial crisis and despair; still others in face of epidemics—fromsmallpox in the 17th century to the devastating flu of 1918 to the H1N1 virusjust a few years ago. Harvard has not just survived these challenges, but hashelped to confront them. We sing in our alma mater about “Calm risingthrough change and through storm.”What does thatmean for today’s crises?Where do universities fit in this threatening mix? What can we do? What shouldwe do? What must we do?

 

We are gathered today in Tercentenary Theatre, withWidener Library and Memorial Church standing before and behind us, enduringsymbols of Harvard’s largeridentity and purposes, testaments to what universities do and believe at a timewhen we have never needed them more. And much is at stake, for us and for theworld.

 

We look at Widener Library and see a great edifice, abackdrop of giant columns where photos are taken and 27 steps are worn downever so slightly by the feet of a century of students and scholars. We also seea repository of learning, with 57 miles of shelving at the heart of a librarysystem of some 17 million books, a monument to reason and knowledge, to thecollection and preservation of the widest possible range of beliefs, andexperiences, and facts that fuel free inquiry and our constantly evolvingunderstanding. A vehicle for Veritas—for exploring the path to truth whereverit may lead. A tribute to the belief that knowledge matters, that facts matter—inthe present moment, as a basis for the informed decisions of individuals,societies, and nations; and for the future, as the basis for new insight. AsJames Madison wrote in 1822, a people who mean to be their own Governors, mustarm themselves with the power that knowledge gives. Or as early 20th-centurycivil rights activist Nannie Helen Burroughs put it, “education isdemocracy’s lifeinsurance.”

 

Evidence, reason, facts, logic, an understanding ofhistory and of science. The ability to know, as former dean Jeremy Knowles usedto put it, “when someone is talking rot.” These are the bedrock of education, and of an informedcitizenry with the capacity to lead, to explore, to invent. Yet this commitmentto reason and truth—to their pursuit and preeminence—seems increasingly aminority viewpoint. In a recent column, George Will deplored the nation’s evident abandonment of what he called “the reality principle—theneed to assess and adapt to facts.” Universities are defined by this principle. We producea ready stream of evidence and insights, many with potential to create a betterworld. 

So what are our obligations when we see ourfundamental purpose under siege, our reason for being discounted andundermined? First we must maintain an unwavering dedication to rigorousassessment and debate within our own walls. We must be unassailable in ourinsistence that ideas most fully thrive and grow when they are open tochallenge. Truth cannot simply be claimed; it must be established—even whenthat process is uncomfortable. Universities do not just store facts; they teachus how to evaluate, test, challenge, and refine them. Only if we ourselvesmodel a commitment to fact over what Stephen Colbert so memorably labeled as “truthiness” (and he also actually sometimes called it “Veritasiness!”), only then can we credibly call for adherence tosuch standards in public life and a wider world.

 

We must model this commitment for our students, as weeducate them to embrace these principles—in their work here and in the livesthey will lead as citizens and leaders of national and international life. Wemust support and sustain fact and reason beyond our walls as well. And we mustdo still more.

 

Facing Widener stands Memorial Church. Built in theaftermath of World War I, it was intended to honor and memorializeresponsibility—not just the quality of men and women’s thoughts, but, as my predecessor James Conant putit, “the radianceof their deeds.” The more than1,100 Harvard and Radcliffe students, faculty, and alumni whose names areengraved on its walls gave their lives in service to their country, becausethey believed that some things had greater value than their own individuallives. I juxtapose Widener Library and Memorial Church today because we needthe qualities that both represent, because I believe that reason and knowledgemust be inflected with values, and that those of us who are privileged to bepart of this community of learning bear consequent responsibilities.

 

Now, it may surprise some of you to hear that this isnot an uncontroversial assertion. For this morning’s ceremony I wore the traditional Harvard presidentialrobe—styled on the garment of a Puritan minister and reminding us of Harvard’s origins. Values were an integral part of thedefining purpose of the early years of Harvard College, created to educate alearned ministry. Up until the end of the 1800s, most American collegepresidents taught a course on moral philosophy to graduating students. But withthe rise of the research university in the late nineteenth and the earlytwentieth century, moral and ethical purposes came to be seen as at odds withthe scientific thinking transforming higher education.

 

But in today’s world, I believe it is dangerous for universitiesnot to fully acknowledge and embrace their responsibilities to values and toservice as well as to reason and discovery. There is no value-free science.There is no algorithm that writes itself. The questions we choose to ask andthe research we decide to support; the standards of integrity we expect of ourcolleagues and students; the community we build and the model we offer: All ofthis is central to who we are.

 

We can see these values clearly in the choices andpassions of our faculty and students: in the motto of Harvard Business School,which you heard earlier this morning uttered by the dean, the commitment tomake “a differencein the world.” Most of theUniversity would readily embrace this sentiment. In the enthusiasm of studentsand faculty, we see it as well. From across the University—graduate,professional, and hundreds of undergraduates—we see a remarkable enthusiasm,for example for the field of global health because it unites the power ofknowledge and science with a deeply-felt desire to do good in the world—to leadlives of meaning and purpose. This spirit animates not just global health butso much of all we do. Harvard is and must be a community of idealists. Andtoday we send thousands of you—doctors, lawyers, teachers, artists,philosophers, business people, epidemiologists, public servants—into the world.

 

For our youngest students, those just beginning toshape their adult lives, lives who today received what the ritual language ofCommencement calls “their first degree,” for them these questions of values and responsibilitytake on particular salience. Harvard College is a residential community oflearning with a goal, in the words of its dean, of personal and social as wellas intellectual transformation. Bringing students of diverse backgrounds tolive together and learn from one another enacts that commitment, as we work totransform diversity into belonging. In a world divided by difference, we atHarvard strive to be united by it. In myriad ways we challenge our students tobe individuals of character as well as of learning. We seek to establishstandards for the College community that advance our institutional purposes andvalues. We seek to educate people, not just minds; our highest aspiration isnot just knowledge, but wisdom. 

 

Reason and responsibility. Widener and MemorialChurch. Harvard and the world. We have a very special obligation in a verydifficult time. May we and the students we send forth today embrace it.

 

哈佛大学中国学生学者联合会

Harvard Chinese Students and Scholars Association (HCSSA)

Lehman Hall ∙ Harvard University ∙ Cambridge 

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