舟動之穿林吟嘯行

Doubt & Certainty

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. （願以確信為始之人，將終於懷疑；而願以懷疑為始之人，將終於確信。）

這是哲學家 Francis Bacon 於 1605 年說過的話，目的就是在勸人對一切事物興起懷疑之心，多少可呼應他另一句關乎信仰的名言：A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.

Descartes 的名言是 I think, therefore I am.（原文：Je pense donc je svis; Cogito, ergo sum.），而同時代的 John Donne 也在詩作 An anatomy of the World 中第一句話點明 New philosophy calls in doubt. 在 Donne 的時代，科學正開始啟蒙，諸如哥白尼和伽利略自希臘人的觀點重新引入「地動說」（太陽中心說，the Heliocentric Theory），令人對過去的世界觀產生顛悸，甚或惶恐之情，因此在該詩文中反映出一種時代變動的不安定氣息：

And new philosophy calls all in doubt,

The element of fire is quite put out,

The sun is lost, and th'earth, and no man's wit

Can well direct him where to look for it.

And freely men confess that this world's spent,

When in the planets and the firmament

They seek so many new; they see that this

Is crumbled out again to his atomies.

'Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone,

All just supply, and all relation.

我想，無論本詩作表達出何種程度的不安，生存即是 a dynamic state，唯有探詢真理之心才能讓自己在動態中保持平衡，並且以懷疑為始，用好奇心去了解世界的可能存在的元素和未知的運行模式。

——舟動（2015.03.01）