The opportunity to receive higher education is a privilege that brings with it responsibilities. The President of Princeton University talks about this in her inaugural speech.
接受高等教育的机会是一种特权，而特权也伴随着责任。普林斯顿大学校长在就职演说中谈到了这一点。
Today the academy holds a highly privileged place in American society because of a long-standing national consensus about the value of education. One of my predecessors, President Harold Dodds, said in his inaugural address in 1933 that "No country spends money for education, public or private, so lavishly as does the United States. Americans have an almost childlike faith in what formal education can do for them." That faith is based on a conviction that the vitality of the United States, its creative and diverse cultural life, its staggeringly inventive economy, its national security and the robustness of its democratic institutions owe much to the quality of institutions of higher education.
今天，学术界在美国社会中享有高度优越的地位，这是因为美国长期以来对教育的价值存在全国共识。我的一位前任哈罗德·多兹校长在1933年的就职演说中说：“没有哪个国家像美国这样，不论公立还是私立，都如此慷慨地为教育投入资金。美国人几乎像孩子一样相信正规教育能够为他们带来的一切。”这种信念源于一种确信：美国的活力、富有创造力且多元的文化生活、创新能力惊人的经济、国家安全以及民主制度的稳健，都在很大程度上得益于高等教育机构的质量。
Our society's confidence in its institutions of higher education is expressed through the generous investments of the federal and state governments in basic and applied research, investments that wisely couple support for research with support for graduate education. It is also expressed through federal and state investments that subsidize the cost of higher education for those who cannot afford to pay, investments by private foundations and charities who see colleges and universities as the best routes for achieving their strategic goals, and investments by individuals and by the private sector, who see universities as the incubators of future health and prosperity. In return for this broad support, society rightfully expects certain things from us. It expects the generation of new ideas and the discovery of new knowledge, the exploration of complex issues in an open and collegial manner and the preparation of the next generation of citizens and leaders. In times of trouble, it is especially important that we live up to these expectations.
我们的社会对高等教育机构的信心，体现在联邦和州政府对基础研究与应用研究的慷慨投入上；这些投入明智地把对科研的支持与对研究生教育的支持结合起来。它还体现在联邦和州政府为无力承担学费者补贴高等教育费用的投入，私人基金会和慈善机构把高校视为实现其战略目标最佳途径而作出的投入，以及个人和私营部门把大学视为未来健康与繁荣的孵化器而作出的投入。社会给予如此广泛的支持，理所当然也对我们有所期待：创造新思想、发现新知识，以开放而合作的方式探讨复杂问题，并培养下一代公民和领导者。在困难时期，我们尤其应当不负这些期望。
The medieval image of the university as an ivory tower, with scholars turned inward in solitary contemplation, immunized from the cares of the day, is an image that has been superseded by the modern university constructed not of ivory, but of a highly porous material, one that allows free diffusion in both directions. The academy is of the world, not apart from it. Its ideals, crafted over many generations, are meant to suffuse the national consciousness. Its scholars and teachers are meant to move in and out of the academy in pursuit of opportunities to use their expertise in public service, in pursuit of creative work that will give us illumination and insight and in pursuit of ways to turn laboratory discoveries into useful things. Our students engage the world with a strong sense of civic responsibility, and when they graduate they become alumni who do the same. This is as it should be.
中世纪的大学被想象成一座象牙塔：学者退回内心独自沉思，不受现实忧患侵扰。如今，这种形象已被现代大学取代；现代大学并非以象牙建成，而是由一种高度多孔的材料构成，思想和人员可以在内外两个方向自由流动。学术界身处世界之中，而不是与世隔绝。它经过许多代人塑造的理想，应当渗透到整个国家的意识中。学者和教师应当进出学术界，寻找机会以专业知识服务公众，开展能带来启发和洞见的创造性工作，并设法把实验室发现转化为有用的成果。我们的学生怀着强烈的公民责任感参与世界；毕业成为校友后，他们仍会如此。这正是应有的样子。
The search for new ideas and knowledge is not and cannot be motivated by utilitarian concerns. Rather it depends on the ability to think in new and creative ways. When the Nobel laureate John Nash developed the mathematical concepts underlying non-cooperative game theory as a graduate student at Princeton, he could not foresee that those concepts would be used today to analyze election strategies and the causes of war and to make predictions about how people will act. When Professor of Molecular Biology Eric Wieschaus set out as a young scientist to identify genes that pattern the body plan of the fruit fly embryo, he could not know that he would identify genes that play a central role in the development of human cancer. We have learned that we cannot predict with any accuracy how discoveries and scholarship will influence future generations. We also have learned that it is unwise to search only in predictable places, for new knowledge often depends upon preparing fertile ground in obscure places where serendipity and good luck, as well as deep intelligence, can sprout. Freedom of inquiry, which is one of our most cherished organizing principles, is not just a moral imperative, it is a practical necessity.
对新思想和新知识的探索，不是也不可能由功利考虑来驱动；它依赖的是以新颖而富有创造力的方式思考的能力。诺贝尔奖得主约翰·纳什在普林斯顿读研究生时提出非合作博弈论所依据的数学概念，并不能预见这些概念今天会被用于分析选举策略和战争成因，或预测人的行为。分子生物学教授埃里克·威斯豪斯年轻时着手寻找决定果蝇胚胎身体结构的基因，也不可能知道自己会发现在人类癌症发生过程中发挥核心作用的基因。我们已经认识到，任何人都无法准确预言科学发现和学术成果会怎样影响后代。我们也认识到，只在可预见之处寻找是不明智的；新知识的产生，往往有赖于在不起眼的地方准备好沃土，让机缘、好运与深邃智慧一同萌芽。自由探索是我们最珍视的组织原则之一，它不只是道德上的必要，也是实践上的必需。
Just as we have an obligation to search widely for knowledge, so we also have an obligation to insure that the scholarly work of the academy is widely disseminated, so that others can correct it when necessary, or build on it, or use it to make better decisions, develop better products or construct better plans. In the days ahead, I hope that our country's decision-makers will draw on the knowledge that resides on our campuses, on historians who can inform the present through deep understanding of the past, philosophers who can provide frameworks for working through issues of right and wrong, economists whose insights can help to get the economy back on track, engineers who know how to build safer buildings, scientists who can analyze our vulnerabilities to future attack and develop strategies for reducing those vulnerabilities, and scholars in many fields who can help us understand the motivations of those who would commit acts of terrorism here and throughout the world.
正如我们有义务广泛探求知识，也有义务确保学术界的研究成果得到广泛传播，使别人能够在必要时加以纠正、在其基础上继续发展，或利用它作出更好的决策、开发更好的产品、制定更好的方案。未来一段时间，我希望国家决策者能够借助校园中蕴藏的知识：借助以深刻历史认识观照现实的历史学家，借助为辨析是非提供框架的哲学家，借助以洞见帮助经济重回正轨的经济学家，借助懂得建造更安全建筑的工程师，借助能够分析我们面对未来袭击的薄弱之处并制定降低风险策略的科学家，也借助众多领域的学者来理解那些可能在美国和世界各地实施恐怖行为者的动机。
Let me now turn to the third obligation that we have to society: the education of the next generation of citizens and leaders. Princeton's view of what constitutes a liberal arts education was expressed well by Woodrow Wilson, our 13th President, whose eloquent words I read at Opening Exercises: "What we should seek to impart in our colleges, is not so much learning itself as the spirit of learning. It consists in the power to distinguish good reasoning from bad, in the power to digest and interpret evidence, in the habit of catholic observation and a preference for the non-partisan point of view, in an addiction to clear and logical processes of thought and yet an instinctive desire to interpret rather than to stick to the letter of reasoning, in a taste for knowledge and a deep respect for the integrity of the human mind."
下面谈谈我们对社会的第三项义务：教育下一代公民和领导者。普林斯顿关于何为通识教育的观点，由我们的第十三任校长伍德罗·威尔逊表达得十分透彻；我曾在开学典礼上读过他这段雄辩的话：“我们在大学里应当努力传授的，与其说是知识本身，不如说是求知精神。它体现为辨别正确与错误推理的能力，消化和解释证据的能力，广泛观察的习惯以及对不偏不倚立场的偏爱；体现为对清晰、合乎逻辑的思维过程的执着，同时又有一种本能愿望，重在阐释而非拘泥于推理的字面；还体现为对知识的热爱和对人类心智完整性的深切尊重。”
Wilson, and the presidents who followed him, rejected the narrow idea of a liberal arts education as preparation for a profession. While understanding the importance of professional education, they made it clear that at Princeton we should first and foremost cultivate the qualities of thought and discernment in our students in the belief that this will be most conducive to the health of our society. Thus we distinguish between the acquisition of information, something that is essential for professional training, and the development of habits of mind that can be applied in any profession. Consequently we celebrate when the classics scholar goes to medical school, the physicist becomes a member of Congress, or the historian teaches primary school. If we do our job well as educators, each of our students will take from a Princeton education a respect and appreciation for ideas and values, intellectual openness and rigor, practice in civil discourse and a sense of civic responsibility. During these troubled times, our students and our alumni will be called upon to exercise these qualities in their professions, their communities and their daily lives. By so doing, and through their leadership, their vision and their courage, they will help to fulfill Princeton's obligation to society and bring true meaning to our motto, "Princeton in the nation's service and in the service of all nations."
威尔逊以及继任的历届校长，都反对把通识教育狭隘地视为职业准备。他们理解专业教育的重要性，却明确主张普林斯顿首先应当培养学生的思考力和判断力，因为这最有利于社会的健康。因此，我们把信息的获取与思维习惯的培养区别开来：前者是专业训练不可或缺的内容，后者则可以运用于任何职业。正因如此，当古典学者进入医学院、物理学家成为国会议员或历史学家去小学任教时，我们都会为之欣喜。如果我们尽到了教育者的职责，每个学生都会从普林斯顿教育中带走对思想与价值的尊重和欣赏、开放而严谨的学术态度、文明讨论的训练以及公民责任感。在这个多事之秋，我们的学生和校友需要在职业、社区和日常生活中实践这些品质。通过这样的实践，并凭借其领导力、远见和勇气，他们将帮助普林斯顿履行对社会的责任，使我们的校训——“普林斯顿为国家服务，为所有国家服务”——获得真正的意义。