钱学森系统谈话：国家要培养会动脑子的科技创新人才（下）
Qiang Xuesen talks: The nation should cultivate talents engaging in scientific and technological innovations (II)
|
|
| 加州理工学院给这些学者、教授们，也给年轻的学生、研究生们提供了充分的学术权力和民主氛围。不同的学派、不同的学术观点都可以充分发表。学生们也可以充分发表自己的不同学术见解，可以向权威们挑战。过去我曾讲过我在加州理工学院当研究生时和一些权威辩论的情况，其实这在加州理工学院是很平常的事。那时，我们这些搞应用力学的，就是用数学计算来解决工程上的复杂问题。所以人家又管我们叫应用数学家。可是数学系的那些搞纯粹数学的人偏偏瞧不起我们这些搞工程数学的。两个学派常常在一起辩论。有一次，数学系的权威在学校布告栏里贴出了一个海报，说他在什么时间什么地点讲理论数学，欢迎大家去听讲。我的老师冯·卡门一看，也马上贴出一个海报，说在同一时间他在什么地方讲工程数学，也欢迎大家去听。结果两个讲座都大受欢迎。这就是加州理工学院的学术风气，民主而又活跃。我们这些年轻人在这里学习真是大受教益，大开眼界。今天我们有哪一所大学能做到这样？大家见面都是客客气气，学术讨论活跃不起来。这怎么能够培养创新人才？更不用说大师级人才了。 |
Caltech provided scholars, professors, undergraduates and graduates with adequate academic rights and democracy. Different schools were free to express their different opinions. Students could also fully express their different academic understandings and even challenge the authorities. I once talked about my having debates with authorities as a graduate at Caltech in the past; actually, such things are very normal at Caltech. At that time, we studied applied mechanics and used mathematical calculations to resolve complicated engineering problems. Therefore, people called us “applied mathematicians.” But those focusing their study on mathematics in the department of mathematics were usually contemptuous of those of us studying engineering mathematics. These two schools often disputed with one another. Once, an authority from the department of mathematics pasted a poster on a bulletin board at Caltech, asserting that he was going to give a lecture on theoretical mathematics at a certain place and time and everyone was welcome to his lecture. Upon hearing the news, my professor, von Karman, immediately pasted another poster, claiming that he was going to give a lecture on engineering mathematics at another place at the same time and also welcomed everyone to attend his lecture. These two lectures both proved to be very successful. This was the academic atmosphere of Caltech, both democratic and active. We young people benefited a lot from learning there and immensely widened our visions. Today, which of our universities can do the same as Caltech? Everyone is polite when meeting each other and academic discussions cannot become animated. How can such atmosphere cultivate innovative talents, not to mention a mastery of talents? |
| 有趣的是，加州理工学院还鼓励那些理工科学生提高艺术素养。我们火箭小组的头头马林纳就是一边研究火箭，一边学习绘画，他后来还成为西方一位抽象派画家。我的老师冯·卡门听说我懂得绘画、音乐、摄影这些方面的学问，还被美国艺术和科学学会吸收为会员，他很高兴，说你有这些才华很重要，这方面你比我强。因为他小时候没有我那样的良好条件。我父亲钱均夫很懂得现代教育，他一方面让我学理工，走技术强国的路；另一方面又送我去学音乐、绘画这些艺术课。我从小不仅对科学感兴趣，也对艺术有兴趣，读过许多艺术理论方面的书，像普列汉诺夫的《艺术论》，我在上海交通大学念书时就读过了。这些艺术上的修养不仅加深了我对艺术作品中那些诗情画意和人生哲理的深刻理解，也学会了艺术上大跨度的宏观形象思维。我认为，这些东西对启迪一个人在科学上的创新是很重要的。科学上的创新光靠严密的逻辑思维不行，创新的思想往往开始于形象思维，从大跨度的联想中得到启迪，然后再用严密的逻辑加以验证。 |
Interestingly, Caltech also encouraged students of science and technology to improve their artistic attainments. The head of our rocket group, Frank Malina, learned painting while studying rockets. He later became an abstract painter of the West. When my professor, von Karman, learned that I knew a lot about painting, music and photography, and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science, he was very pleased and said that my talents in these areas were very important, also mentioning that I was better than him in those areas. This was because he did not have the favorable conditions as I did when he was young. My father, Qian Junfu, knew a lot about modern education. He encouraged me to learn science and engineering in order to help strengthen our nation through technology; yet, on the other hand, he sent me to learn the arts, such as music and painting. I was interested not only in science, but also in the arts and read a lot of books on artistic theory. I had already read “Art Theory” by Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov when I studied at the Shanghai Jiaotong University. Such artistic attainments deepened my understanding of the poetic beauty and philosophy of life in those artistic works, and I learned a large span of macro-thinking in images of art. I think those things are very important to inspire one’s creativity in science. Scientific innovation cannot just depend on meticulous logical thinking. Creative thoughts usually start from the thinking of images, followed by enlightenment through large span thinking, and then finally proving the creative thoughts with unassailable logic. |
|
|
|
|
