If the axis-tilt theory had been refuted,倘若“地轴倾斜”理论被观察否定了its defenders would have had nowhere to go.它的支持者们就无路可退了No easily implemented change could make that tilt没有什么信手拈来的变动能让地轴的倾斜cause the same seasons in both hemispheres.在两个半球产生相同的季节The search for hard-to-vary explanations is the origin of all prog

If the axis-tilt theory had been refuted,倘若“地轴倾斜”理论被观察否定了its defenders would have had nowhere to go.它的支持者们就无路可退了No easily implemented change could make that tilt没有什么信手拈来的变动能让地轴的倾斜cause the same seasons in both hemispheres.在两个半球产生相同的季节The search for hard-to-vary explanations is the origin of all prog

Our connection to reality is never just perception.而我们与现实的联系从不会只是感知It&#39s always, as Karl Popper put it, theory-laden.而是如卡尔·波普尔所说，充满着理论假设Scientific knowledge isn&#39t derived from anything.科学知识不是从什么直接推导而来It&#39s like all knowledge.而是像所有其他知识一样，It&#39s conjectural, guesswork, tested by observation, n

I&#39m sure that, throughout the hundred-thousand-odd years of our species&#39 existence, and even before,我十分确信在人类诞生以来的大概10万多年，甚至比这更长的时间里our ancestors looked up at the night sky, and wondered what stars are.我们的祖先仰望夜空，想知道那些星星究竟是什么Wondering, therefore, how to explain what they saw in terms of things u

Why a marriage contract and not any other reason for regular annual action?为什么是一纸婚书而不是其他什么原因使普西芬妮定期往返呢？Here is one. Persephone wasn&#39t released.我且来举个例子：普西芬妮并没有被放走She escaped, and returns every spring to take revenge on Hades, with her Spring powers.她逃走了，每年春天又回冥府找哈德斯报仇，用她春天的神力She cools his domain w

At the time, what they thought在那个时候，启蒙学者们认为distinguished science was a radical idea about things unseen, known as empiricism.科学的独特标志是一个关于不可见事物的激进看法，叫做经验主义All knowledge derives from the senses.认为所有的知识来自我们的感官Well, we&#39ve seen that that can&#39t be true.呵呵，我们知道这样说有些偏颇It did help by promoting observat

That all that, discovered in 40 years,这40年中的所有发现had not been in the previous hundred thousand,是数千年来所未有的was not for lack of thinking about stars, and all those other urgent problems they had.而这可不能归结为古人思维懒惰，对星星啊，还有那些迫切的问题不闻不问They even arrived at answers, such as myths,他们不光思考了，还给出了答案，比如说神话that dominate