Universities and Their Function
By Alfred North Whitehead
The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest(n. 风味；热心；强烈的兴趣) of life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. The university imparts information, but it imparts it imaginatively. At least, this is the function which it should perform for society. A university which fails in this respect has no reason for existence. This atmosphere of excitement, arising from imaginative consideration, transforms knowledge. A fact is no longer a bare fact: it is invested with all its possibilities. It is no longer a burden on the memory: it is
energising(供给…能量) as the poet of our dreams, and as the architect of our purposes.
Imagination is not to be divorced from the facts: it is a way of illuminating the facts. It works by drawing the general principles which apply to the facts, as they exist, and then by an intellectual survey of alternative possibilities which are consistent with those principles. It enables men to construct an intellectual vision of a new world, and it preserves the zest of life by the suggestion of satisfying purposes.
Youth is imaginative, and if the imagination be strengthened by discipline this energy of imagination can in great measure be preserved through life. The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience, and those who are
experienced have feeble imaginations. Fools act on imagination without knowledge; pedants(n. 学究；书呆子；卖弄学问的人；空谈家) act on knowledge without imagination. The task of a university is to weld together imagination and experience.
大学之所以有理由存在，就在于它使新老两代在富于想象中学习，从而使知识与生活热情之间得以彼此相连。大学是传授知识的，但它以富有想象力的方式进行传授。至少，这是它应该为社会发挥的作用。一所大学若不能如此就毫无存在的理由。人富于想象后便会感到兴奋激动，使知识得以彻底转化——事实已不再仅仅为事实，它具有了所有替在的可能 。它不再是记忆的累赘，而是充满了活力，犹如能描绘我们美梦的诗人和实现我们心愿的设计师。
想象与事实不可分离：通过它事实变得鲜明生动。想象使人获得与存在的事实相适合的一般原则，并让人对与那些原则相一致的各种可能进行理性的审视。想象让人构建起某种关于一个新世界的富有理性的视觉，通过暗示出一些令人喜悦的意图而使生活热情得以维持。
青年是富有想象力的，如果想象通过训练得以加强，那么这种想象力就能在生活中获得极大的维护。这个世界的悲剧在于那些富有想象力的人经验不多，而那些富有经验的人却想象不足。没有知识的傻瓜全凭想象办事，没有想象的学究全凭知识办事。大学的任务就是把想象和经验彼此结合起来。
本文转自gnuhpc博客园博客，原文链接：http://www.cnblogs.com/gnuhpc/archive/2012/06/28/2567006.html，如需转载请自行联系原作者
