Philosophies are more unified than life. In life, we have many desires, but a philosophy is usually inspired by some one dominant desire which gives it coherence..
Source: Power, a new social analysis, 1938, by Bertrand Russell
More info.: https://russell-j.com/beginner/POWER15_250.HTM
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Life is unpredictable. Over the course of a lifetime, many unexpected things occur, and there are not many people who can look back from old age and feel that they have consistently pursued a single purpose since their youth.
Human lifespans also often defy prediction. Of course, those who are physically robust and mentally stable usually live long lives. However, when we look at individual cases, it is not unusual to find someone thought likely to live long die young, or conversely, someone expected to have a short life live to an advanced age.
Now, please read the following "Russell's Words of the Day":
Philosophies are more unified than life. In life, we have many desires, but a philosophy is usually inspired by some one dominant desire which gives it coherence.
Russell's wording here is subtle, so I suspected ChatGPT might not translate it well. When I tried it, this is what it came up with:
At first glance, this may seem free of problems to many readers. However, Russell uses the plural "Philosophies," not the singular "Philosophy." This means he is not referring to philosophy in the abstract, but to individual philosophical systems. Anyone familiar with Russell's theory of descriptions (type theory) would immediately recognize this distinction. In other words, "Philosophy" is a concept one level higher than the individual philosophical systems (“Philosophies”).
Moreover, ChatGPT rendered inspired by as "encouraged by"（鼓舞されて） or "stimulated by." （触発されて）While that might be acceptable in ordinary contexts, it fails to convey the nuance Russell intends here.
After much discussion with ChatGPT, I finally arrived at the following translation. Even someone confident in English might find this difficult without some background in philosophy:
「個々の哲学体系は、人生そのものよりも統一されている。人生において私たちは多くの欲望を抱くが、哲学体系はたいてい、全体に首尾一貫性を与える支配的な一つの欲望を原動力として成り立っている。」
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