73.Such philosophical¹ concerns as the mind-body problem or，more generally，the nature of　　human knowledge they believe，are basic human questions whose tentative philosophical solutions have served as the necessary foundations on which all other intellectual speculation² has rested.

　　他们相信，诸如灵与肉的问题，或更普遍而言，人类知识的性质等此类哲学关注，均是一些基本的人类问题，其探索性的哲学答案已构成一个必要的基础，其它所有的智力思辩均赖以建立其上。

　　74.The idea of an autonomous³ discipline called “philosophy，” distinct from and sitting in judgment⁴ on such pursuits as theology and science turns out， on close examination，to be of quite recent origin.

　　细作审视，我们便不难发现，一种被称为“哲学”的独立学科——既有别于神学和科学诸般学科，并高高在上地对其予以评判——的思想，其渊源却是甚为近期的事。

　　75.But the recent discovery of detailed⁵ similarities in the skeletal structure of the flippers in all three groups undermines the attempt to explain away superficial resemblance as due to convergent⁶　　evolution-the independent development of similarities between unrelated groups in response to similar environmental pressures.

　　但是，最近在所有这三类动物身上，对鳍肢的骨骼结构所存在的细致共同点的发现足以削弱这样一种企图，即把表面上的近似作为趋同进化所致的结果来将其解释掉。而所谓的趋同进化（convergent evolution），是指在互不相关的生物群体之间，作为对类似的环境压力作出的反应，彼此独立的发展形成某些相同特征。

　　76.Human genes⁷ contain too little information even to specify⁸ which hemisphere of the brain　　each of a human's 10'' neurons should occupy，let alone the hundreds of connections that each neuron makes.

　　人类因基所包含的信息是如此之少，以致于就连去具体规定人类1011的神经细胞中任意一个细胞应占据大脑的哪个半脑都无法做到，更不用提每个神经细胞所会形成的数百种连接。

　　77.These questions are political in the sense that the debate over them will inevitably⁹ be less an exploration of abstract matters in a spirit of disinterested¹⁰ inquiry¹¹ than an academic power struggle in which the careers and professional fortunes of many women scholars-only now entering the academic profession in substantial numbers-will be at stake，and with them the chances for a distinctive¹² contribution to humanistic understanding，a contribution that might be an important influence against sexism in our society.

　　这些问题之所以带有政治性质，因为可避免地，围绕这些问题展开的急诊与其说是一种在客观冷静科研精神指导下对抽象问题的探索，倒不如说是一种学术上的权力斗争。在此斗争中，许多女学者中——只是在现在才开始以众多的人数进入学术界——的学术生涯和职业命运将处于存亡攸关的危急关头，与她们相伴随的是对人文理解作出一种独特贡献的机遇，这一贡献则很有可能成为消除我们社会中所存在的性别主义的一股重要影响。