'Upward, yet not Northward.' How would a creature limited to two dimensions be able to grasp the possibility of a third? Edwin A. Abbott's droll and delightful 'romance of many dimensions' explores this conundrum in the experiences of his protagonist, A Square, whose linear world is invaded by an emissary Sphere bringing the gospel of the third dimension on the eve of the n...
'Upward, yet not Northward.' How would a creature limited to two dimensions be able to grasp the possibility of a third? Edwin A. Abbott's droll and delightful 'romance of many dimensions' explores this conundrum in the experiences of his protagonist, A Square, whose linear world is invaded by an emissary Sphere bringing the gospel of the third dimension on the eve of the new millennium. Part geometry lesson, part social satire, this classic work of science fiction brilliantly succeeds in enlarging all readers' imaginations beyond the limits of our 'respective dimensional prejudices'. In a world where class is determined by how many sides you possess, and women are straight lines, the prospects for enlightenment are boundless, and Abbott's hypotheses about a fourth and higher dimensions seem startlingly relevant today. This new edition of Flatland illuminates the social and intellectual context that produced the work as well as the timeless questions that it raises about the limits of our perception and knowledge. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
作者简介
· · · · · ·
From Biography Base:
Edwin Abbott Abbott, English schoolmaster and theologian, is best known as the author of the mathematical satire Flatland (1884).
He was educated at the City of London School and at St John's College, Cambridge, where he took the highest honours in classics, mathematics and theology, and became fellow of his college. In 1862 he took orders. After holding ma...
Edwin Abbott Abbott, English schoolmaster and theologian, is best known as the author of the mathematical satire Flatland (1884).
He was educated at the City of London School and at St John's College, Cambridge, where he took the highest honours in classics, mathematics and theology, and became fellow of his college. In 1862 he took orders. After holding masterships at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and at Clifton College, he succeeded G. F. Mortimer as headmaster of the City of London School in 1865 at the early age of twenty-six. He was Hulsean lecturer in 1876.
He retired in 1889, and devoted himself to literary and theological pursuits. Dr. Abbott's liberal inclinations in theology were prominent both in his educational views and in his books. His Shakespearian Grammar (1870) is a permanent contribution to English philology. In 1885 he published a life of Francis Bacon. His theological writings include three anonymously published religious romances - Philochristus (1878), Onesimus (1882), and Sitanus (1906).
More weighty contributions are the anonymous theological discussion The Kernel and the Husk (1886), Philomythus (1891), his book The Anglican Career of Cardinal Newman (1892), and his article "The Gospels" in the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, embodying a critical view which caused considerable stir in the English theological world. He also wrote St Thomas of Canterbury, his Death and Miracles (1898), Johannine Vocabulary (1905), Johannine Grammar (1906). Flatland was published in 1884.
Sources that say he is the brother of Evelyn Abbott (1843 - 1901), who was a well-known tutor of Balliol College, Oxford, and author of a scholarly history of Greece, are in error.
目录
· · · · · ·
PART I: THIS WORLD
Section
1. Of the Nature of Flatland
2. Of the Climate and Houses in Flatland
3. Concerning the Inhabitants of Flatland
4. Concerning the Women
· · · · · ·
(更多)
PART I: THIS WORLD
Section
1. Of the Nature of Flatland
2. Of the Climate and Houses in Flatland
3. Concerning the Inhabitants of Flatland
4. Concerning the Women
5. Of our Methods of Recognizing one another
6. Of Recognition by Sight
7. Concerning Irregular Figures
8. Of the Ancient Practice of Painting
9. Of the Universal Colour Bill
10. Of the Suppression of the Chromatic Sedition
11. Concerning our Priests
12. Of the Doctrine of our Priests
PART II: OTHER WORLDS
13. How I had a Vision of Lineland
14. How I vainly tried to explain the nature of Flatland
15. Concerning a Stranger from Spaceland
16. How the Stranger vainly endeavoured to reveal to me
in words the mysteries of Spaceland
17. How the Sphere, having in vain tried words,
resorted to deeds
18. How I came to Spaceland, and what I saw there
19. How, though the Sphere shewed me other mysteries
of Spaceland, I still desired more; and what came of it
20. How the Sphere encouraged me in a Vision
21. How I tried to teach the Theory of Three Dimensions
to my Grandson, and with what success
22. How I then tried to diffuse the Theory
of Three Dimensions by other means, and of the result
· · · · · · (收起)
很有滋味。对二维世界不仅有逻辑与数学角度的构想（男女以及个体识别），更延伸到了意识形态、思想文化以及宗教信仰等层面（边数决定等级）。比如说Colour Bill Revolution， Purgation of the Irregularities。最有趣还是如何让我们试图理解四维世界。对一维人而言，二维人能看穿其身体内部并将视线扩展；对二维人而言三维人也能“看透”其身体和建筑物，犹如在身体内侧也...很有滋味。对二维世界不仅有逻辑与数学角度的构想（男女以及个体识别），更延伸到了意识形态、思想文化以及宗教信仰等层面（边数决定等级）。比如说Colour Bill Revolution， Purgation of the Irregularities。最有趣还是如何让我们试图理解四维世界。对一维人而言，二维人能看穿其身体内部并将视线扩展；对二维人而言三维人也能“看透”其身体和建筑物，犹如在身体内侧也有眼。就好比理论上任意一高纬度看低纬度世界的感觉都是一致的，但要回溯这个流程，让低纬度一方去设想高纬度的世界就很难。O_O似乎只有在心慌方里见到过对四维世界的简陋演绎。三体所描述的四维视角，我们的五脏六腑变成了一个有眼的单独维度，实在是很难脱离理论从实际层面领会那种奥妙。(展开)
《生活大爆炸》里，谢耳朵有一次说：Sometimes when I feel stifled and want a change of scenery, I use my imagination. One of my favorite places to visit is the two dimensional world described in Edwin Abbott's mathematical fantasy, "Flatland." 这本一百多年以...
(展开)
p9 平面国的自然法则 It is a Law of Nature with us that a male child shall have one more side than his, father, so that each generation shall rise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility. Thus the son of a Square is a Pentagon; the son of a Pentagon, a Hexagon; and so on. But this rule applies not always to the Tradesmen, and still less often to the Soldiers, and to the Wor...
2012-12-20 14:05:06
p9 平面国的自然法则
It is a Law of Nature with us that a male child shall have one more side than his, father, so that each generation shall rise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility. Thus the son of a Square is a Pentagon; the son of a Pentagon, a Hexagon; and so on.
But this rule applies not always to the Tradesmen, and still less often to the Soldiers, and to the Workmen; who indeed can hardly be said to deserve the name of human Figures, since they have not all their sides equal. With them therefore the Law of Nature does not hold; and the son of an Isosceles (i.e. a Triangle with two sides equal) remains Isosceles still. Nevertheless, all hope is not shut out, even from the Isosceles, that his posterity may ultimately rise above his degraded condition. For, after a long series of military successes, or diligent and skilful labours, it is generally found that the more intelligent among the Artisan and Soldier classes manifest a slight increase of their third side or base, and a shrinkage of the two other sides. Intermarriages (arranged by the Priests) between the sons and daughters of these more intellectual members of the lower classes generally result in an offspring approximating still more to the type of the Equal-Sided Triangle.引自第9页
p17 女人永远是女人，变幻于点与线之间
To my readers in Spaceland the condition of our Women may seem truly deplorable, and so indeed it is. A Male of the lowest type of the Isosceles may look forward to some improvement of his angle, and to the ultimate elevation of the whole of his degraded caste; but no Woman can entertain such hopes for her sex. "Once a Woman, always a Woman" is a Decree of Nature; and the very Laws of Evolution seem suspended in her disfavour. Yet at least we can admire the wise Prearrangement which has ordained that, as they have no hopes, so they shall have no memory to recall, and no forethought to anticipate, the miseries and humiliations which are at once a necessity of their existence and the basis of the constitution of Flatland.引自第9页
p83 智慧优于情感
I. Then is omnividence the atribute of others besides Gods?
Sphere. I do not know. But, if a pick-pocket or a cut-throat of our country can see everything that is in your country, surely that is no reason why the pick-pocket or cut-throat should be accepted by you as a God. this omnividence, as you call it - it is not a common word in Spaceland - does it make you more just, more merciful, less selfish, more loving? Not in the least. Then how does it make you more divine?
I. "More merciful, more loving!" But these are the qualities of women! And we know that a Circle is a higher Being than a Straight Line, in so far as knowledge and wisdom are more to be esteemed than mere affection.引自第9页
p9 平面国的自然法则 It is a Law of Nature with us that a male child shall have one more side than his, father, so that each generation shall rise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility. Thus the son of a Square is a Pentagon; the son of a Pentagon, a Hexagon; and so on. But this rule applies not always to the Tradesmen, and still less often to the Soldiers, and to the Wor...
2012-12-20 14:05:06
p9 平面国的自然法则
It is a Law of Nature with us that a male child shall have one more side than his, father, so that each generation shall rise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility. Thus the son of a Square is a Pentagon; the son of a Pentagon, a Hexagon; and so on.
But this rule applies not always to the Tradesmen, and still less often to the Soldiers, and to the Workmen; who indeed can hardly be said to deserve the name of human Figures, since they have not all their sides equal. With them therefore the Law of Nature does not hold; and the son of an Isosceles (i.e. a Triangle with two sides equal) remains Isosceles still. Nevertheless, all hope is not shut out, even from the Isosceles, that his posterity may ultimately rise above his degraded condition. For, after a long series of military successes, or diligent and skilful labours, it is generally found that the more intelligent among the Artisan and Soldier classes manifest a slight increase of their third side or base, and a shrinkage of the two other sides. Intermarriages (arranged by the Priests) between the sons and daughters of these more intellectual members of the lower classes generally result in an offspring approximating still more to the type of the Equal-Sided Triangle.引自第9页
p17 女人永远是女人，变幻于点与线之间
To my readers in Spaceland the condition of our Women may seem truly deplorable, and so indeed it is. A Male of the lowest type of the Isosceles may look forward to some improvement of his angle, and to the ultimate elevation of the whole of his degraded caste; but no Woman can entertain such hopes for her sex. "Once a Woman, always a Woman" is a Decree of Nature; and the very Laws of Evolution seem suspended in her disfavour. Yet at least we can admire the wise Prearrangement which has ordained that, as they have no hopes, so they shall have no memory to recall, and no forethought to anticipate, the miseries and humiliations which are at once a necessity of their existence and the basis of the constitution of Flatland.引自第9页
p83 智慧优于情感
I. Then is omnividence the atribute of others besides Gods?
Sphere. I do not know. But, if a pick-pocket or a cut-throat of our country can see everything that is in your country, surely that is no reason why the pick-pocket or cut-throat should be accepted by you as a God. this omnividence, as you call it - it is not a common word in Spaceland - does it make you more just, more merciful, less selfish, more loving? Not in the least. Then how does it make you more divine?
I. "More merciful, more loving!" But these are the qualities of women! And we know that a Circle is a higher Being than a Straight Line, in so far as knowledge and wisdom are more to be esteemed than mere affection.引自第9页
p9 平面国的自然法则 It is a Law of Nature with us that a male child shall have one more side than his, father, so that each generation shall rise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility. Thus the son of a Square is a Pentagon; the son of a Pentagon, a Hexagon; and so on. But this rule applies not always to the Tradesmen, and still less often to the Soldiers, and to the Wor...
2012-12-20 14:05:06
p9 平面国的自然法则
It is a Law of Nature with us that a male child shall have one more side than his, father, so that each generation shall rise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility. Thus the son of a Square is a Pentagon; the son of a Pentagon, a Hexagon; and so on.
But this rule applies not always to the Tradesmen, and still less often to the Soldiers, and to the Workmen; who indeed can hardly be said to deserve the name of human Figures, since they have not all their sides equal. With them therefore the Law of Nature does not hold; and the son of an Isosceles (i.e. a Triangle with two sides equal) remains Isosceles still. Nevertheless, all hope is not shut out, even from the Isosceles, that his posterity may ultimately rise above his degraded condition. For, after a long series of military successes, or diligent and skilful labours, it is generally found that the more intelligent among the Artisan and Soldier classes manifest a slight increase of their third side or base, and a shrinkage of the two other sides. Intermarriages (arranged by the Priests) between the sons and daughters of these more intellectual members of the lower classes generally result in an offspring approximating still more to the type of the Equal-Sided Triangle.引自第9页
p17 女人永远是女人，变幻于点与线之间
To my readers in Spaceland the condition of our Women may seem truly deplorable, and so indeed it is. A Male of the lowest type of the Isosceles may look forward to some improvement of his angle, and to the ultimate elevation of the whole of his degraded caste; but no Woman can entertain such hopes for her sex. "Once a Woman, always a Woman" is a Decree of Nature; and the very Laws of Evolution seem suspended in her disfavour. Yet at least we can admire the wise Prearrangement which has ordained that, as they have no hopes, so they shall have no memory to recall, and no forethought to anticipate, the miseries and humiliations which are at once a necessity of their existence and the basis of the constitution of Flatland.引自第9页
p83 智慧优于情感
I. Then is omnividence the atribute of others besides Gods?
Sphere. I do not know. But, if a pick-pocket or a cut-throat of our country can see everything that is in your country, surely that is no reason why the pick-pocket or cut-throat should be accepted by you as a God. this omnividence, as you call it - it is not a common word in Spaceland - does it make you more just, more merciful, less selfish, more loving? Not in the least. Then how does it make you more divine?
I. "More merciful, more loving!" But these are the qualities of women! And we know that a Circle is a higher Being than a Straight Line, in so far as knowledge and wisdom are more to be esteemed than mere affection.引自第9页
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p9 平面国的自然法则 It is a Law of Nature with us that a male child shall have one more side than his, father, so that each generation shall rise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility. Thus the son of a Square is a Pentagon; the son of a Pentagon, a Hexagon; and so on. But this rule applies not always to the Tradesmen, and still less often to the Soldiers, and to the Wor...
2 有用 Kider 2013-04-18 08:22:15
虽然作者是个种族歧视又是个性别歧视，但却没想到自己的书对未来种族性别革命的预见性是如此的准确……
0 有用 花岛仙藏 2014-12-30 11:10:47
很有滋味。对二维世界不仅有逻辑与数学角度的构想（男女以及个体识别），更延伸到了意识形态、思想文化以及宗教信仰等层面（边数决定等级）。比如说Colour Bill Revolution， Purgation of the Irregularities。最有趣还是如何让我们试图理解四维世界。对一维人而言，二维人能看穿其身体内部并将视线扩展；对二维人而言三维人也能“看透”其身体和建筑物，犹如在身体内侧也... 很有滋味。对二维世界不仅有逻辑与数学角度的构想（男女以及个体识别），更延伸到了意识形态、思想文化以及宗教信仰等层面（边数决定等级）。比如说Colour Bill Revolution， Purgation of the Irregularities。最有趣还是如何让我们试图理解四维世界。对一维人而言，二维人能看穿其身体内部并将视线扩展；对二维人而言三维人也能“看透”其身体和建筑物，犹如在身体内侧也有眼。就好比理论上任意一高纬度看低纬度世界的感觉都是一致的，但要回溯这个流程，让低纬度一方去设想高纬度的世界就很难。O_O似乎只有在心慌方里见到过对四维世界的简陋演绎。三体所描述的四维视角，我们的五脏六腑变成了一个有眼的单独维度，实在是很难脱离理论从实际层面领会那种奥妙。 (展开)
4 有用 Rita 2013-06-15 10:58:47
内容很有趣，开始时对我来说语言有点难，后半本不知是习惯了还是剧情展开了完全不觉语言障碍了
1 有用 dotann 2011-01-07 16:21:19
很简短的一本小书，验证了经验造成的思维局限。
0 有用 不文 2012-07-15 20:17:47
唯一买过的英文书籍。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。
0 有用 存在不假外求 2022-05-20 02:46:11
莎里莎气的古早“科幻”，更准确地说是《动物庄园》那样的政治讽喻。以维度扩展想象，一百多年后，宇宙物理学追上了它的步伐，但其它方面却依然是原地踏步。
0 有用 眯眯眼(｡◝‿◜｡) 2022-05-04 14:37:41
为什么要用human 这个词，还有men 和women 这很难不让人代入。虽然但是这动画也太丑了吧毫无几何美感……
0 有用 miss_forward 2022-04-12 21:54:41
精妙的寓言
0 有用 FreeNeutron 2021-12-26 15:21:23
1884年的脑洞太厉害了
0 有用 驼驼不是驼驼 2021-10-20 21:54:29
文笔读起来非常舒服，能感受到作者说话时的British accent哈哈哈哈 想象力非常丰富，难以相信这是19世纪的书。对社会阶级、性别差异的现象也很有洞察力，写得讽刺又幽默。印象比较深的点是，如何镇压革命、如何让底层人民抱有希望且同时保护贵族的地位、女性是如何一步步被培养出来以至于和男性不用同一种"语言"、一维世界里自己即宇宙的无知的幸福