| 释义 |
ˈdoublethink, double-think
[Coined by ‘George Orwell’ (see quot. 1949) from double a. 5 + think n.]
The mental capacity to accept as equally valid two entirely contrary opinions or beliefs.
1949‘G. Orwell’ Nineteen Eighty-Four i. iii. 37 His mind slid away into the labyrinthine world of doublethink. To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy. 1953Encounter Nov. 26/1 He will react..either with straight abuse or with devious double-think. 1957T. Kilmartin tr. Aron's Opium of Intellectuals 119 How can one condemn the Soviet Union, since the failure of the Bolshevik enterprise would be the failure of Marxism and therefore of history itself? This is an admirable piece of philosophical double-think, typical of our latter-day intelligentsia. 1959Daily Tel. 13 Nov. 12/2 They ask for increases in wages which are plainly impossible; or they pretend they want a shorter working week when they really want more overtime. Their followers know double-think when they see it, as well as the employers. 1969New Scientist 2 Oct. 18/1 This symposium exhibited a form of intellectual doublethink that could pay lip service to global starvation one minute, and assume Britain would always be able to import most of her food the next. |