SPACE is the attribute of which sizes, shapes, positions, distances, and directions are varieties or modes—as red, green, blue, and so on are modes of color. Also, space is the non-temporal extension of things studied formally in geometry.

空间是尺寸、形状、位置、距离以及各种方向或模式的属性---就像红、绿、蓝色等等都是颜色的模式一样。同样，空间是几何学中正式研究的事物非时间的延伸。

About half the Western scientists and philosophers (Descartes, Newton, Samuel Alexander, and others) have considered space the very hallmark of objective reality. The other half (Kant, Bergson, the scientific operationalists, and others) have considered space a subjective product of our sense perception or our conceptual construction. Almost independently of the question of objectivity or subjectivity, the question of whether space is absolute or relational has divided men. That is, is space a unique frame or vessel in which particular objects and events are lodged (the view held by the ancient atomists and by Plat, Newton, and, at one time, Bertrand Russell), or does space consist of relations of distance and direction among objects and events (the view held by Aristotle, Leibniz, Ernst Mach, and most 20^th century scientists and philosophers)?

西方的科学家和哲学家（笛卡尔、牛顿、塞缪尔·亚历山大等）大约有一半人认为空间是客观现实典型的标志。另一半人（康德、柏格森、科学操作主义者等）认为空间是我们的感觉或我们概念结构的主观产物。这几乎是独立于客观性或主观性的问题，问题是无论空间是绝对的或是有关联的都已经使人们产生了分歧。就是说，空间是个存放特殊物体和事件的独特框架或容器呢？（古代原子论者，而且柏拉图、牛顿，曾经还有伯特兰·罗素都持有这种观点）还是由距离的关系以及在其中的物体和事件的方向构成的？（亚里士多德、莱布尼兹、厄内斯特·马赫，以及20世纪的科学家和哲学家持有这种观点）。

Also almost independently of other questions, the possibility of empty space—a true vacuum—has been debated. The atomists, the Stoics, and most Newtonians accepted it, but Aristotle, Descartes, and most followers of Einstein have thought it absurd, contending that there can be no extension without something being extended.

这也几乎独立于其它的问题，真空的可能性---一直讨论的一种真正的真空。原子论者，斯多葛学派，以及大多数信仰牛顿学说的人都接受了它，但亚里士多德、笛卡尔，以及大多数爱因斯坦的追随者认为它是荒谬的，认为没有延展物，就不可能有延展。

Equally ancient are the questions of whether there are infinitely great spaces and infinitely small ones. These two questions (and the similar one of whether space consists of points or other granulations that have no size whatsoever) are related to the problems of fitting a discontinuous space to the laws of geometry and of fitting a continuous space to the laws of arithmetic. The modern mathematics of the infinite and the continuum shows that each of the old alternatives is logically possible and relegates the issues to empirical investigations, where the results are still in some doubt.

同样古老的问题是，是否存在无限大的空间和无限小的空间。这两个问题（以及空间是否是由点或者其它没有任何大小的颗粒构成的类似问题）与将不连续的空间组合到几何学的定律，以及将连续的空间组合到算术定律的问题有关。现代数学的无限与连续统表明，每一个旧的替代选择在逻辑上都是可能的，并把问题降低为实证调查，但结果依然有些疑问。

The discovery of non-Euclidean geometries—in which the sum of the angles of a triangle, for example, is greater or less than the two right angles with which Euclid equated it—was followed by scientific evidence that space actually is no-Euclidean and of the sort called elliptical. Furthermore, it has been argued that the curvature of space is not even uniform from place to place or from time to time—that matter warps space, or is itself a warp in space, and probably is causing a stupendous expansion of space as a whole. See also GEOMETRY; RELATIVITY; TIME; UNIVERSE.

非欧几里德几何学的发现---例如，其中三角形内角的和大于或小于欧几里德使其相等的两个直角---接着通过科学证据表明，空间实际上是非欧几里德几何学的，而是那类椭圆型的。此外，有人论证，空间的曲率从一处到一处或从时间到时间甚至不是匀速的---因为物质使空间产生的扭曲，或者它自身就是空间的扭曲，而且可能正在导致整个空间的巨大膨胀。

         DONALD C. WILLIAMS

          康纳德·C. 威廉姆斯

                                                                                2021年8月8日译

（译者注：该词条位列《大美百科全书》1985年版，第25卷，第353页）