I shall define him as an individual who has elected as his primary duty and pleasure in life the activity of thinking in
问题描述：
I shall define him as an individual who has elected as his primary duty and pleasure in life the activity of thinking in a Socratic way about moral problems.
原翻译为：我要把知识分子定义为这样的人：他已选择把用苏格拉底的方式思考道德问题的活动作为毕生的主要任务和乐趣.
翻译应该没错.但是原句把后半部分的主语放在了句末,又没加什么连接词.我知道elect sth as 的用法,但是这里用的以前没见过,has elected as...the activity of thinking...想问问是否可行.最好能举个例子.
顺带问下define...as an individual这个句型,
答
嗯,翻译没错,这是一个倒装句,把“as his primary duty and pleasure in life”放在前边了.
正常的顺序是：
…has elected the activity of thinking in a Socratic way about moral problems as his primary duty and pleasure in life.
之所以倒装,主要是因为宾语（the activity of thinking in a Socratic way about moral problems）太长.
define ...as 就是“给...下定义为...,把...描述为...”