为什么你不该相信自己的感觉：英语精读讲义

It's easy to grow up with a sense that our feelings are reliable guides to ourselves, the people around us, and the world at large. 講解

在成长过程中，我们很容易认为自己的感受是可靠的指南针，可以指引我们了解自己、身边的人以及整个世界。

We can call this optimistic thesis the clear pane theory of the mind, 習語

我们可以把这种乐观的论调称为心灵的“透明玻璃”理论，

implying that we are able to look out onto the world pretty much as if through an undistorted and blemish-free pane of glass. 語法

这意味着我们观察世界时，仿佛是透过一块没有变形、毫无瑕疵的玻璃。

Yet a long tradition in philosophy has sought to warn us of a far trickier truth.

然而，哲学界有着悠久的传统，试图警告我们一个更为棘手的真相。

The school of thought known as skepticism 短語搭配

被称为“怀疑论”的思想流派，

that began in ancient Greece in the third century BC

起源于公元前三世纪的古希腊，

proposed that a great many of our solid-seeming sensory first impressions

提出我们许多看似确凿的最初感官印象，

should not be assumed to be accurate 語法

不应被想当然地认为是准确的，

and must instead be submitted to the laborious process of rational unscrambling.

而是必须提交给理性的“解密”过程来进行繁琐的分析。

Far from our minds being clear panes, 語法

我们的心智远非透明的玻璃，

they're full of scratches, blind spots, and warps. 習語

而是充满了划痕、盲点和扭曲。

To be wise, therefore, 語法

因此，要成为一个有智慧的人，

means for the skeptics to strive to be permanently vigilant

对怀疑论者而言，就意味着要努力保持永久的警惕，

about how much we're inclined to misunderstand reality by trusting our first feelings. 短語搭配

警惕我们是多么容易因为相信最初的感受而误解现实。

One tiny instance of our distorting minds

我们扭曲心智的一个小例子，

that particularly fascinated the Greeks

曾让古希腊人尤为着迷，

was a strange phenomenon that occurs when a stick is partially submerged in water.

那就是当一根树枝部分浸入水中时发生的奇特现象。

It immediately seems as if the stick angles into a V

一眼看去，树枝似乎折成了“V”字形，

just at the point where it meets the surface.

就在它与水面相交的地方。

But if we pull the stick out,

但如果我们把树枝拔出来，

we'll see that it's of course still straight.

我们会看到它当然还是直的。

The skeptics took this tiny example as a gateway to a vast truth 習語

怀疑论者把这个小例子视为通向一个宏大真理的切入点：

that our senses are humbling fallible.

我们的感官是会犯错的，这令人谦卑。

The way things appear to us 語法

事物向我们呈现的方式，

is often simply not how they in fact really are.

通常根本不是它们实际的本来面目。

Skeptical ideas were to be the leading force behind the development of modern science. 短語搭配

怀疑论思想后来成为了现代科学发展的核心驱动力。

In the middle of the 16th century,

在16世纪中叶，

the Polish philosopher and astronomer Copernicus

波兰哲学家兼天文学家哥白尼

demonstrated that whatever our senses might have suggested to us for hundreds of thousands of years, 語法

证明了，无论几十万年来我们的感官向我们暗示了什么，

according to logical reasoning,

根据逻辑推理，

the truth is that the sun does not, in fact, revolve around the Earth.

事实的真相是太阳实际上并不绕着地球转。

But the skeptics weren't only interested in the errors we fall into when doing astronomy.

但怀疑论者不仅对我们在研究天文学时犯的错误感兴趣。

They were fascinated by our tendencies to fall into error 短語搭配

他们更着迷于我们容易陷入错误的倾向，

in our personal lives under the influence of our emotions.

即在个人生活中，在情绪的影响下犯错。

For example,

例如，

our minds are seldom free of the influence of moods,

我们的心智几乎摆脱不了情绪的影响，

a kind of emotional weather that scuds over our mental horizons, 習語

情绪就像掠过我们心灵地平线的情感天气，

normally without us having any understanding of where these moods have come from, 語法

我们通常不了解这些情绪从何而来，

when they might lift, 用詞

何时会消散，

or even that they exist.

甚至不知道它们的存在。

However,

然而，

these moods can have a decisive impact on our ideas.

这些情绪会对我们的想法产生决定性的影响。

We might in one mood consider ourselves fortunate,

在某种情绪下，我们可能觉得自己很幸运，

look brightly at the future,

对未来充满希望，

and feel grateful to those around us.

并对身边的人感到感激。

And then,

紧接着，

a few hours later,

几个小时后，

without anything in the outer world having changed, 語法

外部世界没有任何改变，

another mood might lead us to a wholesale reevaluation of almost everything about us. 短語搭配

另一种情绪却可能导致我们对自身方方面面进行全盘的重新评估。

Devilishly,

可怕的是，

part of what it means to be subject to a mood 用詞

被情绪左右的一部分特征，

is not to realize that we are in its grip. 習語

就是意识不到我们正处于它的掌控之中。

We simply feel that our friends,

我们只是觉得我们的朋友，

whom we liked quite a lot yesterday,

昨天还相当喜欢的朋友，

are no good,

简直一无是处，

and our job,

而我们的工作，

which once offered us so much,

曾经给予我们那么多的工作，

is absurd.

荒唐可笑。

Tiredness can be a particularly powerful agent

疲劳是一个尤为强大的因素，

that silently and invisibly perverts our judgment. 用詞

会悄无声息地扭曲我们的判断力。

The 19th century skeptic Friedrich Nietzsche remarked,

19世纪的怀疑论者弗里德里希·尼采曾评论道：

"When we are tired,

“当我们疲倦时，

we are attacked by ideas we thought we'd conquered long ago." 習語

就会被我们以为很久以前就已克服的想法所攻击。”

But crucially,

但至关重要的是，

it's extremely rare and counterintuitive to judge that it really might be tiredness that's affecting our outlook

判断出影响我们看法的确实可能是疲劳，

rather than certain objective facts in the world.

而不是世界上某些客观事实，这是极其罕见且违背直觉的。

We are keener to conclude that we've suddenly developed a deep resentment against humanity 語法

我们更倾向于得出结论，认为我们突然对人类产生了深深的怨恨，

than that we urgently need to get to bed.

而不是认为我们迫切需要上床睡觉。

Lust can similarly play with our judgment, 習語

色欲也同样会干扰我们的判断，

leading us to see sensitivity,

让我们看到敏感、

kindness,

善良，

and a decent alternative to our current partner

并且觉得这是当前伴侣不错的替代者，

where there is in truth just an exceptionally beautiful profile and perhaps not much else.

而事实上，那可能只是一个格外美丽的侧脸，或许再无其他。

As the German skeptical philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wryly concluded,

正如德国怀疑论哲学家亚瑟·叔本华苦笑着得出的结论：

"Immediately after copulation,

“交媾之后，

the devil's laughter can be heard."

就能听见魔鬼的笑声。”

Appreciating how flawed our minds are

认识到我们的心智有多么缺陷，

forms the basis upon which the skill of emotional skepticism is founded. 語法

构成了建立情感怀疑论技能的基础。

This skill,

这项技能，

defined as a cautious awareness of the misleading power of our feelings on our judgment.

被定义为谨慎地意识到我们的感受对判断力的误导力。

Having surveyed the fragilities of our minds, 語法

在考察了我们心智的脆弱性之后，

the ancient Greek skeptical philosophers recommended that we learn to develop an attitude of what they called epoche, 文化背景

古希腊怀疑论哲学家建议我们学会培养一种他们称之为“悬置（epoche）”的态度，

translated as reserve or suspension of judgment.

翻译过来就是保留或悬置判断。

Aware of our tendencies to error,

意识到我们有犯错的倾向，

we were never to rush into decisions. 短語搭配

我们就不应仓促做出决定。

We were to let our ideas settle 習語

我们要让思绪沉淀下来，

so that they could be reevaluated at different points in time.

以便在不同的时间点重新评估它们。

And we were to be especially vigilant about the impact of sexual excitement and tiredness

我们还要特别警惕性奋和疲惫

on the formation of our plans.

对我们制定计划的影响。

For a range of historical reasons, 表達脈絡

由于一系列历史原因，

we've collectively been extremely reluctant to recognize the benefits of emotional skepticism.

我们一直极不愿意集体承认情感怀疑论的好处。

The Romantic Movement of the 19th century 文化背景

19世纪的浪漫主义运动

bequeathed us the beguiling but often disastrous notion 用詞

留给我们一种迷人但往往灾难性的观念，

that it's our emotions that are always our finest guides to the truth. 語法

即我们的情感永远是我们通向真理的最佳指南。

But we would have gone a long way to counteract the problems of our minds

但如果为了对抗我们心智的问题，我们可以大有作为，

if we sometimes do ourselves the honor of not listening to our feelings, 習語

只要我们有时给予自己不听从自身感受的殊荣，

instead waiting for certain unhelpful moods to pass 用詞

转而等待某些无益的情绪过去，

and accepting that we are at heart highly viscous bags of saline solution 習語

并接受我们在本质上是一袋高黏度的生理盐水，

who stare out at reality via a highly unreliable and distorted pane of glass

透过一块极不可靠且扭曲的玻璃凝视现实，

and must therefore frequently suspend judgment, 表達脈絡

并因此必须经常悬置判断，

moderate our impulses,

节制我们的冲动，

watch over our diet,

注意我们的饮食，

and strive to get to bed early.

并努力早点睡觉。