永垂不朽的品质:智识的美德

We all know what makes for good character in soldiers. Weve seen the movies about heroes who display courage, loyalty and coolness under fire. But what about somebody who sits in front of a keyboard all day? Is it possible to display and cultivate character if you are just an information age office jockey, alone with a memo or your computer? 我们都知道，对士兵而言，何为优秀品质的要义。我们看过的一些电影所刻画的英雄人物，在炮火中表现出了勇气、忠诚和冷静。但对一天到晚坐在键盘前的人而言，答案又是什么呢？如果你仅仅是信息时代里的一个写字楼职员，成天与备忘录或电脑相伴，那你还有机会展现和培养自己的品质吗？ Of course it is. Even if you are alone in your office, you are thinking. Thinking well under a barrage of information may be a different sort of moral challenge than fighting well under a hail of bullets, but its a character challenge nonetheless. 当然可以。即便是独自待在办公室里，你也在思考。和在枪林弹雨下好好战斗相比，面对大量信息时好好思考可能是一种截然不同的道德挑战，但它仍然不失为对品性的一种挑战。

In their 2007 book, Intellectual Virtues, Robert C. Roberts of Baylor University and W. Jay Wood of Wheaton College list some of the cerebral virtues. We can all grade ourselves on how good we are at each of them. 贝勒大学(Baylor University)的罗伯特·C·罗伯茨(Robert C. Roberts)和威顿学院(Wheaton College)的W·杰伊·伍德(W. Jay Wood)在2007年出版的《智识美德》(Intellectual Virtues)一书中，列出了一些智识上的美德。我们可以逐项给自己打分，看看自己做得怎么样。 First, there is love of learning. Some people are just more ardently curious than others, either by cultivation or by nature. 第一条是爱学习。后天养成的也好，天生的也罢，有些人就是比另外一些人具有更强烈的好奇心。 Second, there is courage. The obvious form of intellectual courage is the willingness to hold unpopular views. But the subtler form is knowing how much risk to take in jumping to conclusions. The reckless thinker takes a few pieces of information and leaps to some faraway conspiracy theory. The perfectionist, on the other hand, is unwilling to put anything out there except under ideal conditions for fear that she could be wrong. Intellectual courage is self-regulation, Roberts and Wood argue, knowing when to be daring and when to be cautious. The philosopher Thomas Kuhn pointed out that scientists often simply ignore facts that dont fit with their existing paradigms, but an intellectually courageous person is willing to look at things that are surprisingly hard to look at. 第二条是勇气。智识的勇气有一种明显的表现形式，即乐于持有不受欢迎的观点。但它还有一种更微妙的表现形式，那就是知道急于下结论会带来多大的风险。莽撞的思考者会撷取少量信息，迅速推导出虚无缥缈的阴谋论。完美主义者则与此相反，如果条件不完备，她是不愿意下任何定论的，因为担心自己可能出错。罗伯茨和伍德说，智识的勇气是一种自律，知道在什么时候该大胆、在什么时候该谨慎。哲学家托马斯·库恩曾指出，科学家们常常简单粗暴地忽略掉跟既有范式不相符的事实；但一个人如果具有智识的勇气，会乐于去研究那些异常难于接受的事情。 Third, there is firmness. You dont want to be a person who surrenders his beliefs at the slightest whiff of opposition. On the other hand, you dont want to hold dogmatically to a belief against all evidence. The median point between flaccidity and rigidity is the virtue of firmness. The firm believer can build a steady worldview on solid timbers but still delight in new information. She can gracefully adjust the strength of her conviction to the strength of the evidence. Firmness is a quality of mental agility. 第三条是坚定。你肯定不想做一个听到些许反对的声音就放弃自己观点的人。另一方面，你肯定也不愿罔顾所有证据，死抱着一个观点不放。坚定这一美德就存在于软弱和顽固的中间点上。坚定地持有某些观念的人，可以用可靠的素材搭建起稳固的世界观，但仍然乐于接触新信息。她能够根据证据的力度，优雅地调整自己对某个观点的相信程度。坚定也是一种机敏。 Fourth, there is humility, which is not letting your own desire for status get in the way of accuracy. The humble person fights against vanity and self-importance. Hes not writing those sentences people write to make themselves seem smart; hes not thinking of himself much at all. The humble researcher doesnt become arrogant toward his subject, assuming he has mastered it. Such a person is open to learning from anyone at any stage in life. 第四条是谦逊，有了它，你就不会让对地位的渴望妨碍自己做出准确的判断。谦逊的人会与虚荣和自大做斗争。他的笔下不会出现人们常写的那些让自己看起来很聪明的句子；他根本不是自视甚高的人。谦逊的研究人员不会在其研究领域妄自尊大，想当然地认为自己精通一切。无论处于人生的哪个阶段，这样的人都愿意向他人学习。 Fifth, there is autonomy. You dont want to be a person who slavishly adopts whatever opinion your teacher or some author gives you. On the other hand, you dont want to reject all guidance from people who know what they are talking about. Autonomy is the median of knowing when to bow to authority and when not to, when to follow a role model and when not to, when to adhere to tradition and when not to. 第五条是自主。你肯定不想盲从于导师或哪个作家表达的任何观点。另一当方面，你肯定也不愿将那些内行人士的所有指导拒之门外。自主的美德在于，知道在什么时候该服从权威，什么时候该坚持己见；什么时候该向榜样学习，什么时候该摆脱榜样；什么时候该遵循传统，什么时候该予以摒弃。 Finally, there is generosity. This virtue starts with the willingness to share knowledge and give others credit. But it also means hearing others as they would like to be heard, looking for what each person has to teach and not looking to triumphantly pounce upon their errors. 最后一条是慷慨。这种美德的起点是愿意分享知识，并给予他人应有的承认。不过，慷慨也意味着，在别人希望发出声音时予以倾听，寻找每个人能为人师表之处，不去洋洋自得地在他人身上纠错。 We all probably excel at some of these virtues and are deficient in others. But Im struck by how much of the mainstream literature on decision-making treats the mind as some disembodied organ that can be programed like a computer. 在这些美德中，我们可能都是在某些方面出色，在另一些方面有所欠缺。但让我感触的是，居然有那么多关于制定决策方面的主流文章将思想当成某种脱离个人的东西，能像台计算机那样按编好的程序操作。 In fact, the mind is embedded in human nature, and very often thinking well means pushing against the grain of our nature — against vanity, against laziness, against the desire for certainty, against the desire to avoid painful truths. Good thinking isnt just adopting the right technique. Its a moral enterprise and requires good character, the ability to go against our lesser impulses for the sake of our higher ones. 实际上，思想蕴含在人性之中，而在很多情况下，好好思考意味着战胜我们的本性——抗击虚荣、懒惰、对确定性的渴求、对避免痛苦事实的渴望。好的思维不仅仅是采用正确的技巧。它是一种道德勇气，需要良好的品性，是克服低等冲动来获取更高尚目标的能力。 Montaigne once wrote that We can be knowledgeable with other mens knowledge, but we cant be wise with other mens wisdom. Thats because wisdom isnt a body of information. Its the moral quality of knowing how to handle your own limitations. Warren Buffett made a similar point in his own sphere, Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 I.Q. beats the guy with the 130 I.Q. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble. 蒙田曾写道，“即使我们可以凭借别人的知识成为学者，但要成为哲人，却只能靠我们自己的智慧。”这是因为，智慧并非大量信息的简单集合。它是一种知晓如何应对自身局限性的道德品质。沃伦·巴菲特(Warren Buffett)曾在其领域中发表过类似的见解，“投资不是智商160的家伙打败智商130的人。只要你智力正常，你只需要自己的性情能够控制住让别人陷入麻烦的冲动。” Character tests are pervasive even in modern everyday life. Its possible to be heroic if youre just sitting alone in your office. It just doesnt make for a good movie. 即便是在当代日常生活中，对个人品质的考验也无处不在。就算你只是独自坐在办公室里，也可能成为英雄。只不过，这拍不成一部劲爆的电影。