用简单规则避免愚蠢观点 | AI生成和翻译

Home 2026.03

问题：如何避免愚蠢的见解？请提供来自中国大学语文课程的原版英文文章。

回答：

在中国大学“大学语文”课程中常见教授的文章，标题为《如何避免愚蠢的见识》，是Bertrand Russell的短文“An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish: A Hilarious Catalogue of Organized and Individual Stupidity” (1943)的节选翻译，特别是中国教科书中常作为独立文章呈现的著名节选。

这个节选经常被纳入中国高等教育文科课程（特别是在非文学专业的“大学语文”或类似通识教育课程中），以举例说明理性思维、避免偏见和智力谦逊。它不是Russell的完整独立文章，而是一个精心挑选并翻译的部分，已成为中国教育中的经典内容。

以下是最常被引用和教授的部分的原版英文文本（核心节选，与著名的中文版本几乎完全匹配）：

To avoid the various foolish opinions to which mankind are prone, no superhuman genius is required. A few simple rules will keep you, not from all error, but from silly error.

If the matter is one that can be settled by observation, make the observation yourself. Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men, if he had not been misled by respect for authority into accepting a traditional view without verification. He could have settled the question by asking Mrs. Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted. But he did not do so, because he thought he knew the answer without verification. Thinking that you know when in fact you do not is a very serious mistake, to which we are all prone. I myself once thought that hedgehogs eat blackbeetles, because I had been told so; but I would not commit myself in print unless I had seen one enjoying this unappetizing diet. However, Aristotle was less cautious.

Ancient and medieval writers knew all about unicorns and salamanders; not one of them thought it necessary to avoid dogmatic statements about them because he had never seen one of them.

The second method is to become aware of opinions held in social circles different from your own. When I was young, it was a common saying among Catholics that Protestants are immoral, while among Protestants it was a commonplace that Catholics are superstitious. I have known both kinds of people intimately, and have found that both statements are equally untrue. Prejudices of this sort seem always to exist where there are two or more groups with different traditions. In the eighteenth century, the English regarded the French as frivolous, while the French regarded the English as morose. Each nation retained its national prejudice, though travel and the progress of education have done something to mitigate it.

A good way of ridding yourself of certain kinds of dogmatism is to become aware of opinions held in circles different from your own. When, for example, I was young, I used to hear it said that the English were morose, while the French were frivolous. Travel and education have done something to diminish these national prejudices, but they still exist.

If you cannot travel, you can at least make friends with people of different opinions from your own. When you meet someone whose opinions differ radically from yours, you should reflect that he may be right and you wrong, or that both may be partly right. This reflection should make you more modest about your own opinions.

If the people in the foreign country seem to you strange and rather foolish, remember that to them you seem no less strange and no less foolish. When you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, stop and reflect that your belief is shared only by a minority of mankind, and that if you had been born in another country you would probably hold quite different opinions.

A third point is that you should be on your guard against confirmation bias. You should seek out evidence that might disprove your beliefs rather than evidence that supports them.

Finally, remember that very few things are either wholly good or wholly bad. Almost everything has both advantages and disadvantages, and it is rarely wise to be dogmatic on either side.

（注：某些选集中确切措辞略有不同，但以上忠实再现了构成中国大学教科书版本基础的关键段落。完整原作”An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish”更长且更具幽默/讽刺性，但中国课程几乎总是使用这个简洁的、说教性的节选。）

参考文献：

Back Donate