练习
1.回想一下最近某人提到不恰当的“自己的真理”的情况。用自己的语言写两到三段话，向他解释你在这章里学到的东西。
2.在社会学中有个核心问题是，社会是如何发展的？三个著名的人有不同的答案。奥古斯特孔德（ Auguste Comte ，1798–1857）认为它包含三个阶段：宗教、形而上学和科学。赫伯特斯宾塞（Herbert Spencer ，1820–1903）声明它遵循达尔文的“自然选择”，适者生存。卡尔马克思（Karl Marx ，1818–1883）辩论说，经济剥削造成的阶级斗争推动社会发展。相对主义的信念——每个人创造他或她自己真理的观念——会增加或降低他们分析这三个观点并且追寻这个社会发展问题答案的动机吗？给出你的解释。
3.读下面的每段话，确定他们的合理性，并解释你的想法。
a.相信“每个人创造他或她自己的真理”的人绝不会和任何人争论任何问题，否则，他们就自相矛盾了。
b.做任何事情的动机依赖于认为这件事情没有完成。每个人在丢失了他珍贵的物品，比如钻石戒指，在找到它之前会努力甚至竭尽全力地寻找，直到找到为止。只有傻瓜才会在找到后继续寻找。其他类型的研究也没有区别，比如对真理的研究。一旦我们相信拥有了真理，就不再寻找。
4.很多年小学生面对这个科学问题的测试：“对还是错——土星著名的环是有固体材料组成的”。如果学生回答“对”，他们就丢分了，因为“真理”是土星的环是由气体或者尘埃组成。但是，在1973年，无线电探测装置表明所有那些错误答案都是对的。事实上，土星的环是由固体物质组成的，这个让人困惑的案例似乎说明真理在改变。真的是这样吗吗？请解释。
5.场景在学校的保安办公室，两个学生正在被盘问。几分钟前，他们在食堂打了一架。学校保安不断地问他们怎么开始打架的。他们的回答是相互矛盾的。因为每个学生似乎都真诚地相信对方是挑衅者，而且没有见证人，学校保安没有希望能找到真相。但是那有真相待发现吗？还是有两个真相，每个学生有一个？这一章就这个问题提供了什么线索？
6.有一段时间，心理学家们对一个影响了这个世界上一小部分人的奇怪现象感兴趣。它发生在挪威人所说的“暗黑时刻”，每年在北极圈以内区域有两个月人们经历毫无变化的漆黑一片。研究发现这对人们有糟糕，甚至危险的影响。在最坏的情况下，人们感觉到严重的紧张，坐立不安，恐惧，念念不忘死亡甚至自杀。在最好的情况下，他们体会到无法集中精神，疲劳，对任何事情都缺乏热情，怀疑，还有嫉妒。部分原因被认为是缺乏睡眠。习惯了白天和黑夜的人们被持续的黑夜扰乱。这个现象包含了对于真理的一个有趣测试。在心理学家识别并确认这种现象前，说这个现象是真理是否合适？或者仅仅在它们被察觉到才变成真理？还有你和这个现象的关系？不管你是在这里还是其他地方，当你第一次意识到它之前，它不是“你的真理”。但是这有没有让它远离真理？用这章节的知识做出解释。
7.用你在这章节学到的内容评估下面的对话。如果你没有足够的知识对议题进行判断，查阅一些资料。
玛莎：我不管法庭对堕胎说什么——我认为这是谋杀，因为那胎儿是人。
玛利亚：如果你要这么认为，好吧。只是不要强加你的信念给别人，阻止他们行使他们的权利。
玛莎：你好像不明白，不仅仅在我肚子里的胎儿是人，在每一个孕妇肚子里的胎儿都是人。
玛利亚：荒谬，你没有权力判断别人肚子里有什么。那是她的事情。你应该考虑你自己的事情。
b.芭比：不应该播放关于自杀的电视节目。
肯：为什么？
芭比：因为他们导致人们付诸自杀行为。
肯：这太可笑了。播放自杀悲剧的戏剧或者记录片怎么能导致人们自杀呢？
芭比：我不知道这是怎么发生的。或许有些人早就有了自杀的念头，这些节目强化了这些想法。又或者他们只关注自杀的行为而不是其中的悲剧色彩。我所知道的是在播放这些节目后尝试自杀的人数增加了。
c.我注意到你一拿到报纸就立即翻到占星术栏目。你真的相信这些荒谬的事情？
阿方索：这不是荒谬的东西，这些星宿对我们的生命有重大影响；当我们出生时它们在天空的位置会影响我们的命运。
马贝尔：我难以相信听到一个理科生讲出这样的谬论来。
阿方索：你没有理解到占星术就是科学，最古老的科学之一。
d.杰克：你对这一章“什么是真理”有什么看法？
洛克：扯淡。
杰克：你是什么意思？
洛克：它和第一章有矛盾。
杰克：我没有这种印象，哪里有矛盾？
洛克：在第一章，作者说我们应该致力于称为独立的人，有自己的想法。现在他又说他关于真理的观念是正确的，我们的却不是，我们应该听他的。这就是矛盾。
8.集体讨论练习：有多少次你曾经肯定什么是真理，后来又发现它不是？和两三个同学讨论这些经历。准备好向班上其他同学分享最戏剧性和有趣的经历。
不同的意见
下面的段落汇总了一个重要的异议。阅读结束后，使用图书馆或者互联网，找到知识渊博的人关于这个议题说过什么。确保覆盖所有的观点。然后评价每个观点的优点和弱点。如果你结论是，其中一个观点完全正确，其他的都错了，解释为什么你得出这个结论。如果，更有可能的是，你发现一个观点比其他的更有洞见，但是其他的也提供有用的要点，汇总所有的观点并构建你自己的观点，并解释为什么这个观点是所有观点中最合理的。按照你导师的要求，用书面或者口头报告的方式介绍你的答复。
谁为2018年的金融危机负责？这个议题依旧是克服危机的后果以及确保危机不再发生的核心。按照危机原因将评论者分为几类。有人声明原因是由于乔治W布什政府的政策；其他人认为是克林顿政府的政策；还有人认为是华尔街高管的贪婪。相反，许多人指出原因是国会在20世纪90年代对银行施加压力，向无力偿还贷款的人发放贷款。还有人说，这场危机起源于卡特政府时期，特别是1977年的《社区再投资法》。
使用谷歌搜索关键词“社区再投资法”“金融危机原因”和“次贷危机”开始你的分析。
原文：
Applications
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Think of a recent situation in which someone referred inappropriately to “my truth.” Write two or three paragraphs, in your own words, explaining to that person what you learned in this chapter.
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Acentral question in sociology is How does society evolve? Three wellknown individuals gave very different answers. Auguste Comte (1798–1857) suggested that it involved three stages: religious, metaphysical, and scientific. Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) claimed that it followed Darwinian “natural selection,” in which only the fittest survive. Karl Marx (1818–1883) argued that it occurred through class conflict as a result of economic exploitation. Would belief in relativism—the idea that everyone creates his or her own truth—increase or decrease someone’s motivation to analyze these three viewpoints and pursue the question of society’s evolution? Explain your response.
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Read each of the following passages, decide how reasonable it is, and explain your thinking.
a. People who believe that “everyone creates his or her own truth” should never argue with anyone about anything. If they do, they are being inconsistent.
b. Motivation to do anything depends on the belief that it has not yet been done. Everyone who loses something precious, say a diamond ring, will search diligently and even desperately until it is found. But only a fool would continue searching for it after it was found. It is no different with other kinds of searches, such as the search for truth. Once we think we have it, we stop looking.
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For years grade school students faced this question on their science tests: “True or False—The famous rings of the planet Saturn are composed of solid material.” If the students marked “true,” they lost credit, because the “truth” was that Saturn’s rings were composed of gas or dust. Then, in 1973, radar probes revealed that all those wrong answers had been right. Saturn’s rings are, in fact, composed of solid matter.12 This confusing case seems to suggest that the truth changed. Did it really? Explain.
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The scene is a campus security office, where two students are being questioned. Afew minutes earlier, they were engaged in a fistfight in the cafeteria. The campus police ask them again and again how the fight started. The stories conflict. Because each student seems genuinely convinced that the other one was the aggressor and there were no witnesses, the campus police have no hope of discovering the truth. But is there a truth to discover? Or are there two truths, one for each student’s story? What light does the chapter shed on these questions?
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Astrange phenomenon that affects a tiny number of the world’s inhabitants has interested psychologists for some time. It occurs during what Norwegians call the “murky time,” the two months each year during which areas above the Arctic Circle experience almost unrelieved darkness. The effects on people have been discovered to be unfortunate, even dangerous. At worst, people experience severe tenseness, restlessness, fear, a preoccupation with thoughts of death and even suicide. At best, they experience an inability to concentrate, fatigue, a lack of enthusiasm for anything, suspicion, and jealousy. Part of the cause is seen as lack of sleep. Accustomed to day and night, people become confused by constant darkness.13 This phenomenon poses an interesting test of truth. Would it be proper to say the phenomenon was true before it was recognized and acknowledged by psychologists? Or did it become true only when they became aware of it? And what of your relationship to the phenomenon? Before you became aware of it for the first time, whether reading it here or elsewhere, it was not “true to you.” But did that make it any less true? Explain in light of this chapter.
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Evaluate the following dialogues in light of what you learned in this chapter. If you lack sufficient knowledge to judge the issue, do some research.
a. Martha: I don’t care what the courts say about abortion—I’m convinced it’s murder because the fetus is a human being. Marian: If you want to believe that, fine. Just don’t impose your beliefs on others and prevent them from exercising their rights. Martha: You don’t seem to understand. It’s not just a fetus in my uterus that’s human but the fetus in the uterus of every pregnant woman. Marian: Nonsense. You have no right to classify what exists in someone else’s uterus. That’s her business. You should mind your own business.
b. Barbi: Television shows about suicide should not be aired.
Ken: Why?
Barbi: Because they cause people to commit suicide.
Ken: That’s ridiculous. How can a drama or documentary that shows the tragedy of suicide cause people to commit suicide?
Barbi: I don’t know how it happens. Maybe some people have thoughts of suicide already and the show reinforces them. Or maybe they focus on the act of suicide and lose sight of the tragedy. All I know is that attempted suicides increase after the airing of such shows.
c. Mabel: I notice that when you get a newspaper you immediately turn to the astrology column. Do you really believe that nonsense?
Alphonse: It’s not nonsense. The planets exercise a powerful influence on our lives; their positions in the heavens at the time of our birth can shape our destiny.
Mabel: I can’t believe I’m hearing such slop from a science major.
Alphonse: What you fail to understand is that astrology is science, one of the most ancient sciences at that.
d. Jake: What did you think of the chapter “What Is Truth?”
Rocky: It’s stupid.
Jake: What do you mean?
Rocky: It contradicts Chapter 1.
Jake: I didn’t get that impression. Where’s the contradiction?
Rocky: In Chapter 1 the author says that we should strive to be individuals and think for ourselves. Now he says that his idea about truth is OK and ours isn’t and that we should follow his. That’s a contradiction.
- Group discussion exercise: How many times have you been certain something was true, only to find out later that it was not? Discuss those experiences with two or three classmates. Be prepared to share the most dramatic and interesting experiences with the rest of the class.
A Difference of Opinion
The following passage summarizes an important difference of opinion. After reading the statement, use the library and/or the Internet and find what knowledgeable people have said about the issue. Be sure to cover the entire range of views. Then assess the strengths and weaknesses of each. If you conclude that one view is entirely correct and the others are mistaken, explain how you reached that conclusion. If, as is more likely, you find that one view is more insightful than the others but that they all make some valid points, construct a view of your own that combines the insights from all views and explain why that view is the most reasonable of all. Present your response in a composition or an oral report, as your instructor specifies.
Who is responsible for the fiscal crisis of 2008? This issue continues to be central to overcoming the consequences of the crisis and to ensuring that it does not recur. Commentators are divided on the cause. Some claim it is was the policies of George W. Bush’s administration; others, the policies of the Clinton administration; others, the greed of Wall Street executives. Many point, instead, to congressional pressure on banks, during the 1990s, to give loans to people who could not afford to repay them. Still others say the crisis originated during the Carter administration, specifically in the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977.
Begin your analysis by conducting a Google search using the terms “Community Reinvestment Act,” “causes financial crisis,” and “subprime mortgage crisis.”
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