当表达一种观念时，在逻辑上密切相关的观念难以避免地被同时传达出去。 在逻辑上，这种密切关系用术语“sequitur”表示，拉丁语里意味着“随之而来”。（反义词是“non sequitur”,意味着非推论，“不会随之而来。”）
When one idea is expressed, closely related ideas are simultaneously conveyed, logically and inescapable. In logic, this kinship is expressed by the term sequitur, Latin for "it follows."(The converse is non sequitur, "it does not follow.")
例如，考虑一下这种观念——许多老师和父母鼓励孩子的方式：“如果你相信自己，你就可以在任何事情上成功。” 由此可见，除了自信——无论是天赋还是勤奋——都不是成功所必需的。 这两种观念等价的原因在于它们的内在涵义是难以区分的。“（”自信是成功的一个重要因素“这一说法与上面的非常不同，因为它指出自信不是成功的唯一因素。）
Consider, for example, the idea that many teachers and parents express to young children as a way of encouraging them:"If you believe in yourself, you can success at anything." From this it follows that nothing else but belief—neither talent nor hard work—is necessary for success. The reason the two ideas are equivalent is that their meanings are inseparably linked."(The statement "Belief in oneself is an important element in success" is very different because it specifies that belief is not the only element in success.)
观念的传达中，一种观念会捎带私货，除此之外，一个观念还可以暗示其他观念。 例如，美德与恶习之间没有真正区别，这种观念暗示着人们不应该受到共同道德标准的束缚。 当塞缪尔·约翰逊说：“先生们，如果真的认为美德与罪恶之间没有区别，那么当客人离开我们餐桌的时候，我们应该数数勺子。”
In addition to conveying ideas closely linked to it in meaning, an idea can imply other ideas. For example, the idea that there is no real difference between virtue and vice implies that people should not feel bound by common moral standards. Samuel Johnson had this implication in mind when he said:" But if he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons."
如果我们充分意识到所遇到观念的意义和暗示，存在紧密的联系，我们就可以很容易地区分，健全与不健全，愚蠢与明智，有益与有害。 实际上，我们却很少充分意识到这一点。 在许多情况下，我们从表层价值上看待观念，并很少或根本不考虑相关联意义和暗示的情况下，就接受这些观念。 随着时间的推移，无论我们是否意识到这些，我们的行为都受到这些意义和暗示的影响。
If we were fully aware of the closely linked meanings and implications of the ideas we encounter, we could easily sort out the sound ones from the unsound, the wise from the foolish, and the helpful from the harmful. But we are seldom fully aware. In many cases, we take ideas at face value and embrace them with little or no thought of their associated meanings and implications. In the course of time, our actions are shaped by those meanings and implications, whether we are aware of them or not.
为了理解观念对人们生活的影响，请考虑一个多世纪以前在心理学中流行并且其影响持续至今的一系列事件 - “智力是由遗传决定的，而且不能提高。”
To appreciate the influence of ideas in people's lives, consider the series of events set in motion by an idea that was popular in psychology more than a century ago and whose influence continues to this day—the idea that "intelligence is genetically determined and cannot be increased."
That idea led researchers to devise tests that measure intelligence. The most famous(badly flawed)test determined that the average mental age of white American adults was 13 and that, among immigrants, the average Russian's mental age was 11.34; the average Italian's, 11.01; the average Pole's, 10.74; and the average mental age of "Negroes," 10.41.
Educators read the text results and thought, "Attempts to raise students' intelligence are pointless," so they replaced academic curricula with vocational curricula and embraced a methodology that taught students facts but not the process of judement.
Legislators read the test results and decided "We're got to do something to keep intellectually inferior people from entering the country," so they revised immigration laws to discriminate against southern and central Europeans.
Eugenicists, who had long been concerned about the welfare of the human species, saw the tests as a grave warning. They thought, "If intelligence cannot be increased, we must find ways of encouraging reproduction among people fo higher intelligence and discouraging it among those of lower intelligence."
The eugenicists's concern inspired a variety of actions. Margaret Sanger's Planned Parenthood urged the lower classes to pratice contraception. Other succeeded in legalizing promoted forced sterilization, notably in Virginia. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Virginia law with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. declaring, "Three generations of imbeciles are enough." Over the next five decades 7,500 women, including "unwedmothers, prostitutes, petty criminals and children with disciplinary problems" were sterilized. In addition, by 1950 over 150,000 supposedly "defective" children, many relatively normal, were held against their will in institutions. They "endured isolation, overcrowding, forced labor, and physical abuse including lobotomy, electroshock, and surgical sterilization."
Meanwhile, bussiness leaders read the test results and decided, "We need policies to ensure that workers leave their minds at the factory gate and perform their assigned tasks mindlessly." So they enacted those policies. Decades later, when Edwards Deming proposed his "quality control" ideas for involving workers in decision making, business leaders remembered those test results and ignored Deming's advice.(In contrast, the Japanese welcomed Deming's ideas; as a result, several of their industries surged ahead of their American competion.)
这些是遗传主义最明显的影响，但它们肯定不是唯一的影响。 其他包括歧视种族、歧视少数民族以及政府的专制政策。 （一些历史学家还将遗传主义与纳粹德国发生的种族灭绝联系起来。）
These are the most obvious effects of hereditarianism but they are certainly not the only ones. Others include discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities and the often-paternalistic policies of government offered in response. (Some historians also link hereditarianism to the genocide that occurred in Nazi Germany.)
你遇到的无数观念会以类似的方式影响你的价值观和行为——有时是微不足道的，有时是深刻的。 即使你无意接受这些观念，这也会发生。
The innumerable ideas you have encountered will affect your beliefs and behavior in similar ways-sometimes slightly, at other times profoundly. And this can happen even if you have not consciously embraced the ideas.
此段备注：
beliefs应该翻译成信仰，但是国人对信仰，了解甚少。“价值观”更合适一些；
整文备注：
这篇文章中“idea”是最核心的关键词，从标题中也可以看到这一点，有以下几种备选翻译，评价优劣后，选择了“观念”
思想，比如，毛泽东思想，道家思想。这个词往往与伟人、圣人，放在一起用，不够合适；
理念，比如，品牌理念，公司理念，这个词往往与一定组织有关，能上台面，有点官方腔，不够合适；
观念，比如，父母那一代人的观念。这个词往往更接地气，表达了一类人的共识，更合适一些；
价值观，也许合适，再让我想想，或者你们评价下；
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