Chapter 3 What Is Truth?
真理到底是主观的、精神上的还是物理的、客观存在的？本章阐述了人们对真理的认知的起源，人的感知的不可靠，人的记忆的不可靠，聪明人也会犯错误，真理不是创造的而是需要探索的，以及因果关系理论。
一、Where Does It All Begin?
We are told about the world before we see it. We imagine most things before we experience them. And those preconceptions, unless education has made us acutely aware, govern deeply the whole process of perception.
我们在观察世界之前，都是被告知世界是怎样的。我们在体验大多数事情之前，总是先想象它们。除非教育使我们敏锐地意识到这一点，否则，这些先入之见深深地控制着整个感知过程。
二、Imperfect Perception
Is there a football fan anywhere who doesn’t occasionally scream, “Bad call!” only to be proved wrong a moment later? We can be sure enough to bet a week’s wages that the pass receiver’s feet came down inbounds or that the running back’s knee hit the ground before the ball came loose. And then the replay shows us how erroneous our initial perception was.
有没有球迷在叫嚷着“黑哨”片刻后就被证明是错误的？我们可以肯定打赌一周的工资说，在求出手之前接球员的脚已经在界内或跑锋膝盖已经触地。然而瞬间回放向我展示最初的感知是错误的。
If someone we dislike speaks in a loud voice and is animated, we may regard that person as showing off to get attention. But if a friend behaves in the same way, we may regard him or her as vivacious and extroverted.
如果我们不喜欢的人神气活现大声说话，我们可能会认为这个人是故意炫耀以引起注意。 但是，如果一个朋友以同样的方式行事，那我们可能认为他或她是活泼的和外向的。
三、Imperfect Memory
Loftus asked the parents of college students to describe some events from their sons’ and daughters’ childhoods. Then she talked with each student about those events but added a fake event or two. With only slight coaxing, the students “remembered” the fake events, were able to elaborate on the details, and in some cases refused to believe they were fake even when Loftus explained what she had done.
杰出的记忆研究专家 伊丽莎白·洛夫特斯(Elizaheth Loftus)要求大学生的父母描述自己儿女童 年时期的一些事情。然后她跟每个学生谈论这些事，但同时添加一两件捏 造的事件。仅稍微哄骗一下，学生就“记住了”这些捏造的事件，并能阐述细节，而且在某些情况下，即使洛夫特斯解释自己所做的事情，他们也拒不相信它们是捏造的。
四、Deficient Information
The quality of a belief depends to a considerable extent on the quality of the information that backs it up. Because it’s a big world and reality has many faces, it’s easy for us to be misinformed. How many drivers take the wrong turn because of faulty directions? How many people get on the wrong bus or train?
信念的质量在很大程度上取决于支持它的信息的质量。因为它是一个庞大的世界，现实有很多种面孔，我们很容易被误导。有多少人上错巴士或火车？
五、Even the Wisest Can Err
All too often, what is taken as truth one day by the most respected minds is proved erroneous the next. You undoubtedly know of some examples. In the early seventeenth century, when Galileo suggested that the sun is the center of our solar system, he was charged with heresy, imprisoned, and pressured to renounce his error. The“truth” of that time, accepted by every scientist worthy of the name, was that the earth was the center of the solar system.
经常，最受人尊重的头脑在某日视为真理的事，在后来被证明是错误的。毫无疑问，你知道一些这样的例子。在17世纪早期，当伽利略(Galileo)认为太阳是我们太阳系的中心时，他被指控为异端，遭到监禁，并迫使其声明放弃自己的错误。那时被每个称得上伟大的科学家接受的“真理”：地球乃是太阳系的中心。
六、Truth Is Discovered, Not Created
Let’s review what our evaluation has revealed. First, our ideas and beliefs are unavoidably influenced by other people’s, particularly in childhood. Second, perception and memory are imperfect. Third, our information can be inaccurate or incomplete. Add to this the fact, noted in Chapter 2, that some people’s thinking skills are woefully meager and/or ineffectively used, and the idea that “everyone creates his or her own truth” becomes laughable. We do create something, all right, but it is not truth. It is beliefs, ideas that we accept as true but that could easily be false.
让我们回顾一下我们的评估所揭示的内容。首先，我们的思想和信念不可避免地受到别人的影响，特别是在童年时期。第二，感知和记忆是不完美的。第三，我们的信息可能不准确或不完整。另外，在第二章中也提到，有些人的思维技能很不幸的贫乏且（或）被无效地使用，而且“每个人都创造自己的真理”的想法也让人感到可笑。我们确实创造了一些事情，没错，但它并不是真理。它是信念，即我们信以为真却可能错误的想法。
What, then, is the most reasonable view of truth? The truth about something is what is so about it—the facts in their exact arrangement and proportions. Our beliefs and assertions are true when they correspond to that reality and false when they do not.
那么，最合理的真理观是什么？关于某事的真理就是，它原本是什么-事实的准确位置及比例。我们的信念和主张在符合真实情况是正确的，不符合真实情况是错误的。
Truth is apprehended by discovery, a process that favors the curious and the diligent. Truth does not depend on our acknowledgment of it, nor is it in any way altered by our ignorance or transformed by our wishful thinking.
真理是通过发现而被掌握的，发现是一个偏好好奇和勤奋的过程。真理并不取决于我们的承认，也不因为我们的无知而改变，也不因为我们一厢情愿而变化。
“I know I have limitations and can easily be mistaken. And surely I’ll never find all the answers I’d like to. But I can observe a little more accurately, weigh things a little more thoroughly, and make up my mind a little more carefully. If I do so, I’ll be a little closer to the truth.”
“我知道我有局限并且容易犯错。当然，我将永远都不会找到我想知道的所有答案。但是我可以更准确地观察，更彻底地衡量问题，并更加仔细地做决定。如果我这样做，我会更接近真理。”
七、Understanding Cause and Effect
Some of the most difficult challenges in discovering truth occur in determining cause-and-effect relationships. Unfortunately, mistakes are common in such matters. One mistake is to see cause-and-effect relationships where there are none. Another is to see only the simple and obvious cause-and-effect relationships and miss the complex or subtle ones. A third is to believe that causation is relevant only to material forces and is unrelated to human affairs. To avoid such confusion, four facts must be understood:
发现真相的最困难挑战就是确定因果关系。而不幸的是，在这种事情上犯错误是很常见的。一种错误是在没有因果关系的事情上看到因果关系。另一种错误是只看到简单明了的因果关系，而忽略了复杂或微妙的关系。第三种错误认为，因果关系只与物质因素有关，与人类主观意识无关。为了避免这种混乱，必须理解四个事实：
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