Twelve Virtues of Rationality 理性的十二美德

本文转载并翻译自(Twelve Virtues of Rationality ↗)。理性在上，如有任何对Eliezer Yudkowsky版权的侵犯，请评论或发邮件给我，我将立即下架本文。
愿你我从此诗中悟道。

by Eliezer Yudkowsky
作者：埃利泽·尤德科夫斯基 1st Jan 2006

The first virtue is curiosity. A burning itch to know is higher than a solemn vow to pursue truth. To feel the burning itch of curiosity requires both that you be ignorant, and that you desire to relinquish your ignorance. If in your heart you believe you already know, or if in your heart you do not wish to know, then your questioning will be purposeless and your skills without direction. Curiosity seeks to annihilate itself; there is no curiosity that does not want an answer. The glory of glorious mystery is to be solved, after which it ceases to be mystery. Be wary of those who speak of being open-minded and modestly confess their ignorance.
首要美德是好奇心。对知识的炽热渴望胜过追求真理的庄重誓言。感受好奇的灼热渴望，既需你承认无知，又需你渴望摆脱无知。若你心中自认已知，或心中不愿求知，那么你的发问将失去意义，你的技能也将迷失方向。好奇心旨在自我消解；没有不想得到答案的好奇心。辉煌奥秘的光彩在于被解开，之后它便不再是奥秘。警惕那些空谈开明、谦称无知之人。

There is a time to confess your ignorance and a time to relinquish your ignorance. The second virtue is relinquishment. P. C. Hodgell said: “That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.”[1] Do not flinch from experiences that might destroy your beliefs. The thought you cannot think controls you more than thoughts you speak aloud. Submit yourself to ordeals and test yourself in fire. Relinquish the emotion which rests upon a mistaken belief, and seek to feel fully that emotion which fits the facts. If the iron approaches your face, and you believe it is hot, and it is cool, the Way opposes your fear. If the iron approaches your face, and you believe it is cool, and it is hot, the Way opposes your calm. Evaluate your beliefs first and then arrive at your emotions. Let yourself say: “If the iron is hot, I desire to believe it is hot, and if it is cool, I desire to believe it is cool.” Beware lest you become attached to beliefs you may not want.
既有承认无知之时，亦有放下无知之刻。第二种美德是放下。P. C. 霍奇尔曾说：“能被真理摧毁的，就该被摧毁。”[1]不要回避可能摧毁你信念的经历。无法思考的念头比说出口的想法更能控制你。让自己经受考验，在烈火中磨砺自己。放下基于错误信念的情感，努力全然感受符合事实的情绪。若铁块靠近你的脸，你认为它是热的，而它其实是凉的，那么“道”便反对你的恐惧。若铁块靠近你的脸，你认为它是凉的，而它其实是热的，那么“道”便反对你的平静。先评估你的信念，再产生相应的情感。让自己能够说：“若铁块是热的，我愿相信它是热的；若它是凉的，我愿相信它是凉的。”谨防执着于那些你可能并不想要的信念。

The third virtue is lightness. Let the winds of evidence blow you about as though you are a leaf, with no direction of your own. Beware lest you fight a rearguard retreat against the evidence, grudgingly conceding each foot of ground only when forced, feeling cheated. Surrender to the truth as quickly as you can. Do this the instant you realize what you are resisting, the instant you can see from which quarter the winds of evidence are blowing against you. Be faithless to your cause and betray it to a stronger enemy. If you regard evidence as a constraint and seek to free yourself, you sell yourself into the chains of your whims. For you cannot make a true map of a city by sitting in your bedroom with your eyes shut and drawing lines upon paper according to impulse. You must walk through the city and draw lines on paper that correspond to what you see. If, seeing the city unclearly, you think that you can shift a line just a little to the right, just a little to the left, according to your caprice, this is just the same mistake.
第三美德是轻盈。让证据之风如吹拂一片叶子般将你带向各处，而不固守己见。谨防你与证据进行后卫般的撤退战，仅在被迫时勉强让步每一寸土地，心有不甘。尽快向真理投降。一旦意识到自己在抗拒什么，一旦看清证据之风从哪个方向吹向你，就立刻这样做。对你的信念不忠，将其出卖给更强大的敌人。如果你视证据为束缚并试图挣脱，你便是将自己卖给了冲动的锁链。因为你不能闭目坐在卧室里，凭冲动在纸上画线来绘制城市的真实地图。你必须走过城市，在纸上画出与你所见相符的线条。如果因看得不清楚，就认为可以根据自己的任性将线条稍向右或稍向左移动，这同样是错误的。

The fourth virtue is evenness. One who wishes to believe says, “Does the evidence permit me to believe?” One who wishes to disbelieve asks, “Does the evidence force me to believe?” Beware lest you place huge burdens of proof only on propositions you dislike, and then defend yourself by saying: “But it is good to be skeptical.” If you attend only to favorable evidence, picking and choosing from your gathered data, then the more data you gather, the less you know. If you are selective about which arguments you inspect for flaws, or how hard you inspect for flaws, then every flaw you learn how to detect makes you that much stupider. If you first write at the bottom of a sheet of paper “And therefore, the sky is green!” it does not matter what arguments you write above it afterward; the conclusion is already written, and it is already correct or already wrong. To be clever in argument is not rationality but rationalization. Intelligence, to be useful, must be used for something other than defeating itself. Listen to hypotheses as they plead their cases before you, but remember that you are not a hypothesis; you are the judge. Therefore do not seek to argue for one side or another, for if you knew your destination, you would already be there.
第四美德是公正。欲信者言：“证据允许我相信吗？”欲疑者问：“证据强迫我相信吗？”当心，莫将沉重的举证负担仅置于你不喜欢的命题上，而后以“但持怀疑态度是好的”为自己辩护。若你只关注有利证据，从收集的数据中挑拣，那么你收集的数据越多，所知反而越少。若你对检查哪些论点的缺陷有所选择，或检查缺陷的力度不一，那么你学会发现的每一个缺陷都会让你变得更愚蠢。若你先在纸页底部写下“因此，天空是绿色的！”那么之后在上面写下什么论证都无关紧要；结论已定，它要么早已正确，要么早已错误。在争论中耍聪明并非理性，而是合理化。要使智慧有用，就必须将其用于超越自我挫败的目的。倾听假设在你面前陈述理由，但记住你并非假设；你是法官。 因此，莫要试图为任何一方争辩，因为若你已知晓目的地，你早已抵达。

The fifth virtue is argument. Those who wish to fail must first prevent their friends from helping them. Those who smile wisely and say “I will not argue” remove themselves from help and withdraw from the communal effort. In argument strive for exact honesty, for the sake of others and also yourself: the part of yourself that distorts what you say to others also distorts your own thoughts. Do not believe you do others a favor if you accept their arguments; the favor is to you. Do not think that fairness to all sides means balancing yourself evenly between positions; truth is not handed out in equal portions before the start of a debate. You cannot move forward on factual questions by fighting with fists or insults. Seek a test that lets reality judge between you.
第五美德是论辩。欲败者必先阻友相助。那些明智微笑并说“我不争辩”之人，实则自绝于援助，退出了集体努力。在论辩中，为他人亦为自己，力求精确诚实：那扭曲你对他人的言辞的部分，同样扭曲你自身的思维。勿以为接受他人论点是对他们的恩惠；这恩惠实归于你。勿以为公平对待各方意味着在立场间平均分配自己；真理并非在辩论开始前均等分配。你无法通过拳头或侮辱在事实问题上取得进展。寻求一个让现实在你我之间作出评判的检验。

The sixth virtue is empiricism. The roots of knowledge are in observation and its fruit is prediction. What tree grows without roots? What tree nourishes us without fruit? If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound? One says, “Yes it does, for it makes vibrations in the air.” Another says, “No it does not, for there is no auditory processing in any brain.” Though they argue, one saying “Yes,” and one saying “No,” the two do not anticipate any different experience of the forest. Do not ask which beliefs to profess, but which experiences to anticipate. Always know which difference of experience you argue about. Do not let the argument wander and become about something else, such as someone’s virtue as a rationalist. Jerry Cleaver said: “What does you in is not failure to apply some high-level, intricate, complicated technique. It’s overlooking the basics. Not keeping your eye on the ball.”[2] Do not be blinded by words. When words are subtracted, anticipation remains.
第六美德是经验主义。知识之根在于观察，其果在于预测。无根之树何以生长？无果之树何以滋养我们？若林中树倒却无人听闻，它是否发出声响？一人说：“确有声响，因其激起空气振动。”另一人说：“并无声响，因无任何大脑进行听觉处理。”尽管他们争论不休，一人称“是”，一人称“否”，但二者对森林的体验预期并无差异。莫问应信奉何种信念，而当问可预期何种体验。须始终明了所争辩的体验差异何在。勿让争论偏离主题，沦为诸如某人理性主义者品格的讨论。杰里·克利弗曾言：“毁掉你的并非未能运用某种高阶、精妙、复杂的技术，而是忽略了基础。未能紧盯要义。”莫被言辞蒙蔽。当言语褪去，预期依然存在。

The seventh virtue is simplicity. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said: “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”[3] Simplicity is virtuous in belief, design, planning, and justification. When you profess a huge belief with many details, each additional detail is another chance for the belief to be wrong. Each specification adds to your burden; if you can lighten your burden you must do so. There is no straw that lacks the power to break your back. Of artifacts it is said: The most reliable gear is the one that is designed out of the machine. Of plans: A tangled web breaks. A chain of a thousand links will arrive at a correct conclusion if every step is correct, but if one step is wrong it may carry you anywhere. In mathematics a mountain of good deeds cannot atone for a single sin. Therefore, be careful on every step.
第七美德是简洁。安托万·德·圣埃克苏佩里曾说：“完美并非无可增，而是无可减。”[3] 简洁在信仰、设计、规划与论证中皆为美德。当你提出一个细节繁多的宏大信念时，每增加一个细节就多一分出错的可能。每项规范都加重你的负担；若能减轻，务必为之。压垮骆驼的，从来不是最后一根稻草。对于人造物而言：最可靠的齿轮是被设计出机器的那个。对于计划：错综复杂的网易断裂。千环链条若每一步正确，终将得出正确结论，但若一步出错，便可能带你误入歧途。数学中，积善如山也抵不过一错之过。因此，步步皆需谨慎。

The eighth virtue is humility. To be humble is to take specific actions in anticipation of your own errors. To confess your fallibility and then do nothing about it is not humble; it is boasting of your modesty. Who are most humble? Those who most skillfully prepare for the deepest and most catastrophic errors in their own beliefs and plans. Because this world contains many whose grasp of rationality is abysmal, beginning students of rationality win arguments and acquire an exaggerated view of their own abilities. But it is useless to be superior: Life is not graded on a curve. The best physicist in ancient Greece could not calculate the path of a falling apple. There is no guarantee that adequacy is possible given your hardest effort; therefore spare no thought for whether others are doing worse. If you compare yourself to others you will not see the biases that all humans share. To be human is to make ten thousand errors. No one in this world achieves perfection.
第八美德是谦逊。谦逊意味着预见自身错误并采取具体行动。承认自己会犯错却无所作为并非谦逊，而是对谦卑的炫耀。 谁是最谦逊的人？是那些最娴熟地为自身信念与计划中最深刻、最具灾难性错误做准备的人。这世间有众多对理性认知浅薄之人，初涉理性之门径者常赢得争辩，从而高估自身能力。但高人一等并无用处：人生不按曲线评分。古希腊最杰出的物理学家亦无法计算苹果坠落的轨迹。即便竭尽全力，也无法确保能达到足够水平；因此无需在意他人是否做得更差。若与他人比较，你将看不到全人类共有的认知偏差。生而为人，即是会犯万千错误。这世上无人能达到完美境界。

The ninth virtue is perfectionism. The more errors you correct in yourself, the more you notice. As your mind becomes more silent, you hear more noise. When you notice an error in yourself, this signals your readiness to seek advancement to the next level. If you tolerate the error rather than correcting it, you will not advance to the next level and you will not gain the skill to notice new errors. In every art, if you do not seek perfection you will halt before taking your first steps. If perfection is impossible that is no excuse for not trying. Hold yourself to the highest standard you can imagine, and look for one still higher. Do not be content with the answer that is almost right; seek one that is exactly right.
第九美德是完美主义。你在自身纠正的错误越多，注意到的错误也就越多。当你的内心愈发宁静，你便能听见更多的杂音。当你发现自身的错误时，这标志着你已准备好向更高层次迈进。若你容忍错误而非纠正它，你将无法进阶，也无法获得察觉新错误的能力。在任何技艺中，若不追求完美，你将在迈出第一步前就停滞不前。即使完美无法企及，也不应成为放弃尝试的理由。以你能想象的最高标准要求自己，并寻求更高的标准。不要满足于近乎正确的答案，要追寻完全正确的答案。

The tenth virtue is precision. One comes and says: The quantity is between 1 and 100. Another says: The quantity is between 40 and 50. If the quantity is 42 they are both correct, but the second prediction was more useful and exposed itself to a stricter test. What is true of one apple may not be true of another apple; thus more can be said about a single apple than about all the apples in the world. The narrowest statements slice deepest, the cutting edge of the blade. As with the map, so too with the art of mapmaking: The Way is a precise Art. Do not walk to the truth, but dance. On each and every step of that dance your foot comes down in exactly the right spot. Each piece of evidence shifts your beliefs by exactly the right amount, neither more nor less. What is exactly the right amount? To calculate this you must study probability theory. Even if you cannot do the math, knowing that the math exists tells you that the dance step is precise and has no room in it for your whims.
第十美德是精确。一人来说：数量在 1 到 100 之间。另一人说：数量在 40 到 50 之间。若数量为 42，两人皆对，但后者的预测更为有用，且经受了更严格的检验。适用于一个苹果的未必适用于另一个苹果；因此，对单个苹果能说的比对世上所有苹果能说的更多。最精确的陈述切得最深，如刀刃之锋。地图如此，制图之术亦然：道乃精确之艺。勿向真理步行，而应起舞。舞步的每一步，脚都恰好落在正确的位置。每一份证据都恰好以应有的程度改变你的信念，不多不少。何为恰好应有的程度？欲计算此，须研习概率论。即便你不懂数学，知数学存在便知舞步精确，不容任性妄为。

The eleventh virtue is scholarship. Study many sciences and absorb their power as your own. Each field that you consume makes you larger. If you swallow enough sciences the gaps between them will diminish and your knowledge will become a unified whole. If you are gluttonous you will become vaster than mountains. It is especially important to eat math and science which impinge upon rationality: evolutionary psychology, heuristics and biases, social psychology, probability theory, decision theory. But these cannot be the only fields you study. The Art must have a purpose other than itself, or it collapses into infinite recursion.
第十一美德是学识。研习众多科学，汲取其力量化为己用。每掌握一门学问，你都更为宏大。若你吞食足够多的科学，学科间的隔阂将逐渐消弭，你的知识将融会贯通。倘若你求知若渴，终将比山峦更辽阔。尤其应当精进那些与理性相交融的数学与科学：进化心理学、启发法与认知偏差、社会心理学、概率论、决策理论。但这些绝非你研习的全部领域。技艺必须有其超越自身的目标，否则将陷入无限递归的深渊。

Before these eleven virtues is a virtue which is nameless.
在这十一种美德之前，有一种美德是无名的。

Miyamoto Musashi wrote, in The Book of Five Rings:[4]
宫本武藏于《五轮书》中写道：[4]

The primary thing when you take a sword in your hands is your intention to cut the enemy, whatever the means. Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike or touch the enemy’s cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement. It is essential to attain this. If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him. More than anything, you must be thinking of carrying your movement through to cutting him.
当你手持剑时，首要的是无论用何种方式都要有斩敌之意。无论何时格挡、击打、弹开、劈砍或触及敌人的剑，都必须在同一动作中斩向敌人。达到这一点至关重要。若你只想着击打、弹开、劈砍或触及敌人，便无法真正斩中他。最重要的是，你必须始终思考如何将动作贯彻到底，直至斩敌。
Every step of your reasoning must cut through to the correct answer in the same movement. More than anything, you must think of carrying your map through to reflecting the territory.
你的每一步推理都必须如出一辙地直指正确答案。最重要的是，你必须思考如何让你的地图如实反映疆域。

If you fail to achieve a correct answer, it is futile to protest that you acted with propriety.
若未能得出正确答案，辩解行为得当也是徒劳。

How can you improve your conception of rationality? Not by saying to yourself, “It is my duty to be rational.” By this you only enshrine your mistaken conception. Perhaps your conception of rationality is that it is rational to believe the words of the Great Teacher, and the Great Teacher says, “The sky is green,” and you look up at the sky and see blue. If you think, “It may look like the sky is blue, but rationality is to believe the words of the Great Teacher,” you lose a chance to discover your mistake.
如何提升你对理性的理解？不是靠对自己说“我有责任保持理性”，这样只会固化你错误的观念。或许你认为理性就是相信伟大导师的话，而导师说“天空是绿色的”，你抬头看天却看到蓝色。如果你心想：“天空看起来是蓝色的，但理性就是要相信伟大导师的话”，你就失去了发现错误的机会。

Do not ask whether it is “the Way” to do this or that. Ask whether the sky is blue or green. If you speak overmuch of the Way you will not attain it. You may try to name the highest principle with names such as “the map that reflects the territory” or “experience of success and failure” or “Bayesian decision theory.” But perhaps you describe incorrectly the nameless virtue. How will you discover your mistake? Not by comparing your description to itself, but by comparing it to that which you did not name.
不要问这样做或那样做是否合乎“道”。要问天是蓝还是绿。若过多谈论道，你将无法领悟它。或许你会试图用“反映疆域的地图”、“成败的经验”或“贝叶斯决策理论”等名称来命名最高法则。但或许你错误地描述了那无名的德性。如何发现自己的错误？不是通过将你的描述与其自身比较，而是通过与你不曾命名之物对照。

If for many years you practice the techniques and submit yourself to strict constraints, it may be that you will glimpse the center. Then you will see how all techniques are one technique, and you will move correctly without feeling constrained. Musashi wrote: “When you appreciate the power of nature, knowing the rhythm of any situation, you will be able to hit the enemy naturally and strike naturally. All this is the Way of the Void.”
若多年修炼技艺并严于律己，或许能窥见其核心。届时你将领悟万法归一，行动自如而无束缚感。宫本武藏曾言：“当你体悟自然之力，通晓万物节奏，便能自然而然地击中对手。这一切皆是空之道的真谛。”

These then are twelve virtues of rationality:
那么，理性的十二种美德便是：

Curiosity, relinquishment, lightness, evenness, argument, empiricism, simplicity, humility, perfectionism, precision, scholarship, and the void.
好奇心，放弃，轻盈，平等，争论，经验主义，简洁，谦逊，完美主义，精确，学识，与虚无。

1. Patricia C. Hodgell, Seeker’s Mask (Meisha Merlin Publishing, Inc., 2001).

2. 帕特里夏·C·霍奇尔，《寻求者面具》（梅莎·梅林出版公司，2001 年）。

3. Cleaver, Immediate Fiction: A Complete Writing Course.

4. 克利弗，《即时小说：完整写作教程》。

5. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Terre des Hommes (Paris: Gallimard, 1939).

6. 安托万·德·圣-埃克苏佩里，《人类的大地》（巴黎：伽利玛出版社，1939 年）。

7. Musashi, Book of Five Rings.

8. 宫本武藏，《五轮书》。