批评和被批评都是一种修行

HowtoReadaBook(4)...



今天和大家分享的是How to Read a Book这本书的一篇笔记，主要内容是Criticizing a book fairly。 这个笔记的内容只是the tip of an iceberg，有很多细节的需要你去读这本书才会清楚。

在阅读和讨论的时候我们要首先确定的一点是我们对文中的关键字要正确的理解, 这里的criticize不是“批评吐槽”的意思，而是“评判” — to consider something carefully and judge what the good and bad aspects of it are。



书中也强调了这一点:

We hope you have not made the error of supposing that to criticize is always to disagree. That is a popular misconception. To agree is just as much an exercise of critical judgment on your part as to disagree. You can be just as wrong in agreeing as in disagreeing. To agree without understanding is inane. To disagree without understanding is impudent.

也就是说criticizing a book不是 怀着“找茬”的心态而是“真理越辩越明”的态度。我们会自然的同意那些和我们观点一致的言论，也会自然的对相反意见抗拒 — 有一个逻辑谬论叫Confirmation Bias，我们要警惕。读一本书就像是和作者在交流一样，这句话我们很熟悉，但是有两点我们要注意。

The reader has an obligation as well as an opportunity to talk back.

1. 交流是互相的，不是只是听

既然是交流那就是相互的，和学习一样: 老师若是一直在讲，没有学生的互动和反思，那就是填鸭式教学。我们读书也一样，是在和作者对话, 作者有表达观点的义务，我们也有给予回应的义务和责任。

The activity of reading does not stop with the work of understanding a book says. It must be completed by the work of criticism, the work of judging.

2. 书是“弱势群体”

若是面对面的对话，我们可以随时的沟通一些细节，来确保交流的有效性。但是书是没有办法来为自己辩解的。我们若是误会了作者的意思，或者是根本就没理解作者的观点，就开始评判这本书的时候，书是没有办法制止我们这个行为的。

Where understanding is not present, affirmations and denials are equally meaningless and unintelligible.

人和人之间的交流要有礼貌，听懂了对方的话我们才能作出回应 — 否则的话就容易产生“straw man fallacy”, 使得交流无效。读书的时候我们也要注意讲究 “intellectual etiquette”, 先别急着判断，先确定自己读懂了关键词的定义，读懂了作者的逻辑再去评判 — 最起码要可以用自己话来表述作者的意思。



如果作者的逻辑混乱，用词含糊，这是他没有诚意，我们也没必要读下去了 — Only a good book deserves an active reading.

You must be able to say, with reasonable certainty, “I understand,” before you can say any one of the following things: “I agree,” or “I disagree,” or “I suspend judgement.”

我们若是在理解了作者的文字之后，对作者的言论不同意的话，我们就要给出理由。不能因为作者这个人，或者我们自己的个人经历和情绪而不同意，要就事论事。

If the reader cannot say, “I agree,” he should at least have grounds for disagreeing or even for suspending judgement on the question.

读书的目的是去学习

Francis Bacon说:



人无完人，自然就会“书无完书” — 就像我们和一个人交流一样，或许背景不同，观点也有分歧，不过一个有效的交流的结果是我们可以从彼此的身上学到东西。之前Asking the Right Questions那本书中也提醒我们: 我们学习批判性思维不是为了去吵架，去“忽悠”别人，而是通过合理的思考来判断自己的观点是不是有据可依，判断别人的结论是否可信，最终的目的是寻求真理的过程中成长。

The most teachable reader is the most critical. he is the reader who finally responds to a book by the greatest effort to make up his own mind on the matters the author has discussed.

没有这个“make up one’s own mind”的过程，我们很容易就被洗脑了，很容易就成了“有见解的不思考的人”。

To regard anyone except yourself as responsible for your judgement is to be a slave, not a free man. It is from this fact that the liberal arts acquire their name.

读书不会让我们更自由，让我们更自由的是交流和思考。“学而不思则罔，思而不学则殆”也是这个道理。

读书不是为了争吵

He who regards conversation as a battle can win only by being an antagonist, only by disagreeing successfully, whether he is right wrong. The reader who approaches a book in this spirit reads it only to find something he can disagree with. For the disputatious and the contentious, a bone can always be found to pick a quarrel over. It makes no difference whether the bone is really a chip on your own shoulder.

真理越辩越明，输赢不重要，重要的是在交流中我们学习到新的知识，新的观点

Whichever he does should be motivated by one consideration alone — the facts, the truth about the case.

怀疑是思考的开始，分歧是学习的开始。

No one who looks upon disagreement as an occasion for teaching another should forget that it is also an occasion for being taught.

批评和被批评都是一种修行

讲一个我的故事。大二下学期刚刚开学的时候，第一节课大家见到老师都很激动。我大声的问: Are you miss me? 老师在一片噪杂声中说: 是Do, 不是Are。可以想像那个画面是多么的尴尬 — 我热情的问老师是否想我们，她却无聊地纠正我的语法错误。事实是我对这个老师分外感激！放学后我去学校附近的书店买了本张道真语法书，一个星期通读一遍，基本的语法知识就掌握了。

想进步的人开到的是让自己进步的机会 — 尽管这个方式很残忍，它需要你面对所谓的自尊心。这就是Growth mind和fixed mind的区别。如果你想成长，点滴时刻都是学习，都是“当头棒喝”，是鼓励；如果你在乎的是自己的自尊心，那所有声音都是批评和指责。事情是同样的，如何最有效的利用它取决于我们自己。

我相信疼痛使人警醒，失败给人鼓励，那些好的坏的都来吧，我会把一切都变成正能量。



我们在和他人交流中，很多时候会以“每个人都有自己的观点，这个没什么可讨论的”而结束。虽说“仁者见仁，智者见智”，但是我们要注意交流的目的不是去“迁就和妥协”而是“学习”，我们不一定最终同意对方的观点，但是要想一想ta是如何得出这样的结论的，ta的观点有没有值得我们学习的地方，有没有对我们的观点起到补充的作用？

The trouble is that many people regard disagreement as unrelated to either teaching or being taught. They think that everything is just a matter of opinion. I have mine, and you have yours; and our right to our opinions is as inviolable as our right to private property. On such a view, communication cannot be profitable if the profit to be gained is an increase in knowledge. Conversation is hardly better than a ping-pong game of opposed opinions, a game in which no one keeps score, no one wins, and everyone is satisfied because he does not lose—that is, he ends up holding the same opinions he started with.

如果你的观点是有根据的，勇敢地去怀疑去发问去交流。若是以“我就是这么认为的”“我的经历让我有了这样的观点，你的经历和我不一样你当然不懂”这样的态度去交流，我们会很容易就失去了学习和成长的机会。“个人观点”和“事实”是不同的，我们的个人观点是有限的，而事实就是事实，我们读书和学习也是为了让自己可以从不同的角度看待问题，去理解这个事实。无论我们同意还是不同意，我们要有理由，否则的话只不过是个人感受而已，难免偏颇。

Respect the difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion by giving reasons for any critical judgement you make.

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