Name: 為什麼在自我優化的世界裡，"善 "依然重要？ (Why goodness still matters in a self-optimized world)
Uploaded: 2025-09-09T18:13:40.000Z
Duration: 6 min 25 s

I think people often think of virtues as about the self, and am I happy and fulfilled, but that self starts to look kind of empty if it is not stretching outwards.

我認為，人們常常認為美德是關於自我的，我是否快樂和充實，但如果自我不向外延伸，就會顯得有些空洞。

程度副詞

轉承詞

It requires habits, it requires a community, it requires a lot of work, but just because something's difficult doesn't mean you shouldn't try.

這需要習慣，需要社區，需要大量的工作，但困難並不意味著你不應該嘗試。

And if we look around at society, now potentially more than ever, we need people to be compassionate and just and kind.

環顧社會，我們現在可能比以往任何時候都更需要人們具有同情心、正義感和善良。

We're not ever going to really attain perfect virtue.

我們不可能真正達到完美的美德。

Instead, we're moving farther along this trajectory toward being a better person.

相反，我們會沿著這條軌跡走得更遠，成為一個更好的人。

I'm a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University, studying how people build virtue.

我是貝勒大學心理學和神經科學教授，研究人們如何建立美德。

So a virtue is a disposition that we hold to act in a moral way.

是以，美德是我們以道德方式行事的一種傾向。

So these are things you can cultivate by practices over time, and then those habits need to be connected to a certain type of identity of who I am that's moral and transcends the self.

是以，這些都是你可以通過長期實踐來培養的，然後這些習慣需要與某種 "我是誰 "的身份相聯繫，這種身份是道德的、超越自我的。

When we think about virtues, we talk about doing the right thing, and that's a really tricky question to define.

當我們思考美德時，我們談論的是做正確的事，而這確實是一個很難界定的問題。

These are conflicts that philosophers have had for millennia, and so that tells me there's something there, and we should use our scientific tools to address that question.

這些衝突是哲學家們幾千年來一直存在的問題，所以這告訴我，這裡面肯定有什麼東西，我們應該用我們的科學工具來解決這個問題。

Our data show very consistently that people who are virtuous have higher well-being.

我們的數據一致表明，有美德的人幸福感更高。

They have more positive emotions, fewer negative emotions, report greater satisfaction with life, greater meaning in life.

他們有更多的積極情緒，更少的消極情緒，對生活的滿意度更高，生活更有意義。

And so what we hope to do is to help people train to become virtuous.

是以，我們希望做的是幫助人們接受培訓，使他們成為有道德的人。

We're thinking about, okay, how do I move from the abstract of wanting virtues in my life to actually putting this into practice?

我們在思考，好吧，我如何從抽象地希望在生活中擁有美德，轉變為真正地付諸實踐？

We are very habitual creatures, and what you see in the research is that you're actually going to have to practice them in the situations that require them.

我們是非常習慣性的動物，而你在研究中看到的是，你實際上必須在需要它們的情況下練習它們。

If you seek to cultivate, say, like, patience, you're going to actually have to wait.

如果你想培養，比如說，耐心，你就得真正地等待。

To build courage, you will likely need to face threats.

要鼓起勇氣，你很可能需要面對威脅。

You know, you might think that virtues are this tool, this technology that we can use to hack our way in life and improve and optimize performance.

你知道，你可能會認為美德是一種工具，是一種技術，我們可以用它來破解我們的生活方式，改善和優化我們的表現。

All of the self-help movement talks about the three easy steps to instantly change who you are and wants to sell a product to change your virtue, which is honestly completely wrong about how virtues actually form.

所有的自助運動都在談論通過三個簡單的步驟就能立刻改變你，並希望通過銷售產品來改變你的美德，但說實話，這對於美德的形成過程是完全錯誤的。

If I'm doing the virtue for my own happiness or for my own performance, I lose the moral component and we find that people actually struggle more to practice that virtue when it's just about the self versus the community and the relationality that's necessary for virtue development.

如果我是為了自己的幸福或自己的表現而去踐行美德，那麼我就失去了道德的成分，而且我們發現，當美德只關乎自我而非群體，以及美德發展所必需的關係性時，人們在踐行美德時實際上會更加艱難。

You do actually see a lot of religious traditions and other practices people add to their life to develop virtues over time.

實際上，你會看到很多宗教傳統和其他做法，人們會在生活中加入這些做法，以逐漸培養美德。

So for example, with fasting, many people engage intermittent fasting for health and fitness reasons.

是以，以斷食為例，許多人出於健康和健身的原因進行間歇性斷食。

We know it has benefits, but it seems that the practice of fasting might differ when it's practiced for those health and fitness benefits than if it's engaged as a spiritual practice.

我們知道斷食有好處，但如果斷食是為了健康和健身，那麼斷食的做法似乎與作為一種精神修行的做法有所不同。

For example, Ramadan, from sunrise to sunset, there is no food or drink.

例如，齋月期間，從日出到日落，不吃不喝。

That is a difficult, adverse experience to have to go for a day without eating or drinking.

一天不吃不喝是一種艱難而不利的經歷。

We have data that when fasting is practiced within the sacred frame, not only do people grow in their virtues during the period of that fast, they also sustain increases in self-control and patience even a month after the fasting period is over.

我們有數據表明，如果在神聖的框架內實行齋戒，人們不僅會在齋戒期間增長美德，甚至在齋戒期結束一個月後，他們的自制力和忍耐力也會持續增強。

And so it leads to virtue growth and not just the health and fitness benefits.

是以，它帶來的不僅僅是健康和健身的好處，還有美德的增長。

What we do see is that as it becomes habituated and well-practiced, it starts to feel less effortful.

我們看到的是，隨著習慣的養成和良好的實踐，開始感覺不那麼費力了。

You automatically do the right thing, and it's your second nature to just be virtuous.

你會自動去做正確的事，這是你的第二天性，就是要做一個有道德的人。

Humans survive not because we're the biggest or most powerful.

人類之所以能生存下來，並不是因為我們最大或最強大。

We survive as a species because we are hypersocial.

我們之所以能作為一個物種生存下來，是因為我們具有超社會性。

And so virtues that support that social function do tend to show up across cultures.

是以，支持這種社會功能的美德往往會在不同文化中出現。

We're all born with capacities for goodness and also for great evil.

我們與生俱來就有善良的能力，也有巨大的邪惡。

And sometimes you do see people have narratives around embodying vice, that I'm going to be the richest person, and I'm going to walk all over other people to get what's best for me.

有時，你確實會看到人們有一些體現惡習的敘事，比如我要成為最富有的人，我要壓倒其他人來獲得對我最有利的東西。

但我們創造了自己的社會環境。

When I'm in a group, I actually change what that group is.

當我參加一個小組時，我實際上改變了這個小組的性質。

If I start acting virtuously, it's really powerful.

如果我開始踐行美德，它就會變得非常強大。

People will start to become more virtuous in response.

人們會是以開始變得更加善良。

It will influence the group and raise everyone up.

它將影響整個團隊，讓每個人都得到提升。

We need to move that focus away from just my own self-improvement and toward how am I contributing and how am I related to others in communities for the greater good.

我們需要將關注點從我的自我完善轉移到我如何為社區做出貢獻以及我如何與他人建立聯繫，以謀求更大的利益。

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為什麼在自我優化的世界裡，"善 "依然重要？ (Why goodness still matters in a self-optimized world)

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stretch

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practice