外刊阅读冲刺练习：功利主义者绝非善类.docxVIP

最牛英语口语培训模式：躺在家里练口语，全程外教一对一，三个月畅谈无阻！洛基英语，免费体验全部在线一对一课程：/ielts/xd.html（报名网址）Science and Technology科技Moral philosophy道德哲学Goodness has nothing to do with it一点也不善良Utilitarians are not nice people功利主义者绝非善类IN THE grand scheme of things Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are normally thought of as good guys.杰里米·边沁和约翰·斯图亚特·穆勒是公认的好好先生。Between them, they came up with the ethical theory known as utilitarianism.在伦理学上，他们提出了功利主义原则。The goal of this theory is encapsulated in Benthams aphorism that the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.从边沁的名言最多数人的最大幸福乃道德与立法之根本，功利主义的原则可见一斑。Which all sounds fine and dandy until you start applying it to particular cases.听上去合情合理看上去美轮美奂，但是应用功利主义进行道德判断时就不是那么回事了。A utilitarian, for example, might approve of the occasional torture of suspected terrorists—for the greater happiness of everyone else, you understand.例如，功利主义者会同意特殊情况下对恐怖嫌疑人施以酷刑，你懂的，为了最多数人的最大幸福。That type of observation has led Daniel Bartels at Columbia University and David Pizarro at Cornell to ask what sort of people actually do have a utilitarian outlook on life.哥伦比亚大学的丹尼尔巴特斯和康奈尔大学的大卫皮塞罗观察到这一现象，使得他们发问，在现实生活中，功利主义者究竟表现为怎样的人。Their answers, just published in Cognition, are not comfortable.在他们最近合著的《认知》（Cognition）给出的答案了让人不安。One of the classic techniques used to measure a persons willingness to behave in a utilitarian way is known as trolleyology.失控电车困境是公认的经典方法，用来判断一个人是否乐意根据功利主义原则做决定。The subject of the study is challenged with thought experiments involving a runaway railway trolley or train carriage.在这个思维实验中，被调查者面临一部失控电车或者火车车厢带来的困境。All involve choices, each of which leads to peoples deaths.而所有给出的选项都涉及人命。For example: there are five railway workmen in the path of a runaway carriage. The men will surely be killed unless the subject of the experiment, a bystander in the story, does something.假设，五个处于失控电车铁轨上的铁路工人危在旦夕，亟需站在横跨铁路的桥梁上的路人，也就是被调查者伸出援手。The subject is told he is on a bridge over the tracks. Next to him is a big, heavy stranger.被调查者旁边有另一个陌生的大胖子。The