慷慨是一种复杂的美德。或许任何人都愿意将自己弃用淘汰的物件转赠他人，但倘若要奉献自己的珍爱之物，所有人未必都能“落落大方”。在这个复杂又浮躁的时代，我们见证太多伪善与虚假，公益成为追名逐利的捷径，慈善演变为华丽的娱乐圈大秀。我们需要纯粹的慷慨，渴望慷慨的包裹中，是一颗真心。
比尔·盖茨不慷慨？
作者：
Christian B Miller
译者：文诗韵
校对：朱宇晴
编辑：
张嫣
本文选自 Aeon | 取经号原创翻译
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True generosity involves more than just giving
真正的慷慨并不仅仅是赠予
Who is the most generous person in theworld today? Ask folks in the West, and the most popular answer would probably be Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft. For good reason, too.
According to Business Insider’s 2015 ranking of the 20 most generous people in the world, Gates comes in first, with $27 billion in lifetime donations. But is Gates really a generous person? That seems like an absurd question. What more could anyone ask of him?
当今世上，谁是最慷慨的人？问西方人，最受欢迎的答案大概是比尔盖茨——微软的创始人。当然，他们也有好的理由。根据《商业内幕》公布的2015年全球最慷慨20人的名单，盖茨以终身捐款270亿美元占据榜首。但盖茨真的是一个慷慨的人吗？这问题听起来有些荒谬。对盖茨，我们还能再要求些什么呢？
However, virtues such as generosity are complicated. They involve more than just outward behaviour. A person’s underlying thoughts, feelings and motives matter, too. If those aren’t in good shape, then one cannot qualify as a generous person. The same holds for other virtues, such as compassion,
humility
and forgiveness.
但美德（比如慷慨）是复杂的，它们并不仅只是一个人表现在外的行为，内在的思想、感受和动机也同样重要。如果那些内在的东西并不如外在那般好，那么这个人就没有资格被称为是一个慷慨的人。这一标准同样适用于其他美德，比如怜悯、
谦逊
、宽恕。
humility
/hjʊˈmɪlɪti/ n. a modestor low view of one's own importance; humbleness.
谦逊
So what more is involved in being agenerous person besides consistently donating one’s money, time and resources? Philosophers should have a lot to say to help us answer this question, especially
in light of
the explosion of work on virtue and character in recent decades. But not so. Generosity is a
neglected
virtue in academic research in general, and perhaps most of all in philosophy.There have been very few articles on generosity in
mainstream
philosophy journals since 1975.
那么除了持续付出金钱、时间和资源外，一个慷慨的人还应具备什么呢？哲学家本应该帮助我们解答这个问题，尤其
考虑到
关于品质、美德的研究近几十年来大量出现。但却并非如此。在学术研究领域中，慷慨
不受重视
；细化到哲学研究，慷慨大概是最不受重视的一种美德了。1975年以来，我们鲜少在哲学
的
主流
期刊
中见到研究慷慨的文章。
in light of
drawing knowledge orinformation from; taking something into consideration
考虑到
Let us
venture
out on our own, then. I want to propose three requirements we have to meet to qualify as generous people. Needless to say, there are others, but I find these to be particularly interesting and controversial.
那就让我们自己来
大胆探索
吧。对于评判什么是慷慨的人，我想提出三条标准。不用说，其他的标准也是有的，但我发现这三条格外的有趣，并且富有争议。
venture
/ˈven(t)SHər/ v. dare to do or saysomething that may be considered audacious
敢于、冒险
First comes donating something of value to you. Consider the following example:
第一条是捐献一些对你有价值的东西。请看下面这一例子：
Jones has completely lost interest in the CDs in his car; he hasn’t played them in years, and they are just
gathering dust
. One day, he happens to drive by a Goodwill collection centre, and decides that it would be nice to get rid of them. So he drops them off.
琼斯已经对自己车里的CD完全失去了兴趣，他已经好久没有播放过这些CD了，它们只是放在那里
积灰
。有一天，他偶然间开车路过了一个慈善中心，突然觉得或许在这里摆脱掉这些CD是个不错的主意。然后他把这些CD留在了那里。
I don’t want to
fault
what Jones did. It is praiseworthy, and Goodwill can put the donation to good use. But is his donation generous? I am inclined to say no. If Jones had still been attached to the CDs and thought that donating them could do some good in the world, then that would be one thing. But he lost all attachment to them years ago. Whenacting generously, a person gives something of value to him, something that hecares about, even if only to a small degree.
我并不想去
挑剔
琼斯的行为。这是值得赞美的，而且慈善中心可以让这些CD有机会再次展现自己。但他的捐献是慷慨的吗？我倾向于认为，这并不是。如果琼斯还在继续使用这些CD并且认为如果捐出这些CD可以为这个世界做点好事，那么，这可能是慷慨。但他从很久以前就不再喜欢这些CD了。慷慨的举动，指的是一个人给出了一些他在乎、对他有价值的东西，即便价值很小。
fault
/fɔlt/ v. criticize for inadequacy ormistakes
挑…的错
Next up is not focusing on oneself
.
Here is another example:
第二点是，慷慨不是为了关注自身。这里有另外一个例子：
Amanda has been donating to various charities for a number of years, and today she is receiving a community award for her
philanthropy
. Although she doesn’t tell this to other people, what has motivated her to make these donations has always been the
publicity
and recognition.
阿曼达已经给各种慈善机构做捐助好些年了，时至今日，她的
慈善举动
获得了社区奖章。尽管她没有把这件事告诉其他人，但激励她去捐助的一直都是
公众的关注
和认可。
Again, we can agree that the world is a better place because Amanda has donated so many times. Thank goodness she helped people over the years, rather than not. Yet here too we don’t find anexpression of generosity. The same is true if her motivation had been to earn
tax deductions
, to get rewards in the
afterlife
or to appease a guilty conscience. What all these have in common is that they are
self-focused
. The person who donates her money or time for these reasons is ultimately concerned only about herself, and not those who would be helped by the donation.
同样的，我们认同阿曼达的多次捐助让世界变得更美好了。感谢她这些年对人们伸出援手，而不是什么都没做。但这还是不能被认为是慷慨。当她的动机是为了
减税
，为了在
来生
获得回报，为了获得良心的安宁时，她的行为同样不能被认为是慷慨。以上种种的共同点在于，他们都是
以自我为中心的
。阿曼达为了这些目的捐出她的金钱或者时间，她最终是在关注自身，而不是关注那些因捐助而被帮到的群体。
afterlife
/ˈaftərˌlīf/ n. life after death
来生
So a second requirement is that a generous person’s motives in donating have to be primarily
altruistic
, or concerned with the
wellbeing
of those who would be helped, regardless of whether the donor will benefit in the process. If she does,that’s great! But if she doesn’t, that’s OK too. Her benefit is not the point. Note that I said ‘primarily’. Some self-interested reasons could be present,too. But the altruistic motives had better be stronger.
因此，第二条标准是，一个慷慨的人捐献的动机必须是以
利他
为优先的，是关注那些受助群体的
幸福
，而非捐助人在这一过程中自己获得的好处。如果阿曼达真的符合以上所说，那非常好！但如果不是，也没关系。记得我说的“优先”，她的获益并不是重点。我们可以有一些自我利益的理由，但利他这个动机胜出一筹，就最好了。
altruistic
/ˌaltro͞oˈistik/ adj. showinga disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others; unselfish
无私的，利他的
If this is on the right track, it raises a challenging question about the very existence of generosity. For suppose thereis no such thing as altruistic motivation. Perhaps everything we do aims only at our self-interest. Then it would follow that there is no generosity either.
按照这个思路，我们将对慷慨的存在提出一个极具挑战性的问题。假如以人们做事时不存在利他这一动机，也许我们所做的一切都只为了自我利益。如果是这样，那么慷慨便也无从谈起了。
Fortunately, research in psychologysuggests otherwise. Thanks in particular to the groundbreaking work of C DanielBatson from the University of Kansas, we have good reason to think thataltruistic motivation exists. Interestingly, though, as far as we can tell,this happens in only one way – through
empathy
. Batson has found that if you empathise with, say, other people’s suffering, you are more likely to help them, and there is a good chance that your motivation will be altruistic.
幸运的是，心理学研究认为利他动机是存在的。得益于堪萨斯大学C Daniel Batson教授的开创性研究，我们有理由去相信利他动机是存在的。尽管有趣的是，目前为止我们发现的只有一条途径—就是
同理心
。Batsons发现如果你对他人的受难感同身受，你就更有可能去帮助他们，而且你的动机很有可能是利他的。
So generosity survives, but it seems to first require an empathetic state of mind. That’s why the third and final requirement I want to mention here is going above and beyond. This can be illustrated with the following example:
慷慨因此得以存在，但这首先要求我们有同理心。基于此，第三条，也是最后一条标准，是高过、超越之前的。下面的例子阐述了这条规则：
Professor Smith has just finished meeting with a student about her paper. As the student leaves, she says: ‘Thank you formaking the time to meet with me.’
史密斯教授刚刚跟学生开了关于她的论文的会议。学生离开时说道：“谢谢您能抽空出来见我。”
Smith replies, in a completely serious tone of voice: ‘Don’t worry about it. I’m just doing my job. Professors are required to meet with students if office hours are not compatible with their schedules.See you tomorrow in class.’
史密斯非常严肃的回答道：“不要这么说。我只是在做我的本职工作。在教授与学生见面的时间段里，如果学生因为行程安排冲突无法前来，教授必须要与这些学生会面。我们明天上课见。”
He then shuts the door.
然后他关上了门。
Again, admirable of him to meet with her, I would say. But not generous.
同样的，史密斯教授与学生会面值得称赞，但这并不是慷慨。
