英国新闻听力 善行本身就是一种回报

There’s a bit in the latest Tom Stoppard play at the National Theatre in which an atheistic¹ scientist dismisses Raphael's famous Madonna and Child painting as: “Woman Maximising Gene² Survival”. There is no such thing as altruism³, he insists, all human behavior, indeed all animal behavior, is fundamentally self-interested. Genes⁴ exist only to maximize their chances of survival and reproduction.

But there is an immediate⁵ problem with this familiar hypothesis. On Saturday a terrible earthquake occurred in Nepal. Thousands died and many more were made homeless. In response, throughout this week, people have been donating money to an emergency relief fund – donating money to support people they have never met and for a place that most of us have never visited. If all our behavior is a version of self-interest, why do we do this?

Back in 1964, William Hamilton came up with an explanation called kin⁶ selection. He argued that altruism is consistent with the belief that genes are programmed for their own benefit when altruistic⁷ behavior is aimed towards those who are genetically⁹ similar us, to members of our family for instance. In such circumstances, though we may make an individual sacrifice, we may be furthering the reproductive chances of our own gene pool– and that’s what matters.

But I don’t have any Nepalese relatives. I don’t think I know anyone from Nepal. Indeed - some people even give their money for the care of animals, and I fail to see how this can be seen as a way of maximizing the chances of the donor’s genetic⁸ group.

Later, in the 1970’s, another evolutionary¹⁰ biologist came up with the idea that we behave altruistically¹¹ because it maximizes the chances of others behaving the same way towards us. It’s a sort of tit-for-tat arrangement.

But the Nepalese people are amongst the poorest in the world. I don’t suspect that they’d have much money to offer if an earthquake happened here. And yet still we give.

But Stoppard’s play, The Hard Problem, makes a religious character the central advocate for altruism. And I wish he hadn’t. For despite the fact the most of the world’s religious traditions stress the importance of putting others first, morality does not rely upon God. Indeed, doing good simply for the sake of some postponed¹² heavenly benefit would be to undermine altruism not to support it. Goodness should be its own reward.

Which is why there is no fight here between science and religion. “Let us try to teach generosity¹³ and altruism, because we are born selfish” – no, this is not Augustine on Original Sin. Its Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene. And you might be surprised that I agree with him entirely¹⁴. Biology might fight against altruism. But, as Dawkins says, and as our generosity to Nepal clearly demonstrates, our biology doesn’t have to win.

最近国家大剧院上演了汤姆·斯托帕德最新的剧作，剧中一位无神论科学家对拉斐尔的名作《圣母和圣婴》不屑一顾，称之为“女人使得基因生存实现最大化”。他坚称没有什么利他主义，他认为人类的所有行为，以及动物的所有行为从根本上来说都是自私的，基因的存在只是为了将其存活和繁殖的几率实现最大化。

但是这种熟悉的假设中存在一个摆在眼前的问题。周六，一场可怕的地震袭击了尼泊尔，数千人丧生，更多人沦为无家可归。整个一周，人们都在向紧急援救基金捐款，向那些他们从未见过的人捐款，给那些大多人从未去过的地方捐款。如果我们所有的行为都不过是自私的表现，那么我们为何这么做呢？

1964年，威廉姆·汉密尔顿提出所谓“亲缘选择”的解释，他声称利他主义与这样的信念有关，即基因的设定是为了其自身的利益，利他主义行为的做出是为了那些与我们基因相似的人的，比如为了我们的家人。在这种情况下，尽管我们会做出个人牺牲，我们可能因此增加了我们自己基因库进行繁殖的几率，这才是问题的关键。

我并没有什么尼泊尔的亲戚，我也不认识任何来自尼泊尔的人。确实，有些人为了照顾动物而捐款，我看不出这与将捐赠者基因库最大化的机会有何关系。

后来，在20世纪70年代，另一位演化生物学家提出这样的观点，即我们之所以做出利他主义的行为，是因为这能将他人以同样方式回报我们的机会最大化，这就是一报还一报。

但尼泊尔人是全世界最贫困的人群之一，如果我们这里发生地震，我怀疑他们不会有钱可以捐赠给我们，但我们还是给他们捐款了。

但斯托帕德的剧作《艰难问题》中让一个宗教人物成为利他主义的核心倡导者，我希望我不要这么做。因为尽管全世界大多数宗教传统都强调利他的重要性，但道德并不依赖于上帝。确实，做好事只是为了日后在天堂的好处，这只会有损利他主义，而不是发扬利他主义。善行本身就是一种回报。

为何这里科学和宗教没有矛盾呢？“让我们努力传授慷慨和利他主义，因为我们生来就是自私的”。不，这不是《原罪》里奥古斯丁的观点，而是理查德·道金斯在《自私的基因》里的观点，你可能会吃惊我完全赞同他的看法。生物性可能会与利他主义相矛盾，但正如道金斯所说，以及正如我们对尼泊尔的慷慨所表现的那样，我们的生物性不一定非得取胜。

1 atheistic   

adj.无神论者的

参考例句：

• She has the gift of the gab.她口才很好。
• With his gift of gab, he should make an excellent politician.以其雄辩之才，他应该可以成为出色的政治家。

2 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

3 altruism   

n.利他主义，不自私

参考例句：

• An important feature of moral behaviour is altruism.道德行为一个重要特点就是利他主义。
• Altruism is crucial for social cohesion.利他主义对社会的凝聚是至关重要的。

4 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

5 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

6 kin   

n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的

参考例句：

• He comes of good kin.他出身好。
• She has gone to live with her husband's kin.她住到丈夫的亲戚家里去了。

7 altruistic   

adj.无私的，为他人着想的

参考例句：

• It is superficial to be altruistic without feeling compassion.无慈悲之心却说利他，是为表面。
• Altruistic spirit should be cultivated by us vigorously.利他的精神是我们应该努力培养的。

8 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

9 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

10 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

11 altruistically   

参考例句：

• An unexpectedly large fraction of players acted altruistically to protect their weaker friends. 远远超出人们的预料，有很大一部分玩家在游戏中无私地保护那些弱者朋友。 来自互联网

12 postponed   

vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发）

参考例句：

• The trial was postponed indefinitely. 审讯无限期延迟。
• The game has already been postponed three times. 这场比赛已经三度延期了。

13 generosity   

n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为

参考例句：

• We should match their generosity with our own.我们应该像他们一样慷慨大方。
• We adore them for their generosity.我们钦佩他们的慷慨。

14 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。