简介

欢迎收听《托马斯·索维尔的天才》播客第一集。我是主持人艾伦·沃林。本播客致力于探讨托马斯·索维尔的思想、著作与哲学体系。我们将深入研读他的重要著作，并邀请潜心研究索维尔博士思想的学者进行对话。

Welcome to the first episode of the Genius of Thomas Sowell podcast. I'm Alan Wohlin, the host of the podcast. This podcast is dedicated to exploring and discussing the ideas, works, and philosophy of Thomas Sowell. We will be visiting some of his most important books and hosting conversations with people who have taken a deep dive into Doctor. Sowell's ideas.

诚邀您参与我们首期特别嘉宾访谈，届时将探讨索维尔的核心学术贡献。在此之前，本期导论将简要介绍托马斯·索维尔及其重要思想。作为当今世界最伟大的在世知识分子之一——我怀着复杂心情说这句话，因为我不仅认为索维尔是最伟大的知识分子之一，更确信他是当代最伟大的思想家。

We invite you to join us for our first episode with a surprise guest when we will be discussing some of Sowell's key contributions. Until then, this introductory episode tells you a little bit about Thomas Sowell and outlines some of his key ideas. Thomas Sowell is one of the world's greatest living intellectuals. I say that with mixed feelings because I don't really believe Sowell is one of the world's greatest intellectuals. I actually believe he is the greatest intellectual alive today.

但鉴于我无法断言了解所有在世学者，贸然做出更强论断有失严谨——尽管我深信不疑。托马斯·索维尔最为人知的身份是经济学家，曾在康奈尔、布兰迪斯、阿默斯特和加州大学洛杉矶分校等顶尖学府任教。1977年成为斯坦福大学胡佛研究所高级研究员后，他持续撰写涵盖经济学、历史学、社会学、哲学、教育学、政治理论、种族与文化等领域的著作及专栏，学术生涯跨越六十余载，出版著作40余部，发表报刊专栏数千篇。

But because I can't honestly say I am familiar with every intellectual alive today, it would be sloppy for me to make the far stronger claim, though I do believe it to be true. Thomas Sowell is best known as an economist who taught at many top schools including Cornell, Brandeis, Amherst, and UCLA. In 1977, he became a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, He has been there ever since, writing books and columns on a wide range of topics including economics, history, sociology, philosophy, education, political theory, race, and culture. His career spans more than six decades. He has written over 40 books and published thousands of newspaper columns.

绝大多数人——包括高学历群体——从未听闻托马斯·索维尔之名，这个事实总令我震惊不已。索维尔的相对默默无闻是其传奇的重要注脚，某种程度上印证了学术当权派'打不过就无视'的策略。由于索维尔是非裔，反对者常搬出'汤姆叔叔'这个万能标签来否定其思想价值。

The vast majority of people, even highly educated individual, have never even heard of Thomas Sowell. And this fact never ceases to amaze and baffle me. Sowell's relative anonymity is a key part of his story and a proof of sorts that the intellectual powers that be have adopted a strategy of, if you can't beat him, ignore him. Because Sowell is black, people who disagree with his intellectual methods and conclusions often use the two magic words they can deploy to delegitimize his ideas. Uncle Tom.

暗示索维尔为取悦白人读者而宣扬某些观点，这种论调既回避了理性讨论其思想的必要性，又让批评者得以不经论证就全盘否定其主张。'你怎么看索维尔对奴隶制历史的观点？''那个汤姆叔叔啊，我根本不屑理会。'阅读索维尔著作的最大价值，不在于获取具体史实或理论解释，而在于接触严谨的思维方法——这套方法论可应用于所有学术领域与智力成长。

By suggesting that Sowell promotes certain views as a way of pleasing his white readers and fans is to avoid the necessity of discussing his ideas from a rational and logical framework and enables his detractors to dismiss his views out of hand without the need to refute them with evidence and reason. What do you think of Thomas Sowell's views on the history of slavery? Oh, that uncle Tom, I don't pay much attention to what he has to say. The great value of reading Sowell's works lies not in learning this or that fact from history or in hearing about this or that theory of why things work the way they work. Rather, to dive into Sowell's books is to be exposed to a rigorous intellectual method, which can be used in all arenas of scholarship and intellectual growth.

他的著作真正教会你如何思考，而非思考什么。阅读索维尔犹如开启颠覆认知范式的思想之旅——那些被媒体反复灌输的'常识'，经他论证往往缺乏实证依据。以下是索维尔思维方法的七大原则：第一，

His books literally teach you how to think about things, not what to think about them. To read Thomas Sowell's books is to embark on an intellectual journey of paradigm shifting proportions. So many of the things you thought were true, if only because they are repeated endlessly in the media, have little or no evidence to support them, according to Sowell. Here are seven guiding principles of Sowell's intellectual method. Number one.

人性存在两种根本认知：受限视角与乌托邦视角。受限视角认为人类存在固有缺陷且无法根除，进步只能通过制度改良将人性阴暗面约束在可接受范围；乌托邦视角则认为人是白板，只要社会制度完美就能消除犯罪、贪婪、懒惰、嫉妒等本质缺陷。索维尔指出，个人主导的认知视角将决定其对社会问题的判断与解决方案。

There are two dominant visions of human nature, the constrained vision and the utopian vision. The constrained vision is the view that human beings are inherently flawed and always will be, and that progress can only come in the form of improving institutions in such a way that the negative aspects of human nature can be kept within the bounds of acceptability, but will never be entirely eliminated. The Utopian vision of human nature believes that people are blank slates at birth and can be perfected if only society were set up in just the right ways. This vision views basic human flaws such as crime, greed, laziness and envy as socially constructed phenomena which can, through the reconstruction of social relations, be entirely eliminated. Sowell's view is that the vision an individual holds dominant in this regard will determine how they judge all problems and issues in society and will determine the solutions they propose.

第二：人类问题没有绝对解决方案，只有利弊权衡。索维尔认为多数人类问题无法彻底解决，最佳情况是通过方案缓解程度，但新方案必然衍生新问题。第三：公共政策的实际后果比决策者的初衷更重要。

Number two: There are no absolute solutions to human problems. There are only trade offs. Sowell does not believe that most human problems can be solved or eliminated, but rather they can at best be attenuated to some degree or another with the proposed solutions creating new problems of their own. Number three. The actual consequences of a public policy are more important than the intentions of policymakers.

索维尔主张评估政策应依据长期实际效果，而非倡议者的善意或冠冕堂皇的名称。第四：'谁做决策'比'决策内容'更关键。索维尔强调，决策者无需为错误付出代价的体系必然存在缺陷，鲜少产生良好结果。第五：

Sowell believes that public policy should not be judged by the good intentions of their advocates, nor by the high minded sounding names these programs are given, but rather by the actual consequences of the policies over time. Number four, who decides is a much more important factor than what gets decided. For Sowell, which party gets to make decisions is just as important as, if not more important than, what actually gets decided. Sowell believes that any decision making system in which the decision makers pay no price for being wrong is inherently flawed and will seldom lead to good outcomes. Number five.

经济学第一课是稀缺性：任何资源都无法满足所有需求。政治学第一课则是无视经济学第一课。——托马斯·索维尔。索维尔有个幽默比喻：人们常说'既然能登月，当然就能实现X政策'，但在他看来，正因为耗费巨资登月，才没有剩余资源实施X政策。

The first lesson of economics is scarcity. There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics. Thomas Sowell. One of Sowell's humorous stories is about how people often say, if we can put a man on the moon, then certainly we can x But for Sowell, the fact that we spent the time and money putting a man on the moon is precisely the reason why there are no resources available to implement policy x.

第六点，任何社会的知识精英所掌握的知识量都不到该社会总知识的10%，90%的知识广泛分布于社会普通民众之中。索维尔在《知识与决策》及《知识分子与社会》两书中提出：知识在社会中的分布状态及其传播方式决定了该社会的成败。他认为当代最大的谬误之一，就是相信知识精英掌握所有答案——只要社会听从他们，一切就会好转。索维尔指出，这种对精英观点和信念的依赖是误入歧途的，会导致公共生活诸多领域的灾难。

Number six, the intellectual elite of any society possess less than 10% of the knowledge of that society. 90% is widely distributed among common people throughout the society. Sowell wrote two books, Knowledge and Decisions and Intellectuals and Society, in which he argues that where knowledge resides in a society and how it is communicated throughout that society determine how successful that society will be. In his view, one of the great mistakes of our age is the belief that intellectual elites hold all the answers, and if only society would listen to them, things would be better. For Sowell, this reliance on the opinions and beliefs of elites is misguided and leads to disasters in many domains of public life.

第七点。知识分子之所以经常犯错，源于职业知识分子身份带来的局限性。索维尔不仅认为知识分子仅掌握社会知识的极小部分，更进一步指出他们常犯根本性错误。原因不在于智力不足，而在于塑造职业知识分子边界的激励机制与约束条件。在索维尔看来，知识分子并非通过其思想在现实世界的实践效果来获得评价——

Number seven. Intellectuals get it wrong much of the time because of the constraints imposed on them by being professional intellectuals. Not only did Sowell believe that intellectuals possess only a small portion of the knowledge available in any given society, he went even further and came to the conclusion that intellectuals often get it completely wrong. The reason for this lies not in their inferior intellects, but rather in the incentives and constraints which shape the boundaries of what it means to be a professional intellectual. Intellectuals, according to Sowell, are judged not by how their ideas work out in the real world.

而是取决于其他知识分子对其思想的看法。只要获得同行认可，即便这些思想导致社会整体灾难，他们的职业生涯依然成功。在我思考问题的思想家中，无人能比托马斯·索维尔对我的影响更深。每当与亲友讨论时事，我总会不由自主地引用索维尔的观点。虽然亲友们可能已听腻了我反复提及这个名字，但他们必须习惯——因为我绝不打算放弃这位当世最伟大知识分子的思想洞见。

They are judged instead by what other intellectuals think of those ideas. And if other intellectuals approve of those ideas, their careers will be successful, even if those ideas lead to disaster for society as a whole. I can think of no other thinker who has had as large an impact on my way of thinking about issues than Thomas Sowell. When discussing current affairs with friends and family, I find myself inevitably quoting Sowell on one issue or another. Those same friends and family are probably sick of hearing the name Thomas Sowell uttered by me, but they're going to have to just get used to it because I have no intention of letting go of the ideas and insights of the world's greatest living intellectual.

感谢收听，我们第二期节目再见。

Thanks for listening, and see you at episode two.