投资 · 西方古典
弗雷德里克·巴斯夏:经济诡辩·摘录 282
弗雷德里克·巴斯夏《经济诡辩》· Economic Sophisms · 投资
But there are sciences which exercise on the public mind an influence which is only in proportion to public enlightenment, and derive all their efficacy, not from knowledge accumulated in some gifted minds, but from knowledge diffused over the general masses. Among these we include morals, medicine, social economy, and, in countries where men are their own masters, Politics. It is to such sciences that the saying of Bentham specially applies, "To disseminate them is better than to advance them." What signifies it, that some great man, or even that God himself, should have promulgated the laws of morality, as long as men, imbued with false notions, mistake virtues for vices, and vices for virtues? What matters it that Smith, Say, and, according to M. de Saint-Chamans, economists of all schools, have proclaimed, in reference to commercial transactions, the superiority of liberty over constraint, if the men who make our laws, and for whom our laws are made, think differently?
出处:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44145
定位:Excerpt 282 · 核对日期:2026-10-19 · 核验:短摘录
白话
但另一些科学不同:它们的效果不靠少数天才积累知识,而靠知识在大众中传播。道德、医学、社会经济学,以及民主国家的政治,都属于这一类。边沁说得好:传播它们比推进它们更重要。如果人们满脑子错误观念,把美德当恶习、把恶习当美德,那么即使上帝亲自颁布道德律,又有什么用?同样,斯密、萨伊等经济学家都证明自由贸易优于管制,可如果立法者和被立法者想法相反,这些理论也白搭。所以关键是把正确观念普及到公众。
上下文
巴斯夏《经济诡辩》。他区分“专家科学”和“大众科学”,强调后者必须靠传播才能生效。
今日一问
你身边有哪些“专家说对了、大众却信错了”的事?你能做点什么让正确观念传开?
公版作品;原文逐字取自 Project Gutenberg,仅摘录段落并附全书链接。
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