刘瑜·《说真伪》英译

鉴定真伪，标准有时不在于选择的那一刻是不是真诚，而在于他们在形成意见之前，讨论是否自由、观念是否多元、信息是否充分。

如果美女A盛装在镁光灯下从观众面前惊艳地飘过，而美女B只能带着口罩站在舞台后方黑乎乎的角落里。即使百分之百的观众百分之百真诚地选择了美女A为冠军，那能说明什么呢？说明那个镁光灯质量不错，以及那个口罩还挺严实。

True or False

Liu Yu

How to judge whether a thing is true or false? The criteria sometimes are not based on whether the selection at the moment is made sincerely but on whether the discussion is unrestricted before the decision is made, whether there are multiple ideas and adequate information.

Take the beauty contest as an example. Suppose candidate A gorgeously dressed, walked over in a flashing magnesium light before the audience, but candidate B who had to stay in a dark corner appeared with her face covered by a gauze mask. Candidate A was elected champion by 100% audience with 100% sincerity. What did it mean by all this? It meant that the magnesium lamp was of a high quality and the gauze mask was indeed functional.

（陈文伯 译）