Issue91 My view about the relationship between values and reason

galaxysongUID: 152834

This is an important topic worth exercising. Therefore, I wrote an essay on it, too.
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91"Most people think that their deeply held values are the result of rational choice, but reason often has little to do with the way people form values."
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Values, what I believe can be broadly defined as the guidance for human pursuits and endeavors, are not the result of rational choice. Although most people, many great philosophers included, stood and still stand in the other side about this issue, their interpretations as attempts to combine the reason and values together, actually beg the question.

The initiation of a pursuit is desire, which is the master of reason. To clarify, one needs to distinguish desire and goal, the latter of which serve the former faithfully together with reason, the other servant. Consider, for example, the case of a father who after a longtime hesitation gives up the alluring idea to buy an contraption of toys which may undoubtedly win his kid's biggest joy. He will say that because the set of toys is too excessive for he to afford, he has to abandon the unreasonable "desire" for it. As such events repeat day by day, he holds a value emphasizing only the economical entertainment, and even abuses those who afford expensive recreation with no difficulty as squanderers. However, what's the real desire of this poor father? To please his kid is the answer, while the want for toys is just a means to achieving so. And this desire still can be satisfied in other ways, such as by appreciating his child, spending time talking and listening to his kid, and so forth.

When someone says "I don't want it" about something can objectively provide him or her great utility, he or she actually means "experiences have taught me that such thing is beyond me." It is the fact whether one can realize one's desire by certain goals that form the way one pursuits. In other words, facts compose experiences; experiences then, with the aid of logical reasoning, foretells the result of an attempt for a goal; if one goal cannot be achieved, a person will turn to other goals. Moreover, even economic theories, in which man is considered driven by economic motivations and to make choices under the guide of reason, still can't deny the different choices are mutual alternatives and the desire, resident deeply in human's heart, is completely independent from rationality and logics. in short, if managing successfully to avoid mixing up the two concepts of desire and goal, one could see that reason has little to do with desire.

As to the value, it can be regarded as a road map for the pursuit for meeting one desire. To a large extent, values are just what goals one values. They, usually in the forms of preferences and tastes, ease one's choosing among goals. Without the guidance of values, one would be bogged down by infinite options. For instance, I have played some homemade PC games and in most cases ended in disappointment in comparison with imported ones. Understandably, now I value an incoming foreign PC game much better than a native one, although the advertisements and introductions of the two look similarly cool.

Admittedly, reason plays a critical role in explaining this road map on the basis of experiences, and also helps one to make discussions in his or her way on the road. In this way, reason serves desire. Nevertheless, this fact doesn't lead to the conclusion that reason draws the map as well. Since humans share common basic desires, it is one's conditions and situation that chiefly decide the results of his or her attempts, and thereby his or her values. There are many stories about how a man changes his values accordingly with his state up or down. Reason and logic here never direct such changes.

In sum, values direct people's pursuits while reasons help to interpret values and execute pursuits. Bred of the ongoing conflicts between desire and situation, experiences of attempts, other than logics and reason, form and change values.

galaxysongUID: 152834

1 The phrase "what I believe can be broadly" was necessary becuase the definition I gave was a creation of mine, which I don't expect has been popularly accepted.

2 I learnt "to clarify" from a model argument.

3 "Initiation" means both beginning and motivation. That was why I chose it.

4 As to "the latter of which serve the former faithfully", "of which" cannot be omitted, or an conjunction before this clause will be needed. The word "serve" was wrong and must be modified into "serves". "Faithfully" was a literary impersonation, yet it might be improper.

5 What do you mean by "security" after "economical entertainment"?

6 Is "denigrate" better than "abuse"? I don't know.

7

你这段应该阐述 value determines desire 才能完成 value-pursuit(=goal??) 的因关系吧。The function of value just begs the question too.

Either you or I, or perhaps both, fail to make out a clear comprehension about this issue.

8 "Discussions"??? My god! It should be "decisions"!

9 Reverse the order of my bodies as your wish, and see which order puzzles one worse.

10 I admit that I risked my marks by discussing this issue so philosophically. In a real test, I won't dare to do it.

galaxysongUID: 152834

没人看……
我还建议别人组队呢。现在是我自己找不到同伴。

wglxhUID: 152604

这几天我比较累.明天情人节答应老婆一天不看书,绕北京玩一圈,呵呵!
后天一早起来仔细改看这篇文章.OK?

galaxysongUID: 152834

Don't forget to use my tool to colorize your comments.
Moreover, do you know that you can modify your 帖子 after sending it, just by click the button "Edit" under your 帖子?

wglxhUID: 152604

只看语言,不管内容和逻辑.毕竟这些东西隔一段时间,你把它直译成中文,毛病就全出来了.

Values, what I believe can be broadly defined as the guidance for human pursuits and endeavors,无论这句话想做定语从句还是简单的只作插入语，WHAT都不合适。况且你又犯了主谓不一致的错误，你想用VALUES做主语，可结果主语变成了what i believe,有很多种改法，思考一下。此外，这里有一个中国人一般不会体会到的语气的细微差别，即，如果你用“THE”修饰“GUIDANCE”，那么这里你事实上强调的是“唯一的指导”，这种定冠词的用法在做文章标题或下定义是常见，“唯一”是你想表达的本意么？ are not the result of rationalchoice. Although most people, many great philosophers included, stood and still stand in the other side about this issue,这个用法我不清楚，可否解释一下？ their interpretations as attempts to combine the reason and values together去掉这个词, actually beg the question.

The initiation of a pursuit is desire, which is the master of reason. To clarify, one needs to distinguish desire and from 会好一些goal, the latter of whichOF WHICH 去掉 serve the former faithfully together with reason没有分号，也没有任何连接词就随便另起一句话？到是文学作品中经常这么干, the other servant. Consider, for example, thea case of a father who after a longtime hesitation givesgave up the alluring idea to buy an contraption of toys写文章不要炫耀词，在意思和上下文风格上都不伦不类，直接TOY which may undoubtedly win his kid's biggest joy.糟糕的句子，你以为你写完整了，实际没有。整句话没有谓语和其他别的成分。问题出在你用了WHO，所以后面的GIVES UP等等都属于这个从句了。顺便说一下，KID不是书面语，不过你这里处处不是书面语，也许你想建立一种亲切的风格 He will say用过去时吧，或者用别的情态动词表示“可能”。这里用将来时荒谬，表示“愿意”则不通 that because the set of toys is too excessive for he多余 to afford, he hasHAD to abandon the unreasonable "desire" for it多余. As such events repeat day by day, he holds a value emphasizing only the economical entertainment用词错误, and even abuses those who CAN afford expensive recreation with no difficulty as squanderers. However, what's the real desire of this poor father? To please his kid is the answer, while the want for toys is just a means to achieving 这里最好不要把TO当作介词so. And this desire still can be satisfied in other ways, such as by appreciating his child, spending time talking and listening to his kid, and so forth.一个常见的“荒诞”用法，汉语中说“比如。。。等等”，英语中也好多人这么说，"such as+so forth/etc.",呵呵。很搞笑，去参考一下“the element of style"吧

有一个比较高标准的要求，尽量不要把HOWEVER放在开头表转折，尽管范文中很多人这么用。但实际上可以把他放在结尾或中间才是好英文。HOWEVER放在开头最好只表示”NO MATTER HOW“

When someone says "I don't want it" about something can objectively provide him or her great utility, he or she actually means "experiences have taught me that such thing is beyond me." 这句话糟糕的都不象出自你手，语言上错误百出。尤其是头半句，你怎么想到把引号中的那句话就那么和后文接上的？？CAN前面很明显缺词，在从句中做主语时怎么可以省略连接词呢？两句话在风格上简直相差太远，既然你前句连”效用“这样的”文词“都用了，后句怎么能跟那么口语话的表达？？或者该后句为类似“subject to my budget",或者改前句为”什么可以使我变的更好的东西“而不是弄一个UTILITYIt is the fact whether one can realize one's desire by certain goals没看明白 that

form the way one pursuits.强调句式还不错，可惜稍微有点长以致于你又忘了主谓一致！！FORMS！！！此外，PURSUES！！ In other words, facts compose experiences; experiences then, with the aid of logical reasoning, foretells 唉，我都要吐血了，foretellthe result of an attempt for a goal; if one goal cannot be achieved, a person will turn to other goals. Moreover, even economic theories, in which man is considered driven by economic motivations and to make choices under the guide of reason, still can't deny that the different choices are mutual alternatives and the desire, resident deeply in human's heart, is completely independent from rationality and logics. in short, if managing successfully to avoid mixing up the two concepts of desire and goal对”manage to"把握不好，所以加了不必要的successfully, one could see that reason has little to do with desire.

   算了，不改了。我还是喜欢你的88多一些。以上部分七零八落（只指语言），语言表达怪诞不堪。我没有全部改。记住：主谓一致！！！

wglxhUID: 152604

兄弟,我说话比较难听不要见怪.我真的很希望你能把作文再提高一些?你什么时候考?等你考完了可以告诉我你的地址,我寄几本写作书给你??系统的学一下,不过前提还是你要有兴趣.呵呵.

galaxysongUID: 152834

关于假想例子的时态，有范文为证：Consider the blind law student who inspires others to overcome the same challenge; or the amputee distance runner who serves as a role model for other physically challenged people in her community.
现在修改后的文章如下：

Values, which can be broadly defined as the primary guidance for human pursuits and endeavors, are not the result of rational choice. Although most people, many great philosophers included, stood and still stand on the other side about this issue, their interpretations, as attempts to combine the reason and values, actually beg the question.

The initiation of a pursuit is desire, which is the master of reason. To clarify, one needs to distinguish desire from goal, which serve the former faithfully together with reason, the other servant. Consider, for example, a father who after a longtime hesitation gives up the alluring idea to buy a toy which may undoubtedly win his son's biggest joy. He may say that because the set of toys is too excessive for his family to afford, he has to abandon this unreasonable "desire". As similar things repeat day by day, he is very likely to form a value emphasizing economization in entertainment, and even abuse as squanderers those who can afford expensive recreation with no difficulty. However, what is the real desire of this poor father? Actually, it is to please his kid. The want for toys, however, is just a means to achieve so. Moreover, this desire still can be satisfied in many other ways, such as by appreciating his son, or just spending time talking and listening to his boy.

When we overtly denies our want for something that can objectively provide us great utility, we actually mean that we cannot choose this thing as a goal when there are other more achievable alternatives.. Given a certain kind of desire, it is the fact whether we can realize this desire by certain goals that form the way we pursue it. We learn from our experiences what goals to set and what else to preclude. In other words, facts compose experiences; experiences then, usually with the aid of logic reasoning, foretells the result of an attempt for a goal; if one goal cannot be achieved or doesn't serve the desire well, we will turn to other goals. Moreover, even economic theories, in which man is considered driven by economic motivations and to make choices under the guide of reason, still can't deny that different choices are mutual alternatives  and the desire, resident deeply in human's heart, is completely independent from rationality and logics. In short, if managing to avoid mixing up the two concepts of desire and goal, one could see that reason, which helps to make decisions on goals, has little to do with desire.

As to the value, it can be regarded as a road map for the pursuit for meeting one desire. To a large extent, values are just what goals one values. They, usually in the forms of preferences and tastes, ease one's choosing among goals. Without the guidance of values, one would be bogged down by infinite options. For instance, I have played some homemade PC games and in most cases ended in disappointment in comparison with imported ones. Understandably, now I value an incoming foreign PC game much better than a native one, although the advertisements and introductions of the two both look similarly cool. Thus, thanks to this value of mine, in a game software shop I can pick up a right game without recalling why I ought to choose it.

Admittedly, reason plays a critical role in explaining this road map on the basis of experiences, and also helps one to make discussions in his or her way on the road. In this way, reason serves desire. Nevertheless, this fact doesn't lead to the conclusion that reason draws the map as well. Since humans share common basic desires, it is one's conditions and situation that chiefly decide the results of his or her attempts, and thereby his or her values. There are many stories about how a man changes his values accordingly with his state up or down. Reason and logic here never direct such changes.

In sum, values direct people's pursuits while reasons help to interpret values and execute pursuits. Bred of the ongoing conflicts between desire and situation, experiences of attempts, other than logics and reason, form and change values.

题目太复杂了，我写的时候又没有彻底想清楚，结果令人很难读懂。这样深奥的文章，我再考完作文前（三月二日）再也不会写了。还是范文的深度最合适，浅显易懂。

向我推荐一两本即可。我会自己买，你就别破费了。

sydUID: 151948

I am already in a team with ghdanny, I will be very glad if you join us and then we can march together.
看过了你的文章， 觉得语言实在是 不错，你对 题目的理解 也很深刻，我 基本理解 你的意思，HOWEVER，我觉得有 必要提醒你对比一下 6分的 ETS 范文，你似乎 过于的 哲学化了 一些问题，显得你 的文章 过于抽象，我不是 说抽象 不好，因为 有些题目 本身就 具有相当的 思辨的色彩，不过 ，对比范文，包括老美的 思维方式 ，就是有一种 MAKING YOUR STATEMENT SIMPLE IS THE BEST WAY FOR THE READER TO KNOW YOUR IDEA的 倾向，说白了就是 深入浅出，第一不能指望 改卷人 写一些推理的 记号来 推你的思路，你的段落里 有许多逻辑和 讨论点的转变，有些还是 跳转，第二 考虑时间，45分钟和两个小时的思维深度 肯定是不一样的，除非 你BT 的把所有 题目写一便，如果你的提纲的论点过于抽象，在限时的时候 是很难 找到 STRONG的 例子的。个人认为 限时==现实。
愚见，希望可以互助，交流。

wglxhUID: 152604

通顺一些了.不过我指出的主谓不一致的错误还没有都纠正过来.看来你有能力自己改文章了,努力吧,我想你的得分不会低于五分的.
本来想给你复印几本我老师从国外带回来的书......ANYWAY,FORGET IT.