UNIT 1
About 2,400 years ago in Athens a man was put to death for asking too many questions. There were philosophers before him, but it was with Socrates that a the subject really took off. If philosophy has a patron saint it is Socrates.
values翻译大约是 2,400 年以前，在雅典，有一个人因为问了太多问题被判了死刑。在他之前，也有许多哲学家，可哲学这门学科却是从他——苏格拉底开始，才进入一个真正腾飞的阶段。苏格拉底之于哲学，就是一位引路和守护的圣人。
As a young man he had been a brave soldier fighting in the Peloponnesian War against the Spartans and their allies. In middle age he shuffled around the marketplace, stopping people from time to time and asking them awkward questions. That was more or less all he did. But the questions he asked were razor-sharp. They seemed straightforward; but they weren’t.
年轻时的苏格拉底曾是一名勇敢的战士，参与了伯罗奔尼撒战争，抵御斯巴达人及其盟军。
到了中年，他在市集随处走动，时不时拦下路人，问他们一些难以回答的问题。 他差不多就只干这个。但他的问题都很犀利，看似简单直白，实际却不好回答。
The word “philosopher” comes from the Greek words meaning “love of wisdom”. The Western tradition in philosophy spread from ancient Greece across large parts of the world, at time cross-fertilized by ideas from the East. The kind of wisdom that it values is based on argument, reasoning and asking question, not on believing things simply because someone important has told you they are true. Wisdom for Socrates was not knowing lots of facts, or knowing how to do something. It meant understanding the true nature of our existence, including the limits of what we can know. Philosophers today are doing more or less what Socrates was doing: asking tough questions, looking at reasons and evidence, struggling to answer some of the most important question we can ask ourselves about the nature of reality and how we should live.
“哲学家”一词（ philosopher）来源于希腊语，意思是“对智慧的热爱”。西方哲学的传统正是从古希腊发迹，传播到了世界的绝大多数地方，期间在历史上也曾若干次吸纳东方思想。西
方传统哲学重视的是论点、推理与提问，而不是简单地相信权威人士如何说。智慧在苏格拉底看来不是知道多少事实，也不是了解如何做事。 智慧是了解我们存在的本质，包括我们能洞悉的事物的界限。现今的哲学家差不多和苏格拉底做的事一样：提出难以回答的问题，检验推理和证据，试图解答我们针对自身提出的最重要的一些问题，这些问题关乎现实的本质，关乎我们如何生活。
What made Socrates so wise was that he kept asking questions and he was always willing to debate his ideas. Life, he declared, is only worth living if you think about what you are doing . An unexamined existence is all right for cattle, but not for human beings.
苏格拉底之所以获得如此智慧，是因为不断地提问，而且始终愿意与人辩论自己的观点。他说，生活，未经反思是不值得过的。未经推敲的存在对于一头牛来说没什么，但对于人却是不能接受的。
UNIT 3
Why is “you” such a powerful word? Because when we were infants, we thought we were t
he center of the universe. Nothing mattered but ME, MYSELF and I. The rest of the shadowy forms stirring about us (which we later learned were other people) existed solely for what they could do for us. Self-centered little tykes that we were, our tiny brains translated every action, every word, into, “How does that affect ME?”
为什么“你”是如此有力的一个词？因为当我们还是婴儿时，我们就以为自己是宇宙的中心， 没有什么能大过“我”。周围往来穿梭的一团混沌（后来我们才知道这是“其他人”）不过因其对我们的用处而存在。我们这些自我为中心的小不点儿，小脑瓜里把别人的一举一动、一言一行都解读为“这对我有什么影响？
Before answering, Jill is thinking to herself, “By ‘good’ does he mean the food or the atmosphere or both?” Her reverie continues, “Indian cuisine, I’m not sure. He says it’s good. However, will I like it?” While thinking, Jill hesitates. You probably take her hesitation personally, and the joy of the exchange diminishes. Suppose, instead, you had said to her, “Jill, you will really love this new Indian restaurant. Will you join me there this evening for dinner?” Phrasing it that way, you’ve already subliminally answered Jill’s question and she’s more apt to give you a quick “yes.”
回答之前，吉尔暗忖：“他说‘不错’是指食物还是环境，还是两者都不错？”她接着想：“印度菜，我拿不准。他说好，可是我会喜欢吗？”想着想着，吉尔就犹豫了。她的犹豫可能会使你感到不快，交流的乐趣也因此而打了折扣。试想，你换一种问法：“吉尔，你一定会喜欢这家新开的印度馆子的。今晚和我一起去那儿吃怎么样？”这样措辞，你已经下意识地解答了吉尔的疑问，因此她更有可能会很快答复你“好啊。”
The pleasure-pain principle is a guiding force in life. Psychologists tell us everyone automatically gravitates toward that which is pleasurable and pulls away from that which is painful. For many people, thinking is painful.
“快乐—痛苦原则”是生命中的指引力量。心理学家告诉我们，每个人都会自动趋向于令其快乐的事物而远离令其痛苦的事物。对于很多人而言，思考便是痛苦的。
So big winners (when they wish to control, inspire, be loved by, sell to people, or get them to go to dinner) do the thinking for them. They translate everything that powerful little three-letter word, “you.” Thus, I call the technique “Comm-YOU-nication.”
因此，真正的赢家（当他们想控制，想激励，想被爱，想向人兜售什么或想请人吃饭时）总是替别人考虑。他们把一切都转化为从对方的角度出发，尽可能多地以“你”这样一个简单而有力的字开头。因此，我称这种沟通技巧为“唯‘你’独尊”。
Putting “you” first gets a much better response, especially when you’re asking a favor, because it pushes people’s pride button. Suppose you want to take a long weekend. You decide to ask your boss if you can take Friday off. Which request do you think he or she is going to react to more positively? “Can I take Friday off, Boss?” Or this one: “Boss, can you do without me Friday?”