As well as bringing the world to a halt, the coronavirus epidemic has led to an increase in misinformation, lies and conspiracy theories on the internet.
除了使世界陷入停滞外，冠状病毒的流行还导致互联网上的错误信息、谎言和阴谋论增加。
Rob(罗伯)
In an era of fake news, where even a president of the United States is accused of spreading misinformation, could it be that we are living through a crisis in trust? What is trust? And who should we place our trust in? – these are some of the questions we’ll be discussing in this programme.
And we’ll be hearing from a philosopher who believes the problem is not about trust itself but about trustworthiness – the ability to be trusted as being honest and reliable.
And as always we’ll be learning some related vocabulary along the way. Of course telling lies and lacking trustworthiness is nothing new - just think of the Trojan Horse used to trick the ancient Greeks.
More recently, the American financier Bernie Madoff become infamous as ‘the biggest swindler in history’. In 2009 he was sentenced to 150 years in prison for his part in the Ponzi scam, but how much did he defraud from investors? That’s my quiz question. Was it: a) 6.5 million dollars?; b) 65 million dollars? or c) 65 billion dollars?
最近，美国金融家伯尼·麦道夫 650 亿美元？
Rob(罗伯)
I’ll say b) 65 million dollars.
我会说 b） 6500 万美元。
Neil(尼尔)
OK, Rob, we’ll come back to that later. Generally speaking, trust can be described as a judgement that someone can be believed and relied upon. When we trust each other it makes life easier, quicker and friendlier.
Society can’t function without trust - so does that mean the more trust the better?
没有信任，社会就无法运转 —— 那么这是否意味着信任越多越好？
Neil(尼尔)
Well, not according to philosopher, Onora O’Neill. Here he is speaking to David Edmonds, presenter of the BBC World Service programme, The Big Idea:
好吧，不是根据哲学家奥诺拉·奥尼尔的说法。在这里，他正在与BBC世界服务节目The Big Idea的主持人David Edmonds交谈：
Onora O’Neill(奥诺拉·奥尼尔)
We have another word, which is gullible, and if you simply place trust indiscriminately without making a judgement about whether the other person or institution is trustworthy then just trusting to luck as we say, is probably not a virtue.
There’s a difference between trusting someone because you have good reason to believe them and being gullible – that's easy to deceive because you trust and believe people too quickly.
But being gullible and trusting to luck is exactly how Bernie Madoff was able to trick so many people into giving him their money. Their biggest mistake was to trust him indiscriminately - in a way that does not show care or judgement, usually with harmful results.
So, if indiscriminately trusting people is such a bad idea, how do we avoid it? How can we tell who is trustworthy and who is not? Here’s BBC World Service’s The Big Idea presenter, David Edmonds, asking Onora O’Neill to give some details:
那么，如果不分青红皂白地信任别人是一个坏主意，我们如何避免它呢？我们如何分辨谁值得信赖，谁不值得信赖？这是 BBC World Service 的 The Big Idea 主持人 David Edmonds，请 Onora O'Neill 提供一些细节：
David Edmonds(大卫·埃德蒙兹)
An individual or organisation is trustworthy is they can justifiably be trusted. To be trustworthy they need three ingredients. First, honesty – people have to be able to believe what they’re told. Second, competence. Beyond honesty and competence there’s a third element to trustworthiness: reliability.
That’s the boring one. That’s just being honest and competent each time so that it’s not enough to be episodically honest and competent for some of the things you claim to be able to do but not others.
Philosopher Onora O’Neill identifies three ingredients for trustworthiness: honesty, competence and reliability.
哲学家奥诺拉·奥尼尔确定了可信度的三个要素：诚实，能力和可靠性。
Neil(尼尔)
Competence means the ability to do something well. You would trust a car mechanic to fix your broken car engine, but you wouldn’t go to them for dental work – they’re not competent to remove your tooth like a dentist is.
And you wouldn’t trust your dentist to fix your broken down car, either! Onora O’Neill also mentions reliability – being trustworthy because you behave well all the time and keep all the promises you make.
It’s the combination of these three – being honest, competent and reliable – that makes someone truly trustworthy.
正是这三者的结合 —— 诚实、称职和可靠 —— 使一个人真正值得信赖。
Rob(罗伯)
And not someone like Bernie Madoff, who would run off with your money and entire life savings.
而不是像伯尼·麦道夫这样的人，他会带着你的钱和一生的积蓄跑掉。
Neil(尼尔)
All of which brings me to my quiz question. Do you remember, Rob?
所有这些都把我带到了我的测验问题。你还记得吗，罗伯？
Rob(罗伯)
Yep, I do. You asked how much Bernie Madoff stole from the American investors he lied to. And I said b) 65 million dollars.
是的，我愿意。你问伯尼·麦道夫从他撒谎的美国投资者那里偷了多少钱。我说b）65百万美元。
Neil(尼尔)
But in fact it was c) 65 billion dollars – a lot of money to give to such an untrustworthy man!
但事实上，这是 c） 650 亿美元 —— 给这样一个不值得信任的人一大笔钱！
Rob(罗伯)
So we’ve been discussing whether there is a crisis of trust and asking how to know who is trustworthy – able to be trusted as honest, competent and reliable.
Placing your trust in someone trustworthy is very different from being gullible – easy to trick because you trust and believe people too quickly.
信任值得信赖的人与容易上当受骗有很大不同 —— 很容易被欺骗，因为你太快信任和相信别人了。
Rob(罗伯)
And it can also be unhelpful to trust things to luck – simply hope or believe that everything will work out for the best.
把事情寄托于运气也可能是无济于事的 —— 只是希望或相信一切都会朝着最好的方向发展。
Neil(尼尔)
Both of these problems come about when people trust indiscriminately - in an unsystematic way that does not show care or judgement, usually with harmful results – as Bernie Madoff’s victims found out to their cost.
But luckily there are many trustworthy people around and we can spot them using three criteria: honesty, in other words not lying; competence; and reliability.
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