探討「批評」

Of Criticism [1]何謂「批評」？ If批評 is understood as “to criticize”, then I think that to criticize is to analyze the situation and, according to certain standard, to make a judgment (evaluation) of an object, an action, a person, etc. [2]批評需要有建設性嗎？ Usually, if criticism is made according to a “standard” and an evaluative judgment is made, it is meant to give some advice for others to improve. But certainly, this is a normative claim, so it needs further support. [3]你認為，現今大眾對於「批評」一詞的用法，是+ve,-ve還是中性？ It seems that criticism is made when certain requirements of the presupposed standard are not met. So, the evaluative judgment is meant to point out the negative aspect of the object being criticized. But as pointed out in (2), if the criticism is made with an intention to improve, it is also a positive thing. But if the criticism is made solely to expose the negative aspects of the criticized (e.g., criticisms made in political campaigns), it may be a negative thing, especially, when the criticism is not fairly made (e.g., based on false evidence). 4]承上([2])，你個人認為「批評」是+ve,-ve還是中性？ Same as in (3). [5]只有完美，或接近完美的人才有資格去批評別人嗎？如果不是，那又是否所有人都有資格去批評別人？ Certainly not. Otherwise, I don’t think that anyone is qualified to make any criticism. Besides, how are we to decide whether one should be “perfect” according to which standard? I believe that anyone with reasonable ability to reason, analytical skills, and fairly good understanding of the issue at stake, a reasonable degree of knowledge about the issue, a good grasp of the standard used, etc. is qualified to make criticisms. But since this is a matter of degree, the quality of the criticism made varies according to how many (and how well) of the above conditions are met. P.S. This question alludes to Jesus’s accusation that we who are far from perfect do criticize others very often? [6]我們有資格去批評甚麼？ So long as the conditions specified in (5) are met, one should be qualified to make criticism. Certainly, those are “formal” criteria; the content has to be supplied by the actual situation. [7]批評可能帶來甚麼後果？ Ideally, if both parties (those who criticize and those whom are criticized) understand that criticisms are made to point out the negative aspects of the criticized, the criticisms made should serve as guidelines for making improvements. But in many cases, the criticizing party is misunderstood to be having bad intentions when he/she criticizes others, this will lead to negative response (e.g., anger, revenge, etc.). P.S. Just look at what is happening in this BBS.