Thoughts to you from yours truly - ( 62 ) - March, 5, 2011

Thoughts to You from Yours Truly - ( TYYT ) - ( 62 ) - Necessary, Sufficient & Final Conditions ( 必須，足夠和最後條件 ) - March 5, 2011

To achieve anything there are prerequisites or preconditions to be met before success can be assured. Formal logic calls these necessary and sufficient conditions. We encounter these on a daily basis without consciously acknowledging them. They are sometimes incorrectly or inappropriately used by us in our reasoning process. While both necessary and sufficient conditions are normally present to ensure success the existence of just the sufficient condition alone will also serve the purpose. On the other hand, the presence of only the necessary condition without a sufficient one is not good enough to achieve success on its own.
要一件事肯定成功，通常需要一些先決條件。正規邏輯叫這些條件為必須和足夠條件。我們在日常都隨時遇見它們，但多數只是潛意識地接受了其存在。甚至有時會 錯誤地使用了它們。通常要一件事成功，兩種條件都要具備，但只要單一的足夠條件存在，事情也可以成功的。相反來說，單有必須條件，事情便不一定會成事了。

For example, we usually praise successful people in business by complimenting them on their hard work. So much so that we simply conclude that the sole reason for their success is their diligence. However, hard work alone is not enough to ensure success as can be seen from the fact that there are many hard working but poor people. Thus, we say that hard work is only a necessary condition for success but the sufficient condition is a prevailing favourable economic condition in society at the right time or simply luck. We must distinguish between necessary and sufficient conditions in order to avoid falling victim to wrong reasoning. Never treat a necessary condition as if it were a sufficient condition or vice versa.
比例說，我們經常稱讚事業成功人士，多是努力的成果。其實，單靠努力是不足夠的。因為我們可以看見，有很多勤力但卻貧窮的人。因此，我們說勤勞只是成功的必須條件，要有一個良好的經濟環境，才可以做就成功的。由此可見，一些運氣是不可少的。我們應該小心分辨必須和足夠條件，以免犯了思維上的錯誤。


Furthermore, the necessary condition can be dispensed with on the path to success so long as the sufficient condition is present. For example, it is necessary to work hard to become rich but if you have luck ( such as having rich parents ) which is the sufficient condition you can still be rich without working hard although it is rare. Finally, there is always a slight chance for things to go wrong even in a given favourable environment. For example, you have thoroughly prepared for an examination and all goes well on your way to the examination hall. Most unfortunately, you suddenly develop stomach trouble which adversely affects your examination performance. This is the famous Uncertainty Principle in quantum mechanics which usually affects entities of subatomic size but in rare cases it can also manifest itself in the macro world especially in the form of weird accidents. We call this Murphy's Law which says that everything that can go wrong will go wrong. This is a pessimistic or cautious view of the world depending on how you look at it. Therefore, yours truly have added an extra condition to the generally accepted necessary and sufficient conditions for success and call it the Final Condition ( or technically called the absence of unfavourable quantum disposition ). Let us all be smart thinkers.
除此之外，我們應理解到，在往成功的路上，只要有足夠條件，便可把必須條件，置之不理。拿個例子， 你必須努力才可富有，但是如果你幸運，有富有的父母，你便擁有足夠條件，不用努力也自然成為富翁了。這當然是比較罕見的事。最後，就算在一個十分良好的環境下，仍然會出亂子的。比如，你十分充分地準備了應付考試，往試場途中一切順利，十分不幸地，你在考 試過程中拉肚子，大大影響了你的表現。這種情況，就是著名的量子力學上所謂無常原則（ Uncertainty Principle ), 通常只會影響小於原子大小的事物，但間中也會發生於相對較大的事物，多數會在古怪的意外中觀察得到。這些不幸事情，我們亦稱之為梅菲定律（ Murphy's Law ），它是說:「 一切最壞的情況，都會不幸地成為現實。」這是對現實的一種悲觀或小心的看法。因此，在下便稱之為最後條件 （ 或叫作良好的量子力學條件 ）。將它加於必須和足夠條件之上，以令我們的分析和預測能力加強。這樣會使我們有更醒目的思維。


JKHC ( 鄭冠合 )