人们行善是为了什么？

Given these three basic values, a fourth became inevitable. It is one's duty and obligation to help create a social order in which persons are more important than things, ideas more precious than gadgets, and in which individuals are judged on the basis of personal worth. Moreover, for this judgment to be fair, human beings must have an opportunity for the fullest development of which they are capable. One is thus led to work for a world of freedom and justice through those social agencies and institutions which make it possible for people everywhere to realize their highest potentialities.

有了上面三条基本的价值观，第四条自然就无法避免。它是一个人协助创造社会秩序的责任与义务。在这个社会秩序中，人比物重要，思想比精巧的器具重要，个人的价值是以人的基本原则为基础的。此外，为保证这个评判的公正，人类必须有机会全面发展自身的能力。于是，社会组织与机构便致力于使世界各地的人们认识到他们最大的潜能，并引导人们为创造一个自由公平的世界而工作。

Perhaps all this adds up to a belief in what has been called the human use of human beings. We are set off from the rest of the animal world by our capacity consciously to transcend our physical needs and desires. Men must concern themselves with food and with other physical needs, and they must protect themselves and their own from bodily harm, but these activities are not exclusively human. Many animals concern themselves with these things. When we worship, pray, or feel compassion, when we enjoy a painting, a sunset or a sonata, when we think and reason, pursue ideas, seek truth, or read a book, when we protect the weak and helpless, when we honor the noble and cherish the good, when we cooperate with our fellow men to build a better world, our behavior is worthy of our status as human beings.

也许，所有这一切加起来就形成了一种信仰，那就是人类如何实现自我价值。我们人类之所以优于动物，是因为人拥有自觉控制自身需求与欲望的能力。人类必须考虑食物与自身的需求，必须保护自身与亲人不受伤害，但是这些行为并不只限于人类。很多动物都拥有这方面的本能。当我们膜拜、祈祷或感动时；当我们欣赏画作、夕阳或奏鸣曲时；当我们思考推理、追随灵感、寻求真相或阅读一本书时；当我们保护弱者与无助的人时；当我们尊敬高尚的人、心怀行善的愿望时；当我们为建设更美好的世界与他人合作时；我们的行为才使我们无愧于“人类”这个称呼。