A man of the breadth: Plato (Πλάτων)
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寬厚的人：柏拉圖
寬厚的人：柏拉圖
濮林
PU Lin
The true philosophers are lovers of the vision of truth.
柏拉圖是古希臘哲學家，是現代西方哲學的幾位主要奠基人之一［1］。柏拉圖出生于雅典，由于年代太久遠，他的生卒年代存在爭議，多數學者認為他出生于公元前428與427年之間、或出生于公元前424與423年之間，約公元前348/347 年逝世［文獻1的注釋a: Notes a］。他是雅典學院（The Academy of Athens）的創立者。他終生未婚也沒有子嗣。
有西方學者傾向認為后世哲學皆為柏拉圖理念的腳注［1b，1e］，又有哲學家傾向認為他影響了后世的每一個人［2a，3］。那么可以說，西方框架下的哲學與科學傳入中國后，他同樣對現代中國產生了影響。柏拉圖的傳世著作主要為『對話錄』（The Dialogues of Plato），其中的『理想國』（The Republic）更是影響深遠。1892年牛津大學出版的『對話錄』是經典英文譯本，由本杰明·喬依特（Benjamin Jowett）翻譯［1，3］。
柏拉圖的真名據說是亞里斯特克勒斯（Aristocles），“Plato”是他的外號，意為“淵博的人”、“寬厚的人”［1b，2a］；還有傳聞說這外號是因為他前額寬闊［1b］——國人俚語“大腦門兒”。我很樂意相信柏拉圖十分可能是“大腦門兒”；還有說是因為他“體格健碩””［1b］——“大塊頭兒”。他是蘇格拉底（Socrates，約公元前470年—公元前399年）的學生，亞里斯多德（Aristotle，公元前384年—公元前322年）的老師。
另外，老子（公元前600年？—公元前470年？）、孔子（公元前551年—公元前479年）、墨子（公元前468年？—公元前376年？）早于柏拉圖，孟子（公元前372年—公元前289年）、莊子（約公元前369年—公元前286年）、韓非子（約公元前280年—公元前233年）晚于柏拉圖。墨子與蘇格拉底歲月相仿。
2008年8月
濮林，國家歷史主編，現居南京。
PU Lin is one of the Editor-in-Chiefs with National History, SCIDEA.
Email: Editor@ScideaNews.com
Title Image: Plato. Copyright © Online Library of Liberty. [Ref. 3]
Source:oll.libertyfund.org
柏拉圖『對話錄：理想國』名句
Plato Quotes --from [The Dialogues of Plato - The Republic]. [Ref. 3]
1.
Plato. [Republic V 473c - 473e]. * Stephanus references [Ref. 1e].
Translator: Benjamin Jowett. 1892. [Ref. 3]
I said: Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils,—no, nor the human race, as I believe,—and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day. Such was the thought, my dear Glaucon, which I would fain have uttered if it had not seemed too extravagant; for to be convinced that in no other State can there be happiness private or public is indeed a hard thing.
Plato. [Republic V 473c - 473e]. * Stephanus references [Ref. 1e].
Translator: Paul Shorey. 1969. [Ref. 1f]
"Unless," said I, "either philosophers become kings in our states or those whom we now call our kings and rulers take to the pursuit of philosophy seriously and adequately, and there is a conjunction of these two things, political power and philosophic intelligence, while the motley horde of the natures who at present pursue either apart from the other are compulsorily excluded, there can be no cessation of troubles, dear Glaucon, for our states, nor, I fancy, for the human race either. Nor, until this happens, will this constitution which we have been expounding in theory ever be put into practice within the limits of possibility and see the light of the sun. But this is the thing that has made me so long shrink from speaking out, because I saw that it would be a very paradoxical saying. For it is not easy to see that there is no other way of happiness either for private or public life."
2.
Plato. [Republic V 475e]. * Stephanus references [Ref. 1e].
Translator: Benjamin Jowett. 1892. [Ref. 3]
He said: Who then are the true philosophers?
Those, I said, who are lovers of the vision of truth.
Plato. [Republic V 475e]. * Stephanus references [Ref. 1e].
Translator: Paul Shorey. 1969. [Ref. 1f]
"Whom do you mean, then, by the true philosophers?"
"Those for whom the truth is the spectacle of which they are enamored," said I.
文獻與注釋
References & Notes
1a.
柏拉圖。
Wikipedia: Plato (Πλάτων) (428/423 BC - 348/347 BC) .
1b.
Michael Lahanas
Copyright © 2008 Michael Lahanas
Source: www.mlahanas.de
Michael Lahanas. The School of Athens, "Who is Who?" Puzzle. | Link
Michael Lahanas. Ancient Greece: Philosophy. | Link
Plato. | Link
Timeline of Plato. | Link
Diogeners Laertius. Life of Plato. | Link
1c.
Enid Bloch
Copyright © 2008 Enid Bloch
Source: www.nd.edu
Enid Bloch. Hemlock Poisoning and the Death of Socrates: Did Plato Tell the Truth? | Link
State University of New York at Buffalo, NY, USA
* This paper will be appearing at greater length in the forthcoming book, The Trial and Execution of Socrates, edd. Thomas C Brickhouse and Nicholas D. Smith, Oxford University Press, 2001.
Conclusion of this paper:
The long, persistent controversy over the death of Socrates may finally have reached its end. By moving back and forth between the ancient and modern records, by uncovering the many layers of botanical and linguistic confusion, by learning the lessons of modern neurology, and by entering fully into the centuries-old debate, we have been able to bring every piece of the puzzle together. After so much complexity, the answer is almost simple. Socrates died gently and peacefully, just as Plato said he did. For Plato not only told the truth, he did so with astounding medical accuracy.
Other topics:
Enid Bloch: Socrates & I. 2004. | Philosophy Born of Struggle: www.pbos.com
1d.
Mary Rosenthal Lefkowitz (born 1935).
Copyright © 2008 Mary R. Lefkowitz.
Source: www.wellesley.edu
Mary Lefkowitz at Wellesley College. | Alumnae Achievement Awards 2008.
Mary R. Lefkowitz. Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History. 1996. (paperback, June 1997).--Was Greek Culture Stolen from Africa? Modern myth vs. ancient history. | Link
ISBN 046509838X | ISBN 978-0465098385
* Mary Lefkowitz is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Wellesley College. She is the author of many books on ancient Greece and Rome, including Lives of the Greek Poets and Women in Greek Myth, as well as articles for the Wall Street Journal and the New Republic. She is the co-editor of Women's Life in Greece and Rome and Black Athena Revisited.
1e.
伯納德·蘇姍［Bernard SUZANNE］
Bernard Suzanne. Platon et ses dialogues. 1996. | Continuer
* [A. N. Whitehead, Process and Reality, 1929]:
La plus sûre description d'ensemble de la tradition philosophique européenne est qu'elle consiste en une série d'annotations à Platon.
Bernard Suzanne. Plato and his dialogues. 1996. | Link
* [A. N. Whitehead, Process and Reality, 1929]:
The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.
Bernard Suzanne. Frequently Asked Questions about Plato. | Link
Bernard Suzanne. Quoting Plato: Stephanus references. | Link
The way of quating Plato: Stephanus references.
Bernard Suzanne. Plato and his dialogues: The Stephanus edition. | Link
Les Dialogues de Platon. L'édition d'Henri Estienne, Geneva, 1578.
The edition of Plato's complete works published in Geneva in 1578 by printer Henri Estienne (1528 - 1598), better known under his latin name Stephanus, who was also a famous scholar of the time and who had himself established the Greek text of Plato he was publishing, was not the first printed edition of Plato's Dialogues. ...| More
Copyright © 2008 Bernard SUZANNE.
Source: Plato-Dialogues.org
Email: bernard.suzanne@polytechnique.org
1f.
Perseus Digital Library.
Gregory R. Crane, Editor-in-Chief.
Tufts University.
Copyright © 2008 Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University.
Source: www.Perseus.Tufts.edu
Plato. Republic | Link
Translator: Paul Shorey
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
OCLC: 1886340
ISBN: 0674992628, 0674993047
Source: www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0168
Plato. [Republic V 473c - 473e]. * Stephanus references [Ref. 1e].
Paul Shorey. ed. 1969. Plato Republic: 5.473c | 5.473d | 5.473e
..."Unless," said I, "either philosophers become kings in our states or those whom we now call our kings and rulers take to the pursuit of philosophy seriously and adequately, and there is a conjunction of these two things, political power and philosophic intelligence, while the motley horde of the natures who at present pursue either apart from the other are compulsorily excluded, there can be no cessation of troubles, dear Glaucon, for our states, nor, I fancy, for the human race either. Nor, until this happens, will this constitution which we have been expounding in theory ever be put into practice within the limits of possibility and see the light of the sun. But this is the thing that has made me so long shrink from speaking out, because I saw that it would be a very paradoxical saying. For it is not easy to see that there is no other way of happiness either for private or public life."
Whereupon he, "Socrates," said he, "after hurling at us such an utterance and statement as that, you must expect to be attacked by a great multitude of our men of light and leading, who forthwith will, so to speak, cast off their garments...
Plato. [Republic V 475e]. * Stephanus references [Ref. 1e].
Paul Shorey. ed. 1969. Plato Republic: 5.475e
...
"Whom do you mean, then, by the true philosophers?"
"Those for whom the truth is the spectacle of which they are enamored," said I.
2a.
一本哲學人物小字典。
彼得·J·金［Peter J. King］：『一百位哲學家』。
彼得·J·金：柏拉圖 （英語）
Peter J. King: Plato.
--from ONE HUNDRED PHILOSOPHERS - The Life and Work of the World's Greatest Thinkers. 2004. Barrons Educational Series, Inc. 250 Wireless Blvd. Hauppauge NY, 11788. | Link
Web page of Peter J. King: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~worc0337
Email of Peter J. King: peter.king@philosophy.ox.ac.uk
該書有中譯本：
彼得·J·金『大哲學家100』。戴聯斌，王了因［翻譯］。責任編輯：張艷華。三聯書店（北京）。2007年第一版。ISBN: 978-7-108-02487-9
附記：
彼得·J·金的其它一些觀點：『停止欺騙』2007年。
彼得·J·金。停止欺騙。信使。2007年第9期－哲學：責任重于泰山。| 目錄 | 全文 | 『信使』ISSN 1993-8616 雜志由聯合國教科文組織主辦。
Peter J. King. Philosophy against manipulation. The Courier. 2007. Number 9 - Philosophy: a cosmic responsibility. | Archives | TOC of the issue | FullTXT EN
Peter J. King. Halte à la manipulation. Le Courrier de l'UNESCO. 2007. Numéro 9 - La philosophie : Une responsabilité cosmique. | Archives | Continuer FR
2b.
查爾斯·休麥勒：柏拉圖（法語）
Charles Hummel: Platon.
Copyright © 2008 Charles Hummel & UNESCO.
Source: www.ibe.unesco.org
Prospects, UNESCO Review:
Charles Hummel: Platon.
Le texte suivant est tiré de Perspectives : revue trimestrielle d'éducation comparée. (Paris, UNESCO : Bureau international d'éducation), vol. XXIV, n° 1-2, 1994, p. 339-348. © UNESCO : Bureau international d'éducation, 2000. Ce document peut être reproduit librement, à condition d’en mentionner la source. | Continuer
2c.
歷史系的一門歷史課。
Barbara J. Becker: The Greeks.
Copyright © 2008 Barbara J. Becker.
Source: eee.uci.edu
Barbara J. Becker. The Greeks. From the course History 135E: Nature & Artifice - Exploring the boundaries between living and non-living things. Department of History, University of California, Irvine, USA. 2006. | Dr. Barbara J. Becker E-mail: bjbecker@uci.edu
3.
柏拉圖 的『理想國』，選自柏拉圖『對話錄』。
Plato (Πλάτων)
The Dialogues of Plato: The Republic.
Translator: Benjamin Jowett. 1892.
Plato, The Dialogues of Plato translated into English with Analyses and Introductions by Benjamin Jowett, M. A. in Five Volumes. 3rd edition revised and corrected (Oxford University Press, 1892). Chapter: THE REPUBLIC.
Source: © Online Library of Liberty.
Accessed from http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/767/93795
THE REPUBLIC. - Plato, Dialogues, vol. 3 - Republic, Timaeus, Critias.
Translated by Benjamin Jowett.
Oxford University Press, London, UK. 1892.
Edition used:
The Dialogues of Plato translated into English with Analyses and Introductions by Benjamin Jowett, M.A. in Five Volumes. 3rd edition revised and corrected (Oxford University Press, London, UK. 1892).
Author: Plato.
Translator: Benjamin Jowett.
Part of: The Dialogues of Plato, in 5 vols (Jowett ed.).
4.
柏拉圖『對話錄：理想國』章節選讀。
文本來源：上述參考文獻［3］：
Plato, The Dialogues of Plato references [Ref. 1e]. references [Ref. 1e]., M. A. in Five Volumes. 3rd edition revised and corrected (Oxford University Press, 1892). Chapter: THE REPUBLIC.
Source: © 2009 Online Library of Liberty.
Accessed from http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/767/93795
Excerpt
Plato. [Republic. V 472a - 475e] * Stephanus references [Ref. 1e].
Translated into English with Analyses and Introductions by Benjamin Jowett. (Sidenotes by BJ)
Socrates excuses himself and makes one or two remarks preparatory to a final effort.
472
If I loiter for a moment, you instantly make a raid upon me, I said, and have no mercy; I have hardly escaped the first and second waves, and you seem not to be aware that you are now bringing upon me the third, which is the greatest and heaviest. When you have seen and heard the third wave, I think you will be more considerate and will acknowledge that some fear and hesitation was natural respecting a proposal so extraordinary as that which I have now to state and investigate.
The more appeals of this sort which you make, he said, the more determined are we that you shall tell us how such a State is possible: speak out and at once.
Let me begin by reminding you that we found our way hither in the search after justice and injustice.
True, he replied; but what of that?
I was only going to ask whether, if we have discovered them, we are to require that the just man should in nothing fail of absolute justice; or may we be satisfied with an approximation, and the attainment in him of a higher degree of justice than is to be found in other men?
The approximation will be enough.
(1) The ideal is a standard only which can never be perfectly realized;
We were enquiring into the nature of absolute justice and into the character of the perfectly just, and into injustice and the perfectly unjust, that we might have an ideal. We were to look at these in order that we might judge of our own happiness and unhappiness according to the standard which they exhibited and the degree in which we resembled them, but not with any view of showing that they could exist in fact.
True, he said.
Would a painter be any the worse because, after having delineated with consummate art an ideal of a perfectly beautiful man, he was unable to show that any such man could ever have existed?
He would be none the worse.
Well, and were we not creating an ideal of a perfect State?
To be sure.
And is our theory a worse theory because we are unable to prove the possibility of a city being ordered in the manner described?
Surely not, he replied.
(2) but is none the worse for this.
That is the truth, I said. But if, at your request, I am to try and show how and under what conditions the possibility is highest, I must ask you, having this in view, to repeat your former admissions.
What admissions?
473
I want to know whether ideals are ever fully realized in language? Does not the word express more than the fact, and must not the actual, whatever a man may think, always, in the nature of things, fall short of the truth? What do you say?
I agree.
Then you must not insist on my proving that the actual State will in every respect coincide with the ideal: if we are only able to discover how a city may be governed nearly as we proposed, you will admit that we have discovered the possibility which you demand; and will be contented. I am sure that I should be contented—will not you?
Yes, I will.
(3) Although the ideal cannot be realized, one or two changes,
or rather a single change, might revolutionize a State.
Let me next endeavour to show what is that fault in States which is the cause of their present maladministration, and what is the least change which will enable a State to pass into the truer form; and let the change, if possible, be of one thing only, or, if not, of two; at any rate, let the changes be as few and slight as possible.
Certainly, he replied.
I think, I said, that there might be a reform of the State if only one change were made, which is not a slight or easy though still a possible one.
What is it? he said.
Socrates goes forth to meet the wave.
Now then, I said, I go to meet that which I liken to the greatest of the waves; yet shall the word be spoken, even though the wave break and drown me in laughter and dishonour; and do you mark my words.
Proceed.
'Cities will never cease from ill until they are governed by philosophers.'
I said: Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils,—no, nor the human race, as I believe,—and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day. Such was the thought, my dear Glaucon, which I would fain have uttered if it had not seemed too extravagant; for to be convinced that in no other State can there be happiness private or public is indeed a hard thing.
What will the world say to this?
474
Socrates, what do you mean? I would have you consider that the word which you have uttered is one at which numerous persons, and very respectable persons too, in afigure pulling off their coats all in a moment, and seizing any weapon that comes to hand, will run at you might and main, before you know where you are, intending to do heaven knows what; and if you don’t prepare an answer, and put yourself in motion, you will be ‘pared by their fine wits,’ and no mistake.
You got me into the scrape, I said.
And I was quite right; however, I will do all I can to get you out of it; but I can only give you good-will and good advice, and, perhaps, I may be able to fit answers to your questions better than another—that is all. And now, having such an auxiliary, you must do your best to show the unbelievers that you are right.
But who is a philosopher?
I ought to try, I said, since you offer me such invaluable assistance. And I think that, if there is to be a chance of our escaping, we must explain to them whom we mean when we say that philosophers are to rule in the State; then we shall be able to defend ourselves: There will be discovered to be some natures who ought to study philosophy and to be leaders in the State; and others who are not born to be philosophers, and are meant to be followers rather than leaders.
Then now for a definition, he said.
Follow me, I said, and I hope that I may in some way or other be able to give you a satisfactory explanation.
Proceed.
Parallel of the lover.
I dare say that you remember, and therefore I need not remind you, that a lover, if he is worthy of the name, ought to show his love, not to some one part of that which he loves, but to the whole.
I really do not understand, and therefore beg of you to assist my memory.
The lover of the fair loves them all;
Another person, I said, might fairly reply as you do; but a man of pleasure like yourself ought to know that all who are in the flower of youth do somehow or other raise a pang or emotion in a lover’s breast, and are thought by him to be worthy of his affectionate regards. Is not this a way which you have with the fair: one has a snub nose, and you praise his charming face; the hook-nose of another has, you say, a royal look; while he who is neither snub nor hooked has the grace of regularity: the dark visage is manly, the fair are children of the gods; and as to the sweet ‘honey pale,’ as they are called, what is the very name but the invention of a lover who talks in diminutives, and is not averse to paleness if appearing on the cheek of youth? In a word, there is no 475excuse which you will not make, and nothing which you will not say, in order not to lose a single flower that blooms in the spring-time of youth.
If you make me an authority in matters of love, for the sake of the argument, I assent.
the lover of wines all wines;
And what do you say of lovers of wine? Do you not see them doing the same? They are glad of any pretext of drinking any wine.
Very good.
the lover of honour all honour;
And the same is true of ambitious men; if they cannot command an army, they are willing to command a file; and if they cannot be honoured by really great and important persons, they are glad to be honoured by lesser and meaner people,—but honour of some kind they must have.
Exactly.
Once more let me ask: Does he who desires any class of goods, desire the whole class or a part only?
The whole.
the philosopher, or lover of wisdom, all knowledge.
And may we not say of the philosopher that he is a lover, not of a part of wisdom only, but of the whole?
Yes, of the whole.
And he who dislikes learning, especially in youth, when he has no power of judging what is good and what is not, such an one we maintain not to be a philosopher or a lover of knowledge, just as he who refuses his food is not hungry, and may be said to have a bad appetite and not a good one?
Very true, he said.
Whereas he who has a taste for every sort of knowledge and who is curious to learn and is never satisfied, may be justly termed a philosopher? Am I not right?
Under knowledge, however, are not to be included sights and sounds, or under the lovers of knowledge, musical amateurs and the like.
Glaucon said: If curiosity makes a philosopher, you will find many a strange being will have a title to the name. All the lovers of sights have a delight in learning, and must therefore be included. Musical amateurs, too, are a folk strangely out of place among philosophers, for they are the last persons in the world who would come to anything like a philosophical discussion, if they could help, while they run about at the Dionysiac festivals as if they had let out their ears to hear every chorus; whether the performance is in town or country—that makes no difference—they are there. Now are we to maintain that all these and any who have similar tastes, as well as the professors of quite minor arts, are philosophers?
Certainly not, I replied; they are only an imitation.
He said: Who then are the true philosophers?
Those, I said, who are lovers of the vision of truth.
...
本文索引
Citation of this article
濮林。寬厚的人：柏拉圖。國家歷史，1 (8)，nh20080803a2 (2008)。| CrossRef
Lin PU. A man of the breadth: Plato (Πλάτων). National History, 1 (8), nh20080803a2 (2008). doi: 10.3128/nh20080803a2 
The true philosophers are lovers of the vision of truth.
國家歷史
2008年第08期 nh200808 | doi: 10.3128/nh200808
國際刊號_印刷版 ISSN: 1995-0632.
國際刊號_網絡版 EISSN: 1995-0977.
CrossRef 數據庫鏈接 DOI: 10.3128/nh2008
SCIDEA出版公司。南京。香港。
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索引：【國家歷史】2008（第一卷）各期檔案
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