内容简介:

《西方哲学史》是一部在全球知识界影响巨大的学术名作。自20世纪60年代初期介绍到我国后,在知识分子中产生了普遍影响,不少人都曾焚香静读。将其视为案头的必备哲学读本。其叙述年代从希腊文明的兴起一直到现代的逻辑分析哲学。在这部哲学史中,罗素特别对他认为对西方哲学的发展有着重要影响的历史事件和人物辟专章作了较详细的论述。

作者(Bertrand Russell)简介:

罗素(1872—1970),当今时代理性主义和人道主义的代言人,是西方思想解放与言论自由的见证人。二十世纪最有影响的哲学家、数学家、逻辑学家之一,分析哲学创始人,同时也是活跃的政治活动家,并致力于哲学的大众化、普及化。作为哲学家,罗素的主要贡献在于数理逻辑方面,是逻辑原子论和新实在论的主要创始人之一。以此为基础的现代分析哲学在西方近代哲学史上具有重要的地位。罗素出身于英国一个贵族家庭,是罗素伯爵的第三代继承人,其祖父曾两次出任英国首相。1945年,罗素在美国出版了《西方哲学史》一书,该书不但为罗素带来了丰厚的收入,还是罗素获得1950年诺贝尔文学奖的重要原因之一。其代表作有《西方哲学史》、《神秘主义与逻辑》、《怀疑论》、《婚姻与道德》等。

Book One - ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY - [Part I. The Pre-Socratics]

[CHAPTER I] The Rise of Greek Civilization

№.1 - In all history, nothing is so surprising or so difficult to account for as the sudden rise of civilization in Greece.Much of what makes civilization had already existed for thousands of years in Egypt and in Mesopotamia, and had spread thence to neighbouring countries. But certain elements had been lacking until the Greeks supplied them. What they achieved in art and literature is familiar to everybody, but what they did in the purely intellectual realm is even more exceptional.

【译文】在全部的历史里,最使人感到惊异或难于解说的莫过于希腊文明的突然兴起了。构成文明的大部分东西已经在埃及和美索不达米亚存在了好几千年,又从那里传播到了四邻的国家。但是其中却始终缺少着某些因素,直等到希腊人才把它们提供出来。希腊人在文学艺术上的成就是大家熟知的,但是他们在纯粹知识的领域上所做出的贡献还要更加不平凡。

【小编评注】希腊文明的辉煌成就是有目共睹的,德国哲学家黑格尔曾说说:“一提到希腊这个名字,在有教养的欧洲人心中,尤其在我们德国人心中,自然会引起一种家园之感。”其实,对于深受西方文化熏陶的现代中国人而言,希腊又何尝不会引起我们的家园之感呢?

【短语笔记】account for - 说明(原因等);对 ... 负责;(在数量方面)占 ...

【举一反三】on account of - 因为

【例】

(1)The treasurer has to account for the money paid to him.(财务负责人必须说明交给他的钱是怎样用的。)

(2)On account of his more elevated position, the general had the enemy at vantage.(因为处于较高的位置,那位将军占敌人的上风。)

№.2 - Where a religion was bound up with the government of an empire, political motives did much to transform its primitive features.

【译文】只要一种宗教和一个帝国政府结合在一片,政治的动机就会大大改变宗教的原始面貌。

【小编评注】论宗教与政治的互动关系。

【短语笔记】be bound up with - 与 ... 密切相关, 和 ... 息息相关

【举一反三】bound的另两个相关短语用法:表示开往某地,仅有目的地时,用be bound for,后接目的地;表示从某地开往某地,出发地和目的地都有时,用be bound from...to...

【例】

(1)Her illness is bound up with the pressure of her study and work.(她的疾病与她紧张的学习和工作有密切关系。)

(2)The ship is bound from Qingdao to Shanghai.(这艘船是从青岛开往上海。)

№.3 - The Homeric gods were the gods of a conquering aristocracy, not the useful fertility gods of those who actually tilled the soil. As Gilbert Murray says: "The gods of most nations claim to have created the world. The Olympians make no such claim. The most they ever did was to conquer it. And when they have conquered their kingdoms, what do they do? Do they attend to the government? Do they promote agriculture? Do they practise trades and industries? Not a bit of it. Why should they do any honest work? They find it easier to live on the revenues and blast with thunderbolts the people who do not pay. They are conquering chieftains, royal buccaneers. They fight, and feast, and play, and make music; they drink deep, and roar with laughter at the lame smith who waits on them. They are never afraid, except of their own king. They never tell lies, except in love and war."

【译文】荷马的神祇们乃是征服者的贵族阶级的神祇,而不是那些实际在耕种土地的人们的有用的丰产之神。正如吉尔伯特•穆莱所说的:“大多数民族的神都自命曾经创造过世界,奥林匹克的神并不自命如此。他们所做的,主要是征服世界。……当他们已经征服了王国之后,它们又干什么呢?他们关心政治吗?他们促进农业吗?他们从事商业和工业吗?一点都不。他们为什么要从事任何老实的工作呢?依靠租税并对不纳税的人大发雷霆,在他们看来倒是更为舒适的生活。他们都是些嗜好征服的首领,是些海盗之王。他们既打仗,又宴饮,又游玩,又作乐;他们开怀痛饮,并大声嘲笑那伺候着他们的瘸铁匠。他们只知怕自己的王,从来不知惧怕别的。除了在爱和战争中而外,他们从来不说谎。”

【小编评注】希腊的悲剧精神乃是源自希腊人的混合宗教,即远古西亚宗教的内核注入荷马宗教的形式之中,生命得到了最高的表现形式。

【短语笔记】till the soil - 松土,耕地

【举一反三】表达耕种的短语有很多,例如:cultivate land - 开垦贫瘠土地;plough the field/land - 耕地

【例】

(1)All this to rise with the roosters and till the soil. (这都是为了饲养公鸡,种田耕地。)

(2)Land being the cultivated manicured place that provides, whatever, the harvest, things like that while wilderness was some place that was barren, it does not produce fruit. (被开垦培育过的土地为人们提供丰收的果实,有些荒野地却是贫瘠的,不会产生果实。)

(3)After the seventh year, i.e. the sabbatical year, farmers can plough field again. (第七年过后,也就是安息年,农民可以继续耕地。)

№.4 - The civilized man is distinguished from the savage mainly by prudence, or, to use a slightly wider term, forethought. He is willing to endure present pains for the sake of future pleasures, even if the future pleasures are rather distant.

【译文】文明人之所以与野蛮人不同,主要的是在于审慎,或者用一个稍微更广义的名词,即深谋远虑。他为了将来的快乐,哪怕这种将来的快乐是相当遥远的,而愿意忍受目前的痛苦。

【小编评注】文明是内涵伦理、道德的价值理想,现代性的内在野蛮性不是一种外在之物,而是内在于现代人的心灵之中。因此,我们现代人更加需要懂得审慎、畏惧和有敬仰之心。

【短语笔记】for the sake of - 为了;为了 ... 的利益

【举一反三】近义短语: for the purpose of - 为了 ... 目的;为了 ... 而做某事

【例】

(1)We kept silent for the sake of maintaining peaceful relations with Russia.(为了维持和俄罗斯的和平关系,我们一直在保持沉默。 )

(2)For the purpose of being more handsome on his wedding day, he had woolen wedding clothes made to order. (为了婚礼那天显得帅气些,他特意定做了一身呢料礼服。 )

№.5 - Civilization checks impulse not only through forethought, which is a self-administered check, but also through law, custom, and religion. This check it inherits from barbarism, but it makes it less instinctive and more systematic.

【译文】文明之抑制冲动不仅是通过一种自我抑制的深谋远虑,而且还通过法律、习惯与宗教。这种抑制力是它从野蛮时代继承来的,但是它使这种抑制力具有更少的本能性与更多的组织性。

【小编评注】造成文明洗心革面的惟一重要的变化,是影响到思想、观念和信仰的变化。自我约束,在道德范畴内,是非常美好的一种品德。

【短语笔记】forethought - 深谋远虑;先见;考虑将来

【例】The Industrial Revolution has unfolded, for the most part, without design or forethought.( 工业革命开展已久,但多半时候并未经过缜密思考,也没有前瞻的视野。)

本文由沪友 落落 独家提供,原文译文摘自《西方哲学史》[商务印书馆,1977-6],转载请注明出处。