The earliest Western philosophers were Greeks: men who spoke dialects of the Greek language, who were familiar with the Greek poems of Homer and Hesiod, and who had been brought up to worship Greek Gods like Zeus, Apollo, and Aphrodite. They lived not on the mainland of Greece, but in outlying centres of Greek culture, on the southern coasts of Italy or on the western coast of what is now Turkey. They flourished in the sixth-century bc, the century which began with the deportation of the Jews to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar and ended with the foundation of the Roman Republic after the expulsion of the young city’s kings.?

最早的西方哲學(xué)家是希臘人：他們說希臘語的方言，熟悉荷馬和赫西俄德的希臘詩歌，受到敬拜宙斯、阿波羅和阿佛洛狄忒等希臘神祗的教育。他們并不生活在希臘大陸，而是在希臘文化的邊緣地區(qū)，即意大利南部的海岸或現(xiàn)在土耳其的西海岸。他們活躍于公元前六世紀(jì)，這個世紀(jì)以尼布甲尼撒王將猶太人流放到巴比倫開始，以羅馬共和國在驅(qū)逐了年輕城市的君主后建立結(jié)束。

These early philosophers were also early scientists, and several of them were also religious leaders. In the beginning the distinction between science, religion, and philosophy was not as clear as it became in later centuries. In the sixth century, in Asia Minor and Greek Italy, there was an intellectual cauldron in which elements of all these future disciplines fermented together. Later, religious devotees, philosophical disciples, and scientific inheritors could all look back to these thinkers as their forefathers.

這些早期的哲學(xué)家也是早期的科學(xué)家，其中一些人還是宗教領(lǐng)袖。在最初，科學(xué)、宗教和哲學(xué)之間的區(qū)別并不像后來的世紀(jì)那樣明顯。在公元前六世紀(jì)，亞洲小亞細(xì)亞和希臘意大利有一個智力的大熔爐，其中所有這些未來的學(xué)科的元素都在一起發(fā)酵。后來，宗教信徒、哲學(xué)門徒和科學(xué)繼承者都可以視這些思想家為他們的祖先。

Pythagoras, who was honoured in antiquity as the first to bring philosophy to the Greek world, illustrates in his own person the characteristics of this early period. Born in Samos, off the Turkish coast, he migrated to Croton on the toe of Italy. He has a claim to be the founder of geometry as a systematic study.?

被古代尊為第一個將哲學(xué)帶入希臘世界的畢達(dá)哥拉斯，以他自己的人格展示了這個早期時期的特征。他出生在土耳其海岸外的薩摩斯島，后來遷移到位于意大利的腳趾上的克羅托內(nèi)。他有資格被稱為幾何學(xué)作為一門系統(tǒng)研究的創(chuàng)始人。

His name became familiar to many generations of European school children because he was credited with the first proof that the square on the long side of a right-angled triangle is equal in area to the sum of the squares on the other two sides. But he also founded a religious community with a set of ascetic and ceremonial rules, the best-known of which was a prohibition on the eating of beans.?

他的名字為許多代歐洲學(xué)童所熟知，因為他被認(rèn)為是第一個證明直角三角形斜邊上的正方形等于另外兩邊上正方形面積之和的人。但他也創(chuàng)立了一個宗教團(tuán)體，有一套禁欲和儀式規(guī)則，其中最著名的是禁止吃豆子。

He taught the doctrine of the transmigration of souls: human beings had souls which were separable from their bodies, and at death a person’s soul might migrate into another kind of animal. For this reason, he taught his disciples to abstain from meat; once, it is said, he stopped a man whipping a puppy, claiming to have recognized in its whimper the voice of a dear dead friend. He believed that the soul, having migrated into different kinds of animal in succession, was eventually reincarnated as a human being. He himself claimed to remember having been, some centuries earlier, a hero at the siege of Troy.?

他教導(dǎo)靈魂轉(zhuǎn)世的教義：人類有可以與身體分離的靈魂，死后一個人的靈魂可能會遷移到另一種動物中。因此，他教導(dǎo)他的門徒戒肉；據(jù)說，有一次，他阻止了一個正在鞭打小狗的人，聲稱在它的嗚咽聲中聽到了一位親愛的死去的朋友的聲音。他相信，靈魂在不同種類的動物中連續(xù)轉(zhuǎn)世后，最終會再次轉(zhuǎn)生成為人類。他自己聲稱記得，幾個世紀(jì)前，他曾是特洛伊圍城戰(zhàn)的一位英雄。

The doctrine of the transmigration of souls was called in Greek ‘metempsychosis’. Faustus, in Christopher Marlowe’s play, having sold his soul to the devil, and about to be carried off to the Christian Hell, expresses the desperate wish that Pythagoras had got things right.?

Ah, Pythagoras’ metempsychosis, were that true?

This soul should fly from me, and I be chang’d?

Unto some brutish beast.?

Pythagoras’ disciples wrote biographies of him full of wonders, crediting him with second sight and the gift of bilocation, and making him a son of Apollo.

靈魂轉(zhuǎn)世的教義在希臘語中被稱為“metempsychosis（輪回）”。在克里斯托弗·馬洛的戲劇中，浮士德出賣了自己的靈魂給魔鬼，即將被帶到基督教的地獄，他表達(dá)了對“畢達(dá)哥拉斯說對了”的絕望。

啊，畢達(dá)哥拉斯的靈魂遷徙，如果是真的，

這個靈魂就應(yīng)該從我身上飛走，我就變成了

一頭野獸。?

畢達(dá)哥拉斯的門徒寫了他的傳記，充滿了奇跡，贊揚(yáng)他有第二視覺和分身術(shù)的天賦，并稱他是阿波羅之子。

The Milesians?

米利都人

Pythagoras’ life is lost in legend. Rather more is known about a group of philosophers, roughly contemporary with him, who lived in the city of Miletus in Ionia, or Greek Asia.?

畢達(dá)哥拉斯的生平已經(jīng)淹沒在傳說中。關(guān)于一群與他大致同時代的哲學(xué)家，人們知道得更多一些，他們生活在伊奧尼亞或希臘亞洲的米利都城市。

The first of these was Thales, who was old enough to have foretold an eclipse in 585. Like Pythagoras, he was a geometer, though he is credited with rather simpler theorems, such as the one that a circle is bisected by its diameter.?

其中第一個是泰勒斯，他的生平離我們很遙遠(yuǎn)，遙遠(yuǎn)到他預(yù)言了公元前585年的日食。像畢達(dá)哥拉斯一樣，他是一個幾何學(xué)家，不過他發(fā)現(xiàn)的是比較簡單的定理，比如一個圓被它的直徑平分。

Like Pythagoras, he mingled geometry with religion: when he discovered how to inscribe a right-angled triangle inside a circle, he sacrificed an ox to the gods. But his geometry had a practical side: he was able to measure the height of the pyramids by measuring their shadows. He was also interested in astronomy: he identified the constellation of the little bear, and pointed out its use in navigation.

像畢達(dá)哥拉斯一樣，他把幾何學(xué)和宗教混合在一起：當(dāng)他發(fā)現(xiàn)了如何在一個圓內(nèi)內(nèi)切一個直角三角形時，他向眾神祭牲了一頭牛。但他的幾何學(xué)有一個實用的方面：他能夠通過測量金字塔的影子來測量金字塔的高度。他也對天文學(xué)感興趣：他確定了小熊座星座，并指出了它在航海中的用途。

He was, we are told, the first Greek to fix the length of the year as 365 days, and he made estimates of the sizes of the sun and moon.?

他是，我們被告知，第一個將一年的長度確定為365天的希臘人，他還估算了太陽和月亮的大小。?

Thales was perhaps the first philosopher to ask questions about the structure and nature of the cosmos as a whole. He maintained that the earth rests on water, like a log floating in a stream. (Aristotle asked, later: what does the water rest on?) But earth and its inhabitants did not just rest on water: in some sense, so Thales believed, they were all made out of water.?

泰勒斯也許是第一個對整個宇宙的結(jié)構(gòu)和本質(zhì)提出問題的哲學(xué)家。他認(rèn)為地球是靠水支撐的，就像一根木頭漂浮在河流中。（亞里士多德后來問：水靠什么支撐呢？） 但是土地及其居民并不僅僅是靠水支撐的：在某種意義上，泰勒斯相信，他們都是由水構(gòu)成的。

Even in antiquity, people could only conjecture the grounds for this belief: was it because all animals and plants need water, or because the seeds of everything are moist??

即使在古代，人們也只能推測這種信念的依據(jù)：是因為所有的動物和植物都需要水，還是因為一切事物的種子都是濕潤的？

Because of his theory about the cosmos Thales was called by later writers a physicist or philosopher of nature (‘ physis’ is the Greek word for ‘nature’). Though he was a physicist, Thales was not a materialist: he did not, that is to say, believe that nothing existed except physical matter. One of the two sayings which have come down from him verbatim is ‘everything is full of gods’. What he meant is perhaps indicated by his claim that the magnet, because it moves iron, has a soul. He did not believe in Pythagoras’ doctrine of transmigration, but he did maintain the immortality of the soul.?

由于他關(guān)于宇宙的理論，泰勒斯被后來的作家稱為物理學(xué)家或自然哲學(xué)家（“physis”是希臘語中“自然”的詞）。 盡管他是一位物理學(xué)家，泰勒斯并不是唯物主義者：他不認(rèn)為除了物質(zhì)之外沒有別的東西存在。從他那里流傳下來的兩句話中的一句就是“萬物皆有神靈”。他的意思也許可以從他聲稱磁鐵因為能移動鐵而有靈魂這一說法中看出。 他不相信畢達(dá)哥拉斯的轉(zhuǎn)世說，但他確實堅持靈魂的不朽。

Thales was no mere theorist. He was a political and military adviser to King Croesus of Lydia, and helped him to ford a river by diverting a stream. Foreseeing an unusually good olive crop, he took a lease on all the oil-mills, and made a fortune.?

泰勒斯不僅僅是理論家。他是呂底亞國王克羅伊斯的政治和軍事顧問，并幫助他通過改變河流的方向來渡河。 他預(yù)見到了一次異常豐收的橄欖作物，他租下了所有的榨油廠，并賺了一大筆錢。

None the less, he acquired a reputation for unworldly absent mindedness,as appears in a letter which an ancient fiction-writer feigned to have been written to Pythagoras from Miletus:Thales has met an unkind fate in his old age. He went out from the court of his house at night, as was his custom, with his maidservant to view the stars, and forgetting where he was, as he gazed, he got to the edge of a steep slope and fell over. In such wise have the Milesians lost their astronomer. Let us who were his pupils cherish his memory, and let it be cherished by our children and pupils.?

盡管如此，他還是獲得了一種超脫世俗的名聲，正如一位古代的虛構(gòu)作家假裝寫給畢達(dá)哥拉斯的一封信中所顯示的：泰勒斯在老年時遭遇了不幸的命運(yùn)。他晚上從他的庭院出去，像往常一樣，帶著他的女仆去觀星，他忘記了自己在哪里，凝視著，他走到了一個陡峭的斜坡的邊緣并摔了下去。就這樣，米利都人失去了他們的天文學(xué)家。讓我們這些是他的學(xué)生的人懷念他的記憶，并讓我們的孩子和學(xué)生也懷念他。

A more significant thinker was a younger contemporary and pupil of Thales called Anaximander, a savant who made the first map of the world and of the stars, and invented both a sundial and an all-weather clock.?

一個更有影響力的思想家是泰勒斯同時代的一個年輕人，叫做阿那克西曼德，他制作了第一張關(guān)于世界和星星地圖，并發(fā)明了日晷和全天候時鐘。

He taught that the earth was cylindrical in shape, like a section of a pillar. Around the world were gigantic tyres, full of fire; each tyre had a hole through which the fire could be seen, and the holes were the sun and moon and stars. The largest tyre was twenty-eight times as great as the earth, and the fire seen through its orifice was the sun.?

他教導(dǎo)說地球是圓柱形的，像柱子的一截。在世界周圍是巨大的輪胎，充滿了火；每個輪胎都有一個洞，通過這個洞可以看到火，這些洞就是太陽、月亮和星星。最大的輪胎是地球大小的二十八倍，通過它的孔看到的火就是太陽。

Blockages in the holes explained eclipses and the phases of the moon. The fire within these tyres was once a great ball of flame surrounding the infant earth, which had gradually burst into fragments which enrolled themselves in bark-like casings. Eventually the heavenly bodies would return to the original fire.?

孔中的阻塞解釋了日食和月相。這些輪胎內(nèi)部的火曾經(jīng)是一個巨大的火球，包圍著幼小的地球，它逐漸爆裂成碎片，并包裹在樹皮狀的外殼中。最終，天體將回歸原始之火。

The things from which existing things come into being are also the things into which they are destroyed, in accordance with what must be. For they give justice and reparation to one another for their injustice in accordance with the arrangement of time.

為何存在，就為何滅亡，這是必然的。因為它們按照時間的安排，從不平衡恢復(fù)平衡。

Here physical cosmogony is mingled not so much with theology as with a grand cosmic ethic: the several elements, no less than men and gods, must keep within bounds everlastingly fixed by nature.

在這里，物理的宇宙起源論并不是與神學(xué)混合，而是與一種宏大的宇宙?zhèn)惱硐嗦?lián)系：各種元素，包括但不限于人和眾神，必須永遠(yuǎn)保持在自然規(guī)定的界限之內(nèi)。

Though fire played an important part in Anaximander’s cosmogony, it would be wrong to think that he regarded it as the ultimate constituent of the world, like Thales’ water. The basic element of everything, he maintained, could be neither water nor fire, nor anything similar, or else it would gradually take over the universe.?

盡管火在阿那克西曼德的宇宙起源論中扮演了重要的角色，但認(rèn)為他把火視為世界的最終組成部分，就像泰勒斯的水一樣，是錯誤的。他堅持認(rèn)為，一切事物的基本元素既不能是水，也不能是火，也不能是類似的東西，否則它會逐漸占據(jù)整個宇宙。

It had to be something with no definite nature, which he called???πειρον?(‘infinite’ or ‘unlimited’). ‘??πειρον is the first principle of things that exist: it is eternal and ageless, and it contains all the worlds.’?

它必須是一種沒有明確性質(zhì)的東西，他稱之為阿派朗(“無限”或“無定形”)。 “阿派朗是存在事物的第一原則：它是永恒和不朽的，它包含了所有的世界?！?/p>

Anaximander was an early proponent of evolution.?

阿那克西曼德是進(jìn)化論的早期支持者。?

The human beings we know cannot always have existed, he argued.?

他認(rèn)為，我們所認(rèn)識的人類不可能一直存在。?

Other animals are able to look after themselves, soon after birth, while humans require a long period of nursing; if humans had originally been as they are now they could not have survived.?

其他動物出生后不久就能照顧自己，而人類需要很長時間的護(hù)理；如果人類一開始就是現(xiàn)在這樣，他們就無法生存。

He maintained that in an earlier age there were fish-like animals within which human embryos grew to puberty before bursting forth into the world.?

他堅持認(rèn)為，在更早的時代，有類似魚的動物，人類胚胎在其中成熟，然后散布到全世界。

Because of this thesis, though he was not otherwise a vegetarian, he preached against the eating of fish.?

因為這個論點，雖然他不是素食主義者，但他反對吃魚。?

The infinite of Anaximander was a concept too rarefied for some of his successors.?

阿那克西曼德的無限是一個太過精妙的概念，以至于他的一些后繼者難以理解。?

His younger contemporary at Miletus, Anaximenes, while agreeing that the ultimate element could not be fire or water, claimed that it was air, from which everything else had come into being.?

在米利都的和他同時代年輕人阿那克西美尼?，雖然同意最終的元素不可能是火或水，但聲稱它是氣，其他一切都是由它產(chǎn)生的。?

In its stable state, air is invisible, but when it is moved and condensed it becomes first wind and then cloud and then water, and finally water condensed becomes mud and stone.?

穩(wěn)定狀態(tài)下的氣是無形的，但當(dāng)它被移動和凝結(jié)時，它先變成風(fēng)，然后變成云，然后變成水，最后凝結(jié)的水變成泥土和石頭。?

Rarefied air, presumably, became fire, completing the gamut of the elements.?

稀薄的氣，大概，變成了火，完成了元素的全范圍覆蓋。?

In support of his theory, Anaximenes appealed to experience: ‘Men release both hot and cold from their mouths; for the breath is cooled when it is compressed and condensed by the lips, but when the mouth is relaxed and it is exhaled it becomes hot by reason of its rareness’.?

為了支持他的理論，阿那克西美尼訴諸經(jīng)驗：“人們從嘴里釋放出熱和冷；因為當(dāng)呼吸被嘴唇壓縮和凝結(jié)時，它就會變冷，但當(dāng)嘴巴放松并呼出時，它因為稀薄而變熱。

” Thus rarefaction and condensation can generate everything out of the underlying air.

因此稀薄和凝結(jié)可以從基本的空氣中產(chǎn)生一切。?

This is naive, but it is naive science: it is not mythology, like the classical and biblical stories of the flood and of the rainbow.?

這是幼稚的，但這是幼稚的科學(xué)：它不是神話，像古典和圣經(jīng)中關(guān)于洪水和彩虹的故事。?

Anaximenes was the first flat-earther: he thought that the heavenly bodies did not travel under the earth, as his predecessors had claimed, but rotated round our heads like a felt cap.?

阿那克西美尼是第一個認(rèn)為地球是平的人：他認(rèn)為天體不是像他的前輩所說的那樣在地球下面運(yùn)行，而是像一頂氈帽一樣圍著我們的頭轉(zhuǎn)。?

He was also a flat-mooner and a flat-sunner: ‘the sun and the moon and the other heavenly bodies, which are all fiery, ride the air because of their flatness’.?

他也是一個認(rèn)為月亮和太陽是平的人：“太陽和月亮和其他天體，它們都是火焰，因為它們的平坦而在空氣中運(yùn)行?！?

Xenophanes

色諾芬尼

Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes were a trio of hardy and ingenious speculators.?

泰勒斯、阿那克西曼德和阿那克西美尼是一組堅持和有創(chuàng)造力的推測者。?

Their interests mark them out as the forebears of modern scientists rather more than of modern philosophers.?

他們的興趣使他們更像是現(xiàn)代科學(xué)家而不是現(xiàn)代哲學(xué)家的先驅(qū)。?

The matter is different when we come to Xenophanes of Colophon (near present-day Izmir), who lived into the fifth century.?

當(dāng)我們來到色諾芬尼時，情況就不同了。他來自科洛豐（靠近今天的伊茲密爾），活到了公元前五世紀(jì)。?

His themes and methods are recognizably the same as those of philosophers through succeeding ages.?

他研究的主題和方法與后來各個時代的哲學(xué)家的相同，可以被辨認(rèn)出來。?

In particular he was the first philosopher of religion, and some of the arguments he propounded are still taken seriously by his successors.?

特別是，他是第一個宗教哲學(xué)家，他提出的一些論點仍然被他的后繼者認(rèn)真對待。

Xenophanes detested the religion found in the poems of Homer and Hesiod, whose stories blasphemously attributed to the gods theft, trickery, adultery, and all kinds of behaviour that, among humans, would be shameful andblameworthy.?

色諾芬尼憎恨在荷馬和赫西俄德的詩歌中發(fā)現(xiàn)的宗教，他們的故事褻瀆地把偷竊、欺騙、通奸和各種在人類中會被認(rèn)為可恥和應(yīng)受譴責(zé)的行為歸咎于神。?

A poet himself, he savaged Homeric theology in satirical verses, now lost.?

他自己也是一位詩人，他用諷刺的詩句猛烈地抨擊了荷馬式的神學(xué)，但現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)失傳了。

It was not that he claimed himself to possess a clear insight into the nature of the divine; on the contrary, he wrote, ‘the clear truth about the gods no man has ever seen nor any man will ever know’.?

并不是說他自稱擁有對神的本質(zhì)的清晰洞察；相反，他寫道，“關(guān)于眾神的明確真理，沒有人曾經(jīng)看見過，也沒有人將來會知道。”?

But he did claim to know where these legends of the gods came from: human beings have a tendency to picture everybody and everything as like themselves.?

但他確實聲稱知道這些神話是從哪里來的：人類有一種傾向，把每個人和每件事都想象成像自己一樣。?

Ethiopians, he said, make their gods dark and snub-nosed, while Thracians make them red-haired and blue-eyed.

他說，埃塞俄比亞人把他們的神造成黑皮膚和塌鼻子，而色雷斯人把他們造成紅頭發(fā)和藍(lán)眼睛。?

The belief that gods have any kind of human form at all is childish anthropomorphism. ‘If cows and horses or lions had hands and could draw, then horses would draw the forms of gods like horses, cows like cows, making their bodies similar in shape to their own.’?

認(rèn)為神有任何一種人類形式的信念都是幼稚的擬人化。“如果牛和馬或獅子有手并且能畫畫，那么馬就會畫出像馬一樣的神的形象，牛像牛一樣，使它們的身體與自己的形狀相似?！?/p>

Though no one would ever have a clear vision of God, Xenophanes thought that as science progressed, mortals could learn more than had been originally revealed.?

雖然沒有人會對神有一個清晰的視覺，但色諾芬尼認(rèn)為，隨著科學(xué)的進(jìn)步，凡人可以學(xué)到比最初被揭示的更多。?

‘There is one god,’ he wrote, ‘greatest among gods and men, similar to mortals neither in shape nor in thought.’?

他寫道，“有一個神，在神和人之中最偉大，既不像凡人那樣有形狀，也不像凡人那樣有思想?！?

God was neither limited nor infinite, but altogether non-spatial: that which is divine is a living thing which sees as a whole, thinks as a whole and hears as a whole.?

神既不受限制也不無限，而是完全非空間性的：神是一個活著的東西，應(yīng)該作為整體去看、作為整體去思考、作為整體去聆聽。

In a society which worshipped many gods, he was a resolute monotheist.?

在一個崇拜許多神的社會里，他是一個堅定的一神論者。?

There was only one God, he argued, because God is the most powerful of all things, and if there were more than one, then they would all have to share equal power.?

他認(rèn)為，只有一個神，因為神是所有事物中最強(qiáng)大的，如果有不止一個，那么他們就都必須分享平等的力量。?

God cannot have an origin; because what comes into existence does so either from what is like or what is unlike, and both alternatives lead to absurdity in the case of God.?

神不能有起源；因為存在的東西要么來自相似的東西，要么來自不相似的東西，而在神的情況下，兩種可能都導(dǎo)致荒謬。?

God is neither infinite nor finite, neither changeable nor changeless. But though God is in a manner unthinkable, he is not unthinking. On the contrary, ‘Remote and effortless, with his mind alone he governs all there is’.?

神既不是無限的也不是有限的，既不是可變的也不是不變的。但雖然神在某種意義上是不可思議的，他卻不是無思想的。相反，“遙遠(yuǎn)而毫不費(fèi)力，他只用他的心智就統(tǒng)治著一切。”

Xenophanes’ monotheism is remarkable not so much because of its originality as because of its philosophical nature.?

色諾芬尼的一神論之所以引人注目，不是因為它的創(chuàng)新性，而是因為它的哲學(xué)性質(zhì)。?

The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah and the authors of the book of Isaiah had already proclaimed that there was only one true God.?

希伯來先知耶利米和以賽亞書的作者已經(jīng)宣稱只有一個真神。?

But while they took their stance on the basis of a divine oracle, Xenophanes offered to prove his point by rational argument.?

但他們是基于神圣的神諭來立場，色諾芬尼卻提出用理性的論證來證明他的觀點。

?In terms of a distinction not drawn until centuries later, Isaiah proclaimed a revealed religion, while Xenophanes was a natural theologian.?

用幾個世紀(jì)后才劃分出來的區(qū)別來說，以賽亞宣揚(yáng)了一種啟示性的宗教，而色諾芬尼則是一位自然神學(xué)家。

Xenophanes’ philosophy of nature is less exciting than his philosophy of religion.?

色諾芬尼的自然哲學(xué)比他的宗教哲學(xué)要乏味得多。?

His views are variations on themes proposed by his Milesian predecessors.?

他的觀點是對他那些米利都前輩提出命題的變化。?

He took as his ultimate element not water, or air, but earth. The earth, he thought, reached down beneath us to infinity.?

他把地球而不是水或空氣作為他的最終元素。他認(rèn)為，地球在我們下面延伸到無限遠(yuǎn)處。?

The sun, he maintained, came into existence each day from a congregation of tiny sparks. But it was not the only sun; indeed there were infinitely many. 他堅持認(rèn)為，太陽每天都是由一群微小的火花產(chǎn)生的。但它不是唯一的太陽；事實上有無數(shù)個太陽。 Xenophanes’ most original contribution to science was to draw attention to the existence of fossils: he pointed out that in Malta there were to be found impressed in rocks the shapes of all sea-creatures. From this he drew the conclusion that the world passed through a cycle of alternating terrestrial and marine phases. 西諾芬尼對科學(xué)最原創(chuàng)的貢獻(xiàn)是引起人們對化石存在的注意：他指出，在馬耳他可以發(fā)現(xiàn)巖石中印有所有海洋生物的形狀。由此他得出結(jié)論，世界經(jīng)歷了一個陸地和海洋交替的循環(huán)。

Heraclitus?

赫拉克利特

The last, and the most famous, of these early Ionian philosophers was Heraclitus, who lived early in the fifth century in the great metropolis of Ephesus, where later St Paul was to preach, dwell, and be persecuted.?

這些早期的愛奧尼亞哲學(xué)家中最后一個也是最著名的是赫拉克利特，他生活在公元前五世紀(jì)初的伊弗所這個大都市，后來圣保羅在那里傳道、居住和受迫害。?

The city, in Heraclitus’ day as in St Paul’s, was dominated by the great temple of the fertility goddess Artemis.?

這座城市，在赫拉克利特和圣保羅的時代，其總結(jié)都是由生育女神阿爾忒彌斯的巨大神廟占主導(dǎo)的。

Heraclitus denounced the worship of the temple: praying to statues was like whispering gossip to an empty house, and offering sacrifices to purify oneself from sin was like trying to wash off mud with mud.?

赫拉克利特譴責(zé)了神廟的崇拜：向雕像祈禱就像對著空屋子竊竊私語，用祭品來凈化自己的罪惡就像用泥巴來洗掉泥巴。?

He visited the temple from time to time, but only to play dice with the children there – much better company than statesmen, he said, refusing to take any part in the city’s politics.?

他時不時地去神廟，但只是為了和那里的孩子們玩擲骰子——他說，這比政治家們好多了，他拒絕參與城市的政治。?

In Artemis’ temple, too, he deposited his three-book treatise on philosophy and politics, a work, now lost, of notorious difficulty, so puzzling that some thought it a text of physics, others a political tract. (‘What I understand of it is excellent,’ Socrates said later, ‘what I don’t understand may well be excellent also; but only a deep-sea diver could get to the bottom of it.’)?

在阿爾忒彌斯的神廟里，他也留下了他關(guān)于哲學(xué)和政治的三卷論文，一部現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)失傳的臭名昭著的難題，如此令人困惑，以至于有些人認(rèn)為它是一本物理學(xué)的書，有些人認(rèn)為它是一本政治論文。（“我所理解的部分是極好的，”蘇格拉底后來說，“我不理解的部分也可能是極好的；但只有一個深海潛水員才能到達(dá)它的底部?！保?/p>

In this book Heraclitus spoke of a great Word or Logos which holds forever and in accordance with which all things come about.?

在這本書中，赫拉克利特談到了一個偉大的詞或邏各斯（Logos），它永遠(yuǎn)存在，并且按照它所有的事物都發(fā)生。?

He wrote in paradoxes, claiming that the universe is both divisible and indivisible, generated and ungenerated, mortal and immortal, Word and Eternity, Father and Son, God and Justice.?

他用悖論寫道，聲稱宇宙既是可分割又是不可分割的，既是生成又是未生成的，既是可朽又是不朽的，既是道又是永恒的，既是父又是子，既是神又是正義。?

No wonder that everybody, as he complained, found his Logos quite incomprehensible.?

難怪他抱怨說，每個人都覺得他的邏輯非常難以理解。?

If Xenophanes, in his style of argument, resembled modern professional philosophers, Heraclitus was much more like the popular modern idea of the philosopher as guru.?

如果說色諾芬尼在他的論證風(fēng)格上類似于現(xiàn)代的專業(yè)哲學(xué)家，那么赫拉克利特更像是現(xiàn)代流行的把哲學(xué)家當(dāng)作古魯(印度教或錫克教的宗教導(dǎo)師或領(lǐng)袖)的觀念。

He had nothing but contempt for his philosophical predecessors. Much learning, he said, does not teach a man sense; otherwise it would have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras and Xenophanes.?

他對他的哲學(xué)前輩只有輕蔑。他說，為學(xué)日益并不能讓人擁有智慧；赫西俄德、畢達(dá)哥拉斯和色諾芬尼就是最好的例子。?

Heraclitus did not argue, he pronounced: he was a master of pregnant dicta, profound in sound and obscure in sense.?

赫拉克利特不是爭論，而是宣稱：他是一個富有內(nèi)涵的格言的大師，聲音深沉，意義模糊。

His delphic style was perhaps an imitation of the oracle of Apollo, which, in his own words, ‘neither tells, nor conceals, but gestures’.?

他的德爾斐風(fēng)格也許是對阿波羅神諭的模仿，用他自己的話說，“既不說，也不隱瞞，而是表態(tài)?！?

Among Heraclitus’ best-known sayings are these:?

赫拉克利特最著名的格言有這些：?

The way up and the way down is one and the same.?

上升和下降的道路是同一條。?

Hidden harmony is better than manifest harmony.?

隱秘的和諧比顯明的和諧更好。?

War is the father of all and the king of all; it proves some people gods, and some people men; it makes some people slaves and some people free.?

戰(zhàn)爭是萬物的父親和君王；它證明了有些人是神，有些人是人；它使有些人淪為奴隸，有些人奪回自由。

?A dry soul is wisest and best.?

干燥的靈魂是最明智和最好的。

For souls it is death to become water.?

對于靈魂來說，變成水就是死期。?

A drunk is a man led by a boy.?

醉漢是一個被男孩牽著走的人。?

Gods are mortal, humans immortal, living their death, dying their life.?

神是可朽的，人是不朽的，以死的方式保持活著，以活的方式走向死亡。?

The soul is a spider and the body is its web.?

靈魂是一只蜘蛛，身體是它的網(wǎng)。

That last remark was explained by Heraclitus thus: just as a spider, in the middle of a web, notices as soon as a fly breaks one of its threads and rushes thither as if in grief, so a person’s soul, if some part of the body is hurt, hurries quickly there as if unable to bear the hurt.?

這最后一句話是這樣被赫拉克利特解釋的：就像一只蜘蛛，在網(wǎng)中間，一旦有一只蒼蠅斷了它的一根絲線，就立刻注意到并沖過去，好像在悲傷一樣，所以一個人的靈魂，如果身體的某個部分受傷了，就會迅速地趕到那里，好像無法忍受傷痛一樣。

But if the soul is a busy spider, it is also, according to Heraclitus, a spark of the substance of the fiery stars.?

但如果靈魂是一只忙碌的蜘蛛，按照赫拉克利特的說法，它也是火焰星辰物質(zhì)的一個火花。

In Heraclitus’ cosmology fire has the role which water had in Thales and air had in Anaximenes. The world is an ever-burning fire: all things come from fire and go into fire; ‘a(chǎn)ll things are exchangeable for fire, as goods are for gold and gold for goods’.?

在赫拉克利特的宇宙論中，火有著泰勒斯哲學(xué)中水和阿那克西美尼哲學(xué)中氣所扮演的角色。世界是一團(tuán)永恒燃燒的火：所有事物都來自火并回歸火；“所有事物都可以用火來交換，就像貨物可以用金子和金子可以用貨物來交換一樣。”

There is a downward path, whereby fire turns to water and water to earth, and an upward path, whereby earth turns to water, water to air, and air to fire. The death of earth is to become water, and the death of water is to become air, and the death of air is to become fire.?

有一條向下的道路，通過它火變成水，水變成土，還有一條向上的道路，通過它土變成水，水變成氣，氣變成火。土的消亡是變成水，水的消亡是變成氣，氣的消亡是變成火。

There is a single world, the same for all, made neither by god nor man; it has always existed and always will exist, passing, in accordance with cycles laid down by fate, through a phase of kindling, which is war, and a phase of burning, which is peace.?

有一個單一的世界，對所有人都是一樣的，既不是由神造的也不是由人造的；它一直存在并且永遠(yuǎn)會存在，按照命運(yùn)規(guī)定的循環(huán)，經(jīng)歷著一階段的點火，即戰(zhàn)爭，和一階段的燃燒，即和平。

Heraclitus’ vision of the transmutation of the elements in an ever-burning fire has caught the imagination of poets down to the present age.

赫拉克利特對元素在永恒燃燒的火中轉(zhuǎn)化的想象已經(jīng)吸引了從古至今的詩人的想象力。?

T. S. Eliot, in Four Quartets, puts this gloss on Heraclitus’ statement that water was the death of earth.?

T. S. 埃略特，在《四重奏》中，對赫拉克利特說水是土的消亡這句話做了這樣的注釋。

There are flood and drouth?

Over the eyes and in the mouth,?

Dead water and dead sand?

Contending for the upper hand.?

The parched eviscerate soil?

Gapes at the vanity of toil,?

Laughs without mirth?

This is the death of earth.?

在眼睛之上，在嘴巴里

有洪水和干旱，

止水和死沙

在爭斗著誰占上風(fēng)。

坼裂的失去元氣的泥土

張目結(jié)舌地望著徒然無益的勞動，

放聲大笑而沒有歡樂。

這是土的死亡（湯永寬譯）

Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote a poem entitled ‘That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire’, full of imagery drawn from Heraclitus.

杰拉德·曼利·霍普金斯寫了一首詩，題為《自然是赫拉克利特式的火》，充滿了從赫拉克利特那里借來的意象。

Million fueled, nature’s bonfire burns on.?

百萬只被點燃，自然的篝火熊熊燃燒。

But quench her bonniest, dearest to her, her clearest-selved spark, Man, how fast his firedint, his mark on mind, is gone!?

卻驟然熄滅她最迷人的，她最心愛的，她最清晰為自我的火花
人啊，他的火痕，他心靈上的印記，消逝的多么迅速！

Both are in an unfathomable, all is in an enormous dark Drowned. O pity and indignation! Manshape, that shone Sheer off, disseveral, a star, death blots black out . . .?

兩者都在一種不可探測中，一切都在一個巨大的黑暗中淹沒。哦，憐憫而憤怒！人形的，那閃耀的遠(yuǎn)遁而去，割裂，一顆星，死亡抹出黑色

Hopkins seeks comfort from this in the promise of the final resurrection – a Christian doctrine, of course, but one which itself finds its anticipation in a passage of Heraclitus which speaks of humans rising up and becoming wakeful guardians of the living and the dead. ‘Fire’, he said, ‘will come and judge and convict all things.’?

Hopkins從這一點中尋求安慰，即最終復(fù)活的承諾——當(dāng)然，這是一個基督教教義，但它本身也在赫拉克利特的一段話中找到了預(yù)示，這段話說人類將會站起來，成為生者和死者的警醒的守護(hù)者?！盎稹保f，“將會來審判和定罪所有的事物?！?

In the ancient world the aspect of Heraclitus’ teaching which most impressed philosophers was not so much the vision of the world as a bonfire, as the corollary that everything in the world was in a state of constant change and flux. Everything moves on, he said, and nothing remains; the world is like a flowing stream.?

在古代世界，赫拉克利特的教導(dǎo)中最令哲學(xué)家印象深刻的方面，不是把世界看作一簇篝火的視角，而是世界上的一切都處于不斷變化和流動的狀態(tài)這一推論。他說，一切都在前進(jìn)，沒有什么是永恒的；世界就像一條流動的河流。?

If we stand by the river bank, the water we see beneath us is not the same two moments together, and we cannot put our feet twice into the same water. So far, so good; but Heraclitus went on to say that we cannot even step twice into the same river. This seems false, whether taken literally or allegorically; but, as we shall see, the sentiment was highly influential in later Greek philosophy.?

如果我們站在河岸上，我們看到的水在兩個時刻之間就不是同一樣了，我們也不能把腳放進(jìn)同一樣的水里兩次。到目前為止，這還說得通；但是赫拉克利特接著說，我們甚至不能兩次踏進(jìn)同一條河流（濯足前水，水非前水）。這似乎是錯誤的，無論是字面上還是寓意上；但是，正如我們將看到的，這種敏銳度在后來的希臘哲學(xué)中有著很大的影響力。

The School of Parmenides

巴門尼德學(xué)派

The philosophical scene is very different when we turn to Parmenides, who was born in the closing years of the sixth century. Though probably a pupil of Xenophanes, Parmenides spent most of his life not in Ionia but in Italy, in a town called Elea, seventy miles or so south of Naples.?

哲學(xué)的境遇在轉(zhuǎn)向巴門尼德時有了很大的不同，他出生于公元前六世紀(jì)的末年。雖然可能是色諾芬尼的學(xué)生，但巴門尼德一生大部分時間不是在愛奧尼亞，而是在意大利的一個叫埃利亞的小鎮(zhèn)，距離那不勒斯南部大約七十英里。

He is said to have drawn up an excellent set of laws for his city; but we know nothing of his politics or political philosophy. He is the first philosopher whose writing has come down to us in any quantity: he wrote a philosophical poem in clumsy verse, of which we possess about a hundred and twenty lines.?

據(jù)說他為他的城市制定了一套優(yōu)秀的法律；但我們對他的政治或政治哲學(xué)一無所知。他是第一個我們能夠得到相當(dāng)數(shù)量著作的哲學(xué)家：他用笨拙的詩句寫了一首哲學(xué)詩，我們擁有大約一百二十行。

In his writing he devoted himself not to cosmology, like the early Milesians, nor to theology, like Xenophanes, but to a new and universal study which embraced and transcended both: the discipline which later philosophers called ‘ontology’. Ontology gets its name from a Greek word which in the singular is ‘ on’ and in the plural ‘ onta’: it is this word – the present participle of the Greek verb ‘to be’ – which defines Parmenides’ subject matter. His remarkable poem can claim to be the founding charter of ontology.

在他的寫作中，他不是像早期的米利都人那樣致力于宇宙論，也不是像色諾芬尼那樣致力于神學(xué)，而是致力于一種新的、普遍的研究，它包含并超越了這兩者：后來的哲學(xué)家稱之為“本體論”的學(xué)科。本體論這個名字來自一個希臘詞，在單數(shù)形式是“ on”，在復(fù)數(shù)形式是“ onta”：就是這個詞——希臘動詞“to be”的現(xiàn)在分詞——定義了巴門尼德的主題。他那非凡的詩可以被認(rèn)為是本體論的創(chuàng)始憲章。

為了解釋什么是本體論，以及巴門尼德的詩歌是關(guān)于什么的，有必要詳細(xì)地討論一些語法和翻譯的問題。讀者對這種學(xué)究式的耐心將會得到回報，因為從巴門尼德的時代到如今，本體論有了一個廣闊而繁茂的發(fā)展，只有對巴門尼德的意思和他沒有表達(dá)出來的意思有一個確定的把握，才能使人在幾個世紀(jì)中通過本體論的迷霧叢林仍能夠看清楚自己的道路。?

To explain what ontology is, and what Parmenides’ poem is about, it is necessary to go into detail about points of grammar and translation. The reader’s patience with this pedantry will be rewarded, for between Parmenides and the present-day, ontology was to have a vast and luxuriant growth, and only a sure grasp of what Parmenides meant, and what he failed to mean, enables one to see one’s way clear over the centuries through the ontological jungle.

巴門尼德的主題是“to on”，字面上翻譯就是“the being”。在解釋動詞之前，我們需要先說一些關(guān)于冠詞的問題。在英語中，我們有時候用一個形容詞，加上定冠詞，來指代一類人或事物；比如我們說“the rich”來指富有的人，“the poor”來指貧窮的人。這種習(xí)慣用法在希臘語中比英語更為常見：希臘人可以用“the hot”來指熱的事物，“the cold”來指冷的事物。

Parmenides’ subject is ‘ to on’, which translated literally means ‘the being’. Before explaining the verb, we need to say something about the article. In English we sometimes use an adjective, preceded by the definite article, to refer to a class of people or things; as when we say ‘the rich’ to mean people who are rich, and ‘the poor’ to mean those who are poor. The corresponding idiom was much more frequent in Greek than in English: Greeks could use the expression ‘the hot’ to mean things that are hot, and ‘the cold’ to mean things that are cold.?

例如，阿那克西美尼說氣是由熱、冷、濕、動等因素使之可見的。在“the”后面我們也可以用一個分詞：比如我們說一個收容垂死者的醫(yī)院，或者一個為四歲以下兒童準(zhǔn)備的游戲組。

Thus, for instance, Anaximenes said that air was made visible by the hot and the cold and the moist and the moving. Instead of an adjective after ‘the’ we may use a participle: as when we speak, for instance, of a hospice for the dying, or a playgroup for the rising fours.

同樣，這種結(jié)構(gòu)在希臘語中也是可能的，并且很常見；而且正是這種習(xí)慣用法出現(xiàn)在“the being”中?！癟he being”就是那個正在存在著的東西，就像“the dying”是那些正在死去的人一樣。

Once again, the corresponding construction was possible, and frequent, in Greek; and it is this idiom which occurs in ‘the being’. ‘The being’ is that which is be-ing, in the same way as ‘the dying’ are those who are dying.

像“dying”這樣的動詞形式，在英語中有兩種用法：它可以是一個分詞，如“the dying should not be neglected”，或者可以是一個動名詞，如“dying can be a long-drawn-out business”。 “Seeing is believing”相當(dāng)于“To see is to believe”。

A?verbal form like ‘dying’ has, in English, two uses: it may be a participle, as in ‘the dying should not be neglected’, or it may be a verbal noun, as in ‘dying can be a long-drawn-out business’. ‘Seeing is believing’ is equivalent to ‘To see is to believe’.

當(dāng)哲學(xué)家寫關(guān)于存在的論文時，他們通常使用這個詞作為一個動名詞：他們提供某物為何存在的解釋。這不是，或者不主要是，巴門尼德所關(guān)注的：他關(guān)心的是存在，也就是說，關(guān)注任何正在?"存在"著的東西。

When philosophers write treatises about being, they are commonly using the word as a verbal noun: they are offering to explain what it is for something to be. That is not, or not mainly, what Parmenides is about: he is concerned with the being, that is to say, with whatever is, as it were, doing the be-ing.?

為了區(qū)分“存在”這個詞作為動名詞的意義和它的字面意義，在英語中，人們傳統(tǒng)上用一個大寫的“B”來凸顯出巴門尼德的命題。我們將遵循這個慣例，其中“Being”意味著任何存在有關(guān)聯(lián)的東西，“being”是動名詞，相當(dāng)于不定式“to be”。?

To distinguish this sense of ‘being’ from its use as a verbal noun, and to avoid the strangeness of the literal ‘the being’ in English, it has been traditional to dignify Parmenides’ topic with a capital ‘B’. We will follow this convention, whereby ‘Being’ means whatever is engaged in being, and ‘being’ is the verbal noun equivalent to the infinitive ‘to be’.

很好；但是如果這就是Being的意思，為了弄清楚巴門尼德在說什么，我們還必須知道being是什么，也就是說，某物為何而存在。

Very well; but if that is what Being is, in order to make out what Parmenides is talking about we must also know what being is, that is to say, what it is for something to be.

我們可以理解某物為什么是藍(lán)色的，或者為什么是一只小狗：但是某物只是存在，沒有別的意思，這又是什么意思呢？有一種可能性是這樣的： 存在存在著，或者換句話說，成為存在就是去存在。?如果是這樣， 那么存在就是一切存在的東西。

We can understand what it is for something to be blue, or to be a puppy: but what is it for something to just be, period? One possibility which suggests itself is this: being is existing, or, in other words, to be is to exist. If so, then Being is all that exists.?

In English ‘to be’ can certainly mean ‘to exist’. When Hamlet asks the question ‘to be or not to be?’ he is debating whether or not to put an end to his existence. In the Bible we read that Rachel wept for her children ‘a(chǎn)nd would not be comforted because they are not’. This usage in English is poetic and archaic, and it is not natural to say such things as ‘The Tower of London is, and the Crystal Palace is not’, when we mean that the former building is still in existence while the latter is no longer there. But the corresponding statement would be quite natural in ancient Greek; and this sense of ‘be’ is certainly involved in Parmenides’ talk of Being.

在英語中，“to be”可以肯定地表示“to exist”。當(dāng)哈姆雷特問道 “to be or not to be?”（生存還是毀滅？）時，他在思考是否要結(jié)束自己的生命。 在《圣經(jīng)》中，我們讀到拉結(jié)為她的孩子們哭泣，“and would not be comforted because they are not”。這種英語用法是詩意的和古老的，并且 說出像‘The Tower of London is, and the Crystal Palace is not’這樣的話并不自然，當(dāng)我們的意思是前者的建筑仍然存在，而后者已經(jīng)不在了。但是相應(yīng)的陳述在古希臘語中會很自然；而且這種“be”的意義肯定涉及到 巴門尼德關(guān)于存在的論述。?

If this were all that was involved, then we could say simply that Being is all that exists, or if you like, all that there is, or again, everything that is in being. That is a broad enough topic, in all conscience. One could not reproach Parmenides, as Hamlet reproached Horatio, by saying:?

如果這就是所有的問題，那么我們可以簡單地說，存在就是一切存在的東西，或者如果你愿意，存在就是所有的東西，或者再說，存在就是一切處于存在狀態(tài)的東西。這是一個足夠?qū)挿旱脑掝}，無可厚非。人們不會像哈姆雷特責(zé)備霍雷肖那樣責(zé)備巴門尼德，說：

There are more things in heaven and earth?

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.?

天上地下 有比你的哲學(xué)所夢想的更多的東西。?

For whatever there is in heaven and earth will fall under the heading of Being.?

因為天上地下的任何東西都會屬于存在的范疇。

Unfortunately for us, however, matters are more complicated than this. Existence is not all that Parmenides has in mind when he talks of Being.?

?不幸的是，對我們來說，事情比這更復(fù)雜。 存在者（Existence）并不是巴門尼德所說的存在的全部意思。

He is interested in the verb ‘to be’ not only as it occurs in sentences such as ‘Troy is no more’ but as it occurs in any kind of sentence whatever – whether ‘Penelope is a woman’ or ‘Achilles is a hero’ or ‘Menelaus is gold-haired’ or ‘Telemachus is six-feet high’.?

他對“是”這個動詞感興趣，不僅是因為它出現(xiàn)在諸如“特洛伊不復(fù)存在”這樣的句子中，而且因為它出現(xiàn)在任何一種句子中——無論是“佩內(nèi)洛珀是一個女人”還是“阿基里斯是一個英雄”或者“墨涅勞斯是金發(fā)的”或者“忒勒馬科斯是六英尺高”。

So understood, Being is not just that which exists, but that of which any sentence containing ‘is’ is true.?

這樣理解的話，存在不僅僅是存在的東西，而是任何一種含有“是”的句子所說的真理。

Equally, being is not just existing (being, period) but being anything whatever: being red or being blue, being hot or being cold, and so on ad nauseam.?

同樣，存在不僅僅是existing (being, period)，而是任何一種存在：紅色的存在或藍(lán)色的存在，熱的存在或冷的存在，等等無窮無盡。

Taken in this sense, Being is a much more difficult realm to comprehend.?After this long preamble, we are in a position to look at some of the lines of Parmenides’ mysterious poem.

從這個意義上說，存在是一個更難以理解的領(lǐng)域。 在這個冗長的序言之后，我們可以看一看巴門尼德神秘詩歌中的一些句子。

What you can call and think must Being be For Being can, and nothing cannot, be.

你能稱呼和思考的必須是存在，因為存在存在，而無不存在。

The first line stresses the vast extension of Being: if you can call Argos a dog, or if you can think of the moon, then Argos and the moon must be, must count as part of Being. But why does the second line tell us that nothing cannot be?

第一行強(qiáng)調(diào)了存在的廣闊延伸：如果你能稱呼阿爾戈斯為狗，或者，如果你能想到月亮，那么阿爾戈斯和月亮必然是，必然算作存在的一部分。但是為什么第二行告訴我們無不能夠存在？

Well, anything that can be at all, must be something or other; it cannot be just nothing.

好吧，任何能夠存在的東西，必須是某種東西或其他東西；它不能只是 無。

Parmenides introduces, to correspond with Being, the notion of Unbeing. Never shall this prevail, that Unbeing is; Rein in your mind from any thought like this.

巴門尼德引入了與存在相對應(yīng)的無的概念。?“無 存在”是永遠(yuǎn)不會成立；?控制住你自己，不要有這樣的思想。

If Being is that of which something or other, no matter what, is true, then Unbeing is that of which nothing at all is true. That, surely, is nonsense. Not only can it not exist, it cannot even be thought of.

如果存在是任何東西或其他東西，不管是什么，都是真實的，那么 無是成為任何東西都不是真實的。那，肯定是無意義的。它不僅不能存在，甚至不能被思考。

Unbeing you won’t grasp – it can’t be done – Nor utter; being thought and being are one.

無你不會把握——它不可能做到—— 也不會說出；思維和存在是一致的。

Given his definition of ‘being’ and ‘Unbeing’ Parmenides is surely right here. If I tell you that I am thinking of something, and you ask me what kind of thing I’m thinking of, you will be puzzled if I say that it isn’t any kind of thing. If you then ask me what it is like, and I say that it isn’t like anything at all, you will be quite baffled. ‘Can you then tell me anything at all about it?’ you may ask. If I say no, then you may justly conclude that I am not really thinking of anything or indeed thinking at all. In that sense, it is true that to be thought of and to be are one and the same.

根據(jù)他對“存在”和“無”的定義，巴門尼德在這里肯定是正確的。如果 我告訴你我在想某件事情，你問我我在想什么樣的事情， 如果我說它不是任何一種事情，你會感到困惑。?然后如果你問我它是什么樣子，我說它不像任何東西，你會 相當(dāng)困惑。“那你能告訴我關(guān)于它的任何事情嗎？”你可能會問。如果我 說不，那么你可以公正地得出結(jié)論，我并沒有真正地想到任何事情或者 確實沒有思考。從這個意義上說，思維和存在是一致的。?

We can agree with Parmenides thus far; but we may note that there is an important difference between saying

我們可以同意巴門尼德到目前為止；但我們可能注意到有一個 重要的區(qū)別在于說

Unbeing cannot be thought of

無不能被思考

and saying

和說

What does not exist cannot be thought of.

不存在的東西不能被思考。

The first sentence is, in the sense explained, true; the second is false. If it were true, we could prove that things exist simply by thinking of them; but whereas lions and unicorns can both be thought of, lions exist and unicorns don’t.?

第一句話是，在解釋的意義上，是真的；第二句是假的。如果它是 真的，我們可以通過想象它們來證明事物的存在；但是雖然 獅子和獨角獸都可以被想象，獅子存在而獨角獸不。

Given the convolutions of his language, it is hard to be sure whether Parmenides thought that the two statements were equivalent. Some of his successors have accused him of that confusion; others have seemed to share it themselves.

考慮到 他語言的晦澀復(fù)雜，很難確定巴門尼德是否 認(rèn)為這兩個陳述是等價的。他的一些后繼者有 指責(zé)他有這種混淆；其他人似乎也有同樣的問題。

We have agreed with Parmenides in rejecting Unbeing. But it is harder to follow Parmenides in some of the conclusions he draws from the inconceivability of Unbeing and the universality of Being. This is how he proceeds.

我們已經(jīng)同意巴門尼德拒絕無。但是更難以跟隨 巴門尼德在他從 無 的不可思不可議和存在的普遍性中得出的一些結(jié)論。這是他的推理過程。

One road there is, signposted in this wise:?

有一條路，用這樣的方式指示：?

Being was never born and never dies;?

存在沒有起點，也沒有終點；?

Foursquare, unmoved, no end it will allow?

四方，不動，不容許有終結(jié)

It never was, nor will be; all is now,?

它不是過去，也不是未來；一切都是現(xiàn)在，

One and continuous. How could it be born?

?一而且連續(xù)。它怎么能有起點

Or whence could it be grown? Unbeing? No –?

那么其從何而有？無中生有？不——?

That mayn’t be said or thought; we cannot go?

So far ev’n to deny it is.?

那不可思不可議；我們不能太過分甚至否認(rèn)它存在。

What need,?

Early or late, could Being from Unbeing seed???

什么需要，?

早或晚，能讓存在從無中生出？

Thus it must altogether be or not.

因此它必須完全存在或不存在。

Nor to Unbeing will belief allot?

An offspring other than itself . . .

‘Nothing can come from nothing’ is a principle which has been accepted by many thinkers far less intrepid than Parmenides.?

“無中生有”是一個原則，已經(jīng)被許多比巴門尼德更不膽怯的思想家所接受。

But not many have drawn the conclusion that Being has no beginning and no end, and is not subject to temporal change.?

但是沒有多少人得出了這樣的結(jié)論：存在沒有開始和結(jié)束，也不受時間的變化影響。

To see why Parmenides drew this conclusion, we have to assume that he thought that ‘being water’ or ‘being air’ was related to ‘being’ in the same way as ‘running fast’ and ‘running slowly’ is related to ‘running’.?

要明白巴門尼德為什么得出了這個結(jié)論，我們必須假設(shè)他認(rèn)為“水的存在”或“空氣的存在”與“存在”有著相同的關(guān)系，就像“跑得快”和“跑得慢”與“跑”有著相同的關(guān)系。

Someone who first runs fast and then runs slowly, all the time goes on running; similarly, for Parmenides, stuff which is first water and then is air goes on being.?

一個人先跑得快，然后跑得慢，他一直在跑；同樣，對于巴門尼德來說，先是水然后是氣的東西一直在存在。

When a kettle of water boils away, this may be, in Heraclitus’ words, the death of water and the birth of air; but, for Parmenides, it is not the death or birth of Being.

當(dāng)一壺水煮干了，在赫拉克利特的話中，這可能是，水的消亡和氣的誕生；但是，對于巴門尼德來說，這不是存在的消亡或誕生。

Whatever changes may take place, they are not changes from being to non-being; they are all changes within Being, not changes of Being.

無論發(fā)生什么樣的變化，它們都不是從存在到不存在的變化；它們都是存在內(nèi)部的變化，而不是存在本身的變化。

Being must be everlasting; because it could not have come from Unbeing, and it could never turn into Unbeing, because there is no such thing. If Being could?

– per impossibile – come from nothing, what could make it do so at one time rather than another? Indeed, what is it that differentiates past from present and future? If it is no kind of being, then time is unreal; if it is some kind of being, then it is all part of Being, and past, present and future are all one Being.

存在必須是永恒的；因為它不可能來自于非存在，也永遠(yuǎn)不會變成非存在，因為沒有這樣的東西。如果存在可以——不可能地——從無中產(chǎn)生，那么是什么讓它在某一時刻而不是另一時刻這樣做？的確，是什么區(qū)分了過去、現(xiàn)在和未來？如果它不是任何一種存在，那么時間就是虛幻的；如果它是某種存在，那么它就是存在的一部分，過去、現(xiàn)在和未來都是同一存在。

By similar arguments Parmenides seeks to show that Being is undivided and unlimited. What would divide Being from Being? Unbeing? In that case the division is unreal. Being? In that case there is no division, but continuous Being.?

通過類似的論證，巴門尼德試圖證明存在是不可分割和無限的。是什么將存在與存在分開？非存在？在那種情況下，分割是不真實的。存在？在那種情況下，沒有分割，只有連續(xù)的存在。

What could set limits to Being? Unbeing cannot do anything to anything; and if we imagine that Being is limited by Being, then Being has not yet reached its limits.

是什么給存在設(shè)定了限定？非存在不能對任何東西做任何事情；如果我們想象存在受到存在的限制，那么存在還沒有達(dá)到它的極限。

To think a thing’s to think it is, no less.?

Apart from Being, whatever we may express,?

Thought does not reach. Naught is or will be?

Beyond Being’s bounds, since Destiny’s decree?

Fetters it whole and still. All things are names Which the credulity of mortals frames –

Birth and destruction, being all or none,?

Changes of place, and colours come and gone.

思考一件事就是認(rèn)為它存在，絕非輕言。?

除了存在，無論我們表達(dá)什么，?

思想都無法達(dá)到。沒有什么是或?qū)⑹?

超越存在的界限，因為命運(yùn)的命令?

將它整個束縛并靜止。所有的事物都是名字，是凡人的輕信?

構(gòu)造的——生與滅，全有或全無，?

位置的變化，和顏色的來去。

Parmenides’ poem is in two parts: the Way of Truth and the Way of Seeming.?

巴門尼德的詩歌分為兩部分：真理之道和似是之道（意見之道）。?

The Way of Truth contains the doctrine of Being, which we have been examining; the Way of Seeming deals with the world of the senses, the world of change and colour, the world of empty names.?

真理之道包含了存在的信條，這是我們一直在 探討的；似是之道涉及到感官的世界，變化和色彩的世界，空洞名字的世界。

We need not spend time on the Way of Seeming, since what Parmenides tells us about this is not very different from the cosmological speculations of the Ionian thinkers.

我們不需要花時間在 似是之道上，因為巴門尼德告訴我們的關(guān)于這個的東西和愛奧尼亞思想家的宇宙學(xué)推測沒有太大區(qū)別。

It was his Way of Truth which set an agenda for many ages of subsequent philosophy.

正是他的真理之道為后來的許多時代的哲學(xué)設(shè)定了一種規(guī)范的進(jìn)路。

The problem facing future philosophers was this. Common sense suggests that the world contains things which endure, such as rocky mountains, and things which constantly change, such as rushing streams.?

未來的哲學(xué)家面臨的問題是這樣的。常識告訴我們， 世界包含了一些持久的事物，比如巖石山，和一些 不斷變化的事物，比如奔流的溪流。

On the one hand, Heraclitus had pronounced that at a fundamental level, even the most solid things were in perpetual flux; on the other hand, Parmenides had argued that even what is most apparently fleeting is, at a fundamental level, static and unchanging.?

一方面，赫拉克利特 宣稱，在根本層面上，即使是最堅固的事物也處于 永恒的流動之中；另一方面，巴門尼德則認(rèn)為，即使是最 明顯短暫的事物，在根本層面上也是靜止和不變的。

Can the doctrines of either Heraclitus or Parmenides be refuted? Is there any way in which they can be reconciled? For Plato, and his successors, this was a major task for philosophy to address.

赫拉克利特或巴門尼德的信條能否被反駁？有沒有什么辦法 可以使它們和諧起來？對于柏拉圖和他的繼承者們，這是哲學(xué)要解決的一個重大任務(wù)。