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苏菲的世界|Sophie’s World

柏拉图|Plato

属类： 双语小说 【分类】魔幻小说 -[作者: 乔斯坦·贾德] 阅读：[30816]
《 字+字- 行+行- 页+页- 字+字- 行+行- 页+页- 》
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……回归灵魂世界的渴望……

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第二天清早，苏菲猛然惊醒，看一看钟，才刚过五点，但她却已经没有一点睡意了，于是她便在床上坐起来。奇怪，自己为何仍然穿着白天的衣裳呢？然后，她想起了昨天发生的一切。

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她爬到凳子上，检查一下柜子的上层。没错，带子还在那里。原来这真的不是一场梦。至少不完全是一场梦。

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不过她一定不可能真的见到了柏拉图与苏格拉底……算了，真伤脑筋，她现在已经没有力气再去想它了。也许妈妈说得对，也许她这几天真的有些神经兮兮的。

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不管怎样，她是再睡不着了。也许她应该到密洞去，看看那只狗是否曾留下任何信件。

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苏菲溜下楼，穿上一双慢跑鞋便出门了。

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花园中一切都清朗宁静美好。鸟儿们唱得如此起劲，使苏菲忍不住想笑。草叶上的朝露宛如水晶一般闪闪发光。

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这世界如此美好，令人不可思议。苏菲再一次深深受到感动。

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老树篱内非常潮湿。苏菲没有看到哲学家的来信，不过她还是掸了掸一截粗大的树根，坐了下来。

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她想起录影带上的柏拉图曾经要她回答一些问题。第一个问题是面包师傅如何做出五十个一模一样的饼干。

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苏菲暗忖，她得仔细想一想才行，因为这个问题一定不简单。

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妈妈偶尔也会做一些饼干，但从来没有一次饼干形状完全相同。不过话说回来，妈妈不是专业的面包师傅，有时厨房甚至乱得像被炸弹轰炸过一样。即使是店里卖的饼干也从来没有完全一样的，每一块饼干在制饼师傅手中都捏成不同的样子。

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此时，苏菲脸上浮现满意的笑容。她记得有一回妈妈忙着烤圣诞节的饼干，因此她和爸爸一起去买东西。他们回到家后看到厨房的桌子上散放了许多姜饼人。这些姜饼人虽然不很完美，但就某一方面来说，却都是一模一样的。为什么会这样呢？显然是由于妈妈做这些姜饼人时用了同一个模子的缘故。

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想到自己居然记得这件小事，苏菲很是得意。因此她想这第一个问题应该已经答完了。

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如果一个饼干师傅做了五十个完全一模一样的饼干，他一定是用了同样一副饼干模子。很简单，就是这样。

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录影带上的柏拉图问的第二个问题是：为何所有的马都一样？

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可是，事实并非如此啊！相反的，苏菲认为没有两匹马是完全相同的，就像没有两个人是一模一样的。

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苏菲正要放弃这个问题时，突然想到她刚才对饼干的看法。事实上，也没有两块饼干是一模一样的，有些比较厚，有些比较薄，有些碎了。然而，每个人都可以看出这些饼干就某一方面来说是“一模一样”的。

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也许柏拉图问的是为何马一直是马，而不会变成一种既像马又像猪的动物。因为，虽然有些马像熊一样是棕色的，有些则白得像绵羊，但所有的马都有一些共同点。举例来说，苏菲就从没有见过六条腿或八条腿的马。

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但柏拉图不可能相信所有的马之所以相同，是因为他们是用同一个模子做成的吧？

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然后柏拉图又问了她一个很深、很难的问题：人有没有不朽的灵魂？

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苏菲觉得自己不太够资格回答这个问题。她只知道人死后，人体不是火葬就是土葬，因此实在没有未来可言。如果人有一个不朽的灵魂，那我们就必须相信一个人是由两个不同的部分组成的一个是用了多年之后就会老旧、损坏的躯体，还有一个是无论身体情况如何，仍然多少可以独立作业的灵魂。苏菲的奶奶曾经说过，她觉得变老的只是自己的身体而已，在内心她一直都还是一个年轻的女孩。

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想到“年轻女孩”，苏菲就想到最后—个问题：女人和男人一样有理性吗？对于这点，她可不敢确定。

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这要看柏拉图所谓的“理性”是什么。

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哲学老师在谈论苏格拉底时所说的一些话突然浮现在苏菲的脑海中。苏格拉底曾经指出，每一个人只要运用自己的常识，都可以了解哲学的真理。他也曾说奴隶与贵族一样有常识。因此苏菲肯定他也会说女人和男人一样有常识。

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当她正坐在那儿想着这些问题时，突然听到树篱里有沙沙的声音以及类似蒸汽引擎“噗！噗！”喷气的声音。下一秒钟，一条金色的狗已经钻进了密洞，嘴里衔着一个大信封。

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“汉密士！”苏菲叫它，“丢下来，丢下来！”

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狗儿把信放在苏菲的怀中。苏菲伸出手摸摸它的头“你真乖。”她说。

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狗儿躺下来任由苏菲抚摸。但过了两三分钟，它就站了起来，钻过树篱由原路回去。苏菲手拿棕色的信封跟着它，爬过浓密的枝叶，不一会就出了花园。

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汉密士已经开始向树林的边缘跑去了。苏菲在后头跟了几码路，狗儿两次转过身来对她吠叫，但苏菲一点也不害怕。

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这次她决心要找到那个哲学家，即使必须一路跑到雅典也在所不惜。狗儿愈跑愈快，然后突然跑到一条窄的小路上。苏菲紧迫不舍，但几分钟后狗儿转过身来面对着她，像看门狗一样的吠叫。

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苏菲仍然不肯放弃，趁机会拉近他们之间的距离。

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汉密士一转身，向前飞奔。苏菲发现自己永远不可能迫得上。

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于是她停下来，在那儿站了好久好久，听到它愈跑愈远，而后一切复归寂静。

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她在林中空地旁的一截树木残桩上坐下，手里仍拿着那个棕色的信封。她把它拆开，拿出几页打着字的信纸，开始看信：

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柏拉图学院

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苏菲，谢谢你与我共度一段愉快的时光。我是指我们在雅典的时候。现在我至少已经算是做过自我介绍了。还有，既然我也向你介绍了柏拉图，因此我们还是开门见山地谈他吧。

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苏格拉底服毒而死时，柏拉图(公元前427～公元前347年)才二十九岁。当时他受教于苏格拉底门下已经有一段时间。他密切注意苏格拉底受审的经过。当他看到雅典人民居然将他们当中最高贵的人判处死刑时，内心非常震动。这件事影响了他后来的哲学生涯。

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对柏拉图而言，苏格拉底之死证明了当今社会与理想社会之间的冲突。柏拉图成为哲学家后所做的第一件事就是将苏格拉底对陪审团的陈情内容出版成《自辩》(Apology)一书。

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你也许还记得，苏格拉底从未留下任何文字。至于苏格拉底之前的哲学家虽然有许多人曾著书立说，但他们的文字到现在却几乎都荡然无存。至于柏拉图，我们相信他所有的重要著作应该都已经保存下来了。除了苏格拉底的《自辩》之外，柏拉图也写了好些书信与至少三十五篇哲学对话录。这些作品之所以能留存至今，一部分是因为柏拉图在距雅典不远之处的一个树林中创立了一个哲学学校，并以传奇中的希腊英雄阿卡戴慕士(Academus)为名。因此这个学校被称为“学园”或“学院”(Academy)(从此以后全世界各地成立了成千上万所学院，以后我们会谈到有关“学院”与“学科”的问题)。

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柏拉图学园中教授的科目包括哲学、数学与体育。不过，说“教授”其实不太正确，因为柏拉图学园也是采取活泼的对话方式上课，因此柏拉图之所以采用对话录的形式来写作并非偶然。

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永远的真善美

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在这堂课的序言中，我曾经提到一个人可以不时问问自己某一个哲学家研究什么课题。因此我现在要问：柏拉图关心的是哪些问题？

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简单地说，我们可以断定柏拉图关心的是永恒不变的事物与“流动”事物之间的关系(就像苏格拉底之前的哲学家一样)。我们已经谈过诡辩论学派与苏格拉底如何将他们的注意力由有关自然哲学的问题转到与人和社会的问题。然而从某个角度来看，就连苏格拉底与诡辩学派也都关心永恒不变的事物与“流动”事物之间的关系。他们之所以对这个问题感兴趣，乃是由于它与人类道德与社会理想及美德之间的关系。简而言之，诡辩学家认为每一个城邦、每一个世代对于是非的观念各不相同。因此是非的观念是“流动”的。苏格拉底则完全不能接受这种说法，他认为世间有所谓永恒、绝对的是非观念存在。我们只要运用自己的常识便可以悟出这些不变的标准，因为人类的理智事实上是永恒不变的。

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你明白吗？苏菲。后来，柏拉图出现了。他既关心自然界中永恒不变的事物，也关心与人类道德及社会有关的永恒不变的事物。

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对于柏拉图而言，这两个问题是一体的两面。他试图掌握有关个人永恒不变的“真理”。

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坦白说，这正是世间为何要有哲学家的原因。我们需要哲学家，不是因为他们可以为我们选拔美皇后或告诉我们今天番茄最低价(这是他们为何经常不受欢迎的原因)。哲学家们总是试图避开这类没有永恒价值的热门话题，而努力将人们的的注意力吸引到永远“真”、永远“善”、永远“美”的事物上。

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明白了这点，我们才可以开始略微了解柏拉图课题的大概内容，不过还是让我们一样一样来吧。我们将试着了解一个不凡的心灵、一个对后来所有欧洲哲学有着深远影响的心灵。

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理型的世界

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恩培窦可里斯与德谟克里特斯两人都提醒世人：尽管自然界的所有事物都是“流动”的，但世间一定仍有“某些东西”永远不会改变(如“四根”或“原子”)。柏拉图也同意这个命题，但他的方式却大不相同。

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柏拉图认为，自然界中有形的东西是“流动”的，所以世间才没有不会分解的“物质”。属于“物质世界”的每一样东西必然是由某种物质做成。这种物质会受时间侵蚀，但做成这些东西的“模子”或“形式”却是永恒不变的。

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你了解了吗？苏菲。不，我想你还不了解。

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为何全天下的马儿都一样？你也许不认为它们是一样的，但有些特质是所有的马儿都具备的，这些特质使得我们可以认出它们是马。当然个别的马是“流动”的，因为它会老、会瘸，时间到了甚至会死。但马的“形式”却是永恒不变的。

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因此，对柏拉图而言，永恒不变的东西并非一种“基本物质”，而是形成各种事物模样的精神模式或抽象模式。

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我们这么说吧：苏格拉底之前的哲学家对于自然界的变化提出了相当不错的解释。他们指出，自然界的事物事实上并未“改变”，因为在大自然的各种变化中，有一些永恒不变的最小单位是不会分解的。他们的说法固然不错，但是，苏菲，他们并未对为何这些原本可能组成一匹马“最小单位”突然会在四五百年后突然又聚在一起，组成另外一批新的马(或大象或鳄鱼)提出合理的解释。柏拉图的看法是：这些德谟克里特斯所说的原子只会变成大象或鳄鱼，而绝不会成为“象鳄”或“鳄象”。这是他的哲学思想的特色。如果你已经了解我所要说的，你可以跳过这一段。不过为了保险起见，我要再补充说明一下：假如你有一盒积木，并用这些积木造了一匹马。完工后，你把马拆开，将积木放回盒内。你不可能光是把盒子摇一摇就造出另外一匹马。这些积木怎么可能会自动找到彼此，并再度组成一匹新的马呢？不，这是不可能的。你必须重新再组合过。而你之所以能够这样做，是因为你心中已经有了一幅马的图像，你所参考的模型适用于所有的马匹。

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关于五十块一模一样饼干的问题，你回答得如何呢？让我们假设你是从外大空来的，从来没有见过一位面包师傅。有一天你无意间走进一家香气扑鼻的面包店，看到架子上有五十个一模一样的姜饼人。我想你大概会搔搔头，奇怪它们怎么看起来都一个样子。

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事实上这些姜饼人可能有的少了一双胳臂，有的头上缺了一角，有的则是肚子上很滑稽的隆起了一块。不过你仔细想过之后，还是认为这些姜饼人都有一些共同点。虽然这些姜饼人没有一个是完美的，但你仍会怀疑它们是出自同一双手的杰作。你会发现这些饼干全部都是用同一个模子做出来的。更重要的是，苏菲，你现在开始有一股不可抗拒的念头，想要看看这个模子。因为很明显的，这个模子本身一定是绝对完美的，而从某个角度来看，它比起这些粗糙的副本来，也会更美丽。

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如果你是完全靠自己的思考解答了这个问题，那么你回答这个哲学问题的方法就跟柏拉图完全一样。

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就像大多数哲学家一般，他也是“从外太空来的”(他站在兔子毛皮中一根细毛的最顶端)。他看到所有的自然现象都如此类似，觉得非常惊讶，而他认为这一定是因为我们周遭事物的“背后”有一些特定的形式的缘故。柏拉图称这些形式为“理型”或观念。在每一匹马、每一只猪或每一个人的后面，都有一个“理型马”、“理型猪”或“理型人”。(同样的，刚才我们说的面包店也可能会有姜饼人、姜饼马或姜饼猪，因为每一家比较有规模的面包店都会做一种以上的姜饼模子。但一个模子已够做许许多多同样形状的姜饼了。)

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柏拉图因此得出一个结论：在“物质世界的背后，必定有一个实在存在。他称这个实在为‘理型的世界’，其中包含存在于自然界各种现象背后、永恒不变的模式。”这种独树一格的观点我们称之为“柏拉图的理型论”。

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真正的知识

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亲爱的苏菲，到目前为止我所说的话你一定可以了解。不过你也许会问，柏拉图是认真的吗？他真的相信类似这样的形式的确存在于一个完全不同的世界中吗？

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他也许并不是终其一生都保持这种看法，但在他部分对话录中他的意思无疑就是这样。让我们试着追随他思想的脉络。

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就像我们看到的，哲学家努力掌握一些永恒不变的事物。举例来说，如果我要你就“某个肥皂泡的存在”这个题目来撰写一篇哲学论文，这就没有什么意义了。原因之一是：往往在我们还没来得及深入研究之前，肥皂泡就破了。原因之二是：这个肥皂泡没有别人看过，并且仅存在五秒钟，这样的哲学论文可能很难找到市场。

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柏拉图认为我们在周遭的自然界中所看到的一切具体事物，都可以比做是一个肥皂泡泡，因为没有一件存在于感官世界的东西是永远不变的。我们知道每一个人、每一只动物迟早会死，而且会腐烂分解。即使一决大理石也会发生变化，逐渐分解。(希腊的高城目前正逐渐倒塌，这真是非常糟糕的事，但也没有办法。)柏拉图的观点是：我们对于那些不断改变的事物不可能会有真正的认识。我们对于那些属于感官世界的具体事物只能有意见或看法。我们能够真正认识的，只有那些我们可以运用理智来了解的事物。

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好，苏菲，我再解释得更清楚一些：经过烘烤后，有的姜饼人可能会不成形状。不过在看了几百个像与不像的姜饼人之后，我可以非常确定姜饼人的模型是什么样子。虽然我未曾见过它的模样，但也可以猜到。甚至可以说，即使我们亲眼见过那个模子也不见得会更好，因为我们并不一定信任我们的感官所察知的事物。视觉能力因人而异，但我们却能信赖我们的理智告诉我们的事物，因为理智是人人相同的。

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如果你和三十个同学一起坐在教室内。老师问全班学生彩虹里的哪一种颜色最漂亮，他也许会得到很多不同的答案。但如果他问8乘3是多少，全班大概都会提出相同的答案。因为这时理性正在发言，而理性可说是“想法”或“感觉”的相反。正因为理性只表达永恒不变、宇宙共通的事物，因此我们可以说理性永恒不变，而且是宇宙共通的。

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柏拉图认为数学是非常吸引人的学科，因为数学的状态永远不会改变，因此也是人可以真正了解的状态。这里让我们来举一个例子。

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假设你在树林间捡到一个圆形的松果，也许你会说你“认为”这个松果是圆的，而乔安则坚持它一边有点扁。(然后你们两个就开始为这件事拌嘴！)所以说，我们人类是无法真正了解我们肉眼所见的事物的，但是我们却可以百分之百确定，一个圆形内所有的角度加起来一定是36O度。我们这里所说的是一个理想的圆形，也许这个圆形在物质世界中并不存在，不过我们仍然可以很清楚地想象出来。(这个圆形就像那个看不见的姜饼人模子，而不是放在厨房桌上的那些姜饼人。)

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简而言之，我们对于感官所感受到的事物，只能有模糊、不精确的观念，但是我们却能够真正了解我们用理智所理解的事物。三角形内的各内角总和一定是18O度，这是亘古不变的。而同样的，即使感官世界中所有的马都瘸了，“理型”马还会是四肢健全的。

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不朽的灵魂

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我们已经见到柏拉图如何认为实在世界可以分为两个领域。

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其中一个是感官世界。我们只能用我们五种并不精确的官能来约略认识这个世界。在这个世界中，“每一件事物都会流动”，而且没有一个是永久不变的。这里面存在的都是一些生生灭灭的事物。

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另外一个领域则是理型的世界。我们可以用理性来确实认识这个世界。我们无法用感官来察知这个理型的世界，但这些理型(或形式)是永恒不变的。

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根据柏拉图的说法，人是一种具有双重性质的生物。我们的身体是“流动”的，与感官的世界不可分割，并且其命运与世界上其他每一件事物(如肥皂泡)都相同。我们所有的感官都是以身体为基础，因此是不可靠的。但我们同时也有一个不朽的灵魂，而这个灵魂则是理性的天下。由于灵魂不是物质，因此可以探索理型的世界。

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苏菲，柏拉图的学说差不多就是这样了，但这并不是全部。这并不是全部！

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柏拉图同时认为，灵魂栖居在躯体内之前，原本就已经存在(它和所有的饼干模子一起躺在橱柜的上层)。然而一旦灵魂在某一具躯体内醒来时，它便忘了所有的完美的理型。然后，一个奇妙的过程展开了。当人类发现自然界各种不同的形式时，某些模糊的回忆便开始扰动他的灵魂。他看到了一匹马，然而是一匹不完美的马。(一匹姜饼马！)灵魂一看到这匹马，便依稀想起它在理型世界中所见过的完美“马”，同时涌起一股回到它本来领域的渴望。柏拉图称这种渴望为eros，也就是“爱”的意思。此时，灵魂体验到“一种回归本源的欲望”。从此以后，肉体与整个感官世界对它而言，都是不完美而且微不足道的。灵魂渴望乘着爱的翅膀回“家”，回到理型的世界。它渴望从“肉体的枷锁”中挣脱。

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我要强调的是，柏拉图在这里描述的，是一个理想中的生命历程，因为并非所有人都会释放自己的灵魂，让它踏上回到理型世界的旅程。大多数人都紧抱完美理型在感官世界中的“倒影”不放。他们看见一匹又一匹的马，却从未见到这些马所据以产生的“完美马”的形象。(他们只是冲进厨房，拿了姜饼人就吃，也不想一想这些姜饼人是打哪里来的。)柏拉图描述的是哲学家面对事物的方式。他的哲学可以说是对哲学性做法的一种描述。

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苏菲，当你看到一个影子时，一定会假定有一样东西投射出这个影子。你看到一只动物的影子，心想那可能是一匹马，但你也不太确定。于是你就转过身来，瞧瞧这匹马。而比起那模糊的影子，这匹马当然显得更俊秀，轮廓也更清晰。同样的，柏拉图也相信，自然界所有的现象都只是永恒形式或理型的影子。但大多数人活在影子之间就已经感到心满意足。他们从不去思考是什么东西投射出这些影子。他们认为世间就只有影子，甚至从不曾认清世间万物都只是影子，也因此他们对于自身灵魂不朽的物质从不在意。

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走出黑暗的洞穴

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柏拉图用一个神话故事来说明这点。我们称之为“洞穴神话”。

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现在就让我用自己的话再说一次这个故事。

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假设有些人住在地下的洞穴中。他们背向洞口，坐在地上，手脚都被绑着，因此他们只能看到洞穴的后壁。在他们的身后是一堵高墙，墙后面有一些人形的生物走过，手中举着各种不同形状的人偶，由于人偶高过墙头，同时墙与洞穴间还有一把火炬，因此它们在洞穴的后壁上投下明明灭灭的影子。在这种情况下，穴中居民所看到的唯一事物就是这种“皮影戏”。他们自出生以来就像这样坐着，因此他们认为世间唯一存在的便只有这些影子了。

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再假设有一个穴居人设法挣脱了他的锁链。他问自己的第一个问题便是：洞壁上的这些影子从何而来？你想：如果他一转身，看到墙头上高举着的人偶时，会有何反应？首先，强烈的火光会照得他睁不开眼睛，人偶的鲜明形状也会使他大感惊讶，因为他过去看到的都只是这些人偶的影子而已。如果他想办法爬过墙，越过火炬，进入外面的世界，他会更加惊讶。在揉揉眼睛后，他会深受万物之美的感动。这是他生平第一次看到色彩与清楚的形体。他看到了真正的动物与花朵，而不是洞穴里那些贫乏的影子。不过即使到了现在，他仍会问自己这些动物与花朵从何而来？然后他会看到天空中的大阳，并悟出这就是将生命赋予那些花朵与动物的源头，就像火光造就出影子一般。

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这个穴居人如获至宝。他原本大可以从此奔向乡间，为自己新获的自由而欢欣雀跃，但他却想到那些仍然留在洞里的人，于是他回到洞中，试图说服其他的穴居人，使他们相信洞壁上那些影子只不过是“真实”事物的闪烁影像罢了。然而他们不相信他，并指着洞壁说除了他们所见的影子之外，世间再也没有其他事物了。最后，他们把那个人杀了。

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柏拉图借着这个洞穴神话，想要说明哲学家是如何从影子般的影像出发，追寻自然界所有现象背后的真实概念。这当中，他也许曾想到苏格拉底，因为后者同样是因为推翻了“穴居人”传统的观念。并试图照亮他们追寻真知的道路而遭到杀害。这个神话说明了苏格拉底的勇气与他的为人导师的责任感。

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柏拉图想说的是：黑暗洞穴与外在世界的关系就像是自然世界的形式与理型世界的关系。他的意思并非说大自然是黑暗、无趣的，而是说，比起鲜明清楚的理型世界来，它就显得黑暗而平淡。同样的，一张漂亮女孩的照片也不是单调无趣的，但再怎么说它也只是一张照片而已。

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哲学之国

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洞穴神话记载于柏拉图的对话录《理想国》(TheReublic)中。

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柏拉图在这本书中也描述了“理想国”的面貌。所谓“理想国”就是一个虚构的理想的国度，也就是我们所称的“乌托邦”。简而言之，

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我们可以说柏拉图认为这个国度应该由哲学家来治理。他用人体的构造来解释这个概念。

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根据柏拉图的说法，人体由三部分构成，分别是头、胸、腹。人的灵魂也相对的具有三种能力。“理性”属于头部的能力，“意志”属于胸部，“欲望”则属于腹部。这些能力各自有其理想，也就是“美德”。理性追求智慧，意志追求勇气，欲望则必须加以遏阻，以做到“自制”。唯有人体的这三部分协调运作时，个人才会达到“和谐”或“美德”的境界。在学校时，儿童首先必须学习如何克制自己的欲望，而后再培养自己的勇气，最后运用理性来达到智慧。

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在柏拉图的构想中，一个国家应该像人体一般，由三个部分组成。就像人有头、胸、腹一般，一个国家也应该有统治者、战士与工匠(如农夫)。此处柏拉图显然是参考希腊医学的说法。正如一个健康和谐的人懂得平衡与节制一般，一个“有德”之国的特色是，每一位国民都明白自己在整个国家中扮演的角色。

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柏拉图的政治哲学与他在其他方面的哲学一般，是以理性主义为特色。国家要能上轨道，必须以理性来统治。就像人体由头部来掌管一般，社会也必须由哲学家来治理。

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现在让我们简单说明人体三部分与国家之间的关系：

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身体灵魂美德国家

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头部理性智慧统治者

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胸部意志勇气战士

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腹部欲望自制工匠

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柏拉图的理想国有点类似印度的阶级世袭制度，每一个人在社会上都有其特殊的功能，以满足社会整体的需求。事实上，早在柏拉图降生以前，印度的社会便已分成统治阶级(或僧侣阶级)、战士阶级与劳动阶级这三个社会族群。对于现代人而言，柏拉图的理想国可算是极权国家。但有一点值得一提的是：他相信女人也能和男人一样有效治理国家，理由很简单：统治者是以理性来治国，而柏拉图认为女人只要受到和男人一样的训练，而且毋需生育、持家的话，也会拥有和男人不相上下的理性思考能力。在柏拉图的理想国中，统治者与战士都不能享受家庭生活，也不许拥有私人的财产。同时，由于养育孩童的责任极为重大，因此不可由个人从事，而必须由政府来负责(柏拉图是第一位主张成立公立育儿所和推展全时教育的哲学家)。

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在遭遇若干次重大的政治挫败后，柏拉图撰写了《律法》(Thelaws)这本对话录。他在书中描述“宪法国家”，并认为这是仅次于理想国的最好国家。这次他认为在上位者可以拥有个人财产与家庭生活，也因此妇女的自由较受限制。但无论如何，他说一个国家若不教育并训练其女性国民，就好像一个人只锻炼右臂，而不锻炼左臂一般。

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总而言之，我们可以说，就他那个时代而言，柏拉图对妇女的看法可算是相当肯定。他在《飨宴》(Symposium)对话录中指出，苏格拉底的哲学见解一部分得自于一个名叫黛娥缇玛(Diotima)的女祭司。这对妇女而言可算是一大荣耀了。

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柏拉图的学说大致就是这样了。两千多年来，他这些令人惊异的理论不断受人议论与批评，而第一个讨论、批评他的人乃是他园内的一名学生，名叫亚理斯多德，是雅典第三位大哲学家。

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好了，今天就到此为止吧！

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苏菲坐在虬结的树根上读着柏拉图的学说，不知不觉太阳已经升到东边的树林上。当她读到那个人如何爬出洞穴，被外面闪耀的阳光照得睁不开眼睛时，太阳正在地平线上露出顶端，向大地窥望。

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苏菲感觉自己仿佛也刚从地下洞穴出来一般。在读了柏拉图的学说后，她对大自然的看法已经完全改观。那种感觉就好像她从前一直是色盲，并且只看到一些影子，从没见过清楚的概念。

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她并不确定柏拉图所谓永恒范式的说法是否都对，但“每一种生物都是理型世界中永恒形体的不完美复制品”，这种想法多美妙啊！世上所有花、树、人与动物不都是“不够完美”的吗？

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苏菲周遭所见的事物如此美丽、如此生气盎然，以至于她不得不揉揉眼睛才能相信这些都是真的。不过，她现在眼见的事物没有一样会永远存在。但话说回来，在一百年之后，同样的一些花朵和动物仍然会在这里。虽然每一朵花、每一只动物都会凋萎、死去，而且被世人遗忘，但却有某种东西会“记得”它们从前的模样。

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苏菲向远处望去。突然间一只松鼠爬上了一棵松树，沿着树干绕了几圈，然后就消失在枝桠间。

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苏菲心想：“我看过这只松鼠！”然后又悟到也许这只松鼠并非她从前看到的那只，但她看过同样的“形式”。在她看来，柏拉图可能说得没错。也许她过去真的见过永恒的“松鼠”——在理型世界中，在她的灵魂还没有栖息在她的身体之前。

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有没有可能苏菲从前曾经活过呢？她的灵魂在找到身体寄宿之前是否就已经存在？她的身体内是不是真的有一个小小的金色物体，一个不受光阴侵蚀的宝物，一个在她的肉身衰朽之后仍然活着的灵魂？

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 a longing to return to the realm of the soul

1

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Sophie woke with a start early the next morning. She glanced at the clock. It was only a little after five but she was so wide awake that she sat up in bed. Why was she wearing a dress? Then she remembered everything.

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She climbed onto a stool and looked on the top shelf of the closet. Yes--there, at the back, was the video cassette. It hadn’t been a dream after all; at least, not all of it.

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But she couldn’t really have seen Plato and Socrates ... oh, never mind! She didn’t have the energy to think about it any more. Perhaps her mother was right, perhaps she was acting a bit nuts these days.

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Anyway, she couldn’t go back to sleep. Perhaps she ought to go down to the den and see if the dog had left another letter. Sophie crept downstairs, put on a pair of jogging shoes, and went out.

5

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In the garden everything was wonderfully clear and still. The birds were chirping so energetically that Sophie could hardly keep from laughing. The morning dew twinkled in the grass like drops of crystal. Once again she was struck by the incredible wonder of the world.

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Inside the old hedge it was also very damp. Sophie saw no new letter from the philosopher, but nevertheless she wiped off one of the thick roots and sat down.

7

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She recalled that the video-Plato had given her some questions to answer. The first was something about how a baker could bake fifty identical cookies.

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Sophie had to think very carefully about that, because it definitely wouldn’t be easy. When her mother occasionally baked a batch of cookies, they were never all exactly the same. But then she was not an expert pastry cook; sometimes the kitchen looked as if a bomb had hit it. Even the cookies they bought at the baker’s were never exactly the same. Every single cookie was shaped separately in the baker’s hands.

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Then a satisfied smile spread over Sophie’s face. She remembered how once she and her father went shopping while her mother was busy baking Christmas cookies. When they got back there were a lot of gingerbread men spread out on the kitchen table. Even though they weren’t all perfect, in a way they were all the same. And why was that? Obviously because her mother had used the same mold for all of them.

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Sophie felt so pleased with herself for having remembered the incident that she pronounced herself done with the first question. If a baker makes fifty absolutely identical cookies, he must be using the same pastry mold for all of them. And that’s that!

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Then the video-Plato had looked into the camera and asked why all horses were the same. But they weren’t, at all! On the contrary, Sophie thought no two horses were the same, just as no two people were the same.

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She was ready to give up on that one when she remembered what she had thought about the cookies. No one of them was exactly like any of the others. Some were a bit thicker than the others, and some were broken. But still, everyone could see that they were--in a way-- "exactly the same."

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What Plato was really asking was perhaps why a horse was always a horse, and not, for example, a cross between a horse and a pig. Because even though some horses were as brown as bears and others were as white as lambs, all horses had something in common. Sophie had yet to meet a horse with six or eight legs, for example.

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But surely Plato couldn’t believe that what made all horses alike was that they were made with the same mold?

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Then Plato had asked her a really difficult question. Does man have an immortal soul? That was something Sophie felt quite unqualified to answer. All she knew was that dead bodies were either cremated or buried, so there was no future for them. If man had an immortal soul, one would have to believe that a person consisted of two separate parts: a body that gets worn out after many years--and a soul that operates more or less independently of what happens to the body. Her grandmother had said once that she felt it was only her body that was old. Inside she had always been the same young girl-The thought of the "young girl" led Sophie to the last question: Are women and men equally sensible? She was not so sure about that. It depended on what Plato meant by sensible.

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Something the philosopher had said about Socrates came into her mind. Socrates had pointed out that everyone could understand philosophical truths if they just used their common sense. He had also said that a slave had the same common sense as a nobleman. Sophie was sure that he would also have said that women had the same common sense as men.

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While she sat thinking, there was a sudden rustling in the hedge, and the sound of something puffing and blowing like a steam engine. The next second, the golden Labrador slipped into the den. It had a large envelope in its mouth.

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"Hermes!" cried Sophie. "drop it! drop it!" The dog dropped the envelope in Sophie’s lap, and Sophie stretched out her hand to pat the dog’s head. "Good boy, Hermes!" she said. The dog lay down and allowed itself to be patted. But after a couple of minutes it got up and began to push its way back through the hedge the same way it had come in. Sophie followed with the brown envelope in her hand. She crawled through the dense thicket

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and was soon outside the garden.

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Hermes had already started to run toward the edge of the woods, and Sophie followed a few yards behind. Twice the dog turned around and growled , but Sophie was not to be deterred .

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This time she was determined to find the philosopher--even if it meant running all the way to Athens.

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The dog ran faster and suddenly turned off down a narrow path. Sophie chased him, but after a few minutes he turned and faced her, barking like a watchdog. Sophie still refused to give up, taking the opportunity to lessen the distance between them.

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Hermes turned and raced down the path. Sophie realized that she would never catch up with him. She stood quite still for what seemed like an eternity , listening to him running farther and farther away. Then all was silent.

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She sat down on a tree stump by a little clearing in the woods. She still had the brown envelope in her hand. She opened it, drew out several typewritten pages, and began to read: Plato’S ACADEMY Thank you for the pleasant time we spent together, Sophie. In Athens, I mean. So now I have at least introduced myself. And since I have also introduced Plato, we might as well begin without further ado.

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Plato (428-347 B.C.) was twenty-nine years old when Socrates drank the hemlock . He had been a pupil of Socrates for some time and had followed his trial very closely. The fact that Athens could condemn its noblest citizen to death did more than make a profound impression on him. It was to shape the course of his entire philosophic endeavor.

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To Plato, the death of Socrates was a striking example of the conflict that can exist between society as it really is and the true or ideal society. Plato’s first deed as a philosopher was to publish Socrates’ Apology, an account of his plea to the large jury.

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As you will no doubt recall, Socrates never wrote anything down, although many of the pre-Socratics did. The problem is that hardly any of their written material remains . But in the case of Plato, we believe that all his principal works have been preserved. (In addition to Socrates’ Apology, Plato wrote a collection of Epistles and about twenty-five philosophical Dialogues.) That we have these works today is due not least to the fact that Plato set up his own school of philosophy in a grove not far from Athens, named after the legendary Greek hero Academus. The school was therefore known as the Academy. (Since then, many thousands of "academies" have been established all over the world. We still speak of "academics" and "academic subjects.")

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The subjects taught at Plato’s Academy were philosophy, mathematics, and gymnastics--although perhaps "taught" is hardly the right word. Lively discourse was considered most important at Plato’s Academy. So it was not purely by chance that Plato’s writings took the form of dialogues.

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The Eternally True, Eternally Beautiful, and Eternally Good In the introduction to this course I mentioned that it could often be a good idea to ask what a particular philosopher’s project was. So now I ask: what were the problems Plato was concerned with?

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Briefly , we can establish that Plato was concerned with the relationship between what is eternal and immutable , on the one hand, and what "flows," on the other. (Just like the pre-Socratics, in fact.) We’ve seen how the Sophists and Socrates turned their attention from questions of natural philosophy to problems related to man and society. And yet in one sense, even Socrates and the Sophists were preoccupied with the relationship between the eternal and immutable, and the "flowing." They were interested in the problem as it related to human morals and society’s ideals or virtues . Very briefly, the Sophists thought that perceptions of what was right or wrong varied from one city-state to another, and from one generation to the next. So right and wrong was something that "flowed." This was totally unacceptable to Socrates. He believed in the existence of eternal and absolute rules for what was right or wrong. By using our common sense we can all arrive at these immutable norms, since human reason is in fact eternal and immutable.

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Do you follow, Sophie? Then along comes Plato. He is concerned with both what is eternal and immutable in nature and what is eternal and immutable as regards morals and society. To Plato, these two problems were one and the same. He tried to grasp a "reality" that was eternal and immutable.

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And to be quite frank, that is precisely what we need philosophers for. We do not need them to choose a beauty queen or the day’s bargain in tomatoes. (This is why they are often unpopular!) Philosophers will try to ignore highly topical affairs and instead try to draw people’s attention to what is eternally "true," eternally "beau-tiful," and eternally "good."

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We can thus begin to glimpse at least the outline of Plato’s philosophical project. But let’s take one thing at a time. We are attempting to understand an extraordinary mind, a mind that was to have a profound influence on all subsequent European philosophy.

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The World of Ideas Both Empedocles and Democritus had drawn attention to the fact that although in the natural world everything "flows," there must nevertheless be "something" that never changes (the "four roots," or the "atoms"). Plato agreed with the proposition as such--but in quite a different way.

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Plato believed that everything tangible in nature "flows." So there are no "substances" that do not dissolve. Absolutely everything that belongs to the "material world" is made of a material that time can erode , but everything is made after a timeless "mold" or "form" that is eternal and immutable.

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You see? No, you don’t.

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Why are horses the same, Sophie? You probably don’t think they are at all. But there is something that all horses have in common, something that enables us to identify them as horses. A particular horse "flows," naturally. It might be old and lame , and in time it will die. But the "form" of the horse is eternal and immutable.

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That which is eternal and immutable, to Plato, is therefore not a physical "basic substance," as it was for Empedocles and Democritus. Plato’s conception was of eternal and immutable patterns, spiritual and abstract in their nature that all things are fashioned after.

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Let me put it like this: The pre-Socratics had given a reasonably good explanation of natural change without having to presuppose that anything actually "changed." In the midst of nature’s cycle there were some eternal and immutable smallest elements that did not dissolve, they thought. Fair enough, Sophie! But they had no reasonable explanation for how these "smallest elements" that were once building blocks in a horse could suddenly whirl together four or five hundred years later and fashion themselves into a completely new horse. Or an elephant or a crocodile, for that matter. Plato’s point was that Democritus’ atoms never fashioned themselves into an "eledile" or a "crocophant." This was what set his philosophical reflections going.

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If you already understand what I am getting at, you may skip this next paragraph. But just in case, I will clarify: You have a box of Lego and you build a Lego horse. You then take it apart and put the blocks back in the box. You cannot expect to make a new horse just by shaking the box. How could Lego blocks of their own accord find each other and become a new horse again? No, you have to rebuild the horse, Sophie. And the reason you can do it is that you have a picture in your mind of what the horse looked like. The Lego horse is made from a model which remains unchanged from horse to horse.

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How did you do with the fifty identical cookies? Let us assume that you have dropped in from outer space and have never seen a baker before. You stumble into a tempting bakery--and there you catch sight of fifty identical gingerbread men on a shelf. I imagine you would wonder how they could be exactly alike. It might well be that one of them has an arm missing, another has lost a bit of its head, and a third has a funny bump on its stomach. But after careful thought, you would nevertheless conclude that all gingerbread men have something in common. Although none of them is perfect, you would suspect that they had a common origin. You would realize that all the cookies were formed in the same mold. And what is more, Sophie, you are now seized by the irresistible desire to see this mold. Because clearly, the mold itself must be utter perfection--and in a sense, more beautiful--in comparison with these crude copies.

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If you solved this problem all by yourself, you arrived at the philosophical solution in exactly the same way that Plato did.

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Like most philosophers, he "dropped in from outer space." (He stood up on the very tip of one of the fine hairs of the rabbit’s fur.) He was astonished at the way all natural phenomena could be so alike, and he concluded that it had to be because there are a limited number of forms "behind" everything we see around us. Plato called these forms ideas. Behind every horse, pig, or human being, there is the "idea horse," "idea pig," and "idea human being." (In the same way, the bakery we spoke of can have gingerbread men, gingerbread horses, and gingerbread pigs. Because every self-respecting bakery has more than one mold. But one mold is enough for each type of gingerbread cookie.)

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Plato came to the conclusion that there must be a reality behind the "material world." He called this reality the world of ideas; it contained the eternal and immutable "patterns" behind the various phenomena we come across in nature. This remarkable view is known as Plato’s theory of ideas.

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True Knowledge I’m sure you’ve been following me, Sophie dear. But you may be wondering whether Plato was being serious. Did he really believe that forms like these actually existed in a completely different reality?

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He probably didn’t believe it literally in the same way for all his life, but in some of his dialogues that is certainly how he means to be understood. Let us try to follow his train of thought.

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A philosopher, as we have seen, tries to grasp something that is eternal and immutable. It would serve no purpose, for instance, to write a philosophic treatise on the existence of a particular soap bubble. Partly because one would hardly have time to study it in depth before it burst, and partly because it would probably be rather difficult to find a market for a philosophic treatise on something nobody has ever seen, and which only existed for five seconds.

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Plato believed that everything we see around us in nature, everything tangible, can be likened to a soap bubble, since nothing that exists in the world of the senses is lasting . We know, of course, that sooner or later every human being and every animal will die and decompose . Even a block of marble changes and gradually disintegrates . (The Acropolis is falling into ruin, Sophie! It is a scandal, but that’s the way it is.) Plato’s point is that we can never have true knowledge of anything that is in a constant state of change. We can only have opinions about things that belong to the world of the senses, tangible things. We can only have true knowledge of things that can be understood with our reason.

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All right, Sophie, I’ll explain it more clearly: a gingerbread man can be so lopsided after all that baking that it can be quite hard to see what it is meant to be. But having seen dozens of gingerbread men that were more or less successful, I can be pretty sure what the cookie mold was like. I can guess, even though I have never seen it. It might not even be an advantage to see the actual mold with my own eyes because we cannot always trust the evidence of our senses. The faculty of vision can vary from person to person. On the other hand, we can rely on what our reason tells us because that is the same for everyone.

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If you are sitting in a classroom with thirty other pupils, and the teacher asks the class which color of the rainbow is the prettiest, he will probably get a lot of different answers. But if he asks what 8 times 3 is, the whole class will--we hope--give the same answer. Because now reason is speaking and reason is, in a way, the direct opposite of "thinking so" or "feeling." We could say that reason is eternal and universal precisely because it only expresses eternal and universal states.

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Plato found mathematics very absorbing because mathematical states never change. They are therefore states we can have true knowledge of. But here we need an example.

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Imagine you find a round pinecone out in the woods. Perhaps you say you "think" it looks completely round, whereas Joanna insists it is a bit flattened on one side. (Then you start arguing about it!) But you cannot have true knowledge of anything you can perceive with your eyes. On the other hand you can say with absolute certainty that the sum of the angles in a circle is 360 degrees. In this case you would be talking about an ideal circle which might not exist in the physical world but which you can clearly visualize . (You are dealing with the hidden gingerbread-man mold and not with the particular cookie on the kitchen table.)

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In short, we can only have inexact conceptions of things we perceive with our senses. But we can have true knowledge of things we understand with our reason. The sum of the angles in a triangle will remain 180 degrees to the end of time. And similarly the "idea" horse will walk on four legs even if all the horses in the sensory world break a leg.

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An Immortal Soul As I explained, Plato believed that reality is divided into two regions.

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One region is the world of the senses, about which we can only have approximate or incomplete knowledge by using our five (approximate or incomplete) senses. In this sensory world, "everything flows" and nothing is permanent. Nothing in the sensory world is, there are only things that come to be and pass away.

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The other region is the world of ideas, about which we can have true knowledge by using our reason. This world of ideas cannot be perceived by the senses, but the ideas (or forms) are eternal and immutable.

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According to Plato, man is a dual creature. We have a body that "flows," is inseparably bound to the world of the senses, and is subject to the same fate as everything else in this world--a soap bubble, for example. All our senses are based in the body and are consequently unreliable. But we also have an immortal soul--and this soul is the realm of reason. And not being physical, the soul can survey the world of ideas.

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But that’s not all, Sophie. IT’S NOT ALL!

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Plato also believed that the soul existed before it inhabited the body, (it was lying on a shelf in the closet with all the cookie molds.) But as soon as the soul wakes up in a human body, it has forgotten all the perfect ideas. Then something starts to happen. In fact, a wondrous process begins. As the human being discovers the various forms in the natural world, a vague recollection stirs his soul. He sees a horse--but an imperfect horse. (A gingerbread horse!) The sight of it is sufficient to awaken in the soul a faint recollection of the perfect "horse," which the soul once saw in the world of ideas, and this stirs the soul with a yearning to return to its true realm. Plato calls this yearning eras--which means love. The soul, then, expe-riences a "longing to return to its true origin." From now on, the body and the whole sensory world is experienced as imperfect and insignificant . The soul yearns to fly home on the wings of love to the world of ideas. It longs to be freed from the chains of the body.

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Let me quickly emphasize that Plato is describing an ideal course of life, since by no means all humans set the soul free to begin its journey back to the world of ideas. Most people cling to the sensory world’s "reflections" of ideas. They see a horse--and another horse. But they never see that of which every horse is only a feeble imitation. (They rush into the kitchen and stuff themselves with gingerbread cookies without so much as a thought as to where they came from.) What Plato describes is the philosophers’way. His philosophy can be read as a description of philosophic practice.

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When you see a shadow, Sophie, you will assume that there must be something casting the shadow. You see the shadow of an animal. You think it may be a horse, but you are not quite sure. So you turn around and see the horse itself--which of course is infinitely more beautiful and sharper in outline than the blurred "horse-shadow." Plato believed similarly that all natural phenomena are merely shadows of the eternal forms or ideas. But most people are content with a life among shadows. They give no thought to what is casting the shadows. They think shadows are all there are, never realizing even that they are, in fact, shadows. And thus they pay no heed to the immortality of their own soul.

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Out of the Darkness of the Cave Plato relates a myth which illustrates this. We call it the Myth of the Cave. I’ll retell it in my own words.

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Imagine some people living in an underground cave. They sit with their backs to the mouth of the cave with their hands and feet bound in such a way that they can only look at the back wall of the cave. Behind them is a high wall, and behind that wall pass human-like creatures, holding up various figures above the top of the wall. Because there is a fire behind these figures, they cast flickering shadows on the back wall of the cave. So the only thing the cave dwellers can see is this shadow play. They have been sitting in this position since they were born, so they think these shadows are all there are.

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Imagine now that one of the cave dwellers manages to free himself from his bonds. The first thing he asks himself is where all these shadows on the cave wall come from. What do you think happens when he turns around and sees the figures being held up above the wall? To begin with he is dazzled by the sharp sunlight. He is also dazzled by the clarity of the figures because until now he has only seen their shadow. If he manages to climb over the wall and get past the fire into the world outside, he will be even more dazzled. But after rubbing his eyes he will be struck by the beauty of everything. For the first time he will see colors and clear shapes. He will see the real animals and flowers that the cave shadows were only poor reflections of. But even now he will ask himself where all the animals and flowers come from. Then he will see the sun in the sky, and realize that this is what gives life to these flowers and animals, just as the fire made the shadows visible.

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The joyful cave dweller could now have gone skipping away into the countryside, delighting in his new-found freedom. But instead he thinks of all the others who are still down in the cave. He goes back. Once there, he tries to convince the cave dwellers that the shadows on the cave wall are but flickering reflections of "real" things. But they don’t believe him. They point to the cave wall and say that what they see is all there is. Finally they kill him.

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What Plato was illustrating in the Myth of the Cave is the philosopher’s road from shadowy images to the true ideas behind all natural phenomena. He was probably also thinking of Socrates, whom the "cave dwellers" killed because he disturbed their conventional ideas and tried to light the way to true insight. The Myth of the Cave illustrates Socrates’ courage and his sense of pedagogic responsibility.

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Plato’s point was that the relationship between the darkness of the cave and the world beyond corresponds to the relationship between the forms of the natural world and the world of ideas. Not that he meant that the natural world is dark and dreary , but that it is dark and dreary in comparison with the clarity of ideas. A picture of a beautiful landscape is not dark and dreary either. But it is only a picture.

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The Philosophic State The Myth of the Cave is found in Plato’s dialogue the Republic. In this dialogue Plato also presents a picture of the "ideal state," that is to say an imaginary, ideal, or what we would call a Utopian, state. Briefly, we could say that Plato believed the state should be governed by philosophers. He bases his explanation of this on the construction of the human body.

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According to Plato, the human body is composed of three parts: the head, the chest, and the abdomen . For each of these three parts there is a corresponding faculty of the soul. Reason belongs to the head, will belongs to the chest, and appetite belongs to the abdomen. Each of these soul faculties also has an ideal, or " virtue ." Reason aspires to wisdom, Will aspires to courage, and Appetite must be curbed so that temperance can be exercised. Only when the three parts of the body function together as a unity do we get a harmonious or " virtuous " individual. At school, a child must first learn to curb its appetites, then it must develop courage, and finally reason leads to wisdom.

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Plato now imagines a state built up exactly like the tripartite human body. Where the body has head, chest, and abdomen, the State has rulers, auxiliaries , and fa-borers (farmers, for example). Here Plato clearly uses Greek medical science as his model. Just as a healthy and harmonious man exercises balance and temperance, so a "virtuous" state is characterized by everyone knowing their place in the overall picture.

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Like every aspect of Plato’s philosophy, his political philosophy is characterized by rationalism. The creation of a good state depends on its being governed with reason. Just as the head governs the body, so philosophers must rule society.

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Let us attempt a simple illustration of the relationship between the three parts of man and the state: BODY SOUL VIRTUE STATE head reason wisdom rulers chest will courage auxiliaries abdomen appetite temperance laborers Plato’s ideal state is not unlike the old Hindu caste system, in .which each and every person has his or her particular function for the good of the whole. Even before Plato’s time the Hindu caste system had the same tripartite division between the auxiliary caste (or priest caste), the warrior caste, and the laborer caste. Nowadays we would perhaps call Plato’s state totalitarian. But it is worth noting that he believed women could govern just as effectively as men for the simple reason that the rulers govern by virtue of their reason. Women, he asserted, have exactly the same powers of reasoning as men, provided they get the same training and are exempt from child rearing and housekeeping. In Plato’s ideal state, rulers and warriors are not allowed family life or private property. The rearing of children is considered too important to be left to the individual and should be the responsibility of the state. (Plato was the first philosopher to advocate state-organized nursery schools and full-time education.) After a number of significant political setbacks, Plato wrote the tows, in which he described the "constitutional state" as the next-best state. He now reintroduced both private property and family ties. Women’s freedom thus became more restricted. However, he did say that a state that does not educate and train women is like a man who only trains his right arm.

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All in all, we can say that Plato had a positive view of women--considering the time he lived in. In the dialogue Symposium , he gives a woman, the legendary priestess Diotima, the honor of having given Socrates his philosophic insight.

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So that was Plato, Sophie. His astonishing theories have been discussed--and criticized--for more than two thousand years. The first man to do so was one of the pupils from his own Academy. His name was Aristotle, and he was the third great philosopher from Athens.

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I’ll say no more!

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While Sophie had been reading about Plato, the sun had risen over the woods to the east. It was peeping over the horizon just as she was reading how one man clambered out of the cave and blinked in the dazzling light outside.

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It was almost as if she had herself emerged from an underground cave. Sophie felt that she saw nature in a completely different way after reading about Plato. It was rather like having been color-blind. She had seen some shadows but had not seen the clear ideas.

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She was not sure Plato was right in everything he had said about the eternal patterns, but it was a beautiful thought that all living things were imperfect copies of the eternal forms in the world of ideas. Because wasn’t it true that all flowers, trees, human beings, and animals were "imperfect"?

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Everything she saw around her was so beautiful and so alive that Sophie had to rub her eyes to really believe it. But nothing she was looking at now would last. And yet--in a hundred years the same flowers and the same animals would be here again. Even if every single flower and every single animal should fade away and be forgotten, there would be something that " recollected " how it all looked.

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Sophie gazed out at the world. Suddenly a squirrel ran up the trunk of a pine tree. It circled the trunk a few times and disappeared into the branches.

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"I’ve seen you before!" thought Sophie. She realized that maybe it was not the same squirrel that she had seen previously , but she had seen the same "form." For all she knew, Plato could have been right. Maybe she really had seen the eternal "squirrel" before--in the world of ideas, before her soul had taken residence in a human body.

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Could it be true that she had lived before? Had her soul existed before it got a body to move around in? And was it really true that she carried a little golden nugget inside her--a jewel that cannot be corroded by time, a soul that would live on when her own body grew old and died?

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