原文 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/TGgMfddi606pjcmrEvJVEw
《雅典学院》（Scuola di Atene）拉斐尔·桑西，现藏于意大利梵蒂冈博物馆。画面的中心是柏拉图和亚里士多德，柏拉图指着天，亚里士多德指着地，以他们为中心，描画了共11群组的57个学者名人。注：本讲只是对希腊哲学非常简略的介绍，在讲文化系列的时候会有更为详尽的介绍。讲座时所使用的YouTube视频很多朋友看不了，因此我在腾讯找了类似视频，珍惜流量，一定在wifi环境下欣赏。赫斯特在《极简欧洲史》里说“文艺复兴时代的学者和作家们认为，他们或者做得出古希腊罗马匹敌的艺术、文学和学术，但绝不可能超越。他们因此称之为古典，意思就是经典的、最优的。”这句话也许是过誉，但是不影响我们用它开场来介绍希腊文明中最美好的那一面。希腊人在数学、哲学、物理学、医学、建筑学、政治制度的探索等等方面都取得了伟大的成就。今天我们主要介绍古希腊哲学，古希腊人大量使用奴隶，据估算，每名雅典男性公民大约拥有两名奴隶，斯巴达这个比例更高。如果没有奴隶们的辛勤工作，希腊的公民们不会有闲暇时间去学习演讲和参加投票，贵族们也无福享用财富、研究哲学。所以在开始赞美希腊文明之前，我们应该先向这些奴隶们致敬。
人们将公元前7世纪末期至前4世纪中期活跃于古希腊的那些思想家称为前苏格拉底哲学家，他们中包括米利都学派的泰勒斯、阿娜克西曼德、阿那克西美尼，也包括深深影响了柏拉图的毕达哥拉斯，具有朴素辩证法思想的赫拉克利特，论证阿基里斯永远追不上乌龟的芝诺（芝诺四悖论：二分法、阿基里德与龟、飞矢不动、一倍的时间等于一半的时间）…通过他们的努力，哲学终于从神话故事和宗教教谕中分离出来了。我自己最近在读一本哲学入门书籍，《这，就是哲学》，经常会不由自主笑出来，西雅图的特产是雷尼尔樱桃，可是这个小小的城邦米利都，他们的特产是哲学家。前苏格拉底时代的有名哲学家大都来自米利都或者离它特别近的地区。米利都学派、毕达哥拉斯学派的哲学家大都来自于米利都，赫拉克利特，就是那个说“人不能两次踏入同一条河流”的哲学家也来自于距米利都很近的爱菲斯城邦，伯里克利的情人，被称为“女智者”的阿斯帕西娅也来自于米利都。
苏格拉底和聪慧的阿斯帕西娅辩论接下来轮到重头戏古希腊哲学三贤登场了，苏格拉底、柏拉图、亚里士多德，他们是两对师徒，苏格拉底是柏拉图的老师，柏拉图是亚里士多德的老师。苏格拉底自己没有留下任何著作，他的谈话主要由弟子柏拉图和色诺芬记载了下来，他最著名的格言是“未经审察的人生是不值得过的”，他的一生都在询问，而从未回答任何问题。以下是一段简短的经典苏格拉底式问答（来自《说给儿童的世界历史》）提问者：请问什么是正义？苏格拉底：你觉得骗人、强盗、偷人东西是正义吗？提问者：当然不是。苏格拉底：将军欺骗敌军，把抓来的士兵卖掉当奴隶，这样是正义吗？提问者：也不是，敌军虽然被抓住了，但是不能把他们当成奴隶卖掉。苏格拉底：如果孩子生病了，爸爸为了孩子的健康，骗他说，药是糖果做的，很好吃，这是正义的吗？提问者：虽然是欺骗，但也算是正义的行为。苏格拉底：偷朋友的东西是正义的行为吗？提问者：绝对不可以，那样做太对不起朋友了。苏格拉底：如果朋友要自杀，你把他自杀的武器偷走，这样算正义吗？提问者：一定要偷，如果他自杀就会死掉。这样做（偷走武器）是正义的。在这段对话里虽然苏格拉底一个问题也没有回答，但是提问者对何为正义有了更深入的了解。
公元前399年，苏格拉底被雅典民主派以蛊惑青年、引入新神的罪名处死，对苏格拉底的审判和处刑，是西方思想史上的一个重要时刻，我们要注意的是苏格拉底不是死于三十僭主时期，他是死于恢复民主后的雅典，死于完全合法的程序、由500人陪审团投票判决后死去的，我们要思考的问题是，为什么苏格拉底会因言论死于民主社会。
苏格拉底的门徒中最著名的是柏拉图，他也是世界上第一所大学柏拉图学园的创始人。柏拉图最有名的一本书是《理想国》，他的梦想是建立一个由哲学家统治的国家，国家由第一等级的执政者，第二等级的武士（军人），第三等级的农民、商人和手工艺人组成，每个等级的人各安其命。柏拉图不仅自己写书描绘他的政治理想，他的很多学生在不同的城邦担任要职，是他这套理想的践行者。现实中也确实有一些哲学家统治者，他的朋友，毕达哥拉斯学派思想家阿尔库塔斯同时也是塔拉斯城邦的统帅，罗马时代著名的五贤帝之一马可·奥勒留，同时也是斯多葛派著名的哲学家，有《沉思录》传世。他们都是历史中著名的哲人王。柏拉图自己在教育驯化统治者方面的实践却不算成功，他曾三入叙拉古，希望能教育叙拉古僭主成为他心目中的哲人王，但是三次都失败了。就我的一点粗陋观察来看，历史上还没有哲学家真能教育好统治者，反而是统治者利用哲学家成功的案例比较多。
柏拉图和孔子有很多相似之处，孔子和柏拉图都相信，教育对培养一个明智的统治阶级是非常重要的。所以明知卫灵公好色无能但是孔子依然五次入卫想劝诫他，而柏拉图一次次被叙拉古僭主嘲弄利用，还差点掉了脑袋，依然不悔。孔子曾说“危邦不入，乱邦不居”，知道危险而提前避开是明智之举，可是东方西方两位大哲人却明知不可为而为之，为什么呢？我认为这不是他们特别鲁莽愚蠢，是他们有理想，希望世界能变得更好，对自己政治追求的渴望超越了他们对危险的惧怕。
柏拉图最著名的弟子是亚里士多德，他们并成为西方哲学之父。亚里士多德是希腊古典学术的集大成者，也是一个百科全书式的学者，他几乎涉猎了当时希腊哲学家所讨论的全部问题，据说亚里士多德著述有150多部，留存至今的著作就至少有30部，数量太过庞大，以至于很多人质疑亚里士多德的著作是文艺复兴时期的人伪造的。比较主流的猜测是，这些作品里有一部分是亚里士多德写的，还有一些是他弟子写的，还有一些可能只是课堂笔记。亚里士多德很多观点都和柏拉图不同，柏拉图去世后亚里士多德就离开了柏拉图学院，后来创办了自己的吕克昂学院。亚里士多德本人推崇自由的学术，反对盲目顺从权威，他有一句格言说“吾爱吾师吾更爱真理”，所以我想如果亚里士多德听到那个著名的俏皮话“现代科学的诞生从反驳亚里士多德开始”，一定不会像宗教裁判所那么专横。
亚里士多德和伽利略伽利略-伽利莱 (Galileo Galilei) 对此有过精辟的阐述， 在《关于两大世界体系的对话》 (Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems) 一书中他这样写道：你难道怀疑如果亚里士多德看到天空中的这些新发现， 他会改变自己的观点， 修改自己的著作， 拥抱最理智的学说， 并抛弃那些弱智到只会悲哀地墨守他说过的每一句话的人吗？……是亚里士多德的追随者而非他本人将权威的皇冠强加给了他。我时常感到困惑， 为什么那些墨守亚里士多德每一句话的铁杆支持者们会意识不到他们对亚里士多德的信誉与声望构成了多大的妨碍， 以及他们是如何越想加强他的权威， 实际上却越有损这种权威。亚里士多德最著名的学生是亚历山大大帝，虽然亚里士多德并不认为亚历山大是个好学生，因为他喜怒无常，太爱喝酒，亚里士多德从亚历山大13岁开始当他的老师，正是狗都嫌的年纪，亚里士多德那几年过得应该很不容易。但是这位著名的学生确实受他影响颇深。
以下是Beikun的翻译部分，并非百分百直译。
The men of the Renaisance believed that the achivements of the ancients in literature art,philosophy and science were unsurpassed and unsurpassable. They themselves would do well if they could come close to equalling it. So the Renaissance disrupted the mixture with this message: the classics are supreme.That sentences may have been exagerating a little bit, but it does not effect us to use it as a introduction of the perfect part of Greek civilization.The Greeks were very skilled at math, philosophy, physics, medicine, architecture and poety.Today we will mainly introduce Greek philosophy. Greeks use a lot of slaves, approximarely, every free male citizen that live in Athens had two slaves. Without the hard work of the slaves, Greece’s citizens won’t have the time to watch educational speeches or participate in votes. Nobles also would not be able to enjoy their wealth, or study philosophy. So before we start praising the Greek civilization, we should first salute to the hard-working slaves.Greek PhilosophyThe thinker that lived in late 700 BC to misslw 400 BC were called the “pre-socratic philosopher”, including Thales of Miletus, Anaximander, Anaximents, also including Pythagoras who deeply effected Plato,Zeno of Elea, who had proven that Achilles cannot outrun a tortoise (Zeno’s paradoxes: Achilles and the tortoise, the dichotomy, the arrow, the moving rows). Because of their efforts, philosophy finally left myths and oracles behind in the dust.These days, my mom read a philosophy book Looking At Philosophy, and here’s a fun fact: Seattle’s specilizes in Rainier cherries, but the small poleis, Miletus’ specilizes in philosophy.Famous pre-socratic philosophers mainly come from Miletus or near Miletus. Milesian School and Pythagoras School’s philosophers mostly come from Miletus. Heraclitus, the philosopher that said ” No man ever steps in the same river twice”, came from Ephesus, which is close to Miletus. Pericles’s lover,known as ” female sophist”, Aspasia,also came from Miletus.We will not go really deep into this sentence and we will talk about it in the further speeches.Socarates Plato and Aristotle are widely considered the pivotal figures in the history of Ancinet Greek and the history of Western philosophy.If Confucius is the best teacher in the eastern world, Socrates would be the best teacher in the west world.Socrates did not make any writing, and his talking was recirded by Plato and Xenophon. His favorite motto is: “an unexamined life is not worth.”He is always asking questions, but he never answers directly, for he answers by asking the questioner another question.The trial of Socrates was an important moment in philosophical history, but we need to be wary about is that he did not die in the Thirty Tyrants period, but died in democratic Athens, in a legal process, with 500 dikastena who voted whether Socrates should die. Everybody should think about why Socrates died democraticly.Socrates’s most notable student is Plato, who bulit the first university in the world, which is the Platonic Academy. Plato’s most famous book is Republic. His dream is to build a kingdom that rulled by philosophers.Plato asserts that societies have a tripartite class structure corresponding to the appetite/spirit/reason structure of the individual soul. The appetite/spirit/reason are analogous to the cadtes of society.Productive( workers )Protective( warriors or guardians ) Govering( rulers or philosopher kings)Plato did not only write books about his political dream ,but also throw himself into political campaign. His students were at important posts in differnt polies, and they made his dream come true.There are actually philosopher kings in history. His friend, a Pythasoras School philosopher, Archytas was the leader of Tarentum. Not to mention the emperor of Rome, Marcus Aurelius, who is a famous stoic philosopher, he wrote Meditation. They are all philosopher kings.But, Plato was not sucessful in teaching goverors. he went to Syraeuse three times, hoping that he could teach the tyrants there to be philosopher kings, and he failed all three times.Coufucius and Plato are very similar, for they both believed that it is very important to have a wise ruler. Confucius knew that the Duke of Wey was randy and incompetent, but Coufucius came to Wey five times to give advices to the Duke of Wey. Now, back to Plato. Plato had bad luck all three times. The first time, he had an argument with Syracuse King, and he left,but he got captureed by pirates and wanted to sell him as a slave.Luckily, an Anthenian recognized him and bought him to set him free. The second time, he was held prisoner, and escaped when the king was at war. The third time, he was held prisoner again until his friend (we mentioned him before) Archytas of Tarentua sent a fleet of ships to rescue him.I mean, think about his bad luck! If you were at the right time and ringt place, you could buy a famous philosopher as your slave!Confucius once said” not to enter a dangerou coutry, and not to stay in a dangerous coutry.“ If you know there is danger, and you can avoid it, it would be wise to do so. But why do they try to do something which is known as impossible? I think it is not because they are hasty, but their thirstyness for their dream overpowered their fear for danger.Plato’s most famous student is Aristotle, he is widely considered the pivotal figure in the history of Ancietn Greek and western philosophy, along with Socrates and Aristotle.Aristotle was the master of all science. He researched almost all of the things that Greek philosophers were talking about. Rumor that Aristotle has more than 150 peices of work, but only 30 of his work are preserved. He had so much work that some people thought that some of his work was counterfeit from people of the Renaissance.Aristotle and Plato hand many different opinions. After Plato died, Aristotle left Plato Academy. Later, he created the Lykeion.We will explain about Aristotle and Plato later on, and we are only learning the basics right now.Aristotle himself reconmends academic freedom, not obey authority. He once said:” Plato os dear to me, but dearer still is truth.” So I think that if Aristotle heard this joke, he would be happy, and not rude like the Inquisition. The philosopher Bertrand Russell argued that almost every seriuos intellectual advance has had to begin with an attack on some Aristotelian doctrine.Galoleo Galilei, who overthrew Aristotle’s theory said in the Dialogue Concerning The Two Chief World Systems:I declare that we do have in our age new events and observations such that is Aristotle were alive, I have no doubt he would change his opinion.Aristotle’s most famous student is Alexander the Great, although Aristotle does not confess that Alexander was a good student because his obsession with drinking wine was endless, but this student was influenced by Aristotle a lot.