BBC：古代圣贤（2015）（2）

从人类文明开始 –chenym
Since the dawn of civilization,
自然的力量和神的虚妄
the forces of nature, and the whims of gods,
支配着人类
held sway over humanity.
但是，2500年前，
But, two and a half thousand years ago,
人类经历了深刻的变革
humankind experienced a profound transformation.
突然，出现了新的可能性
Suddenly, there were new possibilities.
这是一个理性战胜迷信信仰的时代
This is a time when rationality overrode superstition and belief.
这是一种不依赖神的伦理标准
This is an ethic, which does not rely on the gods.
现在人们用自然力量来解释世界
The world is now explained in terms of natural forces.
我们现在要为自己的命运负责
We’re now responsible for our own destiny.
全球的动荡，
Upheavals across the globe,
激发了一个关于人类可以实现什么的雄心勃勃的愿景
sparked an ambitious vision of what humans could achieve…
由三个开拓者带头
spearheaded by three trailblazers.
苏格拉底，孔子和佛陀
Socrates, Confucius and the Buddha.
古代伟大的思想家，他们的思想至今仍在影响着我们自己的生活
Great thinkers, from the ancient world, whose ideas still shape our own lives.
财富是好事吗？
Is wealth a good thing?
你如何创造一个公正的社会？
How do you create a just society?
我如何过上好生活？
How do I live a good life?
敢于思考不可想象的事情，
By daring to think the unthinkable,
它们奠定了我们现代世界的基础
they laid the foundations of our modern world.
我一直很好奇这些人，
I’ve always been intrigued by the fact that these men,
他们相隔数千英里，
who lived many thousands of miles apart,
似乎是自发的，彼此相隔不到100年，
seemed spontaneously and within 100 years of one another,
想出如此进步的想法
to come up with such radical ideas.
发生了什么事？
So, what was going on?
我想调查他们的革命思想
I want to investigate their revolutionary ideas…
去理解是什么让他们行动起来
to understand what set them in motion…
这次是苏格拉底
this time Socrates.
太激动人心了！
It’s so thrilling!
想象那些大的新想法可能已经在那里实施了！
Imagining those big new ideas could possibly have been enacted there!
他就是那个在战斗中表现勇敢的士兵
He was the soldier whose bravery in battle
与之相匹配的是他富有鼓动性的勇气
was matched by the inflammatory courage of his ideas.
苏格拉底鼓励他的同胞们
Socrates encouraged his fellow citizens
理性地审视他们生活的方方面面
to rationally examine every aspect of their lives.
拥有大量知识的人，是否无所不知？
Does the person who possess knowledge in the big way know everything?
-你不知道？ -我不知道我放弃！我放弃！
-You don’t know? -I don’t know. I give up! I give up!
我将居住在他的世界里，研究他的颠覆性哲学
I’m going to inhabit his world to examine how his subversive philosophy
挑战了统治了几千年的迷信
challenged superstitious belief that had reigned for millenia
并发现他对真理的探索
and to discover how his search for truth
导致了他的落下
led to his downfall.
公元前469年，苏格拉底出生，
In 469 BC, Socrates was born,
一个助产士和一个石匠的儿子
the son of a midwife and a stonemason.
进入一座处于动荡转型中的城市
Into a city in the midst of a tumultuous transformation.
他在雅典郊区长大，
He grew up in the suburbs of Athens,
与神圣的卫城岩石 齐平
at eye level with the sacred Acropolis rock.
但是，年轻的苏格拉底不会从帕台农神庙优雅的线条中向外看，
But, the young Socrates wouldn’t have looked out over the elegant lines of the Parthenon Temple,
这个西方文明的精致象征
that exquisite symbol of Western civilization
这在今天仍然值得骄傲
that still stands proud today.
相反，他每天早上醒来都会感到恐惧
Instead he’d have woken every morning to a horror.
被战争摧残的建筑物的灰烬和烧毁的遗迹
The blackened and burnt out remains of buildings, brutalized by war.
他的城市留下了与该地区超级大国激烈冲突的伤疤，
His city bore the scars of a ferocious conflict with the region’s superpower,
波斯
Persia.
但是，尽管困难重重，雅典还是取得了胜利，
But, against the odds, Athens had triumphed,
就在苏格拉底出生的十年前
just ten years before Socrates’ was born.
现在它陶醉于一些人所说的希腊奇迹
Now it reveled in what some called, The Greek Miracle.
黄金时代
A Golden Age.
蓬勃发展的贸易给该地区带来了新的财富，更重要的是，带来了新的理念
Burgeoning trade flooded the region with new wealth and crucially, with new ideas.
但是，塑造年轻苏格拉底生活的关键意识形态，
But, the key ideology, that would shape young Socrates’s life,
只属于雅典
belonged to Athens alone.
因为在这里，大约公元前508年，民♥主♥，
Because here, around 508 BC, democracy,
人♥民♥的力量诞生了
the power of the people, was born.
几乎一夜之间，所有成年男性公民
Virtually overnight, all adult male citizens
发现他们不只是为国家服务，
found they didn’t just serve the state,
他们是国家
they were the state.
你不能过分强调这是多么激动人心
You cannot over emphasize how electrically exciting this must have been.
普通人被随机抽签选出，担任最高职位-
Ordinary men, were selected randomly at lot, to hold the highest of offices –
相当于担任外♥交♥部♥部长，
the equivalent of being head of the foreign office,
或内政大臣，一天
or home secretary for one day.
苏格拉底不仅会见证一座城市的重建
Socrates wouldn’t only witness a city being rebuilt…
但是，一项新的社会实验的道德风险
but, the ethical hazards of a new social experiment.
随着他的成长，民♥主♥也开始站稳脚跟
As he was growing up, democracy too was finding its feet.
普通雅典人现在有潜力决定自己的未来
Ordinary Athenians now had the potential to determine their own future…
但是，他们的命运仍然牢牢掌握在众神手中
but, their fate was still very firmly in the hands of the gods.
神、半神和幽灵被认为无处不在，
gods, demigods and spirits were believed to be everywhere,
影响人们的日常生活
influencing people’s everyday lives.
如果我在苏格拉底的有生之年一直在观察雅典
If I’d been looking out over Athens during Socrates’ lifetime
那么这一幕就会被浓烟笼罩，
then this scene would have been thick with smoke,
空气中弥漫着牺牲的气息，
and the smell of sacrifice would be heavy in the air,
雅典人疯狂地四处奔走，试图让他们的神站在一边，
as Athenians frantically rushed around trying to keep their gods on side,
一共2000人！
all 2000 of them!
这座“众神神殿”让人们意识到自己在宇宙中的位置
This “Pantheon of gods” gave people a sense of their place in the universe.
但是，在这些激动人心的时刻，有几个人敢于质疑宗教习俗
But, in these exciting times a few were daring to question religious convention.
作为一个青少年，苏格拉底想让他们
As a teenager, Socrates sought them out to
雅典的一个边缘地带，
one of Athens’ edgy and marginal districts,
科拉米耶科斯
Keramiekos.
600年来，这里一直是雅典的主要墓地
For 600 years this had been Athens’ main burial ground.
到了苏格拉底的时代，它已经演变成了一种罪恶的世界主义郊区
Come Socrates’ day and it had evolved into a kind of cosmopolitan suburb of sin.
旅行推销员和妓♥女♥们在这里贩卖♥♥商品，
Traveling salesman plied their wares here, along with prostitutes,
他们提供了被委婉地称为“中午婚”的婚姻
who offered what were euphemistically known as middle of the day marriages.
许多年轻的雅典人不需要工作；
Many young Athenians didn’t need to work;
每两个自♥由♥公民中就有一个奴隶
there was one slave to every two free citizens.
所以，苏格拉底有空来到这里，聆听理论
So, Socrates had the free time to come here and listen in on theories
在贸易路线上运输
carried in on the trade routes.
他遇到了东地中海的有创意的思想家，
He encountered thinkers from the Eastern Mediterranean whose ideas had,
一个多世纪以来，科学家们一直在挑战对宇宙的传统解释
for over a century, confronted traditional explanations of the cosmos.
人们眼中的神秘和深不可测
What people saw as mysterious and unfathomable…
他们认为秩序井然，在某种程度上可以合理解释
they viewed as rationally ordered, and to some degree, rationally explicable.
我们现在把他们称为一个群体，前苏格拉底时期，
We refer to them now as one group, the pre-Socratics,
但事实上，他们都是聪明、独♥立♥的思想家
but, in reality they were brilliant, independent thinkers.
他们提出了雄心勃勃的科学问题
They asked hugely ambitious scientific questions.
宇宙是由什么构成的？
What is the cosmos made of?
什么是物质，我们如何看待它？
What is matter, and how do we perceive it?
他们的答案，在某些情况下，
Their answers, in some cases,
破坏了神作为宇宙统治者的角色
undermined the role of the gods as rulers of the cosmos.
他们的抽象理论，
Their abstract theories,
显然没有科学仪器的帮助，
obviously conceived without the help of scientific instruments,
宇宙是由原子和空间构成的，
that the universe was made of atoms and empty space,
水是世界的基本元素，
that water was the fundamental element of the world,
太阳是一块巨大的红热岩石，他们非常烘热
and that the sun was one giant red hot rock, were wildly provocative.
他们思考的规模和胆量令人惊叹
The scale and audacity of their thinking was breathtaking.
前苏格拉底学派不仅触及了传统信仰的核心
The pre-Socratics not only struck at the core of traditional belief…
但是，他们对理性的运用开辟了一条新的道路
but, their use of reason opened up a new way
看看人类的全部经验
to look at the entirety of human experience.
年轻的苏格拉底急切地采取的一种方法
An approach eagerly taken up by the young Socrates.
突然之间，这不仅仅是传统、神话或宗教等级制度
Suddenly it’s not just tradition or, myth or religious hierarchies
告诉你如何理解你的世界，
that are telling you how to make sense of your world,
但是，理性的辩论，系统的思考
but, rational debate, systematic thought.
就像那个时代其他开创性的哲学家一样，
Just like those other groundbreaking philosophers of the age,
孔子在中国，佛陀在现在的印度-
Confucius in China and the Buddha, in what’s now India –
苏格拉底和他的同时代人敢于驾驭思想的力量
Socrates and his contemporaries are daring to harness the power of the mind
来解释他们周围的世界
to explain the world around them.
这是一个量子移♥动♥
This is a quantum shift.
自信勇敢的新世界雅典，
Confident brave-new-world Athens,
并没有试图压制这种新的探究精神
didn’t seek to suppress this new spirit of inquiry.
这座城市成了创新的磁石
The city became a magnet for innovation.
这在很大程度上要归功于那个主宰雅典政♥治♥的人
Thanks, in large part, to the man who would dominate Athenian politics
苏格拉底一生中几乎有一半的时间
for almost half of Socrates’ life.
有远见的政♥治♥家伯里克利
The visionary politician… Pericles.
他召集思想家和艺术家为他提供建议
He gathered thinkers and artists to advise him
开始让民♥主♥成为希腊世界的主导意识形态
and set about making democracy the dominant ideology in the Greek world.