第四讲：古希腊文化

Lecture 4. Ancient Greek Culture 4.1. Introduction to Greek Culture   Ancient Greek Greece is the term used to describe the Greek speaking world in ancient times. It refers not only to the territory of the present Greek state, but also to those area settled by Greeks: Cyprus, the Aegean coast of Turkey ( then known as Ionia爱奥尼亚，古希腊殖民地), Sicily and southern Italy ( known as Great Greece),and the scattered Greek settlements on the coasts of what are now Albania, Bulgaria, Egypt, France, Libya, Romania, Spain, and Ukraine. Traditionally, the Ancient Greek period was taken to begin with the date of the first Olympic Games in 776B.C., but most historians now extend the term back to about 1000 B.C. The traditional date for the end of Ancient Greek period is the death of Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.. The following period is classified Hellenistic, which lasted until the annexation of the Greek peninsula and islands by Rome in 146 B.C.   The peoples of Greece ,under the influence of the divisive geography and the great variety of tribes, developed the city-states ____ small settlements that grew into minor kingdoms. The cities developed separately and independently. However, there was a general pattern of development, which varied somewhat in each particular instance. Monarchies yielded to aristocracies, which were in turn replaced by tyrannies. On the Greek mainland the tyrannies soon yielded to oligarchies or to democracies tempered by limited citizenship and by slaveholding; it was in Greece that the ideas of political democracy came into being. Solon established a democracy in Athens. Militaristic Sparta had unique constitutional and social development. The warring city-states had a sense of unity; all their citizens considered themselves Hellenes.   Ancient Greece is considered by most historians to be the foundational culture of Western civilization. Greek culture was a powerful influence in the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of Europe. Ancient Greek civilization has been immensely influential on the language, politics, educational system, philosophy, art and architecture of the modern world, particularly during the Renaissance in Western Europe and  again during various neo-classical revivals in 18th and 19th century Europe and America. Athens, in particular, grew dramatically. Drama, poetry, sculpture, architecture, and philosophy flourished, and there was a vigorous intellectual life. Some of the greatest names of Western cultural and intellectual history got heard in Athens during this period: the dramatists Aeschylus(埃斯库勒斯), Aristophanes（阿里斯多芬尼斯）, Euripides（欧里庇得斯）, and Sophocles（索福克勒斯）, the philosophers Aristotle, Socrates, the historians Herodotus（希罗多德）, Thucydides（修昔底德）, and Xenophon, the poet Simonides（西蒙尼戴斯） and the sculptor Pheidias（菲迪亚斯）. The city became, in Pericles’s words, “the school of Hellas.（希腊文 ‘Greece’）” 4.2. Socrates ( 469-399 B.C.) As one of the most influential philosophers of Greek origin, Socrates is regarded as an embodiment of the shining moral ideals of Athenian civilization. And the condemnation of Socrates is generally considered as a symbol of the failure of Athenian democracy. The Apology(申辩篇) written by Plato as account of Socrates’ defense in the court gives a clue to Socrates’understanding of freedom and virtue in a democratic state. 4.2.1.Socrates’ Philosophy Before Socrates, the philosophy mainly dwelt on the cosmological origins, i.e. the composition of the universe, which is called by the later generations “Natural philosophy（自然哲学）”. Socrates, however, held that is of no use researching on this area to save the country. Instead, he turned his philosophical research interests to humankind itself, i.e. human ethics: what is called justice, non-justice, bravery, cowardice, integrity, hypocrisy, wisdom, and how knowledge derives from, what is called a country ? What kind of people can be empowered to govern the country? How to develop politicians, etc. His theory appears to be of certain mystic color. He believed that everything either in heaven or on earth was arranged by God, including its birth, development or destruction. As such he opposed research on Nature, which was the blasphemy to God. 4.2.2. Socrates’ thoughts ⑴.Soul. Since Socrates turned his research from the natural philosophy to the research of man, called “the Turn of the Soul”(心灵的转向) i.e. ‘Pull back from the Heaven to the earthly world’. Socrates would like to pursue unvarying, absolute, everlasting truths, and separate man from nature as an independent entity. By means of retrospection to oneself. His well-known saying is “To know yourself.” ⑵.Spirit. Before Socrates, there appeared some vague ideas about the relationship between spirit and material. In the eyes of Socrates things created and perished is nothing but a kind of aggregation and dispersion (聚合与分散)。Therefore he put spirit and material in distinctive opposition, thus became the founder of idealistic philosophy in the history of Western philosophy. ⑶.Truths. Opposing theory of relativity in truth, Socrates believed that there was only One Truth which was absolute, unvarying. He also held that what we try to pursue is the “Beauty Per Se”(美自身). “ The Justice Per Se（正义自身）”，which is the universal meaning and real knowledge of beauty and justice.” He called the “Idea of Beauty, “Idea of Justice”(“美的理念”、“正义的理念”)。Socrates further held that the ultimate reason cause is Goodness，which is purpose of things, the teleonomy (目的性)，which paved the way of idealistic philosophy。 ⑷.Dialectics. Socrates argued that every kind of knowledge comes from puzzles. The more puzzles one has the more progress he makes. He admits that has no knowledge of his own, but what he indoctrinated to other people is what they have already “conceived” in their hearts(在他们心上已经怀上了“胎”) without being aware of themselves. So he served as a “midwife”(his mother was a midwife) to help people produce knowledge with his midwifery ___to ask questions and rhetorical questions.(“诘问式”的提问形式). ⑸.Education. Socrates was a lifetime teacher with his free way of teaching approaches and settings, without charging the students who were people of noble and civilians alike. His teaching purpose is to develop the talents that are able and learned to run the country. Ethical principles are his major teaching content by dint of his “Socrates Teaching Approach”. ⑹.Ethics. Socrates established ethical ideological system, i.e. knowledge is equal to morality. The focus is to probe the life meaning.The best access to knowing the world is “to know oneself”. The final life purpose are perfect goodness and merits. In doing so one has to shake off the boundage of material lust and desires and the confinement of generic experiences, and acquire knowledge of concepts. As such, he can be expected to have wisdom, bravery, temperance and justice.(人们只有摆脱物欲的诱惑和后天 经验 班主任工作经验交流宣传工作经验交流材料优秀班主任经验交流小学课改经验典型材料房地产总经理管理经验 的局限，获得概念的知识，才会有智慧、勇敢、节制和正义等美德。) morality has to rely on the spirit and God’s arrangement, which later on became the ethical theory of Asceticism and Mysticism. As a result it developed into Antisthenes’ Cynicism(古希腊哲学家安提西尼的‘犬儒哲学’)。 4.2.3.Influence of Socrates： In the history of European culture Socrates has been held as a saint died for resolute pursuit of truth, enjoying the identical unshakable position of Confucius in the history of Chinese culture. Philosophical historians normally regard him as the watershed of history of ancient Greek philosophy, dividing philosophies as pre-Socratic and post-Socratic, which, with a brand-new understanding of philosophy, shed light on the new epoch of Greek philosophy. Moreover, it influenced Plato profoundly with its fundamental thoughts of metempsychosis (灵魂转世)and purification, and again through Plato and other philosophers influenced western philosophy until the succeeding posterities of Greek-Roman times. 4.3. Plato (427-347 B.C.) 4.3.1.Brief Introduction to Plato Plato ( 427年－347B.C.）, great Greek philosopher, one of the greatest philosophers and thinkers in the field of western philosophy and culture. Together with his teacher Socrates and student Aristotle he was equally honored as one of the Three Greatest Ancient Greek Philosophers. His thoughts include “Platonism (柏拉图主义)”, “Platonic Love（柏拉图式的爱情）” and “Platonic Chart in Economics（柏拉图经济学图表）”. He was born into a noble family, whose mother was the posterity of the Ethenian lawmaker Solon（雅典立法者梭伦）.Originally his name was Aristocles(阿里斯托勒斯），but later was renamed “Plato” by his physical education teacher since Plato in Greek means “broad ”as he was strong and stout when was young. In his youth, he was the disciple of Socrates. After the death of Socrates he traveled many places abroad, including Egypt, Northern Africa, Asian coastal cities and southern areas of Italy going in for political activities, spreading his political ideal of aristocracy. After 12 years of fruitless endeavors, he came back to Athens and established his own school named ‘Academy’(阿卡德米), often seen as the first university in the world, being a teacher for 4 decades until death. He was prolific in writings, one of the most works is “The Republic(《理想国》，又被译为《国家篇》)”,which embodied his major teaching ideas. 4.3.2. Idealism ( 唯心主义) Plato was the founder of western Objective Idealism (客观唯心主义)whose philosophical system is broad and profound. He held that the world is composed of by both “Idealistic world and “Phenomenal World ”(“理念世界”和“现象世界”).Idealistic world is the real and unvarying existence, while the world revealed by the senses is merely an imitation ,or a shadow of the higher world, which is composed of phenomena. Every phenomenon shows its features that in line with the change of time and space. Thereby Plato put forward the theory of Idealism and Epistemology based on the doctrine of reminiscence, which serves as his philosophical basis.(理念的世界是真实的存在，永恒不变，而人类感官所接触到的这个现实的世界，只不过是理念世界的微弱的影子，它由现象所组成，而每种现象是因时空等因素而表现出暂时变动等特征。由此出发，柏拉图提出了一种理念论和回忆说的认识论，并将它作为其教学理论的哲学基础。) 4.3.3.1Idelaistic Education( 唯心主义教学观) According to Plato the knowledge of a man comes from the innate talent in form of soul in man’s potentials. So knowledge is the reminiscence of the world. The purpose of teaching is to resume man’s innate knowledge, and the process of teaching is the course of remembering the concepts。Therefore in teaching he paid special attention to the thinking competence of the students, particularly to the importance of early education of childhood. By means of reflection and thinking to represent the inborn conceptual knowledge in the soul. Platonic teaching idea, so to speak, is transcendentalism(先验论). 4.3.3.2 His Teaching Content and Approaches（教学内容和方法） Platonic teaching system is executed by Pyramid-stage- teaching methodology.(altogether 10 years) with the Four Subjects(四科) of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. This is main courses of Greek education, which dominated European higher education for 1500 years. Arithmetic trains the analytic and thinking ability; geometry and astronomy are important for students to have knowledge for navigation, march in the wartime, observation of the weather, probe of the universe; music is good for developing soldiers bravery and noble ethic principles. In terms of teaching approach Plato inherited his teacher’s rhetorical question and answer method to lay open the problem, then analyze, induce, synthesize, make judgment and draw conclusion. Not knowing one’s ignorance is double ignorance(不知道自己的无知，乃是双倍的无知。) 4.3.4. Plato’s Idea about State Administration（治国理念） In“Republic”，Plato described his ideal Utopian picture of a country. He believed that a country should be run by philosophers. The subjects of it should be made of three categories: 1,state governors (治国者）, i.e. small number of elites to govern the country.2. soldiers(武士) and 3. workers/common citizens（劳动者）. They represent respectively Wisdom, Bravery and Desires. Also one of their responsibilities was the supervise lawmaking and execution of law and regulations. And men and women enjoy equal rights. 4.3.5.Plato’s Love View (爱情观) According to Plato, love and sexual passion is antagonistic to each other. The combination of body of two opposite sex is nasty. (柏拉图式的爱). Therefore when someone is in the state of love, he or she would never think of the physical combination with the one he or she loves. This is what we call “Spiritual Love”____ Platonic Love” An American scholar Ira.Reiss (美国东西部社会学会主席、《美国家庭体制》一书的作者伊拉·瑞斯（Ira·Reiss）tries to understand Plato’s ‘Spiritual Love’ by means of homosexuality. His research findings show that what Plato highly praised “Spiritual Love ”actually is kind of love between homosexual lovers. As the ancient Greek believed homosexual behavior is more spiritual intercourse than physical intercourse.(灵交、神交，而非形交).Since in ancient Greece women were rarely educated, it is hard for men to find spiritual rivals. So this is the reason that Plato more preferred male lovers to female ones. Plato believed firmly that the “real love ” is everlasting affection which is an extraordinary touchstone in the course of time.(The typical Platonic Love might be vividly illustrated by the spiritual love between Tchaikovsky and Madamn Meck) 4.3.6.Plato’s Influence Western Civilization（对西方文明的影响） Plato’s influence on Western thinking is immeasurable. His ideas on politics, ethics, and world outlook serve as the road map for generations of varied philosophic schools. Many agree that his masterpiece The Republic is second only to Bible in Western civilization. His doctrines can be likened to Chinese Mencius or rationalism in modern European philosophy.(孟子和荀子可与西方的柏拉图和亚里斯多德相比，也可与近代欧洲哲学中理性主义和经验主义相比。黄河选编，张君劢：儒家思想复活之基础《儒家二十讲》p.26) 4.4. Aristotle(384-322 B.C.) 亚里士多德     Aristotle was born of slave-owner family at Stageria in Chalcidice (色雷斯，斯塔基拉 )，whose father was royal doctor for Phillip II of Macedonia. He was the disciple of Plato and the teacher of Alexander the Great. Aristotle was a philosopher, scientist, and educator who opened a Lyceum School(吕克昂学校) known as the Peripatetic School(逍遥学派)。Karl Marx honored him as the most erudite philosopher among ancient Greek philosophers, and Engels credited him as the ancient Hegel. Being a greatest and encyclopedic scientist, his contributions to the world is beyond comparison. His contributions in philosophy almost covered every philosophical area and his writings were pertinent to ethics、 metaphysics、, psychology、 economics、 theology、politics, rhetoric, natural science, pedagogy, poetry, conventions and Athenian constitution.        4.4.1. His Life Story (生平) At the age of 17 he enrolled in the Plato’s Academy for 20 years, and he didn’t leave there until the death of Plato. Under the influence of his father, Aristotle showed immense curiosity for biology and positive science（实验科学）. Meanwhile Plato’s influence triggered his interest in reasoning philosophy. From 18 to 38 he was immersed in the study of philosophy for about 20 years in Plato’s Academy. Aristotle was an assiduous disciple of the Academy though, he was not a simple yesman in pursuit of truths, whose academic differences made him disagree with his mentor particularly in their later years with the passage of time. He even set up library of his own in which he put variety of books and materials he collected himself. In the end, Aristotle left Athens after the death of Plato, travelling around at the invitation of his former fellow learner and friend, Hermias(赫米阿斯), who was the then governor along the Asian Minor areas, during which Aristotle even married his niece. But by 344 B.C. Hermias was killed in a riot, Aristotle had to leave Asia and lived in Mitti Leah(米提利亚) for three years. By 343 B.C aged 42, Aristotle was called back by Phillip II as the tutor for Alexander the Great, then aged 13, who was influenced greatly by Aristotle’s thoughts. By 335 he returned to Athens to set up his Academy(Lyceum,意为：阿波罗附近的杀狼者) teaching philosophy. Opposing the rigid teaching way, Aristotle often delivered lectures by means of chatting and discussing in form of taking a stroll along the boulevard, so they were called by later generations “Peripatetic School ”( 逍遥派)。 4.4.2. His Academic Propositions(学术主张) ⑴In philosophy, Aristotle rejected Plato’s Theory of Forms, arguing hat universals should not be set apart from particulars, and that man understands the world through empirical investigations. He also rejected Plato’s idea that the soul exists separately from body. ⑵ In Physics. He identified four causes or modes of explanation, i.e. material cause(物质因), formal cause（形式因）, efficient cause（动力因）, and final cause（目的因）. ⑶In logic. Aristotle was the first philosophy to explore the structure of reasoning by dint of syllogism(三段式)。 ⑷．Metaphysics. He tried to expose the nature of the real and essential substance of the universe between matter and form by establishing a hierarchy of existence, each of which is the matter of that next above it and imparts form and change to that next below. At the lower of the scale is primary formless matter, which has no real but logical existence. At the upper end is the “primary unmoved mover”, an external of activity of thought, free from matter, giving motion to the universe through an attraction akin to love; he identified this prime mover with God. ⑸. In Politics. He was the earliest founder of realism. Unlike his teacher Plato, measuring up the reality by his supposed Republic, he advocated to govern the country by law and order because he was skeptical of human nature and human reason. He argues that the state is developed naturally by the grouping of families in villages for the purpose of securing to the citizens a good and self-sufficient life. Thus the essential characteristic of the state is not material but its moral purpose. ⑹.In ethics. Aristotle regards the good as the end of conduct, which leads to happiness but not to pleasure, honor or wealth, which are supposed to be the basis of happiness. He held that moral virtue is formed by habit. One becomes good by repeatedly doing good. ⑺.Rhetoric and Poetics. Aristotle’s Rhetoric deals with the methods of persuasion, divided into three parts, i.e. those by which the speaker produces on his audience a favorite view of his own character, those by which he produces emotion and lastly argument, by examples or by enthymeme.(rhetoric form of syllogism) 4.4.3. Aristotle’s Influence on Western Culture Aristotle’s influence is immensely powerful and astonishing. His works were the ancient encyclopedia, which is said to amount to about 400 to 1,000 books. His thoughts were the backbones of Christian principles and Islamic Scholastic philosophy. Besides he did much groundbreaking scientific research in biology, psychology, zoology, meteorology, and astronomy. His philosophical vision on metaphysics, ethics, politics and aesthetics remains to be the prime source of Western thinking for more than 2,000 years, which also had profound and far-reaching influence on the human beings. 4.4.4. Aristotle’s Well-known Quotes · 优秀是一种习惯。 · 法律是没有激情的理性。 · 遵照道德准则生活就是幸福的生活。 · 幸福属于满足的人们。 · 幸福就是至善。 · 幸福在于自给自足之中。 · 人生颇富机会和变化。人最得意的时候，有最大的不幸光临。 · 人生最终价值在于觉醒和思考的能力，而不只在于生存。 · 在不幸中，有用的朋友更为必要；在幸运中，高尚的朋友更为必要。.在不幸中，寻找朋友出于必需；在幸运中，寻找朋友出于高尚。 · 羽毛相同的鸟，自会聚在一起。 · 真正的朋友，是一个灵魂孕育在两个躯体里。 · 事业是理念和实践的生动统一。 · 教育的根是苦的，但其果实是甜的。 · 谬误有多种多样，而正确却只有一种，这就是为什么失败容易成功难、脱靶容易中靶难的缘故。 · 在科学上进步而道义上落后的人，不是前进，而是后退。 · 凡善于考虑的人，一定是能根据其思考而追求可以通过行动取得最有益于人类东西的人。 · 上帝所做的、胜过一切想象中的幸福行为，莫过于纯粹的思考，而人的行为中最接近这种幸福的东西，也许是与思考最密切的活动。 · 人在达到德性的完备时是一切动物中最出色的动物；但如果他一意孤行。目无法律和正义，他就成为一切禽兽中最恶劣的禽兽。 · 对于美德，我们仅止于认识是不够的，我们还必须努力培养它，运用它，或是采取种种方法，以使我们成为良善之人。 · 德可以分为两种：一种是智慧的德，另一种是行为的德，前者是从学习中得来的，后者是从实践中得来的。 · 真正的美德不可没有实用的智慧，而实用的智慧也不可没有美德。 · 人类是天生社会性动物。 · 怜悯是一个人遭受厄运而引起的，恐惧是这个遭受厄运的人与我们相似而引起的。 · 有人问：写一首好诗，是靠天才呢？还是靠艺术？我的看法是：苦学而没有丰富的天才，有天才而没有训练，都归无用；两者应该相互为用，相互结合。 · 吾爱我师，吾更爱真理。 · 有战争才能带来和平。 · 法律就是秩序，有好的法律才有好的秩序 · 对上级谦恭是本分，对平辈谦逊是和善，对下级谦逊是高贵，对所有人谦逊是安全。 ·幸福来源于我们自己。 ·智慧不仅仅存在于知识之中，而且还存在于运用知识的能力中。