第001集……前苏格拉底哲学——爱奥尼亚学派

大家好。

Hello, everyone.

我是史蒂文·韦斯特，这里是《哲学这事》播客。

I'm Steven West, and this is the Philosophize This podcast.

本节目首播于2013年6月6日，那是我人生中第一次对麦克风说出的创作内容。

The first episode of this show was released on 06/06/2013, and it was the first creative thing I ever uttered into a microphone in my entire life.

不消说，自开播以来，我在如何打造一档能最大限度回馈听众时间的节目方面学到了很多。

Now, needless to say, since I started, I've learned a lot of lessons when it comes to creating a show that brings as much value to people's time as possible.

核心要义是：如果你听完首期节目后喜欢它，那你就赚到了。

Bottom line is this, if you listen to the first episode and you like it, you're golden.

你还有100多期节目可以收听。

You have over 100 episodes to listen to.

希望你能逐步品味它们。

I hope you'll evolve them.

但如果你觉得首期节目节奏拖沓或尴尬——就像现在这样说话，听起来像是某人的扫地机器人成精后做了档播客——不妨直接跳到第90期左右，看看是否更合你胃口。

But if you listen to the first episode and think it's slow or cringey, or, know, so talking like this, it sounds like somebody's Roomba came to life and did a podcast, try skipping forward to around episode 90 and see if you enjoy it more.

之后你总能回溯到尽可能久远的起点。

You always go back as far as you can bear after that.

话虽如此，我真心希望能很快与现在的你们相见，感谢你们求知若渴的每一天。

That said, I I hope to see you all at present day soon, and thank you for wanting to know more today than you did yesterday.

大家好。

Hello, everyone.

是我，史蒂文·韦斯特。

It's me, Steven West.

今天咱们可有太多精彩的哲学话题要聊了。

And, boy, do we have a lot of great philosophy stuff to talk about today.

各位，我刚发现一件趣事。

You know, I just learned something, everybody.

原来此刻正在收听播客的你——若追溯家族血脉至最久远的祖先，你会发现自己的根脉都源自非洲大陆的撒哈拉以南平原。

It turns out that if you're listening to this podcast right now, if you were to trace back your family's heritage as far as you could go, if you were to follow the branches of your family tree all the way up to the canopy of that family tree, you'd find that you come from the Sub Saharan Plains of Africa.

没错，当今所有在世的人类，其血脉都能追溯至同一片东非草原。

Yeah, it turns out all humans that are alive today can trace their roots back to those same Eastern Sub Saharan Plains.

各位，我可不是古生物学家。

Now I'm not a paleontologist folks.

我看上去像古生物学家吗？

Do I look like a paleontologist to you?

我并不是要攻击任何人的信仰。

I'm not trying to attack anyone's beliefs here.

我们讨论的这个关于人类曾都生活在非洲的观点，被称为'走出非洲'理论，当然也有其他权威论点反对它。

This idea that we're talking about that at one point all humans lived in Africa, it's called the out of Africa theory, and there's several other reputable arguments against it.

在研究过程中，我发现人类如何殖民全球是整个历史上争议最大的话题之一，我并非要攻击任何人。

During my research, I realized that how humans colonize the globe is one of the most heavily debated topics in all of human history, and I'm not attacking anyone.

如果要我说，'走出非洲'理论可能就像历史上大多数事情一样。

If you want my opinion, the out of Africa theory is probably like most things in history.

我们很可能完全错了，十年后新证据会出现，改变我们未来十年的认知，如此循环往复。

We're probably completely wrong, wrong, and in ten years, some new evidence is going to turn up that changes how we think about things for the next ten years and so on and so forth.

但今天我提起这个话题，是因为要理解早期哲学，我认为首先要理解那些使哲学得以存在的人类早期决策。

But the reason I'm bringing it up today is because to understand early philosophy, think it's important to understand the early human decisions that made philosophy even able to exist in the first place.

大家先耐心听我说几句。

So bear with me for a second, guys.

故事从这里开始。

The story begins here.

很久很久以前，所有人类都共同生活在非洲。

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, every human lived together in Africa.

一个快乐的大家庭，对吧？

One big happy family right?

我们曾是游牧部落民族。

We were a nomadic tribal people.

我们热爱迁徙，但更重要的是我们喜欢彼此交往。

We love to move around, but more importantly we love to socialize with each other.

这种渴望相互交往的特质是人类物种的标志，无论你追溯历史多远都能发现。

And this desire to socialize with each other is a hallmark of the human species no matter how far back you go in history.

我是说，即便在今天你也能看到这种现象，对吧？

I mean you even see it today right?

这就是人们热爱社交媒体的原因。

This is why people love social media.

这就是为什么我们把一个人单独关禁闭三个月后，他会彻底疯掉。

This is why we lock a guy in solitary confinement for three months and he comes out completely insane.

人类大脑中天生就有渴望并需要社交互动的特质，即使是十万年前的人类也不例外。

There's something inherent in the human brain that wants and needs social interaction, and even humans a hundred thousand years ago weren't an exception to this.

考古记录显示，我们常常聚集在临时搭建的火坑和洞穴周围——基本上就是那些能让我们在对抗掠食者时占据战略优势，可以围坐闲聊的地方。

The archaeological record shows that we would kind of congregate around these makeshift fire pits and caves and I mean just basically in places where we had a strategic advantage against predators and were able to sit around and just talk.

现在我要大胆推测一下：那时候可能真没什么可聊的。

Now I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say there probably wasn't much to talk about back then.

毕竟我们围坐在火堆旁，所以我猜在唱完几轮《Kumbaya》之后，我们就会开始抱怨那些困扰——比如非洲每天都是170度的高温，或者根本找不到任何可饮用的水。

I mean we were sitting around a fire so my guess is in between sets of kumbaya we'd start to talk about things that were plaguing us like, I don't know the fact it's a 170 degrees outside every day in Africa or the fact there's absolutely no drinkable water anywhere to be found.

然后这个有趣的小问题总会引出你叔叔最爱讲的那个段子：那天他去喝脏水潭的水，结果被河马像沃尔玛黑色星期五一样踩踏——因为他试图喝掉河马的家。

And that that fun little problem probably always leads into the anecdote your uncle always likes to tell about that day he went to go drink from one of these stagnant pools of dirty water, and he got a trampled by a hippo like it's Black Friday at Walmart because he tried to drink its home.

非洲并不完美，各位，我就说这么多。

Africa wasn't perfect people, that's all I'm saying.

非洲确实存在不少问题。

Africa had its problems.

因此，与其无休止地抱怨这些问题，我们选择北上前往一个叫新月沃土的地方。

So instead of complaining about these problems endlessly, we went north to a place called the Fertile Crescent.

那是个好地方。

Nice neighborhood.

你可能之前就听说过它。

You probably heard of it before.

如果你不知道新月沃地是什么，它就在欧洲和非洲通过地中海相接的地方。

If you don't know what the Fertile Crescent is, it's right where Europe and Africa meet together by the Mediterranean Sea.

那里有一片新月形的温带土地。

There's kind of a crescent shaped temperate land there.

之所以是温带，因为白天温度只有区区华氏110度，所以我们显然继续迁徙了。

It's temperate because it was only a mere 110 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, so obviously we kept moving.

如果有机会，你可以看看这些展示早期人类迁徙路线的地图。

If you get a chance take a look at one of these maps that shows the migratory paths of these early humans.

你可以在谷歌图片上轻松找到它，但如果出于某些原因找不到或抵制谷歌，可以去stevenwestshow.net查看，我们也会在那里发布。

You can pull it up on Google images no problem, but if for some reason you can't find it or have a boycott against Google check it out on stevenwestshow.net we're gonna have it posted up there as well.

在肥沃新月地带有个分岔路口。

There's a fork in the road there at the Fertile Crescent.

我们显然决定不再继续向北，但后来出现了一些分歧。

We obviously decided we weren't gonna keep going north but then there was kind of a disagreement.

其中一些人向西前往希腊、意大利，最终到达西欧；另一些人向东前往印度和中国，北上俄罗斯，然后穿越世界著名的洲际冰桥到达阿拉斯加，在莎拉·佩林家逗留几天后，最终南下到达南美洲，印加玛雅文明最终在那里兴起。

Some of these humans went westward over to the area of Greece, Italy, and eventually to Western Europe, and some of them went east over to India and China, north to Russia, then across the world famous Intercontinental Ice Bridge to Alaska, then they stopped by Sarah Palin's house for a few days and eventually made their way down to South America where the Inkinson Mayans eventually cropped up.

但试着想象一下，朋友们，作为这些早期人类中的一员。

But try to imagine being one of these early humans for a second people.

你完全不知道前方有什么在等着你。

You have no idea what lies ahead of you.

我的意思是，你只是在不停地行走。

I mean you're just walking.

当这些人开始迁徙时，他们根本不知道非洲大陆是否被熔岩池之类的东西包围着。

When these people started moving they had no idea if the Continent Of Africa was just surrounded by a pool of lava or something.

我的意思是，他们根本不知道大峡谷这样的地方是否就在下一座山丘后面。

I mean they had no idea if something like the Grand Canyon was just over the next hill.

他们完全不知道下一顿饭会从哪里来。

They had no idea where their next meal was going to come from.

他们不知道在试图解决所有这些问题时，是否一直有某种凶残的掠食者在跟踪猎杀他们。

No idea if while they were trying to navigate all these problems that there was some ruthless predator stalking them and hunting them the entire time.

更不用说这一切都是未经探索、难以通行的地形，随时可能滑倒、摔跤、摔断髋骨之类的。

Not to mention all of this is uncharted unnavigated terrain where at any point you could just slip, fall, break a hip, something.

对吧？

Right?

那时候可没有

There was no St.

街角的圣约瑟夫医疗中心，对这些人来说，哪怕只是手臂轻微受伤也等同于死刑判决。

Joseph's Medical Center on the corner for these guys back then and even a slightly mangled arm was just a complete death sentence.

整件事对我来说简直太可怕了。

The entire thing is just terrifying to me.

要是我们生活在那个年代，你们会看到我躲在非洲的角落里，拼命想尽快发明出空调来凑合过日子。

If we lived back then you guys would see me down in Africa cowering in the corner just working really hard on trying to invent the air conditioner as soon as possible making do.

但这些早期人类定居者为应对降临在他们身上的逆境，采用了人多力量大的理念。

But what these early human settlers did to cope with this adversity that was thrown their way was they employed the idea of strength in numbers.

你会发现很多早期军事冲突中都运用了这个概念，但这远早于任何军事冲突的出现。

You see a lot of early military conflicts where this concept is used, but this greatly precedes any military conflicts.

这甚至早于文明本身。

This precedes civilization.

他们意识到生存面临严重威胁，而手头只有寥寥数人可以合作，于是他们聚集在资源丰富的地区。

They realized there was a serious threat to their existence and they only had a handful of people to work with, and they grouped together always around geographic areas with an abundance of resources.

这就是我要阐述的第一个要点。

And this is the first point I want to touch on.

纵观人类历史上取得的任何进步，追溯任何取得成就的人类群体，他们的成功都可以归结为——并非某个种族或群体比其他人更聪明（毕竟我们都很聪明对吧？）

If you look back at any progress the human species has made over the course of history, if you look back to any group of humans that did well, their success can be distilled down not to the fact that one race of people or one group of people were more clever than another, because we were all really clever right?

而是取决于有多少聪明才智必须被用于获取基本生活必需品。

It can be distilled down to how much of that cleverness needed to be used to gather the basic necessities of life.

这很合理，对吧？

And it makes sense right?

如果你无需担忧下一顿饭的来源，或半夜婴儿会不会被狼群叼走，你就能专注于艺术、科学、政治和哲学这些领域——事实证明。

If you don't need to worry about where your next meal is going to come from or whether a pack of wolves is going to steal your baby in the middle of the night, you can focus on other things like art, science, government, and philosophy as it turns out.

哲学本质上就是人类脑力过剩催生的副产品之一。

Philosophy really is just one of these extra things made possible by extra human brain power.

你知道我想把它比作什么吗？

Do you know what I'd compare it to?

我把它比作《行尸走肉》这部剧。若你从未看过，我就长话短说。

I compare it to the show the walking dead, And if you've never seen The Walking Dead, I'll make this quick.

一方面，有主角瑞克。

So on one hand, have Rick, the protagonist of the series.

他带着多元文化背景的朋友们，总试图保护他们，但他们的生活依旧糟糕。

He has this nice multicultural group of friends he's always trying to protect, and their life is terrible.

他们就像早期的人类定居者。

They're like the early human settlers.

他们总是在逃亡。

They're always on the run.

我是说，千万别指望有人能停下来花五分钟聊聊僵尸爆发前的生活，因为灌木丛里随时会蹦出僵尸。

I mean, heaven forbid anyone stops to have a five minute heartfelt conversation about their life before the zombies took over because there's zombies in every bush.

你只会听到一声惨叫，然后就看到一群僵尸扑到某人身上，之后这角色就再也不会出现了。

You just hear like and then there's this giant zombie dog pile on top of someone and you never see them on the show again.

他们完全不知道下一顿饭从哪里来。

They have no idea where their next meal is going to come from.

他们总是吃着那些恶心的维也纳香肠罐头。

They're always eating those disgusting cans of Vienna sausages.

他们的生活就像早期人类拓荒者一样。

Their life is just like the early human settlers.

他们完全不知道明天会发生什么，但反观伍德伯里镇就不一样了。

They have no idea what the next day holds for them, but conversely you have Woodbury.

这里曾经是住宅区，现在筑起了围墙和哨塔，还有武装警卫时刻戒备着威胁。

Formerly a residential street You got walls, towers, armed guards constantly looking out for threats.

那座城市的居民虽然和其他人生活在同样动荡不安的世界里，但人数优势让他们他们能专注于其他事情，比如为什么他们要听命于世上唯一一个戴黑眼罩的非海盗。

The people in that city, although they live in the same volatile unpredictable world as the other people, their strength in numbers allows them to focus on other things, like why they're taking orders from the only non pirate in the history of the world to ever wear a black eye patch.

西方哲学起源于两个地理上相邻的区域。

Now Western philosophy begins in two geographic areas that are actually right next to each other.

还记得我们之前提到的两河流域那个分岔路口吗？

Do you remember that fork in the road we were talking about at the Fertile Crescent?

其中一条路向西延伸，而我们此刻讨论的这两个地理区域——希腊和意大利——就分布在这条西行路线上。

Well, one of those paths goes westward on that fork, and these two geographic regions we're talking about right now lie along that westward path, Greece and Italy.

这两个地区都是由许多伍德伯里式的小城邦紧密联结而成。

And both these areas are just groups of these little Woodbury style cities that are closely knitted together.

所有前苏格拉底时期的思想都源自这两个地理区域之一。

All pre Socratic thought is organized as coming from one of these two geographic regions.

其一是意大利式的思维方式。

One is the Italian style of thinking.

如你所料，那对应着现今的意大利和西西里岛一带。

As you can probably guess, that's modern day Italy and Sicily, that area over there.

而另一种，我们今天要讨论的，是爱奥尼亚或希腊式的思维方式。

And the other one, the one we're going to talk about today, that's the Ionian or the Greek style of thinking.

那是指现今的土耳其和希腊地区，这两个国家与地中海接壤的整片海岸线，被称为爱奥尼亚海岸。

That's modern day Turkey and Greece, where those two countries meet the Mediterranean Sea, that whole region right there, that whole coastline is known as the Ionian Coast.

这两个地理区域不仅彼此知晓，还相互影响、相互驳斥，它们之间那种类似高中竞争的关系，从长远来看对哲学的发展极为有益。

Now both these geographic regions not only knew about each other, they influenced each other, they refuted each other, and that little high school rivalry dynamic that existed between them, it turned out to be extremely beneficial for the progress of philosophy in the long run.

但在我们讨论它们及其卓越思想之前，我认为有必要先解决一个显而易见的问题。

But before we talk about them and all their brilliant ideas, I think it's important to address the elephant in the room.

讽刺的是，这是一头我敢说几乎没人在乎的大象。

Ironically, it's an elephant that I'm sure next to nobody even cares about.

但公平地说，至少得有一位60岁的白人老教授在纽约大学教哲学哲学课，此刻正在听播客，如果我不提这事他会非常不高兴。

But to be fair, there's there's gotta be at least one 60 year old white dude that teaches philosophy philosophy at at NYU NYU listening listening to to the the podcast right now, and he's gonna be really upset if I don't address this.

‘前苏格拉底’这个术语，是哲学界争论的主要焦点。

The term presocratic, major source of contention in the philosophical world.

多年来，因为这个话题在哲学主题酒吧引发的争执不计其数，但了解它很有意思，归根结底是这样。

Countless fights have been started at philosophy themed bars over the years because of this, But it's something that's interesting to know, and it basically comes down to this.

四月份，一个名叫苏格拉底的人诞生了，这对哲学界来说是个彻底的变革者。

In April, a guy named Socrates was born that was a complete game changer for the world of philosophy.

这一点毋庸置疑。

No question about it.

我的意思是，那些对哲学一无所知的人也听说过他的名字。

I mean, people that don't know anything about philosophy have heard his name before.

他对哲学问题的提出及提问者的范围产生了极其深远的影响。

He had such a profound influence on which philosophical questions were asked and who could ask them.

因为在他之前，哲学是只有富人和精英才能研究的学问，而他某种程度上让几乎人人都成为了哲学家。

Because, I mean, before him, philosophy was something reserved for the rich and the elite to study, and he kinda made it so that pretty much everyone was a philosopher.

这影响非常重大。

It was huge.

这实际上是哲学界的大日子。

It's a big day in philosophy, actually.

影响如此深远，以至于在二十世纪初，有人撰写古希腊哲学著作时，干脆将所有先贤都称为前苏格拉底思想家——就是苏格拉底之前的那个前苏格拉底时期。

So big that in the early nineteen hundreds, some guy was writing a book on ancient Greek philosophy, and he just decided to refer to everyone that came before him as a pre Socratic thinker, like pre Socratic, like before Socrates.

这个术语就这么沿用下来了，我想。

And the term kinda just stuck, I guess.

现在双方都有很好的论据，但有些人不喜欢‘前苏格拉底’这个说法。

Now there's really good arguments on both sides, but some people don't like the term presocratic.

他们认为这贬低了这些哲学家的卓越成就，甚至暗示他们在某些方面不如苏格拉底。

They say it undermines just how brilliant all of them are, and it it even kind of insinuates they were inferior to Socrates in some way.

我个人能理解他们的观点。

Personally, I can kinda see where they're coming from.

想象一下，比如你有个叫杰西卡的妹妹。

I mean, try to imagine if you had a sister named Jessica, for example.

假设杰西卡高中全科优秀，是啦啦队长、毕业致辞代表，被剑桥录取，还获得了爵位。

Let's say Jessica got all straight a's through high school, head cheerleader, valedictorian, got accepted to Cambridge, was knighted.

基本上她就是个功成名就的人，而你却在克利夫兰市中心某个腌菜厂工作。

Basically, she's an accomplished person for all intents and purposes, and you're back in Downtown Cleveland working at some pickle factory.

我是说，别评判你。

I mean, don't judge you.

福利待遇还不错。

It's got good benefits.

对吧？

Right?

但想象一下，如果你父母每次跟朋友聊天时都这么说：嘿。

But imagine if your parents, every time they were talking to their friends was like, hey.

是的。

Yes.

你是前杰西卡时代的孩子。

You are a pre Jessica child.

没错。

Yes.

前杰斯时代哇。

Pre Jess wow.

我完全不明白为什么在这个例子里你父母会和大富翁游戏里的那个富翁扯上关系，但你肯定能看出这种说法有多居高临下。

I have no idea why your parents are related to the monopoly guy in that example, but you can definitely see how it would be condescending.

对吧？

Right?

我不是哇。

I'm not wow.

现在如果你在网上做任何基础研究，你会发现很多人说给他们贴上不同的标签是合适的，因为前苏格拉底学派严格处理形而上学的主张。

Now if you do any basic research online, you're gonna find a ton of people that say it's appropriate to label them something different because pre Socratics dealt with strictly metaphysical claims.

形而上学是研究我们周围一切由什么构成以及它们如何来到这里的学科。

Metaphysics is the study of what everything around us is made of and how did it get here.

苏格拉底可不会处理这类事情。

Where, Socrates didn't deal with stuff like that.

他探讨的是认识论相关的问题。

He dealt with issues surrounding epistemology.

认识论，即关于知识的研究。

Epistemology the study of knowledge.

我们如何知道自己所知道的？

How do we know what we know?

我的意思是，如果你在网上读到这些，那就像互联网上的大多数内容一样。

And, I mean, I guess if you read that online, it's like most things on the Internet.

这并不完全正确？

It's not entirely true?

是的。

Yes.

确实，他们比苏格拉底更少处理认识论的问题，但他们确实有所涉及。

It is true they dealt with less issues of epistemology than Socrates, but they definitely did address them.

因此，仅凭这一点就将他们放逐到苏格拉底之前的‘哲学弃儿岛’上，是不诚实的。

So to use that as your only validation to cast them into exile in this island of misfit philosophers before Socrates is just dishonest.

但话说回来，我们还是会称他们为前苏格拉底学派，因为几乎所有人都这么叫。

But that said, we're still gonna call them pre Socratics because pretty much everyone else does.

而且这实际上与我们今天的目的很好地协同工作。

And it actually works in coalition nicely with our purposes here today.

我是说，至少在我学习任何东西时，能够将事物分类到不同的组别确实很有帮助。

I mean, at least whenever I'm learning anything, it really helps to be able to categorize things into different groups.

这确实能帮助我更好地记住它们。

It it, like, helps me remember it better.

比如，当我想到早期的前苏格拉底学派时，我会把它们分成三部分。

Like, when I think of early Western philosophy, I think of it in terms of three chunks.

首先是前苏格拉底学派，接下来是苏格拉底、柏拉图和亚里士多德，再之后就是从亚里士多德到中世纪等等。

There's the pre Socratics, then there the next chunk is Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and then the next chunk would be post Aristotle to the medieval period, etcetera.

这样分类确实让事情简单多了。

I mean, it just makes it a lot easier.

但只要我们记住，我们这样分类并不是因为他们比苏格拉底差，而是为了突出他们各自独特的特点。

But just as long as we keep in mind that we're categorizing them, not because they're inferior to Socrates in any way, but just to identify them for their own unique characteristics.

你得记住，当这些最早的前苏格拉底学派出现时——大约在两千年前的六月——当时的科学新闻是磁铁有生命和灵魂。

I mean, you have to keep in mind that when these first pre Socratics started popping up, which is right around June, two thousand years ago, the breaking scientific news at the time was that magnets were alive and had souls.

我是说，这很合理。

I mean, it made sense.

对吧？

Right?

我是说，你把一块金属靠近它，它就自己动了。

I mean, you held a piece of metal up to it, and it it created its own movement.

对吧？

Right?

所以它基本上是有生命的，他们就是这样认为的。

So it's basically alive, and it that's how they saw it.

而提出这个理论的人是个了不起的家伙。

And the guy that came up with that theory was an amazing guy.

他不仅是我们今天要讲的第一位哲学家，更是有史以来的第一位哲学家，他的名字叫泰勒斯。

And he's not only the guy that we're gonna talk about first here today, but he was the first philosopher of all time, and his name was Thales.

泰勒斯是哲学界的开山鼻祖。

Thales was the OG of philosophy.

我是说，在这家伙之前根本没人，各位。

I mean, nobody came before this guy, you guys.

一个都没有。

Nobody.

他没有任何可借鉴的东西，没有任何可参考的依据。

He had nothing to pull from, nothing to go off of.

他就是开创者。

He was it.

他确实是第一个环顾四周，观察所有神奇的自然现象——岩石、树木、飞鸟，并认为这一切或许并非由某个超自然的神灵创造的人。

He really was the first person to look around him at all of the amazing nature, all the rocks, the trees, the birds, and say, maybe all this wasn't put here by some supernatural god.

也许一切都有合理的解释。

Maybe there's a rational explanation for everything.

但我一直对他的看法是，如果泰勒斯的时代有电视，这家伙绝对会是《黄金单身汉》的男主角。

But the way I always think about him is if TV existed back when Thales was alive, this guy would have been the bachelor.

他成为完美单身汉有诸多原因。

He would be the perfect bachelor for a number of reasons.

首先，你见过那些希腊风格的雕像吗？

First, have you ever seen one of those Greek likeness statues of the guy?

这男人简直会被误认为是希腊神明。

The man could be mistaken for a Greek god.

如果你用眼角余光瞥见他，可能会以为众神真的存在。

If you glanced at him out of the corner of your eye, you might think that the gods actually exist.

他是个健壮迷人的男子，轮廓分明，体格魁梧，还有一头浓密的卷发。

He was a strapping, attractive man, chiseled features, full bodied, voluminous, curly hair.

他就像草本精华广告里的模特。

He was like a guy on an herbal essences commercial.

广告。

Commercial.

坚毅的下颌线。

Strong jawline.

我无法过多评价他的眼睛，因为你知道，这些希腊雕像都没有瞳孔。

I can't say much about his eyes because, as you know, these Greek likeness statues don't have pupils.

我猜我们那时还没进化出瞳孔。

I guess we hadn't evolved them yet.

但如果他有瞳孔，那绝对毋庸置疑。

But if he had pupils, there's no question.

那会是深邃、宽厚、历经战火的眼睛。

They'd be deep, generous, battle hardened eyes.

但这还不是全部。

But that's not all.

不。

No.

我是说，光靠一张漂亮脸蛋可上不了《单身汉》节目。

I mean, just being a pretty face doesn't get you on the bachelor.

你得是个全能选手。

You gotta be the whole package.

以他那个时代的标准，他受过高等教育，精通几何学和天文学——历史学家认为这两门学问是他在早年埃及游历期间掌握的。

He was very highly educated for his time, really well versed in geometry and astronomy, two subjects that historians think he picked up during his travels to Egypt earlier on in life.

这家伙度个假就能学会两门周围人都没接触过的完整学科。

I mean, this guy just goes on vacation and, you know, learns two complete areas of study that nobody else around him knows.

我是说，这没什么大不了的。

I mean, no big deal.

毫无疑问，他拥有极高的智商，但让他成为黄金单身汉的主要特质在于他极其富有，更不用说还是个商业天才。

So there's no question he had an extremely high intellect, but the main quality that makes him a shoo in to play the bachelor was that he was incredibly rich and not to mention a genius businessman.

有个关于他在某次橄榄丰收季大赚一笔的著名故事。

There's this infamous story about him making a ton of money in the olive industry during one particular harvest season.

故事大致是这样的。

And the story generally goes like this.

那时人们普遍认为，收成好坏与丰收之神的喜悦程度直接相关。

Back then, everyone thought there was a direct relationship between how pleased the harvest gods were and how many crops were yielded at harvest time.

泰勒斯可不吃这套。

Thales didn't buy that.

他观察发现，每逢降雨充沛的年份，收获季节的作物产量必然大增。

He looked around and noticed that whenever there was a significant amount of rainfall in a particular year, that would therefore be transmuted into a significant amount of crops come harvest time.

于是有年雨季异常漫长时，他直接买断了镇上所有橄榄压榨机，知道大家迟早都得用上。

So on one of these years when it was raining more than usual, he just went out and bought up all of the olive presses in town knowing that everybody was gonna need them.

就这样他垄断了整个橄榄产业，等到预期中的大丰收来临时，他只需坐等数钱。

Essentially, he got a full monopoly on the entire olive industry, and then when that significant harvest of olives inevitably came, he just sat back and cleaned up.

我是说，整个季节人们都向他租用设备，他就只管收钱。

I mean, he just cashed checks while people rented equipment from him all season long.

更过分的是，他说自己这么做的唯一目的就是向所有人证明致富有多容易。

And to make it even worse, he said the only reason why he even did it was to show everyone how easy it was to get rich.

我的意思是，他根本不缺那点钱。

I mean, he didn't even need the money.

如果你换个角度看待这个故事，就能大致了解泰勒斯这个人的全貌。

And if you look at this story in a weird way, you get a pretty good idea of who Thales was on the whole.

这个故事某种程度上概括了他的一生。

It kind of encompasses what his entire life was.

试想一下，站在他的立场上思考片刻。

I mean, put yourself in his position for a second.

他是一位致力于为周遭一切事物寻找合理解释的哲学家。

He was a philosopher dedicated to finding rational explanations for everything around him.

而当时他身边的人都只会盲目地将所有发生的事情归因于某个神灵的干预。

During a time when all the people around him just kind of mindlessly attributed everything that happened as divine intervention from some god.

我的意思是，他基本上就生活在现代的阿拉巴马州。

I mean, basically, he lived in modern day Alabama.

是啊。

Yeah.

现在你为这家伙感到难过吗？

Now do you feel bad for this guy?

但通过了解当时人们阅读的内容，我们才能真正理解他的思维有多么与众不同。

But by knowing the sorts of things everyone was reading back then, we can really understand just how outside of the box he was thinking.

我的意思是，这确实说明了他能在听到这些内容后提出那些理论是多么了不起。

I mean, it really speaks to how amazing it is that he even came up with the theories that he did hearing this stuff.

为了提供一些背景，我要读一段名为赫西俄德写的《神谱》的节选。

Just for some context, I'm gonna read an excerpt from something called Theogony by a guy named Hesiod.

这是公元前七世纪写的，实际上就是当时人们生活的圣经。

And this was written in the seventh century BC, and for all intents and purposes, this was the bible of everyone living at the time.

它解释了诸神的起源，人类的起源。

It explained the origins of the gods, the origins of man.

它为许多日常现象提供了解释，比如地震、雷鸣、闪电。

It gave explanations for tons of everyday things like earthquakes, thunder, lightning.

显然，所有这些都只是某个神在神界活动的产物。而这本书——这个故事，绝对是当时人们必读的内容。

Apparently, all of these were just a result of some god doing something in the god realm, And this whole book, this this story would have definitely been required reading for anyone living back then.

更重要的是，就解释周围世界而言，这就是泰勒斯所掌握的全部知识。

More importantly, as far as explanations for the world around him are concerned, this is all Thales had.

仅此而已。

This is it.

这段特定文字解释了为什么海上有些船只遭遇强风。

And this particular passage explains why some boats that are out at sea experience high winds.

这是他们对海上强风的神话解释。

This is their god explanation of high winds at sea.

引文：'从堤丰那里吹来狂暴的湿风，反复无常地席卷海面。'

Quote, and from Typhoeus come boisterous winds which blow damply, fitfully upon the seas.

有些狂风扑向雾气弥漫的海面，用它们邪恶的狂暴气流给人类带来巨大灾难。

Some rush upon the misty sea and work great havoc among men with their evil, raging blasts.

它们随季节变换而吹袭，使船只四散、水手殒命。

For varying with the season they blow, scattering ships and destroying sailors.

航海者遭遇此等风浪，对灾祸束手无策。

And men who meet these upon the sea have no help against the mischief.

另有些狂风掠过无垠的繁花大地，毁坏人类居住的美丽田野，扬尘肆虐，喧嚣可怖。

Others again over the boundless flowering earth spoil the fair fields of men who dwell below, filling them with dust and cruel uproar.

引文结束。

End quote.

在我看来，这就是泰勒斯成为哲学界如此重要人物的原因。

Now as far as I'm concerned, this is what makes Thales such an influential figure in philosophy.

抛开他所有理论不谈，我认为这才是他最令人惊叹之处。

All of his theories aside, I think this is what makes him so amazing.

我的意思是，纵观历史，大多数先驱者都是被迫创新的。

I mean, most pioneers, if you look at history, they've been forced to innovate.

某些需求未被满足。

Some need wasn't being met.

因此为了生存，他们不得不彻底改变方式，而他们也确实做到了。

So for the sake of survival, they had to flip the script, and they did.

泰勒斯对一切事物都有解释。

Thales, he had explanations for everything.

他不仅需要提出全新的理性解释，还生活在一个被所有人视为异类的世界里，不得不告诉他们：错的是他们，他们疯了。

And not only did he have to come up with completely novel rational ones, but he lived in a world where everyone saw him as an outcast, and he had to tell them they were wrong and crazy.

仅凭这一点，他就是我心目中的英雄，这足以弥补他关于磁铁有生命的那个错误理论。

For that, he's a hero to me, and it more than makes up for the whole magnets are alive thing.

但公平地说，也简单提一下，那时候的词汇量比如今少得多，现代历史学家推测，说某物有灵魂或是有生命，实际上只是暗指它具有某些当时无法解释的神圣而神秘的特性。

But to be fair to him and just to address that real quick, there were just a lot less words back then than there are today, and it's been speculated by modern historians that saying something had a soul or was alive, it really was just alluding to the fact that it had some divine mysterious properties that couldn't really be explained at the time.

但泰勒斯不仅仅谈论磁石。

But Thales didn't just talk about magnets.

我是说，他提出过大量非常有趣的理论。

Mean, had a ton of really interesting theories.

在他所有理论中最著名的，也是任何一本关于泰勒斯的书都会首先提到的，就是他的成名理论。

The most notable of all his theories, the one if you read a book on Thales that you're gonna read about first, his claim to fame.

他的理论认为，我们周围的一切都是由不同形态的水构成的。

It's his theory that all things around us are made up of various different forms of water.

他说万物皆由水组成。

He said everything was made of water.

他得出这个结论的过程其实非常有趣，因为他有充分的依据。

It's actually really interesting how he came to this conclusion because he had reasons.

我的意思是，他并不是随便就说出水这个概念的。

I mean, it's not like he just randomly said water.

他有好几个理由，在当时看来这是个完全合理的观点。

He had several reasons why it seemed like a completely rational concept at the time.

首先，他眺望海洋，看到那里有大量的水。

Firstly, he looked out of the ocean and saw there was a ton of water out there.

这是最直观的第一点。

That that's first things first.

他甚至认为所有陆地都漂浮在巨大的水体上，就像船只或他所说的'湖面浮木'。

He actually thought that all land is just floating on top of a large body of water like a ship or something or like a log on a lake as he put it.

其次，他观察到所有生命体都需要水才能存活。

Secondly, he saw that every single life form he saw needed water to survive.

更不用说水还能以各种不同形态存在。

Not to mention all the different forms water came in.

比如冰，它非常坚硬稳固。

I mean, you have ice, which is very hard and sturdy.

液态水不仅形态不同，还能适应任何容器的形状。

You have liquid water, which not only is a different form of water, but it molds to any shape that it's held in.

还有水蒸气，也就是气态的水。

You have steam, that water in the form of gas.

总之，他认为水是一种极具多面性的物质。

I mean, basically, he just saw water as a very versatile substance overall.

他总结道：既然水是生命必需，能呈现任何形态，具有流动性和可变性，那么万物必定是处于冰、水、蒸汽之间的某种水形态。

And he concluded that because water was essential to life, because it could take on basically any form it was held in, because it was capable of motion, because it was capable of change, that all things must just be water somewhere in between ice, water, and steam.

在形而上学领域——如果你还记得，形而上学就是研究万物构成及其起源的学科。

Now in the world of metaphysics, if you remember, metaphysics is the study of what everything around us is made of and how did it get here.

认为万物由水这样的单一基本物质构成的观点被称为一元论。

The idea that everything is made up of a single fundamental substance like water is called monism.

基本上，所有前苏格拉底哲学家都认同这一推理思路。

And, basically, all the pre Socratics agreed with this line of reasoning.

他们只是对那种单一基本物质究竟是什么存在分歧。

They just disagreed on what that single fundamental substance was.

有人认为它是火。

Some thought it was fire.

有人认为它是空气。

Some thought it was air.

还有几个不同的例子。

There are a few different examples.

但最重要的是，泰勒斯是位教师。

But above everything, Thales was a teacher.

他热爱教导人们。

He loved to teach people.

他来自一个名为米利都的小型伍德伯里风格城市，他的学生及学生的学生后来在历史上被称为米利都学派。

He came from one of those little Woodbury style cities called Miletus, and his students and his student students became known as the Milesian school of thought to history.

泰勒斯教导过许多人，但最著名的是一个叫阿那克西曼德的人。

Thales taught a bunch of people, but the most notable is a guy named Anaximander.

阿那克西曼德是那种拥有许多卓越思想的人，但他有一个至今仍被人们讨论的重要观点。

Anaximander is one of these guys that had a lot of brilliant ideas, but he has one big idea that people still talk about today.

这与以下内容有关。

It had to do with this.

基本上，他无法想象最初的人类究竟是如何诞生的。

Basically, he couldn't imagine how the first human beings ever came into existence in the first place.

他的理由是：看，我们出生时完全毫无自卫能力。

His rationale was, look, we're completely defenseless at birth.

对吧？

Right?

我们最初究竟是如何存活到成熟的？

How did we even survive into maturity in the first place?

我是说，如果我们还是婴儿，我们怎么照顾自己呢？

I mean, if we were babies, how did we how do we take care of ourselves?

他得出的结论是，唯一可能的情况是：最早的人类生活在鱼腹中，这些鱼在沙滩上扑腾多年，而我们在它们体内逐渐成长。

He concluded that the only way this could have happened is if the first human beings lived in the bellies of a fish that just kind of flopped around on the beach for years while we grew inside of them.

最终，当我们能够自给自足、独立生存时，就破腹而出，继续生活——这就是人类的起源。

And then eventually, once we were able to be self sufficient, fend for ourself, we cut our way out of the belly and just went on with our days, and that's where humans come from.

如今有很多人...好吧，也不算很多。

Now there's a lot of people today well, not a lot.

在后达尔文时代的今天，有些人会说：哇，

Some people today in this post Darwin world that say, wow.

看啊，

Look.

这家伙是个天才，

This guy's a genius.

这是进化论的原始版本。

Here's a primitive version of the theory of evolution.

他早就预见到了。

He saw it coming.

对吧？

Right?

他是个天才。

He's a genius.

不。

No.

实际上，事情并非如此。

That's that's not what it is, actually.

这是一个关于在某个平行宇宙中，如果婴儿能直接在鱼腹中孕育并开创一个新物种，最初的人类将如何生存至成熟的理论。

He it's a theory of how the first humans would survive the maturity if we existed in some alternate universe where babies could just manifest themselves inside the belly of a fish and start a new species.

老实说，我认为这些猜测大多来自那些阅读能力欠佳的人。

And, honestly, I think most of that speculation just comes from people that don't read things very well.

但你真的不能太苛责一个原始人。

But you can't really hate on an axemander that much.

对吧？

Right?

哲学本无需延续。

Philosophy didn't need to continue.

他延续了这一传统。

I he carried on the tradition.

他亲自教导了一群人。

He taught a bunch of people himself.

他最著名的学生是一个叫阿那克西曼德的人，阿那克西曼德本人也有很多卓越的思想。

His most notable student was a guy named Anaximander, like Anaximander, had a lot of brilliant thoughts himself.

但如果我们谈论米利都学派，关于这些人最重要的一点是，泰勒斯、阿那克西曼德和阿那克西曼德是米利都学派思想的三颗明珠。

But if we're gonna talk about the Milesian school, the most important thing to note about all these people is that Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximander were the three crown jewels of the Milesian school of thought.

而且，我的意思是，如果你想进一步概括，也是可以的。

And, I mean, if you wanted to generalize even further, you could.

你可以说泰勒斯拥有那些富有创新性的卓越思想，而阿那克西曼德和阿那克西曼德只是多年后出现的、稍微更复杂的版本。

You could say that Thales had the brilliant innovative ideas, and Anaximander and Anaximander were just slightly more sophisticated versions of them that came years later.

事实证明，像阿那克西曼德和阿那克西米尼这样的人还不够。

It turns out people like Anaximander and Anaximenes weren't enough.

哲学需要一位逆流而行的人，一个如此傲慢、如此脱离传统思维方式的人，以至于能为我们周围的事物创新出一套全新的理性解释。

Philosophy would need someone that was going against the grain, someone so arrogant and so disconnected from the conventional way of thinking that they could innovate an entirely new rational explanation for things around us.

而做到这一点的正是我们接下来要讨论的人物。

And the guy that did that is the next guy we're going to talk about.

他的名字叫赫拉克利特。

His name was Heraclitus.

多年来，有无数哲学家将自己锁在城堡里，试图与公众隔绝，以免他们的思想被传统思维方式污染，你知道的，就是试图在没有干扰的情况下更好地思考。

There have been a ton of philosophers over the years that have locked themselves away in in a castle, trying to isolate themselves away from the public so they don't pollute their thoughts with their conventional ways of thinking, you know, trying to think better with no distortion.

但在所有这些人中，可能没有人比赫拉克利特更享受这种孤独。

But there's probably nobody out of all those people that enjoyed the isolation more than Heraclitus.

他不是一个善于交际的人。

He was not a people person.

他可能会成为世界历史上最糟糕的Applebee's餐厅服务员。

He would have made the worst hostess and Applebee's in the history of the world.

他是个暴躁的、'滚出我的草坪'类型的人，对周围所有不理解他或他存在理论的人只有轻蔑。

He was an angry, get off my lawn kind of guy that had nothing but contempt for everyone around him that didn't understand him or his theories on existence.

我是说，这类故事比比皆是。

I mean, the stories are everywhere.

随便查个有人和他交谈或提问的故事就知道了。

Look up any story where someone talks to him or ask him a question.

要不查查人们只是随口恭维他的故事？

How about look up a story where people even just give him passing compliments?

每次他都只会贬低或侮辱对方。

He just belittles them or insults them every single time.

有个第欧根尼讲的故事，关于波斯国王大流士一世的。

There's one story that a guy named Diogenes tells about Darius the first, the king of Persia.

当时世界上最有权势的人之一，给赫拉克利特写了封赞美信。

One of, if not, the most powerful man in the world at the time, sending Heraclitus a letter, complimenting him.

我是说，大流士一世只是告诉他，自己对他刚出版的自然哲学著作很着迷。

I mean, Darius the first is just telling him he's fascinated by his book on natural philosophy that he just released.

他被他关于宇宙秩序的阐释深深吸引，认为希腊人从未给予像赫拉克利特这样的杰出思想家足够的认可，并希望他能前往波斯的城堡，为他解释一些尚未完全理解的事物。

He's he's he's captivated by his explanation for the order of the universe and that the Greeks never give enough recognition to brilliant thinkers like Heraclitus, and that he would love for him to come to his castle in Persia and explain some things to him that he doesn't fully grasp.

而赫拉克利特收到信后，回复道：‘世间众人皆远离真理与正义，满心愚昧邪恶，导致他们贪得无厌且虚荣野心勃勃。’

And, Heraclitus gets the memo and sends back this, quote, all the men that exist in the world are far removed from truth and just dealings, but they are full of evil foolishness, which leads them to insatiable covetousness and vainglorious ambition.

‘然而，我忘却他们的所有无价值，避开餍足与欲望，为避免同胞的嫉妒与傲慢之嫌，永不会前往波斯——因我安于清贫，只愿按自己的意愿生活。’

I, however, forgetting all their worthlessness and shunning satiety satiety and who wish to avoid all envy on the part of my countrymen and all appearance of arrogance will never come to Persia since I'm quite contented with a little and live as best suits my own inclination, end quote.

我知道你在想什么。

And I know what you're thinking.

得了吧。

Come on.

我们难道要因为这事就诋毁他吗？

We're gonna vilify this guy for that.

我们真能说这家伙反社会吗？

Can we really label this guy antisocial?

我是说，那又怎样？

I mean, so what?

他对远渡重洋去见那位一心征服的波斯国王这件事兴致缺缺。

He's a little meh about traveling across the world to see a Persian king hell bent on conquest.

这在当时的希腊人中并不罕见。

That's not that uncommon of Greeks at the time.

对吧？

Right?

是啊。

Yeah.

确实如此。

That's true.

但，在他被称为'赫拉克利特赌徒'的人生阶段，那些言论又作何解释呢？

But, how about the quotes that come during that phase in his life where he's known as Heraclitus the hustler?

我是说，有不少人记载过这段漫长的岁月——那时的赫拉克利特终日只做一件事：掷骰子，或是玩一种类似骰子的原始游戏。

I mean, there are several people that have written about this giant chunk of his life where all Heraclitus did all day every day is just play dice or a primitive game very similar to dice.

他真的是整天都在玩这个。

I mean, he just played it all day.