HoP 007 - 少有人走的路 - 巴门尼德

大家好，我是彼得·亚当森，欢迎收听由伦敦国王学院和利弗休姆信托基金会支持的《哲学史》播客。

Hi, I'm Peter Adamson, and you're listening to the History of Philosophy podcast brought to you with the support of King's College London and the Leverhulme Trust.

今天这期节目，我们要讲的是《少有人走的路：巴门尼德，形而上学之父》。

Today's episode, The Road Less Traveled, Parmenides, the Father of Metaphysics.

今天节目的主角，可以说是前苏格拉底时期最伟大的哲学家——巴门尼德。

The subject of today's episode is arguably the greatest pre Socratic philosopher, Parmenides.

既然他常被称为形而上学之父，那我先简单说说，什么是形而上学。

Since he is often described as the father of metaphysics, I thought I might start out by saying a bit about what metaphysics is.

哲学家们通常认为，哲学可以分成几个相互关联的分支领域。

Philosophers tend to see their discipline as being divided up into several related subdisciplines.

当然，其中一部分是告诉我们该怎么做：比如伦理学和政治哲学。

Of course, there are the parts of philosophy that tell us what to do: ethics and political philosophy.

‘伦理’和‘政治’这两个词，都源自希腊语。

Both the word ethics and the word political come from Greek.

在古希腊语里，‘ethos’指的是习俗或品格，而‘politike’则跟政治有关，因为‘polis’就是城邦的意思。

In ancient Greek, ethos means custom or character, and politike means, well, political because polis means city.

哲学另外两个主要领域是认识论和形而上学。

The other two main areas of philosophy are epistemology and metaphysics.

你猜这两个词是从哪儿来的？

And guess where these words come from?

没错，源自古希腊语。

Yes, ancient Greek.

认识论来自‘episteme’，意思是知识，所以认识论就是研究知识的学问。

Epistemology is from episteme, meaning knowledge, and so epistemology is the study of knowledge.

比如，认识论者想知道知识和单纯信念之间有什么区别，或者我们是否真的能认识任何东西。

For instance, epistemologists want to know what the difference is between knowledge and mere belief, or whether it is possible to know anything at all.

形而上学这个词的词源有点特别，它的本意是‘在物理学之后’，后来许多古代和中世纪哲学家认为，形而上学就是学完物理学之后才去研究的学科。

Metaphysics is a bit stranger in its etymology it really means after physics, and many later ancient and medieval philosophers took it that metaphysics is quite literally the discipline one studies after studying physics.

你从研究物质世界，转向研究非物质的世界，比如上帝。

You graduate from studying the physical world to studying the metaphysical world of immaterial things like God.

另一种说法是，亚里士多德那本谈形而上学的书之所以叫这个名字，是因为它被放在他谈物理学的书之后来研读。

Another possible derivation for the word is that Aristotle's book on metaphysics came to be called that because it was studied after his books about physics.

无论如何，亚里士多德在他的同名著作中首次明确界定了形而上学，尽管这个书名并不是他本人起的。

In any case, the science of metaphysics is first explicitly marked out by Aristotle in his book of that title, even though it's not a title he gave it.

亚里士多德称形而上学为‘第一哲学’，这个‘第一’不是指你最先学的，而是因为它是最根本的哲学探究。

Aristotle calls metaphysics first philosophy, first not because it is the first one you would study, but because it is the most fundamental philosophical inquiry.

他说，形而上学研究的是‘存在’本身，也就是说，研究一切存在的事物，就其是存在而言。

He tells us that what metaphysics studies is being in other words, it studies whatever there is, insofar as it is.

这意味着，哲学中许多传统问题其实都是形而上学问题：上帝存在吗？

This means that many of the traditional problems of philosophy are metaphysical problems: does God exist?

人的灵魂存在吗？

Does the human soul exist?

除了物理实体之外，还有其他东西存在吗？

Does anything exist apart from physical bodies?

像自由意志这样的问题，通常也被归入形而上学范畴，即使它们也和伦理学有关。

Other topics, like the problem of free will, are usually taken to belong to metaphysics even if they also relate to ethics.

巴门尼德因此是第一位我们可以说对形而上学——即研究存在、研究何物存在——有明确兴趣的哲学家。

Parmenides then was the first philosopher who we can say had a clear interest in metaphysics, the study of being, the study of what exists.

当然，我们在之前提到的一些前苏格拉底哲学家那里也能看到形而上学的思想，尤其是克塞诺芬尼对传统希腊诸神的批判。

Certainly, we do find metaphysical ideas in some of the Pre Socratics we've already covered, especially Xenophanes with his criticism of the traditional Greek gods.

正因如此，一些古代作者试图让我们相信，克塞诺芬尼是巴门尼德的老师。

Partially for that reason, some ancient authors try to convince us that Xenophanes was Parmenides' teacher.

虽然从时间线上看这有可能，但我们没必要当真，因为古人总喜欢说，每个著名的哲学家都是另一个著名哲学家的学生。

Even though this is possible chronologically, we probably shouldn't take it too seriously, since the ancients were always trying to say that every famous philosopher was the student of some other famous philosopher.

当然，苏格拉底确实是柏拉图的老师，柏拉图也确实是亚里士多德的老师，这反而削弱了我刚才想表达的观点。

Of course, Socrates really was Plato's teacher, and Plato really was Aristotle's teacher, and that sort of undermines the point I'm trying to make here.

所以也许我只能说，这是个例外，能证明这个规则——不管这到底意味着什么——我们还是继续往下吧。

So maybe I'll just say this is the exception that proves the rule, whatever that means, and move on.

我刚才提到了时间顺序，这引出了关于巴门尼德的另一点：他是我们接下来要讨论的第一个活跃于公元前五世纪的哲学家，而不是公元前六世纪。

I just referred to chronology, and that brings us to another thing about Parmenides, which is that he is the first philosopher we'll discuss who was active in the fifth century BC, rather than the sixth century BC.

柏拉图写过一篇对话，描述年长的巴门尼德在雅典会见年轻的苏格拉底。

Plato wrote a dialogue which depicts an older Parmenides meeting a young Socrates in Athens.

同样，这大概也不该当真，但如果柏拉图没有故意打乱时间线，那就意味着巴门尼德在五世纪开始时还只是个少年。

That, again, is probably something we shouldn't take too seriously, but unless Plato is really messing with the chronology, it means that Parmenides would have been a teenager when the fifth century began.

五世纪对于希腊人来说注定是动荡不安的年代，波斯人多次试图入侵希腊本土，而雅典和斯巴达领导的两大联盟最终爆发了伯罗奔尼撒战争，这场战争在世纪末愈演愈烈。

The fifth century was going to be a time of upheaval for the Greeks, what with the Persians trying to invade Mainland Greece on more than one occasion, and the two alliances led by Athens and Sparta facing off in the Peloponnesian War, which raged towards the end of the century.

但对希腊哲学和科学而言，这却是个黄金时代。

But it was going to be a good time for Greek philosophy and science.

不仅巴门尼德和苏格拉底的学术生涯在这个世纪达到巅峰，毕达哥拉斯学派也在此时构建了他们的数学体系，希腊医学开始蓬勃发展，恩培多克勒、阿那克萨戈拉和原子论者们提出了宏大的宇宙理论，这些内容我们将在接下来的几期节目中详细讨论。

Not only did this century see the mature careers of both Parmenides and Socrates, but it was also the period when the Pythagoreans built up their mathematical systems when Greek medicine really started to get going, and when Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and the Atomists developed the ambitious cosmologies which will be occupying us over several episodes in the not too distant future.

这个哲学世纪以一场意外的高潮收场——苏格拉底在三月被雅典人处死，比预期晚了一年。

This century of philosophy ended with a bang one year late, when Socrates was put to death by the Athenians in March.

顺便说一句，如果你喜欢记日期，这个时间点值得记住：三月，苏格拉底之死。

By the way, that's a good date to remember, if you're the kind of person who likes to remember dates: March, the death of Socrates.

考虑到希腊本土陷入战乱，爱奥尼亚地区又被波斯扶持的附庸国王控制，五世纪的哲学重心转向意大利和西西里也就不足为奇了，尽管到了世纪后期，这些地方也被雅典和斯巴达的冲突牵扯其中。

Given the chaos and war that was gripping Mainland Greece and the domination of Ionia by client kings of the Persians, it's perhaps unsurprising that in the fifth century BC, a lot of the philosophical action is further west, in Italy and Sicily, although even these places were dragged into the conflict between Athens and Sparta in the later part of the century.

巴门尼德和他的学生芝诺来自意大利的埃利亚，我们已经知道，意大利与毕达哥拉斯学派也有着深厚的联系。

Parmenides and his pupil Zeno were from Eleaea in Italy, and as we've already seen, Italy was also strongly associated with the Pythagoreans.

恩培多克勒出生并活跃于西西里。

Empedocles was born and active in Sicily.

阿那克西曼德算是个例外，因为他来自爱奥尼亚，和我们之前讨论的大多数哲学家一样。

Anaxagoras, admittedly, is an exception since he was from Ionia, like most of the philosophers we've looked at thus far.

从那里，阿那克西曼德来到了苏格拉底所在的城市——雅典。

From there, Anaxagoras came to Socrates' city, Athens.

无论如何，巴门尼德和他的家乡埃利亚紧密联系在一起，他的追随者常被称为埃利亚学派。

In any case, Parmenides was securely identified with his city of Eleaea, and his followers were often called the Eleatics.

柏拉图在对话录中塑造了一个代表巴门尼德思想的角色，称他为‘埃利亚访客’。

When Plato created a character in one of his dialogues to represent the Parmenidean approach to philosophy, he called him the Eleatic stranger.

但要说怪异，恐怕没人比巴门尼德本人更离经叛道了。

But it's hard to get much stranger than the original philosophy of Parmenides himself.

事实上，当形而上学在巴门尼德的六音步诗篇中真正起步时，它一上来就彻底颠覆了你我对现实的所有认知。

Indeed, it's very striking that when metaphysics really gets going in the Hexameter Poem written by Parmenides, the first thing it offers is a radical revision of everything you and I think about reality.

在巴门尼德看来，一切存在的东西都是统一的。

According to Parmenides, everything that exists is one.

没有任何事物会改变或移动。

Nothing ever changes or moves.

各种各样的多样性都是幻觉，无论是不同的物体、不同的颜色，还是不同时间发生的事件。

Multiplicity of every sort is an illusion, whether it be the multiplicity of different objects, different colors, or different events happening at different times.

他在诗中用一连串严密的推理来证明这一点，这些推理完全基于纯粹的理性，而不是对周围世界的观察。

All this is shown in his poem with a relentless chain of argument, which proceeds on the basis of pure reason rather than observations about the world around us.

在这首诗的前半部分，巴门尼德简直就是最早的‘扶手椅哲学家’。

In this first half of his poem, Parmenides is the original armchair philosopher.

他认为，仅凭抽象的逻辑论证，就能揭示所有现实的本质。

He thinks that he can establish the nature of all reality with a purely abstract argument.

这一点与赫拉克利特形成了鲜明对比，赫拉克利特在一些残篇中强调，他是通过眼睛和耳朵去观察世界，从而领悟支配世界的规律。

In this, he makes an interesting contrast to Heraclitus, who in some of his fragments emphasizes that he is using his eyes and ears to observe the world and to learn the laws that govern that world.

但巴门尼德和赫拉克利特都认同一点：除了他们自己，所有人都完全糊涂，根本不懂现实的真相。

But Parmenides and Heraclitus do agree about one thing: everyone else apart from them is completely confused, unaware of the nature of reality.

前苏格拉底哲学家们从来都不缺自信。

Pre Socratics were rarely short on self confidence.

也许正因为巴门尼德知道自己的观点太过惊人，所以他开篇就借用了神启的架势。

Perhaps because Parmenides knows that what he has to say is rather flabbergasting, he begins his poem by assuming the trappings of divine revelation.

他说自己乘坐着一辆马车，由一群年轻女子陪同，来到了昼夜之路的入口。

He tells us that he rode a chariot in the company of young maidens up to the gates leading to the paths of night and day.

正义女神被这些女子说服，允许巴门尼德继续前行，随后女神称赞他找到了凡人从未踏足的道路。

The goddess Justice is persuaded by these maidens to allow Parmenides to ride his chariot on through, and then the goddess congratulates him for finding his way to a road that mortals do not travel.

她告诉他，他将学到两样东西：一是真理，二是凡人所持有的肤浅见解。

She tells him he will learn two things: first, the truth, and second, the mere opinions of mortal men.

这正好对应了接下来诗歌的两个部分。

These correspond to the two halves of the poem that follows.

在前半部分，我们看到所谓的真理之路，即巴门尼德关于存在统一性的论证。

In the first half, we are given the so called way of truth, Parmenides' arguments for the unity of being.

在后半部分，所谓的意见之路，则呈现了一套与早期爱奥尼亚前苏格拉底哲学家极为相似的宇宙观。

In the second part, the so called way of opinion, we get a cosmology very similar to what we find in the earlier Pre Socratics from Ionia.

我会重点讲真理之路，因为这才是最著名、也最引人入胜的部分，但首先，我想谈谈这首诗为何分成两部分。

I'm going to concentrate on the way of truth, since that's the famous and more exciting bit, but first let me say something about this division of the poem into two halves.

我之前称巴门尼德为形而上学之父，但通过这种划分，我们也能看到他在认识论上做出了重大贡献。

I've been talking about Parmenides as the father of metaphysics, but with this division, we can also see him making a major contribution to epistemology.

你可能还记得，色诺芬尼已经区分过单纯的信念和真正的知识，但巴门尼德更进一步，用一半的诗篇讲知识，另一半讲信念。

You might remember that Xenophanes already distinguished between mere belief and genuine knowledge, but Parmenides goes much further here by devoting half his poem to knowledge and half to belief.

有意思的是，他花了这么多篇幅去讨论那些只是信念的东西。

What's interesting is that he spends so much time on the mere beliefs.

诗的第二部分，涉及宇宙论和自然科学的其他问题，保存得不如第一部分完整，但显然篇幅很长，而且从现有线索看，他是认真对待的。

The second part of the poem, which dealt with cosmology and other issues in natural science, is not preserved as completely as the first part, but it was clearly quite extensive and as far as we can tell, was offered with serious intent.

巴门尼德似乎是在说：如果你还达不到理解‘存在统一’这一根本真理的水平，那就先接受我给出的这些信念。

Parmenides seems to be setting out the beliefs that one should adopt if one isn't capable of grasping the more fundamental underlying truth of the unity of being.

我们有一段残篇，明显是连接‘真理之路’和‘意见之路’的过渡，在这段里，他警告我们：意见之路不可靠，它的根基远不如真理之路稳固。

We have a fragment which apparently formed a transition from the way of truth to the way of opinion, and in that fragment, he warns us that the way of opinion is not to be trusted it is not as firmly grounded as the way of truth.

但它仍然是次优的选择，因为按照巴门尼德的说法，它对天体、人体这类现象的解释，是最有说服力的——而这正是他在‘意见之路’里探讨的主题。

It is still, though, the second best way, because according to Parmenides, it is the most plausible explanation of things like the heavenly bodies, the human body, these being the sort of topics he tackled in the way of opinion.

在‘真理之路’里，理性已经告诉我们，天体和人体不过是幻象，但巴门尼德却觉得，还是有必要为这些幻象给出一套解释。

In the way of truth, rational argument has shown us that things like heavenly bodies and the human body are mere illusions, yet Parmenides seems to think it is worthwhile to give an account of them.

他好像在说：如果你非要拒绝我的真理之路，转而相信错误的东西，那至少别信别的，就信我在这条‘意见之路’里给你的说法。

He seems to tell us, If you are going to reject my way of truth and believe something false, then at least leave the falsehoods I offer in the way of opinion.

但巴门尼德诗作的核心信息是，我们不该相信感官，而应跟随哲学论证，无论它把我们引向何方。

The primary message of Parmenides' poem, though, is that we should not trust the senses, but follow philosophical argument wherever it leads.

那我们就沿着少有人走的路，走向真理之路吧。

Let's follow it then, down the path less traveled, the way of truth.

巴门尼德一开始区分了两种可能的探究路径：要么是存在且必然存在，要么是不存在且不可能存在。

Parmenides begins by making a distinction between two possible paths of inquiry: either is and must be, or isn't and can't be.

第二条路被否定了，因为试图思考‘不存在’的东西毫无意义——我们无法真正思考或言说‘无’。

The second path is rejected because it involves trying to think about what is not, but non being is not something we can think or speak about meaningfully.

其实还有一条更糟糕的第三条路，稍后会提到。

There's actually a third path, mentioned a little later on, which is even worse.

按照这条路径，人们会说‘存在又不存在’。

According to this path, we say both is and is not.

这不仅同样需要我们去把握‘无’，还会导致自相矛盾：既存在又不存在。

This has the same problem that we would need to grasp non being, but in addition leads to a contradiction, both is and is not.

巴门尼德说，大多数人走的正是这条路，所以他们才如此困惑。

Parmenides says this is the path most people try to follow, and this is why most people are totally confused.

实际上，他们不只是困惑，而是在不知不觉中陷入自相矛盾。

Actually, they're worse than confused they are unwittingly engaged in self contradiction.

到了这里，大多数读者开始怀疑自己根本搞不懂 Parmenides 在说什么：是且必然存在，不是且不可能存在，到底什么算‘是’，什么算‘不是’。

It's at about this point that most readers begin to suspect that they haven't the foggiest notion what Parmenides is talking about: is and must be, isn't and can't be, what is and what isn't.

在希腊语原文中，动词‘是’并没有明确的主语，它完全是独立存在的。

In the Greek there is no explicit subject for the verb is, it just floats free.

不过，大概他的意思是，这个论证可以应用到任何事物上。

Probably, though, the idea is that we can apply his argument to anything we like.

拿长颈鹿来说：要么长颈鹿存在，要么根本就没有长颈鹿——我们很难想象怎么去思考或谈论一个不存在的东西。

Take a giraffe: either the giraffe is or there is no giraffe it's at least difficult to understand how we could think or speak about it.

当他说到最糟糕的做法是声称长颈鹿既存在又不存在时，他似乎又说对了。

He seems right again when he says that the worst approach would be to say that the giraffe both is and is not.

因此，他为我们指明的这条路，是此前无人走过的——在 Parmenides 穿过那道门之后，只允许‘存在’，彻底回避任何关于‘非存在’的思考或提及。

Thus, the path recommended to us is the path no one has yet taken until Parmenides passes through those gates, to allow only being while completely avoiding any attempt to think about or refer to non being.

一旦我们踏上这条路，就会发现自己进入了完全陌生的领域。

Once we head off down this path, we find ourselves in unfamiliar territory.

首先，巴门尼德指出，存在不可能开始存在。

For starters, Parmenides points out that being cannot begin to be.

毕竟，它得在不存在之后才开始存在，但我们已经承诺不去思考不存在。

After all, it would have to start being after there is no being, but non being is something we promise not to contemplate.

存在也不可能被毁灭，原因相同：它得变成不存在。

Nor can being be destroyed for the same reason: it would have to change into non being.

巴门尼德由此推断，变化实际上是不可能的。

Parmenides infers from this that change is in fact impossible.

如果有变化，任何发生变化的东西都得从不存在变成存在，或者从存在变成不存在。

If there were change, whatever changes would have to go from non being to being, or being to non being.

无论往哪个方向，只要牵扯到不存在，那就不可能发生。

Since in either direction we would have the involvement of non being, this is impossible.

我知道你在想什么：不是所有变化都涉及创造和毁灭。

Now, I know what you're thinking: not all change involves creation and destruction.

比如，我可以把长颈鹿涂成蓝色，而不杀掉它——这确实是一种变化，却跟不存在毫无关系。

I can change a giraffe without killing it, for example by painting it blue So that's a change that doesn't involve non being.

但巴门尼德会不同意，要么是因为画上去的蓝色取代了长颈鹿身上原本不存在的蓝色，要么说白了，是因为这个蓝色的长颈鹿是在之前没有蓝色长颈鹿的时候才出现的。

Parmenides though would beg to differ, either because the blue of the painted giraffe replaces the non being of blue in the giraffe, or what amounts to the same thing, because the blue giraffe comes to be after there is no blue giraffe.

同样的推理可以适用于任何所谓的改变，甚至任何两个事物之间的差异。

The same kind of argument will work for any supposed change, or even any supposed difference between one thing and another.

如果我们想把蓝色的长颈鹿和非蓝色的长颈鹿做对比，就必须用到‘不存在’这个概念。

To contrast our blue giraffe to a giraffe that is not blue, we would need to use the band concept of non being.

所以，我们可以把这看作是对存在在时间上保持统一的论证。

So, we can think of this as an argument for the unity of being over time.

存在不会在这个时候是一种东西，过一会儿又变成另一种东西，因为它根本不能改变。

Being isn't one thing at one time and another thing at a later time because it can't change.

而且，存在在任何一个时刻也必须是统一的，因为如果它内部有差异，那其中一个部分就和另一个部分不同。

And furthermore, being must have unity at any one given time, because if there were variety in it, then one part of it would be different from another.

而我们刚才已经看到，要理解‘差异’这个概念，就必须借助‘不存在’。

And we just saw that you need to think of non being to grasp the notion of difference.

巴门尼德还提出了另一个论点，来说明存在在同一时刻也必须是统一的。

Parmenides gives a further argument for the unity of being at one and the same time.

他指出，如果存在被分割开来，那就必然会有空隙或分界。

He points out that if being were divided up, it would need to have gaps or divisions in it.

这些空隙或分界当然就是非存在，因为它们与存在不同。

These gaps or divisions would, of course, consist of non being, because they are different from being.

所以存在是连续的，任何一部分都和其他部分完全一样。

So being is also continuous any part of it will be just the same as any other part.

显然，现在听起来帕门尼德斯说的已经不是长颈鹿了，这倒不只是因为古代意大利的长颈鹿本来就稀少。

Now obviously, it's starting to sound like Parmenides is not talking about giraffes, and not only because they were thin on the ground in ancient Italy.

事实上，要想象帕门尼德斯所说的这种存在，几乎不可能，直到他把它比作一个球体。

In fact, it's almost impossible to imagine this being that Parmenides is talking about until he compares it to a sphere.

他说存在是球形的，因为它必须具有某种界限或确定性。

He says that it is spherical because it must have some kind of limit or determination.

这可能是《真理之路》中最令人费解的段落了，尽管《真理之路》里的其他段落也都不遑多让。

This is maybe the most puzzling passage in the Way of Truth, against the admittedly strong competition offered by every other passage in the way of truth.

一方面，如果存在是个球体，那球体外面岂不就是非存在？而我们明明被禁止思考或谈论非存在啊。

For one thing, if being is a sphere, won't there be non being outside the sphere, the non being we aren't allowed to think or speak of?

基于这个原因以及其他因素，一些研究者认为，‘存在是球形的’这个说法其实是一种隐喻。

For this and other reasons, some interpreters want to see this idea that being is spherical as a kind of metaphor.

也许他的本意是想强调，存在是确定的，因为我们能够成功地思考、推理和谈论它；但他也可能说得更字面，认为存在必须具有某种形状，而球形是最完美的形状。

Maybe the idea is to emphasize that it is determinate because we can think and reason and talk about it successfully, but he may mean it more literally, and be thinking that it is a sphere because it must be some shape, and the sphere is the most perfect shape.

这里是不是隐约透着毕达哥拉斯学派的影子？

Shades of Pythagoreanism here, perhaps?

无论如何，他接下来确实进一步论证了存在是完美的，而这个论证相对更容易理解。

In any case, he does go on to argue that being is perfect, and here his argument is a bit easier to follow.

存在必须是完美的，因为如果它不完美，就缺少了某种它本该有的东西，而这样一来，它就包含了某种‘非存在’——也就是那些缺失的部分。

Being must be perfect, because if it were not, it would lack something that it could have, and in that case it would contain some kind of non being, namely the absence of whatever is lacking.

好了，我们来总结一下。

Well, let's take stock.

我刚才讨论的这些段落，构成了巴门尼德‘真理之路’的核心论证，而它们几乎完整地流传了下来。

The passages I've just discussed represent the core argument of Parmenides' way of truth, which has come down to us pretty much in its entirety.

顺便说一句，这要归功于一位名叫辛普利修斯的亚里士多德注释者，他生活在大约一千年之后。

This is, incidentally, thanks to a commentator on Aristotle named Simplicius, who wrote a good thousand years later.

他提到，帕门尼德斯的诗在当时很难找到，因此值得在注释中全文抄录下来。

He remarked that Parmenides' poem was hard to get hold of in his day, so that it was worth copying out at length into his commentary.

他还是其他前苏格拉底哲学家的重要资料来源，咱们得感谢一下这位老好人辛普利修斯。

He's also a major source for the other Pre Socratics, so let's take a moment to be thankful to good old Simplicius.

无论如何，我们手头有这些关于‘真理之路’的大量残篇，它们表明帕门尼德斯是在进行一种理性推演。

In any case, we have these extensive fragments from the way of truth, and what they show is that Parmenides was offering a rational deduction.

他从一个基本前提出发：‘存在’是可能的，但‘非存在’不可能，然后由此推导出所有可能的后果。

He starts from a basic principle that you can have is, but you can't have is not, and then proceeds to explore the consequences, whatever they might be.

不管你怎么看待他的论证，这在哲学史上都是一次真正的飞跃。

Whatever we make of his argument, this is a real quantum leap in the history of philosophy.

帕门尼德斯不只是在解释他眼前所见的现象——虽然他在‘意见之路’里确实这么做了。

Parmenides is not just offering rational explanations of what he can see around him, though he goes on to do that in the way of opinion.

他真正信赖的是理性本身，更相信论证的力量，而不是自己的眼睛和耳朵所感知到的证据。

Rather, he puts all his trust in reason itself, trusting the power of argument more than he trusts the evidence of his own eyes and ears.

这并不意味着帕门尼德斯是第一个在哲学论述中使用论证的前苏格拉底思想家；我之前提到，就连泰勒斯可能也已为他的水本原说和‘万物充满神灵’的观点提供了论证，上周的嘉宾M也提到过。

This is not to say that Parmenides is the first Presocratic to offer arguments in the episode of Thales, I suggested that even he may already have had arguments for his views on water and the claim that everything is full of gods, and last week's guest M.

M.

M.

至少麦凯布让我相信，赫拉克利特的残篇其实都是在向读者传递隐含的论证。

McCabe convinced me, at least, that Heraclitus' fragments are implicitly arguments aimed at his readers.

不过，巴门尼德确实代表了一种全新的东西：他试图用一套明确而复杂的演绎论证，来解决一个抽象的哲学问题——存在本身的本质。

Nonetheless, Parmenides does represent something new: he tries to settle an abstract philosophical issue, the nature of being itself, with an explicit and complex deductive argument.

但正如你可能预料的那样，很少有人被巴门尼德的论点说服，即所有现实不过是一个单一、不变的球体。

But, as you might expect, not many people have been persuaded by Parmenides' argument that all reality is nothing but a single, unchanging sphere.

另一方面，自巴门尼德以来，许多哲学家或明或暗地提出了与他‘真理之路’相似的论证。

On the other hand, plenty of philosophers since Parmenides have, knowingly or not, given arguments that are reminiscent of his way of truth.

比如，关于‘存在之完美’的论证，在中世纪又被重新提起，用来阐释上帝的完美性。

For instance, the argument for the perfection of being reappears in the medieval period as a way of trying to understand the perfection of God.

柏拉图和亚里士多德当然都认真对待巴门尼德。

And certainly Plato and Aristotle take Parmenides very seriously.

比如亚里士多德就花了大量精力去解释，为什么变化终究是可能的，尽管巴门尼德认为变化会涉及‘非存在’。

Aristotle, for instance, devotes considerable energy to explaining how change is after all possible, despite Parmenides' point that it would involve non being.

与巴门尼德更接近的是他的直接追随者，爱利亚学派的人。

Closer to Parmenides himself were his immediate followers, the Eleatics.

他们努力为导师那些惊人的结论辩护。

They worked hard to defend the astonishing conclusions of their master.

正是为了这个目的，爱利亚的芝诺提出了古希腊哲学中最精妙的一组悖论。

It was in pursuit of this aim that Zeno of Elea developed the most brilliant set of paradoxes in ancient philosophy.

芝诺的悖论试图否定变化和多元的可能性，以此支持巴门尼德的观点：任何试图思考‘非存在’的人，最终都会陷入自相矛盾。

Zeno's paradoxes tried to undermine the possibility of change and multiplicity, making good on Parmenides' claim that no one can contemplate non being without ending in self contradiction.

下周，我们将重点讨论这些悖论，继续在《无间隙的哲学史》中深入探讨。

These paradoxes will be our main subject next week, here on the history of philosophy without any gaps.