2019-01-01

Aristotle and Greek Science

I. The Historical Background

Aristotle was born at Stagira, a Macedonian city some two hundred miles to the north of Athens, in the year 384 B.C. His father was friend and physician to Amyntas, King of Macedon and grandfather of Alexander. Aristotle himself seems to have become a member of the great medical fraternity of Asclepiads. He was brought up in the odor of medicine as many later philosophers were brought up in the odor of sanctity; he had every opportunity and encouragement to develop a scientific bent of mind; he was prepared from the beginning to become the founder of science. 

亚里士多德年轻时候十分顽劣，然而这位哲学家却在柏拉图学园静谧的小树林里安顿了下来，并找到了人生的慰藉。

Aristotle and Greek Science

I. The Historical Background

We have a choice of stories for his youth. One narrative represents him as squandering his patrimony in riotous living, joining the army to avoid starvation, returning to Stagira to practice medicine, and going to Athens at the age of thirty to study philosophy under Plato. A more dignified story takes him to Athens at the age of eighteen, and puts him at once under the tutelage of the great Master; but even in this likelier account there is sufficient echo of a reckless and irregular youth, living rapidly. The scandalized reader may console himself by observing that in either story our philosopher anchors at last in the quiet groves of the Academy.

Under Plato he studied eight—or twenty—years; and indeed the pervasive Platonism of Aristotle's speculations—even of those most anti-Platonic—suggests the longer period. One would like to imagine these as very happy years; a brilliant pupil guided by an incomparable teacher, walking like Greek lovers in the gardens of philosophy. But they were both geniuses; and it is notorious that geniuses accord with one another as harmoniously as dynamite with fire. Almost half a century separated them; it was difficult for understanding to bridge the gap of years and cancel the incompatibility of souls.

▍语言点

a choice of stories: 一系列故事；多个版本的故事

squander: vt. 浪费；挥霍

patrimony: n. heritage，遗产

riotous: adj. 动荡的；喧哗的

practice medicine: 行医

tutelage: n. 监护；指导

account: n. 记载

reckless and irregular: 动荡的；无规律的

scandalized: adj. 震惊的；被诽谤的

console: vt. 安慰

anchor: vi. 抛锚停泊（本文引申为“栖居”）

grove: n. 树丛

Academy: “柏拉图学园”又叫“阿加德米”学园，欧洲第一所综合性学校，教授哲学和自然科学，同时也为周围城邦提供政治咨询。

pervasive: adj. 普遍的；流行的

anti-Platonic: adj. 反柏拉图的

notorious: adj. 臭名昭著的；声名狼藉的

▍语言点

Macedonian: 伯罗奔尼撒战争结束后，雅典随之衰落；希腊北部的马其顿地区开始繁荣，之后统一希腊各城邦，建立马其顿王国。

fraternity: n. 兄弟会

odor: n. 味道

sanctity: n. 神圣；圣洁

bent: n. 弯曲；倾向；爱好