【哲学的故事·柏拉图】E15 神学与哲学

2019-04-04

CHAPTER ONE: Plato II. Socrates

And as for the state, what could have been more ridiculous than this mob-led, passion-ridden democracy, this government by a debating-society, this precipitate selection and dismissal and execution of generals, this unchoice choice（没有任何选择的选择） of simple farmers and tradesmen, in alphabetical rotation, as members of the supreme court of the land?

How could a new and natural morality be developed in Athens, and how could the state be saved? （苏格拉底对政治制度的思考反映其忧国忧民）

It was his reply to these questions that gave Socrates death and immortality.

The older citizens would have honored him had he tried to restore the ancient polytheistic faith（古代的多神论信仰）; if he had led his band of emancipated souls（被解放的灵魂→他的学生） to the temples and the sacred groves, and bade（bid 命令） them sacrifice again to the gods of their fathers.

But he felt that that was a hopeless and suicidal policy, a progress backward, into and not "over the tombs." He had his own religious faith: he believed in one God, and hoped in his modest way that death would not quite destroy him; but he knew that a lasting moral code could not be based upon so uncertain a theology.

*相信是很容易的事情，怀疑，打破然后重新建立世界观的过程才是真正困难的。

If one could build a system of morality absolutely independent of religious doctrine, as valid for the atheist（无神论者） as for the pietist, then theologies might come and go without loosening the moral cement that makes of wilful individuals the peaceful citizens of a community.