西方哲学史罗素读书笔记

西方哲学史罗素读书笔记

《西方哲学史》是一部在全球知识界影响巨大的学术名作。自20世纪60年代初期介绍到我国后，在知识分子中产生了普遍影响，不少人都曾焚香静读。将其视为案头的必备哲学读本。其叙述年代从希腊文明的兴起一直到现代的逻辑分析哲学。在这部哲学史中，罗素特别对他认为对西方哲学的发展有着重要影响的历史事件和人物辟专章作了较详细的论述。

罗素，当今时代理性主义和人道主义的代言人，是西方思想解放与言论自由的见证人。二十世纪最有影响的哲学家、数学家、逻辑学家之一，分析哲学创始人，同时也是活跃的政治活动家，并致力于哲学的大众化、普及化。作为哲学家，罗素的主要贡献在于数理逻辑方面，是逻辑原子论和新实在论的主要创始人之一。以此为基础的现代分析哲学在西方近代哲学史上具有重要的地位。罗素出身于英国一个贵族家庭，是罗素伯爵的第三代继承人，其祖父曾两次出任英国首相。1945年，罗素在美国出版了《西方哲学史》一书，该书不但为罗素带来了丰厚的收入，还是罗素获得1950年诺贝尔文学奖的重要原因之一。其代表作有《西方哲学史》、《神秘主义与逻辑》、《怀疑论》、《婚姻与道德》等。

Book One - ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY -

The Rise of Greek Civilization

№.1 -In all history, nothing is so surprising or so difficult to account for as the sudden rise of civilization in of what makes civilization had already existed for thousands of years in Egypt and in Mesopotamia, and had spread thence to neighbouring countries. But certain elements had been lacking until the Greeks supplied them. What they achieved in art and literature is familiar to everybody, but what they did in the purely intellectual realm is even more exceptional.

【译文】在全部的历史里，最使人感到惊异或难于解说的莫过于希腊文明的突然兴起了。构成文明的大部分东西已经在埃及和美索不达米亚存在了好几千年，又从那里传播到了四邻的国家。但是其中却始终缺少着某些因素，直等到希腊人才把它们提供出来。希腊人在文学艺术上的成就是大家熟知的，但是他们在纯粹知识的领域上所做出的贡献还要更加不平凡。

【本人评注】希腊文明的辉煌成就是有目共睹的，德国哲学家黑格尔曾说说：“一提到希腊这个名字，在有教养的欧洲人心中，尤其在我们德国人心中，自然会引起一种家园之感。”其实，对于深受西方文化熏陶的现代中国人而言，希腊又何尝不会引起我们的家园之感呢？

【短语笔记】account for - 说明；对 ... 负责；占 ...

【举一反三】on account of - 因为

(1)The treasurer has to account for the money paid to him.

(2)On account of his more elevated position, the general had the enemy at vantage.

№.2-Where a religion was bound up with the government of an empire, political motives did much to transform its primitive features.

【译文】只要一种宗教和一个帝国政府结合在一片，政治的动机就会大大改变宗教的原始面貌。

【本人评注】论宗教与政治的互动关系。

【短语笔记】be bound up with - 与 ... 密切相关, 和 ... 息息相关

【举一反三】bound的另两个相关短语用法：表示开往某地，仅有目的地时，用be bound for,后接目的地；表示从某地开往某地，出发地和目的地都有时，用be bound from...to...

(1)Her illness is bound up with the pressure of her study and work.

(2)The ship is bound from Qingdao to Shanghai.

№.3-The Homeric gods were the gods of a conquering

aristocracy, not the useful fertility gods of those who actually tilled the soil. As Gilbert Murray says: "The gods of most nations claim to have created the world. The Olympians make no such claim. The most they ever did was to conquer it. And when they have conquered their kingdoms, what do they do? Do they attend to the government? Do they promote agriculture? Do they practise trades and industries? Not a bit of it. Why should they do any honest work? They find it easier to live on the revenues and blast with thunderbolts the people who do not pay. They are conquering chieftains, royal buccaneers. They fight, and feast, and play, and make music; they drink deep, and roar with laughter at the lame smith who waits on them. They are never afraid, except of their own king. They never tell lies, except in love and war."

【译文】荷马的神祇们乃是征服者的贵族阶级的神祇，而不是那些实际在耕种土地的人们的有用的丰产之神。正如吉尔伯特穆莱所说的：“大多数民族的神都自命曾经创造过世界，奥林匹克的神并不自命如此。他们所做的，主要是征服世界。……当他们已经征服了王国之后，它们又干什么呢？他们关心政治吗？他们促进农业吗？他们从事商业和工业