耶鲁大学开放课程—哲学：死亡04OpenYalecourse—Philosophy：

我们一直在讨论这样一个问题

We've been talking about the question,

用什么论证可以证明灵魂的存在

What arguments might be offered for the existence of a soul? 我们首先会想到的一类

And the family of arguments

则是那种

that we're considering initially are arguments

被称作推理的论证

that get known as inference

或叫做最佳解释推理

or inferences to the best explanation.

其思路是

The thought is that

存在一些有关我们自身的亟待解释的事物

there's something about us that needs explaining.

但单从物理的角度我们无法对其进行解释

We can't explain it in terms of, in purely physical terms.

所以我们需要借助他法

And so we need to appeal to,

我们需要假定灵魂存在

we need to posit, the existence of, a soul.

我们待会儿再回到这个论题上

Now, I'll come back to that sort of argument in just a minute, 现在我们暂且先把它放在一边

but let me bracket that for a moment

开始学习柏拉图

and say something about Plato.

从下周开始

Starting next week,

我们要学习柏拉图的对话斐多篇

we're going to be looking at Plato's dialogue, the Phaedo.

尽管在讲到斐多篇时

And so although I'll be saying a great deal

我会向你们详尽介绍其中的内容

about the Phaedo once we turn to it,

但现在我还是想先花一两分钟的时间

I want to just take a minute or two

做一个简短的引言

and say a couple of introductory remarks.

我不知道你们当中有多少人

I don't know how many of you

之前未曾读过柏拉图的作品

have not read any Plato before,

但是还未拜读过柏拉图的同学们

but for those of you who haven't,

我敢肯定你们会喜欢上他的

I actually think you're in for a treat.

柏拉图是历史上最伟大的哲学家之一

Plato is not only one of the greatest philosophers in history, 人人影视

并且他使用对话体形式来阐述其观点

he wrote his philosophy in the form of dialogues.

即以戏剧为表现方式

That is to say, plays,

其间各种人物悠闲地或坐或站集聚一块儿

in which various characters sit around or stand around

探讨各种哲学观点

and argue about philosophical positions.

我们要学习的这篇对话斐多篇

The particular dialogue that we're going to reading,the Phaedo, 就将场景设定在苏格拉底临死前的一幕

is set at the death scene of Socrates.

想必你们都知道

As I'm sure you know,

苏格拉底被人指控

Socrates was put on trial,

以教唆雅典青年的罪名被判处死刑

condemned to death for corrupting the youth of Athens--

也许罪名还包括

and perhaps, among other things,

和青年们讨论哲学

for arguing philosophy with them.

狱卒把毒芹汁端给他

And he's given hemlock, poison,

他一饮而尽然后生命就此终结

and he drinks it and he dies.

这是一个历史性的事件

Now, this is a historical event.

苏格拉底有一大群朋友和学生

Socrates had a circle of friends and disciples

和他讨论哲学

that he would argue philosophy with.

而柏拉图就是他的学生之一

One of his disciples was Plato.

柏拉图随后形成自己的思想

Plato then grew up