我们为什么要学习柏拉图
By Dr. 布莱恩T. 凯尔(88)
注:以下言论改编自院长布莱恩T. 凯利在2011年10月21日理事会会议上提交的报告. 它们是人类的一部分 正在进行的一系列会谈 其中博士. 凯利解释了为什么学院在课程中包括某些作家.
柏拉图生于公元前5世纪末的雅典.C. 他是雅典君主制的后裔, 年轻时，他幻想自己注定要从政. But he met a street philosopher named Socrates and fell into his circle of adherents. This encounter changed his life forever; from then on he committed himself to living out the call to philosophy. He founded the Academy, a school devoted to philosophy through an intense formation in mathematics. 他在学院里最著名的学生是亚里士多德.
苏格拉底过着哲学生活，从未想过要写一本书. 柏拉图, 幸运的是, 没有以他为榜样, 尽管他不愿写论文来宣扬自己的观点. 相反，他写对话, 主要是苏格拉底, which record or invent serious and extended discussions on great themes such as justice, 勇气, 灵魂的不朽, 等. 这些对话以充满活力和戏剧性的方式呈现出永恒的问题. 他似乎意识到了苏格拉底对自己生活的影响, and he wanted to make it possible for others to have their own encounter with his teacher.
这些对话集中有许多杰作. 共和国, 《BG电子平台》, 菲德拉斯, Thaeatetus, 更少 当然，还有 道歉. 我还能举出其他几部作品，但我想挑出一部，那就是 高尔吉斯. 在这段对话中，讨论从修辞开始, 但不可避免地转向了正义的问题. 苏格拉底一直认为这是一个重大而紧迫的问题. 这段对话为自然法的基本原理提供了一个奇妙的窗口. It is especially evident here that Socrates cares deeply about the people with whom he contends, 不管他们怎样猛烈地拒绝他.
These dialogues continue to challenge modern readers and awaken in them a sense that reason matters and should govern their actions. 柏拉图’s encounter with Socrates stirred in him the seeds of his philosophic vocation. Many of today’s influential Catholic thinkers would freely admit that the choice to pursue the true, 良好的, and the beautiful was fundamentally effected by their own encounter with Socrates in the dialogues of 柏拉图. BG电子的传说和传说中有一位开国校长 Dr. 罗纳德·P. 麦克阿瑟 在这位伟人的影响下，我转向了哲学.
If this story is true then 托马斯·阿奎那 College would probably not exist without 柏拉图. But that is fine with us; we do not want to exist without 柏拉图! 我们的学生每年都会在五门不同的课程中阅读柏拉图. He is the first author our students read in Philosophy and the last author they read in Seminar.
哲学概论
为什么 is 柏拉图 featured so prominently in the initial stages of our philosophy sequence? 难道我们不是托马斯主义者，也就是亚里士多德主义者吗? 我们难道不该把最重要的位置让给亚里士多德而不是柏拉图吗, 谁代表了亚里士多德现实观的根本替代观点?
已故BG电子创始人 马库斯一. Berquist addressed this question saying that these dialogues “are intended as an introduction to philosophy ... 通过这些对话中的表述和论证, one is made explicitly aware of the supreme good of searching for and living by the truth, and of coming to true knowledge rather than being satisfied with plausible opinions.”
在这些作品中，我们遇到了真正的哲学话语. 在这些讨论中，苏格拉底引导着他的对话者, 通过提问的方式, 看到真相隐藏在自己的观点里. 他们想说正义是强者的优势, but he leads them to see that when the stronger man takes advantage of the weaker man he is actually harming himself. They want to say that happiness consists in continually satisfying sensual appetites, 但他让他们看到，这样的放纵只会让他们痛苦. What is remarkable is that he leads them to see that their own views compel them to these conclusions. 他问他们一些小问题，却产生了很大的区别. 他们用自己的回答来反驳自己. Sadly, it is rare that they accept their self-refutation with the appropriate graciousness.
你可以看到这是对精神生活的精彩介绍, 我们必须从花言巧语和自己的欲望中退后一步, and seek the answers to the great questions by building up from little questions and proceeding by baby steps. 这是对追求真理的人生的一个非常恰当的介绍, 在这一点上，它有力地表明我们需要放下我们的骄傲. 要完全服从真理，我们必须拒绝一切利己主义. When the argument shows us we are wrong we must be prepared to humbly admit our error. 从人的角度来说，这是困难的, 我们可以看到苏格拉底的对话者是多么的错误, 他们显得多么愚蠢, 当他们拒绝承认自己犯了错误.
The sequence of dialogues read at the beginning of freshman year ends with an account of Socrates’ trial, 监禁, 和执行. Here we learn that Socrates is not living the life of dialectic for the sake of fame or attention. He is so committed to reason that he is prepared to die rather than depart in any particular from what reason tells him is the just way. 他活得有点像公众的良心, arguing with his fellow citizens that they should care more about virtue than about money, 或权力, 或者其他的好东西. 他问人们能理解什么, and then examined their claim to see if they really knew what they thought they knew. Almost universally he showed that what was proclaimed as knowledge was actually on much shakier ground.
In showing his fellow Athenians that their “knowledge” was really a kind of ignorance, 他们都是徒劳的追求, 他变得非常不受欢迎. 事后看来，他因莫须有的指控被处决似乎是不可避免的.
在他被定罪后，苏格拉底的朋友们为他安排了一条安全的流放之路. 但苏格拉底拒绝合作，因为这会破坏城市的法律. Even though his sentence was manifestly unjust he would do nothing to harm the rule of law. 他认为，犯下不公正的罪行比遭受不公正要糟糕得多. 他宁死也不退出辩论. 柏拉图亲身经历了这些事情，之后就再也不一样了. It is impossible not to admire Socrates’ 勇气 and equanimity; it is hard to resist the 勇气 and conviction of the martyr. 柏拉图笔下的苏格拉底是一位伟大的哲学使徒.
亚里士多德主义者或柏拉图主义者?
但是亚里士多德和柏拉图之间的冲突呢? 它们不是截然相反吗? Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said that “every man is born an Aristotelian or a 柏拉图nist.“这当然意味着根本的不同. 再想想拉斐尔的名画， 雅典学派, where Aristotle and 柏拉图 stand next to each other; Aristotle turns his hand to the ground while 柏拉图 points upwards. 这是不是也暗示了一个巨大的分歧? If they are so opposed, how can the study of the one appropriately introduce the study of the other?
的确，两者之间存在严重分歧. 柏拉图认为一切知识都是回忆, 灵魂被囚禁在身体里, that a common or universal name depends on the existence of a separately existing form, 等. 亚里士多德确实在这些观点上发现了他的错误. 但这是挑出学生超越老师的方式. There was much that they held in common; for example, 友谊是一种珍贵的东西, 虽然真理比友谊更伟大. 他们确实是朋友. Aristotle owed to 柏拉图 the deep formation and education that allowed him to penetrate more deeply the mysteries of God and creation. 在他的 形而上学 亚里士多德甚至称自己为柏拉图主义者. 虽然在拉斐尔的画中他们摆出不同的姿势, 他们仍然肩并肩地站着，看着彼此.
在柏拉图的对话中, 尤其是苏格拉底的性格, 我们在青春活力和热情的迸发中体验到哲学的奇迹. 他带着勇气和希望向重大问题发起攻击, 虽然他很难下定决心，但他已经得出了任何确定的结论. 争论在戏剧性的背景下展开. 它们是故事，同时也是哲学. 戏剧元素使这些作品很适合年轻人.
但青春不是燃尽就是成熟. 在亚里士多德身上，我们看到柏拉图的青春走向成熟. 辩证法仍然存在，虽然不是戏剧性的或个人的表现. In Aristotle’s treatises the give and take of the argument concludes with an answer; the mind settles. He builds from natural science to metaphysics with a rigorous caution about the limits of each science. 这里有快乐和满足，但不是那种年轻的、戏剧性的. 对年轻人来说，这不是一个合适的起点. They are much better off first encountering in Socrates “the supreme good of searching for and living by the truth.”
As we grow and mature we want to maintain the dreams of our youth; we want to keep alive as much as possible the vision of the child. 从柏拉图开始是很好的, but it is also important for us to return to him again and again and to be refreshed.