标题: 柏拉图的山洞寓言：你我皆囚徒 [打印本页] 作者: 丁8857 时间: 2022-9-29 08:47 标题: 柏拉图的山洞寓言：你我皆囚徒 Allegory of the Cave 柏拉图的《山洞寓言》
作 者：[美] Alex Gendler
翻 译：岛主·Sean
2400 years ago, one of the history’s most famous thinkers said life is like being chained up in a cave, forced to watch shadows flitting across a stone wall.
That’s actually what Plato suggested in his Allegory of the Cave, found in the book VII of The Republic, in which the Greek philosopher envisioned the ideal society by examining concepts like justice, truth and beauty.
In this allegory, a group of prisoners have been confined in a cavern since birth, with no knowledge of the outside world.
在这个寓言中，有一群囚徒从出生起就被关押在一个山洞里，对洞外世界一无所知。
They are chained, facing a wall, unable to turn their heads, while a fire behind them gives off a faint light.
他们被锁链拴住，只能面朝墙壁，无法转过头来。在他们的身后，有一堆火散发着微弱的光。
Occasionally, people pass by the fire, carrying figures of animals and other objects that cast shadows on the wall.
时不时有人经过这堆火，他们抬着动物或其他雕像走过时，影子都会投在墙上。
The prisoners name and classify these illusions, believing they’re perceiving actually entities.
囚徒们给这些幻影命名、分类，十分确信自己洞察到了真相。
Suddenly, one prisoner is free and brought outside for the first time.
突然，有个囚徒获得了自由，并且被平生第一次带出山洞。
The sunlight hurt his eyes and he finds the new environment disorienting.
阳光照得他眼睛生疼，他感到这个崭新的环境让人头晕脑胀。
When told that the things around hims are real, while the shadows were mere reflections, he cannot believe it.
人们告诉他这一切都是真实的，唯独地上的影子是光线投射的结果，他无法相信。
The shadows appeared much clearer to him.
在他看来，分明影子才更清晰啊！
But gradually, his eyes adjust until he can look at reflections in the water, at objects directly, and finally at the Sun, whose light is the ultimate source of everything he has seen.
The prisoner returns to the cave to share his discovery, but he is no longer used to the darkness, and has a hard time seeing the shadows on the wall.
他回到山洞里，跟其他囚徒分享了自己的发现。但是，他已经不能适应黑暗，也再不能看清墙上的影子。
The other prisoners think the journey has made him stupid and blind, and violently resist any attempts to free them.
其他一众囚徒觉得这次外出让他变得既蠢又瞎，激烈地反对妄图释放他们的做法。
Plato introduces this passage as an analogy of what it’s like to be a philosopher trying to educate the public.
柏拉图通过这段话说明了一个哲学家试图教育大众的难度。
Most people are not just comfortable in their ignorance, but hostile to anyone who points in out.
对大多数人来说，他们不仅仅是在无知中沉迷，更是对指出此事的人不共戴天。
In fact, the real life Socrates was sentences to death by the Athenian government for disrupting the social order, and his student Plato spends much of “The Republic” disparaging Athenian democracy, while promoting rule by philosopher kings.
