Criticism-8
What Plato lacks above all, perhaps, is the Heracleitean sense of flux and change:
he is too anxious to have the moving picture of this world become a fixed and still tableau.
tableau,画面
He loves order exclusively, like any timid philosopher;
he has been frightened by the democratic turbulence of Athens into an extreme neglect of individual value;
he arranges men in classes like an entomologist classifying flies;
and he is not averse to using priestly humbug to secure his ends.
averse,反对
humbug,欺骗
His state is static;
it might easily become an old-fogey society, ruled by inflexible octogenarians hostile to invention and jealous of change.
It is mere science without art;
it exalts order, so dear to the scientific mind, and quite neglects that liberty which is the soul of art;
it worships the name of beauty, but exiles the artists who alone can make beauty or point it out.
It is a Sparta or a Prussia, not an ideal state.
And now that these unpleasant necessities are candidly written down, it remains to do willing homage to the power and profundity of Plato's conception.
[ 00’31” ] Heracleitean (赫拉克利特,公元前 540 年—前 470 年。主张“万物皆动”,“万物皆流”。他是当时希腊具有朴素辩证法思想的“流动派”的卓越代表。)
[ 01’32” ] tableau (画面)
[ 02’06” ] turbulence (混乱)
[ 02’23” ] entomologist (昆虫学家)
[ 02’48” ] averse (反对)
[ 02’56” ] humbug (欺骗)
[ 03’21” ] old-fogey (守旧的)
[ 03’35” ] static (静止的)
[ 04’03” ] octogenarian (八十岁老翁)
[ 04’06” ] octo- (八;章鱼)
[ 05’21” ] exile (放逐;驱逐)
[ 06’44” ] candidly (坦诚地)
[ 06’57” ] do willing homage to (献上朝拜)
[ 07’10” ] profundity (深邃性)
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