第一回テキスト

---はじめ---

The Republic

By Plato

Written 360 B.C.E

Translated by Benjamin Jowett


The Introduction

The Republic of Plato is the longest of his works with the
exception of the Laws, and is certainly the greatest of them.
There are nearer approaches to modern metaphysics in the
Philebus and in the Sophist; the Politicus or Statesman is
more ideal; the form and institutions of the State are more
clearly drawn out in the Laws; as works of art, the Symposium
and the Protagoras are of higher excellence. But no other
Dialogue of Plato has the same largeness of view and the same
perfection of style; no other shows an equal knowledge of the
world, or contains more of those thoughts which are new as
well as old, and not of one age only but of all. Nowhere in
Plato is there a deeper irony or a greater wealth of humor or
imagery, or more dramatic power. Nor in any other of his
writings is the attempt made to interweave life and
speculation, or to connect politics with philosophy. The
Republic is the centre around which the other Dialogues may
be grouped; here philosophy reaches the highest point to
which ancient thinkers ever attained. Plato among the Greeks,
like Bacon among the moderns, was the first who conceived a
method of knowledge, although neither of them always
distinguished the bare outline or form from the substance of
truth; and both of them had to be content with an abstraction
of science which was not yet realized. He was the greatest
metaphysical genius whom the world has seen; and in him, more
than in any other ancient thinker, the germs of future
knowledge are contained. The sciences of logic and
psychology, which have supplied so many instruments of
thought to after-ages, are based upon the analyses of
Socrates and Plato. The principles of definition, the law of
contradiction, the fallacy of arguing in a circle, the
distinction between the essence and accidents of a thing or
notion, between means and ends, between causes and
conditions; also the division of the mind into the rational,
concupiscent, and irascible elements, or of pleasures and
desires into necessary and unnecessary --these and other
great forms of thought are all of them to be found in the
Republic, and were probably first invented by Plato. The
greatest of all logical truths, and the one of which writers
on philosophy are most apt to lose sight, the difference
between words and things, has been most strenuously insisted
on by him, although he has not always avoided the confusion
of them in his own writings. But he does not bind up truth in
logical formulae, --logic is still veiled in metaphysics; and
the science which he imagines to "contemplate all truth and
all existence" is very unlike the doctrine of the syllogism
which Aristotle claims to have discovered.

---終わり---

> 第一回テキスト
>
> ---はじめ---
>
> The Republic

　国家

> By Plato

　プラトン

> Written 360 B.C.E

　BC360年頃著作

> Translated by Benjamin Jowett

　翻訳　ベンジャミン・ジョウェト


> The Introduction

　序論

> The Republic of Plato is the longest of his works with the
> exception of the Laws, and is certainly the greatest of them.

　プラトンの「国家」は、「法律」を除けば彼の著作の中で最も長いものであり、
確かに最も偉大なものである。

> There are nearer approaches to modern metaphysics in the
> Philebus and in the Sophist; the Politicus or Statesman is
> more ideal; the form and institutions of the State are more
> clearly drawn out in the Laws; as works of art, the Symposium
> and the Protagoras are of higher excellence.

　ピレボスやソフィストの中には、現代の形而上学により近いアプローチがある。
ポリティコスすなわち政治家はより理想的であり、国家の形態や組織は「法律」
の中により明らかに描かれている。芸術の著作としては、「饗宴」や「プロタゴラ
ス」の方が一層優れている。

> But no other
> Dialogue of Plato has the same largeness of view and the same
> perfection of style; no other shows an equal knowledge of the
> world, or contains more of those thoughts which are new as
> well as old, and not of one age only but of all.

　しかし、プラトンの他の対話編には、これほどの広い観点と完璧な様式を持つも
のはないし、同様の世界の知識を示すものや、古いものだけでなく新しいもの、あ
る時代だけでなくあらゆる時代の思想を含むものは他にはない。

> Nowhere in
> Plato is there a deeper irony or a greater wealth of humor or
> imagery, or more dramatic power.

　プラトンの他のどこにも、これより深いアイロニーや豊かなユーモアやイメージ、
より劇的な力を持つものはない。

> Nor in any other of his
> writings is the attempt made to interweave life and
> speculation, or to connect politics with philosophy.

　また、彼の著作の他のどれにも、人生と思弁とを織り込み、政治学と哲学とを繋
ごうとする試みはなされていない。

> The
> Republic is the centre around which the other Dialogues may
> be grouped; here philosophy reaches the highest point to
> which ancient thinkers ever attained.

　「国家」は、他の対話編がその周りに集まる中心である。ここでは、哲学は、古
代の思想家がそれまでに達成した最高点にたどり着いている。

> Plato among the Greeks,
> like Bacon among the moderns, was the first who conceived a
> method of knowledge, although neither of them always
> distinguished the bare outline or form from the substance of
> truth; and both of them had to be content with an abstraction
> of science which was not yet realized.

　ギリシア人の中でプラトンは、現代のベーコン同様、知の方法を考えた最初の人
であった。二人とも、常に真実の実体からありのままの概略や形態を識別したわけ
ではなかったが。二人とも、まだ理解されなかった抽象的な学問で満足しなければ
ならなかった。

> He was the greatest
> metaphysical genius whom the world has seen; and in him, more
> than in any other ancient thinker, the germs of future
> knowledge are contained.

　彼は、世界がこれまでに見てきた最も偉大な形而上学の天才であった。他のどん
な古代の思想家以上に、将来の知の胚種を内蔵していた。

> The sciences of logic and
> psychology, which have supplied so many instruments of
> thought to after-ages, are based upon the analyses of
> Socrates and Plato.

　論理と心理の学は、後の時代に非常に多くの思想の道具を提供したが、ソクラテ
スとプラトンの分析に基づいている。

> The principles of definition, the law of
> contradiction, the fallacy of arguing in a circle, the
> distinction between the essence and accidents of a thing or
> notion, between means and ends, between causes and
> conditions; also the division of the mind into the rational,
> concupiscent, and irascible elements, or of pleasures and
> desires into necessary and unnecessary --these and other
> great forms of thought are all of them to be found in the
> Republic, and were probably first invented by Plato.

　定義の原則、矛盾律、循環論法での誤謬、物の本質と偶然との違いや手段と目的、
原因と条件の間の概念、精神の理性的、欲情的、激情的要素への分割、あるいは歓
びや欲望の必要不必要への分割、--これらや他の思想の偉大な形態、それらすべて
が、「国家」の中に見出され、恐らく、プラトンによって最初に発見されたのだろ
う。

> The
> greatest of all logical truths, and the one of which writers
> on philosophy are most apt to lose sight, the difference
> between words and things, has been most strenuously insisted
> on by him, although he has not always avoided the confusion
> of them in his own writings.

　あらゆる論理的真実の中で最も偉大なもので哲学の著述家が最も見失いがちなも
の、言葉と物との違いは、彼によって極めて熱心に主張されている。彼は、常に
自らの著作の中でその混乱を避けているというわけではないが。

> But he does not bind up truth in
> logical formulae, --logic is still veiled in metaphysics; and
> the science which he imagines to "contemplate all truth and
> all existence" is very unlike the doctrine of the syllogism
> which Aristotle claims to have discovered.

　しかし、彼は真実を論理的な定式の中に縛り付けなかった。--論理は、まだ形而
上学の中に覆われていて、彼が「あらゆる真実と存在を思索する」と想像した学問
は、アリストテレスが発見したと公言した演繹法（三段論法）の原則とは似ても似
つかないものである。

> ---終わり---