“自然”及其衰落——关于柏拉图《理想国》的思考

"Nature" and Its Decline——Some thoughts about Plato's The Republic

循着苏格拉底追寻最高正义的脚步,发现了古典政治哲学的真理即"自然乃万物之尺度"。依"自然"而论,最好的政体则在于哲学与政治权力的结合而形成的"哲学王"的统治。然而,因哲学仅关心真理、政治仅关心意见之故,这种政体只能依靠机缘而实现,这就注定了古典政治哲学因其政治理想主义特质必然走向衰落。而古典政治哲学的衰落也就是"自然"这一标准的衰落。

Tracing Socrates＇s steps of seeking for supreme justice, this thesis finds out the truth of classical political philosophy-nature is the measure of all things. According to ＂nature＂, the best form of government is the rule of ＂philosophical kings＂, which is a combination of philosophy and political power. However, this form of government can only be realized by chance because philosophy only cares for truth and politics only cares for opinions and the classical political philosophy is doomed to decline because of its characteristics of political idealism. The decline of classical political philosophy is the decline of ＂nature＂ the standard.