历史的抑或哲学的?——柏拉图《理想国》第八卷刍议

Historical or Philosophical?:On the Eighth Volume of Plato's Republic

19世纪,西方学界研究古希腊文明成果斐然,其中一个重要的论断便是古希腊思想的非历史性。由此出发,涌现出了一批历史地研究古希腊文明的经典作品,库朗热的《古代城邦》即是其中之一。然而,从传世的希腊文献看,古希腊人并不缺乏对历史的探讨和思辨,柏拉图《理想国》第八卷就是在集中处理城邦政治史的问题。在该卷中,苏格拉底讲述了最佳城邦经由荣誉政制、寡头政制、民主政制而最终堕入僭主政制的衰亡史。这一古典城邦政制演变的经典描述,随着19世纪以来古希腊史研究的进展,不断遭到挑战。笔者试以19世纪法国大史家库朗热的《古代城邦》与柏拉图《理想国》第八卷作一对比,分析两者描述城邦政制演变之分歧,指明其原因,并进而说明柏拉图在《理想国》第八卷中采取哲学的而非历史的书写的良苦用心。

In the nineteenth century,the researches of the western world on the ancient Greek civilization resulted in magnificent progresses.That the ancient Greek civilization lacked the historical mode of thinking was one significant conclusion,which,as a starting-point for new researches,brought forth a good number of classical works on the ancient Greek civilization which was signified as historical studies.The Ancient City authored by Fustel de Coulanges was one of them.But on the other hand,as for the literatures of the ancient Greek,we can hardly conclude that the Greek knew nothing about history or they seldom enquired in history.For example,Plato centralized on the political history of Greek cities in the Eighth Volume of Republic in which Scorates described the decline and fall of the best regime into tyranny,whose history is symbolized by aristocracy,oligarchy,democracy and tyranny.This classic depiction of the evolution of the form of government has been challenged as the researches on the history of ancient Greece developed steadily and speedily in the nineteenth century.The author of this paper tries to make a comparison between The Ancient City authored by Fustel de Coulanges and the Eighth Volume of Plato's Republic,and analyzes the difference between their depictions on the evolution of the form of government as well as the reasons for the distinction.As a conclusion,the author tries to justify Plato's philosophical rather than historical writing in the Eighth Volume of Plato's the Republic.