民主时代戏剧的困境与焦虑——重读阿里斯托芬的《蛙》

The Dilemma and Anxiety of the Democratic Era Drama:Re-read Aristophanes's Frogs

《蛙》中的欧里庇得斯作为苏格拉底倾向的悲剧诗人,代表民主时代的戏剧潮流:他让普通大众登上舞台,为世界带来自由和理性的信息,但是这样的戏剧同时也催生了道德滑坡、艺术的失落与秩序的混乱,最终过度自由将导致民主的毁灭。这类悲剧诗人着意描绘"实然"的个别真实,缺乏表达"应然"普遍真实的哲学内涵,不会说出对城邦有益的话,因此必定被哲学家驱逐出城邦。阿里斯托芬最终认为理性发展和个人自由固然重要,但是当民主面临其自身催生的毁灭时,如若不可兼得,艺术只有首选对于城邦有益的古典价值。

In Frogs,Euripides as the tragic poet of Socratic,faced the dilemma and anxiety of the democratic era drama:he let the masses step on the stage to bring freedom and reason,but it also spawned moral decline,loss of order and chaos.Excessive freedom will eventually lead to the destruction of democracy.Such tragic poets attempt to describe what individual reality 'is',and fail to express the philosophical connotation of'ought to be'.They could not say what is good for the polis and therefore must be expelled by philosophers.Eventually Aristophanes concluded that although rational development and personal freedom are important,he as an artist would rather choose classical values beneficial to the polis when democracy is threatened with destruction.