论柏拉图的空间思想

A Criticism on Plato's Thoughts of Space

柏拉图的空间思想集中见于《蒂迈欧篇》。作者以空间为分立于理式和现象的第三种存在,将之描述为无质无形、可将万事万物包容其中的载体,是天下之母、天下万物的养育者。柏拉图称空间永恒不朽,无从毁灭,为一切造物提供了一个家园,然感性和理性均难厘定,仿佛梦中所见。比较赫西俄德《神谱》中太初有混沌的叙述,柏拉图毋宁说是在同时书写哲学与文学两种空间故事。而据亚里士多德的理解,柏拉图笔下的"载体",与其说是空空荡荡的原始容器,毋宁说在这个貌似同质的原始容器之中,已经潜伏了千丝万缕的分化线索。今天来看,它不仅是物理空间的原型,而且同样可以解读为社会空间的一个原型。

In his Timaeus,Plato demonstrated his thinking of space through a distinction of three beings,i. e. that of idea,of image,and of space. For Plato,space is something invisible and characterless,something like mother or receptacle of what had come to be,what is visible or perceivable. In short,a thing extremely difficult to comprehend,either by senses or reason,could be imagined only in dreams then. However,comparing with Chawos in Hesiod’s Theogony,Placo’s depiction of primitive space is more like a parallel of philosophical and literary discourses written by both hands. Aristotle claims that Plato mixed material and place in Timaeus,which on the other hand,could be understood as providing an architype of social space as well as physical space.