《巴门尼德》:关于“一”的“神圣喜剧”

Parmenides:The Divine Comedy of“the One”

《巴门尼德》是柏拉图最精纯的哲学对话,也是“完整的柏拉图神学”。该篇以阿提卡喜剧模式出之,是柏拉图以喜剧手法来描写最严肃的人类命题:即有死者的意见经由逻各斯归于“一”、最终飞升至不朽神界的神圣喜剧。其中巴门尼德关于“一”的论证,是哲人的极限“游戏”(παιδία),也是全剧的狂欢“终曲”(exodus)。在伯里克利治下信奉多元价值的雅典帝国到达全盛巅峰的时刻,巴门尼德/“一”的降临,为帝国深陷“一”与“多”之间的思想纷争埋下了伏笔,此后一切篇章,无不由此而起。巴门尼德那场对话的影响与后果,将在后续柏拉图对话中渐次展开。正如《巴门尼德》所讨论的核心问题是“一”,本篇也同时是全部柏拉图对话之“一”——“一”是开端,也是结局,它既在自身当中,又在一切事物当中。

In Parmenides,one of the most obscure Eleatic dialogues,Plato conveys profound philosophical ideas and his entire theology as well.Composed in the strict form of Attic Comedy,it is the Divine Comedy of Plato,as it were,and at the same time probes into the most serious question concerning human beings,viz.how the opinions of mortals may afflux into the One,or the Divinity,through philosophy.The hypotheses and deductions on the One made by Parmenides,the founder of the Eleatic School,in the namesake dialogue are not only(as Parmenides says)theπαιδία of philosophers,but also the exodus of the whole work.The dramatic tension of the dialogue lies in the fact that Parmenides brings his monism to Athens when the democratic Athenian Empire,with its strong proclivity towards pluralism,had just reached its peak.This paves the way for future internal struggles of the Empire and sheds influence on,logically speaking,all the other Platonic dialogues.Just as the central topic of Parmenides is the One,Parmenides itself is the One of all Platonic dialogues—the One is the beginning,the One is the end,it is in itself,and it is in everything.