柏拉图《理想国》开场的戏剧情节

The Dramatic Plot of the Prelude to Plato’s Politeia

作为戏剧文学,柏拉图对话呈现了不同对话者之间的思想冲突。面对不同的人,苏格拉底总能切入不同的话题,或在同一话题上采取不同的论证。这往往取决于对话者们在与苏格拉底初次照面时透露出来的灵魂倾向和性格特点。柏拉图《理想国》的开场戏虽然简短,但构思精妙,意蕴深远,极富戏剧张力。它不仅设置了戏剧场景,引出了戏剧人物及其关系,暗示了戏剧冲突的来龙去脉,而且隐含了整个作品的一些核心要义。本文尝试采用字里行间的方式随文疏解,以便灵活地揭示和呈现其中的戏剧要点及其丰富意涵。

As dramatic literature, Plato’s dialogues present the cognitive conflict between different interlocutors. In the face of different persons, Socrates can always lead to different topics, or adopt different arguments on the same topic. These often depend on the mental inclination and personal characteristics exposed by the interlocutors when they first meet Socrates. The opening scene of Plato’s Politeia is very short, but it has an exquisite conception, profound implications and dramatic features. It not only sets up the dramatic background, introduces the dramatic characters and their relationships, but also implies some core ideas of the whole dialogue. This paper attempts to read this prelude between the lines so as to thoroughly reveal its dramatic features and their multiple meanings.