柏拉图对话里的时间

Time in the Dialogues of Plato

柏拉图对话35篇,大多暗藏时间线索,或指向重大历史事件,或与城邦政治活动密切相关,这些重要的时间节点构成了对话内在的戏剧时间,是对话不可或缺的背景要件。从《卡尔米德》到《普罗泰戈拉》,进而到《会饮》以及《泰阿泰德》,再到《巴门尼德》,最后来到《理想国》,柏拉图愈出愈奇,向我们展示了调遣时间的神技,而我们在其中看到了雅典帝国的兴亡,以及苏格拉底时代(前429年-前399年)的到来与消逝。

Almost all of the dialogues of Plato have hidden clues that allude to certain historical events or political activities in the Athenian Empire,which not only provide the dramatic time but also the historical background for Plato’s dialogues.In those dialogues,for example,from Charmides to Protagoras,Symposium,Theaetetus,Parmenides,and finally to the Republic,Plato shows us his magic techne of playing with time in an ascending manner,in which we see the rise and fall of the Athenian Empire and a comeand-go of the Age of Socrates(429 B.C.-399 B.C.).