论柏拉图的记忆与回忆

On Plato’s Memory and Recollection

“记忆与遗忘”是一个历史悠久的问题,在古希腊的神话时代就有讨论,而在哲学史上存在着一个重视记忆的理论传统,这个传统最早可以追溯到柏拉图的“灵魂回忆说”。柏拉图对记忆与回忆的讨论首先是一个认识论问题,因为柏拉图通过“线喻”“蜡块说”以及“鸟笼说”建立了记忆与遗忘的线性结构,并回答了何以习得知识这个问题;其次是一个道德论问题,因为柏拉图通过“太阳喻”和“马车喻”赋予了记忆与遗忘道德属性,从而善的理念构成了回忆的根据、原因及目的,而遗忘是一种恶,从而柏拉图使问题回到了苏格拉底“知识即美德”的道德命题。由此柏拉图对哲学家提出了拥有好记性的要求,并开启了重视记忆的理论传统。

“Memory and forgetting” is a problem with a long history, which has been discussed in the mythological age of ancient Greece. In the history of philosophy, there exists a theoretical tradition of attaching importance to memory, which can be traced back to Plato’s “soul recollection”. Plato’s discussion of memory and recollection is first of all an epistemological problem, because Plato established the linear structure of memory and forgetting through “line metaphor”, “wax block” and “bird cage”, and answered the question of how to acquire knowledge. The second is a moral problem, be-cause Plato gives moral attributes to memory and forgetting through the “sun metaphor” and the “carriage metaphor”, so that the idea of good constitutes the basis, cause and purpose of memory, and forgetting is a kind of evil, so Plato brings the problem back to Socrates’ moral proposition of “knowledge is virtue”. Thus Plato put forward the requirement for philosophers to have a good memory and started the theoretical tradition of attaching importance to memory.