理想国_柏拉图编_9787562023449_湖南知新文化传播有限公司读者荐购服务

　　This translation of one of the great works of Western political thought is based on the assumption that when Plato chose the dialogue form for his writing， he intended these dialogues to sound like conversations - although conversations of a philosophical sort. In addition to a vivid， dignified and accurate rendition of Plato's text， the student and general reader will find many aids to comprehension in this volume： an introduction that assesses the cultural background to the Republic， its place within political philosophy， and.its general argument;succinct notes in the body of the text;an analytical summary of the work's content；a full glossary of proper names;a chronology of important events;and a guide to further reading. The result is an accurate and accessible edition of this seminal work，suitable for philosophers and classicists as well as historians of political thought at all levels.

　　If you tell people you are translating Plato's Republic， the question they almost invariably ask is 'Why? Surely there are plenty of translations already.' The answer is fairly simple. For whatever reason， Plato chose to put his philosophical thoughts in dialogue form， and I believe that when he did so， he intended these dialogues to sound like conversations. Maybe not straightforward， everyday conversations， but conversations nonethe-less. And it is still true， though things have improved in recent years， that there are many translations of Plato where you cannot read a complete page without coming across something which no English-speaking person would ever say， or ever have said. So in balancing the conflicting demands of the translator， I have tried to give the highest priority， with only a few exceptions， to the requirement that what I wrote should sound like a conversation. The danger in this， since I am not a professional Plato scholar， was that in trying to make it sound conversationall might commit myself to an interpretation which ran counter to the agreed and accepted views of those who were scholars. That being so， I have been exception-ally fortunate to have had John Ferrari as my academic minder. I would never have undertaken the project without his encouragement and guar-antee of help and support. And once embarked on it， I found him ready and willing to give up huge amounts of his time to the task of vetting my early drafts - a laborious task which involved reading the whole text against the Greek， flagging the hundreds （literally） of passages where he did not agree with what I had written， explaining in precise detail why he disagreed， and (bless him） suggesting an alternative in each and every instance. His influence is strongest in those passages where the transla-tion of key terms has been the subject of much critical discussion， but there is no part of the translation which has not benefited immeasurably from his comments， advice and suggestions， and it should be seen， to a very considerable extent， as a joint effort rather than mine alone. It has been an enormous labour for him， and I am greatly in his debt for per-forming it.

你还可能感兴趣

我要评论