THE SYSTEM OF ARISTOTLE 1

Plato’s Pupil, Alexander’s Teacher

柏拉图的学生，亚历山大的老师

Aristotle was not an Athenian; he was born, fifteen years after the death of Socrates, at Stagira in the kingdom of Macedonia in northern Greece. 

亚里士多德不是雅典人；他出生在苏格拉底去世后的十五年，位于希腊北部马其顿王国的斯塔基拉。

The son of a court physician, he migrated to Athens in 367 at the age of seventeen, and joined Plato’s Academy, where he remained for twenty years. 

他是一位宫廷医生的儿子，十七岁时于公元前367年移居雅典，加入了柏拉图的学院，在那里停留了二十年。

Many of Plato’s later dialogues date from this period, and some of the arguments they contain may reflect Aristotle’s contributions to debate. 

柏拉图的许多后期对话都是在这个时期写成的，其中一些论点可能反映了亚里士多德对辩论的贡献。

By a flattering anachronism, Plato introduces a character called ‘Aristotle’ into the Parmenides (dramatic date c.450), which is the dialogue most critical of the Theory of Ideas. 

以一种吹捧的时代错误，柏拉图在《巴门尼德》（戏剧日期约公元前450年）中引入了一个叫‘亚里士多德’的角色，这是对理型论最为批判的对话。

Probably some of Aristotle’s own works on logic and disputation, the Topics and the Sophistical Refutations, belong to this period. 

亚里士多德自己关于逻辑和辩论的一些作品，如《论题篇》和《智者诡辩术的驳斥》，可能属于这个时期。

While Aristotle was at the Academy, Macedonia grew from being an unstable border province to become the greatest power in Greece. 

当亚里士多德在学园时，马其顿从一个不稳定的边境省份成长为希腊最强大的力量。

King Philip II, who came to the throne in 359, waged war against a series of hostile powers including Athens. 

在公元前359年登基的菲利普二世国王，对包括雅典在内的一系列敌对势力发动了战争。

The Athenians, despite the orator Demosthenes’ martial patriotic speeches (the ‘Philippics’), defended their interests only half-heartedly, and after a succession of humiliating concessions they allowed Philip to become, by 338, master of the Greek world. 

尽管有演说家德摩斯梯尼的战争爱国演说（‘菲利比卡’），但雅典人只是半心半意地保卫他们的利益，在一连串屈辱的让步之后，他们让菲利普在公元前338年成为希腊世界的主人。

The period was a difficult one for a Macedonian resident in Athens, and in 347 when Plato died and his nephew Speusippus became head of the Academy, Aristotle moved to Assos on the north-western coast of what is now Turkey. 

这段时期对于居住在雅典的马其顿人来说是困难的，在公元前347年柏拉图去世，他的侄子斯佩乌西普斯成为学园的负责人时，亚里士多德搬到了现在土耳其西北海岸的阿索斯。

The city was under the rule of Hermias, a graduate of the Academy, who had already invited a number of Academicians to form a new philosophical school there. 

这座城市由赫米亚斯统治，他是学园的一位毕业生，他已经邀请了一些学园成员来在那里组建一个新的哲学学派。

Aristotle became an intimate friend of Hermias, and married his adopted daughter Pythias, by whom he had two children. 

亚里士多德成为了赫米亚斯的密友，并娶了他的养女皮提亚，他们有两个孩子。

During this period he carried out extensive scientific research, particularly in marine biology. 

在这段时期，他进行了广泛的科学研究，特别是在海洋生物学方面。

This was written up in a book misleadingly entitled The History of Animals. 

这被写成了一本误导性地叫做《动物志》的书。

It contains detailed, and mainly accurate, observations of the anatomy, diet, and reproductive systems of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and crustacea; observations which were quite without precedent and which were not superseded until the seventeenth century. 

它包含了对哺乳动物、鸟类、爬行动物、鱼类和甲壳类的解剖、饮食和生殖系统的详细而且主要准确的观察；这些观察是前所未有的，直到十七世纪才被超越。

Aristotle remained at Assos until the death of Hermias, executed in 341 by the King of Persia, to whom he had been treacherously betrayed. 

亚里士多德一直留在阿索斯，直到赫米亚斯在公元前341年被波斯国王处决，他被背叛地出卖给了波斯国王。

Aristotle saluted his memory in an Ode to Virtue which is his only surviving poem. 

亚里士多德用一首《赞美美德的颂歌》来纪念他的记忆，这是他唯一留存下来的诗歌。

After Hermias’ death he was invited to the Macedonian capital by Philip II as tutor to his son, the future Alexander the Great, who succeeded as king in 336. 

在赫米亚斯死后，他被菲利普二世邀请到马其顿首都，担任他的儿子——未来的亚历山大大帝的家庭教师，他在公元前336年继承了王位。

We have little solid information about Aristotle’s relation to his distinguished pupil, who in the course of ten years made himself master of an empire that stretched from the Danube to the Indus and included Libya and Egypt. 

我们对亚里士多德与他杰出的学生之间的关系知之甚少，他的学生在十年的时间里使自己成为了一个从多瑙河到印度河，包括利比亚和埃及在内的帝国的主人。

Ancient sources tell us that during his early campaigns Alexander arranged for a team of research assistants to send his tutor biological specimens from all parts of Greece and Asia Minor; but we can tell from Aristotle’s own writings that the relationship between the two cooled markedly as the conquering monarch grew ever more megalomaniac and finally proclaimed himself divine . 

古代的资料告诉我们，在他早期的战役中，亚历山大安排了一个研究助理团队，从希腊和小亚细亚的各个地方给他的导师送去生物标本；但我们可以从亚里士多德自己的著作中看出，随着征服者君主变得越来越妄自尊大，最后宣布自己是神，两人之间的关系明显冷淡了。

While Alexander was conquering Asia, Aristotle was back in Athens, where he established his own school in the Lyceum, just outside the city boundary. 

当亚历山大在征服亚洲时，亚里士多德回到了雅典，在城市边界外的吕克奥建立了自己的学校。

Here he built up a substantial library, and gathered around him a group of brilliant research students. 

在这里，他建立了一个庞大的图书馆，并聚集了一群杰出的研究生。

The Lyceum was not a private club like the Academy; many of the lectures were open to the general public, without fee. 

吕克奥不像学院那样是一个私人俱乐部；许多讲座对公众开放，不收费。

Aristotle always acknowledged a great debt to Plato, whom on his death he described as the best and happiest of mortals ‘whom it is not right for evil men even to praise’. 

亚里士多德总是承认自己对柏拉图有着巨大的亏欠，在他去世时，他描述柏拉图是“最好最幸福的凡人，邪恶的人甚至没有权利赞美他”。

His main philosophical writings show the influence of his master on almost every page. 

他的主要哲学著作几乎每一页都显示出他的老师的影响。

But he was not an uncritical disciple, and in antiquity some called him an ungrateful foal, who had kicked his mother. 

但他不是一个不加批判的门徒，在古代，有些人称他为一个踢了他的母亲的忘恩负义的小马。

Since the Renaissance it has been traditional to regard the Academy and the Lyceum as two opposite poles of philosophy. 

自从文艺复兴以来，把学院和吕克奥看作是哲学的两个对立极端已经成为传统。

Plato, according to this tradition, was idealistic, Utopian, other-worldly; Aristotle was realistic, utilitarian, common-sensical. 

根据这个传统，柏拉图是理式主义的、乌托邦式的、超脱世俗的；亚里士多德是现实主义的、功利主义的、常识性的。

Thus in Raphael’s School of Athens, Plato, wearing the colours of the volatile elements air and fire, points heavenwards; Aristotle, clothed in watery blue and earthy green, has his feet firmly on the ground. 

因此，在拉斐尔的《雅典学院》中，柏拉图穿着代表易变元素空气和火的颜色，指向天空；亚里士多德穿着水蓝色和土黄色的衣服，双脚牢牢地站在地上。

‘Every man is born an Aristotelian or a Platonist,’ said S. T. Coleridge. ‘They are the two classes of men, besides which it is next to impossible to conceive a third.’ 

S.T.柯勒律治说：“每个人生来都是亚里士多德派或柏拉图派。除此之外，几乎不可能想象出第三类人。”

In our own age W. B. Yeats pointed the contrast: 

在我们自己的时代，W.B.叶芝指出了这种对比：

Plato thought nature but a spume that plays 

Upon a ghostly paradigm of things; 

Solider Aristotle played the taws 

Upon the bottom of a king of kings. 

柏拉图认为自然不过是水泡

被幽灵般的理式戏弄着，产生事物的千变万化；

更务实的亚里士多德挥舞着桦木条

会鞭打一位王中之王的屁股：

In fact, as we shall see, Aristotle took a large part of his philosophical agenda from Plato, and his teaching is more often a modification than a refutation of Plato’s doctrines. 

事实上，正如我们将要看到的，亚里士多德从柏拉图那里借鉴了他哲学模式的很大一部分，他的教导更多地是对柏拉图的教义的修改而不是反驳。

Modern historians of ideas were less perceptive than the many commentators in late antiquity who saw it as their duty to construct a harmonious concord between the two greatest philosophers of the ancient world. 

现代思想史学家的洞察力不如晚古代的许多评论家，他们认为他们的职责是在古代最伟大的两位哲学家之间建立一种和谐的协调。

Alexander the Great died in 323. 

亚历山大大帝于公元前323年去世。

Democratic Athens rejoiced, and once again it became an uncomfortable home for even an anti-imperialist Macedonian. 

民主的雅典欢欣鼓舞，它再次成为了一个即使是反帝国主义者的马其顿人也感到不舒服的家园。

Saying that he did not wish the city which had executed Socrates ‘to sin twice against philosophy’, Aristotle escaped to Chalcis, on a nearby Greek island, where he died a year after Alexander. 

他亚里士多德说他不希望那个处死了苏格拉底的城市“对哲学犯下两次罪过”，他逃到了附近一个希腊岛屿上的卡尔基斯，在那里他在亚历山大去世后一年死去。

Aristotle left his papers to Theophrastus, his successor as head of the Lyceum. 

亚里士多德把他的论文留给了塞奥弗拉斯托斯，他是吕克奥的继任者。

They were enormous in volume and in scope, including writings on constitutional history and the history of sport and the theatre, and works of botany, zoology, biology, psychology, chemistry, meteorology, astronomy, and cosmology, as well as more strictly philosophical treatises of logic, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, political theory, theory of knowledge, philosophy of science, and the history of ideas. 

它们在数量和范围上都是巨大的，包括关于宪法史、体育史和戏剧史的著作，以及植物学、动物学、生物学、心理学、化学、气象学、天文学和宇宙学等方面的作品，以及更严格地说是关于逻辑、形而上学、伦理学、美学、政治理论、认识论、科学哲学和思想史等方面的哲学论文。

It was some centuries before these works were properly catalogued, and it has been calculated that four-fifths of what he wrote has been lost. 

这些作品在被正确地编目之前经过了几个世纪，据估计，他写的东西有五分之四已经失传了。

What survives amounts to about one million words, twice the extent of the Platonic corpus. 

存留下来的大约有一百万字，是柏拉图著作的两倍。

Most of this material appears to be in the form of notes for lectures, sometimes in more than one draft.

这些材料中的大部分似乎是以讲座笔记的形式出现的，有时有不止一个草稿。

Aristotle’s style was admired in the ancient world; but the writings we possess, though packed with ideas and full of energy, lack the kind of polish which makes for easy reading. 

亚里士多德的风格在古代世界受到了赞赏；但我们拥有的著作，尽管充满了思想和活力，却缺乏使阅读变得容易的那种润色。

What has been delivered to us across the centuries are telegrams from Aristotle rather than epistles. 

传递给我们的是来自亚里士多德的电报，而不是书信。

The Foundation of Logic

逻辑的基础

Many of the sciences to which Aristotle contributed were disciplines which he himself founded. 

亚里士多德所贡献的许多科学都是他自己创立的学科。

He makes the claim explicit only in one case: that of logic. 

他只在一个情况下明确地提出了这个主张：那就是逻辑。

At the end of one of his logical works he wrote: 

在他的一个逻辑著作的结尾，他写道：

In the case of rhetoric there were many old writings to draw upon, but in the case of logic we had absolutely nothing at all to mention until we had spent much time in laborious research. 

在修辞学的情况下，有许多古老的著作可以借鉴，但在逻辑的情况下，我们一点也没有可提及的东西，直到我们花了很多时间进行艰苦的研究。

Aristotle’s principal logical investigations concerned relations between sentences which make statements. 

亚里士多德主要的逻辑研究涉及到做出陈述的句子之间的关系。

Which of them are consistent or inconsistent with each other? 

它们中哪些是一致或不一致的？

When we have one or more true statements, what further truths can be inferred from them by reasoning alone? 

当我们有一个或多个真实的陈述时，我们可以通过单纯的推理从中推断出什么更深刻的真理？

These questions are answered in his Prior Analytics. 

这些问题在他的《前分析篇》中得到了回答。

Unlike Plato, Aristotle does not take a simple noun–verb sentence such as ‘Theaetetus is sitting’ as the basic element of logical structure. 

不像柏拉图，亚里士多德不把像‘泰阿泰德在坐着’这样的简单名词-动词句子作为逻辑结构的基本元素。

He is much more interested in classifying sentences beginning with ‘all’ ‘no’ and ‘some’, and evaluating inferences between them. 

他更感兴趣的是对以‘所有’‘没有’和‘一些’开头的句子进行分类，并评估它们之间的推理。

Consider the following two inferences. 

(1) All Greeks are Europeans 

Some Greeks are male 

Therefore, some Europeans are male. and 

(2) All cows are mammals 

Some mammals are quadrupeds 

Therefore, all cows are quadrupeds. 

考虑以下两个推理。

(1) 所有希腊人都是欧洲人 

一些希腊人是男性 

因此，一些欧洲人是男性。 和 

(2) 所有牛都是哺乳动物 

一些哺乳动物是四足动物 

因此，所有牛都是四足动物。

These two inferences have a lot in common with each other. They are both inferences which draw a conclusion from a pair of premisses. In each inference a keyword which appears in the grammatical subject of the conclusion appears in one of the premisses, and a keyword which appears in the grammatical predicate of the conclusion appears in the other premiss. Aristotle devoted much attention to inferences displaying this feature, which are nowadays called ‘syllogisms’ after the Greek word which he used for them. The branch of logic which studies the validity of inferences of this kind, which was initiated by Aristotle, is called ‘syllogistic’. 

这两个推理有很多共同之处。它们都是从一对前提中得出结论的推理。在每个推理中，出现在结论的语法主语中的一个关键词出现在其中一个前提中，而出现在结论的语法谓语中的一个关键词出现在另一个前提中。亚里士多德对显示这种特征的推理给予了很多关注，这些推理现在被称为‘三段论’，这是他用来指代它们的希腊词。研究这种推理的有效性的逻辑分支，由亚里士多德发起，被称为‘三段论学’。

A valid inference is an inference of a form which will never lead from true premisses to a false conclusion. Of the two inferences set out above, the first is valid and the second is invalid. It is true that in each of the cases given the premisses are true and the conclusion is true. One cannot fault the second inference on the ground that the sentences occurring in it are false. What one can fault is the ‘therefore’: the conclusion may be true, but it does not follow from the premisses. 

一个有效的推理是一种形式的推理，它永远不会从真实的前提导致一个错误的结论。在上面列出的两个推理中，第一个是有效的，第二个是无效的。事实上，在给出的每个情况中，前提都是真的，结论也是真的。人们不能以句子中出现的错误为理由来指责第二个推理。人们可以指责的是‘因此’：结论可能是真的，但它并不是由前提推出来的。

We can bring this out by constructing a parallel inference which leads from true premisses to a false conclusion. For instance: 

(3) All whales are mammals 

Some mammals are land-animals 

Therefore, all whales are land-animals. 

我们可以通过构造一个从真实的前提导致错误的结论的平行推理来说明这一点。例如：

(3) 所有鲸鱼都是哺乳动物 

一些哺乳动物是陆生动物 

因此，所有鲸鱼都是陆生动物。

The inference is of the same form as inference 

(2), as can be brought out by exhibiting the structure of the inference by schematic letters. 

(4) All As are Bs 

Some Bs are Cs 

Therefore all As are Cs. 

这个推理与推理具有相同的形式

(2)可以通过用示意字母展示推理的结构来显示出来。 

(4) 所有A都是B 

一些B是C 

因此所有A都是C。

Because inference (3) leads from true premisses to a false conclusion, we can see that the argument-form of (4) cannot be relied upon. Hence, inference (2), though its conclusion is in fact true, is not a valid inference. 

因为推理(3)从真实的前提导致了错误的结论，我们可以看出(4)的论证形式是不可靠的。因此，推理(2)，尽管它的结论事实上是真的，但不是一个有效的推理。

Logic could never have proceeded past its first steps without schematic letters, and their use is something now taken absolutely for granted; but it was Aristotle who first began to use them, and his invention was as important to logic as the invention of algebra was to mathematics. 

如果没有示意字母，逻辑就永远无法超越它的第一步，它们的使用现在被完全视为理所当然；但最先开始使用它们的是亚里士多德，他的发明对逻辑来说就像代数对数学一样重要。

One way to define logic is to say that it is the discipline which sorts out good inferences from bad. 

定义逻辑的一种方法是说，它是一门从坏的推理中分辨出好的推理的学科。

Aristotle examines all the possible forms of syllogistic inference and frames a set of principles which would sort out good syllogisms from bad syllogisms. 

亚里士多德检查了所有可能的三段论推理形式，并制定了一套原则，可以从坏的三段论中分辨出好的三段论。

He begins by classifying the individual sentences or propositions in the premisses. 

他首先对前提中的单个句子或命题进行分类。

Ones beginning ‘all’ are universal propositions; ones beginning ‘some’ are particular propositions. 

以‘所有’开头的是普遍命题；以‘一些’开头的是特殊命题。

Ones containing ‘not’ are negative propositions; others are affirmative propositions. 

包含‘不’的是否定命题；其他的是肯定命题。

Aristotle then uses these classifications to draw up rules to evaluate inferences. 

然后，亚里士多德用这些分类来制定评估推理的规则。

For instance, if a syllogism is to be valid, at least one premiss must be affirmative, at least one premiss must be universal, and if either premiss is negative the conclusion must be negative. 

例如，如果一个三段论要有效，至少一个前提必须是肯定的，至少一个前提必须是普遍的，如果任何一个前提是否定的，结论必须是否定的。

Aristotle’s rules, in their totality, are sufficient to validate sound syllogisms and eliminate invalid ones. 

亚里士多德的规则，在它们的总体上，足以验证正确的三段论并消除无效的三段论。

They are sufficient, for instance, to accept inference (1) and reject inference (2). 

它们足以接受推理(1)并拒绝推理(2)。

Aristotle believed that his syllogistic was sufficient to deal with every possible valid inference. 

亚里士多德相信他的三段论学足以处理每一个可能的有效推理。

This was an error; in fact, the system, though complete in itself, was only a fragment of logic. 

这是一个错误；事实上，这个系统，虽然本身是完整的，但只是逻辑的一个片段。

It had two weaknesses. 

它有两个弱点。

First, it did not deal with inferences depending not on words like ‘all’ and ‘some’, which attach to nouns, but on words like ‘if ’ and ‘then’, which link sentences. 

首先，它没有处理不依赖于像‘所有’和‘一些’这样附着于名词的词，而依赖于像‘如果’和‘那么’这样连接句子的词的推理。

It was some centuries later before anyone formalized patterns of inference such as ‘If it is not day, it is night; but it is not day; therefore it is night’. 

直到几个世纪之后，才有人将像‘如果不是白天，就是黑夜；但不是白天；因此是黑夜’这样的推理模式形式化。

Secondly, even within its own field, Aristotle’s logic could not cope with inferences in which words like ‘all’ or ‘some’ (or ‘every’ and ‘any’) occurred not in the subject place but somewhere in the grammatical predicate. 

其次，在它自己的领域内，亚里士多德的逻辑也无法处理那些像‘所有’或‘一些’（或‘每一个’和‘任何一个’）这样的词不出现在主语位置而出现在语法谓语某个地方的推理。

The rules would not permit one to determine, for instance, the validity of inferences containing premisses such as ‘every schoolchild knows some dates’ or ‘some people hate all policemen’. 

规则不允许人们确定，例如，包含像‘每个学生都知道一些日期’或‘一些人恨所有的警察’这样的前提的推理的有效性。

It was not until twenty-two centuries after Aristotle’s death that this gap was filled. 

直到亚里士多德死后二十二个世纪，这个空白才被填补。

Logic is used in all the various sciences which Aristotle studied; perhaps it is not so much a science itself as an instrument or tool of the sciences. 

逻辑被用于亚里士多德所研究的所有各种科学；也许它本身不是一门科学，而是一种科学的工具或工具。

That was the view taken of Aristotle’s logical works by his successors, who called them the ‘Organon’ after the Greek word for tool. 

这是亚里士多德的继承者对他的逻辑著作所持的观点，他们用希腊语中表示工具的词‘Organon’（工具论）来称呼它们。

The Posterior Analytics tells us how logic functions in the sciences. 

《后分析篇》告诉我们逻辑在科学中是如何运作的。

Those who learnt Euclidean geometry at school will recall how many geometrical truths, or theorems, were derived by deductive reasoning from a small initial set of other truths called axioms. 

那些在学校学过欧几里得几何的人会回想起有多少几何真理或定理是通过从一小组其他被称为公理的真理开始的演绎推理得出的。

Though Euclid himself was not born until late in Aristotle’s life, this axiomatic method was already familiar to geometricians, and Aristotle believed it to be very widely applicable. 

尽管欧几里得本人直到亚里士多德晚年才出生，但这种公理化方法已经为几何学家所熟知，亚里士多德认为它具有非常广泛的适用性。

Logic provided the rules for the derivation of theorems from axioms, and each science would have its own special set of axioms. 

逻辑提供了从公理推导定理的规则，每一门科学都有自己特殊的公理集合。

The sciences could be ordered in hierarchies, with sciences lower down a hierarchy treating as axioms propositions which might be theorems of a higher science. 

科学可以按照层次来排序，层次较低的科学把可能是层次较高的科学定理的命题作为公理来处理。

If we take ‘science’ in a broad sense, Aristotle says, there are three kinds of sciences: productive, practical, and theoretical. 

如果我们广义地理解‘科学’，亚里士多德说，有三种科学：创造性的、实践性的和理论性的。

Productive sciences include engineering and architecture, and also disciplines such as rhetoric and playwriting whose products are less concrete. 

创造性科学包括工程和建筑，以及像修辞和剧本创作这样产品不太具体的学科。

Practical sciences are ones which guide behaviour, most notably ethics and politics. 

实践性科学是指导行为的科学，最著名的是伦理学和政治学。

Theoretical sciences are those which have no product and no practical goal, but pursue truth for its own sake. 

理论性科学是那些没有产品和实践目标，而是为了真理本身而追求真理的科学。

Theoretical science, in its turn, is threefold. 

理论科学，反过来说，也是三重的。

Aristotle names the three divisions ‘Physics, Mathematics, Theology’; but in this classification only mathematics is what it seems to be. 

亚里士多德把这三个部分命名为‘物理、数学、神学’；但在这个分类中，只有数学是它看起来的样子。

‘Physics’ means natural philosophy or the study of nature ( physis); it includes, in addition to the disciplines which we would nowadays think of as part of physics, chemistry and biology plus animal and human psychology. 

‘物理’意味着自然哲学或对自然（physis）的研究；它除了包括我们现在认为是物理部分的学科外，还包括化学、生物学以及动物和人类心理学。

‘Theology’ is, for Aristotle, the study of entities above and superior to human beings, that is to say, the starry skies as well as whatever divinities may inhabit heaven. 

对于亚里士多德来说，‘神学’是对高于和优于人类的实体的研究，也就是说，星空以及可能居住在天堂的任何神灵。

‘Metaphysics’ is not a name which occurs in Aristotle; indeed the word means simply ‘after physics’ and it was coined to refer to those works of his own which were catalogued after his Physics.

‘形而上学’不是亚里士多德中出现的一个名字；事实上，这个词只是简单地意味着‘在物理之后’，它是为了指代那些在他的《物理学》之后被编目的他自己的作品而创造的。

But much of what Aristotle wrote would nowadays naturally be described as metaphysics; and he did have his own name for the discipline, as we shall see later. 

但亚里士多德写的很多东西现在自然会被描述为形而上学；而且他确实有自己的名字来称呼这门学科，我们稍后会看到。

The Theory of Drama 

戏剧理论

In the realm of productive sciences, Aristotle wrote two works: the Rhetoric and the Poetics, designed to assist barristers and playwrights in their respective tasks.

在创造性科学的领域，亚里士多德写了两部作品：《修辞学》和《诗学》，旨在帮助律师和剧作家完成各自的任务。

The Rhetoric has interested modern philosophers chiefly on account of the detailed and sensitive examination, in the second book, of the human emotions on which the orator has to play. 

《修辞学》主要因为在第二卷中对演说者必须利用的人类情感进行了详细而敏感的考察，而引起了现代哲学家的兴趣。

The Poetics, throughout history, has interested a much wider audience. 

《诗学》，在历史上，吸引了更广泛的读者。

Only its first book survives, a treatment of epic and tragic poetry. 

只有它的第一卷保存下来，是对史诗和悲剧诗歌的论述。

The second book, on comedy, is lost. 

第二卷，关于喜剧的，已经失传了。

Umberto Eco, in The Name of the Rose, wove a dramatic fiction around its imagined survival and then destruction in a medieval abbey. 

艾柯，在《玫瑰之名》中，围绕着它想象中的幸存和在一个中世纪修道院中的毁灭编织了一个戏剧性的小说。

The surviving first book deals principally with the nature of tragic drama. 

保存下来的第一卷主要讨论了悲剧戏剧的本质。

Six things, Aristotle says, are necessary for a tragedy: plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, and melody. 

亚里士多德说，悲剧需要六个要素：情节、人物、言辞、思想、场面和旋律。

The elements appear to be listed in order of importance. 

这些要素似乎是按照重要性的顺序列出来的。

The melodies sung by the choruses in a Greek drama, and the setting of the stage by the director, are, he says, no more than pleasurable accessories: what is really great in tragedy can be appreciated by listening to an unadorned reading of the text no less than by watching the play on the stage. 

他说，在希腊戏剧中，合唱团所唱的旋律，以及导演对舞台的布置，不过是令人愉快的附属品：悲剧真正伟大的地方可以通过听一段没有装饰的文本朗读来欣赏，不亚于在舞台上观看戏剧。

Thought and diction are more important: it is the thoughts expressed by the characters that arouse emotion in the hearer, and if they are to do so successfully they must be presented convincingly by the actors. 

思想和言辞更为重要：是人物所表达的思想引起了听者的情感，如果他们要成功地做到这一点，他们必须被演员以令人信服的方式呈现出来。

But it is character and plot which really bring out the genius of a tragic poet. 

但真正体现出悲剧诗人天才的是人物和情节。

The main character, or tragic hero, must be neither supremely good nor extremely bad: he should be a person of rank who is basically good, but comes to grief through some great error. 

主角或悲剧英雄不能太好也不能太坏：他应该是一个基本上善良的高贵人物，但因为一些后果严重的错误而陷入悲惨。

Every one of the dramatis personae should possess some good features, and all should act consistently. 

每一个戏剧人物都应该具有一些好的特征，而且都应该行为一致。

What they do should the whole plot turns. 

他们所做的应该是整个情节的转折点。

Typically, the story will get ever more complicated up to a turning-point in the story, which Aristotle calls a ‘reversal’ ( peripeteia). 

通常，故事会变得越来越复杂，直到故事的一个转折点，亚里士多德称之为‘反转’（peripeteia）。

That is the moment at which the apparently fortunate hero falls to disaster, perhaps through a ‘revelation’ ( anagnorisis), the discovery of some crucial but hitherto unknown piece of information. 

那是一个看似幸运的英雄陷入灾难的时刻，也许是通过一个‘启示’（anagnorisis），发现了一些至关重要但迄今未知的信息。

After the reversal comes the dénouement, in which the complications earlier introduced are gradually unravelled. 

在逆转之后，就是结局，其中之前引入的复杂情节逐渐被解开。

Aristotle says that the story must arouse pity and fear: that is the whole point of tragedy. 

亚里士多德说，故事必须引起怜悯和恐惧：这就是悲剧的全部意义。

It is most likely to do so if it shows people as the victims of hatred and murder where they could most expect to be loved and cherished. 

如果它显示出人们在最希望被爱和珍惜的地方成为了仇恨和谋杀的受害者，那么它最有可能做到这一点。

That is why so many tragedies concern feuds within a single family. 

这就是为什么这么多的悲剧涉及到一个家庭内部的争斗。

All these observations are illustrated by constant reference to actual Greek plays; the one most often cited is Sophocles’ tragedy of King Oedipus. 

所有这些观察都通过不断地引用实际的希腊戏剧来说明；最常被引用的一个是索福克勒斯的《俄狄浦斯国王》。

Oedipus, at the beginning of the play, enjoys reputation and prosperity. 

在戏剧开始时，俄狄浦斯享有声誉和繁荣。

But he has the fatal flaw of impetuosity, which has led him to kill a stranger in a scuffle, and marry a bride without sufficient inquiry into her origins. 

但他有一个致命的缺点，那就是冲动，这导致他在一场争斗中杀死了一个陌生人，并娶了一个没有充分调查她出身的新娘。

The ‘revelation’ that the man was his father and the woman his mother leads to the ‘reversal’ of his fortune, as he is banished from his kingdom and blinds himself in shame and remorse. 

‘启示’这个男人是他的父亲，这个女人是他的母亲，导致了他命运的‘反转’，因为他被放逐出他的王国，并在羞愧和悔恨中弄瞎了自己。

Why should we seek to arouse pity and fear, which we are told is the purpose of tragedy? 

为什么我们应该寻求激起怜悯和恐惧，这是我们被告知的悲剧的目的？

‘In order to purify our emotions’ is Aristotle’s answer. 

‘为了净化我们的情感’是亚里士多德的回答。

No one is quite sure what he meant by this: but most probably the point is that watching tragedy helps us to put our own sorrows and worries into due proportion. 

没有人完全确定他这是什么意思：但最有可能的是，观看悲剧可以帮助我们把自己的悲哀和忧虑放在适当的比例中。

Aristotle’s account of tragedy enables him to answer Plato’s complaint that artists, poets, and playwrights were only imitators of everyday life, which was itself only an imitation of the real world of the Ideas. 

亚里士多德对悲剧的论述使他能够回应柏拉图的抱怨，即艺术家、诗人和剧作家只是日常生活的模仿者，而日常生活本身只是理念世界的模仿。

Tragedy, he says, is in fact closer to the ideal than history is. 

他说，悲剧事实上比历史更接近理式。

Much of what happens to people in everyday life is a matter of sheer accident: only in fiction can we see the working out of character and action into their natural consequences. 

日常生活中发生在人们身上的很多事情都是纯粹的偶然：只有在虚构中，我们才能看到性格和行为按照它们自然的结果发展。

‘Hence poetry is more philosophical and more important than history; for poetry tells us of the universal, while history tells us of the individual.’ 

‘因此，诗歌比历史更哲学和更重要；因为诗歌告诉我们普遍的东西，而历史告诉我们个别的东西。’

Moral Philosophy: Virtue and Happiness 

道德哲学：美德和幸福

Aristotle’s contribution to the practical sciences was made by his writings on moral philosophy and political theory. 

亚里士多德对实践科学的贡献是通过他关于道德哲学和政治理论的著作来实现的。

We possess his moral philosophy in three different versions, two of them his own notes for lecturing, and the third probably notes of his lectures made by a pupil. 

我们拥有他道德哲学的三个不同版本，其中两个是他自己讲课用的笔记，第三个可能是他一个学生做的他讲课的笔记。

The dating of the two authentic treatises, the Eudemian and Nicomachean Ethics, is a matter of controversy; most scholars, for no good reason, regard the Eudemian Ethics as a youthful and inferior work. 

两部真实著作，《欧德米安伦理学》和《尼各马可伦理学》的年代是一个有争议的问题；大多数学者，没有充分的理由，认为《欧德米安伦理学》是一部青年时期和低劣的作品。

There is much better reason for the consensus that the third work, the Magna Moralia, is not from Aristotle’s own hand. 

对于第三部作品，《the Magna Moralia》，不是亚里士多德自己写的这一共识，有很充分的证据。

Whatever its intrinsic merits, the Eudemian Ethics has never been studied by more than a handful of scholars; it is the Nicomachean Ethics which, since the beginning of the Christian era, has been regarded as the Ethics of Aristotle, and it is from there that I will take my account of his moral philosophy. 

不管它的内在价值如何，《欧德米安伦理学》从来没有被多于少数学者研究过；《尼各马可伦理学》自从基督教时代开始，就被视为亚里士多德的伦理学，我将从那里开始叙述他的道德哲学。

Since ethics is a practical science, the treatise concerns the nature and purpose of human action. 

由于伦理学是一门实践科学，这部著作涉及到人类行为的本质和目的。

When we ask for the why and wherefore of any human action, we can be told that it is to be done for the sake of something else; we can ask in turn for the why and wherefore of that something else; sooner or later we reach a point where there is no further answer to the question. 

当我们询问任何人类行为的原因和目的时，我们可以被告知它是为了别的什么而做的；我们可以反过来询问那个别的什么的原因和目的；迟早我们会达到一个没有进一步答案的问题的点。

This is the goal or end of an action, and it is the worthwhileness of this end of an action which makes the actions leading to it themselves worthwhile. 

这就是行为的目标或终点，而正是这个行为终点的有价值性使得导致它的行为本身有价值。

The best of all human goods would be a good which appeared at the origin of every chain of practical reasoning: that would be an absolute good, an independent good on which the goodness of every other human good depended, as the goodness of health-producing drugs or regimes depends on the goodness of health itself. 

所有人类善中最好的善将是一个出现在每一条实践推理链的起源处的善：那将是一个绝对善，一个独立善，每一个其他人类善的善都依赖于它，就像产生健康的药物或制度的善依赖于健康本身的善一样。

It is this supreme good that is the subject matter of the science of ethics, which is the supreme practical science. 

这个至高善就是伦理学这门最高实践科学所研究的主题。

The Nicomachean Ethics covers much the same ground as Plato’s Republic; with some exaggeration one could say that Aristotle’s moral philosophy is Plato’s moral philosophy with the Theory of Ideas stripped out. 

《尼各马可伦理学》涵盖了与柏拉图的《理想国》相同的领域；有些夸张地说，亚里士多德的道德哲学是柏拉图的道德哲学，只是剥去了理型论。

Right at the beginning, Aristotle explains why the supreme good of which ethics treats cannot be identified with the Idea of the Good. 

在一开始，亚里士多德就解释了伦理学所论述的至高善为什么不能与善的理念相同。

Plato was his friend, he says, but truth is a greater friend, and truth obliges him to bring forward no less than eight arguments to show the incoherence of this part of the Theory of Ideas. 

他说，柏拉图是他的朋友，但真理是更重要的朋友，真理迫使他提出不少于八个论据来揭示理式论这一部分的不连贯性。

Most of the arguments are highly technical, and bear the marks of esoteric discussions in the Academy: but perhaps the clinching one is that ethics is a practical science, about what is within human power to achieve, whereas an everlasting and unchanging Idea of the Good could only be of theoretical interest. 

大多数论据都是高度技术性的，并带有学园内部讨论的痕迹：但也许最有力的一个是，伦理学是一门实践科学，关于人类力所能及的事情，而一个永恒不变的善的理式只能是理论上的兴趣。

Aristotle agrees, however, with the central contention of the Republic that there is an intimate connection between living virtuously and living happily, and that morality is to the soul what health is to the body. 

然而，亚里士多德同意《理想国》的中心论点，即有德地生活和幸福地生活之间存在着密切的联系，道德对于灵魂就像健康对于身体一样。

Indeed it is happiness ( eudaimonia) which he puts in place of the Idea of the Good as the supreme good with which ethics is concerned. 

事实上，幸福（eudaimonia）是他用来代替伦理学所关注的至高善的善的理式的。

What then is happiness? 

那么，幸福是什么呢？

To elucidate this we have to consider the function or characteristic activity ( ergon) of man. 为了阐明这一点，我们必须考虑人的功能或特征活动（ergon）。

Man must have a function, because particular types of men (e.g. sculptors) do, and parts and organs of human beings do. 

人必须有一个功能，因为特定类型的人（例如雕塑家）有，而且人类的部分和器官也有。

What is this function? 

这个功能是什么？

Not life, not at least the life of growth and nourishment, for this is shared by plants, nor the life of the senses, for this is shared by animals. 

不是生命，至少不是生长和营养的生命，因为这是植物所共有的，也不是感官的生命，因为这是动物所共有的。

It must be a life of reason concerned with action: the activity of soul in accordance with reason. 

它必须是一个与行动有关的理性生活：按照理性的灵魂活动。

So human good will be good human functioning: namely, Aristotle says, ‘activity of soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are several virtues, in accordance with the best and most perfect’. 

所以人类善将是良好的人类功能：也就是说，亚里士多德说，‘按照美德的灵魂活动，如果有多种美德，那就按照最好和最完美的美德。’

Well, how many virtues are there, and what is the best of them? 

那么，有多少种美德，哪一种是最好的？

Aristotle starts to answer the first question at the end of the first book of the Nicomachean Ethics; it takes nine further books to answer the second. 

亚里士多德在《尼各马可伦理学》第一卷的结尾开始回答第一个问题；他花了另外九卷来回答第二个问题。

Like Plato, Aristotle begins by analysing the structure of the soul, and he offers his own division into three elements: a vegetable element, an appetitive element, and a rational element. 

像柏拉图一样，亚里士多德首先分析了灵魂的结构，并提出了他自己将其分为三个要素：植物要素、欲望要素和理性要素。

The vegetable element is responsible for nourishment and growth; it is irrelevant to ethics. 

植物要素负责营养和生长；它与伦理无关。

The second element in the soul is one which, unlike the vegetable part, is under the control of reason. 

灵魂中的第二个要素是一个与植物部分不同的要素，它受理性的控制。

It is the part of the soul for desire and passion, corresponding to appetite and temper in the Platonic tripartite soul. 

它是灵魂中负责欲望和激情的部分，相当于柏拉图的三部分灵魂中的欲望和气质。

This part of the soul has its own virtues: the moral virtues, such as courage, temperance, and liberality. 

这个灵魂的部分有自己的美德：道德美德，如勇气、节制和慷慨。

The rational part of the soul, later to be itself subdivided, is the seat of the intellectual virtues like wisdom and understanding. 

灵魂的理性部分，后来也被细分，是智慧和理解等智力美德的所在。

Books II to V of the Ethics deal with the moral virtues, first in general and then individually. 

《伦理学》的第二到第五卷讨论了道德美德，先是一般地，然后是个别地。

Moral virtues are not innate, nor are they simply passed on by a teacher to a pupil; they are acquired by practice and lost by disuse. 

道德美德不是天生的，也不是简单地由老师传给学生的；它们是通过实践获得的，也是通过不用而失去的。

A moral virtue, Aristotle says, is not a faculty (like intelligence or memory) nor a passion (like a rush of anger or a tug of pity). 

亚里士多德说，道德美德不是一种能力（像智力或记忆力）也不是一种激情（像一阵怒火或一股怜悯）。

Neither the simple possession of faculties nor the simple occurrence of passions make people good or bad, praiseworthy or blameworthy. 

单纯拥有能力或单纯发生激情并不能使人们变得好或坏，值得赞扬或责备。

What makes a man a good man is the abiding state of his soul; or, as we would more naturally say in English, the state of his character.

使一个人成为一个好人的是他灵魂的持久状态；或者，正如我们在英语中更自然地说的，他性格的状态。

A moral virtue is a state of character which makes a person choose well and act well. 

道德美德是一种性格状态，它使一个人选择得好并行动得好。

Choosing well is a matter of choosing a good way of life; acting well consists in avoiding excess and defect in particular kinds of action. 

选择得好是选择一种好的生活方式的问题；行动得好在于避免特定类型的行为中的过度和缺陷。

If you are to be virtuous you must, for instance, avoid eating and drinking too much; you must also avoid eating and drinking too little. 

如果你要有美德，你必须，例如，避免吃喝过多；你也必须避免吃喝过少。

In your intercourse with others, you may go wrong by talking too much, or by talking too little; by being too solemn or too frivolous; by being too trusting, or not trusting enough. 

在你与他人的交往中，你可能会因为说话太多或太少而出错；因为太严肃或太轻浮而出错；因为太信任或不够信任而出错。

Virtue, Aristotle says, chooses the mean or middle ground between excess and defect: the virtuous man eats and drinks the right amount, talks the right amount and so on. 

亚里士多德说，美德选择了过度和缺陷之间的中庸或中间地带：有美德的人吃喝适量，说话适量等等。

Such is Aristotle’s celebrated doctrine of the mean.

 这就是亚里士多德著名的中庸之道。

It is often mocked because it is often misunderstood. 

它经常被嘲笑，因为它经常被误解。

Rightly understood, it is a fine piece of conceptual analysis. 

正确理解的话，它是一篇精彩的概念分析。

Aristotle is not praising a golden mediocrity, nor is he encouraging us to stay in the middle of the herd. 亚里士多德不是在赞扬一种金子般的平庸，也不是在鼓励我们留在群体的中间。

What constitutes the right amount of something, he says expressly, may differ from person to person, in the way that the right amount of food for an Olympic champion differs from the right amount of food for a novice athlete. 

他明确地说，某件事物的适量可能因人而异，就像奥运冠军所需的食物量与新手运动员所需的食物量不同一样。

The doctrine of the mean is not meant as a recipe for correct living: we have to find out for ourselves what is the right amount in each case. 

中庸之道并不是正确生活的秘诀：我们必须自己找出每种情况下的适量。

But we do so by learning to avoid excess and defect; as, nowadays, we learn to steer a car along the correct part of the road by mastering our initial swerves towards the kerb and towards the oncoming traffic. 

但我们是通过学习避免过度和缺陷来做到这一点的；就像现在，我们通过掌握我们最初向路边和迎面而来的交通偏离的方式，学会沿着道路的正确部分驾驶汽车一样。

Once we have learnt, by whatever means, the right amount of some kind of action – whether it is the right length of an after-dinner speech, or the right proportion of one’s income to give to charity – then, Aristotle says, we have ‘the right prescription’ ( orthos logos) in our mind. 

一旦我们通过任何方式学会了某种行为的适量——无论是饭后演讲的合适长度，还是给慈善机构捐款的合适比例——那么，亚里士多德说，我们就有了‘正确的处方’（orthos logos）在我们的心中。

Virtue is the state which enables us to act in accordance with the right prescription. 

美德是使我们能够按照正确处方行动的状态。

Virtue concerns not only actions, but also passions. 

美德不仅关乎行为，也关乎情感。

We can have too many fears, and we can have too few fears; we can be excessively concerned with sex or insufficiently interested in it.

 我们可能有太多的恐惧，也可能有太少的恐惧；我们可能对性过分关注，也可能对性兴趣不足。

The virtuous person is fearless when appropriate, and fearful when appropriate, and is neither lustful nor frigid. 

有美德的人在适当时无所畏惧，在适当时恐惧，并且既不好色也不冷淡。

Virtue is concerned with the mean of passion as well as the mean of action. 

美德关乎情感和行为的中庸。

The virtues, besides being concerned with means of action and passion, are themselves means, in the sense that they occupy a middle ground between two contrary vices. 

美德除了关乎行为和情感的中庸之外，本身也是中庸，因为它们占据了两个相反的恶习之间的中间地带。

Thus generosity is a mean between prodigality and miserliness; courage is a mean between cowardice and rashness. 

因此，慷慨是浪费和吝啬之间的中庸；勇气是胆怯和鲁莽之间的中庸。

But virtues do not admit of the mean in the way that actions do: there cannot be too much of a virtue. 

但美德不像行为那样容许中庸：美德不能过多。

If we say seriously that someone is over-generous, we mean that he has crossed the boundary between the virtue of generosity and the vice of prodigality. 

如果我们认真地说某人太慷慨了，我们的意思是他已经越过了慷慨的美德和浪费的恶习之间的界限。

The mayor who said that he did his best to walk the narrow path between partiality and impartiality had misunderstood Aristotle’s doctrine. 

那位说他尽力走在偏袒和公正之间的狭窄道路上的市长，误解了亚里士多德的学说。

While all moral virtues are means, and concerned with means, not all actions and passions, Aristotle says, are the kinds of things that can have means. 

亚里士多德说，虽然所有的道德美德都是中庸，也关乎中庸，但并不是所有的行为和情感都是可以有中庸的东西。

He gives as examples of excluded actions murder and adultery: we could never justly compain that somebody had committed too few murders, and there is no such thing as committing adultery with the right person at the right time in the right way. 

他举了一些被排除在外的行为作为例子，如谋杀和通奸：我们永远不能公正地抱怨某人杀人太少，也没有这样一种事情，就是在正确的时间、正确的方式与正确的人通奸。

Among excluded passions he lists envy and spite: any amount of these sentiments is too much.

在被排除在外的情感中，他列举了嫉妒和怨恨：这些情绪任何程度都太多了。

Aristotle’s account of virtue as a mean often strikes people as a set of truisms, devoid of moral import. 

亚里士多德对美德作为中庸的论述经常让人觉得是一套老生常谈，没有道德意义。

On the contrary, his doctrine sets him in conflict with several highly influential moral systems. 

相反，他的学说使他与几个非常有影响力的道德体系发生了冲突。

Many people nowadays, for instance, accept a utilitarian viewpoint from which there is no class of actions which are ruled out in advance; the morality of each action is to be judged by its consequences. 

例如，现在许多人接受一种功利主义的观点，从这个观点来看，没有一类行为是事先被排除在外的；每个行为的道德性要以其后果来判断。

These people would oppose Aristotle’s exclusions from the application of the mean; for them there can, in the appropriate circumstances, be the right amount of adultery or murder. 

这些人会反对亚里士多德对中庸的应用所做的排除；对他们来说，在适当的情况下，通奸或谋杀可以有适量。

On the other hand, some ascetic religious systems have ruled out whole classes of actions to which Aristotle applied the mean: for them any enjoyment of sex, or any eating of meat, is wrong, and there could be no right amount of such actions. 

另一方面，一些禁欲的宗教体系排除了亚里士多德应用中庸的整个类别的行为：对他们来说，任何性的享受，或者任何吃肉，都是错误的，这些行为没有适量。

We might say that from Aristotle’s point of view, the utilitarians are guilty of excess in the application of the doctrine of the mean: they apply it to too many kinds of action. 

我们可以说，从亚里士多德的角度来看，功利主义者在应用中庸之道时有过度之嫌：他们把它应用到太多种类的行为上。

The ascetics, on the contrary, are guilty of defect in its application; they apply it to too few kinds of action. 

相反，禁欲者在应用中庸之道时有缺陷之嫌；他们把它应用到太少种类的行为上。

In being neither innate nor wholly taught, but acquired by a kind of training, and in being concerned with a mean of action, moral virtues resemble skills like the ability to play the harp or the practice of medicine. 

在既不是天生的也不是完全教授的，而是通过一种训练获得的，并且关注行为的中庸，道德美德类似于像弹奏竖琴或医学实践这样的技能。

Socrates and Plato constantly emphasized these similarities. 

苏格拉底和柏拉图不断地强调这些相似之处。

They did so over much in Aristotle’s view, and he is at pains to emphasize the differences between skills and virtues. 

在亚里士多德看来，他们这样做过于夸张了，他费力地强调了技能和美德之间的差异。

If someone plays the harp beautifully, or effects a successful cure, it makes no difference to the evaluation of their skill what was the motive from which they acted.

如果有人漂亮地弹奏竖琴，或者实现了成功的治疗，那么他们行动的动机对于评价他们的技能没有任何影响。

But if someone is to be accounted virtuous, it is not enough to perform actions which are objectively irreproachable; they must be performed for the right motive (which, for Aristotle, means that they must spring from the choice of an appropriate way of life). 

但如果有人要被认为是有美德的，仅仅执行客观上无可指责的行为是不够的；他们必须出于正确的动机去执行（对亚里士多德来说，这意味着它们必须源于选择一种合适的生活方式）。

For this reason, virtue has a much closer connection than skill has with pleasure in action: a virtuous person, Aristotle believed, must enjoy doing what is right, and a grudging performance of duty is not truly virtuous. 

出于这个原因，美德与行动中的快乐有着比技能更紧密的联系：一个有美德的人，亚里士多德相信，必须喜欢做正确的事情，而勉强履行职责并不是真正的美德。

Again, a skill can be exercised in wrong actions as well as in right actions. 

再者，技能可以在错误的行为和正确的行为中都得到运用。

A tennis player may serve a double fault on purpose, perhaps to avoid too humiliating a defeat for her opponent, and the double fault may be no less a use of her skill than an ace would have been. 

一个网球选手可能故意发出双误，也许是为了避免让她的对手太丢脸，而双误可能不比一发制胜少用她的技能。

But no one could exercise the virtue of honesty by, once in a while, bringing off a shrewd swindle. 

但没有人能通过偶尔地进行一次狡猾的诈骗来行使诚实的美德。

Aristotle treats many individual virtues in detail, defining their area of operation, and showing how they conform to the theory of the mean . 

亚里士多德详细地论述了许多个别的美德，定义了它们的作用范围，并显示了它们如何符合中庸之道。

In Book III he deals at length with courage and temperance, the virtues of the parts of the soul which Plato called temper and appetite. 

在第三卷中，他详细地论述了勇气和节制，这是柏拉图称之为气质和欲望的灵魂部分的美德。

He deals also with the vices which flank these virtues: cowardice and rashness on the one hand, and self-indulgence and insensitivity to bodily pleasures on the other. 

他也论述了与这些美德相邻的恶习：一方面是胆怯和鲁莽，另一方面是放纵和对身体快乐的不敏感。

Book IV offers a briefer treatment of a long series of virtues: generosity, munificence, greatness of soul, proper ambition, good temper, sociability, candour, readiness of wit. 

第四卷对一系列长期的美德提供了一个简短的论述：慷慨、宽宏、高尚的灵魂、适当的雄心、好脾气、社交性、坦率、机智。

The types of character which Aristotle has in mind are described shrewdly and vividly; but his descriptions reflect the social customs and institutions of his age, and not all his preferred virtues would appear nowadays on anyone’s list of the ten most valuable or attractive traits of character. 

亚里士多德心目中的性格类型被描述得精明而生动；但他的描述反映了他所处时代的社会风俗和制度，并不是他所有喜欢的美德都会出现在现在任何人最有价值或最有吸引力的十种性格特征的清单上。

Both merriment and revulsion have been caused, for instance, by the picture of the great-souled man, who is very conscious of his own worth, who always demands his deserts but is too proud to accept gifts, who is reluctant to admire but swift to despise, and who always speaks with a deep voice and walks with a slow step. 

例如，高尚灵魂之人的形象引起了欢笑和厌恶，他非常意识到自己的价值，总是要求得到他应得的，但又太骄傲而不接受礼物，他不愿钦佩别人，却迅速地轻视别人，他总是用低沉的声音说话，缓慢地走路。

Aristotle’s contribution to moral philosophy here is not through the individual traits of character he commends, but rather in providing a conceptual structure into which virtues of the most different ages and societies can be fitted with remarkable ease. 

亚里士多德在这里对道德哲学的贡献不是通过他赞扬的个别性格特征，而是通过提供一个概念结构，使得最不同的时代和社会的美德可以以惊人的容易性被安置进去。

Aristotle’s shorthand account of moral virtue is that it is a state of character expressed in choice, lying in the appropriate mean, determined by the prescription that a wise person would lay down.

亚里士多德对道德美德的简要描述是，它是一种通过选择表达的性格状态，处于适当的中庸之中，由一个明智的人所制定的处方所决定。

To complete his account, he needs to say what wisdom is, and how a wise person lays down prescriptions. 

为了完善他的论述，他需要说清楚什么是智慧，以及一个明智的人如何制定处方。

This he does in Book VI, where he treats of the intellectual virtues. 

他在第六卷中做了这件事，他在那里论述了智力美德。