GREEK PHILOSOPHY AFTER ARISTOTLE

The Hellenistic Era  

后期希腊时代

When Alexander the Great died in Bablyon in 323 his vast empire was divided up between his senior officers, who founded a number of independent realms. 

当亚历山大大帝于公元前323年在巴比伦去世时，他的庞大帝国被他的高级将领们分割，他们建立了许多独立的王国。

The most long lasting of these was the kingdom of Ptolemy and his family in Egypt and Libya, which survived until Antony and Cleopatra were defeated by the Roman Emperor Augustus in 31 bc. 

其中最为持久的是托勒密及其家族在埃及和利比亚的王国，它一直存在到公元前31年，安东尼和克娄巴特拉被罗马皇帝奥古斯都击败为止。

In the centuries between the death of Alexander and the death of Cleopatra the domains of Alexander’s other generals broke up into smaller kingdoms which, one by one, came under the sway of Rome and eventually became provinces of its Empire. 

在亚历山大死后和克娄巴特拉死后的几个世纪里，亚历山大的其他将军们的领土分裂成了更小的王国，它们一个接一个地受到罗马的影响，最终成为其帝国的省份。

These centuries, in which Greek civilization flourished throughout all the lands around the Eastern Mediterranean, are known to historians as the Hellenistic age. 

在这些世纪里，希腊文明在整个东地中海周围的土地上繁荣发展，这一时期被历史学家称为后期希腊时代。

In this period Greek colonists came into contact with widely different systems of thought. 

在这一时期，希腊殖民者接触到了广泛不同的思想体系。

In Bactria, at the far eastern end of the former Empire, Greek philosophy encountered the religion of Buddha, energetically propagated by the devout Indian king, Asoka; two surviving dialogues tell the story of the conversion to Buddhism of the Greek king, Menander. 

在前帝国的最东端，巴克特里亚，希腊哲学遇到了佛教，这是由虔诚的印度国王阿育王积极传播的；两部幸存的对话讲述了希腊国王米南德皈依佛教的故事。

In Persia Greeks encountered the already ancient religion of Zarathustra (whose name they Hellenized as Zoroaster); this saw the world as a battlefield between two powerful divine principles, one good and one evil. 

在波斯，希腊人遇到了已经古老的查拉图斯特拉教（他们将其名字希腊化为琐罗亚斯德教）；这个宗教将世界视为两个强大的神圣原则之间的战场，一个是善，一个是恶。

In Palestine they met the Jews, who since their return in 538 from their Babylonian exile had formed a strictly monotheistic community centred on the Temple worship in Jerusalem. 

在巴勒斯坦，他们遇到了犹太人，自从他们于公元前538年从巴比伦流放回来后，就形成了一个以耶路撒冷圣殿崇拜为中心的严格一神论的团体。

The books of the Maccabees, among the apocrypha in the Bible, tell of their resistance to assimilation by Greek culture under the rule of Antiochus IV of Syria. 

《马加比书》，作为圣经中的伪经之一，讲述了他们在叙利亚的安条克四世统治下对希腊文化同化的抵抗。

The first Ptolemies in Egypt built up the new city of Alexandria, whose citizens were drawn from every part of the Greek world. 

埃及的第一批托勒密王建立了新的城市亚历山大，其市民来自希腊世界的各个地方。

They founded a magnificent and well-catalogued library, which became the envy of the world, rivalled only, at a later date, by the library of King Attalus at Pergamum in Asia Minor. 

他们建立了一座宏伟而编目完善的图书馆，成为了世界的羡慕对象，只有在后来，才有亚细亚小亚细亚的帕加马国王阿塔卢斯的图书馆与之相匹敌。

It was in Alexandria that the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek; the version was known as the Septuagint, a word meaning seventy, after the number of scholars said to have collaborated in the translation. 

正是在亚历山大，希伯来圣经被翻译成了希腊语；这个版本被称为《七十士译本》，这个词意为七十，是根据据说参与翻译的学者的数量而命名的。

A series of brilliant mathematicians and scientists in Alexandria competed with, and in time surpassed, the scholars in the Academy and the Lyceum who, in Athens, carried on the work of their founders Plato and Aristotle. 

一系列杰出的数学家和科学家在亚历山大与雅典的学院和演讲厅中的学者竞争，并最终超越了他们，后者继承了他们的创始人柏拉图和亚里士多德的工作。

The best-known philosophers in Athens in the generation after Alexander’s death were members neither of the Academy nor of the Lyceum, but founders of new rival institutions: Epicurus, who established a school known as ‘The Garden’, and Zeno, whose followers were called ‘Stoics’ because he taught in the Stoa or painted portico. 

在亚历山大死后那一代，雅典最著名的哲学家既不是学院也不是演讲厅的成员，而是新的竞争机构的创始人：伊壁鸠鲁，他建立了一个被称为“花园”的学派。芝诺的追随者被称为“斯多葛派”，因为他在斯多亚柱廊或彩绘门廊里教书。

The multiplication of schools in Athens reflected an increasing interest in philosophy as an essential part of the education of the upper classes. 

雅典学派的增多反映了对哲学作为上层阶级教育必不可少的一部分的日益关注。

Epicurus, born into a family of Athenian expatriates in Samos, set up house in Athens about 306 bc, and lived there until his death in 271. 

伊壁鸠鲁出生于萨摩斯岛的雅典流亡者家庭，于公元前306年左右在雅典安家，一直住到公元前271年去世。

His followers in the Garden, who included women and slaves, lived on simple fare and kept away from public life. 

伊壁鸠鲁，他在“花园”中的追随者，包括妇女和奴隶，过着简朴的生活，远离公共生活。

Epicurus wrote three hundred books, but except for a few letters almost all that he wrote has been lost. 

伊壁鸠鲁写了三百本书，但除了几封信外，他写的几乎所有东西都已经失传了。

Fragments from his treatise On Nature were buried in volcanic ash at Herculaneum when Vesuvius erupted in ad 79; in modern times they have been painstakingly unrolled and deciphered. 

他的《论自然》一书的片段在公元79年维苏威火山爆发时被埋在赫库兰尼姆的火山灰中；在现代，它们经过了艰苦的展开和解读。

To this day, however, we depend for our knowledge of Epicurus’ teachings principally on a long Latin poem written in the first century bc by his follower Lucretius, entitled On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura) 

然而，直到今天，我们对伊壁鸠鲁学说的了解主要依赖于他的追随者卢克莱修在公元前一世纪写的一首长篇拉丁诗，题为《物性论》（De Rerum Natura）。

The aim of Epicurus’ philosophy is to make happiness possible by removing the fear of death which is its greatest obstacle. 

伊壁鸠鲁哲学的目的是通过消除对死亡的恐惧，这是幸福的最大障碍，来使幸福成为可能。

Because men are afraid of death, they struggle for wealth and power in the hope of postponing it, and throw themselves into frenzied activity so that they can forget its inevitability. 

因为人们害怕死亡，他们为了财富和权力而奋斗，希望能推迟死亡，并将自己投入到疯狂的活动中，以便忘记死亡的必然性。

The fear of death is instilled in us by religion, which holds out the prospect of suffering and punishment after death. But this prospect is illusory. The point is eloquently made by Lucretius (in Dryden’s translation): there is no need to fear either death, or survival, or reincarnation. 

对死亡的恐惧是由宗教灌输给我们的，宗教让我们展望死后的痛苦和惩罚。但这种展望是虚幻的。卢克莱修（用德莱顿的译文）生动地阐述了这一点：无需害怕死亡、生存或转世。

What has this bugbear, death, to frighten man, 

If souls can die, as well as bodies can? 

如果灵魂也能像身体一样死去，

死亡这个可怕的东西有什么可吓唬人的呢？

For, as before our birth we felt no pain 

因为，就像我们出生之前没有感觉到痛苦 

When Punic arms infested land and main, 

当迦太基的军队侵扰了陆地和海洋， 

So, when our mortal frame shall be disjoined, 

如此，当我们的凡人的躯壳被分离，

The lifeless lump uncoupled from the mind, 

无生命的块儿与心灵分开， 

From sense of grief and pain we shall be free 

我们将摆脱悲伤和痛苦的感觉

We shall not feel, because we shall not be. 

我们不会感觉到，因为我们不会存在。

Though earth in seas, and seas in heaven were lost 

即使大地沉入海中，海洋升入天空 

We should not move, we only should be tossed. 

我们也不会动，我们只会被抛来抛去。 

Nay, e’en suppose when we have suffered fate, 

The soul could feel in her divided state, 

What’s that to us? 

不，即使假设当我们遭受命运的时候， 灵魂还能在她分裂的状态中感觉到， 那又怎么样？

for we are only we 

While souls and bodies in one frame agree. 

因为我们只是我们 

只有当灵魂和身体在一个框架中一致时。

Nay, though our atoms should revolve by chance, 

And matter leap into the former dance; 

不，即使我们的原子应该偶然地旋转，

而物质跳入以前的舞蹈；

Though time our life and motion could restore, 

And make our bodies what they were before, 

What gain to us would all this bustle bring? 

即使时间能恢复我们的生命和运动， 

并使我们的身体变成以前的样子， 

这一切喧嚣会给我们带来什么好处？ 

The new-made man would be another thing. 

新造的人将是另一种东西。

It was to cure the fear of death, and in order to show that the terrors held out by religion were only fairy-tales, that Epicurus set out his account of the nature and structure of the world. 

正是为了治愈对死亡的恐惧，以及为了显示宗教所描绘的恐怖只是童话故事，伊壁鸠鲁才阐述了他对世界的本质和结构的看法。

He took over, with some modifications, the atomism of Democritus. 

他接受了德谟克利特的原子论，并做了一些修改。

Indivisible unchanging units move in void and infinite space; initially they all move downwards at constant and equal speed, but from time to time they swerve and collide with each other. 

不可分割、不变的单位在虚空和无限的空间中运动；最初它们都以恒定和相等的速度向下运动，但时不时地它们会偏离并相互碰撞。

From their collisions everything in heaven and earth has come into being. 

从它们的碰撞中，天上地下的一切都产生了。

The soul, too, like everything else, consists of atoms, which differ from other atoms only in being smaller and subtler. 

灵魂也是如此，它和其他一切东西一样，由原子组成，它们与其他原子的不同之处只在于它们更小、更微妙。

At death the atoms of the soul are dispersed, and cease to be capable of sensation because they no longer occupy their appropriate place in a body. 

死亡时，灵魂的原子被分散，因为它们不再占据身体中适当的位置，所以失去了感觉能力。

The gods themselves are compounded of atoms, just like humans and animals; but because they live in less turbulent regions they are free from the danger of dissolution. 

神灵本身也是由原子组成的，就像人类和动物一样；但由于他们生活在不太动荡的地区，所以他们不会有分解的危险。

Epicurus was no atheist, but he believed that the gods took no interest in the affairs of this world, and lived a life of their own in uninterrupted tranquillity. For this reason, belief in divine providence was superstition, and religious rituals were worthless at best. 

伊壁鸠鲁不是无神论者，但他认为神灵对这个世界的事务不感兴趣，他们在不间断的宁静中过着自己的生活。因此，相信神的旨意是迷信，宗教仪式充其量也是毫无价值的。

Unlike Democritus, Epicurus believed that the senses were reliable sources of information, and he gave an atomistic account of their operation. 

与德谟克利特不同，伊壁鸠鲁认为感官是可靠的信息来源，他给出了一个原子论的解释来说明它们的运作。

Bodies in the world throw off thin films of the atoms of which they are made, which retain their original shape and thus serve as images ( eidola) of their parent bodies. 

世界上的物体抛出由它们所构成的原子的薄膜，这些薄膜保持了它们原来的形状，因此作为它们母体的影像（eidola）。

Sensation occurs when these images make contact with the atoms in the soul. The appearances which reach the soul are never false; they always correspond exactly to their source. 

 当这些影像与灵魂中的原子接触时，就产生了感觉。灵魂感受到的表象从不是虚假的；它们总是完全符合它们的来源。

If we are misled about reality it is because we have used these genuine appearances as a basis for false judgements.

如果我们对现实有所误解，那是因为我们用这些真实的表象作为错误判断的基础。

If appearances conflict, as when an oar looks bent when in the water and straight when outside it, the two appearances are to be regarded as honest witnesses between which the mind must give judgement. 

如果表象相互冲突，比如当桨在水中看起来弯曲，在水外看起来直时，这两种表象应该被视为诚实的目击者，而头脑必须在它们之间做出判断。

If appearances are insufficient to settle the issue between competing theories (e.g. about the real size of the sun) then the mind should suspend judgement and exercise an equal tolerance to all.

如果表象不足以解决竞争理论之间的问题（例如关于太阳的真实大小），那么头脑应该暂停判断，并对所有理论保持同等的容忍。

The keystone of Epicurus’ moral philosophy is the doctrine that pleasure is the beginning and end of the happy life. 

伊壁鸠鲁道德哲学的基石是快乐是幸福生活的开始和结束的教义。

He makes a distinction, however, between pleasures which are the satisfaction of desires, and pleasures which come when all desires have been satisfied. 

然而，他区分了满足欲望的快乐和所有欲望都被满足时产生的快乐。

The pleasures of satisfying our desires for food and drink and sex are inferior pleasures, because they are bound up with pain: the desire which they satisfy is itself painful, and its satisfaction leads to a renewal of desire. 

满足我们对食物、饮料和性的欲望的快乐是低级的快乐，因为它们与痛苦相连：它们所满足的欲望本身就是痛苦的，而它们的满足导致了欲望的再生。

We should aim, therefore, at quiet pleasures such as those of private friendship. 

因此，我们应该追求安静的快乐，比如私人友谊之类的快乐。

Though he was an atomist, Epicurus was not a determinist; he believed humans enjoyed freedom of the will, and he sought to explain it by appealing to the random swerve of the atoms. 

虽然他是一个原子论者，但伊壁鸠鲁不是一个决定论者；他相信人类享有意志的自由，他试图通过诉诸原子的随机偏离来解释它。

Since we are free we are masters of our own fate: the gods neither impose necessity nor interfere with our choices. We cannot escape death, but if we take a truly philosophical view of it, death is no evil. 

既然我们是自由的，我们就是我们自己命运的主人：神灵既不强加必然性，也不干涉我们的选择。我们无法逃避死亡，但如果我们用真正的哲学观点来看待它，死亡就不是一种邪恶。

Epicureanism survived for six hundred years after Epicurus’ death; but despite finding incomparable expression in Lucretius’ great poem, it was never as popular as the Stoicism founded by his contemporary Zeno of Citium. 

伊壁鸠鲁主义在伊壁鸠鲁死后延续了六百年；但是，尽管它在卢克莱修的伟大诗歌中找到了无与伦比的表达，但它从来没有像他的同时代人西提昂的芝诺所创立的斯多葛主义那样受欢迎。

Zeno came from Cyprus, where, having read a book about Socrates, he acquired a passion for philosophy which led him to emigrate to Athens, at about the same time as Epicurus. 

芝诺来自塞浦路斯，他读了一本关于苏格拉底的书，从而产生了对哲学的热情，这使他在伊壁鸠鲁大约同时期移居到雅典。

There he was to study under a number of teachers, but on his first arrival he became a pupil of the Cynic Crates, who, he was told, was the nearest contemporary equivalent of Socrates.

在那里，他要跟随一些老师学习，但在他刚到达时，他成了犬儒派的克拉泰斯的学生，有人告诉他，克拉泰斯是苏格拉底最接近的同时代的对等者。

Cynicism was not a school of philosophy, but a bohemian way of life, based on contempt for material wealth and conventional propriety. 

犬儒主义不是一种哲学学派，而是一种波西米亚式的生活方式，基于对物质财富和传统礼仪的蔑视。

Its founder had been Diogenes of Sinope, who lived like a dog (‘cynic’ means ‘dog-like’) in a tub for a kennel. 

它的创始人是西诺普的第欧根尼，他像一只狗（“犬儒”意为“像狗一样”）住在一个桶里作为狗窝。

When visited by the great Alexander, who asked what favour he could do him, Diogenes replied ‘you could move out of my light’. Zeno’s encounter with Cynicism taught him to give a prominent place in his philosophy to the ideal of self-sufficiency. 

当被亚历山大大帝拜访时，亚历山大问第欧根尼他能为第欧根尼做什么，第欧根尼回答说“你挡住了我的阳光，请走开”。芝诺与犬儒主义的相遇教会了他在他的哲学中给予自给自足的理想一个突出地位。

Unlike Diogenes, who loved teasing Plato, and Crates, who liked writing poetic satire, Zeno took systematic philosophy seriously. 

与喜欢戏弄柏拉图的第欧根尼和喜欢写诗歌讽刺的克拉特斯（Crates of Thebes）不同，芝诺认真地对待系统哲学。

His writings have not survived, and for our knowledge of his teaching we rely on writers from the Roman period, such as Nero’s court philosopher Seneca and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. 

他的著作没有保存下来，我们对他的教导的了解依赖于罗马时期的作家，比如尼禄的宫廷哲学家塞涅卡和皇帝马可·奥勒留。

We do know that he founded the Stoic tradition of dividing philosophy into three main disciplines, logic, ethics and physics. His followers said that logic was the bones, ethics the flesh, and physics the soul of philosophy. 

我们确实知道他创立了斯多葛主义的传统，将哲学分为三个主要的学科，逻辑、伦理和物理。他的追随者说，逻辑是哲学的骨骼，伦理是哲学的肉体，物理是哲学的灵魂。

Zeno himself was concerned principally with ethics, but he was a close associate of two dialecticians from Megara, Diodorus Cronus and Philo, who had taken over from the Lyceum the task of filling the gaps which Aristotle had left in logic. 

芝诺自己主要关心伦理，但他与来自Megara的两位辩证家第奥多鲁·克朗纳斯和费罗有着密切的联系，他们接替了演讲厅完成亚里士多德在逻辑方面留下的空白的任务。

When Zeno died the leadership of the Stoa passed to Cleanthes, a converted boxer who specialized in physics and metaphysics. 

当芝诺去世后，斯多亚的领导权传给了克里安西斯，一个在信仰变换领域打拳的人，他专攻物理和形而上学。

Cleanthes was a devout man who wrote a remarkable hymn to Zeus, whom he addresses in terms which would be appropriate enough for a Jewish or Christian monotheist addressing the Lord God. 

克里安西斯是一个虔诚的人，他写了一首赞美宙斯的非凡的赞美诗，他用一些对于犹太人或基督教一神论者来说足够恰当的词语来称呼宙斯，就像称呼上帝一样。

Zeus all powerful, 

Author of Nature, named by many names, all hail. 

宙斯全能， 

自然之源，被多个名字所称呼，万岁。 

Thy law rules all; and the world’s voice may cry to thee. 

你的法则统治一切；世界的声音可以向你呼喊。

For from thee we are born, and alone of living things 

That move on earth are we created in God’s image. 

因为我们是从你那里诞生的，而且只有我们这些在地球上运动的生灵

是按照神的形象创造的。

The hymn was known to St Paul, and quoted by him when preaching in Athens. 

这首赞美诗为圣保罗所知，并被他在雅典传道时引用。

Cleanthes was succeeded by Chrysippus, who was head of the school from 232 to 206. 

克里安西斯的继任者是克利西波斯，他从公元前232年到公元前206年担任学派的领导。

He took ethics as his own speciality, but he also built up and extended the work of his predecessors, and was the first to present Stoicism as a fully integrated system. 

他以伦理学为自己的专长，但他也建立并扩展了他的前辈们的工作，他是第一个将斯多葛主义作为一个完全整合的系统来呈现的。

Since the works of these three early Stoics have all been lost, it is difficult to determine precisely the contribution each of them made, and their doctrines are best considered together. 

由于这三位早期斯多葛主义者的著作都已经失传，很难准确地确定他们每个人所做的贡献，他们的教义最好一起考虑。

The logic of the Stoics differed from that of Aristotle in various ways. 

 斯多葛主义者的逻辑与亚里士多德的逻辑在各方面有所不同。

Aristotle used letters as variables, while they used numbers; a typical sentence-frame in an Aristotelian inference would run ‘every A is B’; a typical sentence-frame in a Stoic inference would be ‘If the first, then the second’. 

作为变量，而他们用数字；亚里士多德推理中的典型句子框架是“每个A都是B”；斯多葛推理中的典型句子框架是“如果第一，那么第二”。

The difference between letters and numbers is trivial: what is important is that Aristotle’s variables stand in for terms (subjects and predicates), while the Stoic variables stand in for whole sentences. 

字母和数字之间的区别是微不足道的：重要的是，亚里士多德的变量代表了项（主语和谓语），而斯多葛的变量代表了整个句子。

Aristotle’s syllogistic formalizes what nowadays would be called predicate logic; Stoic logic formalizes what is nowadays called propositional logic.  

亚里士多德的三段论形式化了现在所谓的谓词逻辑；斯多葛逻辑形式化了现在所谓的命题逻辑。

A typical inference considered by the Stoics is 

If Plato is living, then Plato is breathing 

Plato is living 

Therefore, Plato is breathing. 

斯多葛主义者考虑的一个典型的推理是 

如果柏拉图活着，那么柏拉图就在呼吸 

柏拉图活着 

因此，柏拉图在呼吸。

It is an important feature of Stoic logic that the validity of the argument does not depend on the content of the individual sentences. 

斯多葛逻辑的一个重要特征是，论证的有效性不取决于个别句子的内容。

According to the Stoic view, the following argument is no less sound than the one above. 

根据斯多葛的观点，下面的论证和上面的论证一样合理。

If Plato is dead, then Athens is in Greece 

Plato is dead 

Therefore Athens is in Greece. 

如果柏拉图死了，那么雅典就在希腊 

柏拉图死了 

因此，雅典在希腊。

The first premiss of this argument comes out true if, like the Stoics, we accept a particular definition of ‘if . . . then’ first suggested by Philo. 

这个论证的第一个前提是真的，如果我们像斯多葛主义者一样，接受费罗首先提出的“如果……那么”的特定定义。

According to this a sentence of the form ‘if the first then the second’ is to be taken as true in every case except when the first is true and the second is false. 

根据这个定义，形式为“如果第一，那么第二”的句子在每一种情况下都被视为真实，除非第一是真的而第二是假的。

In everyday life, we usually make use of ‘if . . . then’ when there is some connection between the content of the sentences thus linked together. 

在日常生活中，我们通常在句子之间有一些联系时使用“如果……那么”。

But we do sometimes make use of Philo’s definition – e.g. when we say ‘If Athens is in Turkey, then I am a Dutchman’ as a way of denying that Athens is in Turkey. 

但我们有时也会使用费罗的定义——例如，当我们说“如果雅典在土耳其，那么我就是一个荷兰人”作为否认雅典在土耳其的一种方式。

It turns out that the Stoics’ minimal definition of ‘if ’ is the one most useful for the technical development of propositional logic, and it is the one which logicians use today. 

事实证明，斯多葛主义者对“如果”的最小定义是对命题逻辑技术发展最有用的定义，也是逻辑学家今天使用的定义。

The Stoic propositional logic is nowadays taken as the basic element in logic, upon which the predicate logic of Aristotle is built as a superstructure.    

斯多葛主义的命题逻辑现在被视为逻辑中的基本元素，亚里士多德的谓词逻辑建立在它之上作为一个上层结构。

Un在der the heading ‘logic’ the Stoics investigated also the philosophy of language. 

“逻辑”的标题下，斯多葛主义者也研究了语言哲学。

They had an elaborate theory of signs, which studied both things signifying and things signified. 

他们有一个复杂的符号理论，研究了表示和被表示的事物。

Things signifying were classified as voice, speech, and discourse. 

表示事物被分为声音、言语和话语。

Voice might be inarticulate sound, speech was sound which was articulate but might lack meaning, and discourse was both articulate and meaningful. 

声音可能是不清楚的声音，言语是清楚的声音但可能缺乏意义，话语既清楚又有意义。

Things signified might be bodies or statements ( lekta). 

被表示的事物可能是身体或陈述（lekta）。

By ‘statement’ is meant, not a sentence, but what is said by a sentence. 

所谓“陈述”，不是一个句子，而是一个句子所说的内容。

If I say ‘Dion is walking’, the word ‘Dion’ signifies the body which I see; but what I mean by the sentence is not a body, but a statement about a body. 

如果我说“Dion在走路”，这个词“Dion”表示我看到的身体；但我用这个句子的意思不是一个身体，而是关于一个身体的陈述。

In this respect, there is a clash between Stoic logic and Stoic physics: the statements of Stoic logic are non-bodily entities, while Stoic physics recognizes no existents other than bodies. 

在这方面，斯多葛逻辑和斯多葛物理之间存在着冲突：斯多葛逻辑的陈述是非物质的实体，而斯多葛物理只承认身体以外的存在。

Once upon a time, Stoics believed, there was nothing but fire; gradually there emerged the other elements and the familiar furniture of the universe. 

斯多葛主义者曾经相信，一度只有火；渐渐地，其他元素和宇宙中熟悉的家具出现了。

Later, the world will return to fire in a universal conflagration, and then the whole cycle of its history will be repeated over and over again. 

后来，世界将在一场普遍的大火中回归火，然后它的历史整个循环将一次又一次地重复。

All this happens in accordance with a system of laws which may be called ‘fate’, because the laws admit of no exception, or ‘providence’, because the laws were laid down by God for beneficent purposes. 

所有这一切都是按照一套法则发生的，这套法则可以被称为“命运”，因为法则不容许任何例外，或者被称为“天意”，因为法则是由神为了仁慈的目的而制定的。

The Stoics accepted the Aristotelian distinction between matter and form; but as conscientious materialists they insisted that form too was bodily – a fine and subtle body which they called breath ( pneuma). 

斯多葛主义者接受了亚里士多德关于物质和形式之间的区别；但作为认真的唯物主义者，他们坚持认为形式也是有形的——一种他们称之为气息（pneuma）的细微而微妙的身体。

The human soul and mind are made out of this pneuma; so too is God, who is the soul of the cosmos, which, in its entirety, constitutes a rational animal. 

人类的灵魂和心灵是由这种气息构成的；神也是如此，他是宇宙的灵魂，宇宙作为一个整体构成了一个理性的动物。

If God and the soul were not themselves bodily, Stoics argued, they would not be able to act upon the material world. 

如果神和灵魂本身不是有形的，斯多葛主义者辩称，他们就不能对物质世界产生作用。

The divinely designed system is called Nature, and our aim in life should be to live in accordance with Nature. 

神圣设计的系统被称为自然，我们的生活目标应该是与自然相一致。

Since all things are determined, nothing can escape Nature’s laws. 

由于所有的事物都是决定的，没有什么能逃脱自然的法则。

But human beings are free and responsible, despite the determinism of fate. 

但是，人类是自由和负责任的，尽管命运是决定论的。

The will must be directed to live in accordance with human nature by obeying reason. 

意志必须被引导，按照人性的规律去生活，服从理性。

It is this voluntary acceptance of Nature’s laws which constitutes virtue, and virtue is both necessary and sufficient for happiness. 

正是这种自愿接受自然法则的行为构成了美德，而美德既是幸福的必要条件，也是幸福的充分条件。

Poverty, imprisonment, and suffering, since they cannot take away virtue, cannot take away happiness; a good person cannot suffer any real harm. 

贫穷、监禁和苦难，既然不能夺走美德，也不能夺走幸福；一个好人不会遭受任何真正的伤害。

Does this mean that we should be indifferent to the misfortunes of others? 

这是否意味着我们应该对别人的不幸漠不关心？

Well, health and wealth are in truth matters of indifference, but the Stoics, in order to be able to co-operate at all with non-Stoics, were forced to concede that some matters were more indifferent than others. 

嗯，健康和财富在真理上是无关紧要的事情，但斯多葛主义者为了能够与非斯多葛主义者合作，被迫承认有些事情比其他事情更无关紧要。

Because society is natural to human beings, the Stoic, in his aim to be in harmony with Nature, will play his part in society and cultivate the social virtues. 

因为社会对于人类来说是自然的，斯多葛主义者在他追求与自然和谐的目标中，将在社会中扮演他的角色，并培养社会美德。

Though slavery and freedom are alike indifferent, it is legitimate to prefer one to the other, even though virtue may be practised in either state. What of life itself ? 

虽然奴隶制和自由都是无关紧要的，但选择其中一个是合理的，即使在任何一种状态下都可以实践美德。那么生命本身呢？

Is that a matter of indifference? The virtuous Stoic will not lose his virtue whether he lives or dies; but it is legitimate for him, when faced with what the non-Stoic would regard as intolerable evils, to make a rational choice to depart from life.  

它是无关紧要的吗？有美德的斯多葛主义者不会因为他活着或死了而失去他的美德；但当他面对非斯多葛主义者认为无法忍受的邪恶时，他有权利做出一个理性的选择，结束生命。