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Athens, 2400 years ago. It’s a compact place: only about a quarter of a million people live here.
2400年前，雅典是一个紧凑的地方：只有大约25万人住在这里。
There are fine baths, theatres, temples, shopping arcades and gymnasiums
那里有精美的浴室，剧院，寺庙，购物商场和体育馆。
It’s warm for more than half the year.
每年半数以上的日子都很温暖。
This is also home to the world’s first true – and probably greatest – philosopher: Plato
这里也诞生了世界上第一位真正的（也许也是最伟大的）哲学家：柏拉图
Born into a prominent and wealthy family in the city, Plato devoted his life to one goal:
出身于城中一个富贵显赫的家庭，柏拉图毕生致力于一个目标：
helping people to reach a state of what he termed: εὐδαιμονία (Eudaimonia) or fulfilment.
帮助人们达到他所谓的:（极乐）或幸福的状态。
Plato is often confused with Socrates
人们常常分不清柏拉图和苏格拉底。
Socrates was an older friend, who taught Plato a lot but didn’t write any books.
苏格拉底更老一些，他教给柏拉图很多知识，但自己从没写过书。
Plato wrote lots of them: 36, all dialogues: beautifully crafted scripts of imaginary discussions in which Socrates is always allocated a starring role - among them:
柏拉图却写了多达36部著作，全部以精炼的对话形式出现：在这些虚构的辩论场景中，苏格拉底总是一名关键角色。这些著作包括：
The Republic. The Symposium
《理想国》《会饮篇》
The Laws. The Meno and The Apology
《法律篇》《美诺篇》以及《申辩篇》
Plato had four big ideas for making life more fulfilled.
有关美好生活，柏拉图有四大主要想法。
First big idea: Think more
第一个想法：勤于思考
We rarely give ourselves time to think carefully and logically about our lives and how to live them.
我们很少花时间仔细思考我们的生命以及如何生活。
Sometimes we just go along with what the the Greeks called ‘doxa’: ‘popular opinions’.
有时，我们只是盲目跟随着希腊人称之为“Doxa”的“大众观点”。
In the the 36 books he wrote, Plato showed this ‘common-sense’ to be riddled with errors, prejudice and superstition.
在他的36部著作中，柏拉图表明，这种“常识”往往充满谬误，偏见和迷信。
Fame is great
“声名远扬”
Follow your heart
“随心所欲”
Money is the key to a good life
“金钱至上”
The problem is, popular opinions edge us towards the wrong values, careers and relationships.
问题是，流行的观点会把我们引向错误的价值观，生涯和人际关系。
Plato’s answer is ‘Know yourself.’
柏拉图的回答是“了解你自己。”
It means doing a special kind of therapy, philosophy:
也就是接受一种特殊的“治疗”：哲学的治疗
Subjecting your ideas to examination rather than acting on impulse.
检视自己的想法，而不是冲动行事。
If you strengthen your self-knowledge, you don’t get so pulled around by feelings.
如果你强化对自我的认识，你就不会被感官所左右。
Plato compared the role of our feelings to being dragged dangerously along by a group of wild horses.
柏拉图把我们的感官比作“一群野马在疯狂地拉扯。”
In honor of his mentor and friend, Socrates, this kind of examination is called a Socratic discussion.
为了纪念他的导师和朋友苏格拉底，这种自我检视被称为“苏格拉底式讨论。”
You can have it with yourself or ideally, with another person who isn’t trying to catch you out but wants to help you clarify your own ideas.
你可以与自己进行这种讨论，或者，在理想情况下，与另一个想要帮你弄清楚自己想法而不是试图反驳你的人。
Second Big idea: Let your lover change you.
第二个想法：让你的爱人改变你。
That sounds weird, if you think that love means finding someone who wants you just the way you are.
这个想法也许听起来很奇怪，尤其是当你认为爱你的人应该只爱你的本身。
In The Symposium , Plato’s play about a dinner party where a group of friends drink too much and get talking about love, sex and relationships,
在《会饮篇》中，柏拉图描写了在一次晚宴中，一群朋友在饮酒之后开始探讨爱情，性，以及人之间的关系
Plato says: “True love is admiration.”
柏拉图写道：“真正的爱情是仰慕之情。”
In other words, the person you need to get together with should have very good qualities … which you yourself lack.
换句话说，陪伴你的人应该具有非常好的品质，而这些品质是你所缺乏的。
Let’s say, they should be really brave or organised, or warm and sincere
比如说，他们也许很勇敢，自律，热心或者真诚。
By getting close to this person, you can become a little like they are.
通过亲近这个人，你可以变得更像他一点。
The right person for us helps us grow to our full potential.
找到适合的人会帮助我们充分发挥自己的潜能。
For Plato, in a good relationship, a couple shouldn’t love each other exactly as they are right now.
柏拉图认为，一对理想的情侣，不应该热爱此时此刻的彼此。
They should be committed to educating each other – and to enduring the stormy passages this inevitably involves.
而是应该尝试互相教导，并忍受这个过程中不可避免的争执。
Each person should want to seduce the other into becoming a better version of themselves.
恋爱中的每一方都应该试图引导另一个方成为更好的自己。
Three: decode the message of beauty.
第三个想法：解析“美”的含义。
Everyone – pretty much – likes beautiful things
每个人多少都喜欢美丽的事物。
Plato was the first to ask why do we like them?
柏拉图是第一个问“我们为什么喜欢他们？”的人。
He found a fascinating reason:
他找到了一个很好的理由：
Beautiful objects are whispering important truths to us about the good life …
美丽的东西向我们泄露了有关美好生活的重要真相......
We find things beautiful when we unconsciously sense in them qualities we need but are missing in our lives.
我们形容一件东西美丽是因为我们不知不觉地在其中发现了我们所需要的品质。而这些品质是生活中不常见的。
Gentleness, harmony, balance, peace, strength
温柔，和谐，平衡，和平，力量
Beautiful objects therefore have a really important function.
这些物品之所以美丽是因为他们行使了一项重要的功能。
They help to educate our souls.
他们帮助启迪了我们的心灵。
Ugliness is a serious matter too. it parades dangerous and damaged characteristics in front of us.
丑陋也是一个严重的问题。它向我们展现了危险与破坏。
It makes it harder to be wise, kind and calm.
于是智慧，善良和冷静便成为了困难的事情。
Plato sees art as therapeutic: it is the duty of poets and painters (and nowadays, novelists,
柏拉图认为艺术是一种治疗：诗人，画家，或者当今时代的小说家，
television producers and designers) to help us live good lives.
电视制作人和设计师。对于这些人，让我们的生活更加美好是他们的责任。
Four: Reform society.
第四个想法：改革社会。
Plato spent a lot of time thinking how the government and society should ideally be.
柏拉图花了很多时间思考，理想中的政府和社会应该是什么样。
He was the world’s first utopia thinker.
他是世界上第一位“乌托邦思想家。”
In this, he was inspired by Athens’s great rival: Sparta.
在这一点上，他受到了雅典最大的对手-斯巴达的启发。
This was a city-sized machine for turning out great soldiers
这是一座生产强大战士的“城市机器”。
Everything the Spartans did – how they raised their children, how their economy was organised,
斯巴达人所做的所有事情，包括如何培养孩子，如何治理经济，
whom they admired, how they had sex, what they ate – was tailored to that one goal.
谁会受到崇拜，如何做爱，如何吃饭，这些都是为了那个唯一的目标：战士。
And Sparta was hugely successful, from a military point of view.
从军事的角度来看，斯巴达人取得了巨大的成功。
But that wasn’t Plato’s concern.
但这不是柏拉图所关注的点。
He wanted to know: how could a society get better at producing not military power but fulfilled people?
他想要知道：怎样让一个社会变得更好，并非军事力量的强盛，而是人民满意程度的提升。
In his book, The Republic, Plato identifies a number of changes that should be made:
柏拉图在《理想国》这本书中指出一些必要的改革措施：
Athenian society was very focused on the rich, like the louche aristocrat Alcibiades, and sports celebrities, like the boxer Milo of Croton.
雅典社会非常关注富人，比如阿尔西比亚德斯这种不可靠的贵族，或者体育明星，比如拳击手克罗托那的米罗
Plato wasn’t impressed: it really matters who we admire, because celebrities influence our outlook, ideas and conduct.
柏拉图不为所动，他认为我们真正应该钦佩的名人，应该要影响了我们的观点，思想和行为。
And bad heroes give glamour to flaws of character.
而拙劣的英雄人物，只会树立“品德缺失”的榜样。
Plato therefore wanted to give Athens new celebrities,
因此，柏拉图想要雅典拥有一批新的榜样
replacing the current crop with ideally wise and good people he called Guardians models for everyone’s good development.
以替代旧者，这些智慧、善良的榜样被柏拉图称为“护卫者”。他们会指导众人向更好的方向发展。
These people would be distinguished by their record of public service, their modesty and simple habits,
这些“榜样”拥有优秀的公共服务记录，谦逊的品质，以及朴实的习惯。
their dislike of the limelight and their wide and deep experience.
他们经验丰富却又不爱出风头。
They would be the most honored and admired people in society.
他们将成为社会上最受尊敬的人。
He also wanted to end democracy in Athens. He wasn’t crazy.
柏拉图还想终结雅典的民主。这并不是因为他疯了，而是因为他观察到
He just observed how few people think properly before they vote and therefore we get very substandard rulers.
很少有人在投票前会充分思考，所以人们选出的统治者就很平庸。
He didn’t want to replace democracy with horrid dictatorship;
他并不想用可怕的独裁来代替民主，
but wanted to prevent people from voting until they had started to think rationally. Until they had become philosophers.
而是想让人们无法投票，直到他们开始理性思考。直到他们成为了哲学家。
Otherwise, government would just be a kind of mob rule.
否则，统治政府的就只是一群乌合之众。
To help the process, Plato started a school, The Academy, in Athens, which lasted a good 300 years.
为了实现这一改革，柏拉图开办了一所学校：雅典学院。这所学院存在了300年之久。
There, pupils learnt not just maths and spelling, but also how to be good and kind.
在那里，学生们不仅能学到算数和写作，也能学到如何变得善良、仁慈。
His ultimate goal was that politicians should become philosophers:
他的最终目标是：政治家都成为哲学家。
‘The world will not be right,’ he said, ‘until kings become philosophers or philosophers kings.’
“这个世界会充满问题”，柏拉图写道，“直到统治者成为哲学家，或者哲学家成为统治者”。
