Name: PLATO ON：形式 (PLATO ON: The Forms)
Uploaded: 2025-06-17T17:29:21.000Z
Duration: 3 min 59 s

情態助動詞 B1

Asking oneself and others what the perfect version of something is, the ideal version, might sound like a strange idea.

詢問自己和他人什麼是事物的完美版本，什麼是理想版本，這聽起來可能是個奇怪的想法。

What is the perfect marriage or career or system of government or school?

什麼是完美的婚姻、職業、政府制度或學校？

It can feel immature and naive to bother much with such questions, they're just daydreams.

在這些問題上費盡心思會讓人覺得不成熟和幼稚，它們只是白日夢而已。

After all, who cares about ideal versions, we might as well deal with what we've got.

畢竟，誰會在乎什麼理想版本，我們還不如就事論事。

But the great ancient Greek philosopher Plato strenuously disagrees with this.

但偉大的古希臘哲學家柏拉圖卻極力反對這種說法。

Throughout his work, he argues that focusing on the ideal version of something is one of the most useful kinds of thought exercises we can generate.

在他的著作中，他始終認為，關注某事物的理想版本是我們可以進行的最有用的思考練習之一。

It's by knowing what we think something should be like that we can more clearly start to define what might be wrong and focus on what we need to do to make the world slightly better.

只有知道我們認為的事物應該是什麼樣的，我們才能更清楚地開始界定可能存在的問題，並專注於我們需要做什麼來讓世界變得更好。

When he was talking about ideals, Plato used a slightly strange but ultimately rather useful word, the forms.

在談到理想時，柏拉圖用了一個略顯奇怪但最終相當有用的詞--"形式"。

So he asked, not what is the ideal friendship or the ideal kind of parental love, he asked, what is the form of friendship or the form of parental love?

是以，他問的不是什麼是理想的友誼或理想的父母之愛，他問的是友誼或父母之愛的形式是什麼？

It does sound strange, but what he had in mind was something very practical.

這聽起來確實很奇怪，但他的想法卻非常實際。

When a Greek stonemason was carving an ornament, they wouldn't just make it up themselves, they'd make use of a wooden template or form to check if they were getting it right.

希臘石匠在雕刻裝飾品時，不會自己動手，他們會利用木製模板或模板來檢查是否正確。

The form itself was made by the master, but if the Mason possessed the form, they could more reliably do perfect work.

形式本身是由大師製作的，但如果共濟會員擁有了形式，他們就能更可靠地完成完美的工作。

This is Plato's basic picture of what an ideal is, it's the guide you need that shows you how to do something well yourself.

這是柏拉圖對理想的基本描繪，它是你需要的指南，告訴你如何做好自己的事情。

If you've got possession of the form, you can be guided towards a true goal.

如果你掌握了表格，就能引導你實現真正的目標。

A form, as Plato sees it, is a blueprint, a set of instructions for making a very good version of something.

柏拉圖認為，"形式 "是一種藍圖，是製作某種東西的完美版本的一套指令。

That's why we all need a well thought through set of forms to guide us in life, and unsurprisingly, it is philosophy that can guide us to these forms.

這就是為什麼我們都需要一套經過深思熟慮的形式來指導我們的生活，而不出意外，正是哲學可以指導我們找到這些形式。

So, for example, the form of friendship is a mental model of what a really good friendship actually involves, and if you grasp this model, if this idea is active in your mind, you will know how to be a good friend.

是以，舉例來說，友誼的形式是一種心理模式，它說明了真正的好友誼究竟包含哪些內容，如果你掌握了這種模式，如果這種想法在你的頭腦中活躍起來，你就會知道如何成為一個好朋友。

Similarly, having a form of education in mind is going to be very useful for the teacher, it'll stop her being buffeted by events and day-to-day pressures.

同樣，心中有一種教育形式對教師也會非常有用，這將使她不再被各種事件和日常壓力所困擾。

She'll be able to keep in mind where, ideally, she should be going.

她會牢記，理想情況下，她應該去哪裡。

We've typically thought of ideals as fantasy projections that blindly ignore most of what life is actually like.

我們通常認為理想是幻想的投射，盲目地忽略了生活的大部分實際情況。

We think of them as the opposite of being realistic, but Plato sees an ideal as the result of a deep understanding and careful engagement with reality.

我們認為理想與現實相反，但柏拉圖卻認為理想是深刻理解和認真面對現實的結果。

Someone setting up an airport would need, in the platonic scheme, to have in mind the ideal air traffic control system, something optimally effective, efficient and safe.

在柏拉圖計劃中，建立機場的人需要有一個理想的空中交通管制系統，一個最有效、高效和安全的系統。

This is the person who would, in Plato's terms, have grasped the form of air traffic control.

用柏拉圖的話來說，這就是掌握了空中交通管制形式的人。

We all need to have as many forms in mind as we possibly can.

我們都需要儘可能多地考慮到各種形式。

Plato is breaking the habitual assumption that searching for the ideal is at odds with getting things done in the rough and tumble of the real world.

柏拉圖打破了人們的習慣性假設，即追求理想與在現實世界的艱難困苦中完成任務是相悖的。

And he's pushing us to be more exacting about where we are trying to head to, if an ideal seems utterly distant and hopeless, maybe the problem isn't that it's too idealistic, but in a strange but important way, actually not idealistic enough.

如果一個理想看起來遙不可及、毫無希望，也許問題並不在於它過於理想化，而是在一個奇怪但重要的方面，它實際上不夠理想化。

That is, we've not quite yet discovered the form.

也就是說，我們還沒有完全發現這種形式。

We shouldn't abandon our ideals, we should get more ambitious about them, and Plato's philosophy is on hand to help us.

我們不應該放棄自己的理想，我們應該對理想有更高的追求，柏拉圖的哲學可以幫助我們。