关于自然实在知识主张.docVIP

PRINCIPLES OF NATURE AND OF GRACE, FOUNDED ON REASON. 1714 关于自然与神恩的基于理性的原则 1714 Translaterd by Marry Morris 桑靖宇2008年初译 1. Substance is a being capable of action. It is simple or compound. Simple substance is that which has no parts. Compound substance is the combination of simple substances or monads. Monas is a Greek word which signifies unity or that which is one. Compounds or bodies are pluralities, and simple substances—that is lives, souls, minds—are unities. There must necessarily be simple substances everywhere, because without simple substances there could be no compounds; consequently the whole of nature is full of life. 实体是能够活动的存在。它是单纯的或复合的。单纯实体是指没有部分的东西。复合实体则是单纯实体或单子的结合。Monas是希腊词，意指“个体”或者“一”。复合物或物体是多，单纯实体――即生命、灵魂、心灵――是一。单纯实体必然无处不在，因为没有单纯实体就没有复合物；从而整个自然都充满了生命。 2. Monads, having no parts, cannot be made or unmade. They can neither begin nor end naturally, and consequently they last as long as the universe, which will be changed but not destroyed. They cannot have shapes, otherwise they would have parts. Thus one monad, in itself and at a particular moment, can only be distinguished from another by internal qualities and activities, which can be nothing else but its perceptions (that is to say, the representations in the simple of the compound or of that which is outside) and its appetitions (that is to say, its tendencies to pass from one perception to another), which are the principle of change. 由于没有部分，单子就不能被产生和毁灭。它们不能自然地开始或终结，从而它们与宇宙同寿，只能改变而不能摧毁。它们不可能具有形状，否则就会有部分了。这样一来，单子自身在一特定时刻只能靠内在的质和活动而彼此区别，也就是它的知觉（即在单纯物中对复合物或外界之物的表象）和作为变化的原则的欲求（即从一个知觉向另一知觉过渡的趋势）。 For the simplicity of substance does not preclude the possibility of a multiplicity of modifications, which indeed necessarily exist together in the same simple substance, and these modifications must consist in the variety of the relations of the simple substance to things which are outside. Just as in a centre or point, in itself perfectly simple, are found an infinite number of angles formed by the lin