许国璋译罗素《西方哲学史》选译.docVIP

PAGE PAGE 7 The History of Western Philosophy 许国璋译罗素《西方哲学史》选译 1 The Modern World Was Born. During the fifteenth century, various other causes were added to the decline of the Papacy to produce a very rapid change, both political and cultural. Gunpowder strengthened central government at the expense of the feudal nobility. In France and England, Louis XI and Edward IV allied themselves with the rich middle class, who helped them to quell aristocratic anarchy. Italy, until the last years of the century, was fairly free from Northern armies, and advanced rapidly both in wealth and culture. The new culture was essentially pagan, admiring Greece and Rome, and despising the Middle Ages. Architecture and literary style were adapted to ancient models. When Constantinople, the last survival of antiquity, was captured by the Turks, Greek refugees in Italy were welcomed by humanists. Vasco da Gama and Columbus enlarged the world, and Copernicus enlarged the heavens. The Donation of Constantine was rejected as a fable, and overwhelmed with scholarly derision. By the help of the Byzantines, Plato came to he known, not only in Neoplatonic and Augustinian versions, but at first hand. This sublunary sphere appeared no longer as a vale of tears, a place of painful pilgrimage to another world, but as affording opportunity for pagan delights, for fame and beauty and adventure. The long centuries of asceticism were forgotten in a riot of art and poetry and pleasure. Even in Italy, it is true, the Middle Ages did riot die without a struggle; Savonarola and Leonardo were born in the same year. But in the main the old terrors had ceased to be terrifying, and the new liberty of the spirit was found intoxicating. The intoxication could not last, but for the moment it shut out fear. In this moment of joyful liberation the modern world was born. 现代欧洲的诞生 教皇势力之衰落，始于十五世纪以前，逮十五世纪，更有多种原因，促其衰落，政治与文化，均呈急剧变化。火药用于征战，中央政府因之以强，拥据领地之公侯因之而弱。法王路易十一与英王爱德华四世，联富商以制诸侯，息纷争而致治。意大利于十五世纪末，遭北方兵祸，然在此之前近百年间，实丰足昌盛文