人類歷史上最偉大的十大思想家

老幾編譯

The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time

我們要設定一個標準，這必將是教條的和無情的。我們將把那些沒有產生持久人類影響的英雄，排除在名單之外，無論他們的思想是多麼微妙或深刻。儘管這樣做我們感到傷心。我們必須要這樣做最嚴格的衡量。

對待每個思想家的思想，我們將儘量考慮其原創性和範圍，真實性和深度。但是，我們必須記住的是，其觀念對人類生活和思想的影響的程度和持久性，才是我們的最高標準。只有如此，我們才可以在某種程度上減少個人的偏見，從而並得出某種不偏不倚的選擇。

現在我們應如何定義一個“思想家”呢? 這個名詞將會包括哲學家和科學家，但只限於此嗎? 我們應包括人們喜歡的歐里庇得斯、或lucretius、或丹特、或萊昂納多、或莎士比亞、或歌德嗎? 不。我們應該謙卑的對待這些偉大的名字並將他們排除在外，因為無論他們達到什麼境界，他們首先和最終只是藝術家，是次級思想家。

我們應包括深具影響力的領袖耶穌、或佛、或奧古斯丁、馬丁路德金? 不。這些宗教創始人和革新者不符合我們的定義。它們並不是通過思想和推理，而是通過情感和高尚的熱情，一種神秘的堅定不移的信仰，使他們用小小的行動來推動世界前進。

我們是否應當允許哪些行動的巨人加入到我們的10名大名單中來，像歷史走廊里的響亮人物如佩里克萊斯,或亞歷山大或凱撒,或查理,或克倫威爾或拿破崙或林肯?不。如果我們包括這種英雄，那麼就將剝奪“思想家”的獨特意義，就體現不出思想的意義。

我們必須只包括哲學家和科學家。我們尋求的哪些通過他們的思想，而不是由他們的行動或他們的熱情來影響人類的。我們應在遠離塵囂的安靜世界裡尋覓他們。在這些陰晦的角落裡，偉大思想降臨他們，“像鴿子的腳”一樣， 因為在過一會兒，他們看到，世界將為他們改換真容。

那麼，誰將是第一?

1．CONFUCIUS孔夫子At once our doubts and quarrels begin. By what canon shall we include Confucius and omit Buddha and Christ? By this alone: that he was a moral philosopher rather than a preacher of religious faith; that his call to the noble life was based upon secular motives rather than upon supernatural considerations; that he far more resembles Socrates than Jesus. Born (552 B.C.) in an age of confusion, in which the old power and glory of China had passed into feudal disintegration and factional strife, Kung-fu-tse undertook to restore health and order to his country. How? Let him speak: The illustrious ancients,when they wished to make clear and to propagate the highest virtues in the world, put their states in proper order. Before putting their states in proper order, they regulated their families. Before regulating their families, they cultivated their own selves. Before cultivating their own selves, they perfected their souls. Before perfecting their souls, they tried to be sincere in their thoughts. Before trying to be sincere in their thoughts, they extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such investigation of knowledge lay in the investigation of things, and in seeing them as they really were. When things were thus investigated, knowledge became complete. When knowledge was complete, their thoughts became sincere. When their thoughts were sincere, their souls became perfect.When their souls were perfect, their own selves became cultivated.When their selves were cultivated, their families became regulated.When their families were regulated, their states came to be put into proper order.When their states were in proper order, then the whole world became peaceful and happy. Here is a sound moral and political philosophy within the compass of a paragraph. It was a highly conservative system; it exalted manners and etiquette, and scorned democracy; despite its clear enunciation of the Golden Rule it was nearer to Stoicism than to Christianity. A pupil having asked him should one return good for evil, Confucius replied: “With what then will you recompense kindness? Return good for good, and for evil, justice.” He did not believe that all men were equal; it seemed to him that intelligence was not a universal gift. As his pupil Mencius put it: “That whereby man differs from the lower animals is little. Most people throw it away.” The greatest fortune of a people would be to keep ignorant persons from public office, and secure their wisest men to rule them. A great city, Chung-tu, took him at his word and made him magistrate. “A marvelous reformation,” we are told, “ensued in the manners of the people…. There was an end of crime…. Dishonesty and dissoluteness hid their heads. Loyalty and good faith became the characteristic of the men, chastity and docility of the women.” It is too good to be true, and probably it did not last very long. But even in his lifetime Confucius’ followers understood his greatness and foresaw the timeless influence he was to have in molding the courtesy and poise and placid wisdom of the Chinese. “His disciples buried him with great pomp. A multitude of them built huts near his grave and remained there, mourning as for a father, for nearly three years. When all the others were gone, Tse-Kung,” who had loved him beyond the rest, “continued by the grave for three years more, alone.”

2. PLATO 帕拉圖

3. ARISTOTLE 亞里士多德

4. SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS 聖托馬斯阿奎那

5. COPERNICUS 哥白尼

6. SIR FRANCIS BACON弗朗西斯·培根

7. SIR ISAAC NEWTON牛頓

8. VOLTAIRE伏爾泰

9. IMMANUEL KANT 康德

10. CHARLES DARWIN 達爾文

http://www.topshelfbook.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/0743235533Minds.pdf

作者William James Durant (/dəˈrænt/; November 5, 1885 – November 7, 1981) was an American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for The Story of Civilization, 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife Ariel Durant and published between 1935 and 1975. He was earlier noted for The Story of Philosophy (1924), described as "a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy".^[1]

He conceived of philosophy as total perspective, or, seeing things sub specie totius, a phrase inspired by Spinoza's sub specie aeternitatis.^[2] He sought to unify and humanize the great body of historical knowledge, which had grown voluminous and become fragmented into esoteric specialties, and to vitalize it for contemporary application.^[3]

Will and Ariel Durant were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1968 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.