This may seem surprising to you, since of course Aristotle lived long

这似乎很令人震惊的毕竟亚里士多德
before.

生活的年代与我们的相距甚长
But that may simply be our own prejudice to think that

不过那可能仅仅是我们的愚见
My friend at the CUNY Graduate Center, Peter Simpson,

我在纽约市立大学研究中心的朋友
has argued in a paper that I found quite convincing, that

彼得·辛普森发表了相当有说服力的论文
Aristotle had, in fact, discovered the American Constitution.

他主张是亚里士多德创立的美国宪法
I say, it may simply be our prejudice that he didn't.

认为他没有创立可能仅仅是我们的愚见
Aristotle writes, in Book II of the

亚里士多德在《政治学》第二册里
that the world is eternal and everything in it has

提及到世界是永恒的所有事物都
been discovered.

已经被发现
The earth experiences, he says, certain periodic

他认为世界在不断重复着某几个
destructions and cataclysms, civilizations are reduced to

灾难与毁灭文明还原为原始