Rather, the great works provide us,

而不是靠巨作提供的答案
so to speak,

这么说吧
with a repository of fundamental or permanent questions

大量基本而永恒的问题
that political scientists still continue to rely on in their work.

同时也是政治科学家在他们的作品中所倚赖的
The great thinkers are great

伟大的思想家之所以伟大
not because they've created some set of museum pieces

并非因为他们创造了一些
that can be catalogued, admired,

可被归类或赞赏的博物馆馆藏
and then safely ignored

然后被轻轻忽略
like a kind of antiquities gallery in the Metropolitan Museum of Art;

就像是大都会艺术博物馆的古物画廊
but rather because they have defined the problems

而是因为他们定义了问题
that all later thinkers and scholars have had to use

使所有后进思想家和学者都需使用
in order to make sense of their world at all.

才能弄明白他们所处的世界