or is intended as a kind of absurdity.

或是某种荒诞的说法
Plato himself, remember, made a number of trips to Sicily

还记得吗柏拉图自己曾几次前往西西里
to serve as the advisor to a king there,

作为那里国王的顾问
Dionysius, and all of these missions failed

狄奥尼索斯不过所有的使命并未成功
and left him deeply dispirited.

使他深深气馁
The ambition in some ways to unite philosophy and

以某种方式讲哲学和
politics has been a recurring dream

政治联系起来的雄心是持续不断的
of political philosophy ever since Plato.

政治哲学梦想在柏拉图就开始了
Socrates says he will be drowned in laughter but many

苏格拉底认为会被嘲笑淹没但是许多
other people have taken this dream or this aspiration very seriously.

其他人认真考虑这个梦想和抱负
Consider one thinker, and I will, I'm going to read you a short passage

想想一个思想家我将给你们读一小段
and I'm going to come back to this again later in the semester,

并在学期稍后部分再讲到这部分