Is there a basic substance that everything else is made of?

万事万物是否由一种基本的物质组成?

Could there be a " basic substance" that everything was made of?

世上万物是否’由一种“基本物质”组成的呢?

These three Milesian philosophers all believed in the existence of a single basic substance as the source of all things.

这三位米雷特斯的哲学家都相信，宇宙间有一种基本物质是所有事物的源头。

We only know that the notion gradually evolved that there must be a basic substance that was the hidden cause of all changes in nature.

我们只知道，经过一段时间后，他们慢慢形成这样的观念，认为大自然的变化必定是某种基本物质造成的。

All the earliest philosophers shared the belief that there had to be a certain basic substance at the root of all change.

所有最早的哲学家都相信， 所有变化的根源都必须有某种基本物质。

The best solution to the question of basic substance and the transformations in nature must wait until tomorrow, when you will meet Democritus.

关于宇宙基本组成物质与自然界变化这个问题的最佳答案，必须要等到明天再说了。到时你将会认识德谟克里特斯(Democrltus)。

That which is eternal and immutable, to Plato, is therefore not a physical " basic substance" , as it was for Empedocles and Democritus.

因此，对柏拉图来说，永恒不变的东西不是物理的“基本实体”，就像恩培多克勒和德谟克利特那样。

But what we do know enables us to establish that the earliest Greek philosophers' project concerned the question of a basic constituent substance and the changes in nature.

不过，我们根据已知的资料可以断定这些早期希腊哲学家的“课题”与宇宙的基本组成物质与大自然的变化等问题有关。

Anaxagoras (500-428 BC) was another philosopher who could not agree that one particular basic substance, water, for instance, might be transformed into everything we see in the natural world.

还有一位哲学家也不认为我们在自然界中所看到的每一件事物都是由某一种基本物质——如水——变成的。他的名字叫安纳萨哥拉斯(Anaxagoras，公元前500～公元前428年)。

The only way we can accept the transformations we can see with our own eyes, without losing our reason, is to admit the existence of more than one single basic substance.

如果我们要接受自己亲眼所见的各种大自然的变化而又不致违反自己的理性，唯一的方式就只有承认世间存在着一种以上的基本物质。

He had discovered the real solution to the problem of " basic substance" and " transformation." This problem had been so complicated that philosophers had gone around puzzling over it for generations.

他找到了真正解决“基础物质” 和“转化” 问题的办法。 这个问题是如此复杂， 以至于哲学家们为之困惑了好几代。