上句见：Day74
The Story of Philosophy的第75句：第1章Plato第1节The Context of Plato第6段第1句：

At first this philosophy was physical; it looked out upon the material world and asked what was the final and irreducible constituent of things. The natural termination of this line of thought was the materialism of Democritus(460-360 B.C.) — “in reality there is nothing but atoms and space.” This was one of the main streams of Greek speculation; it passed underground for a time in Plato’s day, but emerged in Epicurus(342-270), and became a torrent of eloquence in Lucretius(98-55 B.C.). But the most characteristic and fertile developments of Greek philosophy took form with the Sophists, traveling teachers of wisdom, who looked within upon their own thought and nature, rather than out upon the world of things. They were all clever men (Gorgias and Hippias, for example), and many of them were profound (Protagoras, Prodices); there is hardly a problem or a solution in our current philosophy of mind and conduct which they did not realize and discuss. They asked questions about anything; they stood unafraid in the presence of religious or political taboos; and boldly subpoenaed every creed and institution to appear before the judgementseat of reason. In politics they divided into two schools. One, like Rousseau, argued that nature is good, and civilization bad; that by nature all men are equal, becoming unequal only by class-made institutions; and that law is an invention of the strong to chain and rule the weak. Another school, like Nietzsche, claimed that nature is beyond good and evil; that by nature all men are unequal; that morality is an invention of the weak to limit and deter the strong; that power is the supreme virtue, and the supreme desire of man; and that of all forms of government the wisest and most natural is aristocracy.
浙江大学版本：起初，这种哲学是物理学性质的，它探索构成万物最终的、不可分割的成分究竟是什么。

解析

这句话讲最初的哲学是物质的，重形式。主要关注物质世界并寻求事物最终且不可分割的成分。

1、**At first this philosophy was physical; **
当时哲学定性：说明那时的哲学是物质的，外在的。
physical：existing in a form that you can touch or see有形的，
physical world：外在世界即物质世界

2、it looked out upon the material world and asked what was the final and irreducible constituent of things.
原因：关注点在物质世界，研究事物的最终不可分的组成部分。
looked out upon 展望
A single tall window looked out upon the river and the embankment; and by the disposition of the lights they judged themselves not far from Charing Cross station.一扇高大的窗户可以俯瞰河流和堤岸。根据灯光的分布，他们判断自己离查令十字车站不远。
irreducible：formal : not able to be made smaller or simpler不可简化；不可再分的。
In the glaring night-hours, when his brain seemed ablaze, he was visited by a sense of his fixed identity, of his irreducible, inexpugnable selfness, keener, more insidious, more unescapable, than any sensation he had ever known.在刺眼的夜晚，当他的大脑似乎在燃烧时，他被一种固定的身份感，一种不可简化的、无可辩驳的自我感所拜访，这种感觉比他所知道的任何感觉都更敏锐、更阴险、更无法逃避。——《人与鬼》

最初，这种哲学是物理学性质的，它探索物质世界，寻求构成万物最终的、不可分割的成分。