古代ギリシャの哲学が、すでに自由市民に委ねられた真理の探究という、純粋に知的な営為だったのであり、その伝統の先端に科学も存在したからである


> 古代ギリシャの哲学が、すでに自由市民に委ねられた真理の探究という、純粋に知的な営為だったのであり、その伝統の先端に科学も存在したからである

委ねられた人は誰？

I wonder if it means Greek philosophy was entrusted to/by public (?)

> この雑誌は多くの人に購読されています  
>  This magazine is read by many people.

多くの人に=the one with に attached always become the subject right and its mean
by..

And how do I translate this sentence easily? should I start with the last
word?

> Philosophy of ancient Greece only pure intellectual conduct that was called
> as the research of truth that entrusted to freeman.




I would read it as "entrusted **to** freemen".

> 古代ギリシャの哲学が、すでに自由市民に委ねられた真理の探究という、純粋に知的な営為だったのであり・・・

I read it this way:

  * 古代ギリシャの哲学が、 --> "Philosophy in ancient Greece" (subject) 
  * すでに --> already (modifies 営為だった) 
  * 自由市民に委ねられた --> "entrusted to freemen" (relative clause modifying 真理の探求という、純粋に知的な営為) 
  * 真理の探究という、 --> "which was the pursuit of truth" (relative clause modifying 純粋に知的な営為) 
  * 純粋に知的な営為だった --> "was a purely intellectual activity" (predicate)

I don't know how to translate this to natural English but I think it's saying
something like:

"Philosophy in ancient Greece was already a purely intellectual activity,
which was the pursuit of truth, entrusted to freemen (≂ exclusively performed
by freemen.)"




Rather than "entrust", I think that a translation that fits better 委ねる in this
case is "to devote oneself".

I think that you are quite there with your translation. Maybe would sound a
bit better in this way:

_In ancient Greece, philosophy, that is the research for the truth to which
freemen devoted themselves, was purely an intellectual occupation_ [...].

It is true that 委ねられた is passive in this case, but I think that if instead you
render that in English in an active way (preserving the original meaning of
course) it sounds better and easier to understand. After all, you can say "I
wear a t-shirt" and "the t-shirt is worn by me". Grammar (subject etc) is
obviously different but the meaning is the same.

About how to translate, I think that that's the most interesting question
here.

I will try to explain how I do. And please notice that this is just my way,
not necessarily the best.

So, personally I always try to identify subject and verb first (maybe
including some simple adjectives), and leave everything that is "color" for
later.

In this case for example I look at: (古代ギリシャの)哲学が and then at 知的な営為だった.

So my first translation is: Philosophy (in ancient Greece), was an
intellectual occupation.

Fine, makes sense so far. Then I add adverbs and other simple things. So I
would look at it like: 古代ギリシャの哲学が、純粋に知的な営為だった.

Ok, so it was a purely intellectual business.

Finally I look at all that comes in the middle (that sometimes in Japanese is
a lot, and very easily misleading).

So I take 自由市民に委ねられた真理の探究という. At this point I already identified that the main
topic is philosophy. So I guess that that という is describing how we are
defining philosophy in ancient Greece. 真理の探究 comes before という so we are
talking of philosophy as the research of the truth.

There is only 自由市民に委ねられた left out, and at this point this obviously is there
to explain who is involved (devoted/entrusted) with the research of the truth:
the freemen.

After I broke everything down this way I look back at it and see if it makes
sense as a whole using the following order:

>   1. 哲学が
>
>   2. 哲学が知的な営為だった...
>
>   3. 古代ギリシャの哲学が粋に知的な営為だった
>
>

Then look at what I called "the colors" above, trying to put them in a way
that makes understanding easier. For example:

> 4*. 哲学という真理の探究が、
>
> 5*. 哲学という自由市民に委ねられた真理の探究が,

And finally put all together. At this point the translation should follow
naturally and it's a matter of picking the right words (for example for 委ねる)

>   6. 古代ギリシャの哲学が, 自由市民に委ねられた真理の探究という, 純粋に知的な営為だった.
>

...Now it would be very funny if after all this trouble it turns out that my
translation is wrong! :D

EDIT: I think there was no すでに at the time of my answer. Maybe that comes from
a later edit in the question. Anyway, it doesn't really change much everything
I said above.

