何莫邪 陳國華 盧培培
【譯者言】何莫邪的這部書,主要講古代中國的語言與邏輯,這兩方面都與哲學有著分不開的關聯(lián)。古代中文里沒有哲學和哲學家這兩個詞,不過《詩經(jīng)》和《尚書》里有哲人、哲士、哲王、哲夫、哲婦等,后來又出現(xiàn)了哲思、哲理等,其中哲字的意思都是“明智”(《漢語大字典》哲條下)。直到清末有人將哲學這個術語從日文引入中文,這才有了哲學和哲學家這兩個詞。而日文哲學這個詞,據(jù)說是日本明治維新時期教育家和啟蒙家西周(1829—1897)根據(jù)哲和學這兩個字各自的意思,將之合為一體,作為英語philosophy的對應詞使用而流行起來的。
問題是,古代中文里沒有哲學和哲學家這兩個詞,是否就意味著古代中國人沒有哲學這一概念,古代中國也沒有哲學家?與之類似的問題可以舉出一大堆,例如古代中文里沒有真理、邏輯等詞,能否由此推斷古代中國人沒有真理、邏輯等概念,或古代中國沒有邏輯學家?
何莫邪的看法是,那倒不一定。例如,他在本期的節(jié)選里斷言:“中文里明顯有真理概念,只不過真理確實未被視為哲學的一個十分重要的核心問題,而哲學在中國一直主要是以實用為宗旨。”什么叫“以實用為宗旨”?《荀子·正名篇》里的下面這段話說得最清楚。請?zhí)貏e注意最后下加橫線的部分。為了幫助大家從西方哲學家的視角解讀這段話,我們?yōu)榇蠹遗渖嫌鴤惗卮髮W亞非學院已故著名漢學家葛瑞漢(A.C. Graham,1919—1991)的譯文。
異形離心交喻,異物名實玄紐,貴賤不明,同異不別;如是,則志必有不喻之患,而事必有困廢之禍。故知者為之分別制名以指實,上以明貴賤,下以辨同異。貴賤明,同異別,如是則志無不喻之患,事無困廢之禍。此所為有名也。
When with differences in expression and divergence in thought we communicate with each other, and different things are obscurely confounded in name or as objects, the noble and the base will not be clarified, the same and different will not be distinguished; in such cases intent will inevitably suffer from frustration and obstruction, and action will suffer from frustration and obstruction. Therefore the wise made for them apportionments and distinctions and instituted names to point out objects, in the first place in order to clarify noble and base, secondly to distinguish same and different. When noble and base are clarified, and same and different distinguished, intent is not hampered by failure to communicate and action does not suffer from frustration and obstruction. This is the purpose of having names.[Graham. 1989. Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China. 此書的中譯本是《論道者:中囯古代哲學論辯》(葛瑞漢著,張海晏譯,2003)]
中國人看見古代中文文獻里提到“名”和“實”,讀到古人有關“名實”的論斷,通常不會覺得有什么了不起,以為這不過是討論名稱或名詞及其所指稱事物之間的關系問題,殊不知荀子(公元前316?―前237?)說的“知者”就是西方的哲學家,因為西方的哲學(philosophy),意思就是對知識和智慧的愛好,哲學家(philosopher)就是愛好知識和智慧的人;而名與實的關系,就是西方哲學家和邏輯學家討論的哲學和邏輯學問題,如柏拉圖的《克拉底魯篇》(Cratylus)中所討論的名實問題。中西方學界的區(qū)別在于,西方學者關心和討論這些問題,目的是為了發(fā)現(xiàn)真理;中方學者關心和討論這些問題,目的是為了解決實際問題。荀子所謂“分別制名以指實”“明貴賤”“辨同異”,以便“志無不喻之患,事無困廢之禍”,按照葛瑞漢的解讀就是,“劃分和區(qū)別名與實,為之設立名稱以指稱事物”“澄清高貴和卑賤”“辨別相同和差異”,以便“意圖不因無法溝通而受阻礙,行動不因為挫折和阻撓而受影響”。這與亞里士多德(公元前384—前322)等古希臘哲人為了真理的緣故而尋求真理(seeking truth for the sake of truth),顯然大相徑庭。
Section (d) in the present work is a systematic study of some logically fundamental concepts like that of a sentence, of meaning, truth, and necessity, and some problems of their application to Chinese. I argue that1 there is as much—or if you prefer: as little—of a concept of a sentence in Chinese as there is in English or Greek2. I show that the concept of truth is manifestly present, although it is indeed not regarded as all-importantly central to philosophy which in China has always been predominantly pragmatic in orientation3. There is even some truly4 surprising evidence of the development of an abstract notion of a class, of subsumption, and of an abstract property. Moreover, there is no reason to attribute to the ancient Chinese an exotic absence of a notion of propositional knowledge5. On the other hand, it is quite correct to point out that the ancient Chinese words within the semantic field of knowledge—like their ancient Greek counterparts—also mean knowledge by acquaintance6 and “knowing how to”. On close examination the Chinese language turns out to be less exotic than might appear from the current literature.
It turns out that the Chinese language is reasonably well equipped to express7 rational argumentation, essential to science, and the ancient Chinese have many current forms of argument in common with their contemporary Greeks8.
My survey of the Chinese tradition of disputation and logic shows that—like its Greek counterpart—the Chinese tradition owed much to the legal tradition on the one hand and to intellectual entertainment on the other. Creative frivolity9 is shown to have been a crucial factor in the thought of Kungsun Lung10. The intellectual11 response to logic by the culture at large12 is crucial for our appreciation of the role of logic in Chinese culture. In China, as in Greece, the response was predominantly negative, but unlike in Greece, even the argumentative philosophers in ancient China did not systematically deploy the insights of the logicians and their techniques in other areas than those of formal logic.
Finally, I present a critical survey of the system of Chinese Buddhist logic and of its terminology. Discussing the problems of Hsüan-Tsangs translation from the Sanskrit original into Chinese I argue that these translations make crucial additions to the Sanskrit origin-al and thus contribute significantly to the progress of Buddhist logic. Finally, I have found it useful to highlight the contrast between the formal character of Aristotles syllogistic and the more? ?rhetoric-based system of Indian logic which should be viewed as a formal logic of dialogue and disputation rather than of formal logical relations as such.
本書(d)節(jié)系統(tǒng)討論邏輯上的一些基本概念,如句子、意義、真理和必然性等,還討論將這些概念用于中文時遇到的一些問題。我的論點是,英文或希臘文里有多少句子的概念,中文里就有多少。我證明,中文里明顯有真理概念,只不過真理確實沒有被視為哲學的一個十分重要的核心問題,而哲學在中國一直主要是以實用為宗旨。甚至有一些令人十分驚訝的證據(jù)表明,那里發(fā)展出了抽象的類概念、類屬概念和抽象屬性概念。此外,我們沒有理由認為古代中國人很另類,缺乏命題知識的概念。另一方面,一種很正確的做法就是,指出知識這一語義場中的古代中文詞與其古希臘文對應詞一樣,既有“親身知道”又有“知道如何(做)”的意思。仔細研究后我們會發(fā)現(xiàn),中文實際沒有當前文獻可能顯現(xiàn)的那么另類。
事實證明,中文裝備精良,足以表達理性論證,后者對科學來說至關重要,而且古代中國人和同時代的希臘人有許多共同的流行論證形式。
縱觀中國辯論和邏輯傳統(tǒng),我發(fā)現(xiàn)中國傳統(tǒng)跟希臘傳統(tǒng)一樣,一方面在很大程度上仰仗法律傳統(tǒng),另一方面也仰仗智識消遣。別出心裁的嘩眾取寵被證明是公孫龍思想的一個關鍵因素。文化圈整體對邏輯問題做出的智識回應對于我們賞析邏輯在中國文化中的作用而言至關重要。在中國,就像在希臘一樣,回應主要是負面的。但是與希臘不同的是,即便古代中國的論辯哲學家也沒有將邏輯學家的洞見及其分析技巧系統(tǒng)地運用到形式邏輯之外的其他領域。
本書最后,筆者對中國佛教邏輯的體系及其術語進行批評性綜述。在討論玄奘將梵文原著翻譯成中文遇到的問題時,我的論點是,這些翻譯對梵文原著做了至關重要的補充,由此對佛教邏輯的進步做出了意義重大的貢獻。在書的結尾,我發(fā)現(xiàn)有必要凸顯亞里士多德三段論的形式特點與更加基于修辭的印度邏輯的體系之間形成的反差,后者應被視為對話和辯論的形式邏輯,而不是形式邏輯關系本身。
*廣西師范大學教授、漓江學者,北京外國語大學教授、長青學者,本刊顧問。
**北京外國語大學中國外語與教育研究中心在讀博士。
1這里argue that的意思是“to maintain, by adducing reasons, the proposition or opinion that...”(OED argue, v. 條下6.),即舉出理由來論證一個命題或觀點。Google Translate和DeepL都譯成“認為”,無法與think的意思區(qū)別開來。? 2這句話的意思是“中文里有的……與英文或希臘文里有的一樣多或一樣少”,換成我們習慣的說法就是本文提供的譯法。中文的“多少”既有“多”又有“少”,英文的much僅有“多”的意思。鑒于單純much有可能導致歧義,作者于是便說“as much—or if you prefer: as little”,翻譯時不必拘泥于原文的表達方式。? ?3 orientation派生自謂詞orient,本義是“使……面向東方(to place or arrange (anything) so as to face the east)”,直接引申義是“確定東方”,泛化后的意思是“確定方位”;加上后綴-ation之后,意思就成了“[面向的]方向”。作者說哲學在中國一直主要是pragmatic in orientation,意思既不完全是“方向一直主要是實用主義”(GT),也不是“以實用主義為主要方向的”,而是“面向實用”或“以實用為宗旨”。? ?4這里truly的意思是really,不是機器譯文的“真正”。? 5這里attribute意思是:to ascribe as a quality or “attribute” belonging, proper, or inherent (to attribute wisdom to one = to hold that he is wise) (OED attribute, v. 條下5.)。給“to attribute… knowledge”換一個說法就是:to hold that the ancient Chinese were exotic in that they lacked the notion of propositional knowledge。
6自從19世紀下半葉,尤其是自羅素(Bertrand Russell,1872—1970)以來,哲學家們往往區(qū)分兩類知識,即親身知識(knowledge by acquaintance,即一般人說的“一手知識”)和他人描述的知識(knowledge by description,即一般人說的“二手知識”)。前者是對一人、一地或一物的直接認識,如“我認識薩穆(I know Sam)”“我熟悉劍橋市(I know the city of Cambridge)”“我知曉羅素的那些哲學問題(I know Russells Problems of Philosophy)”;后者有些類似尋常的命題知識(propositional knowledge),如“我知道他是教授(I know that he is a professor)”。? 7 reasonably 的意思是“充足(sufficiently)”或“相當(fairly)”(OED reasonably, adv. 條下3.a);well equipped“裝備精良”的意象最好還是在譯文里重現(xiàn)出來。GT的“可以很好地表達”和DL的“有相當好的條件來表達”,都沒有把原文的意思充分表達出來。? 8此處current意思不是“當前”(GT),而是“流行(in vogue)”(OED current, a. 條下7.);此處contemporary的意思不是“當代”(DL),而是“同時代”(GT)。? 9機器譯文都是“創(chuàng)造性的輕浮”。用我們更熟悉的表達式,creative即“別出心裁”,frivolity即“嘩眾取寵”。
10這里指公孫龍利用古代中文類指(generic reference)和特指(particular reference)表達式所允許的歧義(如“馬”和“白馬”既可指稱一類事物及其次類,又可指稱特定的“一馬”和“此馬”“一白馬”和“此白馬”),以及“非”字所包含的歧義(“不是”和“不等于”),做出“白馬非馬”這一明顯有違常識的斷言,即提出這樣一個表面為假的命題,進行邏輯推理,說明“白色的馬不等于馬”這樣一個符合邏輯的命題。? 11機器譯文都是“智力”,顯然不妥,因為它不含intellectual這個詞所內含的“思想見識”。? 12機器譯文都是“整個文化”。這里最好把culture解讀為“文化圈”或“文化界”。