论“是”与“存在”

On "Being" and "Existence"

在中文当中,"是"有多种涵义,其中包括表示"存在",但是作为系词的"是",乃是这个词最基本的意思,是比其他涵义更为基础的涵义。在哲学讨论中,"是"与"存在"是两个完全不同的概念,它可以表明西方哲学中"being"和"existence"的区别;而用"存在"则无法表明西方哲学中being的涵义,用"存在"与"实存"或"生存"也无法表明"being"和"existence"的区别。Being作为一个核心概念,反映了西方哲学乃是一种知识论意义上的学科,它体现了对人类认识世界和自身的根本方式的思考和探讨,与"爱智慧"乃是一致的。应该把being理解为"是",面不是"存在";应该联系"真"(truth)来理解它;应该结合西方哲学著作中的例子(比如"天空是蓝色的")和所谈论的"ways of being"(是之方式)来理解它;应该把这种理解贯彻始终。而不应该满足于中文字面上的习惯理解,不应该通过中文翻译而从字面上阻断这样理解的途径,从而割断西方哲学在这个问题上一脉相承的联系。

In Chinese,'being' has quite a few definitions,including the definition of 'existence'.However,its basic usage is a link verb.In Western philosophy,'being' and 'existence' are two completely different concepts because 'existence' cannot reveal the implications of 'being' or vice versa.'Being' as a core concept reflects Western philosophy as a disciplinary category in terms of epistemology and mirrors the basic way of understanding the world and mankind himself.In this case,'being' should be understood as 'to be' rather than 'existence' and its understanding should be related to 'truth' and the examples in Western philosophy and 'ways of being' all the time.Thus,a correct understanding of 'being' should rely on an understanding of its historical development in Western philosophy rather than the surface meaning of the Chinese translation.