“先天”、“先验”、“超验”译名源流考

The Origin of "xian tian" "xian yan" and "chao yan"

"先天"、"先验"、"超验"分别作为康德哲学的关键词a priori、transzendental、tran-szendent的译名,在中国的广泛使用由来已久,但多数学界中人对它们的具体源流并不清楚。本文根据国内学人对康德哲学的研习背景,回溯到日本学界开始研习康德的时期,逐次考据这些译名何时何地产生,何时及怎样进入中国,梳理和呈现中国学界在20世纪二三十年代关于这些译名的讨论和争论。

The three key concepts in Kant＇s philosophy,a priori,transcendental and transcendent,have long been translated as ＂xian tian＂,＂xian yan＂ and ＂chao yan＂ in Chinese.However,most Chinese scholars may not quite know who began the tradition and when.This article tries to explore these issues by tracing back to the time when Kant＇s philosophy got studied in Japan,and the time when these translated words were introduced into China.It also gives a brief account of the debates on the acceptance of these words in China during 1920-1940.