被误读的亚里士多德范畴论

Aristotle's Category Theory Being Misread

原型理论也被称为原型范畴理论,它是作为经典范畴理论的对立面而被提出的,而后者又往往被等同于亚里士多德的范畴论,但事实并非如此,这其实是对亚里士多德的一种误读。这种误读在很大程度上来自于著名的认知语言学家John R.Taylor在其Linguistic Categorization:Prototypes in Linguistic Theory一书中对亚里士多德范畴观的引证。在此书中他把亚里士多德的范畴观归纳为四个要点,并称之为经典范畴理论,然后才借此阐明了与之相对立的原型范畴理论。但Taylor的引证其实是对亚里士多德范畴论的误读,亚里士多德范畴论并不能简单等同于所谓的经典范畴理论,相反,亚里士多德早已经认识到了范畴模糊现象和范畴典型现象的普遍存在,并做出了足够清晰的理论性描述。因此,可以说亚里士多德的范畴论是在一定程度上显示了对现代原型范畴理论的包容性。

The prototype theory is also called the theory of prototype category which is put forward as the opposition of the clas- sic approach to category, and the latter is always thought to be equal to Aristotle＇s category theory itself. However, this is not the truth and it is in fact a misreading of Aristotle＇ s category theory. This kind of misreading, to a large extent, comes from the expounding of the prestigious linguist, John R. Taylor, on the category theory of Aristotle in his book Linguistic Categoriza- tion： Prototypes in Linguistic Theory in which he summarizes Aristotle＇ s category theory into four points and calls them the classic approach to category. Yet Taylor＇ s quotation is,in actuality, a misreading of Aristotle＇ s category theory. In fact, Aris- totle＇ s category theory cannot be simply regarded as the so-called classical approach to category; rather, Aristotle had obvious- ly recognized phenomena of categorical vagueness and categorical typicality, and had given sufficiently clear theoretical de- scription of them in his language and hence to a certain extent, his category theory embraces the modem prototype theory.