先秦哲学对属性与本质的思考——以“白马论”为中心的讨论

The Thinking of Attribute and Essence in Pre-Qin Philosophy——A Discussion Focused on Theory of White Horse

《公孙龙子》中的"白马论"引出了先秦哲学中对事物本质与属性的思考。公孙龙子的诡辩或源于他已经注意到较早的名家"形名"观,即以物之形为物之本质的主张当中潜在的冲突。物之形与物之色类似,当属于事物可见可感的属性层面,但仅根据对物之形的感知不能简单确定物之本质,并进而确定其名为何。公孙龙子对物之形之名仅可能是对其属性的描述,而难以直接揭示其本质的洞察亦非名家独见。对形名问题——描述物之形之名是否可用来对决定物之所是的物之本质加以断定——的反思也同时在儒家和道家的思想脉络中展开,并由此发展出以"德"指本质和以"性"指本质的不同论断。如将上述话题中包含的有关事物属性与本质的见解在某种程度上视为对一般哲学问题的考察,则由此可见先秦哲人无疑也关注着某些与古希腊相通的哲学问题,只是对其提供了需要我们再三检讨的不同解答方式。

The theory of white horse from book of Gongsun Longzi leads to the thinking of attribute and essence of things in Pre-Qin philosophy.The sophistry of Gongsun Longzi maybe comes from his insight of the potential contradiction in the viewpoint of‘shapes and names’of former scholars in the school of name(Ming),which indicates the shape of things signifies the essence of them.The shape of things is similar to the color of them which is the attribute that could be saw or perceived,but it is impossible to confirm the essence of things directly by the perception of the shape of them and to ensure their name further.Gongsun Longzi’s insight that the name based on the shape of things may just be the description of their attributes but not the reveal of their essence is not the unique viewpoint of the school of name.The reflections to the problem of‘shapes and names’-whether the name that described the shape of thing could be used to assert its essence that confirmed what it is-are also presented in the thoughts of Confucianism and Daoism,which are developed into different judgements that virtue(De)and nature(Xing)could also designate the essence.It is concluded that Pre-Qin philosophers focus on same philosophical questions as ancient Greek philosophy but supply a different way to answer them which is needed to be reviewed repeatedly,if the understanding of essence and attributes of things that are included in the upper topic could be regarded as consideration to general philosophical questions on some level.