从“有()”式表达看何物存在——兼论西方哲学的汉语研究

On What There is by Analyzing the Chinese Formula有()——Meanwhile on Chinese as Work Language in Western Philosophical Study

"有()"式表达意谓的存在概念,回到中国思想的历史语境来看,不是性质概念,而是关系概念,即存在某物或有某物在中国心灵中是被表象为某物被……所具有,包括(1)某物被某一事物整体所具有,进而是(2)某物作为对象,被某种事物语言的对象域(论域)所具有,以及(3)某种事物语言被特定的说话人所具有。这种关系性理解反映在语言层面,就是中文谈论何物存在的习惯表达是"有()"或"存在()",而非某些西方哲学译文中看到的表达式"()存在"或"()在",后者意谓的正是作为性质概念的x存在,前者则是关系概念y具有x的缩略表达。因此从"有()"式表达入手探讨何物存在的中国理解,不仅是面向中国思想的知识性探索,更能使相关知识成果服务于为西方哲学的汉语研究奠定语义基础的目标。

有()is a typical formula employed in Chinese to talk about what there is.I’ll argue that the concept for which the formula stands is not something is or exists,but(1)some-thing as a part belongs to a whole,or(2)something as a semantic object belongs to the domain of the language used to talk about things,and further,(3)the language belongs to specific speaker or as someone’s language.From these aspects,I think,the concept of existence of things,in Chinese mind,stands for relationship rather than quality of things.That is,in formally speaking,x exists doesn’t depend on what x is but on its relationship to y,that is,x exists,meant by有(),actually is x belongs to y or y has x.Hence,follow-ing the concept of what exists is taken as the relation of things,Chinese people are also accustomed to say有()rather than()存在or()在.The former means there is x and especially implies something has x,but the latter,often employed to translate Being in western philosophical texts,just means x is or exists and stands for some kind of quality of things.So,in some extent,we could say that the translations employed the formula()存在or()在,such as事物存在着or在者在,which means something exists,is in-comprehensible for Chinese readers.And therefore,to approach Chinese understanding about what exists in terms of有()is not only a way to explore Chinese thought intel-lectually,but also to render semantic foundation for talking about western philosophy in Chinese.