从隐喻看逻辑推理的起源——列维-布留尔《原始思维》的启示

The Origin of Logic Reasoning from Metaphors—A Revelation from Lucien Lévy-Bruhl s Primitive Thinking

法国人类学家列维-布留尔在其名著《原始思维》中提供了大量生动的实证案例,为我们探讨人类逻辑思维的起源打开了一扇大门。他指出,人类原始思维是一种以“互渗律”(如隐喻)为特色的“前逻辑思维”,它不受逻辑思维的矛盾律的制约,但也并不与之绝对冲突,只是对之不在意而已。而从人类思维发展的历史来看,整体上都是一个从原始互渗律占优势到逻辑思维逐渐占优势的过程,双方既有互相妨碍的方面,同时也有互相促进和提升的方面,谁也离不开谁;且归根结底,这一过程本身就是互渗的思维方式在进化中自否定的结果,原始思维是逻辑思维的根。中国传统思维方式基本上未能摆脱原始互渗律的束缚而发挥其潜在的逻辑功能,有待于在吸收西方逻辑思维的文化融合中重塑汉语思维的现代形象。

In his work Primitive Thinking,Lévy-Bruhl,the French anthropologist,provided a lot of vivid cases,opening a window to the origin of logic reasoning.Lévy-Bruhl claimed that the primitive human thinking is a kind of pre-logic reasoning characterized by the law of mutual infiltration(such as metaphor),which is not governed by the law of contradiction in logic thinking,but does not conflict with it.The development of human thinking is a process from a stage dominated by the law of mutual infiltration to a stage dominated by logic thinking;with one stage excluding as well as promoting the other.To sum up,this is the result of the self-denying thinking process,as logic thinking is rooted in primitive thinking.Basically,traditional Chinese thinking has not broken away from the yoke of mutual infiltration and it needs to rebuild its modern image by absorbing the western tradition of logic thinking.