莱布尼茨实体形式概念的二重性

The Duality of Leibniz’s Concept of Substantial Form

在科学革命的推动下,以往的目的论世界图景正在逐渐向机械论世界图景转变。而连续体的悖论表明,无论从物质的连续性出发还是从离散性出发皆不可能建立起完善的物质理论。因此,在考察了笛卡尔、伽桑狄等人的理论之后,莱布尼茨最终又回到了亚里士多德的实体形式学说。但与后者不同,作为物体活动的真正原因,莱布尼茨的实体形式同时具有看似对立的双重性质,它意味着处于有灵魂和无感觉之间的事物皆可被视为一元生命体,同时无须忽略其粒子性和机械性。考虑到机械论在当时除物理学之外的其他领域的合法性尚未被建立起来,莱布尼茨通过赋予实体形式某种无穷嵌套的预成结构来调和其二重性质的做法,实际上包含着将机械论推广到更广阔领域的尝试,这客观上为其他学科理论的建立起到了奠基作用,同时指向一门涵盖所有学科门类的大科学。

Driven by the scientific revolution,the teleological worldview in the past is gradually changing to the mechanistic worldview.The paradox of continuum indicates that it is impossible to establish a perfect theory of matter,whether from the perspective of the continuity or from the perspective of discreteness of matter.Therefore,after examining the theories of Descartes,Gassandi and others,Leibniz finally returned to Aristotle’s theory of substantial form.Unlike the latter,as the real reason for the activity of objects,substantial form simultaneously has seemingly opposing dual properties,which means that everything between having a soul and having no sensation can be considered as a unitary living entity,without neglecting its corpuscular and mechanical properties.Considering that the legitimacy of mechanism beyond physics at that time has not yet been established,Leibniz’s approach to reconciling the dual properties of substantial form by endowing them with an infinitely nested preformed structure actually involves an attempt to extend mechanism to a broader field,which objectively lays the foundation for the establishment of theories in other disciplines,while pointing to a grand science that encompasses all disciplines.