康德“象征”概念探析

An Analysis of Kant’s Concept of“Symbol”

“象征”在康德哲学中作为理念的感性展示,不仅是理解美和道德之关联的关键,同时它所代表的隐喻式思考和感性化倾向对把握康德哲学而言也具有重要的作用。同“图型”一样,“象征”也是联结直观和概念这两种异质性事物的中介,但由于“象征”所指涉的理性概念的特殊性,使得“象征”拥有最特殊的运作方式——仅关涉反思规则类比上的相似性。与此同时,“象征”作为一种诉诸直观的表象方式具有修辞学的传统,这种隐喻式的表达被康德提升为一种哲学式的思考方式,服务于我们的哲学反思。但这种感性化思维方式有其自身的限度,也正是在这个意义上,康德对“象征”的使用进行了区分和限制,坚持概念式思考在哲学中的根本立场。

In Kant's philosophy,“symbol”as a perceptual display of ideas,is not only the key to understanding the relationship between beauty and morality,but the metaphorical thinking and perceptual tendencies it represents is also instrumental in grasping Kant's philosophy.Like“schema”,“symbol”is also the intermediary that connects the two heterogeneous things of intuition and concept.However,due to the particularity of the rational concept referred to by“symbol”,“symbol”has the most special mode of operation,that is,it only concerns the similarity in the analogy of reflective rules.Meanwhile,as a way of appealing to intuitive representation,“symbol”has a tradition of rhetoric,and its metaphorical expression has been promoted by Kant to a philosophical way of thinking,serving our philosophical reflection.But this perceptual way of thinking has its own limitations,and it is in this sense that Kant distinguishes and limits the use of“symbols”,adhering to the fundamental position of conceptual thinking in philosophy.