在“道”与“逻各斯”的“相参”之后

After the Mutual Interpretations of Logos and Dao

丹尼尔·威廉姆斯在“逻各斯”之多重意义的梳理中,特别提及中国思想之“道”“法则”和“理”,这与中国学界“道与逻各斯相参”的论说有所应和。然而在种种“相参”背后其实始终隐含着理解“终极”的不同逻辑,“言与思”“言与意”“言即不言”“万物皆种”的根本逻辑究竟是“相禅”还是“所禅”,也许恰恰可以通过“逻各斯”在西方的演进、变化、不同侧重及其在汉语里的翻译历史中得以理解。

In his study of the history of the term Logos in ancient Greek,Jewish,and Christian thinkers,Daniel H.Williams provided not only a detailed analysis of the polysemic notion of logos as speech,discourse,reason,or divine will,but also posed stimulating questions for the Chinese reader about how the Chinese understanding of Dao compares with terms like法则(natural law or nomos)and理(principle).This essay will follow up this question by tracing the polysemic word Dao in Chinese and the translation in various concepts like Logos,Verbum,Way,and Word,in order to demonstrate the different metaphysical framework in China and the West,namely,the logic of“mutual-substitute”or“the substitute”.