法学范畴分类中的隐喻思维——以“公司—股东”关系为分析样本

Metaphorical Thinking in the Classification of Legal Categories——An Analysis Based on the Sample of Relations between Company and Shareholders

范畴分类乃学科之根本,法学中无数理论争议最终都可被归结为范畴之争,而民法学界对"公司—股东"关系范畴划分的争议即为典型。学者们围绕"公司—股东"关系应被划归为哪种法律关系展开了激烈争论,却未意识到自己乃是站在经典范畴理论的立场上。当经典范畴理论被原型范畴理论所取代,我们就必须从新的视角来看待法学中的范畴划分问题。作为研究新视角的原型范畴理论视范畴为以原型成员为中心、向周围发散的开放性结构,而将某一非原型成员固定在范畴内的,乃是此成员与原型成员的相似性隐喻联结。因此,隐喻为法学范畴的分类和创造提供了原理及方法论支持,这是隐喻之于法学的重要意义之一。

Classification of categories is the foundation of every discipline. Many theoretical disputes in law can ultimately be attributed to category disputes, typical among which is the dispute in civil law circles on the category division of 'company-shareholder' relationship. Scholars have been arguing against each other on the proper kind of legal relation that 'company-shareholder' should be attributed to. However, they have not realized the fact that the starting point of their arguments begins with classical category theory. If prototype theory is going to replace the classical one, then we should review such debate from a new theoretical perspective. Prototype theory serves as this new view point. It considers category to be an open structure centering on prototype with other members circling around. What fixes a non-prototype member in the category is the connection provided by metaphor of similarity between itself and prototype. Hence, the significance of metaphor is that it offers principles and methodology that supports the classification and creation of legal categories.