論荀子名學之本質及定位

On the Essence andAssessment of Hsün Tzu's Theory of Name

在先秦時期，除了名家和墨家之外，在名學研究方面，其成就最大的當屬荀子。荀子對於先秦名學之主要貢獻是進一步批判和發展名家和墨辯之名學，使儒家之名學更加嚴謹。然而，歷來有關荀子之研究多著眼於其心、性、天、禮等之探討，而疏於抉發其名學之義蘊。直到近年來，國內、外學界始注意及荀子名學之探究。唯中、外學者雖然對於荀子名學之研究已有相當之成績，然而，由於在荀子名學之定性方面之分析仍嫌不足，易言之，荀子之名學究竟是否即等同於西方之邏輯，學者則皆未予以明確之說明或證明。因而，將有礙吾人對於荀子名學之確切理解與把握。此外，由荀子名學本質之探究中所衍生之問題是荀子之名學是否即是中國古代名學之倒退，或是名學發展之反動，於此，亦有待釐清，否則，將影響吾人對於荀子名學之正確評價及定位。因此，本文之目的旨在藉由荀子名學本質之探究，以彰顯其在先秦名學發展中之定位。

During the Pre-Ch'in period, except for the School of Names (Ming-chia) and Mohist School (Mo-chia), the most important figure in the study of the theory of names was Hsün Tzu. Hsün Tzu's major contribution to the theory of names in the Pre-Ch'in times was to criticize and further develop the Ming-chia and Mo-chias' theory of names as well as to inherit and develop sufficiently Confucius' doctrine of rectifying names. However, for centuries scholars in the study of Hsün Tzu did not explore his theory of names, but mostly emphasized to study such ideas as mind, human nature, heaven and rites. Both Chinese and foreign scholars did not pay attention to the study of Hsün Tzu's theory of names until recent years. Although they have made contribution to the study of Hsün Tzu's theory of names, they could not assess properly Hsün Tzu's theory of names, for they were short of qualitative analysis in Hsün Tzu's theory of names, that is, scholars did not manifest or verify if Hsün Tzu's theory of names was identified to Western logic. Besides, scholars did not explore manifestly and detailedly such question as how Hsün Tzu's theory of names criticized and developed Later Mohist theory of names. Hence, if we could not solve the problems mentioned above, we might not comprehend properly the meaning and position of Hsün Tzu's theory of names in the Pre-Ch'in intellectual history. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to explore thoroughly the essence of Hsün Tzu's theory of names in order to manifest its significance and position in the Pre-Ch'in development of the theory of names.