論荀子約定俗成之制名原則及其衍生之問題

On Hsün Tzu's Conventional Principle of Instituting Names and Its Deriving Problem

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思想，使儒家之正名學說更加嚴謹，且更充分地繼承並發展孔子之正名思想。荀子名學之要務在於制名。荀子之制名理論，除了制名之目的及依據外，當以制名之原則最為具體且最具特色。荀子提出制名之原則有五，分別是一、名之同異原則──同則同之；異則異之；二、徑易而不拂；三、稽實定數；四、約定俗成；五、王者之制名。其中，尤以約定俗成之制名原則，學者之意見最為分歧，此外，由此一原則所衍生之問題是荀子之哲學立場究竟是唯名論（nominalism）抑或實在論（realism），凡此，皆亟需予以釐清，否則，將有礙吾人對於荀子名學之確切理解。本文旨在探究荀子約定俗成之制名原則並釐清其哲學立場，俾對荀子名學之確切理解與把握有實質之助益。

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. The purpose of Hsün Tzu's theory of names is to institute names. Among the principles of instituting names which Hsün Tzu has proposed, the principle of convention was the most important, however, its assessments among scholars were controversial. Besides, the problem derived from the principle of convention was if Hsün Tzu's philosophical position was nominalism or realism. 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 conventional principle of instituting names in order to comprehend properly Hsün Tzu's theory of names.