阿伯拉爾的唯名論哲學思想

Peter Abelard's Philosophical Thoughts of Nominalism

10.7065/MRPC.200606.0029

張繼選(Ji-Xuan Zhang)

共相 ； 唯名論 ； 狀態論 ； 語詞的意義 ； Universals ； Nominalism ； Status-Thesis ； Meaning

哲學與文化

33卷6期（2006 / 06 / 01）

29 - 43

繁體中文

中世紀共相問題的討論起源於著名的波菲利問題。然而，在中世紀，第一次真正對共相問題提出明確的唯名論結論的則是阿伯拉爾其人。阿伯拉爾遵循亞里斯多德關於共相的定義，並將亞里斯多德的形而上學謂述改造為純粹邏輯謂述，認為共相就是謂述眾多個別事物的語詞。他通過對香蒲的威廉的實在論的批判，否認有任何普遍的或共同的事物存在，因此，在他看來，能夠對眾多個別事物起謂述作用的東西只能是語詞，從而確立了他的唯名論立場。儘管如此，阿伯拉爾認為，共相語詞依然是有意義的語詞。阿伯拉爾通過他的獨特的狀態論和抽象論，認為共相語詞的意義就在於它所意指的共同概念。根據這樣的意義理論，阿伯拉爾的唯名論實際上也就是概念論。本文在詳細解讀阿伯拉爾的著名邏輯著作《邏輯初步》的基礎上，對阿伯拉爾的唯名論哲學思想作出了系統的闡述。

Medieval discussions on universals can be traced back to Porphyry's first formulation of the problem. However, it is Peter Abelard who first really made a definitely nominalist response to the problem. Through both abiding by Aristotle's classic definition of a universal, and transforming its metaphysical into pure logical predication, he holds that universals are what are predicated of many individual things. By criticizing William's realism, which commits itself to real universals being common to many individual things, he insists on depriving many individual things of any common or universal essence that could exist in reality. In his opinion, therefore, instead of any things, universal or individual, there can only be universal words, or names that can be predicable of many individual things, and his theory of nominalism is thereby established: Universals are words or names which we can predicate of many things. Never the less Abelard thinks that universal words are still meaningful. And with the aid of his distinctive status-thesis and abstractism, both of which are so important that there are necessary lengths to which this paper goes to articulate them in great detail, Abelard suggests that the meaning of a universal word consists in the common conception it signifies. According to this theory of meaning, this kind of nominalism is the exact equivalence of conceptualism. Based on a careful understanding of his main work on universals: Logica ingredientibus, the present paper tries to give a systematical account of Abelard's philosophical thoughts of nominalism.