“马”给不出的马概念——谓项与述谓的哲学含义  

“Horse”Gives No Concept of A Horse—— Philosophic Significance of Predicate and Predication

作　　者：钱冠连[1] 

机构地区：[1]广东外语外贸大学外国语言学及应用语言学研究中心,广州510420

出　　处：《外语学刊》2015年第5期1-4,共4页Foreign Language Research

摘　　要：概念是怎样生成的?Frege认为,"(一个)概念就是(一位)谓项的指称"。同样重要的是他指出,"一个概念不能由一个主项表达式所指称出来。"针对这句话,Blackburn的解读是:"这样一来,我们就陷入如此悖论:一匹马的概念不是一个概念"。本文作者的修正性解读是:既然概念本身不是(一个)词,概念在词之外,"马"给不出马的概念。Blackburn所说的马的"悖论"并不存在。Tanesini指出,"谓项是表达式用来赋予事物性质与关系的逻辑范畴"。Blackburn指出,述谓是给主项词配给谓项。我们梳理出谓项的哲学涵义有:(1)谓项是让概念出场的关键词语("马"之所以给不出马的概念,是因为谓项尚未出场);(2)用了谓项,才得以表述出事物的性质和它们之间的关系,这才出现思想;(3)述谓是人们用来对世界各种类型的存在(实体、虚体;现实世界、可能世界、必然世界)的判断。承接上述,没有谓项,概念生成不了,命题也生成不了,从而思想也生成不了。当然也就没有知识的、理论的、人的理性认知与道德的构建与积累。述谓是人类思想生成与积累的主要方式——这一点,恐怕Frege当初没有想到过。How is a concept generated？ Frege pointed out that ＂a concept is the reference （Bedeutung） of a one-place predicate＂. What is also similarly important is that he held that ＂it （a concept） cannot be referred to by a subject term＂. As for this point, Blackburn explained that ＂we thus get the paradox that the concept of a horse is not a concept＂. This author opposed himself to the above with his amendment that, since a concept is not a word （as a subject in a sentence） and a concept is beyond a word, so ＂horse＂ gives no concept of a horse. What is called ＂paradox＂ by Blackburn does not really exist. Tanesini pointed out that ＂predicate is the logical category of expressions used to attribute properties and relations to things＂. Blackburn said that ＂predication is to predicate something of a subject or subjects＂. The philosophic significances of predicates the author has explored here are ： （ 1 ） a predicate is key words which make a concept of a subject present. The reason why ＂horse＂ gives no concept of a horse is that any predicate is not yet present after ＂horse＂ ; （2） a statement has some property or stands in some relations, if and only if its predicate is present after the subject. Thereby, we gain a complete thought of the statement ; （3） a predication is used to judge various kinds of existence in the world including concrete entities vs. abstract ones, realistic world, possible world and necessary world. Consequently, there is no concept, nor proposition, then, nor thought without predicates. Of course, finally, there is no construction and accumulation of knowledge, theories, human rational cognition, and morals without predicates. Predication is the main way for human beings to generate and accumulate thoughts. This was perhaps beyond the expectation of Frege at his days.

关 键 词：概念 谓语 述谓 主项词 

分 类 号：B089[哲学宗教—哲学理论]