LINGUISTIC ANALLYSIS. One of the distinctive features of 20^th century British and American philosophy has been its concern with the analysis of language. Many philosophers have believed that linguistic analysis is the most important business of philosophy, for at least two reasons. First, they believe that it is man’s capacity for language that sets him apart from other animals. Human language is what makes human thought and conduct possible. Therefore, if we understand the nature and limits of our language, we will understand the nature and limits of our thought and conduct. Second, many philosophers have held that the traditional problems of philosophy are essentially problems of language. For example, the question of whether man has free will is—insofar as it is a philosophical problem and not a scientific one—a question about the meanings of words, specifically, about what words such as “free” and “determined” mean.

语言分析。20世纪英美哲学的显著特征之一是它对语言分析的关注。许多哲学家认为，语言分析是哲学最重要的事业，至少有两个原因。第一，他们认为，人类的语言能力使他区别于其它动物。人类的语言使人类的思想和行为成为了可能。因此，如果我们理解我们语言的性质和极限，我们就会理解我们思想和行为的性质和极限。第二，许多哲学家认为，传统的哲学问题本质上就是语言问题。例如，人是否具有自由意志的问题—在某种程度上是个哲学问题，而不是科学问题—有关词语含义的问题，特别是有关如“自由的”和“确定的”这种词语意味的东西。

Russell and Moore. The analytical movement began with the work of Bertrand Russell (1872—1970) and G. E. Moore (1873—1958). Russell and Moore were students together at Cambridge, England, just before the turn of the century. Russell went on to become world-famous for his writings on logic, mathematics, philosophy, politics, religion, education, and morals. Moore, however, was equally well known among philosophers.

罗素与摩尔。分析运动开始于伯特兰·罗素（1872年至1970年）的工作。在世纪之交之前，罗素和摩尔同是英格兰剑桥大学的学生。后来，罗素因其在逻辑学、数学、哲学、政治学、宗教学、教育学以及道德等方面的著作而举世闻名。不过，摩尔在哲学家中同样出名。

Moore was attracted to philosophy by a desire to learn why other philosophers, though brilliant men, so often said things that seemed patently absurd. For example, it was commonly said by philosophers that the physical world does not exist or that if it does exist, we cannot know it. To this Moore replied by holding out his hands and saying, “Here are two hands; they are both perfect examples of physical objects; I know that they exist; therefore, I know that physical objects do exist.” Moore’s defense of common sense had an enormous impact on philosophers of his generation. Metaphysical speculation never seemed quite the same again.

摩尔受到哲学的吸引，渴望了解为什么其他的哲学家时常说些看似明显荒谬的事情，尽管他们都是些才华横溢的人。例如，哲学家们常说物质世界并不存在，或者即使它确实存在，我们也无法了解它。对此，摩尔伸出双手回应说“手就在这儿；我知道物理对象确实存在。”摩尔对常识的辩护对他那一代的哲学家产生了极大影响。形而上学的推测似乎再也不一样了。

Russell’s chief contribution was his pioneering works in symbolic logic and its applications in philosophy. Since Aristotle, there had been no really significant advance in the development of logic until Gottlob Frege’s Begriffsschrift was published in 1879. Russell and his collaborator Alfred North Whitehead carried forward Frege’s work and published their monumental Principia Mathematica in THREE volumes from 1910 to 1913. The new logic was to provide philosophers and mathematicians alike with an analytical tool of unsurpassed power and scope.

罗素的主要贡献是他在逻辑符号和哲学应用中的开创性工作。自从亚里士多德以来，在逻辑的发展中还没有真正重要的进步，直至戈特洛布·弗雷格的《概念文字》于1879年出版。罗素和他的合作者阿尔佛雷德··诺斯·怀特黑德继承了弗雷格的工作，并从1910年至1913年出版了不朽的3卷本《数学原理》。新逻辑学为哲学家，同样为数学家提供了一种极具力量和范围的分析工具。

Wittgenstein and the “Vienna Circle.” In 1912 a young man named Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889—1951) arrived at Cambridge to study with Russell. Wittgenstein was to become, according to many observers, the greatest philosopher of the 20^th century. His two principal works were the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which was published in 1921, and the Philosophical Investigations, published posthumously in 1953.

维特根斯坦和“维也纳学派”。1912年，一位叫路德维希·维特根斯坦（1889年至1951年）的年轻人到达剑桥，师从罗素。根据许多观察者的说法，维特根斯坦变成了20世纪最伟大的哲学家。他的两部重要著作是于1921年出版的《逻辑哲学论》，和在他死后于1953年出版的《哲学研究》。

In the Tractatus he set out a comprehensive theory of how language reflects the world. According to this theory, all meaningful sentences must be analyzable into basic, simple sentences that “picture” simple facts about the world. The logical form of these simple sentences will be identical with the logical form of the simple sentences of Russellian logic, and their combination into complex sentences will be accomplished by the combinatory principles of that logic. The completed language will be sufficient to EXPRESS every possible truth about the world. It is the job of the sciences to determine which of the possible truths are actually true.

在《逻辑哲学论》中，他详细阐述了语言是如何反映世界的综合性理论。根据这一理论，每一个有意义的句子必须可分析成基本的，简单的，“描绘”世界简单事实的句子。这些简单句子的逻辑形式将与罗素逻辑中简单句子的逻辑形式相一致，而它们组成的复杂句子将通过逻辑的组合原则来完成。完成的语言足以表达有关世界的每个可能的真相。要确定哪些可能的真相实际上是真实的那是科学的工作。

After writing the Tractatus, Wittgenstein retired from philosophy to become a village schoolteacher in Austria, believing that he had found, “on all essential points,” the final solutions to all the problems of philosophy. But he returned to Cambridge in 1929 to take up philosophy again.

在写作《逻辑哲学论》之后，维特根斯坦结束了哲学工作，成为了奥地利的一位乡村教师，他相信“在所有的要点上”，他已经找到了所有哲学问题的最终解决方案。但他于1929年返回了剑桥再次学习哲学。

While Wittgenstein was in Austria, he came into contact with a group of philosophers in Vienna known as the “Vienna Circle.” These philosophers shared a common philosophical outlook, which they called “Logical Positivism.” The circle included such distinguished thinkers as Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, Friedrich Waismann, and Herbert Feigl. They had read the Tractatus and were greatly impressed by it. They persuaded Wittgenstein to discuss portions of it with some of them.

当维特根斯坦在奥地利时，他开始接触一群在维也纳被称为“维也纳学派”的哲学家。这些哲学家拥有共同的哲学观，他们称其为“逻辑实证主义”。该学派包括这样一些杰出的思想者，如莫里兹·石里克，鲁道夫·卡纳普，弗里德里希·威斯曼和赫伯特·费格尔。他们都读过《逻辑哲学论》，并且由此留下了深刻印象。他们劝说维特根斯坦与他们中的一些人讨论书中的部分内容。

Logical Positivism. The principal doctrines of logical positivism were the result of a union between traditional empiricist philosophy and the new logic. Such 18^th and 19^th century empiricist philosophers as David Hume, Auguste Comte, and John Stuart Mill had argued that all of our knowledge of the world derives from sensory experience, and hence “reason alone” can tell us nothing. The positivists accepted this view and concluded that the only way to knowledge is through the methods of the sciences. They thought that the new logic would provide the ideal framework for the precise EXPRESSION of scientific results.

逻辑实证主义。逻辑实证主义的重要学说是在传统经验主义哲学和新逻辑之间联合的结果。18世纪和19世纪这样的经验主义哲学家，如大卫·休谟，奥古斯特·孔德，以及约翰·斯图尔特·密尔都认为，我们对世界所有的知识都来源于感官体验，因此“只有理性”无法告诉我们任何东西。实证主义者接受了这种观点并得出结论，认知的唯一途径就是通过科学方法。他们认为，新逻辑将为科学结果的精确表达提供理想的框架。

The positivists were the first to claim that philosophical problems are actually problems of language-analysis. Carnap made a distinction between “the material mode” and “the formal mode” of posing philosophical problems. In the material mode, the problems are stated as problems about the world. In the formal mode they are stated as problems of language. For example, in the material mode we might ask “What is goodness?” while in the formal mode we would ask “What does the word ‘good’ mean?” Traditionally, philosophers had spoken in the material mode. Carnap and the other positivists restated the traditional problems in the formal mode and claimed that this was a more accurate way to proceed.

实证主义者是第一个声称哲学问题实际上是语言分析的问题。卡纳普对提出哲学问题的“物质模式”和“形式方式”进行了区分，在物质模式中，问题被表述为有关世界的问题。在形式模式中，它们被表述为语言问题。例如，在物质模式中，我们可能会问：“什么是善？”，而在形式模式中，我们会问：“‘好’这个词意味着什么？”传统上，哲学家以物质模式说话。卡纳普和其他实证主义者以形式模式重申了传统问题，并声称这是更为准确的处理方式。

According to the positivist doctrine, there are two main kinds of language: the empirical, fact-stating language of the sciences, and the empirically neutral language of pure logic and mathematics. The criterion of truth in logic and mathematics is strictly conventional: sentences like “Seven plus five equals twelve” are true simple because of how we use the terms involved, that is, because of what “seven,” “plus,” “five”, “equals,” and “twelve” mean.

根据实证主义的学说，有两种主要语言：以经验为依据，科学的陈述事实的语言和以经验为主的，纯逻辑和数学的中性语言。逻辑和数学中的真理标准是严格地依照惯例：像“7+5=12”这样的句子是真的简单，是因为我们如何使用涉及到的术语，换言之，是因为“7”，“+”，“5”，“=”和“12”表示的意思。

Fact-stating language, on the other hand, is subject the “principle of verification,” which says that a sentence is meaningful if and only if there is some conceivable way for us to verify it. If we want to know the meaning of a sentence like “Courtship behavior among reindeer is purely instinctive” we must ask how one could go about verifying its truth or falsity. If we know the procedure for verification then we know its meaning. Then, to learn whether the sentence is actually true, we must carry out the procedure.

另一方面，陈述事实的语言受“验证原则”的约束，就是说，当且仅当有某些可信的方法来为我们验证它时，句子才是有意义的。如果我们想知道“驯鹿的求偶行为是本能的”一句话的含义，我们就必须询问，人如何能验证它的真假。如果我们知道验证的过程，那么我们就知道它的含义。因此，要了解句子事实上是否是真的，我们就必须完成这个过程。

The principle of verification was an exceedingly strong one, for according to it all of religion, ethics, and traditional metaphysics turns out to be mere nonsense. Religious claims such as “We are the children of God” and “God was incarnate in Jesus” are meaningless because there is no imaginable way to verify them. Similarly, since there is no way to verify such metaphysical claims as “Time is unreal” or “History is the temporal aspect of the Absolute,” they too are meaningless.

验证原则是一个非常有说服力的原则，因为根据它，所有宗教、伦理和传统的形而上学最终都变成了荒谬的想法。诸如“我们都是上帝的子民”和“上帝是耶稣的人格化”这样的宗教主张都毫无意义，因为没有可想象的方法来验证它们。同样，由于没有任何方法来验证如“时间是虚构的”或者“历史是绝对原则的时间方面” 这样的形而上学主张，它们也是毫无意义的。

Thus the positivists were strongly antireligious and anti-metaphysical. The verification principle would also eliminate ethics as meaningless, since there is no way of empirically verifying claims such as “Abortion is wrong.” However, the positivists developed a theory of ethics according to which ethical sentences have a special kind of meaning, called “emotive meaning.” On this theory, ethical sentences are used to EXPRESS the attitudes and emotions of the speaker. To say “Abortion is wrong” is like saying “Abortion—bah!”

因此，实证主义者是坚定反对宗教和反对形而上学的。实证原则也会排除无意义的伦理学，因为从经验上没有办法验证诸如“”堕胎是错误的“这类主张。然而，实证主义者根据具有特殊意义，称为“感情意义”的伦理学句子发展了一种伦理学理论。根据这个理论，伦理句子被用来表达说话者的态度和情绪。说“堕胎是错就的”就像在说“堕胎—呸！”

Ethical sentences are also used as tools in attempting to persuade others to adopt one’s own attitudes. Thus they are also like commands, and to say “Abortion is wrong” is also like saying “Do not do anything that will promote abortion.” Ethics is not concerned with facts, but with emotions and attitudes.

伦理句子也被用作试图说服他人接受自己态度的工具。因此，它们也像是命令，并且说“堕胎是错误的”也像是在说“不要做任何提倡堕胎的事情.”伦理学并不关注事实，而是关注情绪和态度。

The philosophy of logical positivism was popularized in the English-speaking world by A. J. Ayer’s classic workLanguage, Truth, and Logic (1936). By that time, however, the positivist movement was almost over, World War II was only THREE years away, and after the war a new school of thought, the “ordinary language” movement, was to dominate the philosophical scene.

通过A. J. 艾耶尔的经典著作《语言、真理与逻辑》（1936年），逻辑实证主义哲学家在英语世界中流行起来。然而，到那时，实证主义运动几乎要结束了，距二次大战只有三年，而战后一个新的思想学派，“日常语言”运动，便统治了哲学圈子。

“Ordinary Language’ Movement. Two of the central figures in the ordinary language movement were Wittgenstein and John L. Austin (1911—1960), an influential teacher at Oxford. Wittgenstein is remarkable for having contributed key ideas to two very different philosophical schools, first to logical positivism and then to the ordinary language movement.

“日常语言”运动。在日常语言运动中的两个中心人物是维特根斯坦和牛津大学有影响力的教师约翰·L. 奥斯丁（1911年至1960年）。维特根斯坦以为两个非常不同的哲学学派贡献了核心思想而著名，第一个是逻辑实证主义，其次是日常语言运动。

The philosophers of the ordinary language movement believed that the analysis of common, everyday speech will yield solutions to many if not all of the important philosophical problems. The language of formal logic is regarded as an artificial, oversimplified language, which is inadequate to EXPRESS the subtleties of human thought. Ordinary language, on the other hand, is enormously rich and complex. Austin wrote, “Our common stock of words embodies all the distinctions men have found worth drawing, and the connexions they have found worth making, in the lifetimes of many generations: These are likely to be more numerous, more sound, since they have stood up to the long test of the survival of the fittest, and more subtle, at least in all ordinary and reasonably practical matters, than any that you or I are likely to think up in our arm-chairs of an afternoon--the most favoured alternative methods.” (Philosophical Papers 1961.)

日常语言运动的哲学家认为，对普遍的、每天的说话，如果不是所有重要的哲学问题，将为许多人提供解决方案。形式逻辑语言被视为是一种人为的，过于简单化的语言，不足以表达人类思想的微妙。另一方面，日常语言是极其丰富且最复杂的。奥斯汀写道，“我们共同的词语储备体现了人们在许多代人的一生中发现的值得描绘的所有差别，以及他们发现值得建立的联系：这些可能会更多、更全面，因为它们抵抗住了适者生存的漫长考验，相比你或我可能在下午的扶手椅上想到的任何内容—最喜爱的替代方式，会更为微妙。”

In the Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein developed the concept of language-use as a kind of game. Learning a language is like learning the moves in a game, and knowing a language is knowing how to play the game. Wittgenstein distinguished between the languages of science, religion, and ethics, and other kinds of language associated with other forms of human activity. Each form of language, he said, corresponds to a form of human life. Thus to understand the forms of life we need to analyze the language-games that define them. To understand the religious form of life, for example, we must analyze religious language: what do concepts like “God,” “sin,” and “salvation” mean? How are these terms actually used by religious believers?

在《哲学研究》中，维特根斯坦将使用语言的概念发展为一种游戏。学习语言就像是在学游戏中的动作，而懂得一门语言就是懂得如何玩游戏。维特根斯坦区分了科学、宗教以及伦理的语言，以及与人类活动的其它形式有关的其它类型的语言。他说，每一种语言形式都对应着一种人类生活的形式。因此，要了解生活的形式，我们需要分析定义它们的语言游戏。例如，要了解宗教的生活形式，我们必须分析宗教语言：像“上帝”，“罪恶”，以及“拯救”意味着什么？宗教信仰者实际上是如何使用这些术语的？

Wittgenstein believed that it is impossible to criticize a form of life from the standpoint of an outside observer. Each form of life—each language-game—is “in order” as it stands, as it is understood by those who accept it from within. The forms of life are what we start with. They cannot be either justified or criticized; they simply exist. The aim of philosophy is simply to understand the forms of life. Philosophical puzzlement arises when we misunderstand the way language works, as, for example, when we try to understand the language of religion by applying standards more suitable to scientific language. The puzzlement will disappear when we are content to understand each language-game simply for what it is in itself.

维特根斯坦认为，从外部观察者的立场来批评一种生活形式是不可能的。每一种生活形式—每一种语言游戏—就目前而言都是“有序的”，正如那些从内部接受它的人们理解的那样。生活形式是随我们开始的。既不能辩解，也不能批评它们；它们仅仅是存在。哲学的目的只是理解生活形式。当我们误解了语言运作的方式时就会出现哲学的困惑，例如，当我们试图通过应用更适合科学语言的标准去理解宗教语言时。当我们满足于仅仅是理解每种语言游戏的自身时，困惑就会消失。

Effects of the Movement. The analytical movement in contemporary philosophy has not been without its critics. It is often charged that these philosophers have abandoned the great philosophical traditions of the past. It is said that they are not interested in the real world but only in language, and that therefore their philosophy is trivial.

该运动的影响。在当代哲学的分析运动中并非没有批评者。人们经常指责这些哲学家放弃了过去的伟大哲学传统。据说，他们对真实世界不感兴趣，而只对语言感兴趣，因此，他们的哲学是微不足道的。

None of these charges is justified. The linguistic philosophers are, in their own way, discussing exactly the same issues that have always occupied the great philosophers of the past—man’s relation to the world, and the nature of science, ethics, and religion. The method that they have adopted is linguistic analysis, but the goal of that method is the illumination of the familiar traditional problems. Moreover, even the method is not entirely new: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hume, and Kant were all superb analysts of language.

这些指责都未得到证明。以他们自己的方式，语言哲学家正讨论着过去的伟大哲学家们一直从事的，完全相同的问题—人与世界的关系，科学、伦理和宗教的性质。他们采用的方法是语言分析，但那种方法的目标是阐明熟悉的传统问题。此外，即使该方法并不是全新的：苏格拉底，柏拉图，亚里士多德，休谟和康德都曾是卓越的语言分析家。

What the analytical movement has contributed of permanent value is a heightened awareness of the importance of language as the vehicle of human thought, together with a realization of the need for clarity and precision in philosophical method. Even if linguistic analysis is not the last word in philosophy, it is, as Austin said, the first word.

分析运动所贡献的永恒价值增强了对语言作为人类思想工具重要性的认识，还有意识到需要哲学方法的清晰度和精确性。即使语言分析不是哲学的最后一句话，但正如奥斯汀所说，它是第一句话。

Prior to the linguistic movement, philosophy was often a forbidding and obscure branch of inquiry. Philosophers who were simply unintelligible were often thought “deep” on that account. Today any writer on philosophical issues who hopes to gain the respect of his audience must be able to state his arguments clearly and explain his meanings precisely and without obfuscation. This we owe to the relentless analysis of language that has characterized contemporary Anglo-American philosophy.

在语言运动之前，哲学常常是一种令人生畏和晦涩的探究分支。那些简直无法理解的哲学家因此常常被认为是“深奥的”。今天，任何希望获得其观众尊重的有关哲学问题的作者都必须能陈述其论据，准确且无混淆地解释他的意思。我们这要归功于以当代英美哲学为特征的，不懈的语言分析。

JAMES RACHELS, New York University

詹姆斯·雷切尔斯，纽约大学

2024年5月9日译

（译者注：该词条位列《大百科全书》1985年版，第17卷，第523页至524页）