嚴復的「物競天擇」說析論：嚴復與西方大師的演化觀點之比較研究

嚴復以「物競天擇」說為中心的社會思想，對於近現代中國有絕大的影響。此種社會思想融合了達爾文、斯賓塞、赫胥黎等西方大師的相關見解，並加入嚴復本人的批判與詮釋。其背景復雜，內容深微且包含多種對立的意見，因而非常難以釐清。本文從一比較中西思想的角度，仔細分析嚴復以「物競天擇」說為中心的社會演化思想，以期對於其學說本身的內涵與特質、當時所涉及的論爭、「物競天擇」觀念的原義與譯介義的差異、以及嚴復轉化並融合西方學說的方式有更進一步的瞭解。

關鍵字

嚴復；達爾文；斯賓塞；赫胥黎；拉馬克；物競；天擇；體合；競爭求存；自然篩選；直接適應；功能遺傳

並列摘要

Yen Fu's social thought, which centered on the ideas of struggle for existence and natural selection, had a great influence on modem China. His social thought integrated the evolutionary theories of Darwin, Spencer, Huxley and his own comments and interpretations of them. With a highly sophisticated contents and intellectual background and contains contending ideas toward the role of natural selection in human society, his evolutionary thought is very difficult to be clarified. This article tries to use a comparative approach to analyze Yen Fu's evolutionary ideas, so as to better understand the meaning and characteristic of his theory, the debate involved, the difference between the original theories and his translation, and his modification and synthesis of Western ideas.

並列關鍵字

Yen Fu ； Darwin ； Spencer ； Huxley ； Lamarck ； wu-ching ； t'ien-tse ； t'i-ho ； struggle for existence ； natural selection ； direct adaptation ； use inheritance