罗素论分析的方法和目的——兼评季羡林先生的分析观

Russell's Understanding of Method and Purpose of Analysis:Its Implications for Ji Xianlin's View on Analysis

分析方法具有很大的用途。它不但体现在哲学思维上,而且体现在日常推理和一般的科学研究中。但是,由于哲学的学科特点,分析方法在哲学中的成功运用不仅需要更大的细心和耐心,而且需要更高的抽象能力和想象能力。在分析观上,和笛卡尔一样,罗素强调了作为分析前提的自明性;但和笛卡尔不一样的是,罗素认为分析的方法本质上不是演绎而是归纳,其目的不是为着得到确实无疑的结论——这样的结论是不会有的,而是为了得到更深刻、更具概括力的结论。这样的分析方法不是别的,正是科学方法论的精髓所在——假说演绎法。

Like Descartes,Russell emphasized the self-evidence of the premises of the analysis.But what is different from Descartes is that the method of analysis for Russell is not deductive but essentially inductive,and that the purpose of analysis is not to arrive at infallible conclusions which do not exist anywhere,but to arrive at some more general and more profound conclusions.The analysis thus viewed is reduced to hypothetico-deductive method which constitutes the very quintessence of the scientific methodology.It has been widely used in the reasoning of daily life and every field of systematic scientific studies.However,its application in philosophy needs greater care and patience,and also needs higher abstraction and imagination.