麦克道威尔第二自然的自然主义疏论

Exploration on McDowell’s Naturalism of Second Nature

从中世纪隐秘的自然观向现代科学的自然观的转变是时代的进步,但是现代科学把自然描绘成由因果律支配的领域,由此造成了人的机体和心灵、理性和自然的分裂。麦克道威尔的第二自然的自然主义试图通过对感受性的概念性和自发性的自然性的论证,来说明由于自发性的卷入,我们的自然和动物单凭本能获得的自然相比是独特的,但是自发性是通过教育进入我们的生活的,是和感受性一样自然的潜能。第二自然是人类唯一拥有的自然,我们拥有理性但仍在自然之中。

The transformation from the medieval magic view of nature to modern scientific view of nature is a progress, but in modern science nature is described as the realm governed by law, which has resulted in the divorce between human body and mind, reason and nature. McDowell’s naturalism of the second nature seeks to prove how receptivity is conceptual and how spontaneity is natural, and show that because of the involvement of spontaneity into the construction of nature, our nature is distinct from that of the animal acquired merely by instinct. But spontaneity enters ours life via education, so it is a kind of potential as natural as receptivity. The second nature is the only nature possessed by human being. We possess reason, but we are still inside nature.