皮尔士视伦理学为规范科学之思想

Peirce's Idea of Ethics as a Normative Science

皮尔士提出了"规范科学"的思想。逻辑学、伦理学和美学这三种学科会分别研究一种"佳"(good):即好的推理、好的行为以及好的目标。通过把上述学科称为科学,皮尔士的研究引发了规范科学为何种科学这一问题。他认为,对该问题的一系列探究既是形式的,又是实证的。后者被理解为基于经验,关于经验,做出的事实性断言。对后者的特征限定,进而引发了规范科学能否作为经验科学的问题;用皮尔士的词汇表述,即规范科学是否属于一种特种科学?如果答案是肯定的,那就意味着规范科学属于规范性自然主义的一种表现形态;这一主张是指:规范属性可以视为自然属性。尽管皮尔士明确反对将规范科学视作特种科学,但笔者认为,皮尔士关于伦理推理和行动所做的形式分析,其框架仍属于规范性自然主义;这种伦理推理和行动,不过是一种有目的的且指向一定目标的行为。

Peirce proposed the idea of normative science. The three disciplines of logic,ethics,and esthetics would each study a kind of good: good reasoning,good conduct,and good ends. By calling them sciences,his study raises the question of what sort of science a normative science would be. For Peirce,these inquiries were both formal and positive,where the latter was understood as making factual claims about experience,based on experience. The latter characterization raises the further question of whether a normative science could be an empirical science,that is,an idioscopic science in Peirce’s vocabulary. If that is the case,it would entail some version of normative naturalism,a position that normative properties can be considered as natural ones. Although Peirce makes explicit claims against identifying the normative sciences as idioscopic,I argue that the framework of Peirce’s formal analysis of ethical reasoning and conduct,as a variety of purposive,goal-directed behavior,nonetheless lends itself to a version of normative naturalism.