再论因果关系的INUS理论

INUS Theory of Causality

INUS理论认为,原因是结果的某个充分不必要条件中的必要不充分部分。这一理论得到了国际学术界的广泛关注和讨论,这些讨论主要集中在三个方面:原因和结果的本体是什么、复杂事件是什么、零相干问题。笔者在第二部分对这些讨论进行了总结和分析。在第三部分,笔者对INUS理论提出了一个问题,即在充分不必要条件中,原因是哪一个部分。这是被麦吉以及其他讨论INUS理论的学者所忽视的一个问题。通过回答这个问题,笔者对INUS理论进行了补充。

The INUS theory of causation takes cause as an insufficient but necessary part of an unnecessary but sufficient condition. This theory has drawn extensive attention and triggered heated discussions among the international academia,which focus on the following three aspects： the essence of cause and consequence,that of complex event,and the no-correlation problem. A summary is given in the second part of the paper. In the third part,a question is raised concerning the INUS theory,namely,what is the cause in the sufficient condition？ This is a problem ignored by Mackie and other scholars who discussed INUS theory. By answering the question,the author makes a supplement to the INUS theory.