电子与货币——社会科学中的倾向本质主义

Electrons and Money: Dispositional Essentialism in Social Science

一般而言,倾向主义自然律观排除了社会科学定律具有和自然科学定律一样必然性的可能。但这一判断的问题在于仅仅把以倾向为本质的性质限于基础形而上学层面的自然类中。事实上,社会科学领域同样存在以倾向为本质的性质:地位功能等倾向性质构成了社会实在类的本质;社会科学的定律是对社会实在类的倾向本质的描述,因而也具有必然性。换言之,社会科学中的定律(尤其是经济学定律)满足弱版本的倾向本质主义。

Generally speaking, the dispositional account of laws of nature rules out every possibility that the laws in social science could be as necessary as natural laws. However, the problem of this claim is that it admits only in fundamental metaphysics where exist natural kinds with dispositional essence. In fact, essentially dispositional properties are also instantiated in social science： status functions or dispositional properties constitute the essence of social kinds. Laws in social science which describe the dispositional essence, are necessary. Thus, the laws in social science, especially the laws of economics, satisfy a weaker account of dispositional essentialism.