因果知识的规范性理论:塞拉斯论先天综合

A Normative Theory of Causal Knowledge:Wilfrid Sellars on Synthetic apriori

如何解释规范性现象的形成与效力,是当代哲学自然主义的核心问题。自然主义的主要策略是以因果的关系、机制解释规范性,因为因果性与规范性判断都具有模态含义,而区别于描述性判断。但是,这样的解释不可能是还原性的,且反过来说,也可以用规范性来解释因果性。塞拉斯论证因果知识是先天综合知识的观点,就实现了这种反向的解释可能性,提出了因果知识的规范性理论。根据这一理论,因果知识本身就是在陈述如何由原因项推论到结果项的"实质规则",它所呈现的语义内容乃是"以语用为中介的语义"。

One of the contemporary challenges to philosophical naturalism is how to explain the production and efficiency of normativity. A common naturalistic strategy is explaining normativity by causal relations and mechanisms, since both causality judgment and normativity judgement involve modal conceptions, which differs from descriptive judgment. However, such a naturalistic explanation is non-reductive, and conversely speaking, causality can also be explained by normativity, which has already been realized in Sellarsian account on synthetic a priori. According to his norma- tive theory of causal knowledge, knowing causes is to claim substantial rules for inferences from cause to effect, which suggests ＂pragmatically mediated semantic＂ contents.