戴维森历史外在主义的困境与出路

The Problems of Davidson’s Historical Externalism and the Solution

为了解决外在主义和第一人称权威的冲突,戴维森提出一种历史外在主义,强调个体历史对心灵内容的重要性。它的强解读把个体历史当成会被个体自身忽视的外在对象,依旧贬损第一人称权威。弱解读则主张个体历史是彻底解释的参照而非某种对象,没有上述问题,但是面临以下困境:首先,在割裂行为与历史的沼泽人思想实验中,历史外在主义和彻底解释理论变得不可调和;其次,人格同一性作为历史外在主义的重要前提,往往存在争议。出路在于:摆脱二元对立的对象思维,回归彻底解释理论,采取历史外在主义的弱解读,并且舍弃割裂行为与历史或者存在人格同一性争议的思想实验,将适用范围局限于日常生活案例。

To eliminate the contradiction between Externalism and first-person authority,Davidson puts forward a kind of Historical Externalism which underlines the importance of personal history to mental contents.Its strong reading takes personal history as some external object which may be overlooked by the individual,so first-person authority is still undermined.Its weak reading treats personal history as the background of radical interpretation rather than some object,so it doesn’t face the foregoing problem.But it faces other ones:first,Historical Externalism and Radical Interpretation Theory become incompatible in Swampman Thought Experiment where the behavior and its history are separated;second,as the important premise of Historical Externalism,personal identity is often controversial.The solution is:dispensing the thinking mode of binary opposition and objectification,getting back to Radical Interpretation Theory,taking the weak reading of Historical Externalism,abandoning thought experiments with behavior-history separations or personal-identity controversies,and applying it only to daily cases.