谈谈解释鸿沟

Discussion of Explanatory Gap

本文尝试表明神经活动和意识活动之间的解释鸿沟并不是主观/客观之间的鸿沟,也不是相关性/因果性之间的鸿沟。本文先讨论了原因和解释之间的关系:单纯确定致动因不等于提供解释,解释依赖于致动因和结果之间的经验网络或科学理论。本文进一步区分了经验解释和机制解释并指出依赖于科学理论的意识产生机制对整体意识活动的解释力十分有限。这是之所以有一条“解释鸿沟”的主要原因。

This paper attempts to show that the explanatory gap between neural activity and conscious activity is not a subjective/objective gap, nor a correlation/causality gap. This paper first discusses the relationship between cause and explanation: simply identifying the cause is not the same as providing an explanation, which relies on empirical networks or scientific theories between the cause and the effect. This paper further distinguishes between empirical explanation and mechanism explanation, and points out that consciousnessproducing mechanism that relies on scientific theory has very limited explanatory power for overall consciousness activities. This is the main reason why there is an “explanatory gap”.