知行哲学:从杜威认识论到预测心智

Philosophy of Knowledge and Action:From Dewey’s Epistemology to Predictive Mind

预测心智主张大脑是一台预测机器,用有层级的感觉推理和主动推理来减少预测误差。这一理论强调认知的实践优先性,掀起了认知科学和心灵哲学内部的“哥白尼式的革命”。预测心智的认知观与杜威的认识论有共通之处。杜威将实验探究视为认识的本质,蕴含了知行合一、行动优先之旨。杜威的实验探究认识论在三个方面与预测心智相契合。首先,探究是一种预测误差最小化,其形式是主动推理。其次,具有操作本性的观念对应于数字化概率的假设。最后,在康德的意义上,由探究后果建构的认识对象对应于先验概率。由这三个相似点出发,能更好理解二者对知行优先性的处理:二者都将知识和行动看作实现善果的手段。阐明预测心智和杜威认识论的联系,有助于发掘古典实用主义思想在当代心灵哲学中的价值,推进知行哲学的研究。

Predictive mind claims that the brain is a predictive machine that uses hierarchical sensory reasoning and active reasoning to minimize prediction errors.This theory emphasizes the practical priority of cognition,instigating a“Copernican revolution”within the ambit of cognitive science and philosophy of mind.The cognitive view of predictive mind and Dewey’s epistemology have some similarities.Dewey regarded experimental inquiry as the nature of knowing;this implies the unity of knowing/acting and the primacy of action.Dewey’s epistemology of experimental inquiry fits predictive mind in three ways.First,inquiry is a type of prediction errors minimization in the form of active reasoning.Second,the concept of an operational nature corresponds to the hypothesis of digital probability.Finally,in Kant’s sense,the object of knowledge constructed by inquiry and consequences corresponds to a priori probability.These three similarities give us a better understanding of the two approaches to the priority of knowledge and action:both consider knowledge and action as means of arriving at good consequences.Elucidating the connection between predictive mind and Dewey’s epistemology facilitates exploration of the value of classical pragmatism in the contemporary philosophy of mind,thus promoting the study of the philosophy of knowledge and action.