基于形而上学奠基概念的心理因果性问题重思

Mental Causation Based on Metaphysical Grounding

金在权认为非还原的物理主义会在心理因果问题上犯难。心理因果问题的症结之一在于非过度决定论题,即过度决定情形不可接受。然而,并不是所有的过度决定情形都不可接受,而只是系统性的过度决定情形不可接受,因为这些情形违背了节省原则;那些非系统性的、偶然发生的、自然界中极其罕见的过度决定情形可以被接受。金在权的排除论证之所以有力量,是因为其使用的随附性概念以及在随附性概念的基础上建立的随附性物理主义对心物关系的刻画,会同时违背非系统性原则和节省原则。随附性概念只是刻画了心物之间的依赖关系,而没有说明这种依赖关系何以存在。相比之下,因分体论原则可以弥合物理与化学、化学与生物等不同层次的属性之间的关系,承袭分体论原则的形而上学奠基概念能够说明心物之间的形而上学依赖关系。而且,基于奠基概念理解心物关系,也可以填补心物之间的说明空缺,使人们不仅能够知道心理属性和物理属性之间存在共变关系,而且这种共变关系是可以解释并被理解的。本研究为理解心理因果性问题提供一种新的视角。

According to Jaegwon Kim,non-reductive physicalism is problematic in terms of mental causation.One of the cruxes of mental causation lies in the non-overdetermination thesis,that is,the overdetermination is unacceptable.However,not all overdetermination cases are unacceptable,but systematic overdetermination cases are unacceptable because they violate the parsimony principle.On the contrary,cases of non-systematic,accidental overdetermination,which are extremely rare in nature,can be accepted.The power of Jaegwon Kim’s exclusion argument lies in its use of the concept of supervenience and its characterization of mental-physical relations based on the concept of supervenience physicalism,which would violate both of those two principles.This is because the concept of supervenience only describes the dependence between the mental and the physical,but does not explain why this dependency exists.In contrast,the concept of metaphysical grounding has an explanatory function,which can explain the metaphysical dependence between the mental and the physical.The explanatory function of the grounding concept inherits the mereological principle commonly used by the scientists,which can bridge the relations between different levels of properties,such as physical and chemical,chemical and biological,etc.Understanding the mental-physical relations based on metaphysical grounding can also fill the explanatory gap between the mental and the physical,and we can not only know that there is a dependence between mental and physical properties,but also that this dependence can be understood.This paper attempts to provide a new perspective for understanding mental causality.