秩序的偶成:论皮尔士作为科学形而上学的宇宙论

Chance Begets Order:On Peirce’s Cosmology as a Scientific Metaphysics

皮尔士的宇宙论是尚未引起学界充分讨论的一个重要论题,对“宇宙有着怎样本质”的回答有助于进一步思考“科学究竟何为”的问题。皮尔士指出,在其以偶成论、连续论,以及神爱论为基本原理的宇宙论中,“偶然”而非“法则”是宇宙的第一特征,但“偶然”中必然孕育“法则”,且“法则”亦必然能够为理性能动者在其形成习惯的活动中以诉诸溯因推理的方式所把握。法则将在科学的探究活动中逐步得到完善。宇宙论构成了一种科学的形而上学,它为科学探究的有效性奠定了形而上的基础。科学因此仍是一项求真的事业,这一立场有助于恢复科学由于库恩、罗蒂等人的批判而曾在哲学中丢失的尊严。

Peirce’s cosmology is a crucial topic.It has not yet been adequately explored.The investigation of the nature of the universe is a motivation for further consideration of the question of what science is.In the Peircean cosmos,which operates on the principles of tychism,synechism,and agapism,chance rather than law is the primary characteristic of the universe,but chance necessarily begets law.Law is necessarily the result of chance,and such law is also to be grasped by rational agents in their abductive reasoning and habitual actions.Law is gradually revealed in scientific inquiry.This paper is an attempt to understand cosmology as a metaphysics of science that lays the metaphysical foundation for the validity of scientific inquiry.Science thus remains an enterprise aimed at finding Truth.This position contributes to the restoration of the dignity of science that has been lost in philosophy by the critiques of Kuhn,Rorty,and others.