从自由因、自因到自律:康德的形而上学革命

From the Causality of Freedom and Causa Sui to Autonomy:Kant’s Metaphysical Revolution

形而上学的“自由因”是前康德的形而上学观念,“自因”是笛卡尔尤其是斯宾诺莎(也包括莱布尼茨)的观念,把形而上学的“自由因”与近代哲学的“自因”落实到意志的自律则是康德的伟大贡献,为了解决自律中的矛盾,康德引入了目的论的架构,为黑格尔最终完成形而上学这门科学提供了关键性的启发,以至于可以说没有康德就没有黑格尔,也就没有我们今天在德国古典哲学中看到的形而上学的完成与终结,因而康德形而上学革命的重要意义难以估量。

The metaphysical concept of“the causality of freedom(the causality from itself)”is a pre-Kantian metaphysical concept,and the“causa sui(cause of itself)”is a concept of Descartes and especially of Spinoza(and also of Leibniz).It is a significant contribution of Kant to introduce the metaphysical concept of“the causality of freedom”and the early modern philosophical concept of“causa sui”into the autonomy of the will.In order to resolve the contradiction in the autonomy,Kant introduced the framework of teleology,which was the key inspiration for Hegel to complete the science of metaphysics,so much so that it could be argued that without Kant there would be no Hegel,and thereby there would be no completion of metaphysics as we see today in classical German philosophy.Therefore,the importance of Kant’s metaphysical revolution is immeasurable.