因果的与他心的“理解”

Understanding Causation and Other Minds

格林最近讨论了理解自然界与理解他人的差异。他认为前者在认知官能的正常运作上即可实现,而后者则必须要求具备理解力和"善解人意"的品格特质。但是,一种对因果的与他心的理解作阐释的统合性纲领仍然是可能的。想象与理解的关系提供了很好的例证。因果的与他心的理解都依赖于"受事实引导的建构性想象",这就要求对自由想象提出限制,且在这些限制下依然不能完全消除不确定性。理解归根到底是一种指向行动可能性的知态,"知行之际"就是阐释理解的统合性纲领。

Stephen Grimm puts recently forward an account on the difference between understanding the natural world and understanding person.He argues that,while natural causation could be understood merely in terms of normal capacities of cognition,to understand other minds is supposed to involve character virtues on understanding person.However,it is still possible to claim a unified account on both kinds of understanding.For instance,understanding both causation and other minds requires constructive imagination guided by facts,which needs more constraints in further upon free imagining,and which could not yet remove uncertainties in understanding completely.Understanding is an epistemic state intimately referring to alternatives of actions.'Between Knowing and Acting'is basically a unified way of characterizing understanding.