Structural problems for reductionism

Philosophical Studies - Universal reductionism—the sort of project pursued by Carnap in the Aufbau, Lewis in his campaign on behalf of Humean supervenience, Jackson in From Metaphysics to...     

How physicalists can avoid reductionism

Kim maintains that a physicalist has only two genuine options, eliminativism and reductionism. But physicalists can reject both by using the Strict Implication thesis (SI). Discussing his arguments will help to show what useful work SI can do.(1) His discussion of anomalous monism depends on an unexamined assumption to the effect that SI is false.(2) His conclusion on multiple realizability is much stronger than his reasoning warrants.(3) In discussing supervenience, he is wrong to assume that the only approach to explaining why physical truths determine all the truths must be via psychophysical laws.(4) His general argument rests on a mistaken assumption that the only alternative to psychophysical identity theses is to accept supervenient causal relations.     

Anti‐reductionism and Expected Trust

According to anti‐reductionism, audiences have a default (but defeasible) epistemic entitlement to accept observed testimony. This paper explores the prospects of arguing from this premise to a conclusion in ethics, to the effect that speakers enjoy a default (but defeasible) moral entitlement to expect to be trusted when they testify. After proposing what I regard as the best attempt to link the two, I conclude that any argument from the one to the other will depend on a strong epistemological assumption that has not yet been discussed in this connection.     

Models of reduction and categories of reductionism

A classification of models of reduction into three categories — theory reductionism, explanatory reductionism, and constitutive reductionism — is presented. It is shown that this classification helps clarify the relations between various explications of reduction that have been offered in the past, especially if a distinction is maintained between the various epistemological and ontological issues that arise. A relatively new model of explanatory reduction, one that emphasizes that reduction is the explanation of a whole in terms of its parts is also presented in detail. Finally, the classification is used to clarify the debate over reductionism in molecular biology. It is argued there that while no model from the category of theory reduction might be applicable in that case, models of explanatory reduction might yet capture the structure of the relevant explanations.Thanks are due to David Hull, Michael Martin, Ken Schaffner, Abner Shimony and William Wimsatt for many valuable discussions of these issues and for comments and criticism of an earlier version of this paper. This paper was partly written during the tenure of a grant from the Boston University Graduate School.     

辩证法与实践智慧

在西方哲学传统中,辩证法属于理论哲学的方法或研究对象,而实践智慧或明智则只限于实践哲学,只是作为能在社会生活中正确处理对人自身有益处的能力和品质而被讨论[1].但笔者以为,这种辩证法与实践智慧的分离,只是囿于理论哲学视野的缘故.而这一分离的结果是,辩证法由于用错了地方而丧失了信誉,实践智慧则被人们只看成了某种关于生活的常识性琐谈.笔者这里试图表明,辩证法能够作为实践智慧而发挥其作用,且其合法形态只能是实践哲学的实践智慧.本文将从辩证法的实质及其与实践智慧的比较来阐明这一问题.     

从矛盾辩证法到和谐辩证法 --辩证法的历史变迁

本文构建社会主义和谐社会的最新提法为契机,系统地考察了自黑格尔以来辩证法在马克思主义视域中的历史变迁,提出了与和谐社会相适应的和谐辩证法的新概念。和谐辩证法是对矛盾辩证法的继承和发展,是时代精神和建设中国特色社会主义实践的深厚的思想积淀,承认对立面的肯定因素、实现对立面的结合和双赢等是和谐辩证法的基本内涵。     

Dialectics and the Transcendence of Dialectics: Adorno's Relation to Schelling

The influence of the thought of the great German Idealist philosopher G.W.F Hegel on the thought of Theodor Adorno, the leading thinker of the first generation of the Frankfurt School, is unmistakeable, and has been the subject of much commentary. Much less discussed, however, is the influence of Hegel's prominent contemporary, F.W.J. Schelling. This article investigates the influence of Schelling on Adorno, and the sometimes striking parallels between fundamental motifs in the work of both thinkers. It argues that Adorno's critique of Hegelian (and indeed of his own, negative) dialectics, his conception of the relation between nature and spirit, and his philosophy of history (amongst other aspects of this thought) owe a considerable debt to Schelling. Furthermore, when adequately explicated, Schelling's position on a range of problems which confronted German Idealist philosophy often prove intrinsically preferable to those of Hegel.     

《巴门尼德》与柏拉图式辩证术

《巴门尼德》的主题是形相论(理念论)与辩证术,柏拉图式辩证术问题与他应对智术师运动及其背后的前苏格拉底“存在之战”直接相关。本文考察柏拉图改造修辞术为辩证术的过程和哲学意义,以此定位形相与辩证术的位置。《巴门尼德》的形相论批判和辩证术展示指向共同的目的,即呈现逻辑推理与范畴描述对于人类认识存在的作用及限度,并由此凸显辩证术对于哲学探究新路彳圣的意义,这篇对话传达了柏拉图对人类认识与存在之问的深刻反思。     

Dialectics and practical wisdom

Dialectics is essentially the method or logos in which categories of forms are combined to explain things. Dialectics was developed because reason faces difficulties in grasping the sensible world. Practical wisdom is knowledge about some things or certain person or persons because of its variable objects. But it is not entirely specific or only about a particular thing and without universality in any sense. As one kind of dialectics, it combines various elements to accord with the right logos, similar to the way in which various forms are combined in theory. Therefore practical wisdom as a combination or polymerization of elements can be regarded as another kind of logic, namely practical logic or dialectics. __________ Translated from Zhexue Dongtai 哲学动态 (Philosophical Trends), 2005 (4) by Xie Yongkang