Causes as proximate events: Thomas Brown and the Positivist interpretation of Hume on causality

A neglected episode in the intellectual history of the Scottish Enlightenment, Thomas Brown’s philosophy has been recently reassessed and reconnected with the emergence of the Positivist interpretation of David Hume. In fact, aiming to defend Hume’s philosophy from the common charges of atheism and scepticism, Brown popularised an interpretation of Humean texts which was later to become the standard view on Hume. In this essay, I aim to identify Brown’s historical sources and connect his reading of Hume with the medical discussion on causality.     

The goal of explanation

I defend the claim that understanding is the goal of explanation against various persistent criticisms, especially the criticism that understanding is not truth-connected in the appropriate way, and hence is a merely psychological (rather than epistemic) state. Part of the reason why understanding has been dismissed as the goal of explanation, I suggest, is because the psychological dimension of the goal of explanation has itself been almost entirely neglected. In turn, the psychological dimension of understanding—the Aha! experience, the sense that a certain explanation “feels right”, and so on—has been conspicuously overemphasized. I try to correct for both of these exaggerations. Just as the goal of explanation includes a richer psychological—including phenomenological—dimension than is generally acknowledged, so too understanding has a stronger truth connection than is generally acknowledged.     

心理技术的哲学反思

对心理技术的哲学反思包括三个方面的内涵:从心理技术的在场性、心理场域的作用及其对身体映像的控制来分析心理技术的实体性存在;从知识建构、知识扩展以及思维的形成等方面可以为认识论反思提供启示;从心理技术的研究、心理技术的实施以及心理技术与道德的涉身性了解心理技术的道德困境。     

当代知识论研究方法的检视

从方法论角度审视知识论发展的当代形态，检视了当代知识论的几种重要研究方法——例证法、设疑法、语义分析法以及逻辑分析法普遍应用的情境及内涵，探究了当代知识论这一独特文化景观形成的方法机理。     

Epistemic benefits of the material theory of induction

C. D. Broad famously labelled the problem of providing our inductive practices with a proper justification “the scandal of philosophy” (Broad, 1952). Recently, John Norton has provided a dissolution of this problem (2014). According to Norton, inductive inference is grounded in particular facts obtaining within particular domains (J. Norton, 2003b, 2010, 2014). Because the material theory does not involve a universal schema of induction, Norton claims it dissolves the problem of induction (which implies that such universal schemas cannot be justified).In this paper, I critically evaluate Norton's dissolution. In particular, I argue that the problem of induction is an epistemological problem, that Norton's material theory entails an externalist epistemology, and that it is a common feature of such epistemologies that they dissolve the problem of induction. The upshot is that the material theory is not unique in its ability to reap the specifically epistemic benefits of dissolving the problem of induction, and thus that the epistemic advantages of the material theory over extant alternatives in this regard are fewer than it may appear at first sight.     

Countering medical nihilism by reconnecting facts and values

A pessimistic strain of thought is fomenting in the health studies literature regarding the status of medicine. Ioannidis’s (2005) now famous finding that “most published research findings are false” and Stegenga’s (2018) book-length argument for medical nihilism are examples of this. In this paper, we argue that these positions are incorrect insofar as they rest on an untenable account of the nature of facts. Proper attention to fallibilism and the social organization of knowledge, as well as Bayesian probabilities in medical reasoning, prompt us to ask why the cynics expect the results of quantitative studies to be incontrovertibly true in the first place. While we agree with Ioannidis and others’ identified flaws in the medical research enterprise, and encourage rectification, we conclude that medical nihilism is not the natural outcome of the current state of research.     

“刺激”不可能完成的任务

蒯因哲学被许多学者认为是一套成体系的理论。翻译不确定性和自然化的认识论是其主要学说。刺激、刺激意义和场合句、观察句是其学说的基础概念。观察句的根本特点是公共性,但是它并不来源于刺激。蒯因的刺激概念不能达到他赋予其的理论目的:即它可以为原始翻译中的观察句提供解释和为自然化认识论提供出发点。     

简单性与复杂性关系三辨

从本体论维度而言,简单性与复杂性都具有客观性,复杂性渐据优位;从认识论维度而言,事物兼具简单性和复杂性,二者比较而存在,具有相对意义;从方法论维度而言,把握世界应坚持奥卡姆剃刀原则,因简单性更符合主体的认识需要。     

论科学虚构的方法论意义

科学虚构作为一种思维方法、创造形式和探索途径,既充分发挥人类精神的能动性和自觉性,也成为构建科学理论、从事技术发明、创造新奇事物的一种特殊有效的认知和实践。在方法论上,它作为一种丰富、奇妙、自由奔放的联想、假设、建构和幻想的方法与形式,使人们突破经验的局限,开阔新视野,拓展新领域,激发新欲望,给出新启示,创立新理论,构建新前景。由此,在认识上,它既表征了人类特有的认知欲望和生存能力,展示了能动的主体意识和创新意志的本质行为,也实践了客观知识和语言工具的内在要求与目的。     

探索科学实践中认知规范的历史性——评哈金的科学推理风格理论

哈金的科学推理风格理论是历史知识论的重要研究方向之一。最近,马丁.库什从科学知识社会学的角度出发,对哈金的理论提出了一系列批评。这些批评认为,哈金的理论无法避免内在主义编史学和极端相对主义的结论,它是建立在不恰当的论据之上的。