Notes on Conjectures and Refutations _2

Esquimau

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REFUTATIONS

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11. The Demarcation Between Science andMetaphysics (1955)

反驳Rudolf Carnap

Introduction

MyOwn View of the Problem

-- 1919: drawing a “line of demarcation”

  一般认为：science—observational basisinductive method

           pseudo-science & metaphysics: speculative method

-- Popper: refutability or falsifiability

       degree of testability

confirmability must increase with testability

Carnap’sFirst Theory of Meaninglessness

-- metaphysics was meaningless, andconsisted of nonsensical pseudo-propositions

-- Wittgenstein’s verifiability criterionof meaning

-- metaphysical concepts could not be constituted

Popper认为用meaning的criterion是错误的。

-- “a是a类的一种元素”在一种语言中成为无意义，而在另一种语言中则有意义。

Carnapand the Language of Science

well-formed formulae à completely destroys the doctrine of the meaninglessness ofmetaphysics

  (a)the physicalistic language

  (b)the Language of Unified Science

    Godel’s incompleteness theorems

    Tarski’s proof that every universal language is paradoxical

  (c)Carnap’s Logical Syntax

-- Carnap希望建立一种可自动清除形而上学的统一语言。

  Thephilosophical thesis that language analysis is everything in philosophy isparadoxical.

Testabilityand Meaning

To construct a language of science freefrom metaphysics

-- Popper’s example

  Existentialmetaphysical formula falls outside the province of science ==》Carnap不能说它被排除在科学外。

-- The problem of how to construct alanguage of science which includes all we wish to say in science but excludesthose sentences of metaphysics àhopeless

-- Popper: Acceptability in sciencedepends, not upon anything like a truth-surrogate, but upon the severity oftests.

Probabilityand Induction

-- Carnap: confirmability (by inductivemethods) 排除了最有趣的科学陈述

-- probability: 计算法则不可确定==》 法则是什么？

-- 一种以巨大独创性和驳倒它的诚意检验过的理论，将比只经过漫不经心的检验的理论具有更高的确证度。

这一章反驳了Carnap的Demarcation，科学与metaphysics的分界不在confirmability，一种企图通过语言构造而使科学成为meaningful而形而上学meaningless的方法终是错误的。

12. Language and the Body-Mind Problem(1953)

Introduction

有意义是相对的，试图通过两种语言 (physical & psychological language) 可以解决body-mind问题是错误的。

FourMajor Functions of Language

Karl Buhler: (1) the expressive or symptomaticfunction, (2) the simulative or signal function, (3) the descriptive function,(4) the argument function

AGroup of Theses

TheMachine Argument

机器的描述和论证

TheCausal Theory of Naming

No causal physical theory of thedescriptive and argumentative function of language is possible

这一章反驳分析哲学家用语言构建解决body-mind problem的proposal。

13. A Note on the Body-Mind Problem (1955)

Reply to Professor Wilfrid Sellars

14. Self-Reference and Meaning in OrdinaryLanguage (1954)

dialogue between Theaetetus & Socrates

-- one refers to oneself的意义：可以有意义 Indirect self-reference isadmissible.

-- “有意义”有时间性吗？哥德巴赫猜想是否有意义在证明或否定前无法得知。

-- dividing statements to be true false andmeaningless

-- U: U is false à meaningful

-- artificial language à Godel’s method

这一章继续讨论语言的意义问题。

15. What is Dialectic (1937)

DialecticExplained

– thesis, antithesis & synthesis

-- 正题与反题的“斗争”一说很含糊，很多无益的“斗争”最终一无所获。

-- law of contradiction (traditional logic)à dialectic logic

-- If two contradictory statements areadmitted, any statement whatever must be admitted

-- rules of inference (推理规则)

-- trick:

using valid rules of inference, we can infer from a couple of contradictorypremises any conclusion we like.

-- What dialectic is: dialectic in thesense in which we can attach a clear meaning to the dialectic triad—can bedescribed thus. Dialectic , or more precisely , the theory of the dialectictriad, maintains that certain development, or certain historical processes,occur in a certain typical way.

-- vagueness of dialectic. it is too easyto force a dialectic interpretation on all sorts of developments and even onquite different things.

HegelianDialectic

-- continental Cartesian rationalism vs.British empiricism

-- synthesis of two opposing views (和稀泥的方法？)

Kant: how can we know the world? Because the world is mind-like. Themind digests or forms the world

-- Three elements in Hegel’s dialectic

  (a)An attempt to evade Kant’s refutation of what Kant called ‘dogmatism’ inmetaphysics.

  (b)The description of the development of reason in terms of dialectic is an elemtnin Hegel’s philosophy which had a good deal of plausibility. (意义不清)

  (c)Based on Hegel’s philosophy of identity

   Hegel消除矛盾的方法：理性主义、辩证法，绝对精神

DialecticAfter Hegel

-- physical reality develops dialectically

-- Dialectical Materialism

-- Dialectic扩展到political theory

-- 历史决定论

这一章批判来自黑格尔的辩证法。黑氏门徒把辩证法抬到很高的高度，但是辩证法本身却是非常含糊、意义不清、使用随意，而且无理外推到政治，对我们实在没有太大帮助的一种方法。

16. Prediction and Prophecy in the SocialSciences (1948)

To criticize the doctrine that socialscience should predict history (historical prophecies)

-- attack Marxism

III. – The task of the social science is fundamentallythe same as that of the natural science.

à Historicist doctrine of the socialscience.

V. 和自然科学类比，历史预测论是untenable。

-- scientific prediction. unconditionalhistorical prophecies.

(1) historicist does not derive his historical prophecies fromconditional scientific predictions.

(2) He cannot possibly do so because longterm prophecies can bederived from scientific conditional predictions from 孤立系统。

VI. – 反面. No need to despair of reason.

VII. What is the task of the socialscience?

naïve theories(should be rejected)

(1) study thebehavior of social wholes

(2) conspiracytheory of society

VIII. – the main task of the theoreticalsocial sciences is to trace the un-intended social repercussions of intentionalhuman actions.

IX. – starting: what we cannot do

X. The elimination of the historistdoctrine destroys Marxism

   --To combat the most urgent and real social evils one by one, instead of sacrificinggenerations for a distant and perhaps forever unrealizable greatest good.

XII. – Hegel and Marx replaced the goddessNature in its turn by the goddess History

这一章批判马克思的历史主义与无条件的历史预测伦。

17. Public Opinion and Liberal Principles(1954)

TheMyth of Public Opinions

first myth: vox populi vox dei (人民的呼声是上帝的声音)。

-- 所谓公众意志、人民精神、民族气质、团体精神、种族禀赋

TheDanger of Public Opinion

-- public opinion is an impossible form ofpower

LiberalPrinciple: A Group of Theses

自由主义者的观点：

A Liberal Utopia—a state rationallydesigned on a traditionless tabula rasa—is an impossibility.

TheForms of Public Opinion

The search for truth: (a) imagination, (b)trial and error, (c) the gradual discover of our prejudices by way of (a) and(b)

-- Hope: traditions, changing and developingunder the influence of critical discussion and in response to the challenge ofnew problems, may replace much of what is usually called ‘public opinion’.

SomePractical Problems: Censorship and Monopolies

Publicity

一些问题，比如知识界的影响，大学的自由

AShort List of Political Illustrations

Summary

公众舆论含糊不清，应该用自由主义传统加以节制，公众舆论不可作为truth的arbiter。

这一章讨论公众舆论，认为publicopinion是含糊不清，不可捉摸，应用批判精神的自由主义传统加以节制，用公众舆论作导向是危险的，遑论以其为真理仲裁者。

18. Utopia and Violence (1947)

-- How can a decision be reached à argument, submitted to arbitration, and violence

-- There are many difficulties impeding therapid spread of reasonableness

-- Utopianism is a result of a form ofrationalism

略。这章较散，主要是否定violence，而乌托邦理念往往导致暴力。不要试图通过设计和努力实现一个遥远的尽善尽美的理想社会乌托邦而牺牲目前人的基本地位和利益。

19. The History of Our Time: An Optimist’sView (1956)

-- 反驳：We are clear, also wicked. The mixture of clearness and wicknesslines at the root of our troubles.

-- Popper’s first thesis

  Weare good, and stupidàmixture à trouble

  我们的麻烦并非由于道德上的邪恶，而是常常被道德热忱引入歧途。

Hitler & Stalin的支持者有道德热忱。斯大林，最大的科学家。

-- The oppression of national groups is agreat evil, but national self-determination is not a feasible remedy.

-- Popper’s second thesis

  Inspite of troubles, our own free world is by far the best society which has comeinto existence during the course of human history.

  列出问题：poverty, unemployment,sickness, penal cruelty, slavery，宗教种族歧视，war, etc…分别讨论

-- Popper’s third thesis

Since the Boer War, aggressive war has become almost a moral impossibilityby the democratic governments.

-- Popper’s fourth thesis

  Thepower of ideas, and especially of moral and religious ideas, is at least asimportant as that of physical resources.

-- Fifth thesis

Truth is hard to come by.

-- Three elements in the free world toreplace the dethroned authority.

  (1)respect for the authority of truth

  (2)religion wars

  (3)批判学习接近truth，讨论历史观，我们的道德热忱造成灾难，而后由世界的批判意识与解决具体问题才是正途（这点和胡适的实用主义观点比较像）。

20. Humanism and Reason (1952)

-- 新人文主义 Neo-humanism

book review

  忽视人类理性

  如果说人文主义关心的是人类精神的成长，那么人文主义的传统不是批判的和合乎理性的传统，又会是什么呢？