[V] 三个主要分支(形而上学,知识论,价值论)之间的关系

RELATIONS OF THE THREE SUBDIVISIONS: METAPHYSICS, EPISTEMOLOGY & VALUE THEORY (13-14)

[1] 我应从哪里开始学习哲学?

WHERE DO I START IN STUDYING PHILOSOPHY?

一个刚入门的哲学家看到三个学习范围:形而上学,知识论,和伦理学,会问:该从哪里入手?

A novice philosopher might look at these three disciplines – metaphysics, epistemology, and value theory – and wonder where to start.

[A] 从形而上学开始?START W/ METAPHYSICS?

他可能会想,不如花一年的功夫专心学些形而上学,研究世界的构造,能学的都学到了,才转向知识论和伦理学。

Perhaps he thinks that he might study metaphysics exclusively for a year, learning all he can about the structure of the world, and only after that turn to epistemology and ethics.

因为,知识的主体(认知者)和客体(对象)毕竟都是世界的部分啊。
After all, it seems, the subjects and objects of knowledge are part of the world.

所以,你需要先认识世界,才考虑这些仔细的范围。
So you need to know the world before you consider those specific parts.

[B] 从知识论开始?START W/ EPISTEMOLOGY?

另一方面,你若对知识一无所知(没有对知识的知识),则能获得形而上学的知识?因此很明显地,知识论是形而上学的前提,正如形而上学也是知识论的前提。

On the other hand, how can you gain a knowledge of metaphysics if you have no knowledge about knowledge?  So evidently metaphysics presupposes epistemology, as epistemology presupposes metaphysics.

[C] 从伦理学开始?START W/ ETHICS?

那么,价值论有如何?或者专注伦理学?

What about value theory (focusing specifically on ethics)?

你若没有是非感,没有权利或义务的意识,学习知识(论)和本体(论)时,收获必然有限。

Well, if you have no sense of right and wrong, no sense of obligations or rights, you really won’t get far in a study of knowledge or being.

因为形而上学和知识论都是人类的活动,人类的研究,而人类每一种活动都能接受道德审视。

For metaphysics and epistemology are human activities, human studies, and every human activity can be ethically evaluated.

研究哲学有正确的和错误的方法,这些都是伦理价值所表达的。

There are right and wrong ways to study philosophy, and these are expressed in ethical values.

学习、研究的伦理包括:纪律,勤奋,尊重真理,避免虚假,诚实报导研究的结论,谦虚承认错误和自己的不足,接受责任为自己的宣称提出证据(当有要求提出证据时)。

The ethics of study include discipline, diligence, respect for truth, avoidance of falsehood, honesty in reporting conclusions, humility in admitting error and inadequacy, acceptance of responsibility to give evidence for one’s claims, where evidence is rightly demanded.

当有人拒绝承认,或没有活出这些美德时,他的哲学(作为一个形而上学家,或知识论家)必然会受损。

When someone rejects or fails to exemplify such virtues, his philosophy (as a metaphysician or epistemologist) will suffer correspondingly.

因此,哲学研究的正确结论都是我们『应该』持有的;这个『应该』是一个伦理上的『应该』。

So the proper conclusions of philosophical study are the conclusions that we ought to have; and that ought is an ethical ought.

[2] 三者都彼此关联;他们相互影响,是彼此的前提

ALL THREE = RELATED; THEY PRESUPPOSE/INFLUENCE ONE ANOTHER

我的一般结论是:形而上学,知识论,和价值论并不彼此独立。

My general conclusion is that metaphysics, epistemology, and value theory are not independent of one another.

反之,他们相互为前提,也彼此影响。

Rather, they presuppose one another and influence one another.

例如:某一种知识论会导致某一种形而上学,另一种则导致另一种形而上学。
So, for example, one type of epistemology will lead to one kind of metaphysics, another to another kind.

譬如,对亚里斯多特来说,知识乃是对个别事物的知识(知识论);因此他的形而上学是:世界是(所有)事物的组合。

To Aristotle, for example, knowledge is a knowledge of individual things (epistemology); so in his

metaphysics the world is a collection of things.

对早期的维根斯坦来说,知识是对事实的知识(事实facts乃由命题propositions表达),正如他所说的,『世界是所有事实的总和,不是所有事物的总和。』

To the early Wittgenstein, knowledge is a knowledge of facts expressed in propositions and as he said, “The world is the totality of facts, not of things.”

[Footnote 20.  Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (London: Empire Books, 2011), 1.1. ]

因此对他来说,知识论和形而上学也是彼此决定的。

So for him as well, epistemology and metaphysics determine one another.

诚然,所有知识论都有这个前提:人类主体是与世界有关联的,因此知识是可能的;这是一个形而上学方面的预设(前提)。

Indeed, all epistemologies presuppose that the human subject is somehow connected to the world so that knowledge is possible; that is a metaphysical presupposition.

同理,若没有一个『价值的来源』作为前提,讨论价值论是无用的。

Similarly, value theory makes little sense unless there is a source of value.

但若肯定价值有一个来源,并指出它是什么,这是一个形而上学的任务。

But to affirm that there is such a source and to identify it is a metaphysical task.

[3]三个专业 = 对哲学整体的三种『观点视角』

THREE DISCIPLINES = 3 PERSPECTIVES ON WHOLE DISCIPLINE OF PHILOSOPHY

我们可以这样表达:形而上学,知识论,和价值论是对整个哲学的三个不同观点视角(perspectives)。

Another way of putting it is that metaphysics, epistemology, and value theory are perspectives on the whole discipline of philosophy.

[ 注脚二十一。对我其他著作熟悉的读者们知道,我使用不少三角形图表来表达观点视角 (perspectival diagrams)。它们一般都根据上帝的三个主权属性(译者按:即掌控,权威,和临在)。 我们在本章下文会讨论。目前这个图表与上帝的主权属性不很容易搭配,但一般来看,我会说 形而上学是『处境』,知识论提供思想的『定律』或『准则』,价值论把位格(人)带进来。但我也意识到,价值论也包含定律,人也是形而上学的一部分,等等。 ]

[ Footnote 21.  Readers familiar with m previous books know that I use quite a number of triangular perspectival diagrams.  Usually they form a pattern derived from God’s lordship attributes, which we will consider later in the chapter.  The present diagram does not align easily with the lordship pattern, but in general I see metaphysics as the “situation,” epistemology as furnishing the “laws” or “norms” of thought, and value theory as bringing the person into the equation.  But I’m aware that value theory also contains laws, that persons are a component of metaphysics, and so forth. ]

我们可以拿整个哲学视为一个三角形,哲学的三个分支是三角形的三个角;见图表。

We may picture the whole discipline as a triangle, and the three subdivisions as corners of the triangle; see fig. 1.1

知识论

Epistemology

形而上学                                                       价值论

Metaphysics                                                 Value Theory

图1.1.  对整个哲学学科的三个观点视角

Fig. 1.1. Perspectives on the Discipline of Philosophy

你可以从这三角形的任何一个角开始从事哲学。

You can begin the philosophical task at any corner of the triangle.

但很快就会看到,从其他两个角会流出一些重要内容。

But shortly you will run into content emanating from one of the other corners.

事实上,你会不断在一个圆圈里回转,用知识论的洞见丰富你的形而上学,用价值论来丰富你的知识论,等等。

In practice, you will go round and round the triangle enriching your metaphysics with epistemological insights, enriching your epistemology with value theory, and so on.

因此形而上学,知识论,和伦理学,最好不要视为哲学的部分,而把它们是为哲学的层面。

So metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics are not best understood as parts of philosophy, but aspects.

每一个层面是对整个哲学学科的一个『观点视角』 (a perspective)。

Each is a perspective on the whole discipline of philosophy.

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