It will be difficult for you to make sense of some of the articles we’ll be reading. This is partly because they discuss abstract ideas that you’re not accustomed to thinking about. They may also use technical vocabulary which is new to you. Sometimes it won’t be obvious what the overall argument of the paper is supposed to be. The prose may be complicated, and you may need to pick the article apart sentence by sentence. Here are some tips to make the process easier and more effective.
Skim the Article to Find its Conclusion and Get a Sense of its Structure 快速浏览文章,找到结论,把握结构
A good way to begin when you’re trying to read a difficult article is to first skim the article to identify what the author’s main conclusion is. Pay special attention to the opening and closing paragraphs, since authors will often tell you there what they intend to be arguing for. When you do figure out what the author’s main conclusion is, try to restate it in your own words. This will help you to be sure that you really understand what the author is arguing for.
When you’re skimming the article, try also to get a general sense of what’s going on in each part of the discussion. What is the structure of the article? Sometimes authors will tell you, early in the paper, what their argument will look like. This makes your job easier.
The articles we read won’t always have a straightforward structure. They won’t always be of the form:
我们阅读的文章,并不会都有简单直白的结构,不会总是像这样:
This is the conclusion I want you to accept. Here is my argument for that conclusion…
这是我希望你接受的结论。以下是我的证明……
Philosophers often provide auxiliary arguments, arguments for important premises they appeal to in support of their main conclusion. For instance, the author’s discussion may have the form:
The conclusion I want you to accept is A. My argument for this conclusion is as follows: B and C are true, and if B and C are true, then A must also be true. It is generally accepted that B is true. However, it is controversial whether C is true. I think you ought to accept C for the following reasons…
我希望你接受的结论是 A,以下是我的论证:已知命题 B 和 C 正确,如果 B 和 C 都对,那么 A 一定对。大家普遍认同 B 正确。但是 C 对不对还有争议。我认为你应该接受 C,理由如下……
Here the author’s main argument is for the conclusion A, and in the process of arguing for A he advances an auxiliary argument in support of C. Try to identify these auxiliary arguments, and the claims they’re intended to support; and try to avoid mistaking one of these auxiliary arguments for the author’s main argument.
这里作者的主要论证是证明结论 A,在证明结论 A 的过程中,他提出了一个辅助论证来支持命题 C。(然后再用 C 论证 A。)试着找出这些辅助论证以及辅助论证想要支持的论点,不要混淆辅助论证和主要论证。
Articles can be complex in other ways, too. Not everything the author says will be a positive conclusion or a premise in support of his conclusion. Sometimes he’ll be supporting his view with a thought-experiment. Sometimes he’ll be arguing for a distinction which his positive view relies on. Sometimes he’ll be arguing that another philosopher’s views or arguments ought to be rejected. Sometimes he’ll be defending a view against somebody else’s objections.
Keep an eye out for words like these when you’re reading:
because, since, given this argument
thus, therefore, hence, it follows that, consequently
nevertheless, however, but
in the first case, on the other hand
阅读时请留意表达这些意思的关联词:
因为;所以;但是;一方面,另一方面……
These are signposts which help you keep track of the structure of the discussion. For example, one philosophy article might run as follows:
这些关联词是帮助你随时把握讨论结构的路标。例如,一篇哲学文章可能这样写:
Philosopher X advanced the following argument against dualism…The dualist has two responses to X’s argument. First…However, this response runs into problems, because…A better response for the dualist says…X might be tempted to counter as follows… However…
哲学家 X 提出了以下论证来反对二元论……二元论者对 X 的论证有两种回应。首先……然而,这一回应遇到了问题,因为……对二元论者来说更好的回应是……X 可能会这样反驳……然而……
and so on. The words “first” and “however” and “a better response” make it easy to see where the discussion is going. You’ll also want to put signposts like these in your own philosophical writing.
The skeptic says that we can’t tell whether we’re seeing things as they really are, or whether we’re brains in vats being force-fed false experiences, like the inhabitants of The Matrix. Y raised the following objection to the skeptic… Hence, Y concludes, we have no reason to think our situation is as bad as the skeptic makes it out to be. This is an attractive response to the skeptic, but I don’t think it can really work, for the following reason…Y might respond to this problem in one of two ways. The first way is… However, this response fails because…The second way Y might respond is… However, this response also fails because…So in the end I think Y’s objection to the skeptic can not be sustained. Of course, I’m not myself a skeptic. I agree with Y that the skeptic’s conclusion is false. But I think we’ll have to look harder to see where the flaw in the skeptic’s reasoning really is.
怀疑论者说,我们无从知晓自己看到的是事物的本来面貌,还是我们是被灌输错误体验的缸中之脑,就像《黑客帝国》里的人那样。作者 Y 向怀疑论者提出了以下反对意见……因此,Y 得出结论,我们没有理由认为我们的处境像怀疑论者所说的那样糟糕。这一回应对反对怀疑论来说很有吸引力,但我并不认为它真的驳倒了怀疑论,理由如下……Y 可能会用这两种方式来回应。第一种是……然而,这一回应站不住脚,因为……Y 的第二种回应方法是……然而,这一回应也不成立,因为……综上,我认为 Y 对怀疑论的反驳不能成立。当然,我自己并不是怀疑论者。我和 Y 一样,也认为怀疑论的结论是错的。但我们要更努力地寻找怀疑论的推理究竟错在哪里。
In this article, the author spends most of his time defending the skeptic against Y’s objections, and considering possible responses that Y might give. The author’s main conclusion is that Y’s objection to the skeptic does not work. (Notice: the main conclusion isn’t that skepticism is true.)
在这篇文章中,作者花了大部分时间为怀疑论者辩护,驳斥了 Y 的反对意见,还考虑了 Y 可能给出的回应。作者的主要结论是,Y 对怀疑论者的反驳不成立。(注意:主要结论并不是「怀疑论是对的」。)
Go Back and Read the Article Carefully 再次仔细阅读
When you’ve figured out what the main conclusion of an article is, and what the overall structure of the article is, go back and read the article carefully. Pay attention to how the various parts fit together.
在你弄清楚文章的主要结论和整体结构之后,再回头仔细阅读。特别注意各个部分是怎样连接在一起的。
Most importantly, figure out what the author’s central argument(s) are. What reasons does he offer in support of his conclusions? Where in the article does he put these reasons forward?
Notice where the author says explicitly what he means by a certain term.
注意作者明确解释某个术语的地方。
Notice what distinctions the author introduces or argues for.
注意作者引入或者主张了什么区分。
Take special notice of any unargued assumptions you think the author is relying on.
特别注意作者论证时依赖的隐含前提。
Consider various interpretations of what he says. Are there any important ambiguities that his argument fails to take account of?
考虑作者观点的多种解释。作者论证中有没有忽略什么应该进一步澄清的内容?
All of these things will help you to understand the article better. And they’ll be crucial when you’re trying to evaluate the author’s argument, and deciding whether or not you should accept his conclusion.
这些都会帮助你更好地理解文章,对你评价作者的论证,决定要不要接受他的结论也至关重要。
In your notes, you might make a quick outline of the article’s major argumentative “pieces.” Draw arrows to diagram how you think those pieces fit together. If you can’t do this, then you need to go back and look at the article again to get a better understanding of what the author is up to.
You should expect to read a philosophy article more than once. I’ve been doing philosophy for more than ten years and I still have to read articles many times before I fully understand them. Intellectually digesting a philosophy article takes time, effort, and concentration. You definitely won’t understand everything in the article the first time you read it, and there may be some parts of the article you don’t understand even after reading them several times. You should ask questions about these parts of the article (in class or after class or in section, as you judge appropriate). You could say:
What is going on on p. 13? Descartes says X, but I don’t see how this fits in with his earlier claim Z. Is X supposed to follow from Z? Or is he trying here to give an argument for Z? If so, why does he think that X would be a reason in favor of Z?
第 13 页在讨论什么?笛卡尔说 X,但是我不明白这和他之前的观点 Z 是怎么联系起来的。他是说 X 可以从 Z 推导出来吗?还是他在用 X 论证 Z?如果是用 X 论证 Z,为什么 X 可以作为支持 Z 的理由?
Evaluate the Author’s Arguments 评价作者的论证
Obviously, you’re only in a position to evaluate an author’s argument when you’ve done the work of figuring out what it is he’s really saying, and how his arguments work.
显然,只有当你搞清楚作者真正在说什么,以及他的论证是怎样成立之后,你才能评价他的论证。
When you come to that point, you can start asking questions like these: Do you agree with the author? If not, what do you think is wrong with his reasoning? Does he appeal to some premise which you think is false? (Why do you think it is false?) Is there some assumption which the author does not make explicit, but which you think is false? Does his argument equivocate or beg the question?
当你走到这一步,你可以开始问这些问题:你同意作者的观点吗?如果不同意,你觉得作者的推理错在哪儿?你认为作者的某些前提是错的吗?(为什么这些前提是错的?)有没有作者没有明确提出,但你认为是错误的假设?作者的论证有偷换概念 (equivocate) 或者在前提中就已经假定了结论 (beg the question) 等问题吗?
You will often feel that the debates we examine are tangled messes and you don’t know whose argument to believe. There’s no escaping this. I feel this way all the time. All I can say is, if you work hard, you will be able to make some sense of the mess. You’ll start to get a sense of how the different views relate to each other and what their pros and cons are. Eventually, you may realize that things are even messier than you thought, which will be frustrating, and you’ll have to go back to the drawing board. This can happen over and over again. You may never reach any definitive conclusion. But each time you try to make sense of the debate, you’ll find you understand the issues a little bit better. That’s the way we make progress in philosophy. It never gets easier than that.
Sometimes one philosophical issue leads into three other issues, which themselves lead into yet other issues… and you can’t possibly explore all of the relevant connections right then. So you’ll have to learn to make do without definitive answers. You may not be able to come to a settled view about whether you should accept some philosopher’s argument, because that turns on further issues P, Q, and R, which you haven’t figured out yet. That’s perfectly normal. Your philosophy professors often feel this way themselves, about many of the arguments they read.
Other times, you may be sure that some argument is flawed, but you won’t have the time and resources to figure out, or explain and argue for, everything you think is wrong with the argument. In such cases, you may want to provisionally accept one of the argument’s premises, and move on to focus on other premises, which you think are more important or which are easier to criticize. (This is why you often hear philosophers saying, “Even if we assume such-and-such for argument’s sake, I still think X’s argument fails, because…”)
其他时候,你可能很确定某个论证是错的,但你没有时间和资源去理清、解释和争论整个论证。这时,你可能会想姑且接受某个前提,然后从其他更重要或更容易反驳的前提入手。(这就是为什么你经常听到哲学家说,「就算我们为了论证假设什么什么是对的,我仍然认为 X 的论证是失败的,因为……」)
再说衣服上没有检测到 DNA 的问题。看到未检出 DNA 就认为这是没有骚扰行为的证据的人,你们有一点点科学探究精神吗?你们有没有思考过,如果我摸了你的衣服,有多大概率留下我的 DNA?事后又有多大概率提取并检测到这些 DNA?不同的衣服材质有没有影响?皮肤干、油、多汗、少汗有没有影响?学界有没有做过相关实验?
《触摸痕中接触 DNA 检验概述》(《中国法医学杂志》2015 年第 30 卷第 3 期,几位作者是淄博市公安局临淄分局刑侦大队和淄博市公安局刑侦支队的法医),这篇论文里写到,影响接触 DNA 检验的因素包括干/油性皮肤的个体差异、载体表面属性、接触方式、遗留时间等。
《衣物类生物检材 DNA 检验的研究》(《中国法医学杂志》2018 年第 33 卷第 4 期,作者有 10 人,通信作者是深圳市公安局刑事科学技术研究所的主任法医师),这篇论文里写到:
在法医实际检案中,鞋袜、衣服、手套、帽子类检材作为接触类 DNA 生物物证在犯罪现场经常被发现,由于此类检材 DNA 含量较低,存在诸多 PCR 扩增抑制因素,易被外源性 DNA 污染,不易被转移提取,故检验难度大、检验成功率低。 衣物类生物检材属于接触类 DNA,所含 DNA 量接近低拷贝模板,且该类检材存在以下特点:(1) 有限的表皮细胞分布在面积较大的载体上,难以收集;(2) 脱落细胞与载体和污物结合紧密,难以洗脱;(3) 脱落细胞多为角化上皮细胞,DNA 量微或已降解;DNA 提取富集难度较大。
这些论文基本上可以说明要从 DNA 来判定有没有接触行为是非常困难的。没有检出 DNA 有各种各样的可能,根本不能用来证明没有发生过接触行为。
我引用的论文已经说明了 DNA 检测率低。你说《衣物类生物检材DNA检验的研究》摘要里说了「该方法对衣物类生物检材 DNA 提取纯化后进行荧光 STR 检测,可应用于法庭科学实践」,所以论文的结论可以说明没有检测到 DNA 可以在法庭上用于证明没有接触?
首先你要知道论文一般是介绍行业新进展的,不是教科书。这篇 2018 年的论文总体意思是,以前 DNA 检测成功率低,我们使用了德国的新技术,把我们实验室保存的 100 份衣物类检材中检测了一遍,其中 78 份检查到了 DNA,其中 49 份 DNA 与公安机关数据库里嫌疑人的 DNA 一致,我们觉得进步很明显。——换句话说,使用新技术之后,检测到犯罪者 DNA 的比例也只有 49%。弦子的衣物检测可是没有用这个新技术的。你觉得这篇论文是证明了检测成功率高还是低?
我知道很多人的道德本能是不在「先救谁」的时刻做选择,一切理性思考后的选择都会与本能的道德情感相抵触。但是,不做选择其实也是选择的一种,甚至可能是最自私(仅仅考虑自己的道德情感接受与否)因此很不负责任的一种选择。尤其是几年前看日剧 CODE BLUE 的时候感受最为强烈——几位直升机急救医赶到一个几十上百人受伤的事故现场,每个医生都必须做出优先救谁的艰难选择。
By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is the same thing in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness.
Jeremy Bentham. 1789. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Chapter 1, Paragraph 2.
目前我看过的作者自身持 utilitarianism 立场并对相关问题讨论最详尽的是 Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek & Peter Singer 2016 年出版的 The Point of View of the Universe: Sidgwick and Contemporary Ethics,同行或者资深爱好者可以看看。
今年四月,不记得在哪儿看到有人推荐《浪漫主义的根源》(Isaiah Berlin. 1965. The Roots of Romanticism)这本书,我很快就找来读完了。读完顺便在 Evernote 里面写了几段笔记。前几天又偶然想起这本书,却不记得这本书到底写了些什么。于是我翻出了当时的笔记,发现伯林的判断还挺有意思的。顺便看了一下豆瓣读书的不少书评好像都没有把关注点放在这里,大家似乎更关心伯林各种旁征博引的细节。
「形而上学」是被用来翻译 metaphysics 这个词的。 metaphysics 这个词的来源大致是这样的。亚里士多德留下了很多著作,物理学的、政治学的、生物学……其中有一本没有命名(亚里士多德本人把这部分称为第一哲学,the first philosophy)。后世编者把这本书放在《物理学》的后面,就写了 metaphysics(原文是希腊语 Ta meta ta phusika (the after the physicals) [1]),也就是「物理学(那本书)之后」这样的意思。有人(比如古代阿拉伯的一些学者)认为这是指探索物理学背后的哲学问题之类的意思,其实也有可能编者只是在标明顺序(比如阅读或学习的顺序),表示这本书在物理学那本书的后面。当然,说形而上学的研究内容是比物理学更深一层的追问也没什么问题。
后来 metaphysics 就被用来指类似亚里士多德在这本书里讨论的这些话题,但 metaphysics 到底具体包括哪些问题在中世纪、近代早期、康德及其后是各不相同的,到现在也有争议。(SEP 的 metaphysics 词条的引言第一句话是:It is not easy to say what metaphysics is;正文第一句话是:The word metaphysics is notoriously hard to define.)所以简单解释为关于世界实在的追问是比较省事的做法。除此之外,也可以用做减法的方式来理解,比如把形而上学与认识论区别开来,认识论是讨论关于知识和真理的问题。
这个论证其实并没有隐含「歧视是错的」这个前提,这类论证是一种「逻辑一致」的要求,它的意思是:如果你要用这种理由来论证人类中心主义,那么同样的理由,你就应该接受种族歧视和性别歧视;如果你不接受种族歧视和性别歧视,那你就不能用这个理由来论证人类中心主义。也就是说论证本身并不要求大家认为「性别歧视和种族歧视是错的」。虽然提出论证的人知道很多人都认为歧视是错的,但论证本身要求的是逻辑一致、是一视同仁——大家都是从「我们自己是 X,所以应该给予 X 优先地位」这个前提推导出来的,你就不能厚此薄彼,只接受你想要推出的人类中心主义,而不接受种族歧视和性别歧视;要么就一起接受,要么就承认「我们自己是 X,所以应该给予 X 优先地位」这个前提就是错的。
也就是说 Singer 这样的论证给了对方两个选择:你可以承认之前的前提有误,也可以选择同时接受所有推论。英语哲学圈里有个常用的短语叫 bite the bullet,表示接受(或者硬着头皮接受)一个似乎不太能接受的推论来继续维护自己的前提。比如 A 认为「社会上大多数人认可的就是道德上正确的」,B 反驳说「那这样一来,任何反对大多数人道德观的事情都是错误的?」,这时 A 可以承认「哦,那我原来的观点有问题」,A 也可以 bite the bullet 坚持原来的观点,接受 B 的推论,认为「对,任何反对大多数人道德观的事情都是错的」。[1]
[1] 这个例子出自 Harry J. Gensler. 2018. Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction, 3rd ed.
而这样的反驳方式叫 reductio ad absurdum (reduction[2] to absurdity),语出亚里士多德 ἡ εἰς τὸ ἀδύνατον ἀπαγωγή (Aristotle, Prior Analytics 29b6)。中文里叫「归谬法」,我觉得这个翻译不太好,「归」字容易联想到「归纳」,但这里的论证形式其实是「演绎」。
借用 Sinnott-Armstrong, Fogelin 合著的 Understanding Arguments (2014) 里的界定,reductio ad absurdum 就是「to show that the claim to be refuted implies something that is ridiculous or absurd in ways that are independent of any particular counterexample」。也就是通过将 p 推出荒谬的结论 q 从而反过来质疑 p,从而证明 ~p。或者严谨一些说,我为了反驳 p,我就让 p 推出一个荒谬的结论 q,如果你认为 q 荒谬,那你就必须认为 p 有问题(虽然没有指出问题具体是什么),要不然你就 bite the bullet 硬着头皮为这个荒谬的结论 q 背书,说 p 和 q 都是对的。但只要你承认 p 可以推出 q,你就不能说,我只承认我之前想论证的 p,却不承认那个荒谬的结论 q,那就自相矛盾了。