维特根斯坦《On Certainty》梳理(一)分析摩尔命题
这篇书评可能有关键情节透露
《论确定性》以摩尔的命题开篇:
If you do know that here is one hand, we’ll grant you all the rest.(OC 1)
在整书中,维特根斯坦从各个角度讨论摩尔对常识的捍卫,他既有赞扬摩尔的地方,但也提出了自己的批评。
为什么维特根斯坦会对摩尔命题感兴趣?这里我们对比一下哲学传统中的确定性。
笛卡尔:“我思故我在”等独立于经验可知的先天命题。包括逻辑、数学(2+2=4)和形而上学(如万事有因)命题。
经验主义者如艾耶尔(A. J. Ayer):逻辑命题和记录个人当下感觉经验的命题。
摩尔命题和传统意义上的确定性有以下一些出入:
1.摩尔命题不能被先天的方式知道,似乎我们必须借助经验的手段才能得知,这些命题因此是经验的。
2.摩尔命题所描述的并不是个人的当下经验,不是第一人称的,而是主体间的,因此可以被看作是一种公共的确定性。
3.摩尔命题不是分析的命题,不是必然的命题,不是先天的命题。
维特根斯坦认为,这些命题看似是经验命题,但却是不可置疑的,因此:
……They lie apart from the route travelled by enquiry. (OC 88)
维特根斯坦同样的想法见如下两段引文:
The propositions, however, which Moore retails as examples of such known truths are indeed interesting. Not because anyone knows their truth, or believes he knows them, but because they all have a similar role in the system of our empirical judgments. (OC 137)
We don’t, for example, arrive at any of them as a result of investigation. (OC 138)
维特根斯坦同意摩尔,确定性的范围比传统知识论所谈论的要广,并且以下这几点是正确的:
1.摩尔式命题有个人和人际的两种;
2.这些命题不能被怀疑;
3.我们不能找证据支持它们。
虽然受摩尔启发,维特根斯坦也开始发展出自己的观点。
首先,摩尔无论是针对常识命题<摩尔是人>,还是其反驳怀疑论的前提<这是一双手>,他都认为自己确定地知道这些命题为真的。但是,维特根斯坦反对这一点。
For when Moore says “I know that that’s …”I want to reply “you don’t know anything!” (OC 407)
维特根斯坦的反应与摩尔的论述形成了鲜明的对比:
How absurd it would be to suggest that I did not know it, but only believed it. (PEW, 146-7)(PEW,Proof of an External World,见摩尔论文集)
Now, can one enumerate what one knows (like Moore)? Straight off like that, I believe not.—For otherwise the expression “I know” gets misused. And through this misuse a queer and extremely important mental state seems to be revealed. (OC 6)
维特根斯坦认为摩尔把知识误认为一种心灵状态。这误解了知识这一词所具有的特质,是一种误用。
维特根斯坦恰好想表明摩尔并不知道这些命题。但是,维特根斯坦不是同怀疑论或观念论者一样,对摩尔命题持怀疑态度;他要指出的是,摩尔当然对这些命题持有确信(Assurance),只不过这种确信并不是知识,而是另一种东西,因此把这些称作知识是有问题的。
I should like to say: Moore does not know what he asserts he knows, but it stands fast for him, as also for me; regarding it as absolutely solid is part of our method of doubt and enquiry. (OC 151)
To say of man, in Moore’s sense, that he knows something: that what he says is therefore unconditionally the truth, seems wrong to me. –It is the truth only inasmuch as it is an unmoving foundation of his language-game. (OC 403)
But on the other hand: how do I know that it is my hand? Do I even here know exactly what I means to say it is my hand?-when I say ‘how do I know?’ I do not mean that I have the least doubt of it. What we have here is a foundation for all action. But it seems to me that it is wrongly expressed by the words ‘I know’. (OC 414)
为什么摩尔对这些命题的确信算不上知识呢?维特根斯坦仍然支持传统的把知识看作是被辩护的真信念的观点,因此知识(knowledge)以及声称自己有知识(claim to knowledge)都要求辩护条件。
‘I know it’ I say to someone else; and here there is a justification. But there is none for my belief. (OC 175)
One says “I know” when one is ready to give compelling grounds. (OC 243)
Whether I know something depends on whether the evidence backs me up or contradicts me.(OC 504)
辩护条件,简而言之,要有支持自己所相信命题的证据或理由,而这并不仅仅要求一个从证据E到命题P的推论。
那么需要满足辩护条件的知识(knowledge)和摩尔所关注的确定性(certainty)之间,是否仅此差别?维特根斯坦对比主观确定性和客观确定性:
With the word ‘certain’ we express complete conviction, the total absence of doubt, and thereby we seek to convince other people. That is subjective certainty.
But when is something objectively certain? When a mistake is not possible. But what kind of possibility is that? Mustn’t mistake be logically excluded? (OC 194)
在别的地方,主观确定性/客观确定性的区分也被和另一个区分相联系:舒适的确定性(Comfortable certainty) VS 挣扎的确定性(Struggling certainty)
One might say: “I know” expresses comfortablecertainty, not the certainty that is still struggling. (OC 357)
Now I would like to regard this certainty, not as something akin to hastiness or superficiality, but as a form of life. (OC 358)
前者是生活的形式,我们甚至都不曾说出或想过,更不用谈质疑;后者是一种信念或判断,因此我们带有谨慎,担心出错。
完全的确信,没有任何怀疑,这都已经构成主观确定性了,但是只有主观确定性,还不足以满足维特根斯坦。
The truths which Moore says he knows, are such as, roughly speaking, all of us know, if he knows them. (OC 100)
是什么使得这些确定性,不仅是主观的,还可以被很多人所享有,因此成为主体间的客观性,或客观的确定性?
主观确定性的不足可从以下原文中看出:
Even if the most trustworthy of men assures me that he knows thing are thus and so, this by itself cannot satisfy me that he does know. Only that he believes he knows. That is why Moore’s assurance that he knows… does not interest us. (OC 137)
It needs to be shewn that no mistake was possible. Giving the assurance “I know” doesn’t suffice. For it is after all only an assurance that I can’t be making a mistake, and it needs to be objectivelyestablished that I am not making a mistake about that. (OC 15)
那么如何从主观确定性上升成客观确定性?是否是援引理由或证据支持自己所确信的东西呢?在文中,维特根斯坦似乎支持这种想法:
“I have compelling grounds for my certitude.” These grounds make the certitude objective. (OC 370)
但是这样一个理解方式会遭受如下困难:客观确定性仍然会遭受怀疑,因此客观确定性和知识没有实质差别。如此理解的客观确定性仍然可遭受怀疑,因为
But when does one say of something that it is certain?
For there can be dispute whether something is certain; I mean, when something is objectively certain.
There are countless general empirical propositions that count as certain for us. (OC 273)
基于证据和理由的客观的确定性仍然存在争论,因此仍然缺乏与知识的实质差别。
要让这种差别成为实质性的,就要使得客观确定性根本不基于任何理由或证据。进一步说,客观确定性之所以不被怀疑和不会出错,并不是基于证据或理由,而是基于逻辑。
But when is something objectively certain? When a mistake is not possible. But what kind of possibility is that? Mustn’t mistake be logicallyexcluded? (OC 194)
维特根斯坦所说的逻辑是什么意思呢?
至少表面看来,不是我们学的逻辑学意义上的逻辑。因为摩尔命题既然是偶然命题,就在逻辑上存在错误的可能性。
从既有文本来看,维特根斯坦对逻辑的理解要更广。
And everything descriptive of a language-game is part of logic. (OC 56)
这里我们首先要避免心理学意义上所理解的逻辑,即人们实际上是如何思考的经验规律概括;其次,也不能仅仅理解为弗雷格以后的数理逻辑,即思想应该遵循的规律。在维特根斯坦这里,逻辑是与经验相区别的。类比对测量方法的描述和具体用这种测量方法去进行测量并取得的结果,前者是逻辑,后者是经验。逻辑是我们用来判断真假的标准和前提。
既然逻辑是描述我们语言游戏的,就好比描述象棋规则的那些命题,本身决定了具体的某一步走子是对是错,因此去提问具体的某一步走子是否正确是经验问题,但去提问象棋规则里面描述的走法是否正确,则是对逻辑的提问,是无意义的,因为此处并没有进一步的标准让我们判断对错。因此,当维特根斯坦说,客观的确定性的错误是被逻辑地排除的,一种理解是,由于客观的确定性本身发挥的作用是逻辑的,因此认为这些确定的命题本身有可能出错,就像谈论象棋规则所说的走法是错误的一样,是没有意义的。或者说,客观的确定性就构成了我们得以判断对错的根基,它本身不能被谈论对错,这是由其角色和作用所决定的。
所以维特根斯坦指出:
‘Knowledge’ and ‘certainty’ belong to different categories. (OC 308)
确定性和知识是不同种类的。由此来说,确定性之所以和知识属于不同的种类,乃是由于确定性并不是有根基的,有理由的。许多学者的评论是,(客观的)确定性是无根基的(groundless),逻辑的(logic),非认知的(non-epistemic),不可担保的(unwarrantable)。
总结:维特根斯坦认为:
1.摩尔式命题是确定度最高的;
2.这些命题不是知识的对象,而是客观的确定性;
3.这些命题虽然看起来是经验的,但却发挥逻辑的作用。
4.这些命题本身并没有(认识论上的)根基或理由。因此摩尔找不到支持它们的理由反而是对的,想找出理由支持它们却是错的。

