事件 events (Roberto Casati and Achille Varzi)

首次发表于 2002 年 4 月 22 日星期一;实质性修订于 2023 年 6 月 29 日星期四

世界的多样性似乎不仅在于其普通公民的种类——动物、物体、各种社会生物,还在于发生在它们身上的事情或由它们执行的事情:微笑、行走、跳舞、婚礼、爆炸、打嗝、挥手、到来和离去、诞生和死亡、雷电。在当代哲学中,这种观点一直是一个备受争议的焦点,其影响甚至延伸到其他学科的关注领域,尤其是语言学和认知科学。事实上,毫无疑问,人类的感知、行动、语言和思维至少表现出对这类实体的一种表面承诺。

  • Pre-linguistic infants appear to be able to discriminate and “count” events, and the content of adult perception, especially in the auditory realm, endorses the discrimination and recognition as events of some aspects of the perceived scene.

  • 人类(和,据推测,其他动物)似乎会形成计划和执行行动的意图,并引发外部世界的事件。

  • 专门的语言设备(如动词时态和体,对某些动词名词化,某些专有名词)被调整到事件和事件结构,而不是其他类型的实体和结构。

  • 思考世界的时间和因果方面似乎需要将这些方面解析为事件及其描述。

然而,目前尚不清楚这种表面上的承诺在多大程度上构成了一个整合的现象,而不是独立的、独立的倾向。此外,即使在那些支持对事件的本体论地位持现实主义态度的人中,对这些实体的确切性质存在重大分歧。(尽管在词典中常见,将它们广泛描述为“发生的事情”仅仅将任务转移到澄清“发生”的含义。) 一个有用的方法是将它们与属于其他哲学上更熟悉的本体论类别的实体进行对比。在接下来的内容中,我们将回顾事件与那些在文献中明确提出作为它们的本体论竞争者,或者至少作为与事件类别存在显著差异的类别的主要对比。在此过程中,我们还将回顾形而上学家和其他哲学家在试图处理事件时采用的主要概念工具,无论是从现实主义还是非现实主义的角度。


事件和其他类别

事件与对象

尽管有争议,一些标准的哲学文献中普遍存在事件和物体之间的差异。首先,它们在存在方式上似乎存在差异:诸如石头和椅子之类的物质对象被认为是存在的;事件被认为发生或发生或发生(Hacker 1982a; Cresswell 1986)。其次,物体和事件与空间和时间的关系似乎存在差异。普通物体被认为具有相对清晰的空间边界和模糊的时间边界;相比之下,事件的空间边界相对模糊,时间边界清晰。据说物体在空间中有明显的位置,它们占据它们的空间位置;相比之下,事件更容易共存(Quinton 1979; Hacker 1982b)。物体可以移动;事件则不行(Dretske 1967)。最后,物体通常被解释为持久的持续体——它们存在于时间中,并通过在每个存在的时间点完全存在来持续存在;事件是持续发生的——它们占据时间,并通过在不同时间具有不同部分或“阶段”来持续存在(Johnson 1921; Mellor 1980; Simons 2000)。

最后一个区分也许是最具争议的。一方面,有一些哲学家——从怀特海德(1919)、布罗德(1923)和罗素(1927)到奎恩(1950)、刘易斯(1986c)、海勒(1990)、西德(2001)以及许多其他人——将对象构想为跨越时间的四维实体,就像它们跨越空间一样。因此,一些这样的哲学家可能不会在对象和事件之间进行重要的形而上学区分,将两者视为同类实体:对象只是一个“单调”的事件;事件则是一个“不稳定”的对象(古德曼 1951)。更一般地说,相关区别将是一个程度上的区别,虽然“事件”通常适用于在时间中快速发展和变化的事物,“对象”则适用于那些让我们感觉“坚固和内部连贯”的事物(奎恩 1970)。另一方面,也有一些哲学家在事件一侧拒绝这种区别,通过将至少一些这样的实体——例如过程——解释为持续者:当一个苹果腐烂或一个人在街上行走时,任何时刻存在的是整个持续的过程,而不仅仅是其中的一部分(罗伯茨 1979;斯托特 1997、2003、2016;加尔顿 2006a、b、2008;加尔顿和溝口 2009;卡塞尔 2019)。这种观点反过来又有几种变体和替代方案,例如基于不同方式理解持续者概念(斯图尔特 2013、2015)或其与持续者所组成的物质的关系(克劳瑟 2011、2018)。

如果承认了对象和事件之间的形而上学区别,那么一个问题就出现了,即这两个类别中的实体之间的关系。对象是事件中的主要行动者;没有对象的事件是不常见的。但没有事件的对象也是如此;事件构成了对象的生活。然而,在一种激进的情绪下,人们可能认为一个类别中的实体在形而上上依赖于另一个类别中的实体。例如,有人声称事件是依赖于参与者的(Lombard 1986; Bennett 1988),也有人声称对象的存在取决于它们参与的事件(Deleuze 1969; Parsons 1991),或者它们在任何特定时间存在的程度正好取决于它们参与在那个时间发生的某些事件(Costa 2017)。以一种更温和的方式,人们可以承认对象和事件在本体论上具有平等的地位,但坚持认为在思维的秩序中,对象或事件中的一个是首要的。因此,有人认为一个纯粹基于事件的本体论对于我们重新识别实践的成功是不够的,这种实践需要一种稳定的参照框架,只有对象才能提供得到(Strawson 1959)。自然语言似乎也支持对象和事件之间的类似不对称,它有诸如“苹果掉落”之类的表达,但没有“掉落的苹果化”之类的表达。然而,这些不对称可能会减弱到对象也可能并且有时必须通过参照事件来识别。例如,如果我们追踪 Sebastian 的父亲或 Waverley 的作者,首先是通过识别某些事件来实现的——分别是父亲和写作的事件(Moravcsik 1965; Davidson 1969; Lycan 1970; Thalberg 1978; Tiles 1981)。

事件与事实

无论它们的关系如何,事件与对象自然地被对立,因为两者都被构想为个体。两者似乎都是具体的、在时间和空间上定位的实体,被组织成部分-整体的等级结构。两者都可以被计数、比较、量化、引用,并且可以被各种描述和重新描述。 (有人认为我们对这两个类别的概念是如此紧密地联系在一起,以至于它们在结构上是互补的,即任何只提及空间和时间特征的事件概念的表征都通过简单地用空间谓词替换时间谓词,反之亦然,从而得到了对象概念的表征;参见 Mayo 1961。)因此,事件通常也与事实区分开来,事实的特征是抽象性和非时间性:凯撒之死事件发生在公元前 44 年的罗马,但凯撒死亡这一事实在这里和在罗马都是事实,无论是今天还是公元前 44 年(Dodd 2009)。确实可以推测,对于每一个事件,都有一个伴随的事实,即事件发生的事实(Bennett 1988),但这两者仍然在范畴上是不同的。凯撒之死绝不应该与凯撒死亡的事实混淆,就像英格兰女王不应该与英格兰有女王的事实混淆一样(Ramsey 1927)。

根据一些作者的观点,这种范畴区分实际上反映在普通语言中用于指称事实和事件的不同表达方式上。在 Vendler(1967)的术语中,“凯撒的死亡”是一个完美的名词化:名词化的过程已经完成,这个表达只能被形容词短语修饰(“凯撒的暴力死亡”)。相比之下,像“凯撒的死去”这样的动名词,或者像“凯撒死了”这样的从句,是不完美的名词化,它们内部仍然有“一个活生生的动词”:因此它们可以容忍时态和助动词(“凯撒已经死了”,“凯撒可能会死”),副词(“凯撒暴力死去”),否定(“凯撒没有死”),等等。在一些限定条件下(例如 McCann 1979),形而上学的假设将是,作为一种规范,完美的名词化代表事件,而事实或情况则是不完美名词化的指称对象。

然而,一些哲学家认为事件与事实之间的联系要比这更紧密——足够接近,以证明两个类别是可以同化的(Wilson 1974; Tegtmeier 2000),或者至少将两者视为同一“事态”种类的物种(Chisholm 1970)。这有两个主要后果。一方面,因为与非等价命题相对应的事实是不同的,被构想为事实或类似事实的事件是细粒度实体,不能在不同的概念化下自由地重新描述或重新识别:凯撒暴力死亡这一事实与他死亡这一事实是不同的,因此凯撒的死亡和他的暴力死亡将是两个不同的事件(Chisholm 1971),而不是在不同描述下的同一事件(Davidson 1969; Anscombe 1979)。另一方面,因为事实的语言表达在语义上是透明的,可以构建一条弗雷格式的论证线索,以显示构想为事实的事件过于粗粒度,以至于融入一个单一的“大”实体(Davidson 1967a)。 (这个论点被称为“弹弓论证”,参见 Barwise & Perry 1981; 有关详细信息,请参见 Neale 2001。)

其他哲学家一直坚持区分事件和事实,但他们提出的观点实际上等同于同化。这在那些将事件解释为属性实例化的理论中尤为明显,即对象在某个时间点通过属性的实例化来实现(Kim 1966, 1969; Martin 1969; Goldman 1970; Taylor 1985; Hendrickson 2006)。根据这些理论,事件是个体实体。但由于它们具有结构,任何组成部分的差异就足以产生不同的事件。特别是,相关构成属性的差异足以区分事件,比如凯撒的死亡,被解释为凯撒实现死亡属性,以及凯撒的暴力死亡,被解释为他实现暴力死亡属性(Kim 1976)。同样,这使事件几乎与事实一样精细。然而,需要强调的是,这一结果并非事件作为属性实例化理论的内在特性。凯撒的死亡和他的暴力死亡都可以被解释为凯撒实现的同一属性 P,既可以描述为死亡,也可以更准确地描述为暴力死亡。因此,即使被解释为一个结构化的复合体,一个事件也可以被粗略地提及,因为其名称不一定要对这种结构敏感(Bennett 1988)。通过这种方式,事件和事实之间的区别可以通过事件描述理论的语义和形而上学方面之间的明确区分来重新建立。

类似的考虑也适用于将事件视为情境的理论,这种理论的概念与情境语义(Barwise & Perry 1983)中熟悉的概念相似。根据这些理论,事件被解释为从时空位置到“情境类型”的函数集合,这些情境类型被定义为一系列对象在某种关系中站立或未站立的序列。然而,虽然形式机制提供了细致入微的解释,但将该机制应用于自然语言句子的算法却留下了一定的灵活性。

1.3 事件 vs. 属性

事件有时与之对比的第三种形而上学范畴是属性。如果事件是个体,那么它们就不是属性,至少在属性被构想为普遍性时是如此。个体存在或发生,而普遍性则是重复出现。然而,一些哲学家非常认真地考虑到在某些情况下事件可能被说成是重复出现的,比如当我们说太阳每天早上升起时(Chisholm 1970; Braude 1971; Johnson 1975; Brandl 1997, 2000)。如果是这样的话,那么自然而然地会认为事件更类似于属性而不是个体,足够类似以至于可以将它们视为一种属性——例如,作为时间段或间隔的属性(Montague 1969),跨世界个体类的属性(Lewis 1986b),或者世界片段集合的属性(von Kutschera 1993)。例如,在第一种解释中,太阳升起的事件是一个间隔的属性,这个间隔是太阳升起的时间。作为事件类型的表征,这是无可争议的,可以让人将特定事件解释为相应类型的标记。(这样的解释将对应于上述将事件视为属性实例的概念。)但将事件构想为普遍性属性则超越了这个无可争议的事实,拒绝了事件标记的存在,即使是对于我们今天早上目睹的太阳升起这样的“特定”事件。这样一个事件不是普遍性的太阳升起的一个实例,而是一个独立的普遍性,尽管是一种如此受限制和如此独特程度的普遍性,以至于只被实例化一次。

一种关于属性的可能观点是,它们不是普遍的,而是一种特殊类型的个别事物——即抽象个别事物(Stout 1923)或特质(Williams 1953)。根据这种观点,这个苹果的红色之所以与其他任何东西的红色不同,并非因为它的极端独特性(其他事物在颜色上可能与苹果一致),而是因为它是这个苹果的红色。它存在于此时此地,就在苹果存在的地方和时间。同样,今天早晨太阳的升起与其他任何一天的太阳升起在数值上是不同的(尽管在质量上是相似的)。如果是这样,那么事件是属性的观点就与它们是时空位置相关的观点是相容的。事件只是一个特定化的属性,位于某个空间时间区域(Bennett 1996)。 (再次强调,这种观念与事件作为属性实例的观念密切相关,尽管术语“实例化”暗示了对属性作为普遍性的一种解释。一些作者,例如 Bennett 1988,实际上将这两种观念视为同一概念;其他人,例如 Macdonald 1989,基于属性实例和属性实例化之间的差异,拒绝将其视为同一概念。)

一个变体的类比概念将事件构想为类比序列(Campbell 1981)。然而,由于类比是个体,一个地点的类比序列本身可能被视为一个类比,因此这个变体最好被视为对事件是什么样的类比的规范。类似的评论也适用于那些将事件构想为关系类比(Mertz 1996)甚至高阶类比(Moltmann 2013)的理论。

事件 vs. 时间

事件是时间的属性的直觉也可以通过更薄的形而上学承诺来阐明,即将事件简单地解释为时间与描述的结合,即作为某些陈述成立的时间瞬间或间隔(van Benthem 1983)。根据这种观点,例如,今天早上太阳升起可以被识别为一个有序对 <i,φ>,其中 i 是相关的时间间隔(对应于描述符“今天早上”),φ 是句子“太阳升起”。当然,这种处理方式并不能充分体现最初提到的关于事件的直觉承诺中的一些内容,例如,事件可以被感知,但时间不能(Gibson 1975)。但由于间隔的完全发展理论以及完全发展的基于间隔的语义的可用性(Cresswell 1979; Dowty 1979),以及同样完善的瞬间和基于瞬间的语义的传统理论(Prior 1967),这些解释在还原主义视角下尤为吸引人。甚至可以将事件解释为时空区域与描述的结合,区分例如伦敦和巴黎的今天早上太阳升起。

事件与时间之间的联系也是以相反的方式进行探讨的。如果假定事件是一个原始的本体范畴,那么可以不考虑时间瞬间或间隔,并将其解释为派生实体。这类最经典的处理方式是将时间瞬间解释为成对同时发生(或部分同时发生)事件的最大集合(Russell 1914; Whitehead 1929; Walker 1947),但也有其他处理方式。例如,有人提出了事件被感知为有序的数学联系与基础时间维度之间的本质联系实质上是自由构造(在范畴论意义上)从事件排序中诱导出的线性排序,这是一种可能的处理方式(Thomason 1984, 1989)。这类处理方式将时间减少为事件之间的关系,因此特别适用于时间(更一般地说,是时空)的关系概念。这些观点的模态变体(Forbes 1993)以及仅拓扑变体(Pianesi & Varzi 1996)也是可行的。

事件的类型

2.1 活动、成就、成就和状态

哲学家们同意将事件视为个体的概念的人通常会区分不同类型的这些个体。一个经典的分类学区分了四种类型:活动、成就、成就和状态(Ryle 1949;Vendler 1957)。活动,比如 Anita 的上坡行走,是一个同质事件:它的子事件满足与活动本身相同的描述,没有自然的结束点或高潮。成就,比如 Anita 爬山,可能有一个高潮,但从不是同质的。成就,比如 Anita 到达山顶,是一个高潮事件(因此总是瞬间的)。而状态,比如 Anita 知道最短的路,是同质的,可能会延续一段时间,但问它花了多长时间或者是否达到高潮是没有意义的。有时成就和成就被归为一个单一类别的表演(Kenny 1963)。有时成就也被称为事件 tout court,所有其他事件被归为一个广义理解的时间延伸实体类别,称为过程(Ingarden 1935);然后可以使用“事件性”一词作为涵盖这两个类别的标签(Bach 1986)。

一些作者将方面考虑引入分类学中,借鉴亚里士多德对 Energeia 和 Kinêsis 的区分(Ackrill 1965)。这个想法是,不同的动词描述不同类型的事件:没有持续形式的动词(“知道”)对应于状态;具有连续形式的动词,其中现在进行时暗示过去完成时(“Anita 正在往上走” 暗示“Anita 往上走了”)对应于活动;以及现在进行时暗示否定过去完成时的动词(“Anita 正在攀登山” 暗示“Anita 尚未攀登山”,至少在相关语境中)对应于表演(Potts 1965; Taylor 1965; Evans 1967; Mourelatos 1978; Graham 1980)。这种基本分类法可以以各种方式进行细化(有关概述,请参见 Mittwoch 2019),并且已经基于这些基础发展了几种语言学上复杂的动词时态和方面理论(请参见,例如,Comrie 1976; Taylor 1977; Dowty 1979; Declerck 1979; Freed 1979; Bach 1981; Mittwoch 1988; Galton 1984; Krifka 1989; Verkuyl 1989; Smith 1991; Giorgi & Pianesi 1998; Kühl 2008)。然而,从这种语言学区别中得出本体论分类的合法性受到了质疑(Gill 1993)。

2.2 静态和动态事件

一些作者认为,后者不是真正的事件,因为它们不涉及任何变化(Ducasse 1926)。在最抽象的构想中,变化是一对事实状态:一个初始状态和一个结束状态(von Wright 1963)。更实质性的事件变化描述将它们视为动态属性的实例,即对象由于在某种质量空间中的“运动”而具有的属性(Quinton 1979; Lombard 1979, 1986)。然而,所有事件是否应该或涉及某种变化的问题是有争议的(Montmarquet 1980; Steward 1997; Mellor 1998; Simons 2003),并且可以争论说,这最终是一种规定的问题,因此在形而上学上并不重要(Casati & Varzi 2008)。

如果承认静态事件,那么问题就出现了,即它们是否应该与状态保持分开(Parsons 1989; Maienborn 2019)。一个合理的假设是,世界的静态和动态方面之间的区别倾向于状态和活动之间的区别。因为可能存在静态活动,所以可能存在动态状态。走路是 Anita 的一个动态状态,与她静止的状态相对,后者是静态的。走路本身是 Anita 的一个动态活动,与她在树下休息的状态相对,后者可能被视为静态活动。

2.3 行动与身体运动

在第一眼看来,行动自然被归类为事件的一个子类,即有机事件。像所有事件一样,行动被认为是发生或发生的,而不是存在的,它们与时间和空间的关系也像事件一样:它们有相对清晰的开始和结束,但空间边界不清晰,它们似乎能够容忍共同发生,不能说它们从一个地方移动到另一个地方或从一个时间持续到另一个时间,而是通过具有空间和时间部分来延伸空间和时间(汤姆森,1977)。行动和事件在因果解释中似乎是平等的:行动可以是事件的原因(戴维森,1963 年,1967b 年)。然而,一些作者更倾向于在这里划分出一个区别,并将行动视为代理人和事件之间的关系,即作为关系“导致”的实例(冯·赖特,1963 年;奇索姆,1964 年;巴赫,1980 年;毕晓普,1983 年;塞格伯格,1989 年),或者也许是关系“确保”(贝尔纳普和佩洛夫,1988 年;图梅拉和桑杜,1994 年;霍蒂,2001 年)。根据这些观点,除非将关系本身解释为修辞,否则行动不是个体。

无论行动是否被视为事件,人们可能会倾向于区分适当的行动(例如 Anita 举起手臂)和身体运动(例如 Anita 的手臂上升),或者有意的行动(Anita 的步行)和无意的行动(Anita 的摔倒)。对于一些作者来说,这是必要的,以解释人类行为的重要事实(Montmarquet 1978; Hornsby 1980a,b; Searle 1983; Brand 1984; Mele 1997)。例如,有人认为,行动与相应的身体运动之间的关系并非一致,而是一种生成的非对称关系(Goldman 1970),或者是部分包含关系(Thomson 1977),或者是物理构成关系(Evnine 2016),或者是体现关系(Fine 2022)。或者也许这种关系更加复杂:所有行动都将是意志-原因-身体运动形式的序列(Moore 1993),或者是从大脑开始并以身体运动结束的结构化事件(Smith 2021)。然而,也有人认为,这种区分并不涉及形而上学,而是涉及我们描述发生事物领域的概念工具。在这种观点下,举起手臂只是在心理描述下手臂上升(Anscombe 1957, 1979; Davidson 1971; Sher 1973)。

2.4 心理和身体事件

类似的故事也适用于心理事件(Anita 的决定穿靴子)和物理或生理事件(某些神经元的激活)之间的区别。有人可能认为,这种区别是真实的,因为后一种事件很可能自然地纳入物理理论的法则网络,而前者似乎逃脱了这种纳入。但也有人可能想要抵制这种思路,并坚持认为心理和物理之间的区别仅涉及我们描述发生的事情的词汇。这些选择对心灵哲学中的各种问题具有重要影响,例如心理因果关系的问题(Heil&Mele 1993;Walter&Heckmann 2003;Gibb 等,2013)。如果心理事件和物理事件之间的区别在本体上具有重要意义,那么就会出现这两种事件如何相互因果作用的问题,从而导致各种形式的法则性或异常双重论(Foster 1991)。相比之下,声称这种区别纯粹是语义的说法符合单一主义立场,无论是法则性的还是异常的(Macdonald 1989)。

异常单一主义在哲学家中特别受欢迎,尤其是那些接受事件的特殊描述为广泛可重述实体的哲学家,因为这种概念使人能够接受唯物主义主张,即所有事件都是物理的(无论是否用心理术语描述它们),同时又能够拒绝似乎的结论,即心理活动可以纯粹地用物理解释来解释(正是因为只有物理词汇适合这样的解释)(Nagel 1965; Davidson 1970, 1993)。然而,一些作者认为,这种论证方式容易受到表观现象主义的指责,即心理事件将完全缺乏因果或解释能力(Honderich 1982; Robinson 1982; Kim 1989; Campbell 1998, 2005; Welshon 1999)。

2.5 负面事件

事件是发生的事情。然而,在某些情况下,表面证据表明对这些事情持现实主义态度的证据可能表明对实际上并未发生的事情持类似态度,包括各种“负面行为”(Danto 1966; Ryle 1973)。我们谈论安妮塔的散步与我们谈论她没有发表的讲话、她没有睡午觉、她未能组织的派对一样轻松;我们似乎对这些事情进行量化,并且通常进行似乎明确指向负面原因的因果谈话,例如我们推断安妮塔没有关闭煤气导致了爆炸,或者她在婚礼名单中遗漏餐具导致苏珊生气。一些作者接受这样的证据,从本体论层面划分出一个区别:对世界的良好清单应该包括“负面”事件和行为,以及普通的“正面”事件(Lee 1978; Vermazen 1985; De Swart 1996; Przepiórkowski 1999; Higginbotham 2000; Mossel 2009; Silver 2018; Bernard & Champollion 2018)。其他人持异议:我们经常说得好像这样的事情存在,但在内心深处,我们希望我们的话被解释为避免本体论承诺的方式。因此,要么我们只是进行纯粹的反事实推测,要么所谓的负面事件只是在负面描述下的普通正面事件:“安妮塔遗漏婚礼名单中的餐具”,例如,将指她起草了一个不包含餐具的婚礼名单,“玛丽不动”将描述玛丽努力控制移动冲动,等等(Mele 2005; Varzi 2008)。后一种观点也可以在某些情况下被解释为形而上学(而非语义)术语:x 在 t 时遗漏 φ(避免 φ-ing 等)是指 x 通过他们的实际行为确保他们在 t 时不 φ(Payton 2016, 2018)。

负因果案例尤其具有挑战性,不仅因为因果关系与伦理和法律问题(Bennett 1966; Green 1980; Foot 1984)、善良的撒玛利亚人行为(Kleinig 1976)以及更一般的道德责任(Weinryb 1980; Walton 1980; Williams 1995; Fischer 1997; Clarke 2014)之间的联系。在这里,习惯性地引入更精细的区分,区分代理人可能未能做某事的几种方式,例如(尝试并)未成功、克制、省略和允许(Brand 1971; Milanich 1984; Hall 1984; Bach 2010)。至少就某些这种方式而言,非常容易倾向于支持现实主义本体论。如果是这样,自然会出现如何以及在何处划定界限的困难。例如,关于省略的现实主义者将不得不找到一种有原则的方式来避免将所有省略,包括非显著的省略,都视为原因(Gorr 1979; Lewis 1986a, 2004; Thomson 2003; Menzies 2004; McGrath 2005; Sartorio 2009; Bernstein 2014)。另一方面,反现实主义者将不得不解释如何在坚持每个因果情况都仅由“积极因素”发展而来的观点的同时,如何解释这种因果关系的说法(Armstrong 1999)。有人坚持认为,每一宗所谓的负因果案例都可以用积极因果来描述(Laliberté 2013)。另一些人——大多数人——将通过以适当的方式重塑相关因果主张的逻辑结构,例如,将其重新描述为关于事实上描述的事件的因果陈述(Hunt 2005),或者作为关于如果省略事件发生了会是原因的“准因果”主张(Dowe 2001),或者作为仅仅是因果解释,其中解释者与被解释者之间的关系并非因果关系(Beebee 2004; Varzi 2007; Lombard & Hudson 2020),来抵制本体论承诺。

事件形而上学与语义学

存在

在介绍中提到,人类感知、行动、语言和思维的各个方面都存在对事件的原 facie 承诺。然而,在当代哲学文献中,支持这一承诺的主要论证线索来自于逻辑形式的考虑。普通谈话不仅涉及对事件的明确引用和量化,比如当有人说凯撒的死是暴力的,或者昨晚听到两次爆炸声时。普通谈话似乎还以几种隐含的方式涉及到事件。副词修饰是一个标准例子(Reichenbach 1947; Prior 1949; Kenny 1963)。我们说布鲁图斯用刀刺了凯撒。如果这个陈述被理解为断言布鲁图斯、凯撒和一把刀之间存在某种三元关系,那么很难解释为什么这个陈述蕴涵着布鲁图斯刺了凯撒(一个涉及不同的二元关系的陈述)。相比之下,如果我们认为我们的陈述断言了某个事件发生了(即,布鲁图斯刺了凯撒的事件)并且它具有某种属性(即,用刀完成),那么蕴涵就是直接的(Davidson 1967a; Parsons 1985)。对于静态事件也是如此,比如从“布鲁图斯在树下的公园”推导到“布鲁图斯在公园”(Parsons 1988)。这些理由并不构成有关事件存在的证明。但是,对于那些对某种陈述意义如何形成感兴趣的人来说,它们是有力的,其中一个陈述的意义至少在一定程度上由它与其他陈述的逻辑关系决定。例如,有人认为,单一因果陈述不能用因果连接词来分析(基本上是由于上述弹弓论证的原因),而是要求将因果关系视为个体事件之间的二元关系(Davidson 1967b)。第三个例子涉及带裸不定式补语的感知报告的语义,比如“卡西乌斯看到布鲁图斯逃跑”,这被分析为“卡西乌斯看到了布鲁图斯逃跑的事件”(Higginbotham 1983; Vlach 1983; Gisborne 2010)。第四个例子涉及带有复数主语的陈述的逻辑形式,比如“布鲁图斯和卡西乌斯一起举起了一块沉重的石头”,这被分析为报告,而不是“复数对象”的壮举,而是涉及多于一个代理的事件(Higginbotham & Schein 1986; Schein 1993; Lasersohn 1990, 1995; Landman 1996, 2000)。还有许多类似的论证,也是由在语言学的不同项目中工作的作者提出的(Parsons 1990; Peterson 1997; Rothstein 1998; Link 1998; Higginbotham et al. 2000; Pietroski 2005; Mittwoch 2005; van Lambalgen & Hamm 2005; Robering 2014)。

另一方面,一些哲学家对这种“存在证明”感到不满,并认为所有似乎涉及明示或隐含参照或事件量化的讨论都可以被改写,以避免承诺。例如,有人认为诸如“Anita 的散步”这样的术语代表了相应的陈述“Anita 散步了”,因此说 Anita 的散步很愉快只是说 Anita 散步得很愉快(Geach 1965)。类似的改写已被提出来处理明示量词短语如“两次爆炸”以及隐藏在省略副词推断背后的事件量化的情况(Parsons 1970;Clark 1970, 1974;Schwartz 1975;Fulton 1979;Graves 1994),单一因果陈述(Horgan 1978, 1982;Wilson 1985;Needham 1988, 1994;Mellor 1991, 1995),等等。表面上看,逻辑形式的问题似乎让存在问题没有定论,至少在事件承诺分析在相反方向阅读时自动转变为消除主义改写(反之亦然)时是如此。甚至适当改写的缺乏也可以被视为仅仅是一种语言上的限制,不应该迫使我们“接受”事件进入我们的本体论(Melia 2000),就像通过改写避免承诺可能不是“拒绝”它们的理由一样(Goldwater 2023)。

身份

另一个看似未决的问题涉及所谓的事件身份标准,这已成为一场激烈辩论的焦点(Bradie 1983; Pfeifer 1989; Mackie 1997)。安妮塔的散步与她愉快的散步是同一事件吗?布鲁图斯刺杀凯撒与他杀死凯撒是同一事件吗?它与他杀死最后一位罗马独裁者是同一事件吗?它与公元前 44 年三月十五日在罗马参议院发生的唯一一次刺杀事件是同一事件吗?(或者再次提到动作和身体运动之间的概念区别:某人举起手臂与手臂上升是同一事件吗?)

一些哲学家认为这些是形而上学问题——这些问题的答案需要足够的身份标准,在我们被允许认真对待事件时必须提供(参见 Quine 1958:“没有身份就没有实体”)。在这个意义上,不同的事件概念往往暗示不同的答案,而且差异很大。在 Thalberg(1971)的有影响力的术语中,我们在一个极端找到了激进的“统一者”,他们认为事件与普通对象一样粗粒度(Lemmon 1967;Quine 1985),而另一个极端对应于激进的“乘法者”,他们认为事件与事实一样细粒度(Kim 1966;Goldman 1971;Chisholm 1971)。在中间我们找到几种温和的变体。例如,Davidson(1969)依赖于因果外延的标准:如果且仅如果 x 和 y 有相同的原因和相同的效果,则它们是相同的事件。这使他能够将凯撒的杀戮与他的刺杀等同起来,同时区分同时旋转和加热的金属球的旋转和加热之间的区别。(严格来说,如果将原因和效果本身视为事件,那么这个标准在形式上是循环的,或者说是不确定的,正如 Sher 1974、Wilson 1974 和其他人所指出的,包括 Quine 1985,以及 Davidson 1985 最终否定了它。)其他“温和”的身份标准提供了略有不同的裁决,依赖于例如部分学、位置、模态或等级考虑等(Davis 1970;Thalberg 1971;Thomson 1971;Beardsley 1975;Brand 1977;Cleland 1991;Savellos 1992;Engel 1994;Unwin 1996;Jones 2013)。

然而,有哲学家认为,身份问题主要是语义问题,而不是形而上学问题,而是关于我们事件指称表达式的指称对象的问题。据说,没有任何形而上学理论能够解决普通事件谈话的语义,因此没有办法仅凭一个人的形而上学观点来确定事件身份陈述的真假。一句陈述涉及哪些事件在很大程度上取决于当地背景和不成规范的直觉(Bennett 1988)。如果是这样,那么整个身份问题是不可决定的,因为人们要求对在很大程度上是语义问题的问题给出形而上学答案。

本质

最后,关于事件的模态特征,引发了一系列问题。布鲁图斯刺杀凯撒——发生在公元前 44 年三月的那个事件——是否可以发生在不同的时间?它是否可以发生在罗马庞培广场的元老院之外的其他地方?它是否可以比实际情况更少暴力?它是否可以是其他形式,比如毒害?它是否可以由别人而非布鲁图斯来执行,或者受害者是否可以是其他人而非凯撒?

问题,例如这些问题,以及更一般地关于事件的基本特征的问题,在反事实思维的背景下自然而然地出现,并在其中扮演着至关重要的角色。然而,答案似乎将关键取决于一个人的形而上学立场。例如,支持金(1966 年,1969 年)风格的事件的还原主义形而上学的哲学家往往对所有这些特征持本质主义立场:如果事件 e 是对象 o1,…,on 在时间 t 时通过展示属性 P 的实例化,那么它必然如此——其他还原主义形而上学也是如此,比如隆巴德的(1979 年,1986 年)。在这些观点上,事件的实际发生是一个偶然的事情,但一个实际发生的事件是否具有其具有的特征并不是一个偶然的事情。其他人持不同看法,认为很多事情取决于我们如何在事件的个体化方面建立相关的 de re/de dicto 区别(福布斯 1985),有些人甚至可能认为事件除了其“稀有而难以捉摸的”haecceities 之外没有个体本质(莱肯 1987)。(事件是否具有 haecceities 或 thisnesses 本身就是一个有争议的问题,但请参见例如 Berckmans 1995 和 Diekemper 2009。)此外,这些问题本身也可以进行一些限定。例如,关于时间,我们可能想要区分一个事件是否可以完全发生在实际发生的时间之前或之后的问题(隆巴德 1982),与一个事件是否可以更快或更慢地发生的问题(贝内特 1987;隆巴德 1992,1995)。关于事件的参与者,我们可能想要区分,比如,一个行动的执行者和其本质主体:也许布鲁图斯刺杀凯撒不可能由别人完成,但布鲁图斯拿刀的手肯定起到了不同、更本质的作用,比如他的左耳垂(隆巴德 1981,1986;卡特 1989)。等等。

与对其他实体本质的问题类比,人们自然而然地会对事件的本质产生疑问,这始于对物体的本质。例如,正如人们可能会想知道物体是否可以是偶然相同的,人们也可能会想知道,比如,某些疼痛事件与相应的脑事件之间的关系是否是偶然相同的(Teichman 1967; Feldman 1974; Maxwell 1979)。正如我们可能会想知道物体是否本质上有其起源,我们也可能会想知道事件是否本质上有其原因(van Inwagen 1978; Carter 1979; Lombard 1986; Hughes 1994)。正如我们可能会想知道物体是否本质上有其部分,我们也可能会问,事件是否可以由不同于它们实际拥有的部分组成(Thomson 1977; Carter 1979; Hornsby 1997; Allen 2005; Daniels & Goswick 2017)。正如我们可能会想知道一个物体的拓扑结构和关系对于其作为它自身的物体是至关重要的,我们也可能会想知道,比如,一个连续事件是否可以是不连续的,或者两个连续的事件,比如一个过程及其结果,是作为必然联系还是仅仅偶然联系的(Casati & Varzi 2000)。

最后,就涉及可能性和必然性问题的每个问题而言,很大程度上取决于我们首先如何理解模态性。对于对象而言,有不同的框架可用于解释它们的 de re 模态特征,包括在跨世界识别是严格的跨世界同一性问题还是仅仅是对应关系的问题上存在显著差异的框架。当涉及事件时,类似的选择也出现了,并且没有明显的理由认为它们应该以平行方式处理。例如,Kripke (1972) 在这两个方面都是跨世界同一性理论家,但 Lewis 在对象方面是对应关系理论家(1968),在事件方面至少在他对因果关系的描述中是跨世界同一性理论家(1973)。最近,对于对象和事件,对应关系理论框架已被认可(Schaffer 2005; McDonnell 2016; Kaiserman 2017)。据称,这样一个统一的框架允许更好地解释许多模态和因果谈话的语境敏感性,例如,参考各种先发制人和多余因果的难题。然而,必须仔细评估其本质主义后果:除非假设每个对象和事件在任何世界中最多只能有一个对应物,否则,例如,凯撒之死必然是凯撒的这个想法就变得有问题了(Hazen 1979)。

Bibliography

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Cited Works

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  • Sartorio, C., 2009, ‘Omissions and Causalism’, Noûs, 43: 513–530.

  • Savellos, E. E., 1992, ‘Criteria of Identity and the Individuation of Natural-Kind Events’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 52: 807–831.

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  • Schein, B., 1993, Plurals and Events, Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.

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  • Tegtmeier, E., 2000, ‘Events as Facts’, in J. Faye et al. (eds.), Things, Facts and Events, Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 219–228.

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Further Readings

  • Altshuler, D., 2016, Events, States and Times: An Essay on Narrative Discourse in English, Berlin: De Gruyter.

  • Arsenijević, B., Gehrke, B., and Marín, R. (eds.), 2013, Studies in the Composition and Decomposition of Event Predicates, Dordrecht: Springer.

  • Bennett, J., 1995, The Act Itself, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

  • Bohnemeyer, J., and Pederson, E., 2011, Event Representation in Language and Cognition, New York: Cambridge University Press.

  • Bott, O., 2010, The Processing of Events, Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

  • Demonte, V., and McNally, L. (eds.), 2012, Telicity, Change, and State: A Cross-Categorial View of Event Structure, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Dölling, J., Heyde-Zybatow, T., and Schäfer, M. (eds.), 2008, Event Structures in Linguistic Form and Interpretation, Berlin: de Gruyter.

  • Eckardt, R., 1998, Adverbs, Events, and Other Things: Issues in the Semantics of Manner Adverbs, Tübingen: Niemeyer.

  • Faye, J., Scheffler, U., and Urchs, M. (eds.), 2001, Things, Facts and Events, Amsterdam: Rodopi.

  • Gisborne, N., 2019, Ten Lectures on Event Structure in a Network Theory of Language, Leiden: Brill.

  • Kanzian, C., 2001, Ereignisse und andere Partikularien. Vorbemerkungen zu einer mehrkategorialen Ontologie, Paderborn: Schöningh.

  • Maienborn, C., and Wöllstein, A. (eds.), Event Arguments: Foundations and Applications, Tübingen: Niemeyer.

  • Martin, R. M., 1978, Events, Reference and Logical Form, Washington (DC): Catholic University of America Press.

  • Payton, J. D., 2021, Negative Actions: Events, Absences, and the Metaphysics of Agency, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Radvansky, G. A., and Zacks, J. M., 2014, Event Cognition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Rappaport Hovav, M., Doron, E., and Sichel, I. (eds.,) 2010, Syntax, Lexical Semantics, and Event Structure, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Rothstein, S., 2004, Structuring Events. A Study in the Semantics of Lexical Aspect, Oxford: Blackwell.

  • Schilder, F., Katz, G., Pustejovsky, J. (eds.), 2007, Annotating, Extracting and Reasoning about Time and Events, Berlin: Springer.

  • Shipley, T. F., and Zacks, J. M. (eds.), 2008, Understanding Events: From Perception to Action, New York: Oxford University Press.

  • Stoecker, R., 1992, Was sind Ereignisse? Eine Studie zur analytischen Ontologie, Berlin: De Gruyter.

  • Stout, R. (ed.), 2018, Process, Action, and Experience, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Tenny, C., and Pustejovsky, J. (eds.), 2000, Events as Grammatical Objects: The Converging Perspectives of Lexical Semantics, Logical Semantics and Syntax, Stanford (CA): CSLI Publications.

  • Truswell, R., 2011, Events, Phrases, and Questions, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • ––– (ed.), 2019, The Oxford Handbook of Event Structure, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • van Voorst, J., 1988, Event Structure, Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

  • Vermazen, B., and Hintikka, M. B. (eds.), 1985, Essays on Davidson: Actions and Events, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

  • Zacks, J. M., 2020, Ten Lectures on the Representation of Events in Language, Perception, Memory, and Action Control, Leiden: Brill.

  • Zucchi, S., 1993, The Language of Propositions and Events. Issues in the Syntax and Semantics of Nominalization, Dordrecht: Kluwer.

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