Coordination Funds

该研究单元的总体目的是阐明和阐述对形而上学的性质和方法论的新理解。从世纪晚期哲学中借用一个术语，由此产生的形而上学概念被称为归纳形而上学。我们认为，在一般情况下，形而上学的信念不应该也不能充分证明仅仅是一个概念和先验的基础上。经验来源和归纳或溯因推理形式应该而且事实上确实在形而上学中发挥着比通常所承认的更为突出的作用。形而上学信念的一个重要组成部分应该是合理的后验，根据归纳或溯因推理的经验数据，嵌入类似于科学的方法论，除了形而上学的概念和理论是跨学科的，比科学中的概念和理论更普遍。该研究单元旨在发展归纳形而上学的方法论和经验来源的系统帐户。实现这一目标的一个基本手段是方法或A项目与面向应用或B项目的结合。B项目处理选定的形而上学问题;它们是对形而上学研究的原创性贡献，同时也是A项目的测试案例。A项目关注归纳形而上学的历史和方法研究;它们使用B项目的结果作为输入，并将方法问题和结果作为输出提供给B项目。第一个三年期的所有三个A项目将在第二个三年期继续进行，其主题是第一个三年期工作成果的自然后续行动和出现的未决问题。第一阶段的所有B项目都被新的B项目所取代，其中一些项目与第一阶段的前一个项目有着重要的联系，另一些项目则将全新的主题领域带入了归纳形而上学的应用范围。

The overall purpose of the research unit is to articulate and elaborate a new understanding of the nature and methodology of metaphysics. Borrowing a term from late 19th century philosophy, the resulting conception of metaphysics is called Inductive Metaphysics. We argue that, in general, metaphysical beliefs should not and cannot be adequately justified solely on a conceptual and a priori basis. Empirical sources and inductive or abductive forms of inference should and in fact do play a much more prominent role in metaphysics than is typically acknowledged. An important share of metaphysical beliefs should be justified a posteriori, based on inductive or abductive inferences from empirical data, embedded in a methodology that resembles that of science, except that metaphysical concepts and theories are transdisciplinary and more general than concepts and theories in science. The research unit aims at developing a systematic account of the methodology and the empirical sources of Inductive Metaphysics. An essential means for achieving this aim is a combination of methodological or A-projects and application-oriented or B-projects. B-projects deal with selected metaphysical issues; they are original contributions to metaphysical research and at the same time they serve as test cases for A-projects. A-projects are concerned with historical and methodological investigations of Inductive Metaphysics; they use the results of B-projects as their input and deliver methodological questions and results to B-projects as their output. All three A-projects of the first three-year period shall be continued in the second period, with themes that are natural follow-ups of the results and open problems that emerged from the work in the first period. All B-projects of the first period are replaced by new B-projects, some of which bear important connections to predecessor projects in the first period and others which bring entirely new thematic areas into the range of application of Inductive Metaphysics.