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When We Say 'Ground' Do We Mean 'Cause'?

当我们说“基础”时，我们的意思是“原因”吗？

基本信息

批准号：
2890635
负责人：
金额：
--
依托单位：
University of Southampton
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Studentship
财政年份：
2023
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2023 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2890635
关键词：
When Say Ground Do Mean

项目摘要

Scientists, in their attempts to characterise the physical world, theorise relations between precipitating events (e.g. taking aspirin) and subsequent events (e.g. alleviating headaches). The worry is that fundamental facts about these relations are unobtainable because explanation cannot be 'grounded' -viz we cannot discern a hierarchal structure of reality, whereby 'lower' explanations ground 'higher' explanations. In my research I plan to adopt this hue of scepticism, hypothesising that we, as thinking agents, may never fundamentally demystify scientific explanations. Specifically, my thesis is that there is no epistemically viable notion of grounding to 'bottom-out' explanation in mind-independent, non-causal facts. However, I will leave the door open for epistemic theories, according to which causality is a feature of how we represent reality, where scientific explanation can be adequately grounded in our beliefs. I will deploy the skills and experience I have gained from academic physics and philosophy and a career in medicine to assess what this thesis means for medical practice. Pertinently to my previous profession, I will assess how my findings limit the optimisation of person-centred approaches in healthcare, which postulate that each patient has a unique combination of symptoms whose causal relations can be explained.

科学家在试图描述物理世界的特征时，对突发事件（例如服用阿司匹林）和后续事件（例如减轻头痛）之间的关系进行了理论分析。令人担心的是，关于这些关系的基本事实是无法获得的，因为解释不能“有根据”——也就是说，我们无法辨别现实的层次结构，“较低”的解释以此为“较高”的解释奠定基础。在我的研究中，我计划采取这种怀疑主义的态度，假设我们作为思考者，可能永远不会从根本上揭开科学解释的神秘面纱。具体来说，我的论点是，不存在以独立于思想的非因果事实为基础的“自下而上”解释的认识论上可行的概念。然而，我将为认知理论敞开大门，根据该理论，因果关系是我们如何表征现实的一个特征，科学解释可以充分扎根于我们的信念。我将运用我从学术物理学和哲学以及医学职业中获得的技能和经验来评估这篇论文对医学实践的意义。与我之前的职业相关，我将评估我的发现如何限制以人为本的医疗保健方法的优化，该方法假设每个患者都有独特的症状组合，其因果关系可以解释。