The two Kantian notions of causality: an analytic enquiry

Abstract

为了回应休谟关于因果性与自由关系的难题， 康德提出了两种因果性概念：自然因果性 和自由因果性。前者指涉思辨理性语境中的现象领域；后者在思辨理性的超验的自在之物领 域， 只是一个否定性概念， 但在实践理性的语境中， 它获得了客观实在性。自由因果性所肯 定的是先验的自由， 而不是心理学的自由。在康德那里， 这两种因果性以分裂的方式共存于 人（既是现象领域的存在者， 又是自在之物领域的存在者）的身上。康德之后， 马克思批判 性地综合了黑格尔和叔本华的成果， 揭开了康德两种因果性概念的谜底——生产劳动。生产 劳动既蕴含着目的性和自由因果性的维度， 又蕴含着自然因果性和历史因果性的维度。在马 克思的历史唯物主义的语境中， 生产劳动这个必然王国构成自由王国的真正的基础。 In response to the tricky problem, raised by Hume, of the relationship between causality and freedom, Kant came up with the concept of two kinds of causality: causality of nature and causality of freedom. While the former belongs in the phenomenal realm in the context of speculative reason, the latter, no more than a negative notion in the transcendental realm of things‐in‐themselves, nevertheless acquires actual objectivity in the context of practical reason. What causality of freedom confirms is freedom in the transcendental rather than the psychological sense. As Kant saw it, these two kinds of causality coexist in divided form in man, who is an existing being both in the realm of phenomena and in that of things‐in‐themselves. After Kant, it was Marx who, critically synthesizing the contributions of Hegel and Schopenhauer, succeeded in revealing the hidden answer to the question of Kant's concept of two kinds of causality. That is productive labor, which implies both the dimension of goals and the causality of freedom and that of the causality of nature and historical causality. In the context of Marx's historical materialism, productive labor emerges as a kingdom of necessity at the very basis of the kingdom of freedom.