回复: 词组beg the question against 如何翻译
其实在秦秀白主编的《当代英语习语大词典》里有这个词条,意思有两个。一个指以假定的论据来辩论(诡辩);把未经证明的论点当作真理;武断。另一个是指回避问题的实质;提出另一个问题以 回避真接回答。
由于我不是很理解词条上的这两个意思,帮发帖求助。再次感谢akademie,我已看了您说的维基词条。维基上说,Begging the question,又叫预期理由,是一种逻辑谬误,在这个逻辑谬误中,有待证明的命题已在前提中假定。
维基对它的定义是:
The fallacy of petitio principii, or "begging the question", is committed "when a proposition which requires proof is assumed without proof", or more generally denotes when an assumption is used, "in some form of the very proposition to be proved, as a premise from which to deduce it".
其意和《当代英语习语大词典》中的解释差不多。由于维基除了对它进行定义之外,还举了很多例子,所以对这个词组的理解要清楚得多了。
因此,This might appear to beg the question against the idea that
causal explanation is conceptually prior to causation.
这名的话翻译可能是:这种做法似乎是以未经证明的前提来反对因果解释在概念上优先于因果关系这一观念。
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我又核查了,将其译为“这种做法似乎是以未经证明的前提来反对因果解释在概念上优先于因果关系这一观念”,与上文衔接得还不够好,估计还是有问题。
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我再想了想,还是将beg the question against 译为“不能证明”。我在网上找了两段话,将其中的beg the question against译为“不能证明”似乎都能说得通。这两段话和我的译文如下:
1.The issue would then come down to whether or not such natural, but non-physical laws, logically supervene upon the physical laws. But, obviously, simply to assume that all natural laws logically supervene upon physical laws would beg the question against the logical possibility of philosophical zombies.
这个问题实质上相当于这一问题,即物理规律之外的这些自然规律在逻辑上是否随附于这些物理规律。但显而易见的是,简单地假定所有的自然规律在逻辑上随附于物理规律并不能证明哲学僵尸的逻辑可能性。
2.If you regard the problem of mental causation as a significant metaphysical problem, then you will not be attracted to purported solutions that seek to replace talk of causation with talk of explanation. To do so would be to put the cart before the horse. This might appear to beg the question against the idea that causal explanation is conceptually prior to causation.
如果你认为心理因果性问题是一个重要的形而上学问题,那么你就不会被提出的这样的一种解决方案所吸引,它试图以对解释的谈论来替代对因果关系的谈论。这样做似乎是本末倒置。这样做似乎也不能证明因果解释在概念上先在于因果关系。
还想请教同仁的意见,真是谢谢大家了。