1 Introduction

My title is Nature and the Good. It could also be Nature and Practical Reason, for the good is the object of practical reason. Of nature and practical reason, I want to say: Practical reason is no part of nature; it is not because it is knowledge of nature as such, namely, of the good as its ultimate principle.

I shall develop this thought by engaging a question that recently has given rise to debate: Does practical reasoning conclude in a state of mind or does it conclude in an action? The question may be misunderstood. It may be thought to relate to a part of nature: a psychic power found in human beings and possibly other animals. An answer explains how that bit of nature works. The bit has a special interest for us as it is present in us, but that is incidental to the knowledge of it that the answer provides. This is a misconception. Answering the question is not describing a given apparatus; it is expounding the understanding of its conclusion that practical reasoning itself is; it is expounding the self‐understanding of practical reasoning. Then the answer is clear: In practical reasoning, we know its conclusion to be an action. This answer does not expand our knowledge of nature; it is not knowledge of any part of nature. It is not that, not because it is knowledge of something other than nature, but because the self‐understanding of practical reasoning is knowledge of the whole of nature: Knowing its conclusion to be an action, practical reasoning knows the good to be the principle of nature as such. In this way, the exposition of the self‐understanding of practical reasoning reveals that understanding, and so practical reasoning, to be knowledge of the absolute, or absolute knowledge.

I shall proceed as follows. In section 2, I describe theoretical reasoning and the understanding of its conclusion internal to it. This understanding defines reasoning as such, and section 3 says how it informs practical reasoning. Section 4 explains why the conclusion of practical reasoning is no mere thought, but an action. In the final section, I bring out what this means: Practical reasoning is knowledge of the good as absolute.

中文翻译：

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自然与善

1引言

我的名字叫《自然与善》。它也可能是自然理性和实践理性，因为善良是实践理性的对象。关于自然和实践理性，我想说：实践理性不属于自然。这不是因为它是关于自然的知识，即关于善的终极原理。

我将通过提出一个最近引起争论的问题来发展这种思想：实践推理是在心态中得出结论还是在行动中得出结论？这个问题可能会被误解。可以认为它与自然的一部分有关：一种在人类甚至其他动物中发现的精神力量。答案解释了大自然的运作方式。钻头对我们特别有兴趣，因为它存在于我们体内，但这与答案所提供的知识是偶然的。这是一个误解。回答这个问题并不是在描述给定的设备。它正在阐明对它的结论的理解，即实践推理本身就是；它说明了对实践推理的自我理解。那么答案是明确的：在通过实践推理，我们知道其结论是一项行动。这个答案并没有扩大我们对自然的认识；它不是自然界任何部分的知识。不是那样，不是因为它不是自然界的知识，而是因为对实践推理的自我理解就是对整个自然界的了解：知道其结论是一种行动，实践推理就知道了好是原则。这样的自然。这样，对实践推理的自我理解的阐述揭示了这种理解，以及实践推理，都是对绝对知识或绝对知识的了解。

我将进行如下操作。在第2节中，我描述了理论推理以及对它内部结论的理解。这种理解对推理进行了定义，第3节介绍了它如何指导实践推理。第四部分解释了为什么实践推理的结论不仅仅是思考，而是一种行动。在最后一节中，我将说明这是什么意思：实际推理是对绝对知识的认识。