I am interested in a certain way of understanding claims of the form ‘To be F is to be G’, which I take to have played a central role in philosophy from its inception. Here are some examples where the target reading is natural: (1) a. To be a vixen is to be a female fox. b. To be square is to be rectangular and equilateral. c. To be just is to be such that each part of one’s soul does its own proper work. d. To be a human being is to be a rational animal. e. To be a hydrogen atom is to be an atom whose nucleus contains exactly one proton. f. To be a continuous function is to be such that for every open set in one’s range, the set of things in one’s domain which one maps to members of that set is open. As (1c) and (1d) illustrate, questions whose answers can be given in the form ‘To be F is to be G’ have been of central interest to philosophers since the beginning. (1e) illustrates that we cannot always tell whether to be F is to be G using “armchair” methods: sometimes, we need to do experiments. But not always, as witness (1f). The reading I am interested in is not the only possible reading of ‘To be F is to be G’. The readings in play in the following examples seem rather different in character: (2) a. To be a black athlete in Colombia is to be constantly reminded of your otherness.1 1http://www.okayafrica.com/controversial/afro-colombian-gold-medalist/.

中文翻译：

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成为 F 就是成为 G

我对理解“成为 F 就是成为 G”这种形式的主张感兴趣，我认为它从一开始就在哲学中发挥了核心作用。以下是一些目标阅读很自然的例子： (1) a. 成为狐狸精就是成为雌性狐狸。湾 正方形就是长方形和等边形。C。公正就是使一个人灵魂的每一部分都做自己适当的工作。d. 做人就是做一个理性的动物。e. 成为氢原子就是成为一个原子核恰好包含一个质子的原子。F。要成为连续函数，就是对于一个范围内的每个开集，一个域中映射到该集成员的事物集是开集。如（1c）和（1d）所示，问题的答案可以以“成为 F 就是成为 G”的形式给出，从一开始就引起了哲学家们的兴趣。(1e) 说明我们不能总是使用“扶手椅”方法判断是 F 还是 G：有时，我们需要做实验。但并非总是如此，作为证人 (1f)。我感兴趣的读物并不是“成为 F 就是成为 G”的唯一可能读物。以下例子中的读物在性质上似乎大不相同： (2) a．在哥伦比亚成为一名黑人运动员需要不断提醒自己的与众不同。1 1http://www.okayafrica.com/controversial/afro-colombian-gold-medalist/。我感兴趣的读物并不是“成为 F 就是成为 G”的唯一可能读物。以下例子中的读物在性质上似乎大不相同： (2) a．在哥伦比亚成为一名黑人运动员需要不断提醒自己的与众不同。1 1http://www.okayafrica.com/controversial/afro-colombian-gold-medalist/。我感兴趣的读物并不是“成为 F 就是成为 G”的唯一可能读物。以下例子中的读物在性质上似乎大不相同： (2) a．在哥伦比亚成为一名黑人运动员需要不断提醒自己的与众不同。1 1http://www.okayafrica.com/controversial/afro-colombian-gold-medalist/。