Abstract:

Within a broad naturalistic framework as a common background for the contemporary science and philosophy, we try to give a generic and unified account for normativity as well as its foundational status by taking a particular angle of the relation between two major representational means, i.e., explanation and interpretation, at the level of methodology. This relation can be revealed via their connections with other conceptual pairs (such as posteriori induction vs apriori principle, cause vs reason, token vs type, description vs norm, disenchantment vs re-enchantment of the world). Explanation draws on one-directional cognition while interpretation involves two-directional construction. When we understand or explain natural phenomena, certain kinds of normativity are involved; whereas the kinds of interdependence or interaction between interpreters and interpretational objects all rely on the first-person perspective of the perceivers doing the interpretation.

Key words: normativity, explanation, interpretation, naturalism, re-enchantment of the world