China Social Science Review

No.2, 2022

Objectivity, Causality and the Laws of Nature

(Abstract)

Mei Jianhua

Cause and effect and the laws of nature are central to the study of philosophy, and a great deal of debate has arisen around whether they can be reduced. Contrary to the prevailing contemporary reductionism, this paper argues that both cause and effect and the laws of nature are irreducible and are objective beings, but this objectivity is not objectivity in the sense of a physical object, but the objectivity of practice. The long practice of human existence, production and life allows us to cleave to a position of objectivity in terms of cause and effect and the laws of nature. This has a certain significance for our understanding of related philosophical issues through further awareness of the rationality of the objectivity of practice.