The Severance And Reconstruction Of Golden Triangle

The epistemic two-dimensional semantics advanced by David Chalmers who is an Australian philosopher promises to restore the "golden triangle" of meaning,reason and modality.Epistemic two-dimensional semantics gets much attention from contemporary academic circles of philosophy of logic,philosophy of language and philosophy of mind,because of its fresh ideas about some substantial problems in theories of meaning and truth.This paper attempts to give a critical investigation to Chalmers's two-dimensional semantics according to its achievements and fundamental flaws,on the basis of deeply expositing the historical origin,theoretical construction and development process of Chalmers' two-dimensional semantics,and research the crux and the solutions to the difficulties referring to the "methodology of logical actionism" and the "semi-descriptive theory" advocated by it.The "golden triangle" called by Chalmers denotes a traditional point as this:a sentence is analytical true,if and only if it is a priori true,if and only if it is necessary true.The formation of the "golden triangle" is a long historical process and the basic composition of the golden triangle relates closely with three important philosophers,who are Immanuel Kant,Gottlob Frege and Rudolf Camap:Kant linked reason and modality,by proposing that what is necessary is knowable a priori,and vice versa;Frege linked reason and meaning,by proposing an aspect of meaning(sense)that is constitutively tied to cognitive significance;Carnap linked meaning and modality,by proposing an aspect of meaning(intension)that is constitutively tied to modality.Because intensions behave very much as senses,the "golden triangle" also can be captured by the Neo-Fregean Thesis:two expressions have the same intension,if only if the identical sentence composed by them is a priori.Chalmers pointed out that Saul Kripke's theories of modality and meaning shattered the"golden triangle",and then gave out systemic pectination and analyzation on this issue.The Kantian link is severed firstly:Kripke demonstrated that not only there were "necessary a posteriori truths",but also "contingent a priori truths",using his new theories of modality and meaning.Kripke severed the Fregean link also,which is because meaning(intension)does not reflect cognitive significance any longer.However,Camapian link is left intact.According to Chalmers,Kripke's severing to the "golden triangle" challenges the tradition of rationalism seriously,and only appealing to some kind of two-dimensional semantics can restore the "golden triangle".The core idea of two-diinensional semantics is that there are two different ways in which the extension of an expression depends on possible states of the world.First,the actual extension of an expression depends on the character of the actual world in which the expression is uttered;second,the counterfactual extension of an expression depends on the character of the counterfactual world in which the expression is evaluated.Corresponding to the two depending ways,there are two kinds of intensions for an expression:primary intension and secondary inte?nsion.However,Chalmers indicated further that only adopting the epistemic approach of two-dimensional semantics could restore the golden triangle successfully.The epistenic approach of two-dimensional semantics or epistemic two-dimensional semantics has two key ideas:first,the possibilities involved in primary intension are understood as epistemic possibilities,that is,S is epistemically possible when the thought that S express is not ruled out a priori.Second,epistemic intension characters the scrutability,that is,once the subject is given enough information,she/he can know the extensions of expressions which are uttered.Epistemic two-dimensional semantics attempts to obtain the restoration of the "golden triangle" through reinstantiating the Fragean link.The Neo-Fregean thesis is reformulated in the frame of two-dimensional semantics as this:two expressions have the same primary intension,if only if the identical statement composed by them is a priori.And this thesis is derived from the core thesis:for any sentence S,S is a priori if only if S has a necessary primary intension.The core thesis holds in the frame of epistemic two-dimensional semantics,which is because epistemic necessity is equal to apriority.Therefore,the "golden triangle" is "restored".This dissertation shows that the key step of Chalmers' restoration of the "golden triangle" is to demonstrate the compatibility between epistemic two-dimensional semantics and Kripke's theories of modality and meaning,by giving systemic pectination and analyzation.while,in one hand,this dissertation finds out their fundamental differences by comparing propositions about"epistemic possibility","apriority" and "conceivability" and so on of each other:Chalmers insists modal(rationalism)monism,Kripke insists modal dualism.In another hand,if the frame of epistemic intention can integrate Kripke's causal-hi story theory,then it will be attributed to metasemantics according the frame of Kripke's meaning theory.In a word,there is no compatibility as which Chalmers points out between Chalmers and Kripke.Anyway,epistemic two-dimensional semantics cannot be as what Chalmers suppose:it can restores the "golden triangle" and accepts Kripke's meaning theory and modal theory at the same time,which is a substantial defect for Chalmers' restoring project.From the point of strictly dividing epistemic modality and metaphysical modality,modal dualism is preferable,but the problem is that neither Chalmers nor Kripke defined epistemic modality clearly.In the frame of the "methodology of logical actionism",epistemic modality is the modality of thought actually;at the same time,there is some link between epistemic modality and cognitive ability,because thought as products of conscious action mirrors subject's cognitive ability.It is the clarification of series of confusions among levels made by the"methodology of logical actionism" that reveals the reasons why Chalmers' restoration is unsuccessful.In the construction of epistemic two-dimensional semantics,it is important to deal with Kripke's "necessary a posteriori truths" and "contingent a priori truths".Many philosophers doubt Kripke's arguments against the "golden triangle" by questioning the two kinds of "truths".Descriptivist holds that descriptions can be rigidified,sp the contingency of "contingent a priori truths" is not legal.The philosophers holding the theory of direct reference demonstrate that the apriority of "contingent a priori truths" is untenable by epistemic argument on the one hand,and deny the aposteriority of "necessary a posteriori truths" by showing that Kripke did not distinguish the semantical components and non-semantical components of a name.This paper demonstrates that if the apoteriority of "necessary a posteriori truths" is admitted,then the theory of direct reference should be rejected,and if the apriority of "contingent a priori truths"is retained,then the sense of names should be accepted.Getting out the dead end as this should appeal to the "semi-descriptive theory",which is advocated by the“methodology of logical actionism".In another word,the "semi-descriptive theory" can justify necessary a posteriori truths and contingent a priori truths,but the former should be restated as a posteriori truths representing necessary states of affairs,and the latter a priori truths representing contingent states of affairs.Then,taking the epistemic modality redefined and the "semi-descriptive theory" mentioned in foregoing part as base,this paper analyzes the Camapian link and Fregean link,and investigates the way of solving problems.An obvious reason for Chalmers concluding that Kripke did not cut the Camapian link is that Kripke used modalities to definite rigid designators.This paper indicates that Carnap in fact linked epistemic modality and meaning,therefore,it should not get the conclusion that Kripke saved the Camapian link because himself linked meaning and metaphysical modality.However,it is wrong for Kripke to link meaning and metaphysical modality,the reason is that the meaning of language belongs to language realm as product of speech action,not object realm.One of the obvious features for Chalmers to restore the golden triangle is the reestablishment of Fregean link,which is reflected in the epistemic two-dimensional semantics' justification for the core thesis.And the reestablishment of Fregean link means that epistemic intension can behave as Frege's sense,which means that epistemic intension can explain the Frege's puzzle.Chalmers revised epistemic intension in order to it can substitute sense,and got enriched intension.However,enriched intension cannot explain out all puzzles of belief.This paper uses the semi-descriptive theory to revise enriched intension,which makes enriched intension have stronger functionality of explanation.This paper takes the "methodology of logical actionism" as guide to analyze the crux and proposes solutions of the related problems all the way.This methodology reviews the connections among meaning,reason and modality from a standpoint of actionism,and concludes that the three of them cannot connect directly,but have to take actions as media of the connections,which means that if we want to solve series of problems about the "triangular"relation among meaning(of language),reason and(metaphysical)modality,we need to appeal to the "triangle of action",whose connective medias are "objective action(praxis)","conscious action" and "speech action".