The Influence Of Davidson's Theory Of Truth On His Theory Of Meaning And Metaphysics

Both Frege and Tarski have directly influenced Davidson's theory of truth.The former provides a research path of modern theory of meaning for Davidson;the latter provides the source of theory of initial expression for Davidson's theory of truth.Davidson's theory of truth is a programmatic theory.Its core content is an initial expression: “(T)s is t if and only if p”.It stands for Davidson's fundamental views on truth.Davidson's theory of truth has six basic features: Firstly,truth is undefinable.Secondly,the fundamental task of theory of truth is defining truth's nature.Thirdly,truth is the basis of general structure of a language,also the only and pre-analytical fundamental concept of philosophy of language.Fourthly,different realist opinions are reflections of different theories of truth.Fifthly,the interpreting process of Davidson's theory of truth is staged and consistent.Sixthly,truth points out the direction for philosophy of language,and theory of truth is the developing clue of the whole tradition of language analysis in the history of philosophy.These features have been distinctly reflected in the discussions regarding those three theoretical questions by Davidson,including the interpretation on the role of Convention T theory,the interpretation on the new correspondence theory of truth,the specification of appropriate use of concept of reference.Davidson's basic views on truth play a programmatic role in Davidson's philosophy of language.Such a programmatic function is reflected on its specific influence on Davidson's theory of meaning and metaphysics,indicating the relationship among Davidson's theory of truth,theory of meaning and metaphysics.Davidson thinks that theory of meaning should adopt the way of absolute theory of truth,and needs to explain how the meanings of sentences depend upon the meanings of words.Such interpretation needs to be achieved by holistic approach,and could only be completed on the level of connotation context.“t refers to x”,“s means m”,“s means that p”,all these three modes of theory of meaning have not completed the fundamental task of theory of meaning.The semantic standard problem of holism can only be solved in the mode of “(T)s is t if and only if p”.It makes the general precise presentation of meanings of sentences by the theory of meaning of truth condition come true.Davidson states that absolute theory of truth in Convention T mode deepens research on the general structure of language.The study on the most general aspect of language is just the study on the most general aspect of reality.Therefore,one important method of metaphysics is to reveal the structure of natural language.In Davidson's view,this method is the most important method in the development process of philosophy.Its rationality is proved by people's successful communication,because it suggests that people's common views on the world are mostly true.Davidson has adopted this method to discuss the problems of the semantic concept,conceptual entity,finiteness of initial terms and simple sentences,and jargons in the expression of truth-condition.It makes traditional metaphysical theory get a new development from the perspective of modern philosophy of language.Davidson's theory of truth plays a programmatic role in Davidson's thoughts of philosophy of language.Davidson's basic views on truth lay a foundation on his theory of meaning and metaphysical views.In the aspect of theory of meaning,such a programmatic role is not only reflected in the substantial influence on its sources of problems,theoretical tools and specific solutions,but also in subsequent theoretical work of theory of meaning.In the aspect of metaphysics,the progress made by Davidson and the unsolved questions have been reflected on the programmability and openness of the theory of truth.The programmatic function of Davidson's theory of truth and the relationship among the three theories further indicate basic connotation and theoretical significance of Davidson's theory of truth.Based on these,the fundamental tasks in these three fields of Davidson's theory of truth,theory of meaning and metaphysics,i.e.the perfection of absolute theory of truth,construction of one distinct semantics of natural language and construction of complete metaphysics,have been unified.