Study On The Theory Of Descriptions

Research on descriptions began from the dabate about whether proper names have connotation or denotation. Around the dabate there were two faction: One thought that proper names have no connotation but denotation, which was directed by Mill and Kripke; The other thought that proper names have both connotation and denotation, which was directed by Frege and Russell. The debate had relation with ontology, which made it more complex. Limited by the realistic situation, this paper just made some comments about the contents of Russel's theory of connotation and descriptions.On "on denotation", through bringing out three antinomies, Russell focused on denotation. He called these antinomies difficult problems, and they all came from natural language's existing shortages. He thought that these problems provide a kind of judging tool for denotation in philosophy. He thought that theory can be judged through the ability of solving these problem. His theory of descriptions passed the judgement by providing all the solving projects to these three problem.He thought that proper names were quite different from descriptions. Proper names were simple signals. It stood for one individual directly, and it had connotation by itself. The basis of this theory was that connotation is equal to denotation. No denotation, no connotation.Just as other theory, Russell's theory was attacked by other researchs, of whom Strawson's theory of denotation and usage, Kripke's theory of causal naming were typicle, and this paper made introduction to their theories. But this paper thought that these theories can't threaten Russell's theory of description, but they pointed out the shortages of Russell's theory, which completed Russell's theory from a large scale.At the end, on the basis of generalizing all the theories about connotation and denotation, this paper formed its' own descriptions theory.