The Semantic Analysis And Choice Of Contextual Interpretation Of Rule-following

The rule-following paradox and related problems of Philosophical Investigations have a very important place in later Wittgenstein, and the rule-following problem is a fundamental issue in the use and meaning of language in Wittgenstein's discussion. Moreover, the different interpretations of rule-following always involve intentionality, meaning ascriptions and the normativity of meaning, etc. This paper is composed of four parts and it inquires into the rule-following problem from some aspects, i.e., the rule-following problem and Kripke's interpretation of it ; the intentionality and semantic rules of rule-following; the meaning ascriptions of rule-following; the linguistic community and normativity of rule-following.First of all, this paper elaborates the origin of rule-following problem and Kripke's systematic interpretation of this problem in his monograph Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language. It also depicts the controversies that have been raised because of Kripke's reading.The interpretation of the rule-following problem requires the explanation of the intentionality and semantic rules of rule-following. Although Kripke referred to the problem of intentionality in his reading, he did not elaborate it clearly. The second part of this paper analyzes the intentionality in Kripke's reading of rule-following with the use of some theories of intentionality and points out the choice of contextual interpretation of the problem of intentionality. The semantic rules are closely related to intentionality and the interpretation of rule-following is often characterized by the elaboration which embodies a fusion of semantic rules and intentionality. A lot of controversies have been raised by Kripke's reading of rule-following, however, there are few people who pay attention to the concrete way in which Kripke put forward the skeptical solution. This paper tries to interpret Kripke's reading by means of G(o|¨)del's critique of conventionalism of language in mathematics, and then queries the reasonableness of Kripke's reading in which he proceeded from an example of addition to understand the relation between rules and actions and the relation between expressions and meanings.The problem of meaning ascriptions is also an important aspect of probing into rule-following. The problem of meaning ascriptions involves the ideas of the connotation of the skeptical paradox, realism, anti-realism and irrealism. Although there are not many discussions about semantic analysis from the view of meaning ascriptions, this kind of analysis makes the rule-following problem more profound and more difficult. We can interpret Kripke's reading of rule-following more clearly from a logical angle. Kripke's skeptical paradox embodies the non-factualism of meaning ascriptions and some scholars have divergent opinions of this problem. Furthermore, relating the rule-following problem to the irrealist conception of meaning also offers us a new perspective on the problem. The third part of the paper points out the choice of contextual interpretation of the problem of meaning ascriptions after some relevant analyses.The rule-following problem is also closely related to the problems of linguistic community and social agreement. Kripke put great emphasis on the significance of linguistic community and social agreement in his reading, but it seems that his views on the linguistic community can hardly interpret the rule-following activities reasonably. Therefore, this paper finally analyzes and points out the difficulties that Kripke's views on the linguistic community confront. And then it argues that our inquiries into the basis and criterion of the rule-following activities; our inquiries into the basis and essence of language expressions and our defence of the use of expressions are actually the problems of meaning ascriptions and normativity. After the reading of the normativity of meaning, it points out that the contextual analysis offers a view of the reasonable interpretation of the significance of linguistic community and normativity.