Russell's Theory Of Meaning

The linguistic diversion in the late 19th and the early 20th has made language as the central object of the philosophical study. The linguistic philosophers have put the linguistic topic up onto the primary location in philosophy , and even ascribed the whole philosophical question to the linguistic question. And the theory of meaning has been generally considered as one of the key questions in the linguistic philosophy.The British philosopher Russell as one of the sponsors of modern linguistic philosophy paid much attention to the theory of meaning and proposed his own theory of meaning. This paper tries to investigate Russell's theory of meaning integrally, including both the theory of reference as the theory of meaning in his early thought and the so-called"theory of concept"and"behaviorism"as that in his later thought , and tries to prove that his later theory of meaning does not give up his earlier one but carries out some complement for his theory of reference as that.The paper can be divided into three chapters:The first chapter: the theory of reference as the theory of meaning. This section investigates his early theory of meaning. The main point is his theory of discription. Russell considers that words'meaning is their referance.The second chapter: the theory of concept as the theory of meaning. From 1919's On Proposition, conception as an intermediary has been absorbed into Russell's theory of meaning.The third chapter: the behaviorism as the theory of meaning. Also in 1919's On Proposition,Russell began to make his study in a behaviorist way. Both the chapter and the second one consistitute his late theory of meaning.