Research On Putnam's Semantics Theory

Philosophers have always been attaching great importance to the research of language in the history of philosophy.Since "the linguistic turn",which happened between the end of 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th century,the Philosophy of Language has been regarded as a substitute name to Philosophy.Most philoshophers believe that there are two main problems in philosophy of language:one is the relationship between language and world;the other is the meaning of language or words. Some philosophers even argue that the latter is the foundation of the former.The study on the meaning of language or words is called Semantics by philosophers.Hilary Putnam,one of the most famous philosophers and logicians in America,was also affected by the main current of philosophy.Therefore,a lot of semantics problems are discussed in his writings.However,Putnam gave a critique to the traditional semantics theory before he constructed his new semantics theory As far as Putnam was concerned,the concept of "meaning" is not clear in the traditional semantics theory, even the traditional concept of "meaning" is not the real concept of "meaning". However,Putnam can also not agree to Quine's ridical attitude of abolishing the concept of "meaning".He believed that we still need the concept of "meaning" and the failure of traditional theories of meaning is not the business of the concept of meaning but their ways of talking about meaning.We cannot construct a new semantics theory unless we change the way of talking about meaning.In Putnam's eyes,the traditional theory of meaning has two unchallenged assumptions:(Ⅰ) that knowing the meaning of a term is just a matter of being in a certain psychological state(in the sense of 'psychological state',in which states of memory and psychological dispositions are 'psychological states';no one thought that knowing the meaning of a word was a continuous state of consciousness,of course).(Ⅱ) That the meaning of a term(in the sense of 'intention') determines its extension(in the sense that sameness of intension entails sameness of extension).Putnam argued that these two assumptions were not jointly satisfied by any notion,let alone the notion of meaning. Thus the traditional concept of meaning is a concept which rests on a false theory.Putnam's new semantics theory was based upon his critique of traditional semantics theory.The research approach of semantics theory was turned to outer circumstance from inner psychological state in his theory.In addition,the siginificant role of reference in the process of fixing the meaning of words was also highlighted.His theory mainly includes two main issues.One is how we determine the extension of words;the other is what conditions,knowledge and abilities should be possessed when we acquire the meaning of words and then to clarify the meaning of words which is called'a normal form for the description of meaning' containing syntactic markers, semantic markers,stereotype and extension.It is worth noting that the main issue discussed by Putnam is the meaning of words instead of that of sentences because he felt that our concept of word-meaning is more problematic than that of sentence-meaning.Furthermore,he argued that the way of studying from sentence-meaning to word-meaning insisted by philosophers such as Donald Davidson and Quine is unfeasible.Therefore,only when the issue of word-meaning is solved can other issues be solved,and then the new semantics theory can be constructed.The New Semantics Theory's advanced ideas have resulted in the fierce reactions among philosophers as soon as it was published.Some approve it,others disapprove it, and still others give a compromising view about it.As far as the author of this thesis is concerned,Putnam's theory has provided us new perspectives to study the semantics and supplied the unlimited and infinite power to the development of semantics. Therefore,the New Semantics Theory of Putnam is a successful theory.Of course,no one can deny that there are also defects in the theory,for instance,the scientism was emphasized too much and the relativism was suspected in the theory,etc.However,it does not affect the significant role of Putnam's theory in philosophy of language.Just as Putnam says in Representation and Reality,"If philosophical investigations(a phrase made famous by another philosopher who 'changed his mind') contribute to the thousands-of-years-old dialogue which is philosophy,if they deepen our understanding of the riddles we refer to as 'philosophical problems,' then the philosopher who conducts those investigations is doing the job right.Philosophy is not a subject that eventuates in final solutions,and the discovery that the latest view—no matter if one producted it oneself—still does not clear away the mystery is characteristic of the work, when the work is well done." Semantics is also not a subject that eventuates in final solutions,Though Putnam's work does not clear away all mysteries of semantics,it deepens our understanding of word-meaning and promotes the development of semantics,therefore,his investigation is right and meaningful.