Researches On Russell's Theory Of Descriptions

Researches on the descriptions belong to not only the scope of linguistic research, but also an important research topic in western philosophy of language. The main purpose of the creation of the theory is revealing the differences between the external grammatical form and the inherent logical form, cleaning up the confusions caused by ordinary language, avoiding those unnecessary controversies thoroughly, and thus helping us to resolve those related philosophical issues. A large number of philosophers, logicians had devoted to this issue in different degrees. Russell, as one of the most important figures of them, studied on the definite descriptions comprehensively and systematically, and put forward a completely Descriptions Theory for the first time in the history of philosophy. As the theory was put forward, a tremendous impact was caused in the academic community. In the following development, it had received affirmation and praise, hailed as"paradigm of philosophy". But in the other side, some scholars had also opposed and criticized it. The Theory of Descriptions has been developing with their debate and argumentation.This paper take Russell's Theory of Descriptions as the core problem, and discuss it from the following three points:First of all, the historical and academic background of the Theory of Descriptions. This part carried out a detailed analysis of the historical, academic background and technical reserve of the Theory of Descriptions. Including:"linguistic turn"which began in Western philosophy in the late 19th century and the 20th century; three difficulties existed for a long time in the history of philosophy; the studies that Mill and Frege had done about the problems of descriptions before Russell.Secondly,the Theory of Descriptions as"paradigm of philosophy". This part will describe the basic content about Russell's Theory of Descriptions in detail; show that how this theory resolved the three difficulties which existed a long time in history of philosophy; analyze the achievements and problems of this theory.Finally, the criticism and defenses of the theory of descriptions. This part focus on describing the work of some representative philosophers or logicians that promoted the development of the Theory of Descriptions, including those scholars who opposed Russell's theory and put forward their own solution to this problem. After expounding, systematic and objective evaluation will be gave, which pointed out the effectiveness and limitations of their theory respectively.