Analysis Of Dummett's Theory Of Meaning

As a main form of many theories of meaning in the contemporary era, Michael Dummett's theory of meaning which is the core part of his philosophy plays an important role in contemporary linguistic philosophy and logic philosophy. This thesis consists of three parts which are the source of Dummett's theory of meaning,the construction of Dummett's theory of meaning and the influence on contemporary theories of meaning caused by Dummett's theory of meaning.The first part inquires into the ideological source of Dummett's theory of meaning. As is well-known that Frege's linguistic philosophy exerts a tremendous influence on Dummett's theory of meaning,so this part firstly studies Frege's statement on theory of meaning.then clarifies Dummett's viewpoint on construction of theory of meaning by defending the distinction between sense and reference and criticizing Frege's realistic "truth".The second part elaborates Dummett's viewpoint on construction of theory of meaning. As the main part of the thesis this chapter studies the theoretical premise and the basic framework of Dummett's theory of meaning and two forms of the theory. This chapter firstly introduces Dummett's concept of implicit knowledge and the principle of manifestation by discussing the relation between knowledge,understanding and meaning,then details the theory of meaning from three aspects as follows.its starting part and the test standardization is the language practice, distinguishing sense from reference is the basic method, the basic part and the supplementary part of the theory.At last this chapter expounds two forms of construction of the theory of meaning,so we can accomplish systematic investigation about the theory.The third part evaluates and analyses the academic value of Dummett's theory of meaning.Firstly the part definitely confirms Dummett's contribution to the research on theory of meaning and approves Dummett's common methods of defending anti-realism,then makes a comment for the argument between Dummett and other philosophers,and makes further thinking about the advantage and defect of Dummett's theory of meaning.The thesis tries to present the frontier results and development trend of con temporary theory of meaning by researching on Dummett's theory of meaning,an d expects to take more domestic scholars' attention on Dummett's theory of mea ning and his philosophical thoughts, promoting the development of the logic ph-ilosophy,language philosophy and the logic.