| Being challenged by positivism and psychologism, Western Philosophy is in severe troubles in modern times. The pure meditate, transcendental truth and speculative, all of which were used to belong to the research scope of traditional philosophy are seriously questioned. Philosophy is now being replaced by empirical science and psychology as the predominance of the abstract science, thus traditional philosophy is facing a severe crisis of losing research scope and existential value. At the same time, the success of symbolic logic brought hope to philosophers. Through the efforts of Frege, Russell and Whitehead, mathematics was defined as logic and completely separated with science, the pure meditate of mathematics was widely accepted and its own place was found. People have found the new philosophical field"language"as delving the symbolic logic. Language is not only the carrier of logic; it also has meanings among predicate, fact and context, independent of physical world and moral action. Research on the meaning of language can help define the base, property and effect of logic, solve the problems confronted philosophy, and find the exclusive research scope of philosophy. Making clear about the philosophy right and turning the philosophy horizon to language is known as the linguistic turn.As the representatives of analytical philosophy in early times, Frege and Russell laid the theoretic foundation of it. Frege's theory of"Sense and Reference"and Russell's theory of description are all the typical theories of early time analytical philosophy. These theories are of great importance in making logic analysis of everyday language, having a profound understanding of the logic meaning of language and expanding the analytical technique. This essay will emphasize on introducing the background, structure, analytical technique and effect of Russell's theory of description, aiming to reflect the theoretic sense and analytical technique veritably. Russell is deeply affected by Frege's theory of"Sense - Reference"who explained the differences among phraseology, meaning of judge sentence and sense and reference in details in Uber Sinn und Bedeutung. He believes that the reference is a corresponding individuality of designation, and the sense of designation is the content it expresses; and in judge sentence, the reference of it is its truth-value, while the sense is its ideological content. This distinction played important role in Russell's theory of description by offering a foundation of distinguishing proper name and description, and leave profound effect to the development of philosophy.Russell's theory of description is based on principle of acquaintance. To oppose the mentalism opinion, Russell projects that acquaintance is the most credible intermedium of obtaining experience and knowledge."Acquaintance is the firsthand knowledge, the one that obtained by description is secondhand which is not meaningful until being reverted into acquaintance.""Acquaintance"incarnates the function of proper name, whereas descriptive knowledge is undertaken by the meaning of description. Then, Russell starts analyzing the misuse of proper name and description in everyday language. He believes proper name is kind of nomination and description, while description can be divided into defining description and non-defining description, both of which are the description of an object's nature without description function. Russell's subsistence logic in everyday language comes from the misuse of proper name, and only through strict analysis and rewrite the logical structure of proposition can we obtain a clear understanding of sentence analysis. That is the basic discipline and method of theory of description. Russell's theory of description can be used in solving three philosophy problems: the problem of existence, identity replacement law and the law of excluded middle. Against Meinong paradox, Russell projects clearly that we should oppose unreality and stick to acquaintance concept. The"seemingly proper name"which causes problems should be analyzed and rewritten into description, through which the paradox about subsistence can be solved from the origin. Russell has also formulated primary occurrence and secondary occurrence, an effective way and effective tool of analyzing truth-value of description composition. The solution to traditional problems is one of the most important tasks that theory of description has achieved. At the same time, the theory is also an epitome in everyday language analysis. It pulls logical analysis into everyday language analysis and affects the future development of language philosophy in a profound and lasting way.Based on Russell's Theory of Description, Strawson and Donnellon and other analytical philosophers carried a critique of the theory and development. Strawson proposed for the"significance" and "true value" of the words should be strictly separated, and they're in two different areas of the language problem. And he considered the analysis of our language can not be divorced from the use of it instead of purely logical analysis, we should pay more attention to the "meaning" and "reference" in the language analysis on the level of the use of language, this view led the linguistic philosophy transformed from semantics to pragmatics. Donnellon is further distinguished the referential use and attributive use of descriptions on the pragmatic level, make the linguistic philosophy obtain further development on the road of pragmaticsThis paper aims to clarify the principles, methods and influence of description theories in Western philosophy. Reference to Russell's work in analytical philosophy, according to Russell's method for discourse, we wish to get the reduction of Russell's Theory of Description in nature. To display the value of Russell's Theory of Description, In this paper, we quoted the key concepts, principles, methods, logic formulas respecting the original works of Russell, analyzed the central parts accuratelyThis article is divided into three parts:Part I: Introduce the fundamental state of affairs around the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Western philosophy , reveal the causes and effects of "philosophical crisis" , investigate the causes of "linguistic turn" ,all above became the theoretical background of Russell Theory of Description.We carried out some discussions about Frege's theory of Meaning and Reference in this part, for its great influence on the promotion of Russell's theory of the proper name and description. Hope to demonstrate the undertake relationship in the theories of Frege and Russell. Part II: This part is the main part of this paper. Firstly, we introduced the"acquaintance"as our main method to get knowledge ,the rewrite method of Descriptions as the core analysis method. These basic principles and methods are the theoretical frameworks of Russell's Theory of Description, And then, we detailed discussed the distinction between the proper name and descriptions, the classification and function of descriptions by analyzing the propositional function to propose the misuse of the proper name. Thirdly, we discuss the influence on the true value by introducing the concepts of"primary occurrence"and: secondary occurrence"to apply the academic support for solving the classical logical problems of"existenz paradox","Identity Replacement Law"and"the law of excluded middle".Part III: Introduction the criticisms to Russell's Theory of Description by other analytical philosophers. Displaying the transform from the semantics to pragmatics in the linguistic philosophy by the general description of the related theory of Strawson and Donnellon,... |
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