Analysis Of Strawson' Views On Truth And Meaning

Language is used to research the meaning while logic to seek the truth. Researching the truth in logic from language perspective has been one of the important parts in western language philosophy. What is truth? Why do people research the meaning? What kind of relation exists between truth and meaning? Are they identifiable or separated? It is the continuous debates on truth and meaning that form a main clue for the development of 20th century language philosophy.Strawson, a famous representative of Oxford school on daily language philosophy, plays a very important role on the debate of truth and meaning. His view on truth and meaning is well worth considering and studying in many aspects. Based on sorting out their relation, with the help of analysis on Strawson's performative theory of truth and reference theory, the article aims to reveal his views of truth and meaning.The paper is composed of three parts:The first part:Truth is based on logic, while meaning on language. They have their own theoretical origin. In this part, I'll explain how they make connection and why people have variable view on their relation, so that people may grasp their relation from a macro level.The second part is one of the key points. It aims to explore Strawson's views of truth. Performative theory of truth is an important part of Strawson's views of truth. This part mainly discusses it. Strawson's performative theory of truth is presented by his debating with Austin around "be true". Though his concrete exposition on "statement" and "truth" is not in detail, even has some irrational factors, his speech act theory and his concept of frame of discourse in his theory give thought to inspire future generations.The third part is another key point, which mainly explores Strawson's view of meaning which is embodied centrally by his reference theory, set up based on criticizing Russell's theory. This theory mainly discuss the relation between meaning and reference, meaning and assertion (that is to judge the truth and false). By analysis, this part aims to show although there exist some questions on Strawson's analysis process on his reference theory, yet his concept--meaning is not equal to reference--is reasonable. At the same time, in his analysis process, he draws in the concept, like context and prediction and so on, which has the deep significance. 'Functional classification of expressions'which is abandoned as the vice-product in reference theory in fact shows great significance to his theory.