Influence Of Russell’s Theory Of Descriptions On Linguistic Philosophy

Russell published his famous article On Denoting in1905in which he expoundedthe description theory in details, which make the development of linguistic philosophyentered a new era. The purpose of Russell’s description theory was to eliminateredundant metaphysical entity. Russell’s theory of description showed the huge powerof the logical analysis in linguistic philosophy and showed that some of thelong-standing philosophy problems can be solved by logic analysis from the perspectiveof language. Because of this, Russell’s theory of descriptions gets highly praise in thefield of philosophy and was called as ‘philosophical classics’. Russell’s logic analysismethod also has a significant influence on the linguistic philosophy.Russell’s theory of descriptions is a kind of descriptive phrases of language. It isdivided into definite descriptions and indefinite descriptions. Russell analyzed thesentences containing descriptions by means of modern logic method and revealed theirreal logic form of proposition expressed by them. The problems description theory tosolve can be roughly summed up as: problem of existing of virtual things, failure of thelaw of identity and the failure of the law of excluded middle. This paper will discussthe impact on linguistic philosophy of Russell’s theory of descriptions as an importantpart of linguistic philosophy.Russell’s theory of descriptions emphasizes using logical analysis method toreflect accurate description of the meaning problem. But the purpose has called inquestion in the late philosophical times. Late Wittgenstein, Strawson, etc. thoughtRussell confused the difference between words and the use of words. He thoughtspeakers were denoting, rather than the words themselves, Strawson proposed context,presupposition and so on aspects of pragmatics, which pioneered the pragmaticprecedent, the new research direction of linguistic philosophy.Above, the author expounds the position of Russell’s description theory in the fieldof linguistic philosophy and its basic content. The core issue of linguistic philosophy isthe meaning problems, so the author would like to explore the new strategy and newway of understanding of linguistic philosophy from the perspective of semantic brought by Russell’s description theory. And the ‘pragmatic turn’ in the late philosophical erawill be explored in order to master far-reaching influence produced by Russell’sdescription theory on the development of linguistic philosophy. It is hoped that theresearch can give students or workers engaged in the research on linguistic semanticsfor some reference.The paper is divided into four parts:The first part is an introduction. The main content consists of a summary ofliterature and research status at home and abroad, accounting for the writing purpose ofthis paper, significance and the innovation of the paper. It will be pointed out that theinnovation place of this paper is to explore the influence of Russell’s description theoryon the study of linguistic philosophy from the perspective of semantics and pragmaticsand put the development of ‘linguistic turn’ as clue.In the second part, the author will elaborate the formation of Russell’s descriptiontheory. Logical atomism and principle of acquaintance are the two starting points.Logical analysis is its research method. And some debates aroused by Russell’sdescription theory will be explained and gave the author’s comments. It will behighlighted that logic analysis method has a great influence on linguistic philosophy andis actually the real cause of ‘linguistic turn’ in philosophical history.In the third part, the author will describe the influence of Russell’s descriptiontheory on the study of linguistic philosophy in details. With the development of‘linguistic turn’ for clues, influence of Russell’s description theory will be discussedfrom the point of representative philosophers of various periods. Russell’s descriptiontheory marked ‘linguistic turn’; logical analysis technology was introduced intolinguistic philosophy comprehensively through the study of description theory. Itprovided a methodological enlightenment to early Wittgenstein who completed the keystep of the implementation of the ‘linguistic turn’. Carnap completed the ‘linguisticturn’ from the research of purely logical syntax. And now artificial language schoolcompleted the turning from linguistic philosophy to semantics. At last discussion ofWittgenstein and Strawson, two people mentioned above played great role in ‘pragmaticturn’ after ‘linguistic turn’ in linguistic philosophy, which plays an important role inmaking the linguistic philosophy march into the ‘pragmatic turn’ period. The influence of Russell’s description theory on the linguistic philosophy will be elaborated throughthese three turnings.The last part is the conclusion part. Russell’s description theory provides aparadigm for the study of the linguistic philosophy. Both ‘linguistic turn’ and ‘pragmaticturn’ have strong relation with Russell’s description theory. They inherited anddeveloped, popularize，criticize or tried to overthrow Russell’s theory to set up theirown theory. These two turnings above are two vital periods of linguisticphilosophy, infiltrated to semantic and pragmatics of linguistics and promoted theorganic integration of the two.