On Putnam's Theory Of Meaning

Hilary Putnam is a contemporary famous mathematician and philosopher.Putnam supported different philosophical standpoints,he often criticized his own points of view,thus his thought is famous for "changing".Putnam's research focused on semantics in the 50-70 s of 20 th century.Putnam considered that the meaning of words was more important than the meaning of statements.So he researched the meaning of words but not the meaning of statements.The traditional theory of meaning was intensional theory of meaning.It argued that the meaning of the words was determined by the speaker's mental state.So it was "inner" that the traditional theory of meaning researched the meaning of words.He had criticized the traditional theory of meaning effectively.On the basis of it,he established the semantic externalism which was different from the traditional theory of meaning.The way of researching the meaning of Putnam was "outside",that is "make sure the extension of words,than make sure the meaning of words".Putnam illuminated that the words extension was derived from the contribution of society and objective environment,through the division of linguistic labor,causal theory of reference and environmental causation,rather than the speaker's psychological state.Putnam did not define the "meaning" directly,instead explain "what is to know the meaning of words" and "under what circumstances two words have same meaning" through the description of meaning.Putnam's theory of meaning overcame the drawbacks of the traditional theory of meaning.It provided a new perspective to the research of theory of meaning.It affirmed the value of researching "meaning".It promoted the development of the contemporary theory of meaning greatly.