| John Searle is a distinguished contemporary philosopher in the United States.In his well-known Speech Acts,Searle proposed his early theory of meaning through criticizing Grice's theory of meaning in the framework of speech act theory.However,his earlier theory of meaning had the same problems as Grice's.In view of this,in his later work Intentionality,Searle revised his earlier theory of meaning and developed a mature one based on his intentionality theory.In that book,Searle shows that philosophy of language is a branch of philosophy of mind,linguistic representation comes from the representation of the mind,and language is a derived intentionality.After completing Intentionality,Searle shifted his study focus from philosophy of language to philosophy of mind,but he did not stop thinking about issues of language and meaning.On the contrary,he has recently become focused on the analysis of language and meaning from the angle of philosophy of mind and cognitive science and examine the meaning of language from the perspective of the cognitive development of human beings and its effect on the cognition,which makes his theory of meaning more plausible.On the one hand,since there is a difference between the former and later period in Searle's theory of meaning,therefore,the study of his theory of meaning needs to show the process of change and its logical link.On the other,Searle regarded philosophy of language as a branch of philosophy of mind,so the exploration of his theory of meaning must be based on his philosophy of mind.Based on the above two aspects,this paper aims to explore how Searle laid the foundation of meaning on intentionality,and how to interpret language and its meaning from the perspective of cognitive science,so as to excavate the important value behind this idea.The dissertation is divided into four chapters.The first chapter systematically discusses the ideological origin and stages of development of Searle's theory of meaning.First of all,it explains the status of theory of meaning in linguistic philosophy as a whole and the two approaches of relevant study.Secondly,it clarifies the origin and starting point of Searle's theory of meaning and shows its coordinate position in Searle's philosophy of language.Finally,it sketches out the changing process of Searle's theory of meaning,from the early theory of meaning in Speech Acts to the mature one in Intentionality.Chapter two examines in detail the core content of Searle's intentional theory of meaning and its cognitive basis.After elucidating the essence,structure and the key to understanding the intentionality of the mind,we carefully analyze how the meaning of the language is specifically derived from the intentionality of the mind.Then,based on Searle's philosophy of mind,we fully discuss the cognitive basis of his intentional theory of meaning.The third chapter aims to expound Searle's defense of his intentional theory of meaning.Searle replied to the controversial topic that concerned with the cognitive basis,at the same time,he refuted the semantic externalism represented by Putnam and the skepticism represented by Quine.In the fourth chapter,we carry on a critical discussion on Searle's intentional theory of meaning,which shows the important value of his theory of meaning,which is mainly manifested in the prominent position of the mind and helps us understand the function and mechanism of language in cognition.Meanwhile,Searle's intentional theory of meaning,to a certain extent,has also integrated the two major theoretical approaches of the meaning study,absorbing their own strengths and overcoming the corresponding flaws.However,we also point out the problems faced by Searle's theory.This is mainly reflected in two aspects.One concerns the intentionality which is the basis of the theory of meaning,there are still some controversies about it;the other is that Searle did not completely implement the intentional position,and there is a flaw in his thoughts of the relation between meaning and convention. |
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