On Dummett’s Theory Of Sense And Reference

Dummett is regarded as one of the most important British philosophers,and he is the integrator of Frege’s theory.His theory of meaning plays a pivotal role in philosophy of language.Frege distinguishes the sense and reference of linguistic expressions.In his opinion,the sense of a sentence is thought and its reference is truth value.The sense of the proper name and the predicate is a part of the thought;the reference of the proper name is the object;the reference of the predicate is the concept.From the perspective of knowledge concept,Dummett reconstructs two arguments for the difference between sense and reference: one is equivalent argument,the other is cognitive argument.Dummett made a new explanation to the concept of sense.He thought that the concept of sense is the concept of cognition,and we should elucidate it from the angle of cognition.Dummett elucidates the concept of reference from the perspective of semantic value and thinks that the concept of reference bears the function of the concept of semantic value.Dummett not only gave a new interpretation to the concept of reference and sense,but also put forward his own views on the theory of power.In his opinion,the theory of meaning consists of two parts: one is the core part,which is composed of the theory of sense and the theory of reference;The other part is the theory of force,which is the complementary part.Dummett’s theory of sense and reference has exerted two influences on the philosophy of language: on the one hand,it systematically elucidates Frege’s theory of meaning;on the other hand,it puts forward new ideas for the study of contemporary theory of meaning.Dummett provides a solution to the controversy between realism and anti-realism.Dummett regards the theory of meaning as a tool to facilitate the effective solution of deductive justifications and intuitionist theory of meaning.