An Analysis Of Locke’s Philosophy Of Language

In order to explain the real human knowledge based on experience,and thus abolish the futile speculation of meaningless metaphysics,Locke expounded the theory of word meaning by revealing the origin,essence,types and scope of human knowledge.According to the distinction between "descriptive referential theory" and "causal referential theory",Locke affirmed the essence of nominalism,pointed out the difference between the nominal essence and the real essence of things,and thus deduced the truth view of correspondence theory.Locke’s philosophy of language has a serious tendency of reductionism and mentalism.The full text consists of introduction and four parts.The introduction describes the background and significance of the topic,the research status and research methods at home and abroad;The first part expounds Locke’s view of words,including the empirical boundary of words,the conceptual meaning of words,and the gap between words and the world.On this basis,it tries to explain Locke’s experience origin and the expressive function of words by clarifying ideas.On the one hand,it exposes the cognitive harm of empty speculation in scholastic philosophy,on the other hand,it emphasizes that clarifying the meaning and usage of words is an inevitable requirement of scientific development.The second part analyzes the reference theory based on Locke’s idealism,discusses the deep purport of Locke’s distinction between "descriptive reference theory" and "causal reference theory",and reveals some of the rationality,that is,the concept of word reference and indirect reference to the object through the concept;The third part discusses Locke’s theory of meaning in the field of epistemology,focusing on the analysis of the essence view of nominalism and the truth view of knowledge correspondence theory,thus revealing the narrowness of empirical epistemology;The fourth part reviews the achievements and shortcomings of Locke’s philosophy of language with the help of modern western philosophy,and points out the main contributions,the limitations of reductionism and the cognitive bias of mentalism.