塞拉斯的逻辑空间——对意义整体论的一个辩护

Sellars' Logical Space——A Defense for Meaning Holism

与意义原子论、分子论相对,意义整体论强调语词或语句意义的相互勾连,没有一个语词独立于整体之外而单独地具有意义。然而,福多(J. Fodor)和勒炮(E. Lepore)等人试图表明,意义整体论面临着稳定性、组合性、客观性困难,因而不应予以采纳。事实上,作为塞拉斯反驳基础主义知识论所予神话的关键,塞拉斯的意义整体论就能够很好地回应这些困难。根据塞拉斯的主张,语词的意义在于其构成的表达式所具有的推理作用,而任何语词或语句只有进入逻辑空间才具有推理作用。逻辑空间的稳定性和可修正性保证了意义的稳定性和可修正性;不仅如此,逻辑空间中语词的勾连方式也固定了意义的组合方式。

As opposed to atomism about meaning and molecularism about meaning,meaning holism emphasizes the interconnectedness of the meaning of words or sentences. No word locates out of the system and has an independent meaning. However,J. Fodor and E. Lepore indicate that meaning holism is mistaken since it has been faced with the problems of instability,compositionality and objectivity. In this paper,I argue that Sellars＇ theory of meaning holism,which plays a central role in his objection to the Myth of the Given,is capable of responding to all these problems. According to Sellars,the meaning of a word is its referential roles and only in a logical space can a word or sentence have any referential roles. Hence,the stability and revisability of the logical space permits the stability and revisability of the meaning of a word,and the ways that words are tied together in the logical space determine how meaning is composed.