蒯因的行为主义意义理论及其批判

Quine’s Theory of Behavioristic Meaning and its Criticism

蒯因通过批判意义与指称相混淆的指称论,以及意义与观念相统一的观念论,提出根据主体间公共可观察的言语行为来解释语言意义的行为主义意义理论。蒯因的意义理论是为他的自然主义服务的。然而,由于行为主义的“刺激—反应”模式并非是一种必然的因果关系,且它忽视了语言意义的丰富性、复杂性和语言活动中言者的主体性等因素,因而无法解释特定语境中的“言外之意”和“弦外之音”,行为主义意义理论也因此难免被贴上机械主义、生物主义、客观主义等标签而走向式微。

Through criticizing the confusion of meaning and reference as well as the consistency of meaning and concept,Quine proposes his theory of behavioristic meaning which explains the meaning of language according to the public observable speech behavior between subjects.Quine’s theory of meaning serves his naturalism,aimed at illustrating how we gain the meaning of language through poor sensory stimulation and thus yield rich and profound theories about the outside world.However,the stimulus-response mode of behaviorism is not always an inevitable causality;it ignores the richness and complexity of language meaning as well as the subjectivity of the speaker in language activities,and cannot explain the“implication”in the specific context,so the theory of behavioristic meaning labeled as mechanism,biologism and objectivism is inevitably bound to decline.