真与意义理论

Truth and the Theory of Meaning

如何理解句子的意义?真之条件意义理论主张利用句子的真之条件给出句子的意义,但这一理论遭到了福斯特等人的批评。福斯特等人认为,句子的真之条件不足以解释句子的意义。戴维森则认为,通过添加整体论、形式性的和经验性的约束条件,真之理论足以承担起意义理论的任务。然而,戴维森的解释方案失败了。一个可行的方案是,在整体论、形式性和经验性的约束条件基础上,增加关于简单性原则的知识,以确保从真之理论中推导出的所有T-语句都是解释性的,都可以给出句子的意义。

How do we understand the meanings of sentences?The truth conditional theory of meaning insists that giving truth conditions is a way to give the meanings.But this theory is argued against by Foster et al..Foster thinks that truth conditions are not sufficient to interpret the meanings of sentences.Davidson believes that the theory of truth is enough to undertake the tasks of a theory of meaning under the restriction of holism,the formal conditions and the empirical constrains.However,Davidson’s method is failed.A reasonable solution is:basing on holism,the formal and the empirical constrains,and taking together with the knowledge of the principle of simplicity,the knowledge of truth conditions will be suffice for understanding the meanings of sentences.