Xueying Chen, Xiaohan Huo

(School of Philosophy, Zhengzhou University)

Abstract：

As is well known, due to Kripke's work, Frege's theory of meaning is widely considered invalid. But in fact, has Frege's theory really been decisively refuted by Kripke? This is an interesting and challenging question. This article argues that Kripke's typical refutation of the theory of meaning did not hit the key to the theory of meaning; Rather, Kripke set a rebuttal goal and attributed it to Frege, but the problem is that this envisioned goal cannot be properly attributed to Frege. This article explains why Kripke did not truly defeat Frege by reconstructing the argument for Frege's theory of meaning and commenting on Kripke's rebuttal. Based on this, this article argues that the concept of meaning can be defended, but it is not defended on the path of "neo Fregianism", but must be defended with the concept of "agreement" as the core.

Key Words：

meaning; Kripke; neo fregianism; convention