Reason And Meaning

Starting from the distinguishing between natural meaning and non-natural meaning ,Paul Grice ,based on the utterer's intention ,began establishing his theory of meaning ,which described by P.F. Strawson as the"communication–intention"mode of meaning explanation. In contrast to modern logical semantical philosophy , which was set up by G. Frege, the father of analytic philosophy ,and developed by former L. wittgenstein as well as the logic empiricists , whose theory of meaning emphasizes the meaning of a proposition . Grice'meaning explanation mode maintains that no meaning can be explained without its reference to communication ,also he contends that sentence meaning and word meaning can be analyzed in terms of what utterers mean. Utterer's meaning ,in turn ,can be analyzed without semantic remainder in terms of utterers having certain intentions . Conversational implicature , a certain subclass of nonconverntional implicatures ,being essentially connected with certain general features of discouse, its presence must be capable of being worked out and thus being closely related to common reasoning.The paper thinks the mode is reasonable in that it points to the core nature of communication , which is a rational activity based on the Cooperative Principle . After exploring into Grice's views on reason and reasoning , the author ,following Richard Warner ,editor of Aspects of Reason ,who wrote"Grice on Reasons and Rationality"as the book introduction , argues that , it is reason ,especially the justificatory reason or personal reason ,that underlies Grice's theory of meaning .And the author extends her argument from several angles ,with an aim to seeking the explanatory link .In the meanwhile ,the author discusses important innovation made by Paul Grice upon the traditional understanding of reason and reasoning .