A Study Of The Prior-Asheim Problem

The Prior-Asheim problem is how to identify objects of thought or belief. It touches the core of the theory of reference, and the key point lies in the treatment of non-existing objects. As for the Prior-Asheim problem, there are two main kinds of solutions up to now. One is externalism which relies on certain extra-mental circumstances, and the other is internalism which relies on purely intentional objects. Due to the lack of understanding of self-reference and some other important concepts, the externalism will lead to some serious consequences, such as thoughts of limited accessibility. Therefore it can’t become the rational choice to solve the problem. Internalism which relies on purely intentional objects is the sublation of the existing approaches. It creatively starts from the quantization theory of modern logic, and based on the necessity of real reference terms it tries to deal with the problem by a combination of the core concept of "intentionality", which conforms to the intentional approach of the reference theory. Internalism which relies on purely intentional objects has shown a strong function of problem-solving, but at the same time, the core concept of purely intentional objects itself seems to still having some difficulties. In order to completely and successfully solve the Prior-Asheim problem, it is imperative to find a new perspective of solving problems. Faced with the demands of the full realization of "actionism turn" in philosophy, the methodology of logical actionism provides a new way to solve the Prior-Asheim problem. Through the action triangle, we can clearly see that the methodology of logical actionism rigidly divides the world faced by the subject of cognition and action into object realm, thought realm and language realm, which are very different. What’s more, it emphasizes the media function of objective action, conscious action and speech action between the subject and the "three realms", and also shows the interactive mechanism of the three kind of actions. Based on the discrimination of the realm of some categories, especially "intension and extension", "sense and reference", "object" and so on, the true face of the Prior-Asheim problem has also been clarified. The various efforts of the methodology of logical actionism indicate that the solution of the problem can be "Semi-Descriptive Theory", which is based on the action chain. It is not an isolated issue to study the generation and clarification of the Prior-Asheim problem, but a fundamental problem existing in many fields such as the philosophy of logic, the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind. So the Prior-Asheim problem is worthy of further studying.