Differentiating language and meaning: A study of the problem of utterance in Wei Jin Xuanxue.

摘要

The problem of language and meaning is a topic widely discussed both in Chinese philosophy and western philosophy. This thesis is focused on the problem developed in the Wei-Jin intellectual history and its method is basically a philosophical analysis based on textual interpretation. The aim of this thesis is an attempt to give a consistent and comprehensive interpretation for the different theories of language and meaning in this period.;There are totally four parts in this thesis. The first part is an introduction of the whole picture of the topic, including literature reviews, and an outline of the theoretical perspective of the thesis. The second part is an investigation of the intellectual background of the issue. Based on textual evidence, the third part tries to give cogent analyses and consistent interpretations of the viewpoints of some major figures such as Xun Can, Wang Bi, and OuYang Jian who have elaborated different ideas on the relationship of language and meaning. The fourth part is the conclusion of the thesis. It demonstrates how the findings of the thesis can help in explaining the shift in the focus of philosophical discourse during the Han-Wei period and beyond. In addition, through some comparative studies, especially the comparison between the Western and Chinese philosophy of language, it also demonstrates how the problem can be understood in a much more sophisticated and significant way. In so doing, I think it can provide a new perspective of the subject for further study.