Single Idea 15668

[catalogued under 19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 3. Meaning as Speaker's Intention]

Full Idea

On Habermas's view, meanings are not determined by the speaker's relation to the external world, but by his relation to his interlocutors; meaning is essentially intersubjective.

Gist of Idea

Meaning is not fixed by a relation to the external world, but a relation to other speakers

Source

report of Jürgen Habermas (The Theory of Communicative Action [1981]) by James Gordon Finlayson - Habermas Ch.3:38

Book Reference

Finlayson,James G.: 'Habermas' [OUP 2005], p.38


A Reaction

This view is not the same as Grice's, but it is clearly much closer to Grice than to (say) the Frege/Davidson emphasis on truth-conditions. I'm not sure if I would know how to begin arbitrating between the two views!