第18章 「批評に対する若干の返答」その3_外延的指示についてのストローソン氏の見解 03
これら全て(の主張)は正しいかも知れないし、正しくないかも知れない。しかし、いずれにせよ、ストローソン氏はそれを自身の発明した理論であるかのように述べるべきではない。それに反して、- もしかすると彼は私の言ったことの主旨(purport)を理解しなかったのかも知れないが- 実際は、私は彼がこの論文を執筆する前に既にそれについて述べているのである。私が既にあげた理由により、ストローソン氏が自我中心性を記述の問題とをを結びつけるは全くの誤まっていると考えるので、私はこれ以上、自我中心性については述べないことにしよう。 |
Chapter 18,n.3: Mr Strawson on referring, n.3I must refer, also, to the case that I discuss (page 101 ff.) in which I am walking with a friend on a dark night. We lose touch with each other and he calls ‘Where are you?' and I reply 'Here I am !' It is of the essence of a scientific account of the world to reduce to a minimum the egocentric element in an assertion, but success in this attempt is a matter of degree, and is never complete where empirical material is concerned. This is due to the fact that the meanings of all empirical words depend ultimately upon ostensive definitions, that ostensive definitions depend upon experience, and that experience is egocentric. We can, however, by means of egocentric words, describe something which is not egocentric; it is this that enables us to use a common language.All this may be right or wrong, but, whichever it is, Mr Strawson should not expound it as if it were a theory that he had invented, whereas, in fact, I had set it forth before he wrote, though perhaps he did not grasp the purport of what I said. I shall say no more about egocentricity since, for the reasons I have already given, I think Mr Strawson completely mistaken in connecting it with the problem of descriptions. |