Language, History and Philosophy — On the Methodology of Quentin Skinner
Author: Yu-Kang Liang
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
One of the most prominent developments in 20 th century western philosophywas the outburst of analytical philosophy. Not only can we find its influence withinthe fields of linguistic analysis, the philosophy of science and the philosophy of themind, we can also see its impact in the study of political philosophy. QuentinSkinner stands out as one of the most important theorists. Besides making clear theimplication of speech-act theory in Skinner’s methodology, the purpose of thisarticle is to respond to a common critique of Skinner: namely that Skinner seems tooveremphasize the importance of the author’s intention to restore the meaning oftexts, since this accentuation of intention leads to a seemingly unacceptableconclusion that the literal meaning of the texts itself is non-essential. The author ofthis article, however, tries to argue that this critique is based on a misunderstandingof Skinner’s idea. Since, for Skinner, meaning is a cluster concept which containsseveral levels of significance, it would be far from enough to merely focus on theliteral meaning of any text. To fully understand a work, it is necessarily to take intoaccount the author’s intention.