Abstract

I shall begin with two theses neither of which is characterized by novelity or irrefutability. The first one is that semantic investigations would enable the concretization of the theory of knowledge. The necessity for semantic analysis in the concretization of fundamental epistemological problems and their interrelation is brought out in titles like “Meaning and Truth”, “Truth and Meaning”, “Semantics and Logic”, which have all found a place in the literature. The second thesis is that two trends are usually distinguished in semantic theory – the theory of reference and the theory of meaning. The theory of reference involves the relation between a sign and the object designated by it. Here problems like denotation, truthfulness, naming, extension, completeness, and logical sequence are analyzed. In the theory of meaning the relation between a sign and the content expressed by it is investigated. Problems like meaning, synonymity, intensional context find their place here. In what follows I shall try to show the interrelation between these two theses and some semantic paradoxes, their essence, and the attempts to resolve them