ABSTRACT
The principal effect in this vicinity of the rule-following considerations is to caution a believer against allowing his interpretation of a theory of meaning to aspire to a bogus objectivity. For the believer in objectivity, human opinion in no sense constitutes truth; truth is in no sense supervenient upon human opinion. Assuredly, there is truth in the idea that it is a community of assent which supplies the essential background against which alone it makes sense to think of individuals' responses as correct or incorrect. Some philosophers, of whom Davidson has been perhaps the most committed representative, have recommended work towards the construction of formal theories of meaning for natural languages as a fruitful way of approaching traditional problems in the philosophy of language. Whatever goals theories of meaning are to aspire to, there are no legitimate constraints on the form such theories should take, save those neglect of which would frustrate the achievement of those goals.
