ABSTRACT
Davidson approaches the phenomenon of meaning with two key requirements: a theory of meaning for a particular language must in some sense state or display the meaning of each expression of the language, and it must explain how such a theory is empirically confirmed. It is not possible, according to Davidson, for the theory simply to take the form of assigning entities to expressions. Davidson’s proposal is that a theory of truth can be regarded as a theory of meaning. To explain how such a theory is empirically confirmed, it is sufficient to explain how to devise such a theory for a language that is new to us; such is Davidsonian radical interpretation. This leads to holism, the interdependence of belief and meaning, and the necessity of the use of the principle of charity.
