A Challenge to Contemporary Theories of Meaning from Russell's Gray's "Elegy" Argument

Chris Lubbers

Russell's Gray's "Elegy" Argument consists of five sub-arguments against what I call 'The Meaning Denotation Theory' ('MDT'), a theory in which the meanings of denoting phrases denote the denotations of those phrases. In the second sub-argument, Russell argues that on MDT, there is no way to refer to the meanings of denoting phrases except "through language." However, to play the fundamental logical role MDT attributes to them, meanings need to be language-independent entities, the contents of our judgments. Thus, Russell gives us good reason to reject MDT and similar neo-Fregean theories of meaning.