We Are Not Computers, Grice Reminds Us

In this age of industrial logics -- I have just received from a list a CFP on "From philosophical to industrial logics", I am reminded of my polemic with H. D. White, elsewhere. I keep this "Preliminary Valediction" by Grice -- in the H. P. Grice Collection -- close to my heart, and my PC!

In what Chapman judges possibly the longest utterance ever uttered by a philosopher, Grice claims:

"Indeed it seems to me that not merely is such argument required, but it is specially required in the current AGE OF TECHNOLOGY, when intuition and ordinary forms of speech and thought are ALL TOO OFTEN forgotten or despised, when the appearance of the vernacular serves only too often merely as agap-sign to be replaced as soon as possibleby JARGON, and when many researchers not only believe that WE ARE COMPUTERS, but would be gravely disappointed should it turn out that we are, after all, NOT COMPUTERS; is not a purely mechanical existence not only all we do have, but also all we should want to have?"

Answers on a postcard to the GriceClub.blogspot.

Cheers,

JL