Grice on ∀ and ∃

Grice wrote

∀

and

∃

in that order, which he translated in WoW:ii

as

"all" (or 'every')

and "some" ("at least one")

He was fighting against Strawson -- Strawson was Grice's favourite Strawman --. He, Strawson, Grice's pupil, had gone the whole hog, and said that

∀

and

∃

_never_ translate as Grice had taught him they translated.

What irritated Grice was that Strawson had the cheek to make public that "Mr. H. P. Grice" had been his tutor in Logic!

Grice attacked back. In 1967, he refers to Strawson's odd idea that the horseshoe in logic is NOT Philo's material implication. Enough, Grice said!

He spent the whole second William James lecture promising he was going to talk of

∀

and

∃

but he never did!

In 1973, Horn gave a lecture with Grice.

I asked Horn, "Was Grice impressed? Did he follow your account that

∀

and

∃

form a scale

<∀,∃>

"Can't say", he remarked. "At least can't say he disagreed, either".

Cheers,

JLS