Grice's Gadget

------ By J. L. S.

-------------IF THAT'S THE WORD, "gadget" I mean. We read (elsewhere) of Grice's gadget. This is Grice's _senior_. Herbert. Grice recalls him with affection (you would, wouldn't you) in "Reply to Richards", google.books:

"He was a dreadful businessman,
but a fine musician"


---

Since Grice's gadget _WAS_ the 'CONVENTIONAL' implicature, he (Grice Jr.) KNEW what he was meaning, 'but'.

Cfr. his long discussion in S. R. Bayne's site, "History of Analytic Philosophy" -- for Grice 1961 on

"She was poor but she was honest"

--- I once wrote to Potts in Leeds, "You've written stuff on Grice." "Close but no cigar", he replied, "He was, though, my tutor in Oxford, for a term or so. He was wholly _eccentric_ but he had a great reputation as a teacher".

"But"???

Now, what _was_ Grice Senior's gadget?

First his music:

The man is supposed to have been -- I "hate" the middle-classes, Evita screams in that script by Sir Tim Rice -- as he then wasn't --,

'wealthy middle-class'

-- but a 'businessman'?

Just because Herbert (as he was) invented and patented a gadget that went to be very fruitful (for the duration).

His music:

Herbert Grice ALWAYS played the fiddle. He would played at his greatest pleasure later, when Grice Junior (also called "Herbert" -- and our man) would join him on the piano (And Derek, Grice's little brother, in the cello).

Grice Senior was, you see, a concert violinist.

But before that?

Well, Grice (our man) was born in 1913. We don't know how old Grice Senior was then, but we assume his selfish genes were ready to reproduce, so he was "old enough" (and so we assume Mabel Fenton, the 50% of Grice's extended genotype).

In 1914, however, War broke (broke?). Grice was able to make LOADS (of fortune) vis a vis this little gadget he invented. It was made of metal, too, and blended in the best Black-Country things.

However, Society soon found out that, with Peace declared, the gadget had no further use.

Grice Senior failed to realise that. He tried to keep selling his thing. Nobody would buy it. Hence, "dreadful businessman"

So now you know!

I'm going to photograph the gadget and report, mabbe. Etc.