"Heidegger is the greatest living philosopher" (Was: Das Nichts selbst nichtet)

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


---- In "Prolegomena" to WoW:i, Grice wrote:


"Heidegger is the greatest living philosopher"


--- did he _mean_ it?

Well, the utterance is there alright, or all right, as I may prefer.

Grice is printing a 1967 handwritten note. He Knew, by 1988, when he sent the thing to Harvard U. P., that Heidegger had been dead for some years.

Harvard U. Press.
Harvard MA 3892

Dear Prof. Grice

Are we to turn your 'is' into 'was'?

---

"Surely, it would be _contradictory_," he protested, "of me, to say that Heidegger _was_ the greatest living philosopher. I suggest you print as I wrote, and communicate back only with items of substance. Good night".