How clever language is!

"H. P. Grice once said, when he and I had been looking at some parts of the
vocabulary of perception, 'How _clever_ langauge is!' We found that it made
_for_ us some remarkably ingenious distinctions and assimilations". GJ
Warnock.

In 1995, Sir GJ Warnock, one of the most prominent members of the so-called
"Oxford school of ordinary language philosophy" passed. He will be fondly
remembered by Griceans all over, since it was Sir Geoff who put in print
one of H. P. Grice's cleverest remarks, "how clever language is!" in
'Saturday Morning Meetings'.

Who _was_ Sir Geoffrey?

Geoffrey James Warnock was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, on Aug. 16
1923. He held a MA with New College, in 1952, and lived in 9 Chadlington
Rd, Oxford -- also in Wiltshire, where he passed. He was Vice-Chancelor of
Oxford, and a fellow of Magdalen, and married to a Cambridge fellow ("for
she's a very good fellow, for she's a very good fellow...") Dame Mary
Warnock, Mistress of Girton (born Winchester, April 14 1924).

I once entertained the idea that Sir Geoff could have been Grice's tutee,
since the man-1 quotes the man-2, but I'm wrong. Mehta says that Warnock's
tutor was a Roosian by the name of Sir Isaiah Berlin.

He was visiting prof of philosophy at Princeton, 1962 (thus reads the
biographical fiche in P. Edwards, The Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, to which
he contributed), and principal of Hertford, Oxford -- thus reads the blurb
of his Blackwell book. Acclaimed editor of the best _series_ in philosophy
ever: the _Oxford Readings in Philosophy_ which gave Grice to a wider
audience: his own edited _The Philosophy of Perception_ reprints Grice's
'The Causal Theory of Perception' and remains to this day the best reprint,
since Grice excluded bits of this in his own _Studies in the Way of Words_.
Also, J R Searle's The Philosophy of Language (for the same series) repr.
Grice's 'Utterer's meaning, sentence meaning, and word meaning'. And
Strawson's _Philosophical Logic_ repr. Grice's 'Meaning'.

His place was indeed, as per philosophy, "Magdalen" -- as Grice's was St
John's, and he was Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy there.

The Blackwell book has a nice picture of the man -- wearing blacktie.

His publications include:

1951. Discussion: empirical propositions and
hypothetical statements. Mind 60.
Repr. in 1983.
1951. Metaphysics in logic. PAS.
Repr. in AGJ Flew, (revised version), in
ESSAYS IN CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS, selected & ed. by Flew.
Macmillan. discusses things like
(1) Leeds is a city.
(2) Something is a city.
('Valhalla is mythological' -- cfr. Grice on 'Vacuous Names' --,
'Appendicitis is painful', '17 is a prime number', 'There are tigers in
Africa', 'Tigers (still) exist', There are such things as tigers. Sections
include, "Existential quantification', 'Designation'. 'Fragmentation of
sentences', 'what is there?'.
1952. Reducibility. PAS 16.
Symposium with RB Braithwaite and JF Thomson.
1953. BERKELEY. Penguin.
1953. Every event has a cause.
In Flew, Logic & Language, Blackwell.
repr 1983.
discusses:
"there are indetectable tigers in the garden" (p.66).
Warnock's thesis is that the causation law is _vacuous_ yet
not really tautological! (it _purports_ to say something!)
1954. Perception. Hitherto unpublished. Now in 1983.
"the *starting point* of a LONG SERIES of seminars
given over the next couple of years by HP Grice
and me".
Recollected by Grice in PGRICE, ed. R Grandy, OUP.
1955. Seeing. PAS 55.
"I certainly discussed it with Grice, and read to one
of our seminars".
Repr RJ Swartz, Perceiving, sensing & knowing.
NY Doubleday, 1965. Contains a "postcript" 1963 (one page).
cited by A. White, 'the causal theory of perception'
(co-symposiast with Grice).
Repr in 1983.
Discussion of things like
(1) I see the cat is on the mat
conversational implicature: the cat _is_ on the mat.
since "see" is _factive.
1951. Verification and the use of language.
RIP, vol. 5.
Repr in "a slightly revised version" in P. Edwards &
A. Pap, _A mn intro to philosophy_, Macmillan.
1956. Analysis and imagination. In AJ Ayer,
_The revolution in philosophy_.
1958. ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY SINCE 1900.
OUP. Home University Library. OUPOPUS
Contents:
Preface.
1. The point of departure
2. G E Moore
3. Bertrand Russell.
4. Logical positivism
5. First retrospect
6. Wittgenstein:
1. language.
2. logical atomism
3. philosophical problems
4. philosophical paradox
7. categories and dilemmas
8. a qualification
9. second retrospect
10. LOGIC
11. metaphysics
12. New questions
13. Philosophy and belief
Short bibliography
Index.
Authors cited by Warnock
Austin JL, 147-54, 155, 157
Grice HP, 154
Hampshire SN 102n
Ryle G 94-106, 107, 114, 115, 171-2
Strawson PF 135, 154-7
Urmson JO viii, 39n
Subject index includes:
language, ordinary, 21-3, 129-35, 149-52
referring.
(reviewed by the Times Lit. Suppl. The Times, and the Higher Education
Journal).
1958. The philosophy of Wittgenstein. In Klibansky.
1960. JL Austin. With JO Urmson. Mind 70. Repr. in Fann.
1961. & JO Urmson.
1961. Foreword to JL Austin, _Sense & Sensibilia_. OUP.
1962. Claims to knowledge. PAS.
Repr. 1983.
First piece of symp. with LJ Cohen (of Queen's)
My, it seems Cohen opposed the whole lot.
Wrote against Austin, Grice (cited by Levinson) and now
I see, Warnock, too.
1963. Determinism. With PF Strawson & JF Thomson,
In Pears.
1963. Actions and events.
In DF Pears, FREEDOM OF THE WILL.
1964. A problem about truth.
In G. Pitcher, _Truth_, Prentice Hall.
(contains 'A reply' by PF Strawson).
Warnock defends Austin.
Repr in 1983.
1964. Truth and correspondence. In Rollins.
Warnock refers to correspondence theories in
"Truth or Bristol revisited".
cfr. Grice's _Studies_ for his preference,
against Strawson, for a correspondence theory
of truth, too.
1965. JL Austin, PBA 49.
1966. The primacy of practical reason. (on Kant)
British Academy D. Hicks lecture in
the history of philosophy (PBA, vol. 52) and
in Warnock 1983.
repr. in Strawson 1968
1967. REASON. In Edwards.
It's interesting Grice has this book now,
_Aspects of Reason_. OUP.
1967. Rev. Cornforth 1965. Mind 76
(I believe this has to do with Sir Geoff's politics.
Uschanov's online essay may help here).
1967. Contemporary Moral Philosophy.
Cited by Strawson, 1970.
1967. The philosophy of perception. Ed. Oxford Readings in Philosophy.
Includes Grice's 'Causal theory of perception'.
He refers to Grice's essay as "exceedingly ingenious and
resourceful contribution" (p.5).
1968. Ethics and language. Royal Institute of Philsophy Lecture,
in GNA Vesey (Oxford), _The Human Agent_. Macmillan.
Repr. 1983.
1969. Essay to Olshewksy. With a biographical note.
1970. Words and sentences. in OP Wood (of Hereford, Oxford),
& GW Pitcher, _Ryle_ Doubleday.
Repr 1983.
1971. On what is seen. In FN Sibley, Perception: a philosophical
symposium. Metheun. Orginally delivered to colloquium
on perception at Lancaster. Reply by DM Taylor (of UKent/Canterbury)
1971. The object of morality. OUP
cites: Austin, Hare, Sainsbury RM (p.x), DW Stampe
(p.x -- he was his tutee) deals with what Grice would
have as the conversational maxim of "quality":
be trustworthiness, within a "co-operative" framework.
1971. Review of WAISMANN 1968. PR
1971. Hare on meaning and speech acts. PR 80
1973. Rev. Rundle 1972. PQ 23.
1973. Saturday mornings.
"I believe that the notion of performative utterance has proved
fertile at least in part because of its provoking instability".
In Warnock et al,
_Essays on Austin_ OUP. Includes 'Foreword' by Warnock.
repr 1983 under 'historical'.
essays include:
Berlin, Austin and the early beginnings of oxford philosophy
(Berlin was Warnock's tutor. Berlin quotes Grice
as belonging to the _first_ play group meeting at Berlin's
room in All Souls way back before the War with The Germans).
Pitcher, Warnock, Strawson, Warnock, Pears (Ifs and cans, quotes
Grice) Searle and Forguson.
1973. Truth or Bristol revisited. PAS.
Symposium with CJF Williams.
(Joint session of A.S. and Mind Assoc.).
Repr 1983. dicusses
(1) There are badgers at the bottom of my garden (p.88)
1973. Some types of performative utterance. In Warnock
Repr. 1983.
Cited by M Coulthard, _Discourse Analysis_, Longman.
1976. Imperatives and meaning. In H D Lewis,
Contemporary British Philosophy. Unwin.
Repr 1983. Discusses Schiffer's OUP book.
1979. A question about illocutions. Philosophia:
Special issue: A tribute to Sir P. F. Strawson.
vol. 10. Repr. in 1983.
Strawson contributed with "Austin on locutionary
meaning" to Warnock's Essays on JL Austin.
Warnock quotes Holdcroft 1978.
1979. A reply to Hare. In DB Cochrane et al,
_The domain of moral education_, Paulist Press.
repr in 1983. Hare offered his 'Rejoinder'.
1980. Comments on Frankena. Monist 63. Repr in part in 1983.
1983. MORALITY & LANGUAGE. Blackwell
'Introduction'. Cites Grice.
and refers to his joint seminars on perception.
Headings:
Perception and other matters:
1. Warnock 1951
2. Perception.
3. Seeing
4. Claims to knowledge.
5. Every event has a cause.
Part II: some questions about language.
6. A problem about truth.
7. Truth or Bristol revisited
8. words and sentences
9. some types of performative utterance
10. imperatives and meaning.
11. a question about illocutions.
Part III Ethics
12. ethics and language
13. comments on Frankena
14. morality and language.
IV Historical
15. The primacy of practical reason.
16. Liberty
17. Saturday mornings.
(it's odd I'm writing this on an otherwise 'lazy'
Sunday morning.
Authors cited:
Austin JL
Flew AGN
Grice HP -- 5, 29n, 205, 208n, 212.
Hampshire SN
Hare RM
Hart HLA
Nowell-Smith PH
Paul GA
Pears DF
Strawson PF
Wood OP
---
. Kant. In O'Connor
. Review of Ryle 1971. Times LS.
. Rev Wisdom 1953. Mind.
. concept, idea, qualities, truth. In E. Britannica.
SECONDARY BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Whiteley CH. GJ Warnock on ordinary language. Mind 1959.

Incidentally, my remark re: Austin's public lectures being "demanding"
(viewing that R. Hall attended both Austin/Grice and Grice/Warnock's
seminars) is from Warnock: "It is important to note that 'saturday
mornings' were _not_ public occasions. Collaboration with Austin in giving
_public_ classes was -- as Grice can testify -- an altogether flintier
experience" (1983:208-- the quote at the beginning of this post being from
same, p.212). Grice did _not_ testify. On the contrary, he _loved_ those
public lectures, too (I guess).
==

By the time Grice was serious with emphysema he was considering a "Warnock retrospective" that would include all that you always wanted to know about the visum of a cow but were afraid to ask. Vide "Visum of a cow", this blog.

A nice photo of Warnock with wife by Pyle online.
A nice video fo Warnock explaining Kant online.