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Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The Philosophy of Grice

---- By J. L. S.

And since this club is meant to promote the _standard_ views of Grice, and the previous post may sound, "a bit too much", be ready to criticise me! Etc.

JLS
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4 comments:

  1. carganMarch 6, 2010 at 12:01 PM

    what IS the philosophy of Grice? Is there a personalist message or is this only a presentation of the continuing linguistic model building from at least the Middle Classical period of Eurasian philosophy? Perhaps there is something personalist to Grice's adventition or perhaps the response to Grice remains within the ordinary of language debate?

    How about that response? I note here Grice's apperance in the Philosophers Index at approximately 10 year intervals:

    1967 (about the first full count for the Philosopher's Index) the most frequently mentioned philosopher in the subject index
    1) Marx 141
    2) Aristotle 108
    3) Plato 70
    in the bottom tier: Grice with one mention (Philosophy of Meaning)

    1976
    1) Marx 250
    2) God 213
    3) Kant 135
    near the bottom with 3: Grice

    1986
    1)Marx 386
    2)Kant 230
    3) Hegel 192
    Grice has 5

    1996
    1) God 366
    2) Kant 270
    3) Plato 241
    Grice 2

    2006
    1) Kant 511
    2) Hegel 399
    3) Aristotle 382
    4) God 344
    Grice 6

    Grice 6

    ReplyDelete
  2. Luigi SperanzaMarch 6, 2010 at 12:25 PM

    Lovely. The type of statistical exegesis I love! Will comment at a later stage when I swallow and digest the stats! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. carganMarch 6, 2010 at 1:45 PM

    I might add that statistics of this sort can retrolead to perhaps later Medieval European library collections, and of course subsequent publishing lists. Linguistic, or logic-driven texts are not expected to rank high on these lists, so perhaps Grice reflects the standard range of such thinking. What is the range of topics that philosophers consider and where does language theory--broadly conceived--fit in? Here is my summary of topics from the 1996 Philosopher's Index

    [partial count, number of articles by subjects and % Philosopher’s Index 1996 ]
    Ethics ………………….2208……19.15% (Ethics 1772 + Ethics Committees 3+ Moral 9+Moral Agent 3+ Moral Argument 1+ Moral Consciousness 1 + Moral Development 13+ Moral Eduction 16+ Moral Judgment 2+ Moral Obligation 2+ Moral Philosophy 3+ Moral Psychology 2+ Moral Responsibility 3+ Moral Sense 2+ Moral Sentiment 1+ Moral Theory 40+ Moral Weakness 2+ Moralism 5+ Morality 329))
    Metaphysics………………1209 …….10.48%
    Religion……………………986 ……..8.55% (Religion 632+Religious 1+Religious Experience 2+ Religious ………………………………Language 1+Theodicy 17+ Theology142 + Christianity 224 + Christology 3)
    Logic………………………912………7.91%
    Aesthetics………………….805 ………..6.98% [Aesthetics 492 + Art 291 + Art Criticism 13 + Art Education 22 + …………………………………………………Art Theory 9]
    Politics………………………690 …….5.98% (Political Correctness 1+Political Part 1+Political Phil 269+
    ………………………………………….Political Science 11+ Political Theory 25+Politics 383)
    Philosophy…………………..604………….5.24%
    Language…………………….591………5.12% (Linguistics 71 + Language 515 + Language Game 3 + Adjective 1
    ………………………………………………..+ Body Language 1)
    Education…………………..471…………..4.08%
    Reason……………………..441 …………4.08% (Rationality 117+ Reason 209+ Reasoning 15)
    Truth………………………347 …………..3.01% (Truth 334+ Truth Condition 2+Truth Function 2+ Truth Value ……………………………………………3+ Truthlikeness 3)
    Psychology………………….287 …………2.49% (Psychiatry 19+Psychoanalysis 60+ Psychohistory 1+Psychologism 7+ Psychology 173+Psychopath 1+ Psychopathology 2+ Psychophysical 1+Psychophysics 1+Psychosis 2+Psychosocial 1+Psychotherapy 19)
    Medicine………………….227…………..1.97% (Medical Ethics 48+ Medication 1+ Medicine 178)
    Being ……………………..191…………..1.66%
    Belief………………………173…………1.5%
    Action……………………..173………….1.5%
    Phenomenology…………..165 …………1.43% (Phenomena 13+ Phenomenalism+ Phenomenology 140+ ………………………………………………..Phenomenon 11)
    Cognition……………….135 ……………1.17% (Cognition 72 + Cognitive 12 + Cognitive Psychology 1 + ……………………………………………..Cognitive Science 30 + Cognitivism 20)
    Consciousness………………..127……….1.1%
    Postmodernism……………..121……..…1.05% (Postmodernism 118+ Postmodernity 3)
    Causality…………………120…………..1.04%(Causality 21 + Causation 99)
    Physics…………………….117…………1.01%
    Culture…………………….111………….0.96%
    Business …………………..102 …………0.88% (Business 36 + Business Ethics 66)
    Pragmatism…………………77………….0.67%
    Algebra………………………74…………0.64%
    Analytic …………………….69…………0.598% (analysis 39 + analytic 30)
    Death………………………..61…………0.53%
    Poetry……………………..60………….0.52%
    Cosmology………………..58……………0.50%
    Buddhism…………………..53………….0.46%
    Taxonomy…………………..4……………0.03%
    Combinatory…………………3………….0.026%
    Psychic………………………1………….0.009%
    Total …………………….11,533


    Standardly, I believe, ethics ranks first, along with a mix of metaphysical and thetic subjects. Language falls in the bottom quarter, or perhaps, with logic if it is so ranked, in the middle. Grice could well be only a substitute name for just this sort of expected interest. Or: well why not? he might be an implicature of Historical Breakthru!

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  4. Luigi SperanzaMarch 6, 2010 at 4:21 PM

    Very good. At the Grice Club I have instituted what I call "Grice Studies". More about this in a special post. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete

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