The Border Wars

---- by J. L. Speranza
------- for the Grice Circle

---- JONES, this blog, "Strand 5", writes:

"I am suggesting this third initial
characterisation
3. the meaning of the sentence asserted /
the significance of its being asserted
(in the particular context and manner)
and I note that when put this way, the distinction seems
more likely to correspond to that between semantics and
pragmatics."

Excellent.

This reminds me of K. Turner who edited that wonderful book, -- very academic -- the title escapes me -- that includes Horn crediting me in his "Border Wars".

For Horn there are 'border wars' and 'border wars'.

By the first he means "Berwick-upon-Tweed". These were border wars. On the other hand, there's post-Griceans!

People are now calling them post-post-Griceans on the analogy with 'neo-neo-Griceans'.

Grice NEVER used 'semantic-pragmatic distinction'. But it's the must-must of today's academia! (Pity the students!).

So, beware that

i. Grice disliked the 'explicit' as otiose, redundant, and unimaginative, and lacking philosophical import when discussing the lexeme 'mean' that he was interested in.

ii. Grice disliked Bar-Hillel's idea of pragmatics as the 'dust bin' (I forget what's dust-bin in Israeli).

---

For Bar-Hillel, who thought he knew about Carnap (both were born in German-speaking countries: Carnap in Germany, Yoshua Bar-Hillel in the Vienna of my Dreams -- Bar-Hillel then studied with Carnap in "Shicago" (I cannot work myself to write 'ch' when 'sh' is pronounced. This is Amerindian). And I trust they conversed in German (for Carnap would NOT know Israeli, and I would NOT be surprised if Bar-Hillel's Israeli had a twang to it).

----

Bar-Hillel thinks of pragmatics (UNLIKE good ol' Carnap) as 'waste-paper basket'.

On the other hand, Grice never threw away one paper. He would write on overleaves of 'statements of account's from banks. He would use a very idiosyncratic inventory and filing system. Chapman reports Mrs. Grice as complaining, "Let me help you there, Paul. Your desk does look like a mess." He would get pretty anger, "Of course I know exactly where everything is. Just don't touch it."

On Grice's death, Mrs. Grice found some of his unpublications under their bed. They are all safely deposited in "The Grice Collection."

Carnap was a fellow kindred spirit there. When the University of California, which acquired Grice Papers, also ACQUIRED (in Grice's case, via donation by trustees) the Carnap papers, they engaged, as Bancroft has not -- a 'reader'. He had to go through the stuff and report:

"The correspondence between Professor Carnap and Bar-Hillel seems to have been devoured, partially, by a rat (or two)."

So I cannot see how Bar-Hillel can be so cruel when he speaks of pragmatics as the waste-paper basket of diddly!