Grice and Strawson take a swim in the Pacific

--- by JLS
----- for the GC

AMONG THE HAPPIEST MOMENTS IN GRICE'S LIFE was when his former tutee, Sir Peter (Strawson) payed him a visit in 1971. They swam. This was at Irvine, in the Summer School. The result is Strawson's book, "Subject and predicate in logic and grammar" (Methuen, 1971 -- Strawson was not to let one moment pass).

Strawson provides the following diagram:

a
1 . . . . . . . . > 2

. .
. .
. . c
. .
. b .
. .
. .


3 4


Where 1, 2, 3, and 4 stand respectively for

individual-individual substantiation + complementary predication
substantiation in general + " "
logical subjection + logical predication
grammatical subjection in general + complementary pred.

and a, b, and c, stand for
intracategorial translogical generalisation
transcategorial intralogical generalisation
resultant generalisation

Strawson examines derived NON-SUBSTANTIANTING noun
phrases which are individually identifying and ASSOCIATED NON-SUBSTANTIATING noun phrases which are quantified, that both "include noun phrases presenting universals, those presenting propositions or facts, and, thirdly, those presenting nonsubstantial particulars.

The examples given by Strawson include the abstract nouns all of which
could have referential value, like concrete nouns, and figure as subject of
sentences in second-order predicate calculus.

The actual items Strawson cites in italic include:

"whiteness sincerity freedom bravery roundness fatness wisdom youth, being sincere, to be sincere, being young, to be young, smoking, running, dying, hope,
expectation, hesitation, error, forgiveness, to err, to forgive, to run, to
die, childhood, manhood, being a man, to be a man, a virtue, some virtues,
an activity, certain activities, some of his activities, that he left
early, that he would leave early, his leaving early, his having left early
our freedom is owed to their vigiliance his firmness is the only reason why
we are still alive. to have the hope that..., the belief that..., the
expectation that... the assertion that..., an expectation, a belief, a
hope, some hopes, many beliefs, the habit of smoking, the activity of
running, the colour blue, the quality of mercy, several colours, many
virtues, hope, fear, believe, expect, smile, run, walk, laugh, flush, move,
fall kiss, death, birth, attack, a hesitation, his hesitations, qualities,
characteristics, virtues, dispositions an event, an action, a kindness, his
kindnessese, many kindnesses.

Grice's kindness and intelligence are not
more & the world is poorer for their loss.

-- liberty, our freedom, freedoms,
laugh, his laugh, the same laugh, laughter.

Strawso discusses the problem with "abstract nouns":

Sincerity is dangeorus, Red means danger, Black is beautiful, Green is the
colour of amorous passion, No one doubts John's sincerity, Gold is
beautiful, Snow is white, Water is colourless".

Strawson is not saying that these items are basic.

Indeed, the idea of a second-order as basic was the platonic
"paradigm" that the "eidos" (shape, idea, meaning) of an object (or thing)
is prior (Eutyphro), and that each instance only becomes meaningful qua
instantiating the universal.

Thus the referring expression

"_this_ horse"

means something because we know already what "horse" means.

Or so Strawson thought. Chapman has now unburied some archival material from Grice where he kept all the notes on Categories that he worked on when back in Oxford in the 1940s. Genial Grice!