How Flew Got Gricefied

From an online source,

http://mises.org/Schlarbaum/flew.asp

"When Flew resumed his studies after the war, he concentrated on philosophy."

"He was a [Cusberd] scholarship student at St. John's College [St. John's has this wrongly as 1942, as receiving 500 pounds sterling from them], Oxford, and graduated in 1947 with a coveted First in Greats (highest honors)." What's coveted about it?

"At the time Flew was a student."

"During the early years of his teaching career, a new style of philosophy became influential in Oxford."

"Ordinary-language (or linguistic) philosophy rejected the view championed by Bertrand Russell that philosophical problems should be addressed in a formalized language akin to mathematics."

But of course Grice, the dissident, never did.

"Instead, the new school paid great attention to the way concepts were used in ordinary language."

English in particular.

"Much unnecessary puzzlement, it was held, had resulted from philosophers' failures to attend to the conceptual grammar of the terms they used."

"The most famous proponent of this approach was the Oxford philosophers J. L. Austin"

-- who lead what Grice called his "kindergartens" (on Saturday mornings -- Flew attended).

"Flew enthusiastically embraced the new view
and was soon considered one of its leading
advocates."

"In 1955, he edited an influential anthology that
popularized the Oxford style of analysis: Logic
and Language, published by Blackwell."

"An example, taken from Flew's work, will show
linguistic philosophy in action."

"Suppose we are faced with the issue of, so-called, 'free will'".

"An ordinary language philosopher might begin
by noting that we commonly speak of acts,
rather than the will, as being free."

Actually, I speak of prisoners as being -- free -- usually on bail.

"He might then set forward the circumstances
in which we do say, when we do say, that an
act has been done freely."

Grice's favourite was:

"sugar-free"

----

"If someone objects that showing how
we use 'free' does not show whether we
really are free"

--- or better, if this or that man as freed --

"the objector will be accused of a
conceptual muddle."

-- and rightly so.

"No context has been presented for the
use of the notion of "real freedom.""

For 'real' is the silly word that wears the trousers.

"If we divorce the concept of freedom
from its customary background, we shall
get nowhere."

So, feel free.

"The influence of the later Wittgenstein on this
style of thought is at once apparent."

Perish the thought! This was people ATTACKING Witters! ("Some like Witters, but Moore's my man", was Austin's motto).

"Flew applied the new technique to religious questions."

-- and got almost excommunicated. Ah well. Oxford Debate forya.