Grice's constructivism

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

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KRAMER in comment to "Grice and Grice on contract and contract":

"[T]he offer and acceptance that create the
moral contract are wholly constructive. They
did not really happen. But if we pretend they did, we
can treat morality as if it were a contract. Or, as
a friend of mine says, if we had some ham, we could
have ham and eggs, if we had some eggs."

Excellent. This note to thanks Kramer for pointing to me that lovely use of 'construct' which relates specifically to Grice's idea of 'deeming' (I see Grice used the example of the dog deemed a cat at least twice: in "Meaning Revisited" (1982) and "Actions and Events" (1986)).

Grice was, further, a serious constructivist!

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I will expand on 'quasi-contracts', that Kramer goes on to mention, and I would also point to the scare-quoting device:

Kramer:

"[T]he offer and acceptance that create
the moral contract"

-- or perhaps, as I may prefer on a Tuesday, the moral 'contract' --

"are wholly constructive. They did not really happen. But
if we pretend they did, we can treat morality
as if it were a contract."

In her book, "How the laws of physics lie" and elsewhere (notably in her reprint of a chapter from that book in the Grice festschrift) Nancy Cartwright reminisces how she learned it all not from Otto W, and his philosophy of 'als ob', but from a seminar by Grice on 'fictions' as part of the Hands across the Bay (at Stanford!).

Kramer:

"Or, as a friend of mine says, if we had some ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had some eggs."

I like your friend, and I like you!