Thomson: Grice for Philosophers (For A Change!)

Thompson, Stephen L
Source:American Philosophers, 1950-2000 (Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 279), McHenry, Leemon and Dematteis, Philip B (eds), 71-80.
Publication Information:Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group; Farmington Hills MI: Thomson Learning; 2003.
Document Type:Contribution
Subjects:BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIOGRAPHY
Persons as Subjects:GRICE, H P
Abstract:This article summarizes Grice's chief arguments in the philosophy of language and the critical responses to them. Despite several important philosophical dissenters (for example, Schiffer), Grice's analysis of speaker meaning remains pivotal in a robust semantics which can accommodate language-use problems. I sketch that semantics here, including his largely ignored notion of an "m-intended effect," as well as his treatment of problems of inference in everyday reasoning. I also present his theory of conversational implicature as extending the semantics into the logical structure of talk, making plain the appeal of the program.