Grice to the Mill

by JLS
for the GC

Grice thought he was being witty when he punned on his own surname ("Grice") and Mill's surname ("Mill") -- as Chapman has it in her penetrating biography of this Oxford philosopher (Grice):

"In conjunction with some work on the
place of of value in human nature drawing on,
but diverging from a number of previous
philosophers including John Stuart Mill,
he noted down the phrase: 'so as not
to be just Grice to your Mill...' [...]." (p. 8).

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So here's from wiki, as they may relate to Doctorow's points in Causation and Covariation:

I.

A B C D occur together with w x y z
A E F G occur together with w t u v
——————————————————
∴ A is (a) the cause,
---- (b) the effect, or
---- (c) part of the cause of w.

II.

A B C D occur together with w x y z
B C D occur together with x y z
——————————————————
∴ A is the cause, or the effect, or a part of the cause of w.

III.

A B C occur together with x y z
A D E occur together with x y w also B C occur with y z
——————————————————
∴ A is the cause, or the effect, or a part of the cause of x.

IV.

A B C occur together with x y z
B is known to be the cause of y
C is known to be the cause of z
——————————————————
∴ A is the cause or effect of x.

V.

A B C occur together with x y z
A± B C results in x± y z.
————————————————————
∴ A and x are causally connected.

Or not, of course!