Chapman notes (her Palgrave book on Grice, p. 175):
"In a few concluding paragraphs [of 'Actions and Events'] Grice turns to what he sees as the essential link between action and freedom."
"The link is treated briefly and cautiously in this published work, but was in fact a major concern in his thinking about value."
"Grice's notes from the early 1980s show him
applying the familiar techniques of
'linguistic botanising' to the concept
of freedom. He jotted down phrases such as
'alcohol-free', 'free for lunch', 'free-wheeling',
and listed many possible definitions, including
'liberal', 'acting without restriction' and
'frank in conversation' (NOTE)."
"Richard Warner has commented that their
discussions in preparation for the third
Carus lecture were concerned almost exclusively
with freedom as a source of value, and that he
himself encouraged Grice to pursue this
line of inquiry rather than that of
creature construction as being the more
interesting and productive."
----
"Essentially, Grice saw in the nature of
action a means of justifying the problematic
concept of FREEDOM ..."
----
"Some actions are caused by influences
external to a body."
"Next, actions may have causes that
are internal to the body."
"a 'freely-moving' body."
----
"Then there are casuse that are
both internal and independently
motivated".
Willings.
---
"Finally, there is a stage
eclusive of human creatures
at which the creature's conception
of something as being for its
own good is SUFFICIENT to
initiate the creature in
performing an action."
Grice writes: "It is a this stage
that rational activity and intentions
appear on the scene".
----
Chapman notes: "The particular nature of
human action suggests the necessity of
freedom."
Recall that Chapman teaches English at Liverpool, so we can't say this is HER problem. But she guesses VERY RIGHT.
Chapman goes on:
"Humans act for reasons." These reasons "may be FREELY ADOPTED
for their own sake."
---
"In Grice's terms,
the particular type of freedom
demanded by the nature
of human action 'would ensure
that some actions may be represented
as directed to ends which are not merely MINE,
but which are FREELY ADOPTED
or pursued by me'".
----
"A consideration of action suggests the
necessity of freedom."
----
Chapman concludes: "The concept of freedom
may offer another version of the argument
that value exists because valuers exist."
----
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I may have mentioned this before, but the search function isn't working, so here goes.
ReplyDeleteThe recent movie "The Invention of Lying" raises the question of whether it is possible to tell the truth if one cannot lie. The protagonist "invents" lying one day in order to pay his rent. He goes to the bank, where the computers are down, and tells the teller (chew on that one, JL) that he has enough money to pay his rent and would like to withdraw it. Because no one had ever lied before about anything in this fictional place, the teller gives him the money, and, as they say, misadventures ensue.
I saw two interesting bits of subtlety in the writing. First, our hero has a very difficult time articulating to his friends what he has done. There was no such word as "true," because there was never any need for it. One said things that "are"; lying, as its inventor describes is, is "saying something that, er, ISN't."
The more interesting point relates to values. At one point, the hero chooses not to lie where lying would advance his romantic agenda. He has, until that point, never confronted the possibility that lying might be wrong. Many of his lies to date had involved fraud, but we are expected by the writers to forgive those in a way we would not forgive the one he decides not to tell if he had told it.
So, it turns out, our hero has not only invented lying, he has also invented honesty and discovered that it is the best policy. There is no value without freedom, and there is no freedom without alternatives.
Good. I'll see how it connects with freedom. It merits a post!
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