Plato, Grice, and Platonism

by JLS for the GC

I would not be afraid to use 'platonic' -- rather than platonistic. I'm never sure what that suffix, in Greek -istikos, is supposed to add.

The Stanford Encyclopedia "Platonism in Mathematics" does not use 'platonic' OR 'platonistic' (just boring Platonism, instead) but cites from Rees in Edwards:

Rees, D.A., 1967, “Platonism and the platonic tradition”, in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Paul Edwards, ed., New York: Macmillan, vol. 5, 333–341.

--- Sure, that's hardly Frege.

Still, I have a nice book in my (swimming-pool) library: Pater, "Plato and Platonism", which has an otiose ring to it.

I have discussed Platonism in Grice elsewhere -- notably in the classics-L list -- but if I were to add something to the club would be Grice's excellent idea of the 'circle' -- in WoW.

What he says is exactly, almost literally, what Plato is saying in his Seventh Epistle, as I recall. The very same example. I think Thomas, in his double-volume edition, "Greek Mathematics" in the bilingual (Greek-English) Loeb Classical Edition makes a point about this, too.

This is Grice's later (as per 1980) embrace of Platonism:

"The whole idea of using expressions"

such as numbers?

"which are explained in terms of IDEAL limits
would seem to be to operate in this way. The ideal
limits might NOT be realizable in ANY DOMAIN,
or they might be realizable in certain domains
but not in the domain under consideration."

He goes on:

"For instance, the fact that they are not realizable
might be CONTINGENT, or it might be non-contingent"

--- mouthful for 'necessary'.

Grice goes on:

"It might be for one reason or another (let us pretend
for simplicity) that there cannot be in the sublunary
world"

--- I love that phrase. It's so Greek. hypo-selenikos.

----

"any things that are, strictly speaking, circular"

----- As when Proud Mother says,

"Bobby drew a circle".

Surely he didn't.

Grice goes on:

"Nevertheless, that does not prevent us from
applying the word 'circular'"

--- or knowing Bobby, "square"

---

"in the sublunary world, because we apply it
in virtue of approach to, or approximation
to, the ideal limit which is itself not
realized."

"All we need is a way of so to speak measuring
up actual particulars against the unrealizable
quality of the perfect particular"

--- e.g. "Marmaduke Bloggs, the climber of Mt. Everest on hands and knees" -- a perfect particular that is contingently not realizable.

Grice goes on:

"Indeed, maybe something like this

is what Plato went in for."


---- and never returned?

(I add the ref. to Austin because it just amazes me in the best sense the way philosophers of Grice's generation could be so familiar and ready to bring in the 'greats' like Aristotle and Plato like that, and with textual backing, too).