"I trust Paul to be forebearing of my apostasy" (Schiffer in PGRICE, p. 205)

Dale who knows Schiffer _well_, writes, as a commentary to my rather irrelevant post blog on Lady Welby's 'animalistic' view of things (just teasing): "Words are not words!", writes:

"I just want to comment right now on one small part of what you said, though, about Grice and Schiffer. ... [Schiffer] had come out with criticism of what he calls "intention-based semantics" (IBS) a few years earlier than Remnants of Meaning, and had discussed this change with Grice quite congenially many times."

I like that. They are both genii!

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"I have this from [Schiffer] himself. [Schiffer] told me that when he was first considering publishing material critical of the Gricean program, he called Grice on the phone and told him that he might be coming out with a piece in which he ([Schiffer]) was changing his mind about the IBS program."

I loved that!

It reminds me of Chapman telling us that Grice would often telephone Strawson for this and that. Usually in the middle of the night, and with Lady Strawson picking it up!

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Dale goes on:

"I think this was just before the publication of "Compositional Semantics and Language Understanding" (1986) (which was published in Grandy and Warner, Philosophical Grounds of Rationality (1986)), maybe by a year or two."

Exactly. I think that became a chapter of his "Remnants", eventually.

Dale goes on:

"When [Schiffer] said this to Grice, Grice said to him, quite congenially, "I haven't exactly been standing still myself.""

Genial.

Thanks for the quote!

"[Schiffer] took this to mean that Grice was humorously suggesting that he didn't want to be beaten out in getting to problems with the program if there were such problems to be found."

Quite an implicature!

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I should re-read all of Schiffer's 'problem' and see what a Griceian or Grice could have said about it. I found it a bit overwhelming on the part of Grandy and Richard to present a tribute to Grice with all those critical essays! But then Grice found a way to avoid detailed criticism and stuck with a general commentary on Grandy/Warner's editorial. I think originally the point was to have Grice's replies. Grandy/Warner provide a summary of Schiffer's point, which I should re-read. When I read his "Remnants" I concentrated, logically, on a LATER chapter, which is all about utterer's meaning -- and basically on non-Gricean (Schifferian, Loar, etc.) accounts of convention-based meaning -- unGricean. Schiffer makes some commentary on the psychologically unreality of this or that Gricean construct. I may have my unpublication, which I may have shared with my thesis advisor, on this. "Schifferian puzzles", I think I entitled it. But again, it was not about the compositional thing but the later remarks on the 'later' stages of the programme.

Dale: "[Schiffer] is not aware of Grice ever having been bitter towards him or resentful of him. That really wasn't Grice's character at all, and the relationship between the two was always friendly. I just thought that that might be helpful."

Yes. I am relieved!
Thank you!

Indeed it is fascinating to have a little 'history of ideas' as per Schiffer. He impressed Grice so, as is obvious in those "Schifferian" moves that Grice credits as early as 1967 (WoW:V) notably, mainly springing from Strawson's early Theoria.

Indeed, I think (when I'm in a bad day, as it were) that Strawson was so convinced that he (himself) had refuted Grice (at a different level) that he had Grice published his "Meaning" so that, some years ago, for "Philosophical Review", too, Strawson could provide his 'rat-infested' example which had Grice refining the thing.

But that's the atmosphere in the Oxford of their days. Schiffer arrived in Oxford with a scholarship to complete his PhD under Strawson as he did. Deposited at the Bodleian as "Meaning".

By the time, with Austin dead, Grice would have kept the 'Saturday mornings', but I don't think Schiffer attended. He arrived one day too late, perhaps, for that. But I know of other students who did attend.

I mention this because Schiffer's advisor was indeed Strawson, rather than Grice; so one is careful about the occasions or opportunities Grice may have had to discuss those topis directly with Schiffer. It may well be that Schiffer learned of the detailed criticisms to his alleged counterexamples via the mimeo of "Logic and Conversation".

Note that when Grice delivered the William James he could only rely on "conversations" with Schiffer (and indeed Urmson, Stampe, and a few others -- Strawson he could quote in print -- for a change -- as Searle, in the Black collection).

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The biography of Schiffer is also fascinating. Born in Atlantic City, educated Oxford. Taught Arizona for years, and jogged at Manhattan's Central Park for longer years! I loved the way he would provide joint schedules (alla Oxford) with personalities such as Peacocke and Neale. And for keeping the literature live with his thoughtful references to such luminaries as Harman, and other authors that matter!