Lord Grice

Joseph Conrad wrote "Lord Jim"

We are discussing implicatures with J.

J writes, in "Oxford Town" ("An Oxford Town Set of Mind", to the tune of Billy Joel).

"yes JLS the T[oulmi]-schema has legalistic aspects, but not sure that quite describes it completely."

Yes. A lawyer is a lawyer is a lawyer. Kramer is an attorney. Each country is different. We shouldn't overuse 'legalistic'. My type of law is criminal law. I find all lawyers which are not 'criminal' rather too naive to be trusted, etc.

J:

"We might term it practical reason rather than the pure sort but he's still an evidentialist of a sort (ergo....philistine to some probably)."

Yes, lawyers -- especially criminal lawyers, which are lawyers which are criminal (alla Grice) use 'evidence' the worst: they can electrify a person with their misuse of 'evidence', so called. I use 'scare quotes' here for more than a literal reason.

J:

"It can be...upgraded, sort of--add the stats/data/evidence or whatever as backing."

As in

"She is a bitch".

---- I mean. Some 'propositions' need NO BACKING.

http://contingenciesblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/toulmin-toulmins-system-suggests-middle.html

you commented on it while back...whatever

---- Thanks for reminding us!

J then 'implicates' Conrad into the picture:

"Conrad's first language was polish but as with many poles he was also fluent in french (probably knew goiman and Russ. as well. GOIMAN?); and 3rd tongue Anglo. There may have been a slight....accent to his complex writing but quite beyond the usual victorian sap---few are the mortals who could pen tale such as Lord Jim or Heart of Darkness. It's a bit cliche now, but like, intense, somber, deep. Even Uncle Bertie admired Kount Conrad."

Yes, and Jorge-Luis Borges, the Argentine icon. I should KNOW about Borges, and I do.

Borges was born in Buenos Ayres, in a bad sort of area (which I love, though -- Tucuman street). When he was 2 years old, his family moved to a BORING part of town, on a street which is NOW called "Jorge Luis Borges".

Borges's father was half-English. His (Borges's father's) mother would FORBID Borges Sr. to read ANYTHING but English. Since books were expensive in the Buenos Aires of the day (early 1900), English books was ALL that J. L. Borges could read. Conrad, etc.

Oddly, Borges Jr, like Borges Sr., became 'blind'. It was a hereditary desease from the English MALE line of his family. His grandfather had also been 'blind' and indeed a case study in victorian England.

So, at a time of his life Borges was UNALLOWED to _read_ simpliciter, because he was blind. Therefore, he spent the rest of his life MEMORISING or reminiscing the books he had read as a child, which were the 'juvenile' books that were owned by his father. Notably "Lord Jim".

When Borges became "Professor of English Literature" at the University of Buenos Aires (his classes were a hoot, since people could _Cheat_ like that. He would not see (+< he was blind), his programme looked something like this:

BEOWULF: why it should be memorised by heart. What makes it sound so "rough". Anglo-Saxon metrics.

Piers Plowman. The silly story behind it.

Bill the Quill and his racial remarks in "Otello". Why Verdi set it to music.

Joseph Conrad.

Sherlock Holmes.

The Invisible man, by Wells, and why Wells is the greatest English living writer that ever lived.

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He also liked Chesterton, and a few others. I once attended an exhibit of all the books owned by Borges. They were displayed in a posh building on Arenales street. I was fascinated (if that's the word) to see that he owned a copy of "Bede" Cuthbert, "The adventures of Green". This was typical juvenile literature.

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So, yes, we love Conrad.

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Borges was once asked what book he would take to a desert island. He cheated and mentioned the 24-volume set of the 1911 Edinburgh edition of _Encyclopaedia Britannica_.

Ah well. I guess I would take WoW (Grice's Way of Words). But then I wonder what use would 'conversational implicature' have on a desert island...