Free will and ordinary language

by JLS
for the GC


I am pleased R. O. Doyle writes of Taylor at I-Phi

"Taylor wrote an important article entitled "Fatalism" in The Philosophical Review, v. 71, n. 1, 1962. It is important because it shows how a few important presuppositions, ones commonly accepted by academic philosophers, imply that determinism is true. This is most ironic, because anyone familiar with Taylor's work would know that this was not his position. Nevertheless, several philosophers tried to show that Taylor's arguments in "Fatalism" were invalid. Taylor's article is still widely anthologized, with the result that many philosophers today regard Taylor as a fatalist!"

Perhaps the most interesting of his critics is J. Saunders in his "Fatalism and ordinary language". A section of that essay is entitled, 5. "Some features of ordinary language that Taylor would 'reform'" ----- this was anathema for Grice or Austin! ---- The first feature is subtitled, "5a. Free will and compulsion."
----- The issue is relevant today vis a vis those attempts of reconciling 'folk-psychology' with 'ordinary language' via polls and such!

Available online at

http://books.google.com/books?id=-ocpAl_Pgm0C&pg=PA111&lpg=PA111&dq=%22Fatalism+and+Ordinary+Language%22+Saunders&source=bl&ots=zwRUZ_TeVt&sig=YwNeJKwQa8D54grYhBt4z9TqQ5U&hl=en&ei=F_-wTe7XJsOitgfd-bT8Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22Fatalism%20and%20Ordinary%20Language%22%20Saunders&f=fals