Speranza on Garner on Mackay on Grice

RICHARD T. GARNER has lots of Griceian interests.

His education includes B.A., Ohio University, 1958, Philosophy major: English minor
M.A., Pennsylvania State University, 1960, Philosophy major; English minor, Thesis: John Dewey’s Aesthetics, Ph.D., University of Michigan, December, 1965. Dissertation: An Examination of the Logic of Arguments Given in the Field of Value, with Special Attention to Reason-giving in Aesthetics. TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Taught logic at Pennsylvania State, Summer, 1959 Teaching Fellow, University of Michigan, 1960-61 Pre-Doctoral Instructor, University of Michigan, 1961-63 Instructor, The Ohio State University, 1963-1964 Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University, 1964-1967 Associate Professor, The Ohio State University, 1967-1973
Associate Professor, University of Cincinnati, Summer, 1969 Associate Professor, The Ohio State University, Dept. of Linguistics, Summer, 1970 Professor, The Ohio State University, 1973-1995 Visiting Associate Professor, The University of Illinois, Autumn, 1975 Instructor of English, Beijing University, Summer, 1980 Emeritus Professor, The Ohio State University, 1995-present Visiting Lecturer, Rutgers University. 2000-2008

PUBLICATIONS
A. Books
(with B. Rosen, co-author): Moral Philosophy: A Systematic Introduction to Normative Ethics and Meta-Ethics. The Macmillan Co., 1967, 335 pp.
(with A. Oldenquist, co-editor): Society and the Individual. Wadsworth, 1989.
Beyond Morality. Temple University Press, 1994.

B. Papers
1. “Beardsley, Firth, and the Ideal Observer Theory,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, June, 1967.
2. “Austin on Entailment,” The Philosophical Quarterly, August, 1968.
3. “Utterances and Acts in the Philosophy of J.L. Austin,” Nous, August, 1968.
4. “Some Remarks on Act Utilitarianism,” Mind, January, 1969.
5. “The Use of Proper Names and Definite Descriptions,” The Philosophical Quarterly, July, 1969.
6. “A Non-Paradoxical Paradox,” The Philosophical Review, April, 1969.
7. “Caton on Epistemic Qualifiers,” Studies in Philosophical Linguistics, Vol. 1 (ed. William Todd), 1969.
8. “Decisions and Justification in the Moral Philosophy of R.M. Hare,” The Personalist, Spring, 1970.
9. “Lemmon on Sentences, Statements, and Propositions,” Analysis, January, 1970.
10. “Non-referring Uses of Proper Names,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 1970.
11. “Some Doubts about Illocutionary Negation,” Analysis, December, 1970.
12. “Presupposition in Philosophy and Linguistics,” in Studies in Linguistic Semantics (ed. D.T. Langendoen), 1971.
13. “On Saying What is True,” Nous, September, 1972.

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MacKay and Grice on Meaning,” Mind, July, 1974.
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15. “ ‘Meaning’ ’’, in Implication and Inference in Syntax and Semantics, (ed. Morgan and Cole) 1975.

16. “Ethics,” in Encyclopedia Americana, 1975.

17. “Chisholm on Socratic Interrogation,” Philosophia, March, 1977.

18. “Skepticism, Ordinary Language, and Zen Buddhism”, Philosophy East and West, April, 1977.

19. “The Deconstruction of the Mirror and other Heresies: Ch’an and Taoism as Abnormal Discourse,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy,1985.

20. “Hemispheric Imperialism,” in Seymour Kleinman (ed.) The Mind and Body of East and West. Human Kinetics Publishers: Champaign, Ill. 1985.

21. (with Andrew Oldenquist), Introduction to Society and the Individual, 1989.

22. “On the Genuine Queerness of Moral Properties and Facts,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy, June 1990.

23. “Are Convenient Fictions Harmful to your Health?”, Philosophy East and West, January 1993.

24. “Amoralism,” in Martin and Kolak, Exploring Philosophy (3rd Edition), Wadsworth, 1995.

25. “Blocker on the Definition of Primitive Art,” part of a symposium on Gene Blocker’s The Aesthetics of Primitive Art, The Journal of Aesthetic Education, Fall, 1995.

26. “C. L. Stevenson,” Supplement to The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Macmillan, 1996.

27. “Non-descriptivism,” Supplement to The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Macmillan, 1996.

28. “Abolishing Morality,” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, November, 2007. This also appeared in A World Without Values: Essays on John Mackie’s Moral Error Theory (Richard Joyce and Simon Kirchin, eds)., Springer, 2010.

29. “Morality: The Final Delusion?” Philosophy Now, Jan/Feb, 2011.

C. Reviews

1. Kempson, Presupposition and the Delimitation of Semantics. Language, 1977

2. Harder and Kock, The Theory of Presupposition Failure. Language, 1978

3. Harman, The Nature of Morality. Teaching Philosophy, 1979

4. Chakrabarti, The Logic of Gotoma. Journal of Religious Studies 1980

5. Brody, Ethics and its Applications. Teaching Philosophy 1985

6. Ashmore, Building a Moral System. Teaching Philosophy 1987

7. Sumner, The Moral Foundations of Rights. Teaching Philosophy, 1989

8. Cortese, Ethnic Ethics. Teaching Philosophy, 1992

9. Kalupahana, et. al., Buddhist Thought and Ritual. Teaching Philosophy,

1993

10. Nyberg, The Varnished Truth, Ethics, 1994.

11. Ivanhoe, Confucian Moral Self-cultivation. Philosophy East and West, 1999.

PRESENTATIONS

1. Comment on a paper on the phenomenology of sound at the Ohio Philosophical Association Meeting, April, 1968.

2. Comment on a paper by Charles Caton at the University of Cincinnati, June, 1968 (Published as ARTICLE 7).

3. Paper read at the Linguists’ “Summer Semantics Festival,” April, 1969 (Published as ARTICLE 12).

4. “Intentions and Sentences,” a paper read to the Oberlin Philosophy Department, October, 1969.

5. “Quotation, Opacity, and Names,” a paper read to the O.S.U. Linguistics Department, March, 1970.

6. “Competence, Performance, Linguistics and Ordinary Language,” a paper read to the O.S.U. “Linguistics Circle,” 1971.

7. “Austin vs. the Truth Theorists,” a paper read at a Colloquium on the Philosophy of Language at Georgetown University, April, 1973.

8. “Logical Form and Formal Logic,” a paper read to the O.S.U. Semantics Group, October, 1973.

9. Comment on “Wang’s Paradox,” a paper by Sam Wheeler at the Eastern Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association, December, 1973.

10. “Chisholm on Socratic Interrogation,” a paper read at the 18th Annual Meeting of the Illinois Philosophy Conference, November 1, 1974.

11. “The Descriptive Fallacy,” a paper read to the University of Illinois Philosophy Department, November, 1975.

12. “Skepticism, Ordinary Language and Zen Buddhism,” a paper read at the 1976 Workshop on skepticism of the Society of Asian and Comparative Philosophy (Published as ARTICLE 18).

13. Comment on a paper, “Maybe Chinese Has No Count Nouns,” by Richard Sharvy at the Western Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association, Spring, 1977.

14. “Philosophy East and West,” a paper read at Beijing University, China, in the summer of 1980.

15. “Decisions and Desires,” a presentation of a talk to the Leighton Philosophy Club, Autumn, 1980/81.

16. “Hemispheric Imperialism,” a paper presented at the A.C.I.C. (Big Ten) Education Body of Knowledge Symposium, at O.S.U., October 13-15, 1983.

17. “The Deconstruction of the Mirror,” a paper presented at the International Society for Chinese Philosophy meeting, December, 1983.

18. “What’s Wrong with Morality,” a paper presented to the University of West Virginia Philosophy Department, April, 1984.

19. “Animals, Vegetables, and Morals,” a talk given at the O.S.U. Undergraduate Philosophy Club, October 31, 1984.

20. “The Religions of China,” a talk given to the Unitarian Universalist’s Dessert and Dialogue Series on Asian Philosophy, October, 1984.

21. “Why Should I Do What God Says?” a talk given to the O.S.U. Undergraduate Philosophy Club, October, 1985.

22. “Perspectives on Dialectic,” presented at a forum of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy at the meetings of the APA in May, 1986.

23. Participant in O.S.U. Graduate Student Panel on Moral Objectivity, Fall Quarter, 1986.

24. “Dao and the art of Nothing,” a talk given to the O.S.U. Undergraduate Philosophy Club in January, 1987.

25. “On the Genuine Queerness of Moral Properties and Facts,” a paper read at the Pacific Division Meetings of the APA, March, 1988.

26. “The Meaning of Life,” a paper read to the Undergraduate Philosophy Club, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (November 1988).

27. “The Meaning of `Meaning of Life’,” a paper read to The Society of Asian and Comparative Philosophy at the Central Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association(April, 1989).

28. Comment on “Gandhi and the Ethics of Fasting,” by David James. The Central Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association (April 1989).

29. “Skepticism, Buddhism, Wittgenstein and Ordinary Language Philosophy Revisited.” Presentation to the NEH Summer Institute on the Philosophy of Nagarjuna. University of Hawaii, July 1989.

30. “Chinese Cosmology: The Yin and Yang of Life.” A Presentation in the University Learning Guild Series in connection with the Son of Heaven Exhibit. August 16, 1989.

31. “Nagel on the Badness of Pain,” a paper read at the Eastern Division Meetings of the APA, December 1989.

32. “The Question about the Meaning of Life,” a paper read at the Pacific Division Meetings of the APA, March, 1990.

33. “Are Convenient Fictions Harmful to your Health?” a paper read at the Ohio Philosophical Association Meeting, April 1990.

34. “Truth, Lies and Non-Duplicity,” a paper read to the Philosophy Department at the University of Wittenberg, October 1990.

35. “Human Rights,” a talk to the Humanist Society of Central Ohio, November 1990.

36. I organized a Symposium at the meeting of the International Society for the Study of Human Ideas on Ultimate Reality and Meaning in Toronto on August 21-24, 1991. The title of my session was “Contemporary Responses to Nihilism. I presented a paper, “Contemporary Nihilism to Responses,” at that Symposium, and later served as a commentator on a paper “Cross of Reality and Eugen Rosenstock-Huessey’s Concept of God,” by Lauren Pfister.

37. “The Meaning of Life,” a talk given to the Philosophy Department of Davidson college in Davidson, North Carolina, October 1991.

38. “Buddhism,” a talk given at Trinity United Methodist Church, November 1991.

39. “Buddhism,” a talk given at Overbook Presbyterian Church, October 1993, and at The United Christian Church, Columbus, November, 1993

40. “Amoralism,” a discussion of Beyond Morality given to a class at Ohio University, June, 1994, and again in May, 1995.

41. “The arising of Good and Evil.” a paper read to The Society of Asian and

Comparative Philosophy at the Eastern Division Meetings of the American

Philosophical Association, Boston, December, 1994. A discussion of Daoism

and Amoralism.

42. “Beyond Morality,” College of Humanities Faculty Authors Series Lecture, June 1994.

43. “Beyond Morality,” University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, April 1995

44. “Morality–Who needs it?” presented at Davidson College, October, 1995.

45. “Asian Philosophy,” presented at Arlington High School, February, 1996.

46. “What’s Wrong with Morality,” presented in Baltimore at Essex Community College in connection with the Hoffberger Center for Professional Ethics. April, 1997.

47. “Amoralism and our Last Great Illusion.” A talk presented to “The Open Court,” at the OSU Faculty Club, April, 1997.

48. “Practical Amoralism,” talk presented to the Philosophy Department at the University of Tennessee, May, 1997.

“Remarks on Translation: Let Straw Dogs be Straw Dogs.” Presented at the Third International Research Conference in Asian and Comparative Philosophy, January, 1998.

50+. Several presentations (“Commandments on the Rocks,” “In Defense of Downloading,” “Abolishing Morality,” and others) to various organizations

ADMINISTRATIVE AND COMMITTEE WORK

A. Departmental

l. Foreign Language Examining Committee (French), four years

2. Honors Committee, 1966-1967

3. Coordinating Advisor for Undergraduate Majors 1966-1967

4. Chair of Recruitment Committee, 1968-1969

5. Undergraduate Committee, 1970-71, 1983-84

6. Recruitment Committee, 1970-1971

7. Selection Committee for new Chairman, 1970

8. Graduate Committee, 1972-73, 1975-76, 1976-77, 1882-83, 1985-86

9. Chair, Placement Committee, 1973-74

10. Chair of Lectures and Colloquia Committee, 1974-75, 1980-81

11. Curriculum Committee, 1976-77, 1983-84

12. Regional Campus Committee, 1977-78

13. Chair of Preliminary Examination Committee, 1980-81

14. Chair, Fink Prize in Philosophy Committee, 1981-92

15. Chair, Undergraduate Committee, 1992-95

16. Editor of Departmental Newsletter, 1987 -1995

17. Executive Committee, 1993-95

B. College and University

1. Organization Committee for College of Humanities

2. Research Committee for College of Humanities, 1969

3. Elected member of Faculty Council (3 year term beginning 1969)

4. Dean’s Chairman Search Committee, 1984

C. Invitations and Awards

1. Invited discussant at conference on Performatives at the University of Texas, March, 1973.

2. Chair of a session at the 11th Annual Philosophy Colloquium at the University of Cincinnati: Semantics and Linguistics, October, 1974.

3. Chair of a session at the 14th Annual Philosophy Colloquium at the University of Cincinnati: The Philosophy of History, November, 1976.

4. Chair of a session at the Radhakrishnan Centennial Conference, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, April 1988.

5. Chair of a session at the International Conference of Vedanta, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, April 1990, and April 1992.

6. NEH Grant in support of the publication of Beyond Morality, 1993.

7. Participated in a TV program, No Dogs or Philosophers, where my book, Beyond Morality, was the topic discussed.

RESEARCH IN ASIAN PHILOSOPHY AND CHINESE

I began the study of Asian Philosophy in 1972 and taught Philosophy 215 (Asian Philosophies) since 1975. In the Summer of 1975 I visited the Zen Center in San Francisco. In Winter Quarter of 1976-77 I taught an honors course in philosophy dealing with Zen Buddhism. Starting in 2000, I taught “An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy,” at Rutgers.

By 1976 I realized that in order to continue my research in Asian Philosophy it would be necessary to study Chinese. I also realized that this would be helpful in my work in the philosophy of language. That summer I attended an intensive Chinese course offered by our East Asian Department. In the following years I continued this study, sitting in on Chinese 104, 206, and 207 (second year Chinese), 506, 507, and 508 (third year Modern Chinese), and 601, 602, and 603 (Classical Chinese). I have also spent time in Taiwan and in 1980 I taught English at the University of Beijing, in China.

I was a participant in the NEH Summer Institute on the Philosophy of Nagarjuna, at the University of Hawaii, June 19-July 29, 1989.

My Philosophical Biography
After earning an M.A. in philosophy at Penn State, I attended the University of Michigan, where I studied ethics with William Frankena and Charles Stevenson, and the philosophy of language with William Alston, Richard Cartwright, and John Searle. I started teaching at Ohio State in 1963, and in 1967 I co-authored a textbook for Macmillan (A Systematic Introduction to Normative Ethics and Meta-ethics). When I realized the relevance of questions about language to my work in ethics, I read, wrote, and taught about the philosophy of language for several years. By 1970, linguists and philosophers of language had developed overlapping concerns about speech-acts, so I worked with linguists here at Ohio State, and spent a sabbatical studying linguistics at Harvard and MIT.

By the mid-seventies, the linguists and philosophers of language were spiraling into a kind of formalism, and I was searching for some new thoughts about how to live. So I turned my attention to Asian Philosophy. I introduced a course in Asian Philosophy here at Ohio State, started reading and writing about Asian philosophy, and attended Chinese language courses. This culminated in a trip to China in 1980, where I taught English at Beijing University.

When I returned from China I also returned to traditional philosophy. I co-edited an anthology of social and political philosophy for Wadsworth and re-immersed myself in the ongoing debate about ethical theory. By 1990 I had come to appreciate the work of John Mackie, whose error theory made more sense to me than any of the alternatives. I blended my new moral anti-realism with what I had learned about Asian philosophy, my understanding of language, and a good bit more, and wrote Beyond Morality, which appeared in 1994.

As I used the book in my ethics classes, I found various defects and infelicities, so I started rewriting some of the chapters. But it was not until I read Richard Joyce’s The Myth of Morality that I understood that the Beyond Morality of 1994 had left one task uncompleted. Joyce was as convinced of Mackie’s error theory as I, but he went on to give and defend an answer to the next question: “What do we do when we realize that morality is indeed a fiction, a product of evolution and human invention?” Because he agreed with Mackie that morality is too useful to abandon, Joyce defended his own distinctive form of moral fictionalism. If I had faced this question squarely in the 1994 version of Beyond Morality, I would have been more critical of Mackie’s moral fictionalism. In my most recent publication (“Moral Abolitionism”) I do take on the moral fictionalism of both Joyce and Mackie, and I enter a plea of “interesting and worth considering seriously” for moral abolitionism. Some of this discussion now appears in my revised manuscript where, after defending moral abolitionism and decisively rejecting moral fictionalism, I go on to deal with my next question: “If the error theory is correct, and we know it, can we bring about the kind of world most of us want without exploiting the power of moral language, and if so, how do we do it?” The second part of my book, as well as much of my ongoing research, is devoted to answering this question.