Grice and Owen on the Snares of Ontology, Pragmatically Solved

Speranza

From wiki, below.


Gwilym Ellis Lane Owen ([born WHERE in Wales?] 18 May 1922 - 10 July 1982) was a Welsh philosopher, concerned with the history of Ancient Greek philosophy.

From 1973 until his death he was the fourth Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge.

"An undergraduate at Corpus Christi College, Oxford,"

-- like Grice -- Grice was older, b. 1913.

"where after research at Durham he taught, he proceeded in 1966 to Harvard University, where his many distinguished students included Julia Annas, Gail Fine, Wilbur Knorr, Martha Nussbaum, Donald J. Zeyl, Terence Irwin and Nicholas P. White."

"He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1969." (Grice in 1966).

"He is known particularly for his ideas on the development of Aristotle."

"He has been classed with J. L. Ackrill and Gregory Vlastos as influential in creating interest in the field, in the Anglo-American context.[2]"

Actually, Ackrill was Grice's student (official tutee, and Ackrill does credit Grice (and Austin) in the Foreword to his relevant translations. Grice found that to translate Aristotle from Greek to English was BAD -- for Aristotle, and for English people. At Clifton, he had learned Greek so well that when he got his first in Lit. Hum. at Oxford he felt there was no need to render Aristotle in English. Hence his problems with izzing and hazzing -- which comes up when you want to _explain_ Aristotle's 'idiosyncratic' considerations in the lingo of the people -- ta legomena). (Or something).

References

Malcolm Schofield, Martha Craven Nussbaum (editors) (1982), Language and Logos: Studies in Ancient Greek Philosophy Presented to G. E. L. Owen

Notes

1.^ Charlotte Witt, The Evolution of Developmental Interpretations, p. 74, in William Robert Wians (editor), Aristotle's Philosophical Development: Problems and Prospects (1996).

2.^ Bryn Mawr Classical Review 98.4.01

[edit] External linksBiography
British Academy Fellowship entry
Academic offices
Preceded by
William Keith Chambers Guthrie Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy Cambridge University
1973 - 1982 Succeeded by
Myles Burnyeat
Preceded by
D.W.Hamlyn President of the Aristotelian Society
1978 - 1979 Succeeded by
A.R.White