Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett and Herbert Paul Grice: the long connection

Speranza

Grice's main teacher was Hardie.

Typically, Dummett had to have more than one main teacher.

His main teacherS were J. O. Urmson and G. E. M. Anscombe.

The latter exerted the greater influence on him than the former did.

Other major philosophical influences were the Austirna philosopher ('and virulent rascist', Dummett adds, p. ix) Frege and Ludwig Wittgenstein -- or 'Witters' as Grice prefered --, an Austrian-born philosopher who invented two radically different approaches to the analysis of language.

Dummett received a "B.A." (i.e. Bachelor of Arts, but NOT in Quine's sense, "a married bachelor"), with first-class honours in 1950.

He had come to Oxford from Winchester to study HISTORY, but changed his mind (metaphorically).

In 1951, Dummett married Agnes Margaret Ann Chesney, who has written many works on racism, immigration policy, citizenship, and nationality.

They have five children:

Christopher Dummett

Andrew Dummett

Susanna Dummett

Tessa Dummett and

Paul Dummett (Paul Dummett, interestingly, shares a first name with the philosopher to which this club is dedicated: Paul Grice).

Another son and daughter died young.

Dummett received his "M.A." (Master of Arts -- PPE -- Philosophy, Politics and Economics) from Oxford in 1954.

Dummett has spent virtually his whole career at Oxford [University, and Park Town], except for a 1-year lectureship at Birmingham University in 1950-1951 -- oddly, Grice was from Brum, but never taught him -- Strictly, Grice was from Harborne, never Brum -- but trust wiki to ignore THAT), a Harkness Fellowship at the University of California at Berkeley in 1955-1956; visiting professorships at the University of Ghana in 1958, Stanford University several times between 1960 and 1966, the University of Minnesota in 1968, Princeton University in 1970, and Rockefeller University in 1973; and a von Humboldt Prize visit to the University of Münster in 1981.

Grice gave the James lectures in 1967. Dummett gave the William James Lectures at Harvard University in 1976.

Dummett held the Wykeham Chair in Logic at Oxford from 1979 until his retirement in 1992.

----- And the rest is history.