Grice: The Deep Berths of Language

Speranza

See how high the seas of language run here!
But the waves subside soon enough.  -- cited by Dummett, "The Seas of Language". Cfr. Kripke, "the seas of language" in "Naming and Necessity".


(Courtesy of R. Paul).

Witters, P. I.

194.

"When does one have the thought: the possible movements of
a machine are already there in it in some mysterious way?"

"Well, when one is doing philosophy."

"And what leads us into thinking that?"

"The kind of way in which we talk about machines."

"We say, for example,
that a machine has (possesses) such-and-such possibilities of movement."

"We speak of the ideally rigid machine which can only move in
such-and-such a way."

"What is this possibility of movement?"

"It is
not the movement., but it does not seem to be the mere physical conditions
for moving either—as, that there is play between socket and pin,
the pin not fitting too tight in the socket."

"For while this is the empirical
condition for movement, one could also imagine it to be otherwise."

The possibility of a movement is, rather, supposed to be like a shadow
of the movement itself.

But do you know of such a shadow?

And
by a shadow I do not mean some picture of the movement—for such a
picture would not have to be a picture of just this movement.

But the
possibility of this movement must be the possibility of just this
movement.

See how high the seas of language run here!

The waves subside as soon as we ask ourselves.

How do we use the phrase "possibility of movement" when we are talking about a
given machine?

But then where did our queer ideas come from?
Well, I show you the possibility of a movement, say by means of a
picture of the movement: 'so possibility is something which is like
reality'.

We say: "It isn't moving yet, but it already has the possibility
of moving"——'so possibility is something very near reality'.

Though
we may doubt whether such-and-such physical conditions make this
movement possible, we never discuss whether this is the possibility
of this or of that movement: 'so the possibility of the movement
stands in a unique relation to the movement itself; closer than that of a
picture to its subject'; for it can be doubted whether a picture is the
picture of this thing or that.

We say "Experience will show whether
this gives the pin this possibility of movement", but we do not say
"Experience will shew whether this is the possibility of this movement":
'so it is not an empirical fact that this possibility is the possibility
of precisely this movement'.

We mind about the kind of expressions we use concerning these
things; we do not understand them, however, but misinterpret them.
When we do philosophy we are like savages, primitive people, who
hear the expressions of civilized men, put a false interpretation on
them, and then draw the queerest conclusions from it.