Griceian Dialogue

Speranza

What is Griceian Dialogue?

Griceian Dialogue is a method of philosophical enquiry, first designed by the Oxford philosopher Herber Paul Grice (1913-1988) and further developed by his students.

Nelson was an English philosopher who, inspired by Socrates, created his own Socratic (Griceian) method.

Griceian dialogue allows for a very different way of engaging with philosophical issues.

Rather than gathering evidence and thought from other resources, participants in a Griceian dialogue test their own ideas -- compleat with implicatures!

You do not need to be a philosopher to take part -- god forbid ("I'm not a philosopher", I heard him say, once).

You only need to be prepared to use your reason (your 'conversational reason', as Grice would put it) and be willing to revisit positions.

Griceian dialogues in the Griceian tradition often (but not always, and not necessarily) have the following form.

A small group of people (ideally between six and twelve) share an interest in a philosophical question.

By a philosophical question is meant a question that can be answered by the use of reason alone.

Examples of such questions are:

What is friendship?
What are the limits of tolerance?
What is courage?
What is a just decision?
Are there unselfish acts?
Am I allowed to lie?
How do I know that a statement is correct?
What is professional integrity? and,
What is learning?.

Guided by a facilitator, who - unlike Socrates - does not necessarily take part in the content of the dialogue, participants investigate this question through an example given by one of the participants from his or her own experience.

This example is one which interests the other participants and which they can recognise.

By discussing this example they try to form a judgment, which will then need to be verified.

Through this process participants learn intellectual virtues like revisiting one’s ideas, trusting doubt, listening to one another, persistency, etc.

In Griceian dialogue this pursuit involves all participants, who function as each other’s midwives.