identity: identity was a key concept for Grice. Under identity, he
views both identity simpliciter and personal identity. Grice advocates
psychological or soul criterianism. Psychological or soul criterianism has been
advocated, in one form or another, by philosophers such as Locke, Butler, Duncan-Jones,
Berkeley, Gallie, Grice, Flew, Haugeland, Jones, Perry, Shoemaker and Parfit,
and Quinton. What all of these theories have in common is the idea that,
even if it is the case that some kind of physical states are necessary for
being a person, it is the unity of consciousness which is of decisive
importance for personal identity over time. In this sense, person is a term
which picks out a psychological, or mental, "thing". In claiming
this, all Psychological Criterianists entail the view that personal identity
consists in the continuity of psychological features. It is interesting that
Flew has an earlier "Selves," earlier than his essay on Locke on
personal identity. The first, for Mind, criticising Jones, "The self in
sensory cognition"; the second for Philosophy. Surely under the tutelage
of Grice. Cf. Jones, Selves: A reply to Flew, Philosophy. The
stronger thesis asserts that there is no conceivable situation in which bodily
identity would be necessary, some other conditions being always both necessary
and sufficient. Grice takes it that Locke’s theory (II, 27) is an example of
this latter type. To say "Grice remembers that he heard a
noise", without irony or inverted commas, is to imply that Grice did hear
a noise. In this respect remember is like, know, a factive. It does not follow
from this, nor is it true, that each claim to remember, any more than each
claim to know, is alethic or veridical; or, not everything one seems to
remember is something one really remembers. So much is obvious, although Locke
-- although admittedly referring only to the memory of actions, section 13
-- is forced to invoke the providence of God to deny the latter. These
points have been emphasised by Flew in his discussion of Locke’s views on
personal identity. In formulating Locke’ thesis, however, Flew makes a mistake;
for he offers Lockes thesis in the form if Grice can remember Hardies doing
such-and-such, Grice and Hardie are the same person. But this obviously will
not do, even for Locke, for we constantly say things like I remember my brother
Derek joining the army without implying that I and my brother are the same
person. So if we are to formulate such a criterion, it looks as though we have
to say something like the following. If Derek Grice remembers joining my, he is
the person who did that thing. But since remembers doing means remembers
himself doing, this is trivially tautologous, and moreover lends colour to
Butlers famous objection that memory, so far from constituting personal
identity, presupposes it. As Butler puts it, one should really think
it self-evident that consciousness of personal identity presupposes, and
therefore cannot constitute, personal identity; any more than knowledge, in any
other case, can constitute truth, which it presupposes. Butler then asserts
that Locke’s misstep stems from his methodology. This wonderful mistake may
possibly have arisen from hence; that to be endued with consciousness is
inseparable from the idea of a person, or intelligent being. For this might be
expressed inaccurately thus, that consciousness makes personality: and from
hence it might be concluded to make personal identity. One of the points that
Locke emphasizes—that persistence conditions are determined via defining kind
terms—is what, according to Butler, leads Locke astray. Butler
additionally makes the point that memory is not required for personal
persistence. But though present consciousness of what we at present do and feel
is necessary to our being the persons we now are; yet present consciousness of
past actions or feelings is not necessary to our being the same persons who
performed those actions, or had those feelings. This is a point that others
develop when they assert that Lockes view results in contradiction. Hence
the criterion should rather run as follows. If Derek Grice claims to remember
joining the army. We must then ask how such a criterion might be
used. Grices example is: I remember I smelled a smell. He needs two
experiences to use same. I heard a noise and I smelled a smell.The singular
defines the hearing of a noise is the object of some consciousness. The pair
defines, "The hearing of a noise and the smelling of a smell are objects
of the same -- cognate with self as in I hurt me self, -- consciousness. The
standard form of an identity question is Is this x the same x as that x
which E and in the simpler situation we are at least presented with just
the materials for constructing such a question; but in the more complicated
situation we are baffled even in asking the question, since both the
transformed persons are equally good candidates for being its Subjects, and the
question Are these two xs the same (x?) as the x which E is not a recognizable
form of identity question. Thus, it might be argued, the fact that we could not
speak of identity in the latter situation is no kind of proof that we could not
do so in the former. Certainly it is not a proof, as Strawson points out to
Grice. This is not to say that they are identical at all. The only case in
which identity and exact similarity could be distinguished, as we have just
seen, is that of the body, same body and exactly similar body really do mark a
difference. Thus one may claim that the omission of the body takes away all
content from the idea of personal identity, as Pears pointed out to
Grice. Leaving aside memory, which only partially applies to the case,
character and attainments are quite clearly general things. Joness character
is, in a sense, a particular; just because Jones’s character refers to the
instantiation of certain properties by a particular (and bodily) man, as
Strawson points out to Grice (Particular and general). If in ‘Negation and
privation,’ Grice tackles Aristotle, he now tackles Locke. Indeed, seeing that
Grice went years later to the topic as motivated by, of all people, Haugeland,
rather than perhaps the more academic milieu that Perry offers, Grice became
obsessed with Hume’s sceptical doubts! Hume writes in the Appendix that when he
turns his reflection on himself, Hume never can perceive this self without
some one or more perceptions. Nor can Hume ever perceive any
thing but the perceptions. It is the composition of these, therefore,
which forms the self, Hume thinks. Hume grants that one can conceive a thinking
being to have either many or few perceptions. Suppose, says Hume, the mind to
be reduced even below the life of an oyster. Suppose the oyster to have only
one perception, as of thirst or hunger. Consider the oyster in that situation.
Does the oyster conceive any thing but merely that perception? Has the oyster
any notion of, to use Gallies pretentious Aristotelian jargon, self or
substance? If not, the addition of this or other perception can never give
the oyster that notion. The annihilation, which this or that philosopher,
including Grices first post-war tutee, Flew, supposes to follow upon
death, and which entirely destroys the oysters self, is nothing but
an extinction of all particular perceptions; love and
hatred, pain and pleasure, thought and sensation. These therefore
must be the same with self; since the one cannot survive the other.
Is self the same with substance? If it be, how can that question have
place, concerning the subsistence of self, under a change of
substance? If they be distinct, what is the difference betwixt them? For his
part, Hume claims, he has a notion of neither, when conceived distinct
from this or that particular perception. However extraordinary Hume’s
conclusion may seem, it need not surprise us. Most
philosophers, such as Locke, seems inclined to think, that personal
identity arises from consciousness. But consciousness is nothing but
a reflected thought or perception, Hume suggests. This is Grices quandary about
personal identity and its implicata. Some philosophers have taken Grice as
trying to provide an exegesis of Locke. However, their approaches surely
differ. What works for Grice may not work for Locke. For Grice it is
analytically true that it is not the case that Person1 and
Person may have the same experience. Grice explicitly states that he
thinks that his logical-construction theory is a modification of Locke’s
theory. Grice does not seem terribly interested to find why it may not, even if
the York-based Locke Society might! Rather than introjecting into Lockes shoes,
Grices strategy seems to dismiss Locke, shoes and all. Specifically, it not
clear to Grice what Lockes answer in the Essay would be to Grices question
about this or that I utterance that he sets his analysis with. Admittedly,
Grice does quote, albeit briefly, directly from Lockes Essay. As far as any
intelligent being can repeat the idea of any past action with the same
consciousness it had of it at first, and with the same consciousness it has of
any present action, Locke claims, so far the being is the same personal self.
Grice tackles Lockes claim with four objections. These are important to
consider since Grice sees as improving on Locke. A first objection concerns
icircularity, with which Grice easily disposes by following Hume and appealing
to the experience of memory or introspection. A second objection is Reid’s
alleged counterexample about the long-term memory of the admiral who cannot
remember that he was flogged as a boy. Grice dismisses this as involving too
long-term of a memory. A third objection concerns Locke’s vagueness about the
aboutness of consciousness, a point made by Hume in the Appendix. A fourth
objection concerns again circularity, this time in Locke’s use of same in the
definiens ‒ cf. Wiggins, Sameness and substance. It’s extraordinary that
Wiggins is philosophising on anything Griceian. Grice is concerned with the
implicatum involved in the use of the first person singular. I will be fighting
soon. Grice means in body and soul. The utterance also indicates that this is
Grices pre-war days at Oxford. No wonder his choice of an example. What else
could he have in his soul? The topic of personal identity, which label Hume and
Austin found pretentious, and preferred to talk about the illocutionary force
of I, has a special Oxonian pedigree, perhaps as motivated by Humes challenge,
that Grice has occasion to study and explore for his M. A. Lit. Hum. with
Locke’s Essay as mandatory reading. Locke, a philosopher with whom Oxford
identifies most, infamously defends this memory-based account of I. Up in
Scotland, Reid reads it and concocts this alleged counter-example. Hume, or
Home, if you must, enjoys it. In fact, while in the Mind essay he is not too
specific about Hume, Grice will, due mainly to his joint investigations with
Haugeland, approach, introjecting into the shoes of Hume ‒ who is idolised in
The New World ‒ in ways he does not introject into Lockes. But Grices quandary
is Hume’s quandary, too. In his own approach to I, the Cartesian ego, made
transcendental and apperceptive by Kant, Grice updates the time-honoured
empiricist mnemonic analysis by Locke. The first update is in style. Grice
embraces, as he does with negation, a logical construction, alla Russell, via
Broad, of this or that “I” (first-person) utterance, ending up with an analysis
of a “someone,” third-person, less informative, utterance. Grices immediate
source is Gallie’s essay on self and substance in Mind. Mind is still a review
of psychology and philosophy, so poor Grice has not much choice. In fact, Grice
is being heterodoxical or heretic enough to use Broad’s taxonomy, straight from
the other place of I utterances. The logical-construction theory is a third
proposal, next to the Bradleyian idealist pure-ego theory and the
misleading covert-description theory. Grice deals with the Reids alleged counterexample
of the brave officer. Suppose, Reid says, and Grice quotes verbatim, a
brave officer to have been flogged when a boy at school, for robbing an
orchard, to have taken a standard from the enemy in his first campaign, and to
have been made a general in advanced life. Suppose also, which must be admitted
to be possible, that when he2 took the standard, he2 was
conscious of his having been flogged at school, and that, when made a general,
he3 was conscious of his2 taking the standard,
but had absolutely lost the consciousness of his1 flogging. These things being
supposed, it follows, from Lockes doctrine, that he1 who is flogged at school
is the same person as him2 who later takes the standard, and
that he2 who later takes the standard is the same person as him3 who
is still later made a general. When it follows, if there be any truth in logic,
that the general is the same person with him1 who is flogged at
school. But the general’s consciousness does emphatically not reach so far back
as his1 flogging. Therefore, according to Locke’s doctrine, he3 is
emphatically not the same person as him1 who is flogged. Therefore, we can say
about the general that he3 is, and at the same time, that he3 is
not the same person as him1 who was flogged at school. Grice, wholl
later add a temporal suffix to =t yielding, by transitivity. The flogged boy =t1 the
brave officer. And the brave officer =t2 the admiral. But the
admiral ≠t3 the flogged boy. In Mind, Grice tackles the basic
analysans, and comes up with a rather elaborate analysans for a simple I or
Someone statement. Grice just turns to a generic affirmative variant of the
utterance he had used in Negation. It is now someone, viz. I, who hears that
the bell tolls. It is the affirmative counterpart of the focus of his earlier
essay on negation, I do not hear that the bell tolls. Grice dismisses what, in
the other place, was referred to as privileged-access, and the indexicality of
I, an approach that will be made popular by Perry, who however reprints Grices
essay in his influential collection for the University of California Press. By
allowing for someone, viz. I, Grice seems to be relying on a piece of reasoning
which hell later, in his first Locke lecture, refer to as too good. I hear that
the bell tolls; therefore, someone hears that the bell tolls. Grice attempts to
reduce this or that I utterance (Someone, viz. I, hears that the bell tolls) is
in terms of a chain or sequence of mnemonic states. It poses a few quandaries
itself. While quoting from this or that recent philosopher such as Gallie and
Broad, it is a good thing that Grice has occasion to go back to, or revisit,
Locke and contest this or that infamous and alleged counterexample presented by
Reid and Hume. Grice adds a methodological note to his proposed
logical-construction theory of personal identity. There is some intricacy of
his reductive analysis, indeed logical construction, for an apparently simple
and harmless utterance (cf. his earlier essay on I do not hear that the bell
tolls). But this intricacy does not prove the analysis wrong. Only that Grice
is too subtle. If the reductive analysis of not is in terms of each state which
I am experiencing is incompatible with phi), that should not be a minus, or
drawback, but a plus, and an advantage in terms of philosophical progress. The
same holds here in terms of the concept of a temporary state. Much later,
Grice reconsiders, or revisits, indeed, Broads remark and re-titles his
approach as the (or a) logical-construction theory of personal identity. And,
with Haugeland, Grice re-considers Humes own vagaries, or quandary, with
personal identity. Unlike the more conservative Locke that Grice favours in the
pages of Mind, eliminationist Hume sees ‘I’ as a conceptual muddle, indeed a
metaphysical chimæra. Hume presses the point for an empiricist verificationist
account of I. For, as Russell would rhetorically ask, ‘What can be more direct
that the experience of myself?’ The Hume Society should take notice of Grices
simplification of Hume’s implicatum on I, if The Locke Society won’t. As a
matter of fact, Grice calls one of his metaphysical construction routines the
Humeian projection, so it is not too adventurous to think that Grice considers
I as an intuitive concept that needs to be metaphysically re-constructed
and be given a legitimate Fregeian sense. Why that label for a construction
routine? Grice calls this metaphysical construction routine Humeian projection,
since the mind (or soul) as it were, spreads over its objects. But, by mind, Hume
does not necessarily mean the I. Cf. The minds I. Grice is especially concerned
with the poverty and weaknesses of Humes criticism to Lockes account of
personal identity. Grice opts to revisit the Lockeian memory-based of this or
that someone, viz. I utterance that Hume rather regards as vague, and
confusing. Unlike Humes, neither Lockes nor Grices reductive analysis of
personal identity is reductionist and eliminationist. The
reductive-reductionist distinction Grice draws in Retrospective epilogue as he
responds to Rountree-Jack on this or that alleged wrong on meaning that. It is
only natural that Grice would be sympathetic to Locke. Grice explores these
issues with Haugeland mainly at seminars. One may wonder why Grice spends so
much time in a philosopher such as Hume, with whom he agreed almost on nothing!
The answer is Humes influence in the Third World that forced Grice to focus on
this or that philosopher. Surely Locke is less popular in the New World than
Hume is. One supposes Grice is trying to save Hume at the implicatum level, at
least. The phrase or term of art, logical construction is Russells and Broads,
but Grice loved it. Rational reconstruction is not too dissimilar. Grice
prefers Russells and Broads more conservative label. This is more than a
terminological point. If Hume is right and there is NO intuitive concept behind
I, one cannot strictly re-construct it, only construct it. Ultimately, Grice
shows that, if only at the implicatum level, we are able to provide an
analysandum for this or that someone, viz. I utterance without using I, by
implicating only this or that mnemonic concept, which belongs, naturally, as
his theory of negation does, in a theory of philosophical psychology, and again
a lower branch of it, dealing with memory. The topic of personal identity
unites various interests of Grice. The first is identity “=” simpliciter.
Instead of talking of the meaning of I, as, say, Anscombe would, Grice sticks
to the traditional category, or keyword, for this, i. e. the theory-laden, personal
identity, or even personal sameness. Personal identity is a type of identity,
but personal adds something to it. Surely Hume was stretching person a bit when
using the example of a soul with a life lower than an oyster. Since Grice
follows Aristotles De Anima, he enjoys Hume’s choice, though. It may be argued
that personal adds Locke’s consciousness, and rational agency. Grice plays with
the body-soul distinction. I, viz someone or somebody, fell from the stairs,
perhaps differs from I will be fighting soon. This or that someone, viz. I
utterance may be purely bodily. Grice would think that the idea that his soul
fell from the stairs sounds, as it would to Berkeley, harsh. But then theres
this or that one may be mixed utterance. Someone, viz. I, plays cricket, where
surely your bodily mechanisms require some sort of control by the soul.
Finally, this or that may be purely souly ‒ the one Grice ends up analysing,
Someone, viz. I, hear that the bell tolls. At the time of his Mind essay, Grice
may have been unaware of the complications that the concept of a person may
bring as attached in adjective form to identity. Ayer did, and Strawson and
Wiggins will, and Grice learns much from Strawson. Since Parfit, this has
become a common-place topic for analysis at Oxford. A person as a complexum of
a body-soul spatio-temporal continuant substance. Ultimately, Grice finds a
theoretical counterpart here. A P may become a human, which Grice understands
physiologically. That is not enough. A P must aspire, via meteousis, to become
a person. Thus, person becomes a technical term in Grices grand metaphysical
scheme of things. Someone, viz. I, hear that the bell is tolls is analysed
as ≡df, or if and only if, a hearing that the bell tolls is a
part of a total temporary tn souly state S1 which is
one in a s. such that any state Sn, given this or that
condition, contains as a part a memory Mn of the
experience of hearing that the bell tolls, which is a component in some
pre-sequent t1n item, or contains an experience of hearing
that the bell tolls a memory M of which would, given this or that
condition, occur as a component in some sub-sequent t2>tn item,
there being no sub-set of items which is independent of the rest. Grice
simplifies the reductive analysans. Someone, viz. I, hears that the bell tolls
iff a hearing that the bell tolls is a component in an item of an interlocking
s. with emphasis on lock, s. of this or that memorable and memorative
total temporary tn state S1. Is Grice’s Personal
identity ever referred to in the Oxonian philosophical literature? Indeeed.
Parfit mentions, which makes it especially memorable and memorative. P. Edwards
includes a reference to Grices Mind essay in the entry for Personal identity,
as a reference to Grice et al on Met. , is referenced in Edwardss encyclopædia
entry for metaphysics. Grice does not attribute privileged access or
incorrigibility to I or the first person. He always hastens to add that I can
always be substituted, salva veritate (if baffling your addressee A) by someone
or other, if not some-body or other, a colloquialism Grice especially detested.
Grices agency-based approach requires that. I am rational provided thou art,
too. If, by explicitly saying he is a Lockeian, Grice surely does not wish us
to see him as trying to be original, or the first to consider this or that
problem about I; i.e. someone. Still, Grice is the philosopher who explores
most deeply the reductive analysis of I, i.e. someone. Grice needs the
reductive analysis because human agency (philosophically, rather than
psychologically interpreted) is key for his approach to things. By uttering The
bell tolls, U means that someone, viz. himself, hears that the bell tolls, or
even, by uttering I, hear, viz. someone hears, that the bell tolls, U means that
the experience of a hearing that the bell tolls is a component in a total
temporary state which is a member of a s. such that each member would,
given certain conditions, contain as an component one memory of an
experience which is a component in a pre-sequent member, or contains as a
component some experience a memory of which would, given
certain conditions, occur as a component in a post-sequent member; there
being no sub-set of members which is independent of the rest. Thanks, the
addressee might reply. I didnt know that! The reductive bit to Grices analysis
needs to be emphasised. For Grice, a person, and consequently, a someone, viz.
I utterance, is, simpliciter, a logical construction out of this or that
Humeian experience. Whereas in Russell, as Broad notes, a logical
construction of this or that philosophical concept, in this case personal
identity, or cf. Grices earlier reductive analysis of not, is thought of as an
improved, rationally reconstructed conception. Neither Russell nor Broad need
maintain that the logical construction preserves the original meaning of the
analysandum someone, viz. I, hears that the bell tolls, or I do not hear that
the bell tolls ‒ hence their paradox of reductionist analysis. This change of
Subjects does not apply to Grice. Grice emphatically intends to be make
explicit, if rationally reconstructed (if that is not an improvement) through
reductive (if not reductionist) analysis, the concept Grice already claims to
have. One particular development to consider is within Grices play group, that
of Quinton. Grice and Quinton seem to have been the only two philosophers in
Austins play group who showed any interest on someone, viz. I. Or not. The fact
that Quinton entitles his thing “The soul” did not help. Note that Woozley was at
the time editing Reid on “Identity,” Cf. Duncan-Jones on mans mortality. Note
that Quintons immediate trigger is Shoemaker. Grice writes that he is not
“merely a series of perceptions,” for he is “conscious of a permanent self, an
I who experiences these perceptions and who is now identical with the I
who experienced perceptions yesterday.” So, leaving aside that he is using I
with the third person verb, but surely this is no use-mention fallacy, it is
this puzzle that provoked his thoughts on temporal-relative “=” later on. As
Grice notes, Butler argued that consciousness of experience can contribute to
identity but not define it. Grice will use Butler in his elaboration of
conversational benevolence versus conversational self-interest. Better than Quinton,
it is better to consider Flew in Philosophy, 96, on Locke and the problem of
personal identity, obviously suggested as a term paper by Grice! Wiggins cites
Flew. Flew actually notes that Berkeley saw Lockes problem earlier than Reid,
which concerns the transitiveness of =. Recall that Wigginss tutor at Oxford
was a tutee by Grice, Ackrill. Refs.: The main references covering identity
simpliciter are in “Vacuous Names,” and his joint work on metaphysics with G.
Myro. The main references relating to the second group, of personal identity,
are his “Mind” essay, an essay on ‘the logical-construction theory of personal
identity,’ and a second set of essays on Hume’s quandary, The H. P. Grice
Papers, BANC.
illusion: hallucination is Grice’s topic.Malcolm
argues in Dreaming and Skepticism and in his Dreaming that the notion of a
dream qua conscious experience that occurs at a definite time and has definite
duration during sleep, is unintelligible. This contradicts the views of
philosophers like Descartes (and indeed Moore!), who, Malcolm holds, assume
that a human being may have a conscious thought and a conscious experience
during sleep. Descartes claims that he had been deceived during sleep. Malcolms
point is that ordinary language contrasts consciousness and sleep. The claim
that one is conscious while one is sleep-walking is stretching the use of the
term. Malcolm rejects the alleged counter-examples based on sleepwalking or
sleep-talking, e.g. dreaming that one is climbing stairs while one is actually
doing so is not a counter-example because, in such a case, the individual is
not sound asleep after all. If a person is in any state of consciousness, it
logically follows that he is not sound asleep. The concept of dreaming is based
on our descriptions of dreams after we have awakened in telling a dream. Thus,
to have dreamt that one has a thought during sleep is not to have a thought any
more than to have dreamt that one has climbed Everest is to have climbed
Everest. Since one cannot have an experience during sleep, one cannot have a
mistaken experience during sleep, thereby undermining the sort of scepticism
based on the idea that our experience might be wrong because we might be
dreaming. Malcolm further argues that a report of a conscious state during
sleep is unverifiable. If Grice claims that he and Strawson saw a big-foot in
charge of the reserve desk at the Bodleian library, one can verify that this
took place by talking to Strawson and gathering forensic evidence from the
library. However, there is no way to verify Grices claim that he dreamed that
he and Strawson saw a big-foot working at the Bodleian. Grices only basis for
his claim that he dreamt this is that Grice says so after he wakes up. How does
one distinguish the case where Grice dreamed that he saw a big-foot working at
The Bodleian and the case in which he dreamed that he saw a person in a
big-foot suit working at the library but, after awakening, mis-remembered that
person in a big-foot suit as a big-foot proper? If Grice should admit that he
had earlier mis-reported his dream and that he had actually dreamed he saw a
person in a big-foot suit at The Bodleian, there is no more independent
verification for this new claim than there was for the original one. Thus,
there is, for Malcolm, no sense to the idea of mis-remembering ones dreams.
Malcolm here applies one of Witters ideas from his private language argument.
One would like to say: whatever is going to seem right to me is right. And that
only means that here we cannot talk about right. For a similar reason, Malcolm
challenges the idea that one can assign a definite duration or time of
occurrence to a dream. If Grice claims that he ran the mile in 3.4 minutes, one
could verify this in the usual ways. If, however, Grice says he dreamt that he
ran the mile in 3.4 minutes, how is one to measure the duration of his dreamt
run? If Grice says he was wearing a stopwatch in the dream and clocked his run
at 3.4 minutes, how can one know that the dreamt stopwatch is not running at
half speed (so that he really dreamt that he ran the mile in 6.8 minutes)?
Grice might argue that a dream report does not carry such a conversational
implicata. But Malcolm would say that just admits the point. The ordinary
criteria one uses for determining temporal duration do not apply to dreamt
events. The problem in both these cases (Grice dreaming one saw a bigfoot
working at The Bodleian and dreaming that he ran the mile in 3.4 minutes) is
that there is no way to verify the truth of these dreamt events — no direct way
to access that dreamt inner experience, that mysterious glow of consciousness
inside the mind of Grice lying comatose on the couch, in order to determine the
facts of the matter. This is because, for Malcolm, there are no facts of the
matter apart from the report by the dreamer of the dream upon awakening.
Malcolm claims that the empirical evidence does not enable one to decide
between the view that a dream experience occurs during sleep and the view that
they are generated upon the moment of waking up. Dennett agrees with Malcolm
that nothing supports the received view that a dream involves a conscious
experience while one is asleep but holds that such issues might be settled
empirically. Malcolm also argues against the attempt to provide a physiological
mark of the duration of a dream, for example, the view that the dream lasted as
long as the rapid eye movements. Malcolm replies that there can only be as much
precision in that common concept of dreaming as is provided by the common
criterion of dreaming. These scientific researchers are misled by the
assumption that the provision for the duration of a dream is already there,
only somewhat obscured and in need of being made more precise. However, Malcolm
claims, it is not already there (in the ordinary concept of dreaming). These
scientific views are making radical conceptual changes in the concept of
dreaming, not further explaining our ordinary concept of dreaming. Malcolm
admits, however, that it might be natural to adopt such scientific views about
REM sleep as a convention. Malcolm points out, however, that if REM sleep is
adopted as a criterion for the occurrence of a dream, people would have to
be informed upon waking up that they had dreamed or not. As Pears observes,
Malcolm does not mean to deny that people have dreams in favour of the view
that they only have waking dream-behaviour. Of course it is no misuse of
language to speak of remembering a dream. His point is that since the concept
of dreaming is so closely tied to our concept of waking report of a dreams, one
cannot form a coherent concept of this alleged inner (private) something that
occurs with a definite duration during sleep. Malcolm rejects a certain
philosophical conception of dreaming, not the ordinary concept of dreaming,
which, he holds, is neither a hidden private something nor mere outward
behaviour.The account of dreaming by Malcolm has come in for considerable
criticism. Some argue that Malcolms claim that occurrences in dreams cannot be
verified by others does not require the strict criteria that Malcolm proposes
but can be justified by appeal to the simplicity, plausibility, and predictive
adequacy of an explanatory system as a whole. Some argue that Malcolms account
of the sentence I am awake is inconsistent. A comprehensive programme in
considerable detail has been offered for an empirical scientific investigation
of dreaming of the sort that Malcolm rejects. Others have proposed various
counterexamples and counter arguments against dreaming by Malcolm. Grices
emphasis is in Malcolms easy way out with statements to the effect that
implicata do or do not operate in dream reports. They do in mine! Grice
considers, I may be dreaming in the two essays opening the Part II:
Explorations on semantics and metaphysics in WOW. Cf. Urmson on ‘delusion’ in
‘Parentheticals’ as ‘conceptually impossible.’ Refs.: The main reference is
Grice’s essay on ‘Dreaming,’ but there are scattered references in his
treatment of Descartes, and “The causal theory of perception” (henceforth,
“Causal theory”), The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
imperative mode: like Hare, Grice loves an imperative. In this essay, Grice
attempts an exploration of the logical form of Kant’s concoction. Grice is
especially irritated by the ‘the.’ ‘They speak of Kant’s categorical
imperative, when he cared to formulate a few versions of it!” Grice lists them
all in Abbott’s version. There are nine of them! Grice is interested in the conceptual
connection of the categorical imperative with the hypothetical or suppositional
imperative, in terms of the type of connection between the protasis and the
apodosis. Grice spends the full second Carus lecture on the conception of
value on this. Grice is aware that the topic is central to Oxonian
philosophers such as Hare, a member of Austin’s Play Group, too, who regard the
universability of an imperative as a mark of its categoricity, and indeed,
moral status. Grice chose some of the Kantian terminology on purpose.Grice
would refer to this or that ‘conversational maxim.’A ‘conversational maxim’
contributes to what Grice jocularly refers to as the ‘conversational
immanuel.’But there is an admission test.The ‘conversational maxim’ has to be
shown that, qua items under an overarching principle of conversational
helpfulness, the maxim displays a quality associated with conceptual, formal,
and applicational generality. Grice never understood what Kant meant by the
categoric imperative. But for Grice, from the acceptability of the the immanuel
you can deduce the acceptability of this or that maxim, and from the
acceptability of the conversational immanuel, be conversationally helpful, you
can deduce the acceptability of this or that convesational maxim. Grice hardly
considered Kants approach to the categoric imperative other than via the
universability of this or that maxim. This or that conversational maxim,
provided by Grice, may be said to be universalisable if and only if it displays
what Grice sees as these three types of generality: conceptual, formal, and
applicational. He does the same for general maxims of conduct. The results are
compiled in a manual of universalisable maxims, the conversational immanuel, an
appendix to the general immanuel. The other justification by Kant of the
categoric imperative involve an approach other than the genitorial
justification, and an invocation of autonomy and freedom. It is the use by
Plato of imperative as per categoric imperative that has Grice expanding on
modes other than the doxastic, to bring in the buletic, where the categoric
imperative resides. Note that in the end Kant DOES formulate the categoric
imperative, as Grice notes, as a real imperative, rather than a command, etc.
Grice loved Kant, but he loved Kantotle best. In the last Kant lecture, he
proposes to define the categorical imperative as a counsel of prudence, with a
protasis Let Grice be happy. The derivation involves eight stages! Grice found
out that out of his play-group activities with this or that linguistic nuance
he had arrived at the principle, or imperative of conversational helpfulness,
indeed formulated as an imperative: Make your contribution such as is required,
at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose of the conversation in
which you are engaged. He notes that the rationality behind the idea of
conversation as rational co-operation does not preclude seeing rationality in
conversation as other than cooperation. The fact that he chooses maxim, and
explicitly echoes Kant, indicates where Grice is leading! An exploration on
Paton on the categorical imperative. Grice had previously explored the
logical form of hypothetical or suppositional imperatives in the Kant
(and later Locke) lectures, notably in Lecture IV, Further remarks on practical
and alethic reasons. Here he considers topics related to Hares
tropic-clistic neustic-phrastic quartet. What does it mean to say that
a command is conditional? The two successors of Grices post as
Tutorial Fellow at St. Johns, Baker Hacker, will tackle the same issue with
humour, in Sense and nonsense, published by Blackwell (too irreverent to be
published by the Clarendon). Is the logical form of a maxim, .p⊃!q, or !(.p ⊃.q),
etc. Kant thought that there is a special
sub-class of hypothetical or suppositional imperative (which he
called a counsels of prudence) which is like his class of technical imperative,
except in that the end specified in a full specfication of the imperative is
the special end of eudæmonia (the agents eudæmonia). For Grice, understanding
Kant’s first version of the categorical imperative involves understanding what
a maxim is supposed to be. Grice explores at some length four
alternative interpretations of an iffy buletic (as opposed to a
non-iffy buletic): three formal, one material. The first interpretation is the
horseshoe interpretation. A blind logical nose might lead us or be led to
the assumption of a link between a buletically iffy utterance and a
doxastically iffy utterance. Such a link no doubt exists, but the most obvious version of
it is plainly inadequate. At least one other philosopher besides Grice has
noticed that If he torments the cat, have him arrested! is unlikely to express
an buletically iffy utterance, and that even if one restricts oneself
to this or that case in which the protasis specifies a will, we find pairs of
examples like If you will to go to Oxford, travel by AA via Richmond! or
If you will to go to Cambridge, see a psychiatrist! where it is plain that one
is, and the other is not, the expression of a buletically iffy utterance. For
fun, Grice does not tell which! A less easily eliminable suggestion, yet one
which would still interprets the notion of a buletically iffy utterance in
terms of that particular logical form to which if, hypothetical or suppositional and conditional attach, would be the
following. Let us assume that it is established, or conceded, as legitimate to
formulate an if utterance in which not only the apodosis is couched in some
mode other than the doxastic, as in this or that conditional command. If you
see the whites of their eyes, shoot fire! but also the protasis or some part
(clause) of them. In which case all of the following might be admissible
conditionals. Thus, we might have a doxastic protasis (If the cat is sick, take
it to the vet), or a mixed (buletic-cum-doxastic protasis (If you are to take
the cat to the vet and theres no cage available, put it on Marthas lap!), and
buletic protasis (If you are to take the cat to the vet, put it in a cage!). If
this suggestion seems rebarbative, think of this or that quaint if utterance
(when it is quaint) as conditionalised versions of this or that
therefore-sequence, such as: buletic-cum-doxastic premises (Take the cat
to the vet! There isnt a cage. Therefore; Put the cat on Marthas lap!), buletic
premise (Take the cat to the vet! Put it in a cage!). And then, maybe, the
discomfort is reduced. Grice next considers a second formal interpretation or
approach to the buletically iffy/non-iffy utterance. Among if utterances with a
buletic apodosis some will have, then, a mixed doxastic-cum buletic protasis
(partly doxastic, partly buletic), and some will have a purely doxastic
protasis (If the cat is sick, take him to the vet!). Grice proposes a
definition of the iffy/non-iffy distinction. A buletically iffy utterance is an
iffy utterance the apodosis of which is buletic and the protasis of which is
buletic or mixed (buletic-cum-dxastic) or it is an elliptical version of such
an iffy utterance. A buletically non-iffy utterance is a buletic utterance
which is not iffy or else, if it is iffy, has a purely doxastic protasis. Grice
makes three quick comments on this second interpretation. First, re: a real
imperative. The structures which are being offered as a way of interpreting an
iffy and a non-iffy imperative do not, as they stand, offer any room for
the appearance this or that buletic modality like ought and should which are so
prominently visible in the standard examples of those kinds of imperatives. The
imperatives suggested by Grice are explicit imperatives. An explicit buletic
utterance is Do such-and-such! and not You ought to do such and such or, worse,
One ought to do such and such. Grice thinks, however, that one can modify this
suggestion to meet the demand for the appearance or occurrence of ought (etc)
if such occurrence is needed. Second, it would remain to be decided how close
the preferred reading of Grices deviant conditional imperatives would be to the
accepted interpretation of standard hypothetical or suppositional imperatives.
But even if there were some divergence that might be acceptable if the new
interpretation turns out to embody a more precise notion than the standard
conception. Then theres the neustical versus tropical protases. There are,
Grice thinks, serious doubts of the admissibility of conditionals with a
NON-doxastic protasis, which are for Grice connected with the very difficult
question whether the doxastic and the buletic modes are co-ordinate
or whether the doxastic mode is in some crucial fashion (but not in
other) prior (to use Suppess qualification) to the buletic. Grice
confesses he does not know the answer to that question. A third formal
interpretation links the iffy/non-iffy distinction to the
absolute-relative value distinction. An iffy imperatives would be end-relative
and might be analogous to an evidence-relative probability. A
non-iffy imperatives would not be end-relative. Finally, a fourth
Interpretation is not formal, but material. This is close to part of what
Kant says on the topic. It is a distinction between an imperative
being escapable (iffy), through the absence of a particular will and its
not being escapable (non-iffy). If we understand the idea of escabability
sufficiently widely, the following imperatives are all escapable, even
though their logical form is not in every case the same: Give up popcorn!,
To get slim, give up popcorn!, If you will to get slim, give up
popcorn! Suppose Grice has no will to get slim. One might say that the
first imperative (Give up popcorn!) is escaped, provided giving up popcorn
has nothing else to recommend it, by falsifying You should give up
popcorn. The second and the third imperatives (To get slim, give up
pocorn! and If you will to get slim, give up popcorn!) would not, perhaps,
involve falsification but they would, in the circumstances, be
inapplicable to Grice – and inapplicability, too, counts, as escape. A
non-iffy imperative however, is in no way escapable. Re: the Dynamics of
Imperatives in Discourse, Grice then gives three examples which he had
discussed in “Aspects,” which concern arguments (or therefore-chains). This we
may see as an elucidation to grasp the logical form of buletically iffy
utterance (elided by the therefore, which is an if in the metalanguage)
in its dynamics in argumentation. We should, Grice suggests,
consider not merely imperatives of each sort, together with the range
of possible characterisations, but also the possible forms of argument into
which_particular_ hypothetical or suppositional imperatives might enter.
Consider: Defend the Philosophy Department! If you are to defend the
philosophy department, learn to use bows and arrows! Therefore, learn to
use bows and arrows! Grice says he is using the dichotomy of original-derived
value. In this example, in the first premise, it is not specified whether the
will is original or derived, the second premise specifies conducive to (means),
and the conclusion would involve a derived will, provided the second premise is
doxastically satisfactory. Another example would be: Fight for your country! If
you are to fight for your country, join up one of the services! Therefore, join
up! Here, the first premise and the conclusion do not specify the protasis. If
the conclusion did, it would repeat the second premise. Then theres Increase
your holdings in oil shares! If you visit your father, hell give you some oil
shares. Therefore, visit your father! This argument (purportedly) transmits
value. Let us explore these characterisations by Grice with the aid of
Hares distinctions. For Hare in a hypothetical or suppositional imperative, the
protasis contains a neustic-cum-tropic. A distinction may be made between this
or that hypothetical or suppositional imperative and a term used by Grice
in his first interpretation of the hypothetical or suppositional
imperative, that of conditional command (If you see the whites of their
eyes, shoot fire!). A hypothetical or suppositional imperative can
be distinguished from a conditional imperative (If you want to make bread,
use yeast! If you see anything suspicious, telephone the police!) by the
fact that modus ponens is not valid for it. One may use hypothetical,
suppositional or conditional imperative for a buletic utterance which features
if, and reserve conditional command for a command which is expressed by an
imperative, and which is conditional on the satisfaction of the protasis.
Thus, on this view, treating the major premise of an argument as a
hypothetical or suppositional imperative turns the therefore-chain invalid.
Consider the sequence with the major premise as a hypothetical or suppositional
imperative. If you will to make someone mad, give him drug D! You
will to make Peter mad; therefore, give Peter drug D! By uttering this
hypothetical or suppositional imperative, the utterer tells his addressee A
only what means to adopt to achieve a given end in a way which
does not necessarily endorse the adoption of that end, and hence of
the means to it. Someone might similarly say, if you will to make
someone mad, give him drug D! But, of course, even if you will to do
that, you must not try to do so. On the other hand, the following
is arguably valid because the major premise is a conditional
imperative and not a mere hypothetical or suppositional one. We have
a case of major premise as a conditional imperative: You will to make someone
mad, give him drug D! Make Peter mad! Therefore, give Peter drug D!.
We can explain this in terms of the presence of the neustic in
the antecedent of the imperative working as the major premise.
The supposition that the protasis of a hypothetical or suppositional
imperative contains a clause in the buletic mode neatly explains why the
argument with the major premise as a hypothetical or suppositional
imperative is not valid. But the argument with the major premise as a
conditional imperative is, as well as helping to differentiate a
suppositional or hypothetical or suppositional iffy imperative from a
conditional iffy imperative. For, if the protasis of the major premise in the
hypothetical or suppositional imperative is volitival, the mere fact that
you will to make Peter mad does not license the inference of the
imperative to give him the drug; but this _can_ be inferred from the
major premise of the hypothetical or suppositional imperative
together with an imperative, the minor premise in the conditional
imperative, to make Peter mad. Whether the subordinate
clause contains a neustic thus does have have a consequence as
to the validity of inferences into which the complex sentence
enters. Then theres an alleged principle of mode constancy in buletic and
and doxastic inference. One may tries to elucidate Grices ideas on the
logical form of the hypothetical or suppositional imperative proper.
His suggestion is, admittedly, rather tentative. But it might be
argued, in the spirit of it, that an iffy imperative is of the form ((!p⊃!q) Λ .p)) ∴ !q
But this violates a principle of mode constancy. A phrastic must
remain in the same mode (within the scope of the same tropic) throughout
an argument. A conditional imperative does not violate the principle of
Modal Constancy, since it is of the form ((p⊃!q) Λ
!p)) ∴ !q The question of the logical form of
the hypothetical or suppositional imperative is
too obscure to base much on arguments concerning it. There is an
alternative to Grices account of the validity of an argument featuring a
conditional imperative. This is to treat the major premise of a
conditional imperative, as some have urged it should be as a doxastic utterance
tantamount to In order to make someone mad, you have to give him drug D.
Then an utterer who explicitly conveys or asserts the major premise of a
conditional imperative and commands the second premise is in
consistency committed to commanding the conclusion. If does not
always connect phrastic with phrastic but sometimes
connects two expressions consisting of a phrastic and a
tropic. Consider: If you walk past the post office, post the
letter! The antecedent of this imperative states, it seems, the
condition under which the imperative expressed becomes operative,
and so can not be construed buletically, since by uttering a buletic
utterance, an utterer cannot explicitly convey or assert that a condition
obtains. Hence, the protasis ought not be within the scope of the
buletic !, and whatever we take to represent the form of the
utterance above we must not take !(if p, q) to do so. One way out. On
certain interpretation of the isomorphism or æqui-vocality Thesis between
Indicative and Imperative Inference the utterance has to be construed
as an imperative (in the generic reading) to make the doxasatic
conditional If you will walk past the post office, you will post
the letter satisfactory. Leaving aside issues of the implicature of if,
that the utterance can not be so construed seems to be shown by
the fact that the imperative to make the associated doxastically iffy
utterance satisfactory is conformed with by one who does not walk past the
post office. But it seems strange at best to say that the utterance
is conformed with in the same circumstances. This strangeness or
bafflingliness, as Grice prefers, is aptly explained away in terms of the implicatum.
At Oxford, Dummett is endorsing this idea that a
conditional imperative be construed as an imperative to make an
indicative if utterance true. Dummett urges to divide conditional
imperatives into those whose antecedent is within the power of the addressee,
like the utterance in question, and those in which it is not. Consider: If
you go out, wear your coat! One may be not so much concerned with how to escape
this, as Grice is, but how to conform it. A child may choose not to go out in
order to comply with the imperative. For an imperative whose protasis is_not_
within the power of the addressee (If anyone tries to escape, shoot him!) it is
indifferent whether we treat it as a conditional imperative or not, so why
bother. A small caveat here. If no one tries to escape, the
imperative is *not violated*. One might ask, might there not be an
important practical difference bewteen saying that an imperative
has not been violated and that it has been complied with? Dummett
ignores this distinction. One may feel think there is much of a
practical difference there. Is Grice an intuitionist? Suppose that
you are a frontier guard and the antecedent has remained unfulfilled.
Then, whether we say that you complied with it, or simply did not
*violate* it will make a great deal of difference if you appear
before a war crimes tribunal. For Dummett, the fact that in the case
of an imperative expressed by a conditional imperative in which the antecedent
is not within the agents power, we should *not* say that the agent had obeyed
just on the ground that the protassi is false, is no ground for construing an
imperative as expressing a conditional command: for there is no question
of fixing what shall constitute obedience independently of the
determination of what shall constitute disobedience. This complicates the
issues. One may with Grice (and Hare, and Edgley) defend imperative inference
against other Oxonian philosophers, such as Kenny or Williams. What is
questioned by the sceptics about imperative inference is whether if each
one of a set of imperatives is used with the force of a command, one can
infer a _further_ imperative with that force from them. Cf. Wiggins on
Aristotle on the practical syllogism. One may be more conservative than Hare,
if not Grice. Consider If you stand by Jane, dont look at her! You stand by
Jane; therefore, dont look at her! This is valid. However, the following,
obtained by anti-logism, is not: If you stand by Jane, dont look at her! Look
at her! Therefore, you dont stand by Jane. It may seem more reasonable to some
to deny Kants thesis, and maintain that anti-logism is valid in imperative
inference than it is to hold onto Kants thesis and deny that antilogism is
valid in the case in question. Then theres the question of the implicata involved
in the ordering of modes. Consider: Varnish every piece of furniture you make!
You are going to make a table; therefore, varnish it! This is prima facie
valid. The following, however, switching the order of the modes in the premises
is not. You are going to varnish every piece of furniture that you make. Make a
table! Therefore; varnish it! The connection between the if and the therefore
is metalinguistic, obviously – the validity of the therefore chain is proved by
the associated if that takes the premise as, literally, the protasis and the
consequence as the apodosis. Conversational Implicature at the
Rescue. Problems with or: Consider Rosss infamous example: Post the letter!
Therefore, post the letter or burn it! as invalid, Ross – and endorsed at Oxford
by Williams. To permit to do p or q is to permit to do p and to
permit to do q. Similarly, to give permission to do something is to lift a
prohibition against doing it. Admittedly, Williams does not need this
so we are stating his claim more strongly than he does. One may
review Grices way out (defense of the validity of the utterance above in
terms of the implicatum. Grice claims that in Rosss infamous example (valid,
for Grice), whilst (to state it roughly) the premises permissive presupposition
(to use the rather clumsy term introduced by Williams) is entailed by it, the
conclusions is only conversationally implicated. Typically for an
isomorphist, Grice says this is something shared by
indicative inferences. If, being absent-minded, Grice asks his wife, What
have I done with the letter? And she replies, You have posted it or burnt it,
she conversationally implicates that she is not in a position to say which
Grice has done. She also conversationally implicates that Grice may not have
post it, so long as he has burnt it. Similarly, the future tense indicative, You
are going to post the letter has the conversational implicature You may be not
going to post the letter so long as you are going to burn it. But this
surely does not validate the introduction rule for OR, to wit: p;
therefore, p or q. One can similarly, say: Eclipse will win. He may not, of
course, if it rains. And I *know* it will *not* rain. Problems with and.
Consider: Put on your parachute AND jump out! Therefore, jump out! Someone who
_only_ jumps out of an æroplane does not fulfil Put on your parachute and
jump out! He has done only what is necessary, but not sufficient to
fulfil it. Imperatives do not differ from indicatives in this respect,
except that fulfilment takes the place of belief or doxa, which is the form of
acceptance apprpriate to a doxasatic utterance, as the Names implies.
Someone who is told Smith put on his parachute AND jumped out is entitled
to believe that Smith jumped out. But if he believes that this is _all_ Smith
did he is in error (Cf. Edgley). One may discuss Grices test of cancellability
in the case of the transport officer who says: Go via Coldstream or Berwick! It
seems the transport officers way of expressing himself is extremely
eccentric, or conversationally baffling, as Grice prefers – yet validly. If the
transport officer is not sure if a storm may block one of the routes,
what he should say is _Prepare_ to go via Coldstream or Berwick! As for the
application of Grices test of explicit cancellation here, it yield, in the
circumstances, the transport officer uttering Go either via Coldstream or
Berwick! But you may not go via Coldstream if you do not go via
Berwick, and you may not go via Berwick if you do not go via Coldstream. Such
qualifications ‒ what Grice calls explicit cancellation of the
implicature ‒ seem to the addressee to empty the buletic mode of
utterance of all content and is thus reminiscent of Henry Fords utterance to
the effect that people can choose what colour car they like provided it is
black. But then Grice doesnt think Ford is being illogical, only Griceian and
implicatural! Refs.: There is at least one essay just about the categorical
imperative, but there are scattered references wherever Grice considers the
mood markers, The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
intensionalism: Grice finds a way to relieve a predicate that is vacuous
from the embarrassing consequence of denoting or being satisfied by the empty
set. Grice exploits the nonvoidness of a predicate which is part of the definition
of the void predicate. Consider the vacuous predicate:‘... is married to a
daughter of an English queen and a pope.'The class '... is a daugther of
an English queen and a pope.'is co-extensive with the predicate '...
stands in relation to a sequence composed of the class married to,
daughters, English queens, and popes.'We correlate the void predicate with the
sequence composed of relation R, the set ‘married to,’ the set
‘daughters,’ the set ‘English queens,’ and the set ‘popes.'Grice uses this
sequence, rather than the empty set, to determine the explanatory potentiality
of a void predicate. The admissibility of a nonvoid predicate in an
explanation of a possible phenomenon (why it would happen if it did happen) may
depends on the availability of a generalisation whithin which the predicate
specifies the antecedent condition. A non-trivial generalisations of this
sort is certainly available if derivable from some further generalisation
involving a less specific antecedent condition, supported by an antecedent
condition that is specified by means a nonvoid predicate.
intentionalism: when Anscombe comes out with her “Intention,” Grice’s Play
Group does not know what to do. Hampshire is almost finished with his “Thought
and action” that came out the following year. Grice is lecturing on how a
“dispositional” reductive analysis of ‘intention’ falls short of his favoured
instrospectionalism. Had he not fallen for an intention-based semantics (or
strictly, an analysis of "U means that p" in terms of U intends that
p"), Grice would be obsessed with an analysis of ‘intending that …’
James makes an observation about the that-clause. I will that the distant table
slides over the floor toward me. It does not. The Anscombe Society. Irish-born
Anscombe’s views are often discussed by Oxonian philosophers. She brings
Witters to the Dreaming Spires, as it were. Grice is especially connected
with Anscombes reflections on intention. While he favoures an approach
such as that of Hampshire in Thought and Action, Grice borrows a few points
from Anscombe, notably that of direction of fit, originally Austin’s. Grice
explicitly refers to Anscombe in “Uncertainty,” and in his reminiscences he
hastens to add that Anscombe would never attend any of the Saturday mornings of
the play group, as neither does Dummett. The view of Ryle is standardly
characterised as a weaker or softer version of behaviourism According to this
standard interpretation, the view by Ryle is that a statements containin this
or that term relating to the ‘soul’ can be translated, without loss of meaning,
into an ‘if’ utterance about what an agent does. So Ryle, on this account, is
to be construed as offering a dispositional analysis of a statement about the
soul into a statement about behaviour. It is conceded that Ryle does not
confine a description of what the agent does to purely physical behaviour—in
terms, e. g. of a skeletal or a muscular description. Ryle is happy to speak of
a full-bodied action like scoring a goal or paying a debt. But the soft
behaviourism attributed to Ryle still attempts an analysis or translation of
statement about the soul into this or that dispositional statement which is
itself construed as subjunctive if describing what the agent does. Even this
soft behaviourism fails. A description of the soul is not analysable or
translatable into a statement about behaviour or praxis even if this
is allowed to include a non-physical descriptions of action. The list of
conditions and possible behaviour is infinite since any one proffered
translation may be ‘defeated,’ as Hart and Hall would say, by a slight
alteration of the circumstances. The defeating condition in any particular case
may involve a reference to a fact about the agent’s soul, thereby rendering the
analysis circular. In sum, the standard interpretation of Ryle construes him as
offering a somewhat weakened form of reductive behaviourism whose reductivist
ambition, however weakened, is nonetheless futile. This characterisation
of Ryle’s programme is wrong. Although it is true that he is keen to point out
the disposition behind this or that concept about the soul, it would be wrong
to construe Ryle as offering a programme of analysis of a ‘soul’ predicate in
terms of an ‘if’ utterance. The relationship between a ‘soul’ predicate and the
‘if’ utterance with which he unpack it is other than that required by this kind
of analysis. It is helpful to keep in mind that Ryle’s target is the
official doctrine with its eschatological commitment. Ryle’s argument serves to
remind one that we have in a large number of cases ways of telling or settling
disputes, e. g., about someone’s character or intellect. If A disputes a
characterisation of Smith as willing that p, or judging that p, B may point to
what Smith says and does in defending the attribution, as well as to features
of the circumstances. But the practice of giving a reason of this kind to
defend or to challenge an ascription of a ‘soul’ predicates would be put under
substantial pressure if the official doctrine is correct. For Ryle to
remind us that we do, as a matter of fact, have a way of settling disputes
about whether Smith wills that he eat an apple is much weaker than saying that
the concept of willing is meaningless unless it is observable or verifiable; or
even that the successful application of a soul predicate requires that we have
a way of settling a dispute in every case. Showing that a concept is one for
which, in a large number of cases, we have an agreement-reaching procedure,
even if it do not always guarantee success, captures an important point,
however: it counts against any theory of, e. g., willing that would render it
unknowable in principle or in practice whether or not the concept is
correctly applied in every case. And this is precisely the problem with the
official doctrine (and is still a problem, with some of its progeny. Ryle
points out that there is a form of dilemma that pits the reductionist against
the dualist: those whose battle-cry is ‘nothing but…’ and those who insist
on ‘something else as well.’ Ryle attempts a dissolution of the dilemma by
rejecting the two horns; not by taking sides with either one, though part of
what dissolution requires in this case, as in others, is a description of how
each side is to be commended for seeing what the other side does not, and
criticised for failing to see what the other side does. The attraction of
behaviourism, Ryle reminds us, is simply that it does not insist on an occult
happening as the basis upon which a ‘soul’ term is given meaning, and points to
a perfectly observable criterion that is by and large employed when we are
called upon to defend or correct our employment of a ‘soul’ term. The problem
with behaviourism is that it has a too-narrow view both of what counts as
behaviour and of what counts as observable. Then comes Grice to play with
meaning and intending, and allowing for deeming an avowal of this or that souly
state as, in some fashion, incorrigible. For Grice, while U does have, ceteris
paribus privileged access to each state of his soul, only his or that avowal of
this or that souly state is deemed incorrigible. This concerns communication as
involving intending. Grice goes back to this at Brighton. He plays with G
judges that it is raining, G judges that G judges that it is raining. Again,
Grice uses a subscript: “G judges2 that it is raining.” If now G
expresses that it is raining, G judges2 that it is raining. A
second-order avowal is deemed incorrigible. It is not surprising the the
contemporary progeny of the official doctrine sees a behaviourist in Grice. Yet
a dualist is badly off the mark in his critique of Grice. While Grice does
appeal to a practice and a habif, and even the more technical ‘procedure’ in
the ordinary way as ‘procedure’ is used in ordinary discussion. Grice does not
make a technical concept out of them as one expect of some behavioural
psychologist, which he is not. He is at most a philosophical psychologist, and
a functionalist one, rather than a reductionist one. There is nothing in any
way that is ‘behaviourist’ or reductionist or physicalist about Grice’s talk.
It is just ordinary talk about behaviour. There is nothing exceptional in
talking about a practice, a customs, or a habit regarding communication. Grice
certainly does not intend that this or that notion, as he uses it, gives anything
like a detailed account of the creative open-endedness of a
communication-system. What this or that anti-Griceian has to say IS essentially
a diatribe first against empiricism (alla Quine), secondarily against a
Ryle-type of behaviourism, and in the third place, Grice. In more reasoned and
dispassionate terms, one would hardly think of Grice as a behaviourist (he in
fact rejects such a label in “Method”), but as an intentionalist. When we call
Grice an intentionalist, we are being serious. As a modista, Grice’s keyword is
intentionalism, as per the good old scholastic ‘intentio.’ We hope so. This is
Aunt Matilda’s conversational knack. Grice keeps a useful correspondence with
Suppes which was helpful. Suppes takes Chomsky more seriously than an Oxonian
philosopher would. An Oxonian philosopher never takes Chomsky too seriously. Granted,
Austin loves to quote “Syntactic Structures” sentence by sentence for fun,
knowing that it would never count as tutorial material. Surely “Syntactic
Structures” would not be a pamphlet a member of the play group would use to
educate his tutee. It is amusing that when he gives the Locke lectures, Chomsky
cannot not think of anything better to do but to criticise Grice, and citing him
from just one reprint in the collection edited by, of all people, Searle. Some
gratitude. The references are very specific to Grice. Grice feels he needs to
provide, he thinks, an analysis ‘mean’ as metabolically applied to an expression.
Why? Because of the implicatum. By uttering x (thereby explicitly conveying
that p), U implicitly conveys that q iff U relies on some procedure in his and
A’s repertoire of procedures of U’s and A’s communication-system. It is this
talk of U’s being ‘ready,’ and ‘having a procedure in his repertoire’ that
sounds to New-World Chomsky too Morrisian, as it does not to an Oxonian.
Suppes, a New-Worlder, puts himself in Old-Worlder Grice’s shoes about this. Chomsky
should never mind. When an Oxonian philosopher, not a psychologist, uses ‘procedure’
and ‘readiness,’ and having a procedure in a repertoire, he is being Oxonian
and not to be taken seriously, appealing to ordinary language, and so on.
Chomsky apparently does get it. Incidentally, Suppess has defended Grice
against two other targets, less influential. One is Hungarian-born J. I. Biro,
who does not distinguish between reductive analysis and reductionist analysis,
as Grice does in his response to Somervillian Rountree-Jack. The other target
is perhaps even less influential: P. Yu in a rather simplistic survey of the
Griceian programme for a journal that Grice finds too specialized to count, “Linguistics
and Philosophy.” Grice is always ashamed and avoided of being described as “our
man in the philosophy of language.” Something that could only have happened in
the Old World in a red-brick university, as Grice calls it. Suppes contributes to PGRICE with an
excellent ‘The primacy of utterers meaning,’ where he addresses what he rightly
sees as an unfair characterisations of Grice as a behaviourist. Suppes’s use of
“primacy” is genial, since its metabole which is all about. Biro actually responds
to Suppes’s commentary on Grice as proposing a reductive but not reductionist
analysis of meaning. Suppes rightly characterises Grice as an Oxonian ‘intentionalist’
(alla Ogden), as one would characterize Hampshire, with philosophical
empiricist, and slightly idealist, or better ideationalist, tendencies, rather.
Suppes rightly observes that Grice’ use of such jargon is meant to impress.
Surely there are more casual ways of referring to this or that utterer having a
basic procedure in his repertoire. It is informal and colloquial, enough,
though, rather than behaviouristically, as Ryle would have it. Grice is very
happy that in the New World Suppes teaches him how to use ‘primacy’ with a
straight face! Intentionalism is also all the vogue in Collingwood reading
Croce, and Gardiner reading Marty via Ogden, and relates to expression. In his
analysis of intending Grice is being very Oxonian, and pre-Austinian: relying,
just to tease leader Austin, on Stout, Wilson, Bosanquet, MacMurray, and
Pritchard. Refs.: There are two sets of essays. An early one on ‘disposition
and intention,’ and the essay for The British Academy (henceforth, BA). Also
his reply to Anscombe and his reply to Davidson. There is an essay on the
subjective condition on intention. Obviously, his account of communication has
been labeled the ‘intention-based semantic’ programme, so references under
‘communication’ above are useful. BANC.
linguistic botany: Grice was a meta-linguistic botanist. His point was to
criticise ordinary-language philosophers criticising philosophers. Say: Plato
and Ayer say that episteme is a kind of doxa. The contemporary, if dated,
ordinary-language philosopher detects a nuance, and embarks risking collision
with the conversational facts or data: rushes ahead to exploit the nuance
without clarifying it, with wrong dicta like: What I known to be the case I
dont believe to be the case. Surely, a cancellable implicatum generated by the
rational principle of conversational helpfulness is all there is to the nuance.
Grice knew that unlike the ordinary-language philosopher, he was not providing
a taxonomy or description, but a theoretical explanation. To not all
philosophers analysis fits them to a T. It did to Grice. It did not even fit
Strawson. Grice had a natural talent for analysis. He could not see philosophy
as other than conceptual analysis. “No more, no less.” Obviously, there is an
evaluative side to the claim that the province of philosophy is to be
identified with conceptual analysis. Listen to a theoretical physicist, and
hell keep talking about concepts, and even analysing them! The man in the
street may not! So Grice finds himself fighting with at least three enemies:
the man in the street (and trying to reconcile with him: What I do is to help you), the scientists (My
conceptual analysis is meta-conceptual), and synthetic philosophers who
disagree with Grice that analysis plays a key role in philosophical
methodology. Grice sees this as an update to his post-war Oxford philosophy.
But we have to remember that back when he read that paper, post-war Oxford
philosophy, was just around the corner and very fashionable. By the time he
composed the piece on conceptual analysis as overlapping with the province of
philosophy, he was aware that, in The New World, anaytic had become, thanks to
Quine, a bit of an abusive term, and that Grices natural talent for linguistic
botanising (at which post-war Oxford philosophy excelled) was not something he
could trust to encounter outside Oxford, and his Play Group! Since his Negation
and Personal identity Grice is concerned with reductive analysis. How many
angels can dance on a needles point? A needless point? This is Grices update to
his Post-war Oxford philosophy. More generally concerned with the province of
philosophy in general and conceptual analysis beyond ordinary language. It can
become pretty technical. Note the Roman overtone of province. Grice is
implicating that the other province is perhaps science, even folk science, and
the claims and ta legomena of the man in the street. He also likes to play with
the idea that a conceptual enquiry need not be philosophical. Witness the very
opening to Logic and conversation, Prolegomena. Surely not all inquiries need
be philosophical. In fact, a claim to infame of Grice at the Play Group is
having once raised the infamous, most subtle, question: what is it that makes a
conceptual enquiry philosophically interesting or important? As a result,
Austin and his kindergarten spend three weeks analysing the distinct
inappropriate implicata of adverbial collocations of intensifiers like highly
depressed, versus very depressed, or very red, but not highly red, to no avail.
Actually the logical form of very is pretty complicated, and Grice seems to
minimise the point. Grices moralising implicature, by retelling the story, is
that he has since realised (as he hoped Austin knew) that there is no way he or
any philosopher can dictate to any other philosopher, or himself, what is it
that makes a conceptual enquiry philosophically interesting or important.
Whether it is fun is all that matters. Refs.: The main references are
meta-philosophical, i. e. Grice talking about linguistic botany, rather than
practicing it. “Reply to Richards,” and the references under “Oxonianism” below
are helpful. For actual practice, under ‘rationality.’ There is a specific essay
on linguistic botanising, too. The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
Maximum:
Grice uses ‘maximum’ variously. “Maximally effective exchange of information.”
Maximum is used in decision theory and in value theory. Cfr. Kasher on maximin.
“Maximally effective exchange of information” (WOW: 28) is the exact phrase
Grice uses, allowing it should be generalised. He repeats the idea in
“Epilogue.” Things did not change.
mentatum: If perhaps Grice was unhappy about the artificial flavour
to saying that a word is a sign, Grice surely should have checked with all the
Grecian-Roman cognates of mean, as in his favourite memorative-memorable
distinction, and the many Grecian realisations, or with Old Roman mentire
and mentare. Lewis and Short have “mentĭor,” f. mentire, L and S note, is
prob. from root men-, whence mens and memini, q. v. The original meaning, they
say, is to invent, hence, but alla Umberto Eco with sign, mentire comes
to mean in later use what Grice (if not the Grecians) holds is the opposite of
mean. Short and Lewis render mentire as to lie, cheat, deceive, etc., to
pretend, to declare falsely: mentior nisi or si mentior, a form of
asseveration, I am a liar, if, etc.: But also, animistically (modest
mentalism?) of things, as endowed with a mind. L and S go on: to deceive,
impose upon, to deceive ones self, mistake, to lie or speak falsely about, to
assert falsely, make a false promise about; to feign, counterfeit, imitate a
shape, nature, etc.: to devise a falsehood, to assume falsely, to promise
falsely, to invent, feign, of a poetical fiction: “ita mentitur (sc.
Homerus), Trop., of inanim. grammatical Subjects, as in Semel fac illud,
mentitur tua quod subinde tussis, Do what your cough keeps falsely promising,
i. e. die, Mart. 5, 39, 6. Do what your cough means! =imp. die!; hence,
mentĭens, a fallacy, sophism: quomodo mentientem, quem ψευδόμενον vocant,
dissolvas;” mentītus, imitated, counterfeit, feigned (poet.): “mentita tela;”
For “mentior,” indeed, there is a Griceian implicatum involving rational
control. The rendition of mentire as to lie stems from a figurative
shift from to be mindful, or inventive, to have second thoughts" to
"to lie, conjure up". But Grice would also have a look at cognate
“memini,” since this is also cognate with “mind,” “mens,” and covers subtler
instances of mean, as in Latinate, “mention,” as in Grices “use-mention”
distinction. mĕmĭni, cognate with "mean" and German
"meinen," to think = Grecian ὑπομένειν, await (cf. Schiffer,
"remnants of meaning," if I think, I hesitate, and therefore re-main,
cf. Grecian μεν- in μένω, Μέντωρ; μαν- in μαίνομαι, μάντις; μνᾶ- in μιμνήσκω,
etc.; cf.: maneo, or manere, as in remain. The idea, as Schiffer well
knows or means, being that if you think, you hesitate, and therefore, wait and
remain], moneo, reminiscor [cf. reminiscence], mens, Minerva, etc. which L and
S render as “to remember, recollect, to think of, be mindful of a
thing; not to have forgotten a person or thing, to bear in
mind (syn.: reminiscor, recordor).” Surely with a relative clause,
and to make mention of, to mention a thing, either in speaking or
writing (rare but class.). Hence. mĕmĭnens, mindful And then Grice would
have a look at moneo, as in adMONish, also cognate is “mŏnĕo,” monere,
causative from the root "men;" whence memini, q. v., mens (mind),
mentio (mention); lit. to cause to think, to re-mind, put in mind of, bring to
ones recollection; to admonish, advise, warn, instruct, teach (syn.: hortor,
suadeo, doceo). L and S are Griceian if not Grecian when they note that
‘monere’ can be used "without the accessory notion [implicatum or
entanglement, that is] of reminding or admonishing, in gen., to teach,
instruct, tell, inform, point out; also, to announce, predict,
foretell, even if also to punish, chastise (only in Tacitus): “puerili verbere moneri.” And surely,
since he loved to re-minisced, Grice would have allowed to just earlier on just
minisced. Short and Lewis indeed have rĕmĭniscor, which, as they point out,
features the root men; whence mens, memini; and which they compare to
comminiscere, v. comminiscor, to recall to mind, recollect, remember (syn.
recordor), often used by the Old Romans with with Grices beloved
that-clause, for sure. For what is the good of reminiscing or
comminiscing, if you cannot reminisce that Austin always reminded Grice that
skipping the dictionary was his big mistake! If Grice uses mention, cognate
with mean, he loved commenting Aristotle. And commentare is, again, cognate
with mean. As opposed to the development of the root in Grecian, or English, in
Roman the root for mens is quite represented in many Latinate cognates. But a
Roman, if not a Grecian, would perhaps be puzzled by a Grice claiming, by
intuition, to retrieve the necessary and sufficient conditions for the use of
this or that expression. When the Roman is told that the Griceian did it for
fun, he understands, and joins in the fun! Indeed, hardly a natural kind in the
architecture of the world, but one that fascinated Grice and the Grecian
philosophers before him! Communication.
meta-ethics: For Grice it is complicated, since there is an ethical or
practical side even to an eschatological argument. Grice’s views on ethics are
Oxonian. At Oxford, meta-ethics is a generational thing: there’s Grice, and the
palaeo-Gricieans, and the post-Gricieans. There’s Hampshire, and Hare, and
Nowell-Smith, and Warnock. P. H. Nowell Smith felt overwhelmed by Grice’s
cleverness and they would hardly engage in meta-ethical questions. But Nowell
Smith felt that Grice was ‘too clever.’ Grice objected Hare’s use of
descriptivism and Strawsons use of definite descriptor. Grice preferred to say
“the the.”. “Surely Hare is wrong when sticking with his anti-descriptivist
diatribe. Even his dictum is descriptive!” Grice was amused that it all started
with Abbott BEFORE 1879, since Abbott’s first attempt was entitled, “Kant’s
theory of ethics, or practical philosophy” (1873). ”! Grices explorations on
morals are language based. With a substantial knowledge of the classical
languages (that are so good at verb systems and modes like the optative, that
English lacks), Grice explores modals like should, (Hampshire) ought to
(Hare) and, must (Grice ‒ necessity). Grice is well aware of Hares
reflections on the neustic qualifications on the phrastic. The imperative has
usually been one source for the philosophers concern with the language of
morals. Grice attempts to balance this with a similar exploration on good,
now regarded as the value-paradeigmatic notion par excellence. We cannot
understand, to echo Strawson, the concept of a person unless we understand the
concept of a good person, i.e. the philosopher’s conception of a good
person. Morals is very Oxonian. There were in Grices time only
three chairs of philosophy at Oxford: the three W: the Waynflete chair of
metaphysical philosophy, the Wykeham chair of logic (not philosophy, really),
and the White chair of moral philosophy. Later, the Wilde chair of
philosophical psychology was created. Grice was familiar with Austin’s
cavalier attitude to morals as Whites professor of moral philosophy, succeeding
Kneale. When Hare succeeds Austin, Grice knows that it is time to play
with the neustic implicatum! Grices approach to morals is very
meta-ethical and starts with a fastidious (to use Blackburns characterisation,
not mine!) exploration of modes related to propositional phrases involving
should, ought to, and must. For Hampshire, should is the moral word par
excellence. For Hare, it is ought. For Grice, it is only must that
preserves that sort of necessity that, as a Kantian rationalist, he is looking
for. However, Grice hastens to add that whatever hell say about the buletic,
practical or boulomaic must must also apply to the doxastic must, as in What
goes up must come down. That he did not hesitate to use necessity operators is
clear from his axiomatic treatment, undertaken with Code, on Aristotelian
categories of izzing and hazzing. To understand Grices view on ethics, we
should return to the idea of creature construction in more detail. Suppose we
are genitors-demigods-designing living creatures, creatures Grice calls Ps. To
design a type of P is to specify a diagram and table for that type plus
evaluative procedures, if any. The design is implemented in animal stuff-flesh
and bones typically. Let us focus on one type of P-a very sophisticated type
that Grice, borrowing from Locke, calls very intelligent rational Ps. Let me be
a little more explicit, and a great deal more speculative, about the possible
relation to ethics of my programme for philosophical psychology. I shall
suppose that the genitorial programme has been realized to the point at which
we have designed a class of Ps which, nearly following Locke, I might call very
intelligent rational Ps. These Ps will be capable of putting themselves in the
genitorial position, of asking how, if they were constructing themselves with a
view to their own survival, they would execute this task; and, if we have done
our work aright, their answer will be the same as ours . We might, indeed,
envisage the contents of a highly general practical manual, which these Ps
would be in a position to compile. The contents of the initial manual would
have various kinds of generality which are connected with familiar discussions
of universalizability. The Ps have, so far, been endowed only with the
characteristics which belong to the genitorial justified psychological theory;
so the manual will have to be formulated in terms of that theory, together with
the concepts involved in the very general description of livingconditions which
have been used to set up that theory; the manual will therefore have conceptual
generality. There will be no way of singling out a special subclass of
addressees, so the injunctions of the manual will have to be addressed,
indifferently, to any very intelligent rational P, and will thus have
generality of form. And since the manual can be thought of as being composed by
each of the so far indistinguishable Ps, no P would include in the manual
injunctions prescribing a certain line of conduct in circumstances to which he
was not likely to be Subjects; nor indeed could he do so even if he would. So
the circumstances for which conduct is prescribed could be presumed to be such
as to be satisfied, from time to time, by any addressee; the manual, then, will
have generality of application. Such a manual might, perhaps, without
ineptitude be called an immanuel; and the very intelligent rational Ps, each of
whom both composes it and from time to time heeds it, might indeed be ourselves
(in our better moments, of course). Refs.: Most of Grice’s theorizing on ethics
counts as ‘meta-ethic,’ especially in connection with R. M. Hare, but also with
less prescriptivist Oxonian philosophers such as Nowell-Smith, with his
bestseller for Penguin, Austin, Warnock, and Hampshire. Keywords then are
‘ethic,’ and ‘moral.’ There are many essays on both Kantotle, i.e. on Aristotle
and Kant. The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
mode: Grice is a modista. He sometimes uses ‘modus,’ after
Abbott. The earliest record is of course “Meaning.” After elucidating what he
calls ‘informative cases,’ he moves to ‘imperative’ ones. Grice agreed with
Thomas Urquhart that English needed a few more moods! Grice’s seven modes.Thirteenthly,
In lieu of six moods which other languages have at most, this one injoyeth
seven in its conjugable words. Ayer had said that non-indicative
utterances are hardly significant. Grice had been freely using the very English
not Latinate ‘mood’ until Moravcsik, of all people, corrects him: What you
mean ain’t a mood. I shall call it mode just to please you, J. M. E. The
sergeant is to muster the men at dawn is a perfect imperative. They shall not
pass is a perfect intentional. A version of this essay was presented in a
conference whose proceedings were published, except for Grices essay, due to
technical complications, viz. his idiosyncratic use of idiosyncratic symbology! By
mode Grice means indicative or imperative. Following Davidson, Grice attaches
probability to the indicative, via the doxastic, and desirability to the
indicative, via the buletic-boulomaic. He also allows for mixed
utterances. Probability is qualified with a suboperator indicating a degree d;
ditto for desirability, degree d. In some of the drafts, Grice kept using mode
until Moravsik suggested to him that mode was a better choice, seeing that
Grices modality had little to do with what other authors were referring to as
mood. Probability, desirability, and modality, modality, desirability, and
probability; modality, probability, desirability. He would use mode
operator. Modality is the more correct term, for things like should,
ought, and must, in that order. One sense. The doxastic modals are
correlated to probability. The buletic or boulomaic modals are correlated to
desirability. There is probability to a degree d. But there is also
desirability to a degree d. They both combine in Grices attempt to
show how Kants categorical imperative reduces to the hypothetical or
suppositional. Kant uses modality in a way that Grice disfavours, preferring
modus. Grice is aware of the use by Kant of modality qua category in the reduction
by Kant to four of the original ten categories in Aristotle). The Jeffrey-style
entitled Probability, desirability, and mode operators finds Grice at his
formal-dress best. It predates the Kant lectures and it got into so much detail
that Grice had to leave it at that. So abstract it hurts. Going further than
Davidson, Grice argues that structures expressing probability and desirability
are not merely analogous. They can both be replaced by more complex structures
containing a common element. Generalising over attitudes using the symbol ψ,
which he had used before, repr. WoW:v, Grice proposes G ψ that p. Further,
Grice uses i as a dummy for sub-divisions of psychological attitudes. Grice
uses Op supra i sub α, read: operation supra i sub alpha, as Grice was
fastidious enough to provide reading versions for these, and where α is a dummy
taking the place of either A or B, i. e. Davidsons prima facie or desirably,
and probably. In all this, Grice keeps using the primitive !, where a more
detailed symbolism would have it correspond exactly to Freges composite
turnstile (horizontal stroke of thought and vertical stroke of assertoric
force, Urteilstrich) that Grice of course also uses, and for which it is
proposed, then: !─p. There are generalising movements here but also merely specificatory
ones. α is not generalised. α is a dummy to serve as a blanket for
this or that specifications. On the other hand, ψ is indeed generalised. As for
i, is it generalising or specificatory? i is a dummy for specifications, so it
is not really generalising. But Grice generalises over specifications. Grice
wants to find buletic, boulomaic or volitive as he prefers when he does not
prefer the Greek root for both his protreptic and exhibitive versions (operator
supra exhibitive, autophoric, and operator supra protreptic, or hetero-phoric).
Note that Grice (WoW:110) uses the asterisk * as a dummy for either assertoric,
i.e., Freges turnstile, and non-assertoric, the !─ the imperative turnstile, if
you wish. The operators A are not mode operators; they are such that they
represent some degree (d) or measure of acceptability or justification. Grice
prefers acceptability because it connects with accepting that which is a
psychological, souly attitude, if a general one. Thus, Grice wants to
have It is desirable that p and It is believable that p as
understood, each, by the concatenation of three elements. The first element is
the A-type operator. The second element is the protreptic-type operator. The
third element is the phrastic, root, content, or proposition itself. It is
desirable that p and It is believable that p share the
utterer-oriented-type operator and the neustic or proposition. They only differ
at the protreptic-type operator (buletic/volitive/boulomaic or
judicative/doxastic). Grice uses + for concatenation, but it is best to use ^,
just to echo who knows who. Grice speaks in that mimeo (which he delivers in
Texas, and is known as Grices Performadillo talk ‒ Armadillo + Performative) of
various things. Grice speaks, transparently enough, of acceptance: V-acceptance
and J-acceptance. V not for Victory but for volitional, and J for judicative.
The fact that both end with -acceptance would accept you to believe that both
are forms of acceptance. Grice irritatingly uses 1 to mean the doxastic, and 2
to mean the bulematic. At Princeton in Method, he defines the doxastic in terms
of the buletic and cares to do otherwise, i. e. define the buletic in terms of
the doxastic. So whenever he wrote buletic read doxastic, and vice versa. One
may omits this arithmetic when reporting on Grices use. Grice uses two further
numerals, though: 3 and 4. These, one may decipher – one finds oneself as an
archeologist in Tutankamons burial ground, as this or that relexive attitude.
Thus, 3, i. e. ψ3, where we need the general operator ψ, not just
specificatory dummy, but the idea that we accept something simpliciter. ψ3
stands for the attitude of buletically accepting an or utterance: doxastically
accepting that p or doxastically accepting that ~p. Why we should be concerned
with ~p is something to consider. G wants to decide whether to believe p
or not. I find that very Griceian. Suppose I am told that there is a volcano in
Iceland. Why would I not want to believe it? It seems that one may want to
decide whether to believe p or not when p involves a tacit appeal to value.
But, as Grice notes, even when it does not involve value, Grice still needs
trust and volition to reign supreme. On the other hand, theres 4, as attached
to an attitude, ψ4. This stands for an attitude of buletically accepting an or
utterance: buletically accepting that p, or G buletically accepting that ~p, i.
e. G wants to decide whether to will, now that p or not. This indeed is
crucial, since, for Grice, morality, as with Kantotle, does cash in desire, the
buletic. Grice smokes. He wills to smoke. But does he will to will to smoke?
Possibly yes. Does he will to will to will to smoke? Regardless of what Grice
wills, one may claim this holds for a serious imperatives (not Thou shalt not
reek, but Thou shalt not kill, say) or for any p if you must (because if you
know that p causes cancer (p stands for a proposition involving cigarette) you
should know you are killing yourself. But then time also kills, so what gives?
So I would submit that, for Kant, the categoric imperative is one which allows
for an indefinite chain, not of chain-smokers, but of good-willers. If, for
some p, we find that at some stage, the P does not will that he wills that he
wills that he wills that, p can not be universalisable. This is proposed in an
essay referred to in The Philosophers Index but Marlboro Cigarettes took no
notice. One may go on to note Grices obsession on make believe. If I say, I
utter expression e because the utterer wants his addressee to believe that the
utterer believes that p, there is utterer and addresse, i. e. there are two
people here ‒ or any soul-endowed creature ‒ for Grices
squarrel means things to Grice. It even implicates. It miaows to me while I was
in bed. He utters miaow. He means that he is hungry, he means (via implicatum)
that he wants a nut (as provided by me). On another occasion he miaowes
explicating, The door is closed, and implicating Open it, idiot. On the other
hand, an Andy-Capps cartoon read: When budgies get sarcastic Wild-life
programmes are repeating One may note that one can want some other person
to hold an attitude. Grice uses U or G1 for utterer and A or G2 for addressee.
These are merely roles. The important formalism is indeed G1 and G2. G1 is a
Griceish utterer-person; G2 is the other person, G1s addressee. Grice dislikes
a menage a trois, apparently, for he seldom symbolises a third party, G3. So, G
ψ-3-A that p is 1 just in case G ψ2(G ψ1 that p) or G ψ1 that ~p is 1. And here
the utterers addressee, G2 features: G1 ψ³ protreptically that p is 1 just
in case G buletically accepts ψ² (G buletically accepts ψ² (G doxastically
accepts ψ1 that p, or G doxastically accepts ψ1 that ~p))) is 1. Grice seems to
be happy with having reached four sets of operators, corresponding to four sets
of propositional attitudes, and for which Grice provides the paraphrases. The
first set is the doxastic proper. It is what Grice has as doxastic,and which
is, strictly, either indicative, of the utterers doxastic, exhibitive state, as
it were, or properly informative, if addressed to the addressee A, which is
different from U himself, for surely one rarely informs oneself. The second is
the buletic proper. What Grice dubs volitive, but sometimes he prefers the
Grecian root. This is again either self- or utterer-addressed, or
utterer-oriented, or auto-phoric, and it is intentional, or it is
other-addressed, or addressee-addressed, or addressee- oriented, or
hetero-phoric, and it is imperative, for surely one may not always say to
oneself, Dont smoke, idiot!. The third is the doxastic-interrogative, or
doxastic-erotetic. One may expand on ? here is minimal compared to the
vagaries of what I called the !─ (non-doxastic or buletic turnstile), and which
may be symbolised by ?─p, where ?─ stands for the erotetic turnstile. Geachs
and Althams erotetic somehow Grice ignores, as he more often uses the Latinate
interrogative. Lewis and Short have “interrŏgātĭo,” which they render as “a
questioning, inquiry, examination, interrogation;” “sententia per
interrogationem, Quint. 8, 5, 5; instare interrogation; testium; insidiosa; litteris
inclusæ; verbis obligatio fit ex interrogatione et responsione; as rhet. fig.,
Quint. 9, 2, 15; 9, 3, 98. B. A syllogism: recte genus hoc interrogationis
ignavum ac iners nominatum est, Cic. Fat. 13; Sen. Ep. 87 med. Surely more
people know what interrogative means what erotetic means, he would not say ‒
but he would. This attitude comes again in two varieties: self-addressed or
utterer-oriented, reflective (Should I go?) or again, addresee-addressed, or
addressee-oriented, imperative, as in Should you go?, with a strong hint that
the utterer is expecting is addressee to make up his mind in the proceeding,
not just inform the utterer. Last but not least, there is the fourth kind, the
buletic-cum-erotetic. Here again, there is one varietiy which is
reflective, autophoric, as Grice prefers, utterer-addressed, or
utterer-oriented, or inquisitive (for which Ill think of a Greek pantomime), or
addressee-addressed, or addressee-oriented. Grice regrets that Greek (and
Latin, of which he had less ‒ cfr. Shakespeare who had none) fares better in
this respect the Oxonian that would please Austen, if not Austin, or Maucalay,
and certainly not Urquhart -- his language has twelve parts of speech: each declinable
in eleven cases, four numbers, eleven genders (including god, goddess, man,
woman, animal, etc.); and conjugable in eleven tenses, seven moods, and four
voices.These vocal mannerisms will result in the production of some pretty
barbarous English sentences; but we must remember that what I shall be trying
to do, in uttering such sentences, will be to represent supposedly underlying
structure; if that is ones aim, one can hardly expect that ones speech-forms
will be such as to excite the approval of, let us say, Jane Austen or Lord
Macaulay. Cf. the quessertive, or quessertion, possibly iterable, that
Grice cherished. But then you cant have everything. Where would you put
it? Grice: The modal implicatum.
Grice sees two different, though connected questions about
mode. First, there is the obvious demand for a characterisation, or
partial characterisation, of this or that mode as it emerges in this or that
conversational move, which is plausible to regard as modes primary habitat)
both at the level of the explicatum or the implicatum, for surely an indicative
conversational move may be the vehicle of an imperatival implicatum. A second,
question is how, and to what extent, the representation of mode (Hares neustic)
which is suitable for application to this or that conversational move may be
legitimately exported into philosophical psychology, or rather, may be grounded
on questions of philosophical psychology, matters of this or that psychological
state, stance, or attitude (notably desire and belief, and their species). We
need to consider the second question, the philosophico- psychological question,
since, if the general rationality operator is to read as something like
acceptability, as in U accepts, or A accepts, the appearance of this or that
mode within its scope of accepting is proper only if it may properly occur
within the scope of a generic psychological verb I accept that . Lewis and
Short have “accepto,” “v. freq. a. accipio,” which Short and Lewis render as “to
take, receive, accept,” “argentum,” Plaut. Ps. 2, 2, 32; so Quint. 12, 7, 9;
Curt. 4, 6, 5; Dig. 34, 1, 9: “jugum,” to submit to, Sil. Ital. 7, 41. But in
Plin. 36, 25, 64, the correct read. is coeptavere; v. Sillig. a. h. l. The
easiest way Grice finds to expound his ideas on the first question is by
reference to a schematic table or diagram (Some have complained that I seldom
use a board, but I will today. Grice at this point reiterates his
temporary contempt for the use/mention distinction, which which Strawson
is obsessed. Perhaps Grices contempt is due to Strawsons obsession. Grices
exposition would make the hair stand on end in the soul of a person especially
sensitive in this area. And Im talking to you, Sir Peter! (He is on the
second row). But Grices guess is that the only historical philosophical
mistake properly attributable to use/mention confusion is Russells argument
against Frege in On denoting, and that there is virtually always an acceptable
way of eliminating disregard of the use-mention distinction in a particular
case, though the substitutes are usually lengthy, obscure, and
tedious. Grice makes three initial assumptions. He avails himself of
two species of acceptance, Namesly, volitive acceptance and judicative
acceptance, which he, on occasion, calls respectively willing that p and
willing that p. These are to be thought of as technical or
semi-technical, theoretical or semi-theoretical, though each is a state which
approximates to what we vulgarly call thinking that p and wanting that p,
especially in the way in which we can speak of a beast such as a little
squarrel as thinking or wanting something ‒ a nut, poor darling
little thing. Grice here treats each will and judge (and accept) as a
primitive. The proper interpretation would be determined by the role of
each in a folk-psychological theory (or sequence of folk-psychological
theories), of the type the Wilde reader in mental philosophy favours at Oxford,
designed to account for the behaviours of members of the animal kingdom, at
different levels of psychological complexity (some classes of creatures being
more complex than others, of course). As Grice suggests in Us meaning,
sentence-meaning, and word-meaning, at least at the point at which (Schema Of
Procedure-Specifiers For Mood-Operators) in ones syntactico-semantical
theory of Pirotese or Griceish, one is introducing this or that mode (and
possibly earlier), the proper form to use is a specifier for this or that
resultant procedure. Such a specifier is of the general form, For the
utterer U to utter x if C, where the blank is replaced by the appropriate
condition. Since in the preceding scheme x represents an utterance or
expression, and not a sentence or open sentence, there is no guarantee that
this or that actual sentence in Pirotese or Griceish contains a perspicuous and
unambiguous modal representation. A sentence may correspond to more than
one modal structure. The sentence is structurally ambiguous
(multiplex in meaning ‒ under the proviso that senses are not to be
multiplied beyond necessity) and will have more than one reading, or parsing,
as every schoolboy at Clifton knows when translating viva voce from Greek or
Latin, as the case might be. The general form of a procedure-specifier for a
modal operator involves a main clause and an antecedent clause, which follows
if. In the schematic representation of the main clause, U represents an
utterer, A his addressee, p the radix or neustic; and Opi represents that
operator whose number is i (1, 2, 3, or 4), e.g g., Op3A represents
Operator 3A, which, since ?⊢ appears in the Operator column for 3A)
would be ?A ⊢ p. This
reminds one of Grandys quessertions, for he did think they were iterable
(possibly)). The antecedent clause consists of a sequence whose elements
are a preamble, as it were, or preface, or prefix, a supplement to a
differential (which is present only in a B-type, or addressee-oriented case), a
differential, and a radix. The preamble, which is always present, is
invariant, and reads: The U U wills (that) A A judges (that) U (For surely meaning is a species of intending
is a species of willing that, alla Prichard, Whites professor,
Corpus). The supplement, if present, is also invariant. And the idea
behind its varying presence or absence is connected, in the first instance,
with the volitive mode. The difference between an ordinary expression of
intention ‒ such as I shall not fail, or They shall not
pass ‒ and an ordinary imperative (Like Be a little kinder to
him) is accommodated by treating each as a sub-mode of the volitive mode,
relates to willing that p) In the intentional case (I shall not fail), the
utterer U is concerned to reveal to his addressee A that he (the utterer U)
wills that p. In the imperative case (They shall not pass), the utterer U is
concerned to reveal to his addressee A that the utterer U wills that the
addresee A will that p. In each case, of course, it is to be
presumed that willing that p will have its standard outcome, viz., the
actualization, or realisation, or direction of fit, of the radix (from
expression to world, downwards). There is a corresponding distinction between
two uses of an indicative. The utterer U may be declaring or
affirming that p, in an exhibitive way, with the primary intention to get his
addressee A to judge that the utterer judges that p. Or the U is telling
(in a protreptic way) ones addressee that p, that is to say, hoping to get
his addressee to judge that p. In the case of an indicative, unlike that of a
volitive, there is no explicit pair of devices which would ordinarily be
thought of as sub-mode marker. The recognition of the sub-mode is
implicated, and comes from context, from the vocative use of the Names of the
addressee, from the presence of a speech-act verb, or from a sentence-adverbial
phrase (like for your information, so that you know, etc.). But Grice
has already, in his initial assumptions, allowed for such a situation. The
exhibitive-protreptic distinction or autophoric-heterophoric distinction, seems
to Grice to be also discernible in the interrogative mode (?). Each differentials
is associated with, and serve to distinguish, each of the two basic modes
(volitive or judicative) and, apart from one detail in the case of the
interrogative mode, is invariant between autophoric-exhibitive) and
heterophoric-protreptic sub-modes of any of the two basic modes. They are
merely unsupplemented or supplemented, the former for an exhibitive sub-mode
and the latter for a protreptic sub-mode. The radix needs (one hopes) no
further explanation, except that it might be useful to bear in mind that Grice
does not stipulated that the radix for an intentional (buletic exhibitive
utterer-based) incorporate a reference to the utterer, or be in the first
person, nor that the radix for an imperative (buletic protreptic
addressee-based) incorporate a reference of the addresee, and be in the second
person. They shall not pass is a legitimate intentional, as is You shall
not get away with it; and The sergeant is to muster the men at dawn, as uttered
said by the captain to the lieutenant) is a perfectly good imperative. Grice
gives in full the two specifiers derived from the schema. U to utter to A autophoric-exhibitive
⊢ p if U
wills that A judges that U judges p. Again, U to utter to A !
heterophoric-protreptic p if U wills that A A judges that U wills that A wills
that p. Since, of the states denoted by each differential, only willing
that p and judging that p are strictly cases of accepting that p, and Grices
ultimate purpose of his introducing this characterization of mode is to reach a
general account of expressions which are to be conjoined, according to his
proposal, with an acceptability operator, the first two numbered rows of the
figure are (at most) what he has a direct use for. But since it is of some
importance to Grice that his treatment of mode should be (and should be
thought to be) on the right lines, he adds a partial account of the
interrogative mode. There are two varieties of interrogatives, a yes/no
interrogatives (e. g. Is his face clean? Is the king of France bald? Is virtue
a fire-shovel?) and x-interrogatives, on which Grice qua philosopher was
particularly interested, v. his The that and the why. (Who killed Cock
Robin?, Where has my beloved gone?, How did he fix it?). The specifiers
derivable from the schema provide only for yes/no interrogatives, though the
figure could be quite easily amended so as to yield a restricted but very large
class of x-interrogatives. Grice indicates how this could be
done. The distinction between a buletic and a doxastic interrogative
corresponds with the difference between a case in which the utterer U indicates
that he is, in one way or another, concerned to obtain information (Is he at
home?), and a case in which the utterer U indicates that he is concerned to
settle a problem about what he is to do ‒ Am I to leave the door open?, Shall I
go on reading? or, with an heterophoric Subjects, Is the prisoner to be
released? This difference is fairly well represented in grammar, and much
better represented in the grammars of some other languages. The hetero-phoric-cum-protreptic/auto-phoric-cum-
exhibitive difference may not marked at all in this or that grammar, but
it should be marked in Pirotese. This or that sub-mode is, however, often quite
easily detectable. There is usually a recognizable difference between a case
in which the utterer A says, musingly or reflectively, Is he to be
trusted? ‒ a case in which the utterer might say that he is just
wondering ‒ and a case in which he utters a token of the same
sentence as an enquiry. Similarly, one can usually tell whether an utterer A
who utters Shall I accept the invitation? is just trying to make up his
mind, or is trying to get advice or instruction from his addressee. The
employment of the variable α needs to be explained. Grice borrows a little
from an obscure branch of logic, once (but maybe no longer) practised, called,
Grice thinks, proto-thetic ‒ Why? Because it deals with this or that first
principle or axiom, or thesis), the main rite in which is to quantify over, or
through, this or that connective. α is to have as its two substituents
positively and negatively, which may modify either will or judge, negatively
willing or negatively judging that p is judging or willing that ~p. The
quantifier (∃1α) . . . has to
be treated substitutionally. If, for example, I ask someone whether John
killed Cock Robin (protreptic case), I do not want the addressee merely to will
that I have a particular logical quality in mind which I believe to apply. I
want the addressee to have one of the Qualities in mind which he wants me to
believe to apply. To meet this demand, supplementation must drag back the
quantifier. To extend the schema so as to provide specifiers for a single
x-interrogative (i. e., a question like What did the butler see? rather than a
question like Who went where with whom at 4 oclock yesterday afternoon?),
we need just a little extra apparatus. We need to be able to superscribe a
W in each interrogative operator e.g., together with the proviso that a radix
which follows a superscribed operator must be an open radix, which contains one
or more occurrences of just one free variable. And we need a chameleon
variable λ, to occur only in this or that quantifier. (∃λ).Fx is to be regarded as a way of
writing (∃x)Fx. (∃λ)Fy is a way of writing (∃y)Fy. To provide a specifier for a
x-superscribed operator, we simply delete the appearances of α in the specifier
for the corresponding un-superscribed operator, inserting instead the
quantifier (∃1λ) () at the
position previously occupied by (∃1α) (). E.g. the specifiers for Who
killed Cock Robin?, used as an enquiry, would be: U to utter to A killed Cock Robin if U wills A to judge U to
will that (∃1λ) (A should
will that U judges (x killed Cock Robin)); in which (∃1λ) takes on the shape (∃1x) since x is the free variable within
its scope. Grice compares his buletic-doxastic distinction to prohairesis/doxa
distinction by Aristotle in Ethica Nichomachea. Perhaps his simplest
formalisation is via subscripts: I will-b but will-d not. Refs.: The main
references are given above under ‘desirability.’ The most systematic treatment
is the excursus in “Aspects,” Clarendon. BANC.
modified Occam’s razor: Grice loved a razor. The essay had circulated since the
Harvard days, and it was also repr. in Pragmatics, ed. Cole for Academic Press. Personally,
I prefer dialectica. ‒ Grice. This is the third James lecture
at Harvard. It is particularly useful for Grices introduction of his
razor, M. O. R., or Modified Occams Razor, jocularly expressed by Grice as: Senses
are not to be multiplied beyond necessity. An Englishing of the Ockhams
Latinate, Entia non sunt multiplicanda præter necessitatem. But what do we
mean sense. Surely Occam was right with his Entia non sunt multiplicanda præter
necessitatem. We need to translate that alla linguistic turn. Grice jokes:
Senses are not be multiplied beyond necessity. He also considers irony, stress
(supra-segmental fourth-articulatory phonology), and truth, which the Grice
Papers have under a special f. in the s. V . Three topics where the implicatum
helps. He is a scoundrel may well be the implicatum of He is a fine
friend. But cf. the pretense theory of irony. Grice, being a classicist,
loved the etymological connection. With Stress, he was concerned with
anti-Gettier uses of emphatic know: I KNOW. (Implicatum: I do have conclusive
evidence). Truth (or is true)
sprang from the attention by Grice to that infamous Bristol symposium between
Austin and Strawson. Cf. Moores paradox. Grice wants to defend correspondence
theory of Austin against the performative approach of Strawson. If is true implicates someone previously
affirmed this, that does not mean a ditto implicatum is part of the entailment
of a is true utterance, further notes on
logic and conversation, in Cole, repr. in a revised form, Modified Occams
Razor, irony, stress, truth. The preferred citation should be the Harvard. This
is originally the third James lecture, in a revised form.In that lecture,
Grice introduced the M. O. R., or Modified Occams Razor. Senses are
not be multiplied beyond necessity. The point is that
entailment-cum-implicatum does the job that multiplied senses should not
do! The Grice Papers contains in a different f. the concluding section for that
lecture, on irony, stress, and truth. Grice went back to the Modified
Occams razor, but was never able to formalise it! It is, as he concedes, almost
a vacuous methodological thingy! It is interesting that the way he defines the
alethic value of true alrady cites satisfactory. I shall use, to Names such a
property, not true but factually satisfactory. Grices sympathies dont lie
with Strawsons Ramsey-based redundance theory of truth, but rather with Tarskis
theory of correspondence. He goes on to claim his trust in the
feasibility of such a theory. It is, indeed, possible to construct a
theory which treats truth as (primarily) a property, not true but factually
satisfactory. One may see that point above as merely verbal and not involving
any serious threat. Lets also assume that it will be a consequence, or
theorem, of such a theory that there will be a class C of utterances
(utterances of affirmative Subjects-predicate sentences [such as snow is white
or the cat is on the mat of the dog is hairy-coated such that each member of C
designates or refers to some item and indicates or predicates some class (these
verbs to be explained within the theory), and is factually satisfactory
if the item belongs to the class. Let us also assume that there can be a
method of introducing a form of expression, it is true that /it is buletic that and linking it with the notion of factually
or alethic or doxastic satisfactory, a consequence of which will be that to say
it is true that Smith is happy will be equivalent to saying that any utterance
of class C which designates Smith and indicates the class of happy people is
factually satisfactory (that is, any utterance which assigns Smith to the class
of happy people is factually satisfactory. Mutatis mutandis for Let Smith be
happy, and buletic satisfactoriness. The move is Tarskian. TBy stress, Grice
means suprasegmental phonology, but he was too much of a philosopher to let
that jargon affect him! Refs.: The locus classicus, if that does not sound
too pretentious, is Essay 3 in WoW, but there are references elsewhere, such as
in “Meaning Revisited,” and under ‘semantics.’
myth: Grice knows a little about Descartess “Discours de la
methode,” and he is also aware of similar obsession by Collingwood with
philosopical methodology. Grice would joke on midwifery, as the philosopher’s
apter method at Oxford: to strangle error at its birth. Grice typifies a
generation at Oxford. While he did not socialize with the crème de la crème in
pre-war Oxford, he shared some their approach. E.g. a love affair with
Russell’s logical construction. After the war, and in retrospect, Grice liked
to associate himself with Austin. He obviously felt the need to belong to a
group, to make a difference, to make history. Many participants of the play group
saw themselves as doing philosophy, rather than reading about it! It was long
after that Grice started to note the differences in methodology between Austin
and himself. His methodology changed a little. He was enamoured with formalism
for a while, and he grants that this love never ceased. In a still later phase,
he came to realise that his way of doing philosophy was part of literature
(essay writing). And so he started to be slightly more careful about his style
– which some found florid. The stylistic concerns were serious. Oxonian
philosophers like Holloway had been kept away from philosophy because of the
stereotype that the Oxonian philosophers style is pedantic, when it neednt! A
philosopher should be allowed, as Plato was, to use a myth, if he thinks his
tutee will thank him for that! Grice loved to compare his Oxonian dialectic
with Platos Athenian (strictly, Academic) dialectic. Indeed, there is some
resemblance of the use of myth in Plato and Grice for philosophical
methodological purposes. Grice especially enjoys a myth in his programme in
philosophical psychology. In this, he is very much being a philosopher.
Non-philosophers usually criticise this methodological use of a myth, but they
would, wouldnt they. Grice suggests that a myth has diagogic relevance.
Creature construction, the philosopher as demi-god, if mythical, is an easier
way for a philosophy don to instil his ideas on his tutee than, say, privileged
access and incorrigibility. Refs.: The main source is Grice’s essay on ‘myth’,
in The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
negation: as a unary functor, Grice’s interest in ‘not’ was cenral.
Strawson had shown that some logical ‘laws,’ taken together, show that any truth-functional
sentence or formula in which the main constant is “~ “ is the contradictory of
the sentence or formula which results from omitting that sign. A standard and
primary use of “not” in a sentence is to
assert the contradictory of the statement which would be made by the use, in
the same context, of the same sentence without “not.” Of course we must not suppose
that the insertion of “not” anywhere in any sentence always has this effect.
“Some bulls are not dangerous” is not the contradictory of “Some bulls are
dangerous.” This is why the identification of “~” with “it is not the case
that” is to be preferred to its identification with “not” simpliciter. This
identification, then, involves only those minimum departures from the logic of
ordinary language which must always result from the formal logician's activity
of codifying rules with the help of verbal patterns : viz., (i) the adoption of
a rigid rule when ordinary language permits variations and deviations from the
standard use (cf. rules “ ~(p Λ ~p)” and “ ~~p ≡ p”
and the discussions in 1-8, and 2-9); (ii) that stretching of the sense of
‘exemplify’ which allows, us, e.g., to regard ‘Tom is not mad’ as well as ‘Not
all bulls are dangerous’ as 'exemplifications’ of not-p.’ So we shall call ‘~’ the negation
sign, and read ‘~’as ‘not.’ One might be tempted to suppose that declaring
formulae “ ~(p Λ
~p)” and “p v ~p” laws of the system was the same as saying that, as regards
this system, a statement cannot be both true and false and must be either true
or false. But it is not. The rules that “ ~(p Λ ~p)” and “p v ~p” are analytic are not
rules about ‘true’ and ‘false;’ they are rules about ‘~.; They say that, given
that a statement has one of the two truth-values, then it is logically
impossible for both that statement and the corresponding statement of the form
4 ~p * to be true, and for both that statement and the corresponding statement
of the form ‘~p’ to be false. A bit of
palæo-Griceian history is in order. Sheffer, defines ‘not’ and negation in terms
of incompatibility in ‘A set of five independent postulates for Boolean
algebras, with application to logical constants,’ Trans. American Mathematical
Society. Grice does refers to ‘the strokes.’ His use of the plural is
interesting as a nod to Peirce’s minute logic in his ‘Boolian [sic] algebra
with one constant.’ There is indeed Peirce’s stroke, or ampheck (↓), Sheffer’s
stroke (|, /, ↑), and and Quine’s stroke (†, strictly Quine’s dagger). Some
philosophers prefer to refer to Peirces Stroke as Peirce’s arrow, or strictly stressed
double-edged sword. His editors disambiguate his ampheck, distinguishing
between the dyadic functor or connective equivalent to Sheffer’s stroke and
‘nor.’ While Whitehead, Russell, and Witters love Sheffer’s stroke, Hilbert
does not: ‘‘p/p’ ist dann gleichbedeutend mit ‘X̄.’ Grice explores
primitiveness. It is possible, to some extent, to qualify this or that device
in terms of primitiveness. As regards ‘not,’ if a communication-system did not
contain a unitary negative device, there would be many things that
communicators can now communicate that they would be then unable to
communicate. He has two important caveats. That would be the case unless,
first, the communication-system contained some very artificial-seeming
connective like one or other of the strokes, and, second, communicators put
themselves to a good deal of trouble, as Plato does in ‘The Sophist’ with
‘diaphoron,’ that Wiggins symbolises with ‘Δ,’ to find, more or less case by
case, complicated forms of expression, not necessarily featuring a
connective, but involving such expressions as ‘other than’or ‘incompatible with.’
Grice further refers to Aristotle’s ‘apophasis’ in De Int.17a25. Grice,
always lured by the potentiality of a joint philosophical endeavour, treasures
his collaboration with Strawson that is followed by one with Austin on Cat. and
De Int. So what does Aristotle say in De Int.? Surely Aristotle could have
started by referring to Plato’s Parmenides, aptly analysed by Wiggins. Since
Aristotle is more of a don than a poet, he has to give ‘not’ a name: ‘ἀπόφασις
ἐστιν ἀπόφανσίς τινος ἀπό τινος,’a predication of one thing away
from another, i.e. negation of it. This is Grice’s
reflection, in a verificationist vein, of two types of this or that negative
utterance. His immediate trigger is Ryle’s contribution on a symposium on
Bradley’s idea of an internal relation, where Grice appeals to Peirce’s
incompatibility. ‘The proposition ‘This is red’ is imcompatible with the
proposition, ‘This is not coloured.’ While he uses a souly verb or predicate
for one of them, Grice will go back to the primacy of ‘potching’ at a later stage.
A P potches that the obble is not fang, but feng. It is convenient to introduce
this or that soul-state, ψ, sensing that …, or perceiving that
… Grice works mainly with two scenarios, both involved with the first-person
singular pronoun ‘I’ with which he is obsessed. Grice’s first scenario concerns
a proposition that implies another proposition featuring ‘someone, viz. I,’ the
first-person singular pronoun as subject, a sensory modal verb, and an object,
the proposition, it is not the case that ‘the α is φ1.’
The denotatum of the first-person pronoun perceives that a thing displays this
or the visual sense-datum of a colour, and the corresponding sensory modal
predicate. Via a reductive (but not reductionist) analysis, we get that, by
uttering ‘It is not the case that I see that the pillar box is blue,’ the
utterer U means, i. e. m-intends his addressee A to believe, U he sees that the
pillar box is red. U’s source, reason, ground, knowledge, or belief, upon which
he bases his uttering his utterance is U’s *indirect* mediated actual experience,
belief, or knowledge, linked to a sense-datum φ2 (red) other than φ1
(blue). Grice’s second scenario concerns a proposition explicitly featuring the
first-person singular pronoun, an introspection, involving an auditory
sense-datum of a noise. Via reductive (but not reductionist) analysis, we get
that, by uttering ‘It is not the case that I hear that the bell tolls in Gb,’ U
means that he lacks the experience of hearing that the bell tolls simpliciter.
U’s source, reason, ground, knowledge, or belief, upon which he bases his
uttering his utterance is the *direct* unmediated felt absence, or absentia, or
privatio or privation, or apophasis, verified by introspection, of the
co-relative ψ, which Grice links to the absence of the experience, belief,
or knowledge, of the sense-datum, the apophasis of the experience, which is
thereby negated. In either case, Grice’s analysans do not feature ‘not.’ Grice
turns back to the topic in seminars later at Oxford in connection with
Strawson’s cursory treatment of ‘not’ in “Logical Theory.”‘Not’ (and ~.) is the
first pair, qua unary satisfactory-value-functor (unlike this or that dyadic
co-ordinate, and, or, or the dyadic sub-ordinate if) in Grice’s list of this or
that vernacular counterpart attached to this or that formal device. Cf. ‘Smith
has not ceased from eating iron,’ in ‘Causal theory.’ In the fourth James
lecture, Grice explores a role for negation along the lines of Wilson’s
Statement and Inference.’ Grice’s ‘Vacuous Names’ contains Gentzen-type syntactic
inference rules for both ‘not’’s introduction (+, ~) and the elimination (-, ~)
and the correlative value assignation. Note that there are correlative rules
for Peirce’s arrow. Grice’s motivation is to qualify ‘not’ with a subscript
scope-indicating device on ~ for a tricky case like ‘The climber of Mt. Everest
on hands and knees is not to atttend the party in his honour.’ The logical form
becomes qualified: ‘~2(Marmaduke Bloggs is coming)1’, or
‘~2(Pegasus flies)1.’ generic formula is ~2p1,
which indicates that p is introduced prior to ~. In the earlier James lectures
he used the square bracket device. The generic formula being ‘~[p],’ where [p]
reads that p is assigned common-ground status. Cancelling the implicata may be
trickier. ‘It is not the case that I hear that the bell tolls because it is
under reparation.’ ‘That is not blue; it’s an optical illusion.’ Cf. Grice on ‘It
is an illusion. What is it?’ Cf. The king of France is not bald because there
is no king of France. In Presupposition, the fourth Urbana lecture, Grice uses
square brackets for the subscript scope indicating device. ‘Do not arrest [the
intruder]!,’ the device meant to assign common-ground status. In ‘Method” Grice
plays with the internalisation of a pre-theoretical concept of not within the
scope of ‘ψ.’ In the Kant lectures on “Aspects,” Grice explores ‘not’ within
the scope of this or that mode operator, as in the buletic utterance, ‘Do not
arrest the intruder!’ Is that internal narrow scope, ‘!~p,’ or external wide
scope, ‘~!p’? Grice also touches on this or that mixed-mode utterance, and in
connection with the minor problem of presupposition within the scope of an
operator other than the indicative-mode operator. ‘Smith has not ceased from
eating iron, because Smith does not exist ‒ cf. Hamlet sees that his father is
on the rampants, but the sight is not reciprocated ‒ Macbeth sees that Banquo
is near him, but his vision is not reciprocated. Grice is having in mind Hare’s
defense of a non-doxastic utterance. In his commentary in PGRICE, Grice
expands on this metaphysical construction routine of Humeian projection with
the pre-intuitive concept of ‘not,’
specifying the different stages the intuitive concept undergoes until it
becomes fully rationally recostructed, as something like a Fregeian sense.
In the centerpiece lecture of the William James set, Grice explores Wilson’s
Statement and inference to assign a métier to ‘not,’ and succeeds in finding
one. The conversational métier of ‘not’ is explained in terms of the
conversational implicatum. By uttering ‘Smith has not been to prison yet,’ U
implies that some utterer has, somewhere, sometime, expressed an opinion to the
contrary. This is connected by Grice with the ability a rational creature has
to possess to survive. The creature has to be able, as Sheffer notes, to deny
this or that. Grices notable case is the negation of a conjunction. So it may
well be that the most rational role for ‘not’ is not primary in that it is
realised once less primitive operators are introduced. Is there a strict
conceptual distinction, as Grice suggests, between negation and privation? If
privation involves or presupposes negation, one might appeal to something like
Modified Occam’s Razor (M. O. R.), do not multiply negations beyond necessity.
In his choice of examples, Grice seems to be implicating negation for an
empirically verifiable, observational utterance, such as U does not see that
the pillar box is blue not because U does not exist, but on the basis of U’s experiencing,
knowing, believing and indeed seeing that the pillar box is red. This is a negation,
proper, or simpliciter (even if it involves a sense-datum phi2 incompatible
with sense-datum phi1. Privation, on the other hand, would be involved in
an utterance arrived via introspection, such as U does not hear that the bell
is ringing on the basis of his knowing that he is aware of the absence,
simpliciter, of an experience to that effect. Aristotle, or some later
Aristotelian, may have made the same distinction, within apophasis between
negation or negatio and privation or privatio. Or not. Of course, Grice is
ultimately looking for the rationale behind the conversational implicatum in
terms of a principle of conversational helpfulness underlying his picture of
conversation as rational co-operation. To use his Pological jargon in Method,
in Pirotese and Griceish There is the P1, who potches that the obble
is not fang, but feng. P1 utters p explicitly conveying that p.
P2 alternatively feels like negating that. By uttering ~p, P2 explicitly
conveys that ~p. P1 volunteers to P2, ~p, explicitly
conveying that ~p. Not raining! Or No bull. You are safe. Surely a rational
creature should be capable to deny this or that, as Grice puts it in Indicative
conditionals. Interestingly, Grice does not consider, as Gazdar does, under
Palmer), he other possible unitary functors (three in a standard binary
assignation of values) – just negation, which reverses the satisfactory-value
of the radix or neustic. In terms of systematics, thus, it is convenient
to regard Grices view on negation and privation as his outlook on the operators
as this or that procedure by the utterer that endows him with this or that
basic expressive, operative power. In this case, the expressive power is
specifically related to his proficiency with not. The proficiency is co-related
with this or that device in general, whose vernacular expression will bear a
formal counterpart. Many of Grices comments addressed to this more general
topic of this or that satisfactoriness-preserving operator apply to not, and
thus raise the question about the explicitum or explicatum of not. A Griceian
should not be confused. The fact that Grice does not explicitly mention not or
negation when exploring the concept of a generic formal device does not mean
that what he says about formal device may not be particularised to apply to not
or negation. His big concession is that Whitehead and Russell (and Peano before
them) are right about the explicitum or explicatum of not being ~, even if
Grice follows Hilbert and Ackermann in dismissing Peirces arrow for pragmatic
reasons. This is what Grice calls the identity thesis to oppose to Strawsons
divergence thesis between not and ~. More formally, by uttering Not-p, U
explicitly conveys that ~p. Any divergence is explained via the implicatum. A
not utterance is horribly uninformative, and not each of them is of
philosophical interest. Grice joked with Bradley and Searles The man in the
next table is not lighting the cigarette with a twenty-dollar bill, the
denotatum of the Subjects being a Texas oilman in his country club. The odd
implicatum is usually to the effect that someone thought otherwise. In terms of
Cook Wilson, the role of not has more to do with the expressive power of a
rational creature to deny a molecular or composite utterance such as p and q
Grice comments that in the case of or, the not may be addressed,
conversationally, to the utterability of the disjunction. His example involves
the logical form Not (p or q). It is not the case that Wilson or Heath will be
prime minister. Theres always hope for Nabarro or Thorpe. The
utterer is, at the level of the implicatum, not now contradicting what his
co-conversationalist has utterered. The utterer is certainly not denying that
Wilson will be Prime Minister. It is, rather, that the utterer U wishes not to
assert or state, say, what his co-conversant has asserted, but, instead, to
substitute a different statement or claim which the utterer U regards as
preferable under the circumstances. Grice calls this substitutive disagreement.
This was a long-standing interest of Grices: an earlier manuscript reads Wilson
or MacMillan will be prime minister. Lets take a closer look at the way
Grice initially rephrases his two scenarios involving not as attached to an
auditory and a visual sense datum. I do not hear that the bell is ringing is
rationally justified by the absence or absentia of the experience of hearing
it. I do not see that the pillar box is blue is rationally justified by Us
sensing that the pillar box is red. The latter depends on Kants concept of the
synthetic a priori with which Grice tests with his childrens playmates. Can a
sweater be red and green all over? No stripes allowed! Can a pillar box be blue
and red all over? Cf. Ryles symposium on negation with Mabbott, for the
Aristotelian Society, a source for Grices reflexion. Ryle later discussing
Bradleys internal relations, reflects that that the proposition, This pillar
box is only red is incompatible with This pillar box is only blue. As bearing
this or that conversational implicata, Grices two scenarios can be re-phrased,
unhelpfully, as I am unhearing a noise and That is unred. The
apparently unhelpful point bears however some importance. It shows that
negation and not are not co-extensive. The variants also demonstrate that the
implicatum, qua conversational, rather than conventional, is non-detachable.
Not is hardly primtive pure Anglo-Saxon. It is the rather convoluted
abbreviation of ne-aught. Its ne that counts as the proper, pure, amorphous
Anglo-Saxon negation, as in a member of parliament (if not a horse) uttering
nay. Grices view of conversation as rational co-operation, as
displayed in this or that conversational implicatum necessitates that the
implicatum is never attached to this or that expression. Here the favoured, but
not exclusive expression, is not, since Strawson uses it. But the vernacular
provides a wealth of expressive ways to be negative! Grice possibly chose
negation not because, as with this or that nihilistic philosopher, such as
Schopenhauer, or indeed Parmenides, he finds the concept a key one. But one may
well say that this is the Schopenhauerian or the Parmenidesian in Griceian.
Grice is approaching not in linguistic, empiricist, or conceptual key. He is
applying the new Oxonian methodology: the reductive analysis in terms of
Russells logical construction. Grices implied priority is with by uttering x,
by which U explicitly conveys that ~p, U implicitly conveys that q. The essay
thus elaborates on this implicated q. For the record, nihilism was coined
by philosopher Jacobi, while the more primitive negatio and privatio is each a
time-honoured item in the philosophical lexicon, with which mediaeval this or
that speculative grammarian is especially obsessed. Negatio translates
Aristotles apophasis, and has a pretty pedigreed history. The philosophical
lexicon has nĕgātĭo, f. negare, which L and S, unhelpfully, render as a
denying, denial, negation, Cicero, Sull. 13, 39: negatio inficiatioque
facti, id. Part. 29, 102. L and S go on to add that negatio is predicated
of to the expression that denies, a negative. Grice would say that L and S
should realise that its the utterer who denies. The source L and S give is
ADogm. Plat. 3, p. 32, 38. As for Grices other word, there is
prīvātĭo, f. privare, which again unhelpfully, L and S render as a taking
away, privation of a thing. doloris, Cic. Fin. 1, 11, 37, and
38, or pain-free, as Grice might prefer, cf. zero-tolerance. L and S also cite:
2, 9, 28: culpæ, Gell. 2, 6, 10. The negatio-privatio distinction is
perhaps not attested in Grecian The Grecians seem to have felt happy with
ἀπόφασις, (A), from ἀπόφημι, which now L and S unhepfully render as
denial, negation, adding oκατάφασις, for which they cites from Platos
Sophista (263e), to give then the definition ἀπόφασις ἐστιν
ἀπόφανσίς τινος ἀπό τινος, a predication of one thing away
from another, i.e. negation of it, for which they provide the
source that Grice is relying. on: Arist. Int.17a25, cf. APo. 72a14;
ἀπόφασις τινός, negation, exclusion of a thing, Pl. Cra. 426d; δύο ἀ.
μίαν κατάφασιν ἀποτελοῦσι Luc. Gall.11. If he was not the first to explore
philosophically negation, Grice may be regarded as a philosopher who most
explored negation as occurring in a that-clause followed by a propositional
complexus that contains ~, and as applied to a personal agent, in a lower
branch of philosophical psychology. It is also the basis for his linguistic
botany. He seems to be trying to help other philosopher not to fall in the trap
of thinking that not has a special sense. The utterer means that ~p. In what
ways is that to be interpreted? Grice confessed to never
been impressed by Ayer. The crudities and dogmatisms seemed too pervasive.
Is Grice being an empiricist and a verificationist? Let us go back to This is
not red and I am not hearing a noise. Grices suggestion is that the
incompatible fact offering a solution to this problem is the fact that the
utterer of Someone, viz. I, does not hear that the bell tolls is indicating
(and informing) that U merely entertains the positive (affirmative)
proposition, Someone, viz. I, hears that the bell tolls, without having an
attitude of certainty towards it. More generally, Grice is proposing, like
Bradley and indeed Bosanquet, who Grice otherwise regards as a minor
philosopher, a more basic Subjects-predicate utterance. The α is
not β. The utterer states I do not know that α is β if and
only if every present mental or souly process, of mine, has some characteristic
incompatible with the knowledge that α is β. One
may propose a doxastic weaker version, replacing the dogmatic Oxonian know
with believe. Grices view of compatibility is an application of the
Sheffer stroke that Grice will later use in accounts of not. ~p iff p|p or ~p ≡df p|p. But
then, as Grice points out, Sheffer is hardly Griceian. If Pirotese did not
contain a unitary negative device, there would be many things that a P should
be able to express that the P should be unable to express unless Pirotese
contained some very artificially-looking dyadic functor like one or other of
the strokes, or the P put himself to a good deal of trouble to find, more or
less case by case, complicated forms of expression, as Platos Parmenides does,
involving such expressions as other than, or incompatible with. V. Wiggins on
Platos Parmenides in a Griceian key. Such a complicate form of expression would
infringe the principle of conversational helpfulness, notably in its
desideratum of conversational clarity, or conversational perspicuity [sic],
where the sic is Grices seeing that unsensitive Oxonians sometimes mistake
perspicuity for the allegedly, cognate perspicacity (L. perspicacitas, like
perspicuitas, from perspicere). Grice finds the unitary brevity of not-p
attractive. Then theres the pretty Griceian idea of the pregnant proposition.
Im not hearing a nose is pregnant, as Occam has it, with I am hearing a
noise. A scholastic and mediæval philosopher loves to be figurative.
Grices main proposal may be seen as drawing on this or that verificationist
assumption by Ayer, who actually has a later essay on not falsely connecting it
with falsity. Grices proposed better analysis would please Ayer, had Grice been
brought on the right side of the tracks, since it can be Subjectsed to a
process of verification, on the understanding that either perception
through the senses (It is red) or introspection (Every present mental or
souly process of mine ) is each an empirical phenomenon. But there are
subtleties to be drawn. At Oxford, Grices view on negation will influence
philosophers like Wiggins, and in a negative way, Cohen, who raises the
Griceian topic of the occurrence of negation in embedded clauses, found by
Grice to be crucial for the rational genitorial justification of not as a
refutation of the composite p and q), and motivating Walker with a reply
(itself countered by Cohen ‒ Can the conversationalist hypothesis be
defended?). So problems are not absent, as they should not! Grice re-read
Peirces definition or reductive analysis of not and enjoyed it! Peirce discovers
the logical connective Grice calls the Sheffer Stroke, as well as the related
connective nor (also called Joint Denial, and quite appropriately Peirces
Arrow, with other Namess in use being Quines Arrow or Quines Dagger and today
usually symbolized by “/”). The relevant manuscript, numbered MS 378 in a
subsequent edition and titled A Boolian [sic] Algebra with One Constant, MS
378, was actually destined for discarding and was salvaged for posterity A
fragmentary text by Peirce also shows familiarity with the remarkable
meta-logical characteristics that make a single function functionally complete,
and this is also the case with Peirces unfinished Minute Logic: these texts are
published posthumously. Peirce designates the two truth functions, nand and
nor, by using the symbol “” which he called ampheck, coining this
neologism from the Grecian ἀμφήκης, of equal length in both directions. Peirces
editors disambiguate the use of symbols by assigning “” to the
connective we call Sheffers troke while preserving the symbol / for
nor. In MS 378, A Boolian Algebra with One Constant, by Peirce,
tagged “to be discarded” at the Department of Philosophy at Harvard, Peirce
reduces the number of logical operators to one constant. Peirce states that his
notation uses the minimum number of different signs and shows for the first
time the possibility of writing both universal and particular propositions with
but one copula. Peirce’s notation is later termed Sheffers stroke, and is also
well-known as the nand operation, in Peirce’s terms the operation by which two
propositions written in a pair are considered to be both denied. In the same
manuscript, Peirce also discovers what is the expressive completeness of ‘nor,’
indeed today rightly recognized as the Peirce arrow. Like Sheffer, of
Cornell, independently does later (only to be dismissed by Hilbert and
Ackermann), Peirce understands that these two connectives can be used to reduce
all mathematically definable connectives (also called primitives and constants)
of propositional logic. This means that all definable connectives of
propositional logic can be defined by using only Sheffers stroke or nor as the
single connective. No other connective (or associated function) that takes one
or two variables as inputs has this property. Standard, two-valued
propositional logic has no unary functions that have the remarkable property of
functional completeness. At first blush, availability of this option ensures
that economy of resources can be obtained—at least in terms of how many
functions or connectives are to be included as undefined. Unfortunately, as
Grice, following Hilbert and Ackermann realise, there is a trade-off between
this philosophical semantic gain in economy of symbolic resources and the
pragmatically unwieldy length and rather counterintuitive, to use Grices
phrase, appearance of the formulas that use only the one connective. It
is characteristic of his logical genius, however, and emblematic of his rather
under-appreciated, surely not by Grice, contributions to the development of
semiotics that Peirce grasps the significance of functional completeness and
figure out what truth functions — up to arity 2 — are functionally complete for
two-valued propositional logic, never mind helping the philosopher to provide a
reductive analysis of negation that Grice is looking for. Strictly, this is the
property of weak functional completeness, given that we disregard whether
constants or zero-ary functions like 1 or 0 can be defined. Peirce subscribes
to a semeiotic view, popular in the Old World with Ogden and Welby, and later
Grice, according to which the fundamental nature and proper tasks of the
formal study of communication are defined by the rules set down for the
construction and manipulation of symbolic resources. A proliferation of symbols
for the various connectives that are admitted into the signature of a logical
system suffers from a serious defect on this view. The symbolic grammar fails
to match or represent the logical fact of interdefinability of the connectives,
and reductive analysis of all to one. Peirce is willing sometimes to accept
constructing a formal signature for two-valued propositional logic by using the
two-members set of connectives, which is minimally functionally complete. This
means that these two connectives — or, if we are to stick to an approach that
emphasizes the notational character of logical analysis, these two symbols —are
adequate expressively. Every mathematically definable connective of the logic
can be defined by using only these two. And the set is minimally functionally
complete in that neither of these connectives can be defined by the other (so,
as we say, they are both independent relative to each other.) The
symbol can be viewed as representing a constant truth function
(either unary or binary) that returns the truth value 0 for any input or
inputs. Or it can be regarded as a constant, which means that it is a zero=ary
(zero-input) function, a degenerate function, which refers to the truth value
0. Although not using, as Grice does, Peanos terminology, Peirce takes the
second option. This set has cardinality 2 (it has exactly 2 members) but it is
not the best we can do. Peirces discovery of what we have called the Sheffer
functions or strokes (anachronistically and unfairly to Peirce, as Grice notes,
but bowing to convention) shows that we can have a set of cardinality 1 (a
one-member set or a so-called singleton) that is minimally functionally
complete with respect to the definable connectives of two-valued propositional
logic. Thus, either one of the following sets can do. The sets are functionally
complete and, because they have only one member each, we say that the
connectives themselves have the property of functional completeness. / is the
symbol of Sheffers stroke or nand and /is the symbol of the Peirce Arrow
or nor. Grice stipulates as such, even though he does not introduce his grammar
formally. It is important to show ow these functions can define other
functions. Algebraically approached, this is a matter of functional
composition In case one wonders why the satisfaction with defining the
connectives of the set that comprises the symbols for negation, inclusive
disjunction, and conjunction, Namesly , there is an explanation. There is
an easy, although informal, way to show that this set is functionally complete.
It is not minimally functionally complete because nor and nand are
inter-definable. But it is functionally complete. Thus, showing that one can
define these functions suffices for achieving functional completeness.
Definability should be thought as logical equivalence. One connective can be
defined by means of others if and only if the formulae in the definition (what
is defined and what is doing the defining) are logically equivalent. Presuppose
the truth-tabular definitions of the connectives. Grice enjoyed that.
Meanwhile, at Corpus, Grice is involved in serious philosophical studies under
the tutelage of Hardie. While his philosophical socialising is limited, having
been born on the wrong side of the tracks, first at Corpus, and then at
Merton, and ending at St. Johns, Grice fails to attend the seminal meetings at
All Souls held on Thursday evenings by the play group of the seven (Austin,
Ayer, Berlin, Hampshire, MacDermott, MacNabb, and Woozley). Three of them will
join Grice in the new play group after the war: Austin, Hampshire, and Woozley.
But at St. Johns Grice tutors Strawson, and learns all about the linguistic
botany methodology on his return from the navy. Indeed, his being appointed
Strawson as his tutee starts a life-long friendship and collaboration. There
are separate entries for the connectives: conjunction, disjunction, and
conditional. Refs.: Allusions to negation are scattered, notably in Essay 4 in
WoW, but also in “Method in philosophical psychology,” and “Prejudices and
predilections” (repr. in “Conception”), and under semantics and syntax. There
are specific essays of different dates, in s. V, in two separate folders, in
BANC.
objectivism: Grice reads Meinong on objectivity and finds it funny!
Meinong distinguishes four classes of objects: ‘Objekt,’ simpliciter, which can
be real (like horses) or ideal (like the concepts of difference, identity,
etc.) and “Objectiv,” e.g. the affirmation of the being (Sein) or non-being (Nichtsein),
of a being-such (Sosein), or a being-with (Mitsein) - parallel to existential,
categorical and hypothetical judgements. An “Objectiv” is close to what
contemporary philosophers call states of affairs (where these may be actual—may
obtain—or not). The third class is the dignitative, e.g. the true, the good,
the beautiful. Finally, there is the desiderative, e.g. duties, ends, etc. To
these four classes of objects correspond four classes of psychological
acts: (re)presentation (das Vorstellen),
for objects thought (das Denken), for the objectives feeling (das Fühlen), for
dignitatives desire (das Begehren), for the desideratives. Grice starts with
subjectivity. Objectivity can be constructed as non-relativised
subjectivity. Grice discusses of Inventing right and wrong by Mackie. In
the proceedings, Grice quotes the artless sexism of Austin in talking
about the trouser words in Sense and Sensibilia. Grice tackles all the
distinctions Mackie had played with: objective/Subjectsive, absolute/relative, categorical/hypothetical
or suppositional. Grice quotes directly from Hare: Think of one world into
whose fabric values are objectively built; and think of another in which those
values have been annihilated. And remember that in both worlds the people in them
go on being concerned about the same things—there is no difference in the
Subjectsive value. Now I ask, what is the difference between the states of
affairs in these two worlds? Can any answer be given except, none whatever?
Grice uses the Latinate objective (from objectum). Cf. Hare on what he thinks
the oxymoronic sub-jective value. Grice considered more seriously than Barnes
did the systematics behind Nicolai Hartmanns stratification of values. Refs.:
the most explicit allusion is a specific essay on “objectivity” in The H. P.
Grice Papers. Most of the topic is covered in “Conception,” Essay 1. BANC.
ontogenesis. it is interesting that Grice was always enquiring his
childrens playmates: Can a sweater be red and green all over? No stripes
allowed! One found a developmental account of the princile of conversational
helpfulness boring, or as he said, "dull." Refs.: There is an
essay on the semantics of children’s language, BANC.
optimum:
If (a) S accepts at t an alethic acceptability-conditional C 1 , the antecedent
of which favours, to degree d, the consequent of C 1 , (b) S accepts at t the
antecedent of C 1 , end p.81 (c) after due search by S for such a (further)
conditional, there is no conditional C 2 such that (1) S accepts at t C 2 and
its antecedent, (2) and the antecedent of C 2 is an extension of the antecedent
of C 1 , (3) and the consequent of C 2 is a rival (incompatible with) of the
consequent of C 1 , (4) and the antecedent of C 2 favours the consequent of C 2
more than it favours the consequent of C 1 : then S may judge (accept) at t
that the consequent of C 1 is acceptable to degree d. For convenience, we might
abbreviate the complex clause (C) in the antecedent of the above rule as 'C 1
is optimal for S at t'; with that abbreviation, the rule will run: "If S
accepts at t an alethic acceptability-conditional C 1 , the antecedent of which
favours its consequent to degree d, and S accepts at t the antecedent of C 1 ,
and C 1 is optimal for S at C 1 , then S may accept (judge) at t that the
consequent of C 1 is acceptable to degree d." Before moving to the
practical dimension, I have some observations to make.
ontological
Marxism: Ontological
for Grice is at least liberal. He is hardly enamoured of some of the
motivations which prompt the advocacy of psycho-physical identity. He has in
mind a concern to exclude an entity such as as a ‘soul,’ an event of the soul,
or a property of the soul. His taste is for keeping open house for all sorts of
conditions of entities, just so long as when the entity comes in it helps with
the housework, i. e., provided that Grice see the entity work, and provided
that it is not detected in illicit logical behaviour, which need not involve
some degree of indeterminacy, The entity works? Ergo, the entity exists. And,
if it comes on the recommendation of some transcendental argument the entity
may even qualify as an entium realissimum. To exclude an honest working entitiy
is metaphysical snobbery, a reluctance to be seen in the company of any but the
best. A category, a universalium plays a role in Grice’s meta-ethics. A
principles or laws of psychology may be self-justifying, principles
connected with the evaluation of ends. If these same principles play a
role in determining what we count as entia realissima, metaphysics, and an
abstractum would be grounded in part in considerations about value (a not
unpleasant project).
oratio obliqua: Grice was especially concerned that buletic verbs usually
do not take a that-clause (but cf. James: I will that the distant table sides
over the floor toward me. It does not!). Also that seems takes a that-clause in
ways that might not please Maucalay. Grice had explored that-clauses with
Staal. He was concerned about the viability of an initially appealing
etymological approach by Davidson to the that-clause in terms of demonstration.
Grice had presupposed the logic of that-clauses from a much earlier stage,
Those spots mean that he has measles.The f. contains a copy of Davidsons essay,
On saying that, the that-clause, the that-clause, with Staal . Davidson quotes
from Murray et al. The Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford. Cf. Onions, An
Advanced English Syntax, and remarks that first learned that that in such
contexts evolved from an explicit demonstrative from Hintikkas Knowledge and
Belief. Hintikka remarks that a similar development has taken place in German
Davidson owes the reference to the O.E.D. to Stiezel. Indeed Davidson was
fascinated by the fact that his conceptual inquiry repeated phylogeny. It
should come as no surprise that a that-clause utterance evolves through
about the stages our ruminations have just carried us. According to the Oxford
English Dictionary, the use of that in a that-clause is generally held to have
arisen out of the demonstrative pronoun pointing to the clause which it
introduces. The sequence goes as follows. He once lived here: we all know that;
that, now this, we all know: he once lived here; we all know that, or this: he
once lived here; we all know that he once lived here. As Hintikka notes, some
pedants trying to display their knowledge of German, use a comma before that:
We all know, that he once lived here, to stand for an earlier :: We all know:
that he once lived here. Just like the English translation that, dass can be omitted in a
sentence. Er glaubt, dass die Erde eine
Scheibe sei. He believes that the Earth is a disc. Er
glaubt, die Erde sei eine Scheibe. He believes the Earth is a disc. The
that-clause is brought to the fore by Davidson, who, consulting the OED,
reminds philosophers that the English that is very cognate with the German
idiom. More specifically, that is a demonstrative, even if the syntax, in
English, hides this fact in ways which German syntax doesnt. Grice needs
to rely on that-clauses for his analysis of mean, intend, and notably
will. He finds that Prichards genial discovery was the license to use
willing as pre-facing a that-clause. This allows Grice to deals with
willing as applied to a third person. I will that he wills that he wins the
chess match. Philosophers who disregard this third-person use may indulge in
introspection and Subjectsivism when they shouldnt! Grice said that Prichard
had to be given great credit for seeing that the accurate specification of
willing should be willing that and not willing to. Analogously, following
Prichard on willing, Grice does not
stipulate that the radix for an intentional (utterer-oriented or
exhibitive-autophoric-buletic) incorporate a reference to the utterer (be in
the first person), nor that the radix for an imperative (addressee-oriented or
hetero-phoric protreptic buletic) or desiderative in general, incorporate a
reference of the addressee (be in the second person). They shall not pass is a
legitimate intentional as is the ‘you shall not get away with it,’either
involves Prichards wills that, rather than wills to). And the sergeant is to
muster the men at dawn (uttered by a captain to a lieutenant) is a perfectly
good imperative, again involving Prichards wills that, rather than wills to. Refs.:
The allusions are scattered, but there are specific essays, one on the
‘that’-clause, and also discussions on Davidson on saying that. There is a
reference to ‘oratio obliqua’ and Prichard in “Uncertainty,” BANC.
Optimum. Grice uses ‘optimality’ as one guise of value.
Obviously, it is, as Short and Lewis have it, the superlative of ‘bonum,’ so
one has to be careful. Optimum is used in value theory and decision theory,
too. Cf. Maximum.
ostension: In his analysis of the two basic procedures, one involving
the subjectum, and another the praedicatum, Grice would play with the utterer
OSTENDING that p. This relates to his semiotic approach to communication, and
avoiding to the maximum any reference to a linguistic rule or capacity or
faculty as different from generic rationality. In WoW:134 Grice explores what
he calls ‘ostensive correlation.’ He is exploring communication scenarios where
the Utterer is OSTENDING that p, or in predicate terms, that the A is B. He is
not so much concerned with the B, but with the fact that “B” is predicated of a
particular denotatum of “the A,” and by what criteria. He is having in mind his
uncle’s dog, Fido, who is shaggy, i.e. fairy coated. So he is showing to Strawson
that that dog over there is the one that belongs to his uncle, and that, as
Strawson can see, is a shaggy dog, by which Grice means hairy coated. That’s
the type of ‘ostensive correlation’ Grice is having in mind. In an attempted
ostensive correlation of the predicate B (‘shaggy’) with the feature or
property of being hairy coated, as per a standard act of communication in which
Grice, uttering, “Fido is shaggy’ will have Strawson believe that Uncle Grice’s
dog is hairy coated – (1) U will perform a number of acts in each of which he
ostends a thing (a1, a2, a3, etc.). (2)
Simultaneously with each ostension, he utters a token of the predicate “shaggy.”
(3) It is his intention TO OSTEND, and to be recognised as ostending, only
things which are either, in his view, plainly hairy-coated, or are, in his
view, plainly NOT hairy-coated. (4) In a model sequence these intentions are
fulfilled. Grice grants that this does not finely distinguish between ‘being
hairy-coated’ from ‘being such that the UTTERER believes to be unmistakenly
hairy coated.’ But such is a problem of any explicit correlation, which are
usually taken for granted – and deemed ‘implicit’ in standard acts of
communication.
oxonianism: Grice cannot possibly claim to talk about post-war Oxford philosophy,
but his own! Cf. Oxfords post-war philosophy. What were Grices first
impressions when arriving at Oxford. He was going to learn. Only the poor learn
at Oxford was an adage he treasured, since he wasnt one! Let us start with
an alphabetical listing of Grices play Group companions: Austin, Butler, Flew,
Gardiner, Grice, Hare, Hampshire, Hart, Nowell-Smith, Parkinson, Paul,
Pears, Quinton, Sibley, Strawson, Thomson, Urmson, and
Warnock. Grices main Oxonian association is St. Johns, Oxford.
By Oxford Philosophy, Grice notably refers to Austins Play Group, of which he
was a member. But Grice had Oxford associations pre-war, and after the
demise of Austin. But back to the Play Group, this, to some, infamous,
playgroup, met on Saturday mornings at different venues at Oxford, including
Grices own St. John’s ‒ apparently, Austins favourite venue. Austin
regarded himself and his kindergarten as linguistic or language botanists. The
idea was to list various ordinary uses of this or that philosophical notion. Austin:
They say philosophy is about language; well, then, let’s botanise! Grices
involvement with Oxford philosophy of course predated his associations with
Austins play group. He always said he was fortunate of having been a tutee to
Hardie at Corpus. Corpus, Oxford. Grice would occasionally refer to the
emblematic pelican, so prominently displayed at Corpus. Grice had an
interim association with the venue one associates most directly with
philosophy, Merton ‒: Grice, Merton, Oxford. While Grice loved to
drop Oxonian Namess, notably his rivals, such as Dummett or Anscombe, he knew
when not to. His Post-war Oxford philosophy, as opposed to more specific items
in The Grice Collection, remains general in tone, and intended as a defense of
the ordinary-language approach to philosophy. Surprisingly, or perhaps not (for
those who knew Grice), he takes a pretty idiosyncratic characterisation of
conceptual analysis. Grices philosophical problems emerge with Grices
idiosyncratic use of this or that expression. Conceptual analysis is meant to
solve his problems, not others, repr. in WOW . Grice finds it important to
reprint this since he had updated thoughts on the matter, which he displays in
his Conceptual analysis and the province of philosophy. The topic represents
one of the strands he identifies behind the unity of his philosophy. By
post-war Oxford philosophy, Grice meant the period he was interested
in. While he had been at Corpus, Merton, and St. Johns in the pre-war
days, for some reason, he felt that he had made history in the post-war
period. The historical reason Grice gives is understandable
enough. In the pre-war days, Grice was the good student and the new fellow
of St. Johns ‒ the other one was Mabbott. But he had not been able to engage
in philosophical discussion much, other than with other tutees of Hardie. After
the war, Grice indeed joins Austins more popular, less secretive Saturday
mornings. Indeed, for Grice, post-war means all philosophy after the war (and
not just say, the forties!) since he never abandoned the methods he developed
under Austin, which were pretty congenial to the ones he had himself displayed
in the pre-war days, in essays like Negation and Personal identity. Grice is a
bit of an expert on Oxonian philosophy. He sees himself as a member
of the school of analytic philosophy, rather than the abused term
ordinary-language philosophy. This is evident by the fact that he
contributed to such polemic ‒ but typically Oxonian ‒
volumes such as Butler, Analytic Philosophy, published by Blackwell (of all
publishers). Grice led a very social life at Oxford, and held frequent
philosophical discussions with the Play group philosophers (alphabetically
listed above), and many others, such as Wood. Post-war Oxford philosophy,
miscellaneous, Oxford philosophy, in WOW, II, Semantics and Met. , Essay. By
Oxford philosophy, Grice means his own. Grice went back to the topic of
philosophy and ordinary language, as one of his essays is precisely entitled,
Philosophy and ordinary language, philosophy and ordinary language, :
ordinary-language philosophy, linguistic botanising. Grice is not really
interested in ordinary language as a philologist might. He spoke
ordinary language, he thought. The point had been brought to the fore by
Austin. If they think philosophy is a play on words, well then, lets play
the game. Grices interest is methodological. Malcolm had been claiming
that ordinary language is incorrigible. While Grice agreed that language can be
clever, he knew that Aristotle was possibly right when he explored ta
legomena in terms of the many and the selected wise, philosophy and
ordinary language, philosophy and ordinary language, : philosophy, ordinary
language. At the time of writing, ordinary-language philosophy had become,
even within Oxford, a bit of a term of abuse. Grice tries to defend
Austins approach to it, while suggesting ideas that Austin somewhat ignored,
like what an utterer implies by the use of an ordinary-language expression,
rather than what the expression itself does. Grice is concerned, contra
Austin, in explanation (or explanatory adequacy), not taxonomy (or descriptive
adequacy). Grice disregards Austins piecemeal approach to ordinary
language, as Grice searches for the big picture of it all. Grice never used
ordinary language seriously. The phrase was used, as he explains, by those who
HATED ordinary-language philosophy. Theres no such thing as ordinary language.
Surely you cannot fairly describe the idiosyncratic linguistic habits of an Old
Cliftonian as even remotely ordinary. Extra-ordinary more likely! As far as the
philosophy bit goes, this is what Bergmann jocularly described as the
linguistic turn. But as Grice notes, the linguistic turn involves both the
ideal language and the ordinary language. Grice defends the choice by Austin of
the ordinary seeing that it was what he had to hand! While Grice seems to be in
agreement with the tone of his Wellesley talk, his idioms there in. Youre
crying for the moon! Philosophy need not be grand! These seem to contrast with
his more grandiose approach to philosophy. His struggle was to defend the
minutiæ of linguistic botanising, that had occupied most of his professional
life, with a grander view of the discipline. He blamed Oxford for that. Never
in the history of philosophy had philosophers shown such an attachment to
ordinary language as they did in post-war Oxford, Grice liked to say.
Having learned Grecian and Latin at Clifton, Grice saw in Oxford a way to go
back to English! He never felt the need to explore Continental modern languages
like German or French. Aristotle was of course cited in Greek, but Descartes is
almost not cited, and Kant is cited in the translation available to Oxonians
then. Grice is totally right that never has philosophy experienced such a
fascination with ordinary use except at Oxford. The ruthless and unswerving
association of philosophy with ordinary language has been peculiar to the
Oxford scene. While many found this attachment to ordinary usage insidious, as
Warnock put it, it fit me and Grice to a T, implicating you need a sort of
innate disposition towards it! Strawson perhaps never had it! And thats why
Grices arguments contra Strawson rest on further minutiæ whose detection by
Grice never ceased to amaze his tutee! In this way, Grice felt he WAS Austins
heir! While Grice is associated with, in chronological order, Corpus, Merton,
and St. Johns, it is only St. Johns that counts for the Griceian! For it is at
St. Johns he was a Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy! And we love him as a
philosopher. Refs.: The obvious keyword is “Oxford.” His essay in WoW on
post-war Oxford philosophy is general – the material in the H. P. Grice papers
is more anecdotic. Also “Reply to Richards,” and references above under
‘linguistic botany’ and ‘play group,’ in BANC.
paradigm-case argument: the issue of analyticity is, as Locke puts it, the issue
of whats trifle. That a triangle is trilateral Locke considers a trifling
proposition, like Saffron is yellow. Lewes (who calls mathematical propositions
analytic) describes the Kantian problem. The reductive analysis of meaning Grice
offers depends on the analytic. Few Oxonian philosophers would follow Loar, D.
Phil Oxon, under Warnock, in thinking of Grices conversational maxims as
empirical inductive generalisations over functional states! Synthesis may do in
the New World,but hardly in the Old! The locus classicus for the
ordinary-language philosophical response to Quine in Two dogmas of empiricism.
Grice and Strawson claim that is analytic does have an ordinary-language use,
as attached two a type of behavioural conversational response. To an
analytically false move (such as My neighbours three-year-old son is an adult)
the addressee A is bound to utter, I dont understand you! You are not being
figurative, are you? To a synthetically false move, on the other hand (such as
My neighbours three-year-old understands Russells Theory of Types), the
addressee A will jump with, Cant believe it! The topdogma of analyticity
is for Grice very important to defend. Philosophy depends on it! He
knows that to many his claim to fame is his In defence of a dogma, the topdogma
of analyticity, no less. He eventually turns to a pragmatist justification
of the distinction. This pragmatist justification is still in accordance
with what he sees as the use of analytic in ordinary language. His infamous
examples are as follows. My neighbours three-year old understands Russells
Theory of Types. A: Hard to believe, but I will. My neighbours three-year
old is an adult. Metaphorically? No. Then I dont understand you, and
what youve just said is, in my scheme of things, analytically false.
Ultimately, there are conversational criteria, based on this or that principle
of conversational helfpulness. Grice is also circumstantially concerned with
the synthetic a priori, and he would ask his childrens playmates: Can a
sweater be red and green all over? No stripes allowed! The distinction is
ultimately Kantian, but it had brought to the fore by the linguistic turn,
Oxonian and other! In defence of a dogma, Two dogmas of
empiricism, : the analytic-synthetic distinction. For Quine, there
are two. Grice is mainly interested in the first one: that there is a
distinction between the analytic and the synthetic. Grice considers Empiricism
as a monster on his way to the Rationalist City of Eternal Truth. Grice
came back time and again to explore the analytic-synthetic distinction. But his
philosophy remained constant. His sympathy is for the practicality of it, its
rationale. He sees it as involving formal calculi, rather than his own theory
of conversation as rational co-operation which does not presuppose the
analytic-synthetic distinction, even if it explains it! Grice would press the
issue here: if one wants to prove that such a theory of conversation as
rational co-operation has to be seen as philosophical, rather than some other
way, some idea of analyticity may be needed to justify the philosophical
enterprise. Cf. the synthetic a priori, that fascinated Grice most than
anything Kantian else! Can a sweater be green and red all over? No stripes
allowed. With In defence of a dogma, Grice and Strawson attack a New-World
philosopher. Grice had previously collaborated with Strawson in an essay on
Met. (actually a three-part piece, with
Pears as the third author). The example Grice chooses to refute attack by Quine
of the top-dogma is the Aristotelian idea of the peritrope, as Aristotle
refutes Antiphasis in Met. (v. Ackrill,
Burnyeat and Dancy). Grice explores chapter Γ 8 of Aristotles Met.
. In Γ 8, Aristotle presents two self-refutation arguments
against two theses, and calls the asserter, Antiphasis, T1 = Everything is
true, and T2 = Everything is false, Metaph. Γ 8, 1012b13–18. Each thesis
is exposed to the stock objection that it eliminates itself. An utterer
who explicitly conveys that everything is true also makes the thesis opposite
to his own true, so that his own is not true (for the opposite thesis denies
that his is true), and any utterer U who explicitly conveys that everything is
false also belies himself. Aristotle does not seem to be claiming
that, if everything is true, it would also be true that it is false that
everything is true and, that, therefore, Everything is true must be false: the
final, crucial inference, from the premise if, p, ~p to the conclusion ~p
is missing. But it is this extra inference that seems required to have a
formal refutation of Antiphasiss T1 or T2 by consequentia mirabilis. The
nature of the argument as a purely dialectical silencer of Antiphasis is
confirmed by the case of T2, Everything is false. An utterer who explicitly
conveys that everything is false unwittingly concedes, by self-application,
that what he is saying must be false too. Again, the further and different
conclusion Therefore; it is false that everything is false is
missing. That proposal is thus self-defeating, self-contradictory (and
comparable to Grices addressee using adult to apply to three-year old, without
producing the creature), oxymoronic, and suicidal. This seems all that
Aristotle is interested in establishing through the self-refutation stock
objection. This is not to suggest that Aristotle did not believe that
Everything is true or Everything is false is false, or that he excludes that he
can prove its falsehood. Grice notes that this is not what Aristotle seems
to be purporting to establish in 1012b13–18. This holds for a περιτροπή
(peritrope) argument, but not for a περιγραφή (perigraphe) argument (συμβαίνει
δὴ καὶ τὸ θρυλούμενον πᾶσι τοῖς τοιούτοις λόγοις, αὐτοὺς ἑαυτοὺς ἀναιρεῖν. ὁ
μὲν γὰρ πάντα ἀληθῆ λέγων καὶ τὸν ἐναντίον αὑτοῦ λόγον ἀληθῆ ποιεῖ, ὥστε τὸν
ἑαυτοῦ οὐκ ἀληθῆ (ὁ γὰρ ἐναντίος οὔ φησιν αὐτὸν ἀληθῆ), ὁ δὲ πάντα ψευδῆ καὶ
αὐτὸς αὑτόν.) It may be emphasized that Aristotles argument does not
contain an explicit application of consequentia mirabilis. Indeed, no
extant self-refutation argument before Augustine, Grice is told by Mates,
contains an explicit application of consequentia mirabilis. This observation is
a good and important one, but Grice has doubts about the consequences one may
draw from it. One may take the absence of an explicit application of
consequentia mirabilis to be a sign of the purely dialectical nature of the
self-refutation argument. This is questionable. The formulation of a
self-refutation argument (as in Grices addressee, Sorry, I misused adult.) is
often compressed and elliptical and involves this or that implicatum. One
usually assumes that this or that piece in a dialectical context has been
omitted and should be supplied (or worked out, as Grice prefers) by the addressee. But
in this or that case, it is equally possible to supply some other,
non-dialectical piece of reasoning. In Aristotles arguments from Γ 8,
e.g., the addressee may supply an inference to the effect that the thesis which
has been shown to be self-refuting is not true. For if Aristotle takes the
argument to establish that the thesis has its own contradictory version as a
consequence, it must be obvious to Aristotle that the thesis is not true (since
every consequence of a true thesis is true, and two contradictory theses cannot
be simultaneously true). On the further assumption (that Grice makes
explicit) that the principle of bivalence is applicable, Aristotle may even
infer that the thesis is false. It is perfectly plausible to attribute such
an inference to Aristotle and to supply it in his argument from Γ 8. On
this account, there is no reason to think that the argument is of an
intrinsically dialectical nature and cannot be adequately represented as a
non-dialectical proof of the non-truth, or even falsity, of the thesis in
question. It is indeed difficult to see signs of a dialectical exchange
between two parties (of the type of which Grice and Strawson are champions) in
Γ8, 1012b13–18. One piece of evidence is Aristotles reference to the
person, the utterer, as Grice prefers who explicitly conveys or asserts (ὁ
λέγων) that T1 or that T2. This reference by the Grecian philosopher to
the Griceian utterer or asserter of the thesis that everything is true would be
irrelevant if Aristotles aim is to prove something about T1s or T2s
propositional content, independently of the act by the utterer of uttering
its expression and thereby explicitly conveying it. However, it is not
clear that this reference is essential to Aristotles argument. One may
even doubt whether the Grecian philosopher is being that Griceian, and actually
referring to the asserter of T1 or T2. The *implicit* (or implicated)
grammatical Subjects of Aristotles ὁ λέγων (1012b15) might be λόγος, instead of
the utterer qua asserter. λόγος is surely the implicit grammatical Subjects of
ὁ λέγων shortly after ( 1012b21–22. 8). The passage may be taken to be
concerned with λόγοι ‒ this or that statement, this or that
thesis ‒ but not with its asserter. In the Prior Analytics,
Aristotle states that no thesis (A three-year old is an adult) can necessarily
imply its own contradictory (A three-year old is not an adult) (2.4,
57b13–14). One may appeal to this statement in order to argue for
Aristotles claim that a self-refutation argument should NOT be analyzed as
involving an implicit application of consequentia mirabilis. Thus, one should
deny that Aristotles self-refutation argument establishes a necessary
implication from the self-refuting thesis to its contradictory. However,
this does not explain what other kind of consequence relation Aristotle takes
the self-refutation argument to establish between the self-refuting thesis and
its contradictory, although dialectical necessity has been suggested.
Aristotles argument suffices to establish that Everything is false is either
false or liar-paradoxical. If a thesis is liar-paradoxical (and Grice
loved, and overused the expression), the assumption of its falsity leads to
contradiction as well as the assumption of its truth. But Everything is false
is only liar-paradoxical in the unlikely, for Aristotle perhaps impossible,
event that everything distinct from this thesis is false. So, given the
additional premise that there is at least one true item distinct from the
thesis Everything is false, Aristotle can safely infer that the thesis is
false. As for Aristotles ὁ γὰρ λέγων τὸν ἀληθῆ λόγον ἀληθῆ ἀληθής,, or eliding
the γὰρ, ὁ λέγων τὸν ἀληθῆ λόγον ἀληθῆ ἀληθής, (ho
legon ton alethe logon alethe alethes) may be rendered as either: The statement
which states that the true statement is true is true, or, more alla Grice,
as He who says (or explicitly conveys, or indicates) that the true thesis
is true says something true. It may be argued that it is quite baffling
(and figurative or analogical or metaphoric) in this context, to take ἀληθής to
be predicated of the Griceian utterer, a person (true standing for truth
teller, trustworthy), to take it to mean that he says something true,
rather than his statement stating something true, or his statement being true.
But cf. L and S: ἀληθής [α^], Dor. ἀλαθής, [α^], Dor. ἀλαθής, ές, f. λήθω, of
persons, truthful, honest (not in Hom., v. infr.), ἀ. νόος Pi. O.2.92;
κατήγορος A. Th. 439; κριτής Th. 3.56; οἶνος ἀ. `in vino veritas, Pl. Smp.
217e; ὁ μέσος ἀ. τις Arist. EN 1108a20. Admittedly, this or that non-Griceian
passage in which it is λόγος, and not the utterer, which is the implied
grammatical Subjects of ὁ λέγων can be found in Metaph. Γ7, 1012a24–25; Δ6,
1016a33; Int. 14, 23a28–29; De motu an. 10, 703a4; Eth. Nic. 2.6, 1107a6–7.
9. So the topic is controversial. Indeed such a non-Griceian exegesis of
the passage is given by Alexander of Aphrodisias (in Metaph. 340. 26–29):9,
when Alexander observes that the statement, i.e. not the utterer, that says
that everything is false (ὁ δὲ πάντα ψευδῆ εἶναι λέγων λόγος) negates itself,
not himself, because if everything is false, this very statement, which, rather
than, by which the utterer, says that everything is false, would be false, and
how can an utterer be FALSE? So that the statement which, rather than the
utterer who, negates it, saying that not everything is false, would be true,
and surely an utterer cannot be true. Does Alexander misrepresent Aristotles
argument by omitting every Griceian reference to the asserter or utterer qua
rational personal agent, of the thesis? If the answer is negative, even if the
occurrence of ὁ λέγων at 1012b15 refers to the asserter, or utterer, qua
rational personal agent, this is merely an accidental feature of Aristotles
argument that cannot be regarded as an indication of its dialectical nature.
None of this is to deny that some self-refutation argument may be of an
intrinsically dialectical nature; it is only to deny that every one is This is
in line with Burnyeats view that a dialectical self-refutation, even if
qualified, as Aristotle does, as ancient, is a subspecies of self-refutation,
but does not exhaust it. Granted, a dialectical approach may provide a useful
interpretive framework for many an ancient self-refutation argument. A
statement like If proof does not exist, proof exists ‒ that occurs in an
anti-sceptical self-refutation argument reported by Sextus
Empiricus ‒ may receive an attractive dialectical re-interpretation.
It may be argued that such a statement should not be understood at the
level of what is explicated, but should be regarded as an elliptical reminder
of a complex dialectical argument which can be described as follows. Cf. If
thou claimest that proof doth not exist, thou must present a proof of what thou
assertest, in order to be credible, but thus thou thyself admitest that proof
existeth. A similar point can be made for Aristotles famous argument in the
Protrepticus that one must philosophise. A number of sources state that this
argument relies on the implicature, If one must not philosophize, one must
philosophize. It may be argued that this implicature is an elliptical reminder
of a dialectical argument such as the following. If thy position is that thou
must not philosophise, thou must reflect on this choice and argue in its
support, but by doing so thou art already choosing to do philosophy, thereby
admitting that thou must philosophise. The claim that every instance of an
ancient self-refutation arguments is of an intrinsically dialectical nature is
thus questionable, to put it mildly. V also 340.19–26, and A. Madigan, tcomm.,
Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotles Met.
4, Ithaca, N.Y., Burnyeat, Protagoras and Self-Refutation in Later Greek
Philosophy,. Grices implicature is that Quine should have learned Greek before
refuting Aristotle. But then *I* dont speak Greek! Strawson refuted. Refs.: The
obvious keyword is ‘analytic,’ in The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
paradox: One of Grice’s claims to fame is his paradox, under ‘Yog
and Zog.’ Another paradox that Grice examines at length is paradox by Moore.
For Grice, unlike Nowell-Smith, an utterer who, by uttering The cat is on the
mat explicitly conveys that the cat is on the mat does not thereby implicitly
convey that he believes that the cat is on the mat. He, more crucially
expresses that he believes that the cat is on the mat ‒ and this is not
cancellable. He occasionally refers to Moores paradox in the buletic mode, Close
the door even if thats not my desire. An imperative still expresses someones
desire. The sergeant who orders his soldiers to muster at dawn because he is
following the lieutenants order. Grices first encounter with paradox remains
his studying Malcolms misleading exegesis of Moore. Refs.: The main sources
given under ‘heterologicality,’ above. ‘Paradox’ is a good keyword in The H. P.
Grice Papers, since he used ‘paradox’ to describe his puzzle about ‘if,’ but
also Malcolm on Moore on the philosopher’s paradox, and paradoxes of material
implication and paradoxes of entailment. Grice’s point is that a paradox is not
something false. For Strawson it is. “The so-called paradoxes of ‘entailment’
and ‘material implication’ are a misnomer. They statements are not paradoxical,
they are false.” Not for Grice! The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC MSS 90/135c, The
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
perceptum: this is Grice on sense-datum. Cf. sensum. Lewis and Short
have “sentĭo,”
which they render, aptly, as “to sense,” ‘to discern by the senses; to feel,
hear, see, etc.; to perceive, be sensible of (syn. percipio).” Note that Price is also cited by Grice in Personal
identity. Grice: That pillar box seems red to me. The locus classicus in the
philosophical literature for Grices implicatum. Grice introduces a
dout-or-denial condition for an utterance of a phenomenalist report (That
pillar-box seems red to me). Grice attacks neo-Wittgensteinian approaches that
regard the report as _false_. In a long excursus on implication, he compares
the phenomenalist report with utterances like He has beautiful handwriting (He
is hopeless at philosophy), a particularised conversational implicatum; My wife
is in the kitchen or the garden (I have non-truth-functional grounds to utter
this), a generalised conversational implicatum; She was poor but she was
honest (a Great-War witty (her poverty and her honesty contrast), a
conventional implicatum; and Have you stopped beating your wife? an old
Oxonian conundrum. You have been beating your wife, cf. Smith has not ceased
from eating iron, a presupposition. More importantly, he considers different
tests for each concoction! Those for the conversational implicatum will become
crucial: cancellability, calculability, non-detachability, and indeterminacy.
In the proceedings he plays with something like the principle of conversational
helpfulness, as having a basis on a view of conversation as rational
co-operation, and as giving the rationale to the implicatum. Past the excursus,
and back to the issue of perception, he holds a conservative view as presented
by Price at Oxford. One interesting reprint of Grices essay is in Daviss volume
on Causal theories, since this is where it belongs! White’s response is usually
ignored, but shouldnt. White is an interesting Australian philosopher at Oxford
who is usually regarded as a practitioner of ordinary-language philosophy.
However, in his response, White hardly touches the issue of the implicature
with which Grice is primarily concerned. Grice found that a full reprint from
the PAS in a compilation also containing the James Harvard would be too
repetitive. Therefore, he omits the excursus on implication. However, the way
Grice re-formulates what that excursus covers is very interesting. There is the
conversational implicatum, particularised (Smith has beautiful handwriting) and
generalised (My wife is in the kitchen or in the garden). Then there is the
præsuppositum, or presupposition (You havent stopped beating your wife).
Finally, there is the conventional implicatum (She was poor, but she was
honest). Even at Oxford, Grices implicature goes, philosophers ‒ even Oxonian
philosophers ‒ use imply for all those different animals! Warnock had attended
Austins Sense and Sensibilia (not to be confused with Sense and Sensibility by
Austen), which Grice found boring, but Warnock didnt because Austin reviews his
"Berkeley." But Warnock, for obvious reasons, preferred
philosophical investigations with Grice. Warnock reminisces that Grice once
tells him, and not on a Saturday morning, either, How clever language is, for
they find that ordinary language does not need the concept of a visum. Grice
and Warnock spent lovely occasions exploring what Oxford has as the philosophy
of perception. While Grice later came to see philosophy of perception as a bit
or an offshoot of philosophical psychology, the philosophy of perception is
concerned with that treasured bit of the Oxonian philosophers lexicon, the
sense-datum, always in the singular! The cause involved is crucial. Grice plays
with an evolutionary justification of the material thing as the denotatum of a
perceptual judgement. If a material thing causes the sense-datum of a nut, that
is because the squarrel (or squirrel) will not be nourished by the sense datum
of the nut; only by the nut! There are many other items in the Grice Collection
that address the topic of perception – notably with Warnock, and criticizing
members of the Ryle group like Roxbee-Cox (on vision, cf. visa ‒ taste, and
perception, in general – And we should not forget that Grice contributed a
splendid essay on the distinction of the senses to Butlers Analytic philosophy,
which in a way, redeemed a rather old-fashioned discipline by shifting it to
the idiom of the day, the philosophy of perception: a retrospective, with
Warnock, the philosophy of perception, : perception, the philosophy of
perception, visum. Warnock was possibly the only philosopher at Oxford
Grice felt congenial enough to engage in different explorations in the so-called
philosophy of perception. Their joint adventures involved the disimplicature of
a visum. Grice later approached sense data in more evolutionary terms: a
material thing is to be vindicated transcendentally, in the sense that it is a
material thing (and not a sense datum or collection thereof) that nourishes a
creature like a human. Grice was particularly grateful to Warnock. By
reprinting the full symposium on “Causal theory” of perception in his
influential s. of Oxford Readings in Philosophy, Warnock had spread Grices lore
of implicature all over! In some parts of the draft he uses more on visa,
vision, vision, with Warnock, vision. Of the five senses, Grice and
Warnock are particularly interested in seeing. As Grice will put it later, see
is a factive. It presupposes the existence of the event reported after the
that-clause; a visum, however, as an intermediary between the material thing
and the perceiver does not seem necessary in ordinary discourse. Warnock will
reconsider Grices views too (On what is seen, in Sibley). While Grice uses
vision, he knows he is interested in Philosophers paradox concerning seeing,
notably Witters on seeing as, vision, taste and the philosophy of perception,
vision, seeing. As an Oxonian philosopher, Grice was of course more interested
in seeing than in vision. He said that Austin would criticise even the use of
things like sensation and volition, taste, The Grice Papers, keyword: taste,
the objects of the five senses, the philosophy of perception, perception, the
philosophy of perception; philosophy of perception, vision, taste,
perception. Mainly with Warnock. Warnock repr. Grice’s “Causal
theory” in his influential Reading in Philosophy, The philosophy of perception,
perception, with Warnock, with Warner; perception. Warnock learns about
perception much more from Grice than from Austin, taste, The philosophy of
perception, the philosophy of perception, notes with Warnock on visum, : visum,
Warnock, Grice, the philosophy of perception. Grice kept the lecture
notes to a view of publishing a retrospective. Warnock recalled Grice
saying, how clever language is! Grice took the offer by Harvard University
Press, and it was a good thing he repr. part of “Causal theory.” However, the
relevant bits for his theory of conversation as rational co-operation lie in
the excursus which he omitted. What is Grices implicature: that one should
consider the topic rather than the method here, being sense datum, and
causation, rather than conversational helpfulness. After all, That pillar box
seems red to me, does not sound very helpful. But the topic of Causal theory is
central for his view of conversation as rational co-operation. Why? P1 gets
an impression of danger as caused by the danger out there. He communicates the
danger to P1, causing in P2 some behaviour. Without
causation, or causal links, the very point of offering a theory of conversation
as rational co-operation seems minimized. On top, as a metaphysician, he was
also concerned with cause simpliciter. He was especially proud that Price’s section
on the casual theory of perception, from his Belief, had been repr. along with
his essay in the influential volume by Davis on “Causal theories.” In “Actions
and events,” Grice further explores cause now in connection with Greek aitia.
As Grice notes, the original usage of this very Grecian item is the one we find
in rebel without a cause, cause-to, rather than cause-because. The two-movement
nature of causing is reproduced in the conversational exchange: a material
thing causes a sense datum which causes an expression which gets communicated,
thus causing a psychological state which will cause a behaviour. This causation
is almost representational. A material thing or a situation cannot govern our
actions and behaviours, but a re-præsentatum of it might. Govern our actions
and behaviour is Grices correlate of what a team of North-Oxfordshire
cricketers can do for North-Oxfordshire: what North Oxfordshire cannot do for
herself, Namesly, engage in a game of cricket! In Retrospective epilogue he
casts doubts on the point of his causal approach. It is a short paragraph that
merits much exploration. Basically, Grice is saying his causalist approach is
hardly an established thesis. He also proposes a similar serious objection to
his view in Some remarks about the senses, the other essay in the philosophy of
perception in Studies. As he notes, both engage with some fundamental questions
in the philosophy of perception, which is hardly the same thing as saying that
they provide an answer to each question! Grice: The issue with which I
have been mainly concerned may be thought rather a fine point, but it is
certainly not an isolated one. There are several philosophical theses or dicta
which would I think need to be examined in order to see whether or not they are
sufficiently parallel to the thesis which I have been discussing to be amenable
to treatment of the same general kind. Examples which occur to me are the
following six. You cannot see a knife ‘as’ a knife, though you may see what is
not a knife ‘as’ a knife (keyword: ‘seeing as’). When he said he ‘knew’ that
the objects before him were human hands, Moore was guilty of misusing ‘know.’
For an occurrence to be properly said to have a ‘cause,’ it must be something
abnormal or unusual (keyword: ‘cause’). For an action to be properly described
as one for which the agent is ‘responsible,’ it must be the sort of action for
which people are condemned (keyword: responsibility). What is actual is not
also possible (keyword: actual). What is known by me to be the case is not also
believed by me to be the case (keyword: ‘know’ – cf. Urmson on ‘scalar set’).
And cf. with the extra examples he presents in “Prolegomena.” I have no doubt
that there will be other candidates besides the six which I have mentioned. I
must emphasize that I am not saying that all these examples are importantly
similar to the thesis which I have been criticizing, only that, for all I know,
they may be. To put the matter more generally, the position adopted by my
objector seems to me to involve a type of manoeuvre which is characteristic of
more than one contemporary mode of philosophizing. I am not condemning this
kind of manoeuvre. I am merely suggesting that to embark on it without due
caution is to risk collision with the facts. Before we rush ahead to exploit
the linguistic nuances which we have detectcd, we should make sure that we are
reasonably clear what sort of nuances they are. “Causal theory”, knowledge and
belief, knowledge, belief, philosophical psychology. Grice: the doxastic
implicatum. I know only implicates I do not believe. The following is a mistake
by a philosopher. What is known by me to be the case is not also believed by me
to be the case. The topic had attracted the attention of some Oxonian
philosophers such as Urmson in Parenthetical verbs. Urmson speaks of a scale: I
know can be used parenthetically, as I believe can. For Grice, to utter I
believe is obviously to make a weaker conversational move than you would
if you utter I know. And in this case, an approach to informativeness in terms
of entailment is in order, seeing that I know entails I believe. A is thus
allowed to infer that the utterer is not in a position to make the stronger
claim. The mechanism is explained via his principle of conversational
helpfulness. Philosophers tend two over-use these two basic psychological
states, attitudes, or stances. Grice is concerned with Gettier-type cases, and
also the factivity of know versus the non-factivity of believe. Grice follows
the lexicological innovations by Hintikka: the logic of belief is doxastic; the
logic of knowledge is epistemic. The last thesis that Grice lists in Causal
theory that he thinks rests on a big mistake he formulates as: What is known by
me to be the case is NOT also believed by me to be the case. What are his
attending remarks? Grice writes: The issue with which I have been mainly
concerned may be thought rather a fine point, but it is certainly not an
isolated one. There are several philosophical theses or dicta which would I
think need to be examined in order to see whether or not they are sufficiently
parallel to the thesis which I have been discussing to be amenable to treatment
of the same general kind. An example which occurs to me is the following: What
is known by me to be the case is not also believed by me to be the case. I must
emphasise that I am not saying that this example is importantly similar to the
thesis which I have been criticising, only that, for all I know, it may be. To
put the matter more generally, the position adopted by my objector seems to me
to involve a type of manoeuvre which is characteristic of more than one
contemporary mode of philosophizing. I am not condemning this kind of
manoeuvre. I am merely suggesting that to embark on it without due caution is
to risk collision with the facts. Before we rush ahead to exploit the
linguistic nuances which we have detected, we should make sure that we are
reasonably clear what SORT of nuances they are! The ætiological
implicatum. Grice. For an occurrence to be properly said to have a cause, it
must be something abnormal or unusual. This is an example Grice lists in Causal
theory but not in Prolegomena. But cf. ‘responsible’ – and Hart and Honoré on
accusation -- accusare
"call to account, make complaint against," from ad causa, from “ad,”
with regard to, as in ‘ad-’) + causa, a cause; a lawsuit,’ v. cause. For an occurrence to be properly said to have a cause, it
must be something abnormal or unusual. Similar commentary to his example on
responsible/condemnable apply. The objector may stick with the fact that he is
only concerned with proper utterances. Surely Grice wants to go to a
pre-Humeian account of causation, possible Aristotelian, aetiologia. Where
everything has a cause, except, for Aristotle, God! What are his attending remarks?
Grice writes: The issue with which I have been mainly concerned may be thought
rather a fine point, but it is certainly not an isolated one. There are several
philosophical theses or dicta which would I think need to be examined in order
to see whether or not they are sufficiently parallel to the thesis which I have
been discussing to be amenable to treatment of the same general kind. An
example which occurs to me is the following: What is known by me to be the case
is not also believed by me to be the case. I must emphasise that I am not
saying that this example is importantly similar to the thesis which I have been
criticizing, only that, for all I know, it may be. To put the matter more
generally, the position adopted by my objector seems to me to involve a type of
manoeuvre which is characteristic of more than one contemporary mode of
philosophising. I am not condemning this kind of manoeuvre. I am merely
suggesting that to embark on it without due caution is to risk collision with
the facts. Before we rush ahead to exploit the linguistic nuances which we have
detected, we should make sure that we are reasonably clear what sort of nuances
they are! Causal theory, cause, causality, causation, conference, colloquium,
Stanford, cause, metaphysics, the abnormal/unusual implicatum, ætiology,
ætiological implicatum. Grice: the ætiological implicatum. Grices explorations
on cause are very rich. He is concerned with some alleged misuse of cause in
ordinary language. If as Hume suggests, to cause is to will, one would say that
the decapitation of Charles I wills his death, which sounds harsh, if not
ungrammatical, too. Grice later relates cause to the Greek aitia, as he should.
He notes collocations like rebel without a cause. For the Greeks, or Grecians,
as he called them, and the Griceians, it is a cause to which one should be
involved in elucidating. A ‘cause to’ connects with the idea of freedom.
Grice was constantly aware of the threat of mechanism, and his idea was to
provide philosophical room for the idea of finality, which is not
mechanistically derivable. This leads him to discussion of overlap and priority
of, say, a physical-cum-physiological versus a psychological theory explaining
this or that piece of rational behaviour. Grice can be Wittgensteinian when
citing Anscombes translation: No psychological concept without the behaviour
the concept is brought to explain. It is best to place his later
treatment of cause with his earlier one in Causal theory. It is surprising
Grice does not apply his example of a mistake by a philosopher to the causal
bit of his causal theory. Grice states the philosophical mistake as follows:
For an occurrence to be properly said to have a cause, it must be something
abnormal or unusual. This is an example Grice lists in Causal theory but not in
Prolegomena. For an occurrence to be properly said to have a cause, it must be
something abnormal or unusual. A similar commentary to his example on
responsible/condemnable applies: The objector may stick with the fact that he
is only concerned with PROPER utterances. Surely Grice wants to embrace a
pre-Humeian account of causation, possible Aristotelian. Keyword: Aitiologia,
where everything has a cause, except, for Aristotle, God! What are his
attending remarks? Grice writes: The issue with which I have been mainly
concerned may be thought rather a fine point, but it is certainly not an
isolated one. There are several philosophical theses or dicta which would Grice
thinks need to be examined in order to see whether or not they are sufficiently
parallel to the thesis which Grice has been discussing to be amenable to
treatment of the same general kind. One example which occurs to Grice is the
following: For an occurrence to be properly said to have a cause, it must be
something abnormal or unusual. Grice feels he must emphasise that he is not
saying that this example is importantly similar to the thesis which I have been
criticizing, only that, for all I know, it may be. To put the matter more
generally, the position adopted by my objector seems to me to involve a type of
manoeuvre which is characteristic of more than one contemporary mode of
philosophizing. I am not condemning this kind of manoeuvre. I am merely
suggesting that to embark on it without due caution is to risk collision with
the facts. Before we rush ahead to exploit the linguistic nuances which we have
detected, we should make sure that we are reasonably clear what sort of nuances
they are! Re: responsibility/condemnation. Cf. Mabbott, Flew on punishment,
Philosophy. And also Hart. At Corpus, Grice enjoys his tutor Hardies
resourcefulness in the defence of what may be a difficult position, a
characteristic illustrated by an incident which Hardie himself once told Grice
about himself. Hardie had parked his car and gone to a cinema. Unfortunately,
Hardie had parked his car on top of one of the strips on the street by means of
which traffic-lights were, at the time, controlled by the passing traffic. As a
result, the lights are jammed, and it requires four policemen to lift Hardies
car off the strip. The police decides to prosecute. Grice indicated to Hardie
that this hardly surprised him and asked him how he fared. Oh, Hardie says, I
got off. Then Grice asks Hardie how on earth he managed that! Quite simply,
Hardie answers. I just invoked Mills method of difference. The police charged
me with causing an obstruction at 4 p.m. I told the police that, since my car
was parked at 2 p.m., it could not have been my car which caused the
obstruction at 4 p.m. This relates to an example in Causal theory that he Grice
does not discuss in Prolegomena, but which may relate to Hart, and closer to
Grice, to Mabbotts essay on Flew on punishment, in Philosophy. Grice states the
philosophical mistake as follows: For an action to be properly described as one
for which the agent is responsible, it must be thc sort of action for which
people are condemned. As applied to Hardie. Is Hardie irresponsible? In any
case, while condemnable, he was not! Grice writes: The issue with which I have
been mainly concerned may be thought rather a fine point, but it is certainly
not an isolated one. There are several philosophical theses or dicta which
would I think need to be examined in order to see whether or not they are
sufficiently parallel to the thesis which I have been discussing to be amenable
to treatment of the same general kind. An example which occurs to me is the
following: For an action to be properly described as one for which the agent is
responsible, it must be the sort of action for which people are condemned. I
must emphasise that I am not saying that this example is importantly similar to
the thesis which I have been criticizing, only that, for all I know, it may be.
To put the matter more generally, the position adopted by my objector seems to
me to involve a type of manoeuvre which is characteristic of more than one
contemporary mode of philosophizing. I am not condemning this kind of
manoeuvre. I am merely suggesting that to embark on it without due caution is
to risk collision with the facts. Before we rush ahead to exploit the
linguistic nuances which we have detected, we should make sure that we are
reasonably clear what sort of nuances they are. The modal example, what is
actual is not also possible, should discussed under Indicative conditonals,
Grice on Macbeth’s implicature: seeing a dagger as a dagger. Grice elaborates
on this in Prolegomena, but the austerity of Causal theory is charming, since
he does not give a quote or source. Obviously, Witters. Grice writes: Witters
might say that one cannot see a knife as a knife, though one may see what is
not a knife as a knife. The issue, Grice notes, with which I have been mainly
concerned may be thought rather a fine point, but it is certainly not an
isolated one. There are several philosophical theses or dicta which would I
think need to be examined in order to see whether or not they are sufficiently
parallel to the thesis which I have been discussing to be amenable to treatment
of the same general kind. An example which occurs to Grice is the following:
You cannot see a knife as a knife, though you may see what is not a knife as a
knife. Grice feels that he must emphasise that he is not saying that this
example is importantly similar to the thesis which I have been criticizing,
only that, for all I know, it may be. To put the matter more generally, the
position adopted by my objector seems to me to involve a type of manoeuvre
which is characteristic of more than one contemporary mode of philosophizing. I
am not condemning this kind of manoeuvre. I am merely suggesting that to embark
on it without due caution is to risk collision with the facts. Before we rush
ahead to exploit the linguistic nuances which we have detected, we should make
sure that we are reasonably clear what sort of nuances they are! Is this a
dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch
thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision,
sensible to feeling as to sight? or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false
creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? I see thee yet, in form as
palpable as this which now I draw. Thou marshallst me the way that I was going;
and such an instrument I was to use. Mine eyes are made the fools o the other
senses, Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still, and on thy blade and
dudgeon gouts of blood, which was not so before. Theres no such thing: It is
the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes. Now oer the one halfworld
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtaind sleep; witchcraft
celebrates Pale Hecates offerings, and witherd murder, Alarumd by his sentinel,
the wolf, Whose howls his watch, thus with his stealthy pace. With
Tarquins ravishing strides, towards his design Moves like a ghost. Thou sure
and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very
stones prate of my whereabout, And take the present horror from the time, Which
now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives: Words to the heat of deeds too
cold breath gives. I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not,
Duncan; for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell. The Moore
example is used both in “Causal theory” and “Prolegomena.” But the use in
“Causal Theory” is more austere: Philosophers mistake: Malcolm: When Moore said
he knew that the objects before him were human hands, he was guilty of misusing
the word know. Grice writes: The issue with which I have been mainly concerned
may be thought rather a fine point, but it is certainly not an isolated one.
There are several philosophical theses or dicta which would I think need to be
examined in order to see whether or not they are sufficiently parallel to the
thesis which I have been discussing to be amenable to treatment of the same
general kind. An example which occurs to me is the following: When Moore said
he knew that the objects before him were human hands, he was guilty of misusing
the word know. I must emphasise that I am not saying that this example is
importantly similar to the thesis which I have been criticizing, only that, for
all I know, it may be. To put the matter more generally, the position adopted
by my objector seems to me to involve a type of manoeuvre which is
characteristic of more than one contemporary mode of philosophizing. I am not
condemning this kind of manoeuvre. Grice is merely suggesting that to embark on
it without due caution is to risk collision with the facts. Before we rush
ahead to exploit the linguistic nuances which we have detected, we should make
sure that we are reasonably clear what sort of nuances they are! So surely
Grice is meaning: I know that the objects before me are human hands as uttered
by Moore is possibly true. Grice was amused by the fact that while at Madison,
Wisc., Moore gave the example: I know that behind those curtains there is a
window. Actually he was wrong, as he soon realised when the educated
Madisonians corrected him with a roar of unanimous laughter. You see, the
lecture hall of the University of Wisconsin at Madison is a rather, shall we
say, striking space. The architect designed the lecture hall with a parapet
running around the wall just below the ceiling, cleverly rigged with indirect
lighting to create the illusion that sun light is pouring in through windows
from outside. So, Moore comes to give a lecture one sunny day. Attracted as he
was to this eccentric architectural detail, Moore gives an illustration of
certainty as attached to common sense. Pointing to the space below the ceiling,
Moore utters. We know more things than we think we know. I know, for example,
that the sunlight shining in from outside proves At which point he was somewhat startled (in
his reserved Irish-English sort of way) when his audience burst out laughing!
Is that a proof of anything? Grice is especially concerned with I seem He needs
a paradeigmatic sense-datum utterance, and intentionalist as he was, he finds
it in I seem to see a red pillar box before me. He is relying on Paul. Grice
would generalise a sense datum by φ I seem to perceive that the alpha is phi.
He agrees that while cause may be too much, any sentence using because will do:
At a circus: You seem to be seeing that an elephant is coming down the street
because an elephant is coming down the street. Grice found the causalist theory
of perception particularly attractive since its objection commits one same
mistake twice: he mischaracterises the cancellable implicatum of both seem and
cause! While Grice is approaching the philosophical item in the
philosophical lexicon, perceptio, he is at this stage more interested in
vernacular that- clauses such as sensing that, or even more vernacular ones
like seeming that, if not seeing that! This is of course philosophical (cf.
aesthetikos vs. noetikos). L and S have “perceptĭo,” f. perceptio, as used by
Cicero (Ac. 2, 7, 22) translating catalepsis, and which they render as “a
taking, receiving; a gathering in, collecting;’ frugum fruetuumque reliquorum,
Cic. Off. 2, 3, 12: fructuum;’ also as perception, comprehension, cf.: notio,
cognition; animi perceptiones, notions, ideas; cognitio aut perceptio, aut si
verbum e verbo volumus comprehensio, quam κατάληψιν illi vocant; in philosophy,
direct apprehension of an object by the mind, Zeno Stoic.1.20, Luc. Par. 4,
al.; τῶν μετεώρων;” ἀκριβὴς κ. Certainty; pl., perceptions, Stoic.2.30, Luc.
Herm.81, etc.; introduced into Latin by Cicero, Plu. Cic. 40. As for “causa”
Grice is even more sure he was exploring a time-honoured philosophical topic.
The entry in L and S is “causa,’ perh. root “cav-“ of “caveo,” prop. that which
is defended or protected; cf. “cura,” and that they render as, unhelpfully, as
“cause,” “that by, on account of, or through which any thing takes place or is
done;” “a cause, reason, motive, inducement;” also, in gen., an occasion,
opportunity; oeffectis; factis, syn.
with ratio, principium, fons, origo, caput; excusatio, defensio; judicium,
controversia, lis; partes, actio; condicio, negotium, commodum, al.);
correlated to aition, or aitia, cause, δι᾽ ἣν αἰτίην ἐπολέμησαν,” cf. Pl. Ti.
68e, Phd. 97a sq.; on the four causes of Arist. v. Ph. 194b16, Metaph. 983a26:
αἰ. τοῦ γενέσθαι or γεγονέναι Pl. Phd. 97a; τοῦ μεγίστου ἀγαθοῦ τῇ πόλει αἰτία
ἡ κοινωνία Id. R. 464b: αἰτίᾳ for the sake of, κοινοῦ τινος ἀγαθοῦ.” Then there
is “αἴτιον” (cf. ‘αἴτιος’) is used like “αἰτία” in the sense of cause, not in
that of ‘accusation.’ Grice goes back to perception at a later stage,
reminiscing on his joint endeavours with akin Warnock, Ps karulise elatically,
potching and cotching obbles, Pirotese, Pirotese, creature construction,
philosophical psychology. Grice was fascinated by Carnaps Ps which
karulise elatically. Grice adds potching for something like perceiving and
cotching for something like cognising. With his essay Some remarks about
the senses, Grice introduces the question by which criterion we
distinguish our five senses into the contemporary philosophy of perception. The
literature concerning this question is not very numerous but the discussion is
still alive and was lately inspired by the volume The Senses2. There are four
acknowledged possible answers to the question how we distinguish the senses,
all of them already stated by Grice. First, the senses are distinguished by the
properties we perceive by them. Second, the senses are distinguished by the
phenomenal qualities of the perception itself or as Grice puts it “by the
special introspectible character of the experiences” Third, the senses are
distinguished by the physical stimuli that are responsible for the relevant
perceptions. Fourth, The senses are distinguished by the sense-organs that are
(causally) involved in the production of the relevant perceptions. Most
contributions discussing this issue reject the third and fourth answers in a
very short argumentation. Nearly all philosophers writing on the topic vote either
for the first or the second answer. Accordingly, most part of the debate
regarding the initial question takes the form of a dispute between these two
positions. Or” was a big thing in Oxford philosophy. The only known
published work of Wood, our philosophy tutor at Christ Church, was an essay in
Mind, the philosophers journal, entitled “Alternative Uses of “Or” ”, a work
which was every bit as indeterminate as its title. Several years later he
published another paper, this time for the Aristotelian Society, entitled On
being forced to a conclusion. Cf. Grice and Wood on the demands of
conversational reason. Wood, The force of linguistic rules. Wood, on the
implicatum of or in review in Mind of Connor, Logic. The five senses, as Urmson
notes, are to see that the sun is shining, to hear that the car collided, to
feel that her pulse is beating, to smell that something has been smoking and to
taste that. An interesting piece in that it was commissioned by Butler, who
knew Grice from his Oxford days. Grice cites Wood and Albritton. Grice is
concerned with a special topic in the philosophy of perception, notably the
identification of the traditional five senses: vision, audition, taste,
smell, and tact. He introduces what is regarded in the philosophical literature
as the first thought-experiment, in terms of the senses that Martians may have.
They have two pairs of eyes: are we going to allow that they see with both
pairs? Grice introduces a sub-division of seeing: a Martian x-s an object with
his upper pair of eyes, but he y-s an object with the lower pair of eyes. In
his exploration, he takes a realist stance, which respects the ordinary
discursive ways to approach issues of perception. A second interesting point is
that in allowing this to be repr. in Butlers Analytic philosophy, Grice is
demonstrating that analytic philosophers should NOT be obsessed with ordinary
language. Butlers compilation, a rather dry one, is meant as a response to the
more linguistic oriented ones by Flew (Grices first tutee at St. Johns, as it
happens), also published by Blackwell, and containing pieces by Austin, and
company. One philosopher who took Grice very seriously on this was Coady, in
his The senses of the Martians. Grice provides a serious objection to his own
essay in Retrospective epilogue We see with our eyes. I.e. eye is
teleologically defined. He notes that his way of distinguishing the senses is
hardly an established thesis. Grice actually advances this topic in his earlier
Causal theory. Grice sees nothing absurd in the idea that a non-specialist
concept should contain, so to speak, a blank space to be filled in by the
specialist; that this is so, e.g., in the case of the concept of seeing is
perhaps indicated by the consideration that if we were in doubt about the correctness
of speaking of a certain creature with peculiar sense-organs as seeing objects,
we might well wish to hear from a specialist a comparative account of the human
eye and the relevant sense-organs of the creature in question. He returns to
the point in Retrospective epilogue with a bit of doxastic humility, We see
with our eyes is analytic ‒ but philosophers should take that more
seriously. Grice tested the playmates of his children, aged 7
and 9, with Nothing can be green and red all over. Instead, Morley
Bunker preferred philosophy undergrads. Aint that boring? To
give examples: Summer follows Spring was judged analytic by Morley-Bunkers
informants, as cited by Sampson, in Making sense (Clarendon) by highly
significant majorities in each group of Subjectss, while We see with our eyes
was given near-even split votes by each group. Over all, the philosophers were
somewhat more consistent with each other than the non-philosophers. But that
global finding conceals results for individual sentences that sometimes
manifested the opposed tendency. Thus, Thunderstorms are electrical
disturbances in the atmosphere is judged analytic by a highly significant
majority of the non-philosophers, while a non-significant majority of the
philosophers deemed it non-analytic or synthetic. In this case, it seems,
philosophical training, surely not brain-washing, induces the realisation that
well-established results of contemporary science are not necessary truths. In
other cases, conversely, cliches of current philosophical education impose
their own mental blinkers on those who undergo it: Nothing can be completely
red and green all over is judged analytic by a significant majority of
philosophers but only by a non-significant majority of non-philosophers. All in
all, the results argue strongly against the notion that our inability to decide
consistently whether or not some statement is a necessary truth derives
from lack of skill in articulating our underlying knowledge of the rules of our
language. Rather, the inability comes from the fact that the question as posed
is unreal. We choose to treat a given statement as open to question or as
unchallengeable in the light of the overall structure of beliefs which we
have individually evolved in order to make sense of our individual experience.
Even the cases which seem clearly analytic or synthetic are cases which
individuals judge alike because the relevant experiences are shared by the
whole community, but even for such cases one can invent hypothetical or
suppositional future experiences which, if they should be realised, would cause
us to revise our judgements. This is not intended to call into question the
special status of the truths of logic, such as either Either it is raining
or it is not. He is of course inclined to accept the traditional view according
to which logical particles such as not and or are distinct from the bulk of the
vocabulary in that the former really are governed by clear-cut inference
rules. Grice does expand on the point. Refs.: Under sense-datum, there are
groups of essays. The obvious ones are the two essays on the philosophy of
perception in WOW. A second group relates to his research with G. J. Warnock,
where the keywords are ‘vision,’ ‘taste,’ and ‘perception,’ in general. There
is a more recent group with this research with R. Warner. ‘Visum’ and ‘visa’
are good keywords, and cf. the use of ‘senses’ in “Some remarks about the
senses,” in BANC.
philosophical: Grice was somewhat obsessed as to what ‘philosohical’
stood for, which amused the members of his play group! His play group once
spends five weeks in an effort to explain why, sometimes, ‘very’ allows, with
little or no change of meaning, the substitution of ‘highly’ (as in ‘very
unusual’) and sometimes does not (as in ‘very depressed’ or ‘very wicked’); and
we reached no conclusion. This episode was ridiculed by some as an ultimate
embodiment of fruitless frivolity. But that response is as out of place as a
similar response to the medieval question, ‘How many angels can dance on a needle’s
point?’” A needless point?For much as this medieval question is raised in order
to display, in a vivid way, a difficulty in the conception of an immaterial
substance, so The Play Group discussion is directed, in response to a worry
from me, towards an examination, in the first instance, of a conceptual
question which is generally agreed among us to be a strong candidate for being
a question which had no philosophical importance, with a view to using the
results of this examination in finding a distinction between philosophically
important and philosophically unimportant enquiries. Grice is fortunate that
the Lit. Hum. programme does not have much philosophy! He feels free! In fact,
the lack of a philosophical background is felt as a badge of honour. It is ‘too
clever’ and un-English to ‘know’ things. A pint of philosophy is all Grice
wanted. Figurative. This is Harvardite Gordon’s attempt to formulate a
philosophy of the minimum fundamental ideas that all people on the earth should
come to know. Reviewed by A. M. Honoré: Short measure. Gordon, a Stanley
Plummer scholar, e: Bowdoin and Harvard, in The Eastern Gazette. Grice would
exclaim: I always loved Alfred Brooks Gordon! Grice was slightly disapppointed
that Gordon had not included the fundamental idea of implicature in his pint.
Short measure, indeed. Grice gives seminars on Ariskant (“the first part of
this individual interested some of my tutees; the second, others.” Ariskant
philosophised in Grecian, but also in the pure Teutonic, and Grice collaborated
with Baker in this area. Curiously, Baker majors in French and philosophy and
does research at the Sorbonne. Grice would sometimes define ‘philoosphy.’
Oddly, Grice gives a nice example of ‘philosopher’ meaning ‘addicted to
general, usually stoic, reflections about life.’ In the context where it
occurs, the implicatum is Stevensonian. If Stevenson says that an athlete is
usually tall, a philosopher may occasionally be inclined to reflect about life
in general, as a birrelist would. Grice’s gives an alternate meaning, intended
to display circularity: ‘engaged in philosophical studies.’ The idea of Grice
of philosophy is the one the Lit. Hum. instills. It is a unique experience, unknown in the New
World, our actually outside Oxford, or post-Grice, where a classicist is not
seen as a philosopher. Once a tutorial fellow in philosophy (rather than
classics) and later university lecturer in philosophy (rather than classics)
strengthens his attachment. Grice needs to regarded by his tutee as a
philosopher simpliciter, as oppoosed to a prof: the Waynflete is a
metaphysician; the White is a moralist, the Wykeham a logician, and the Wilde a
‘mental’. For Grice’s “greatest living philosopher,” Heidegger, ‘philosophy’ is
a misnomer. While philology merely discourses (logos) on love, the philosopher
claims to be a wizard (sophos) of love. Liddell and Scott have “φιλοσοφία,”
which they render as “love of knowledge, pursuit thereof, speculation,” “ἡ φ.
κτῆσις ἐπιστήμης.” Then there’s “ἡ πρώτη φ.,” with striking originality,
metaphysic, Arist. Metaph. 1026a24. Just one sense, but various ambiguities
remain in ‘philosopher,’ as per Grice’s two
usages. As it happens, Grice is both addicted to general, usually stoic,
speculations about life, and he is a member of The Oxford Philosophical
Society.Refs.: The main sources in the Grice Papers are under series III, of
the doctrines. See also references under ‘lingusitic botany,’ and Oxonianism. Grice
liked to play with the adage of ‘philosophia’ as ‘regina scientiarum.’ A specific
essay in his update of “post-war Oxford philosophy,” in WoW on “Conceptual
analysis and the province of philosophy,” BANC.
physiological. Grice would use ‘natural,’ relying on the idea that it’s
Grecian ‘physis.’ Liddell
and Scott have “φύσις,” from “φύω,” and which they render as “origin.” the
natural form or constitution of a person or thing as the result of growth, and
hence nature, constitution, and nature as an originating power, “φ.
λέγεται . . ὅθεν ἡ κίνησις ἡ πρώτη ἐν ἑκάστῳ τῶν φύσει ὄντων” Arist.Metaph.1014b16;
concrete, the creation, 'Nature.’ Grice is casual in his use of ‘natural’
versus ‘non-natural’ in 1948 for the Oxford Philosophical Society. In later
works, there’s a reference to naturalism, which is more serious. Refs.: The
keyword should be ‘naturalism,’ but also Grice’s diatribes against
‘physicalism,’ and of course the ‘natural’ and ‘non-natural,’ BANC.
playgroup: while this can be
safely called Grice’s playgroup, it was founded by Austin at All Souls, where
it had only seven members. After the war, Grice joined in. The full list is
found elsewhere. With Austin’s death, Grice felt the responsibility to continue
with it, and plus, he enjoyed it!
practical reason: Literally, ‘practical reason’ is the buletic part of the
soul (psyche) that deals with praxis, where the weighing is central. We dont
need means-end rationality, we need value-oriented rationality. We dont need
the rationality of the means – this is obvious --. We want the rationality of
the ends. The end may justify the means. But Grice is looking for what
justifies the end. The topic of freedom fascinated Grice, because it merged the
practical with the theoretical. Grice sees the conception of freedom as
crucial in his elucidation of a rational being. Conditions of freedom are
necessary for the very idea, as Kant was well aware. A thief who is forced to
steal is just a thief. Grice would engage in a bit of language botany, when
exploring the ways the adjective free is used, freely, in ordinary language:
free fall, alcohol-free, sugar-free, and his favourite: implicature-free.
Grices more systematic reflections deal with Pology, or creature construction.
A vegetals, for example is less free than an animal, but more free than a
stone! And Humans are more free than non-human. Grice wants to deal with some
of the paradoxes identified by Kant about freedom, and he succeeds in solving
some of them. There is a section on freedom in Action and events for PPQ where he expands on eleutheria and notes the
idiocy of a phrase like free fall. Grice was irritated by the fact that his
friend Hart wrote an essay on liberty and not on freedom, cf. praxis. Refs.:
essays on ‘practical reason,’ and “Aspects,” in BANC.
prædicatum: vide subjectification, and subjectum. Of especial
interest to Grice and Strawson. Lewis and Short have “praedīco,” which they
render as “to say or mention before or beforehand, to premise.” Grice as a
modista is interested in parts of speech: nomen (onoma) versus verbum (rhema)
being the classical, since Plato. The mediaeval modistae like Alcuin adapted
Aristotle, and Grice follows suit. Of particular relevance are the
‘syncategoremata,’ since Grice was obsessed with particles, and we cannot say
that ‘and’ is a predicate! This relates to the ‘categorema.’ Liddell and Scott
have “κατηγόρ-ημα,” which they render as “accusation, charge,” Gorg.Pal.22; but
in philosophy, as “predicate,” as per Arist.Int.20b32, Metaph.1053b19,
etc.; -- “οὐκ εὔοδον τὸ ἁπλοῖν ἐστι κ.” Epicur.Fr.18. – and as “head
of predicables,” in Arist.Metaph.1028a33,Ph.201a1, Zeno Stoic.1.25, etc.;
περὶ κατηγορημάτων Sphaer.ib.140. The term syncategorema comes from a passage
of Priscian in his Institutiones grammatice II , 15. “coniunctae plenam faciunt orationem, alias autem
partes, κατηγορήματα, hoc est consignificantia, appellabant.” A
distinction is made between two types of word classes ("partes orationis,"
singular, "pars orationis") distinguished by philosophers since
Plato, viz. nouns (nomen, onoma) and verbs (verbum, rhema) on the one hand, and
a 'syncategorema or consignificantium. A consignificantium, just as
the unary functor "non," and any of the three dyadic functors,
"et," "vel" (or "aut") and "si," does
not have a definitive meaning on its own -- cf. praepositio, cited by Grice, --
"the meaning of 'to,' the meaning of 'of,'" -- rather, they acquire
meaning in combination or when con-joined to one or more categorema. It is one
thing to say that we employ a certain part of speech when certain conditions
are fulfilled and quite another to claim that the role in the language of that
part of speech is to say, even in an extended sense, that those conditions are
fulfilled.
prejudices: the life and opinions of H. P. Grice, by H. P. Grice!
PGRICE had been in the works for a while. Knowing this, Grice is able to start
his auto-biography, or memoir, to which he later adds a specific reply to this or
that objection by the editors. The reply is divided in neat sections. After a
preamble displaying his gratitude for the volume in his honour, Grice
turns to his prejudices and predilections; which become, the life and opinions
of H. P. Grice. The third section is a reply to the editorss overview of his
work. This reply itself is itself subdivided into questions of meaning and
rationality, and questions of Met. , philosophical psychology, and value. As
the latter is repr. in “Conception” it is possible to cite this sub-section
from the Reply as a separate piece. Grice originally entitles his essay in
a brilliant manner, echoing the style of an English non-conformist, almost:
Prejudices and predilections; which become, the life and opinions of H. P. Grice.
With his Richards, a nice Welsh surNames, Grice is punning on the first Names
of both Grandy and Warner. Grice is especially concerned with what Richards see
as an ontological commitment on Grices part to the abstract, yet poorly
individuated entity of a proposition. Grice also deals with the alleged
insufficiency in his conceptual analysis of reasoning. He brings for good
measure a point about a potential regressus ad infinitum in his account of a
chain of intentions involved in meaning that p and communicating that p. Even
if one of the drafts is titled festschrift, not by himself, this is not
strictly a festschrift in that Grices Names is hidden behind the acronym:
PGRICE. Notably on the philosophy of perception. Also in “Conception,”
especially that tricky third lecture on a metaphysical foundation for objective
value. Grice is supposed to reply to the individual contributors, who
include Strawson, but does not. I cancelled the implicatum! However, we may
identify in his oeuvre points of contacts of his own views with the
philosophers who contributed, notably Strawson. Most of this material is
reproduced verbatim, indeed, as the second part of his Reply to Richards, and
it is a philosophical memoir of which Grice is rightly proud. The life and
opinions are, almost in a joke on Witters, distinctly separated. Under Life,
Grice convers his conservative, irreverent rationalism making his early initial
appearance at Harborne under the influence of his non-conformist father, and
fermented at his tutorials with Hardie at Corpus, and his associations with
Austins play group on Saturday mornings, and some of whose members he lists
alphabetically: Austin, Gardiner, Grice, Hampshire, Hare, Hart, Nowell-Smith,
Paul, Pears, Strawson, Thomson, Urmson, and Warnock. Also, his joint
philosophising with Austin, Pears, Strawson, Thomson, and Warnock. Under
Opinions, Grice expands mainly on ordinary-language philosophy and his
Bunyanesque way to the City of Eternal Truth. Met. , Philosophical
Psychology, and Value, in “Conception,” is thus part of his Prejudices and
predilections. The philosophers Grice quotes are many and varied, such as
Bosanquet and Kneale, and from the other place, Keynes. Grice spends some
delightful time criticising the critics of ordinary-language philosophy such as
Bergmann (who needs an English futilitarian?) and Gellner. He also quotes from
Jespersen, who was "not a philosopher but wrote a philosophy of
grammar!" And Grice includes a reminiscence of the bombshells brought from
Vienna by the enfant terrible of Oxford philosophy Freddie Ayer, after being
sent to the Continent by Ryle. He recalls an air marshal at a dinner with
Strawson at Magdalen relishing on Cook Wilsons adage, What we know we know. And
more besides! After reminiscing for Clarendon, Grice will go on to reminisce
for Harvard University Press in the closing section of the Retrospective
epilogue. Refs.: The main source is “Reply to Richards,” and references to
Oxonianism, and linguistic botanising, BANC.
prescriptivism: Surely there are for
Grice at least two different modes, the buletic, which tends towards the
prescriptive, and the doxastic, which is mostly ‘descriptive.’ One has to be
careful because Grice thinks that what a philosopher like Strawson does with
‘descriptive’ expression (like ‘true,’ ‘know’ and ‘good’) and talk of
pseudo-descriptive. What is that gives the buletic a ‘prescritive’ or deontic
ring to it? This is Kant’s question. Grice kept a copy of Foots on morality as
a system of hypothetical imperatives. “So Somervillian Oxonian it hurts!”.
Grice took virtue ethics more seriously than the early Hare. Hare will end up a
virtue ethicist, since he changed from a meta-ethicist to a moralist embracing
a hedonistic version of eudaemonist utilitarianism. Grice was more
Aristotelianly conservative! Unlike Hares and Grices meta-ethical sensitivities
(as members of the Oxonian school of ordinary-language philosophy), Foot
suggests a different approach to ethics. Grice admired Foots ability to make
the right conceptual distinction. Foot is following a very Oxonian
tradition best represented by the work of Warnock. Of course, Grice was
over-familiar with the virtue vs. vice distinction, since Hardie had instilled
it on him at Corpus! For Grice, virtue and vice (and the mesotes), display
an interesting logical grammar, though. Grice would say that rationality is a
virtue; fallacious reasoning is a vice. Some things Grice takes more of a
moral standpoint about. To cheat is neither irrational nor unreasonble: just
plain repulsive. As such, it would be a vice ‒ mind not getting
caught in its grip! Grice is concerned with vice in his account of akrasia or
incontinentia. If agent A KNOWS that doing x is virtuous, yet decides to do ~x,
which is vicious, A is being akratic. For Grice, akratic behaviour applies
both in the buletic or boulomaic realm and in the doxastic realm. And it
is part of the philosopher’s job to elucidate the conceptual intricacies
attached to it. 1. prima-facie (p⊃!q)
V probably (p⊃q). 2. prima-facie ((A and B) ⊃!p) V probably ( (A and B) ⊃p). 3. prima-facie ((A and B and C) ⊃!p) V probably ( (A and B and C,) ⊃p). 4. prima-facie ((all things before P V!p) V probably
((all things before P) ⊃ p). 5. prima-facie ((all
things are considered ⊃ !p) V probably (all things are
considered, ⊃ p). 6. !q V .q 7. Acc. Reasoning P wills
that !q V Acc. Reasoning P that judges q. Refs.: The main sources under ‘meta-ethics,’
above, BANC.
principle of economy of rational
effort: if doing A involves too much
conversational effort, never worry: you will be DEEMED to have made the effort.
Invoked by Grice in “Prejudices and predilections; which become, the life and
opinions of H. P. Grice.”
propositional
complexum: Do not expect Grice to use
the phrase ‘propositional content,’ as Hare does so freely. Grices proposes a
propositional complexum, rather, which frees him from a commitment to a
higher-order calculus and the abstract entity of a feature or a proposition.
Grice regards a proposition as an extensional family of propositional complexa
(Paul saw Peter; Peter was seen by Paul). The topic of a propositional
complex Grice regards as Oxonian in nature. Peacocke struggles with the same
type of problems, in his essays on content. Only a perception-based
account of content in terms of qualia gets the philosopher out of the vicious
circle of appealing to a linguistic entity to clarify a psychological
entity. One way to discharge the burden of giving an account of a
proposition involves focusing on a range of utterances, the formulation of
which features no connective or quantifier. Each expresses a
propositional complexum which consists of a sequence simplex-1 and
simplex-2, whose elements would be a set and an ordered sequence of this or
that individuum which may be a member of the set. The propositional
complexum ‘Fido is shaggy’ consists of a sequence of the set of shaggy
individua and the singleton consisting of the individuum Fido. ‘Smith loves
Fido’ is a propositional complexum, i. e., a sequence whose first element
is the class “love” correlated to a two-place predicate) and a the ordered pair
of the singletons Smith and Fido. We define alethic satisfactoriness. A propositional
complexum is alethically satisfactory just in case the sequence is a member of
the set. A “proposition” (prosthesis) simpliciter is defined as
a family of propositional complexa. Family unity may vary in
accordance with context.
ψ-transmission: Used by Grice in WoW: 287, and emphasised by J.
Baker. The gist of communication.
quasi-demonstrative: Grice was obsessed with this or that. An
abstractum (such as “philosopher”) needs to be attached in a communicatum by
what Grice calls a ‘quasi-demonstrative,’ and for which he uses “φ.” Consider,
Grice says, an utterance, out of the blue, such as ‘The philosopher in the
garden seems bored,’ involving two iota-operators. As there may be more that a
philosopher in a garden in the great big world, the utterer intends his
addressee to treat the utterance as expandable into ‘The A which is φ is
B,’ where “φ” is a quasi-demonstrative epithet to be identified in a particular
context of utterance. The utterer intends that, to identify the denotatum
of “φ” for a particular utterance of ‘The philosopher in the garden seems
bored,’ the addressee wil proceed via the identification of a particular
philosopher, say Grice, as being a good candidate for being the philosopher
meant. The addressee is also intended to identify the candidate for a denotatum
of φ by finding in the candidate a feature, e. g., that of being the garden at
St. John’s, which is intended to be used to yield a composite epithet
(‘philosopher in St. John’s garden’), which in turn fills the bill of being the
epithet which the utterer believes is being uniquely satisfied by the
philosopher selected as the candidate. Determining the denotatum of “φ”
standardly involve determining what feature the utterer believes is uniquely
instantiated by the predicate “philosopher.” This in turn involves satisfying
oneself that some particular feature is in fact uniquely satisfied by a
particular actual item, viz. a particular philosopher such as Grice seeming
bored in the garden of St. John’s.
ramseyified
description. Applied by Grice in
“Method.”Agent A is in a D state just in case there is a predicate
“D” introduced via implicit definition
by nomological generalisation L within theory θ, such L obtains, A
instantiates D. Grice distinguishes the ‘descriptor’ from a more primitive
‘name.’ The reference is to Ramsey. Refs: “Philosophical psychology,” in BANC.
scepticism: Grice thinks ‘dogmatic’ is the opposite of ‘sceptic,’ and
he is right! Liddell and Scott have “δόγμα,” from “δοκέω,” and which they
render as “that which seems to one, opinion or belief;” Pl.R.538c; “δ. πόλεως
κοινόν;” esp. of philosophical doctrines, Epicur.Nat.14.7; “notion,”
Pl.Tht.158d; “decision, judgement,” Pl. Lg.926d; (pl.); public decree,
ordinance, esp. of Roman
Senatus-consulta, “δ. συγκλήτου” “δ. τῆς
βουλῆς” So note that there is nothing ‘dogmatic’ about ‘dogma,’ as it derives
from ‘dokeo,’ and is rendered as ‘that which seems to one.’ So the keyword
should be later Grecian, and in the adjectival ‘dogmatic.’ Liddell and Scott
have “δογματικός,” which they render as “of or for doctrines, didactic,
[διάλογοι] Quint.Inst.2.15.26, and “of persons, δ. ἰατροί,” “physicians who go
by general principles,” opp. “ἐμπειρικοί and μεθοδικοί,” Dsc.Ther.Praef.,
Gal.1.65; in Philosophy, S.E.M.7.1, D.L.9.70, etc.; “δ. ὑπολήψεις” Id.9.83; “δ.
φιλοσοφία” S.E. P.1.4. Adv. “-κῶς” D.L.9.74, S.E.P.1.197: Comp. “-κώτερον”
Id.M. 6.4. Why is Grice interested in
scepticism. His initial concern, the one that Austin would authorize, relates
to ‘ordinary language.’ What if ‘ordinary language’ embraces scepticism? What
if it doesn’t? Strawso notes that the world of ordinary language is a world of
things, causes, and stuff. None of the good stuff for the sceptic. what is
Grice’s answer to the sceptic’s implicature? The sceptic’s implicatum is a
topic that always fascinated Girce. While Grice groups two essays as dealing
with one single theme, strictly, only this or that philosopher’s paradox (not
all) may count as sceptical. This or that philosopher’s paradox may well not be
sceptical at all but rather dogmatic. In fact, Grice defines philosophers
paradox as anything repugnant to common sense, shocking, or extravagant ‒ to
Malcolms ears, that is! While it is, strictly, slightly odd to quote this
as a given date just because, by a stroke of the pen, Grice writes that
date in the Harvard volume, we will follow his charming practice. This is
vintage Grice. Grice always takes the sceptics challenge seriously, as any
serious philosopher should. Grices takes both the sceptics explicatum and the
scepticss implicatum as self-defeating, as a very affront to our idea of
rationality, conversational or other. V: Conversations with a sceptic: Can he
be slightly more conversational helpful? Hume’ sceptical attack is partial,
and targeted only towards practical reason, though. Yet, for Grice,
reason is one. You cannot really attack practical or buletic reason without
attacking theoretical or doxastic reason. There is such thing as a general
rational acceptance, to use Grice’s term, that the sceptic is getting at. Grice
likes to play with the idea that ultimately every syllogism is buletic or
practical. If, say, a syllogism by Eddington looks doxastic, that is because
Eddington cares to omit the practical tail, as Grice puts it. And Eddington is
not even a philosopher, they say. Grice is here concerned with
a Cantabrigian topic popularised by Moore. As Grice recollects, Some
like Witters, but Moore’s my man. Unlike Cambridge analysts such as
Moore, Grice sees himself as a linguistic-turn Oxonian analyst. So it is only
natural that Grice would connect time-honoured scepticism of Pyrrhos vintage,
and common sense with ordinary language, so mis-called, the elephant in
Grices room. Lewis and Short have “σκέψις,” f. σκέπτομαι, which they render as “viewing,
perception by the senses, ἡ διὰ τῶν ὀμμάτων ςκέψις, Pl. Phd. 83a;
observation of auguries; also as examination, speculation, consideration, τὸ
εὕρημα πολλῆς σκέψιος; βραχείας ςκέψις; ϝέμειν ςκέψις take thought of a
thing; ἐνθεὶς τῇ τέχνῃ ςκέψις; ςκέψις ποιεῖσθαι; ςκέψις προβέβληκας;
ςκέψις λόγων; ςκέψις περί τινος inquiry into, speculation on a thing;
περί τι Id. Lg. 636d;ἐπὶ σκέψιν τινὸς ἐλθεῖν; speculation, inquiry,ταῦτα
ἐξωτερικωτέρας ἐστὶ σκέψεως; ἔξω τῆς νῦν ςκέψεως; οὐκ οἰκεῖα τῆς παρούσης
ςκέψις; also hesitation, doubt, esp. of the Sceptic or Pyrthonic philosophers,
AP 7. 576 (Jul.); the Sceptic philosophy, S. E. P. 1.5; οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς
ςκέψεως, the Sceptics, ib. 229. in politics, resolution, decree, συνεδρίον
Hdn. 4.3.9, cf. Poll. 6.178. If scepticism attacks common sense and fails,
Grice seems to be implicating, that ordinary language philosophy is a good
antidote to scepticism. Since what language other than ordinary language does
common sense speak? Well, strictly, common sense doesnt speak. The man in the
street does. Grice addresses this topic in a Mooreian way in a later essay,
also repr. in Studies, Moore and philosophers paradoxes, repr. in Studies.
As with his earlier Common sense and scepticism, Grice tackles Moores and Malcolms
claim that ordinary language, so-called, solves a few of philosophers
paradoxes. Philosopher is Grices witty way to generalise over your
common-or-garden, any, philosopher, especially of the type he found eccentric,
the sceptic included. Grice finds this or that problem in this overarching
Cantabrigian manoeuvre, as over-simplifying a pretty convoluted
terrain. While he cherishes Austins Some like Witters, but Moores MY man!
Grice finds Moore too Cantabrigian to his taste. While an Oxonian thoroughbred,
Grice is a bit like Austin, Some like Witters, but Moores my man, with this or
that caveat. Again, as with his treatment of Descartes or Locke, Grice is
hardly interested in finding out what Moore really means. He is a philosopher,
not a historian of philosophy, and he knows it. While Grice agrees with Austins
implicature that Moore goes well above Witters, if that is the expression (even
if some like him), we should find the Oxonian equivalent to Moore. Grice would
not Names Ryle, since he sees him, and his followers, almost every day. There
is something apostolic about Moore that Grice enjoys, which is just as well,
seeing that Moore is one of the twelve. Grice found it amusing that the
members of The Conversazione Society would still be nickNamesd apostles when
their number exceeded the initial 12. Grice spends some time exploring what
Malcolm, a follower of Witters, which does not help, as it were, has to say
about Moore in connection with that particularly Oxonian turn of phrase, such
as ordinary language is. For Malcolms Moore, a paradox by philosopher
[sic], including the sceptic, arises when philosopher [sic], including the
sceptic, fails to abide by the dictates of ordinary language. It might merit
some exploration if Moore’s defence of common sense is against: the sceptic may
be one, but also the idealist. Moore the realist, armed with ordinary language
attacks the idealists claim. The idealist is sceptical of the realists claim.
But empiricist idealism (Bradley) has at Oxford as good pedigree as empiricist
realism (Cook Wilson). Malcolm’s simplifications infuriate Grice, and ordinary
language has little to offer in the defense of common sense realism against
sceptical empiricist idealism. Surely the ordinary man says ridiculous, or
silly, as Russell prefers, things, such as Smith is lucky, Departed spirits
walk along this road on their way to Paradise, I know there are infinite stars,
and I wish I were Napoleon, or I wish that I had
been Napoleon, which does not mean that the utterer wishes that
he were like Napoleon, but that he wishes that he had lived
not in the his century but in the XVIIIth century. Grice is being specific
about this. It is true that an ordinary use of language, as Malcolm
suggests, cannot be self-contradictory unless the ordinary use of language is
defined by stipulation as not self-contradictory, in which case an appeal to
ordinary language becomes useless against this or that paradox by Philosopher.
I wish that I had been Napoleon seems to involve nothing but an ordinary use of
language by any standard but that of freedom from absurdity. I wish
that I had been Napoleon is not, as far as Grice can see, philosophical, but
something which may have been said and meant by numbers of ordinary
people. Yet, I wish that I had been Napoleon is open to the suspicion of
self-contradictoriness, absurdity, or some other kind of
meaninglessness. And in this context suspicion is all Grice needs. By
uttering I wish that I had been Napoleon U hardly means the same as he
would if he uttered I wish I were like Napoleon. I wish that I had been
Napoleon is suspiciously self-contradictory, absurd, or meaningless, if, as
uttered by an utterer in a century other than the XVIIIth century, say, the
utterer is understood as expressing the proposition that the utterer wishes
that he had lived in the XVIIIth century, and not in his century, in which case
he-1 wishes that he had not been him-1? But blame it on the
buletic. That Moore himself is not too happy with Malcolms criticism can
be witnessed by a cursory glimpse at hi reply to Malcolm. Grice is totally
against this view that Malcolm ascribes to Moore as a view that is too broad to
even claim to be true. Grices implicature is that Malcolm is appealing to
Oxonian turns of phrase, such as ordinary language, but not taking proper
Oxonian care in clarifying the nuances and stuff in dealing with, admittedly, a
non-Oxonian philosopher such as Moore. When dealing with Moore, Grice is not
necessarily concerned with scepticism. Time is unreal, e.g. is hardly a sceptic
utterance. Yet Grice lists it as one of Philosophers paradoxes. So, there are
various to consider here. Grice would start with common sense. That is what he
does when he reprints this essay in WOW, with his attending note in both the
preface and the Retrospective epilogue on how he organizes the themes and
strands. Common sense is one keyword there, with its attending realism.
Scepticism is another, with its attending empiricist idealism. It is intriguing
that in the first two essays opening Grices explorations in semantics and
metaphysics it seems its Malcolm, rather than the dryer Moore, who interests
Grice most. While he would provide exegeses of this or that dictum by Moore,
and indeed, Moore’s response to Malcolm, Grice seems to be more concerned with applications
of his own views. Notably in Philosophers paradoxes. The fatal objection Grice
finds for the paradox propounder (not necessarily a sceptic, although a sceptic
may be one of the paradox propounders) significantly rests on Grices reductive
analysis of meaning that as ascribed to
this or that utterer U. Grice elaborates on circumstances that hell later take
up in the Retrospective epilogue. I find myself not understanding what I mean
is dubiously acceptable. If meaning, Grice claims, is about an utterer U
intending to get his addressee A to believe that U ψ-s that p, U must think
there is a good chance that A will recognise what he is supposed to believe,
by, perhaps, being aware of the Us practice or by a supplementary explanation
which might come from U. In which case, U should not be meaning what Malcolm
claims U might mean. No utterer should intend his addressee to believe what is
conceptually impossible, or incoherent, or blatantly false (Charles Is
decapitation willed Charles Is death.), unless you are Queen in Through the
Looking Glass. I believe five impossible things before breakfast, and I hope
youll soon get the proper training to follow suit. Cf. Tertulian, Credo, quia
absurdum est. Admittedly, Grice edits the Philosophers paradoxes essay. It is
only Grices final objection which is repr. in WOW, even if he provides a good
detailed summary of the previous sections. Grice appeals to Moore on later
occasions. In Causal theory, Grice lists, as a third philosophical
mistake, the opinion by Malcolm that Moore did not know how to use knowin a
sentence. Grice brings up the same example again in Prolegomena. The use of
factive know of Moore may well be a misuse. While at Madison, Wisconsin, Moore
lectures at a hall eccentrically-built with indirect lighting simulating sun
rays, Moore infamously utters, I know that there is a window behind that
curtain, when there is not. But it is not the factiveness Grice is aiming at,
but the otiosity Malcolm misdescribes in the true, if baffling, I know that I have
two hands. In Retrospective epilogue, Grice uses M to abbreviate Moore’s fairy
godmother – along with G (Grice), A (Austin), R (Ryle) and Q (Quine)! One
simple way to approach Grices quandary with Malcolm’s quandary with Moore is
then to focus on know. How can Malcolm claim that Moore is guilty of misusing
know? The most extensive exploration by Grice on know is in Grices third James
lecture (but cf. his seminar on Knowledge and belief, and his remarks on some
of our beliefs needing to be true, in Meaning revisited. The examinee
knows that the battle of Waterloo was fought in 1815. Nothing odd about that,
nor about Moores uttering I know that these are my hands. Grice is perhaps the
only one of the Oxonian philosophers of Austins play group who took common
sense realsim so seriously, if only to crticise Malcoms zeal with it. For
Grice, common-sense realism = ordinary language, whereas for the typical
Austinian, ordinary language = the language of the man in the street. Back at
Oxford, Grice uses Malcolm to contest the usual criticism that Oxford
ordinary-language philosophers defend common-sense realist assumptions just
because the way non-common-sense realist philosopher’s talk is not ordinary
language, and even at Oxford. Cf. Flews reference to Joness philosophical
verbal rubbish in using self as a noun. Grice is infuriated by all this unclear
chatter, and chooses Malcolms mistreatment of Moore as an example. Grice is
possibly fearful to consider Austins claims directly! In later essays, such as
‘the learned’ and ‘the lay,’ Grice goes back to the topic criticising now the
scientists jargon as an affront to the ordinary language of the layman that
Grice qua philosopher defends. Refs.: The obvious source is the essay on
scepticism in WoW, but there are allusions in “Prejudices and predilections,
and elsewhere, in The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
semantic: Grice would freely use ‘semantic,’ and the root for
‘semantics,’ that Grice does use, involves the richest root of all Grecian roots:
the ‘semion.’ Liddell and Scott have “τό σημεῖον,” Ion. σημήϊον , Dor. σα_μήϊον
IG12(3).452 (Thera, iv B.C.), σα_μεῖον IPE12.352.25 (Chersonesus, ii B.C.),
IG5(1).1390.16 (Andania, i B.C.), σα_μᾶον CIG5168 (Cyrene); = σῆμα in all
senses, and more common in Prose, but never in Hom. or Hes.; and which they
render as “mark by which a thing is known,” Hdt.2.38;” they also have “τό σῆμα,” Dor. σᾶμα
Berl.Sitzb.1927.161 (Cyrene), etc.; which they render as “sign, mark, token,” “
Il.10.466, 23.326, Od.19.250, etc.” Grice lectured not only on Cat. But the
next, De Int. As Arsitotle puts it, an expression is a symbol (symbolon) or
sign (semeion) of an affections or impression (pathematon) of the soul
(psyche). An affection of the soul, of which a word is primarily a sign, are the same for the whole
of mankind, as is also objects (pragmaton) of which the affections is a
representation or likenes, image, or copiy (homoiomaton). [De Int., 1.16a4] while
Grice is NOT concerned about the semantics of utterers meaning (how could he,
when he analyses means in terms of
intends , he is about the semantics of
expression-meaning. Grices second stage (expression meaing) of his
programme about meaning begins with specifications of means as applied to x, a token
of X. He is having Tarski and Davidson in their elaborations of schemata
like ‘p’ ‘means’ that p. ‘Snow is white’ ‘means’ that snow is white,
and stuff! Grice was especially concerned with combinatories, for both unary
and dyadic operators, and with multiple quantifications within a first-order
predicate calculus with identity. Since in Grice’s initial elaboration on
meaning he relies on Stevenson, it is worth exploring how ‘semantics’ and
‘semiotics’ were interpreted by Peirce and the emotivists. Stevenson’s main
source is however in the other place, though, under Stevenson. Refs.: The main
sources are his lectures on language and reality – part of them repr. in WOW.
The keywords under ‘communication,’ and ‘signification,’ that Grice
occasionally uses ‘the total signification’ of a remark, above, BANC.
semiological: or is it semiotics? Cf. semiological, semotic. Since Grice
uses ‘philosophical psychology’ and ‘philosopical biology,’ it may do to use ‘semiology,’
indeed ‘philosophical semiology,’ here. Oxonian
semiotics is unique. Holloway published his “Language and Intelligence” and
everyone was excited. It is best to see this as Grices psychologism. Grice
would rarely use ‘intelligent,’ less so the more pretentious, ‘intelligence,’
as a keyword. If he is doing it, it is because what he saw as the misuse of it
by Ryle and Holloway. Holloway, a PPE, is a tutorial fellow in philosophy at
All Souls. He acknowledges Ryle as his mentor. (Holloway also quotes from
Austin). Grice was amused that J. N. Findlay, in his review of Holloway’s essay
in “Mind,” compares Holloway to C. W. Morris, and cares to cite the two
relevant essay by Morris: The Foundation in the theory of signs, and Signs,
Language, and Behaviour. Enough for Grice to feel warmly justified in having
chosen another New-World author, Peirce, for his earlier Oxford seminar. Morris
studied under G. H. Mead. But is ‘intelligence’ part of The Griceian
Lexicon?Well, Lewis and Short have ‘interlegere,’ to chose between. Lewis and
Short have ‘interlĕgo , lēgi, lectum, 3, v. a., I’.which they render it as “to
cull or pluck off here and there (poet. and postclass.).in tmesi) uncis
Carpendae manibus frondes, interque legendae, Verg. G. 2, 366: “poma,” Pall. Febr.
25, 16; id. Jun. 5, 1.intellĕgo (less correctly intellĭgo), exi, ectum
(intellexti for intellexisti, Ter. Eun. 4, 6, 30; Cic. Att. 13, 32, 3:
I.“intellexes for intellexisses,” Plaut. Cist. 2, 3, 81; subj. perf.:
“intellegerint,” Sall. H. Fragm. 1, 41, 23 Dietsch); “inter-lego,” “to see
into, perceive, understand.” I. Lit. A. Lewis and Short render as “to perceive,
understand, comprehend.” Cf. Grice on his handwriting being legible to few. And
The child is an adult as being UNintelligible until the creature is produced.
In “Aspects,” he mentions flat rationality, and certain other talents that are
more difficult for the philosopher to conceptualise, such as nose (i.e.
intuitiveness), acumen, tenacity, and such. Grices approach is Pological.
If Locke had used intelligent to refer to Prince Maurices parrot, Grice wants
to find criteria for intelligent as applied to his favourite type of P, rather
(intelligent, indeed rational.). Refs.: The most specific essay is his lecture
on Peirce, listed under ‘communication, above. A reference to ‘criteria of
intelligence relates. The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
shaggy-dog story: This is the story that Grice tells in his lecture. He uses
a ‘shaggy-dog’ story to explain TWO main notions: that of ‘reference’ or
denotatio, and that of predicatio. He had explored that earlier when
discussing, giving an illustration “Smith is happy”, the idea of ‘value,’ as correspondence,
where he adds the terms for ‘denote’ and ‘predicatio,’ or actually,
‘designatio’ and ‘indicatio’, need to be “explained within the theory.” In the
utterance ‘Smith is happy,’ the utterer DESIGNATES an item, Smith. The utterer
also INDICATES some class, ‘being happy.’ Grice introduces a shorthand,
‘assign’, or ‘assignatio,’ previous to the value-satisfaction, to involve both
the ‘designatio’ and the ‘indicatio’. U assigns the item Smith to the class
‘being happy.’ U’s intention involves A’s belief that U believes that “the item
belongs to the class, or that he ASSIGNS the item to the class. A
predicate, such as 'shaggy,' in my shaggy-dog story, is a part of a bottom-up,
or top-bottom, as I prefer, analysis of this or that sentences, and a
predicate, such as 'shaggy,' is the only indispensable 'part,' or 'element,' as
I prefer, since a predicate is the only 'pars orationis,' to use the old
phrase, that must appear in every sentence. In a later lecture
he ventures with ‘reference.’ Lewis and Short have “rĕferre,” rendered as “to
bear, carry, bring, draw, or give back,” in a “transf.” usage, they render as
“to make a reference, to refer (class.),” asa in “de rebus et obscuris et
incertis ad Apollinem censeo referendum; “ad quem etiam Athenienses publice de
majoribus rebus semper rettulerunt,” Cic. Div. 1, 54, 122.” While Grice uses
‘Fido,’ he could have used ‘Pegasus’ (Martin’s cat, as it happens) and apply
Quine’s adage: we could have appealed to the ex hypothesi unanalyzable,
irreducible attribute of being Pegasus, adopting, for its expression, the verb
'is-Pegasus', or 'pegasizes'. And Grice could have played with ‘predicatio’ and
‘subjectio.’ Grice on subject. Lewis and Short have “sūbĭcĭo,” (less
correctly subjĭcĭo ; post-Aug. sometimes sŭb- ), jēci, jectum, 3, v. a.
sub-jacio. which they render as “to
throw, lay, place, or bring under or near (cf. subdo),” and in philosophy, “subjectum
, i, n. (sc. verbum), as “that which is spoken of, the foundation or subject of
a proposition;” “omne quicquid dicimus
aut subjectum est aut de subjecto aut in subjecto est. Subjectum est prima
substantia, quod ipsum nulli accidit alii inseparabiliter, etc.,” Mart. Cap. 4,
§ 361; App. Dogm. Plat. 3, p. 34, 4 et saep.—.” Note that for Mart. Cap. the
‘subject,’ unlike the ‘predicate’ is not a ‘syntactical category.’ “Subjectum
est prima substantia,” The subject is a prote ousia. As for correlation, Grice
ends up with a reductive analysis. By uttering utterance-token V, the
utterer U correlates predicate P1 with (and only with) each member of
P2 ≡ (∃R)(∃R') (1) U effects that (∀x)(R P1x ≡
x ∈ P1) and (2) U
intends (1), and (3) U intends that (∀y)(R'
P1y ≡ y ∈
P1), where R' P1 is an expression-type such that utterance-token V is a
sequence consisting of an expression-token p1 of expression-type P1 and an expression-token
p2 of expression-type P2, the R-co-relatum of which is a set of which y
is a member. And he is back with ‘denotare. Lewis and Short have “dēnŏtare,”
which they render as “to mark, set a mark on, with chalk, color, etc.: “pedes
venalium creta,” It is interesting to trace Grice’s
earliest investigations on this. Grice and Strawson stage a number of joint
seminars on topics related to the notions of meaning, categories, and logical
form. Grice and Strawson engage in systematic and unsystematic philosophical
exploration. From these discussions springs work on predication and categories,
one or two reflections of which are acknowledge at two places (re: the
reductive analysis of a ‘particular,’ “the tallest man that did, does, or will
exist” --) in Strawson’s “Particular and general” for The Aristotelian Society
– and “visible” as Grice puts it, but not acknowledged, in Strawson’s
“Individuals: an essay in descriptive metaphysics.””
significatum: While Grice explicitly says that a ‘word’ is not a sign,
he would use ‘signify’ at a later stage, including the implicatum as part of
the significatum. There is indeed an entry for signĭfĭcātĭo, f.
significare. L and S render it, unhelpfully, as “a pointing
out, indicating, denoting, signifying; an
expression, indication, mark, sign, token, = indicium,
signum, ἐπισημασία, etc., freq. and class. As with Stevenson’s ‘communico,’
Grice goes sraight to ‘signĭfĭco,’ also dep. “signĭfĭcor,” f.
‘significare,’ from signum-facere, to make sign, signum-facio, I make sign,
which L and S render as to signify, which is perhaps not too helpful. Grice, if
not the Grecians, knew that. Strictly, L and S render significare as to show by
signs; to show, point out, express, publish, make known, indicate; to intimate,
notify, signify, etc. Note that the cognate signify almost comes last, but not
least, if not first. Enough to want to coin a word to do duty for them all.
Which is what Grice (and the Grecians) can, but the old Romans cannot, with
mean. If that above were not enough, L and S go on, also, to betoken,
prognosticate, foreshow, portend, mean (syn. praedico), as in to betoken a
change of weather (post-Aug.): “ventus Africus tempestatem significat,
etc.,”cf. Grice on those dark clouds mean a storm is coming. Short
and Lewis go on, to say that significare may be rendered as to call, name; to
mean, import, signify. Hence, ‘signĭfĭcans,’ in rhet. lang., of
speech, full of meaning, expressive, significant; graphic, distinct,
clear: adv.: signĭfĭcanter, clearly, distinctly, expressly, significantly,
graphically: “breviter ac significanter ordinem rei protulisse;” “rem indicare
(with proprie),” “dicere (with ornate),” “apertius, significantius dignitatem alicujus
defendere,” “narrare,”“disponere,” “appellare aliquid (with consignatius);”
“dicere (with probabilius).”
Strawson’s
rat-infested house. Few in Grice’s
playgroup had Grice’s analytic skills. Only a few cared to join him in his
analysis of ‘mean.’ The first was Urmson with the ‘bribe.’ The second was
Strawson, with his rat-infested house. Grice re-writes Strawson’s alleged
counterexample. To deal with his own rat-infested house example, Strawson
proposes that the analysans of "U means that p" might be restricted
by the addition of a further condition, namely that the utterer U should utter
x not only, as already provided, with the intention that his addressee should
think that U intends to obtain a certain response from his addressee, but also
with the intention that his addressee should think (recognize) that U has the
intention just mentioned. In Strawson's example, in The Philosohical Review
(that Grice cites on WOW:x) repr. in his "Logico-Linguistic Papers,"
the potential home buyer is intended to think that the realtor wants him to
think that the house is rat-infested. However, the potential house-buyer is not
intended by the realtor to think that he is intended to think that the realtor
wants him to think that the house is rat infested. The addressee is intended to
think that it is only as a result of being too clever for the
realtor that he has learned that the potential home buyer wants him
to think that the house is rat-infested; the potential home-buyer is to
think that he is supposed to take the artificially displayed dead
rat as a evidence that the house is rat infested. U wants to get A
to believe that the house A is thinking of buying is rat-infested. S decides
to· bring about this belief in A by taking into the house and letting loose a
big fat sewer rat. For S has the following scheme. He knows that A is
watching him and knows that A believes that S is unaware that he, A, is watching
him. It isS's intention that A should (wrongly) infer from the fact that S
let the rat loose that S did so with the intention that A should arrive at the
house, see the rat, and, taking the rat as "natural evidence", infer
therefrom that the house is rat-infested. S further intends A to realize that
given the nature of the rat's arrival, the existence of the rat cannot be taken
as genuine or natural evidence that the house is rat-infested; but S kilows
that A will believe that S would not so contrive to get A to believe the house
is rat-infested unless Shad very good reasons for thinking that it was, and so
S expects and intends A to infer that the house is rat-infested from the fact
that Sis letting the rat loose with the intention of getting A to believe that
the house is rat-infested. Thus S satisfies the conditions purported to be
necessary and sufficient for his meaning something by letting the rat loose: S
lets the rat loose intending (4) A to think that the house is rat-infested,
intending (1)-(3) A to infer from the fact that S let the rat loose that S did
so intending A to think that the house is rat-infested, and intending (5) A's
recognition of S's . intention (4) to function as his reason for thinking that
the house is rat-infested. But even though S's action meets these
conditions, Strawson feels that his scenario fits Grice's conditions in
Grice's reductive analysis and not yet Strawson's intuition about his own use
of 'communicate.' To minimise Strawson's discomfort, Grice brings an anti-sneaky
clause. ("Although I never shared Strawson's intuition about his use of
'communicate;' in fact, I very rarely use 'communicate that...' To exterminate
the rats in Strawson's rat-infested house, Grice uses, as he should,
a general "anti-deception" clause. It may be that the use
of this exterminating procedure is possible. It may be that any
'backward-looking' clauses can be exterminated, and replaced by a general
prohibitive, or closure clause, forbidding an intention by the utterer to be
sneaky. It is a conceptual point that if you intend your addressee NOT TO
REALISE that p, you are not COMMUNICATING that p. (3A) (if) (3r)
(ic): (a) U utters x intending (I) A to think x possesses
f (2) A to thinkf correlated in way c with the type to which r
belongs (3) A to think, on the basis of the fulfillment of (I) and (3)
that U intends A to produce r (4) A, on the basis of the fulfillment of (3) to
produce r, and (b) There is no inference-element E such that U
intends both (I') A in his determination of r to rely on E (2') A to think Uto
intend (I') to be false. In the final version Grice reaches after considering
alleged counterexamples to the NECESSITY of some of the conditions in the
analysans, Grice reformulates. It is not the case that, for some inference
element E, U intends x to be such that anyone who
has φ both rely on E in coming to ψ, or think that U ψ-s, that p and think that (Ǝφ) U intends x to be
such that anyone who has φ come to ψ (or think that U ψ-s) that
p without relying on E. Embedded in the general definition. By uttering x,
U means that-ψb-dp ≡ (Ǝφ)(Ǝf)(Ǝc) U
utters x intending x to be such that anyone who
has φ think that x has f, f is correlated in way c
with ψ-ing that p, and (Ǝφ') U intends x to be such
that anyone who has φ' think, via thinking that x has
f and that f is correlated in way c with ψ-ing that p, that U ψ-s that
p, and in view of (Ǝφ') U intending x to be such
that anyone who has φ' think, via thinking that x has
f, and f is correlated in way c with ψ-ing that p, that U ψ-s that
p, U ψ-s that p, and, for some
substituends of ψb-d, U utters x
intending that, should there actually be anyone who
has φ, he will, via thinking in view of (Ǝφ') U
intending x to be such that anyone who has φ' think, via
thinking that x has f, and f is correlated in way c
with ψ-ing that p, that U ψ-s that p, U ψ-s that
p himself ψ that p, and it is not
the case that, for some inference element E, U intends x to be such
that anyone who has φ both rely on E in coming to ψ, or think that U ψ-s, that p and think that (Ǝφ) U intends x to be
such that anyone who has φ come to ψ (or think that U ψ-s) that
p without relying on E.
subjectification: Grice plays with this. It is a derivation of the
‘subjectum,’ which Grice knows it is Aristotelian. Liddell and Scott have the
verb first, and the neuter singular later. “τὸ ὑποκείμενον,” Liddell and Scott
note “has three main applications.” The first is “to the matter (hyle) which
underlies the form (eidos), as opp. To both “εἶδος” and “ἐντελέχεια” Met.
983a30; second, to the substantia (hyle + morphe) which underlies the
accidents, and as opposed to “πάθη,” and “συμβεβηκότα,” as in Cat. 1a20,27 and
Met.1037b16, 983b16; third, and this is the use that ‘linguistic’ turn Grice
and Strawson are interested in, “to the logical subject to which attributes are
ascribed,” and here opp. “τὸ κατηγορούμενον,” (which would be the
‘praedicatum’), as per Cat.1b10,21, Ph.189a31.
subjectivism: Grice was concerned with intending folloed by a
that-clause. Jeffrey defines desirability as doxastically modified. It is
entirely possible for someone to desire the love that he already has. It is
what he thinks that matters. Cf. his dispositional account to intending. A
Subjectsive condition takes into account the intenders, rather than the
ascribers, point of view: Marmaduke Bloggs intends to climb Mt. Everest on
hands and knees. Bloggs might reason: Given my present state, I should do
what is fun. Given my present state, the best thing for me to do would be
to do what is fun. For me in my present state it would make for my
well-being, to have fun. Having fun is good, or, a good. Climbing a mountain
would be fun. Climbing the Everest would be/make for climbing fun. So, I
shall climb the Everest. Even if a critic insisted that a practical
syllogism is the way to represent Bloggs finding something to be appealing, and
that it should be regarded as a respectable evaluation, the assembled
propositions dont do the work of a standard argument. The premises do not
support or yield the conclusion as in a standard argument. The premises may be
said to yield the conclusion, or directive, for the particular agent whose
reasoning process it is, only on the basis of a Subjectsive condition:
that the agent is in a certain Subjectsive state, e.g. feels like going out for
dinner-fun. Rational beings (the agent at some other time, or other
individuals) who do not have that feeling, will not accept the conclusion. They
may well accept as true. It is fun to climb Everest, but will not accept it as
a directive unless they feel like it now. Someone wondering what to do for the
summer might think that if he were to climb Everest he would find it fun or
pleasant, but right now she does not feel like it. That is in general the end
of the matter. The alleged argument lacks normativity. It is not authoritative
or directive unless there is a supportive argument that he needs/ought to do
something diverting/pleasant in the summer. A practical argument is different.
Even if an agent did not feel like going to the doctor, an agent would think I
ought to have a medical check up yearly, now is the time, so I should see my
doctor to be a directive with some force. It articulates a practical
argument. Perhaps the strongest attempt to reconstruct an (acceptable or
rational) thought transition as a standard arguments is to
treat the Subjectsive condition, I feel like having climbing fun in the
summer, as a premise, for then the premises would support the conclusion. But
the individual, whose thought transition we are examining, does not regard a
description of his psychological state as a consideration that supports the
conclusion. It will be useful to look more closely at a variant of the
example to note when it is appropriate to reconstruct thinking in the form of
argument. Bloggs, now hiking with a friend in the Everest, comes to a
difficult spot and says: I dont like the look of that, I am frightened. I am
going back. That is usually enough for Bloggs to return, and for the
friend to turn back with him. Bloggss action of turning back, admittedly
motivated by fear, is, while not acting on reasons, nonetheless rational unless
we judge his fear to be irrational. Bloggss Subjectsive
condition can serve as a premise, but only in a very different
situation. Bloggs resorts to reasons. Suppose that, while his friend does not
think Bloggss fear irrational, the friend still attempts to dissuade Bloggs
from going back. After listening and reflecting, Bloggs may say I am so
frightened it is not worth it. I am not enjoying this climbing anymore. Or I am
too frightened to be able to safely go on. Or I often climb the Everest and
dont usually get frightened. The fact that I am now is a good indication that
this is a dangerous trail and I should turn back. These are reasons,
considerations implicitly backed by principles, and they could be the initial
motivations of someone. But in Bloggss case they emerged when he was challenged
by his friend. They do not express his initial practical reasoning. Bloggs was
frightened by the trail ahead, wanted to go back, and didnt have any reason not
to. Note that there is no general rational requirement to always act on reasons,
and no general truth that a rational individual would be better off the more
often he acted on reasons. Faced with his friends objections, however,
Bloggs needed justification for acting on his fear. He reflected and found
reason(s) to act on his fear. Grice plays with Subjectsivity already in
Prolegomena. Consider the use of carefully. Surely we must include the agents
own idea of this. Or consider the use of phi and phi – surely we dont want the
addressee to regard himself under the same guise with which the utterer regards
him. Or consider “Aspects”: Nixon must be appointed professor of theology at
Oxford. Does he feel the need? Grice raises the topic of Subjectsivity again in
the Kant lectures just after his discussion of mode, in a sub-section entitled,
Modalities: relative and absolute. He finds the topic central for his
æqui-vocality thesis: Subjectsive conditions seem necessary to both practical
and alethic considerations. Refs.: The source is his essay on intentions and
the subjective condition, The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
subscript device: Grice considers a quartet of utterances: Jack wants
someone to marry him; Jack wants someone or other to marry him; Jack
wants a particular person to marry him, and There is
someone whom Jack wants to marry him.Grice notes that there
are clearly at least two possible readings of an utterance like
our (i): a first reading in which, as Grice puts it, (i) might be paraphrased
by (ii). A second reading is one in which it might be paraphrased by
(iii) or by (iv). Grice goes on to symbolize the phenomenon in his
own version of a first-order predicate calculus. Ja wants that p becomes Wjap
where ja stands for the individual constant Jack as a super-script attached to
the predicate standing for Jacks psychological state or attitude. Grice writes:
Using the apparatus of classical predicate logic, we might hope to represent,
respectively, the external reading and the internal reading (involving
an intentio secunda or intentio obliqua) as (Ǝx)WjaFxja
and Wja(Ǝx)Fxja. Grice then goes on to discuss a slightly more
complex, or oblique, scenario involving this second internal reading, which is
the one that interests us, as it involves an intentio seconda.Grice notes: But
suppose that Jack wants a specific individual, Jill, to marry him, and
this because Jack has been deceived into thinking that his friend Joe has a
highly delectable sister called Jill, though in fact Joe is an only child. The
Jill Jack eventually goes up the hill with is, coincidentally, another Jill,
possibly existent. Let us recall that Grices main focus of the whole essay is,
as the title goes, emptiness! In these circumstances, one is inclined to say
that (i) is true only on reading (vii), where the existential
quantifier occurs within the scope of the psychological-state or
-attitude verb, but we cannot now represent (ii) or (iii), with Jill
being vacuous, by (vi), where the existential quantifier (Ǝx)
occurs outside the scope of the psychological-attitude
verb, want, since [well,] Jill does not really exist, except as a figment
of Jacks imagination. In a manoeuver that I interpret as purely intentionalist,
and thus favouring by far Suppess over Chomskys characterisation of Grice as a
mere behaviourist, Grice hopes that we should be provided with distinct representations
for two familiar readings of, now: Jack wants Jill to marry him and
Jack wants Jill to marry him. It is at this point that Grice applies a
syntactic scope notation involving sub-scripted numerals, (ix) and (x),
where the numeric values merely indicate the order of introduction of the
symbol to which it is attached in a deductive schema for the predicate calculus
in question. Only the first formulation represents the internal reading (where
ji stands for Jill): W2ja4F1ji3ja4 and
W3ja4F2ji1ja4. Note
that in the second formulation, the individual constant for Jill, ji, is
introduced prior to want, – jis sub-script is 1, while Ws sub-script is the
higher numerical value 3. Grice notes: Given that Jill does not exist, only the
internal reading can be true, or alethically satisfactory. Grice sums up
his reflections on the representation of the opaqueness of a verb standing for
a psychological state or attitude like that expressed by wanting with one
observation that further marks him as an intentionalist, almost of a Meinongian
type. He is willing to allow for existential phrases in cases of vacuous
designata, provided they occur within opaque psychological-state or attitude
verbs, and he thinks that by doing this, he is being faithful to the richness
and exuberance of ordinary discourse, while keeping Quine happy. As Grice
puts it, we should also have available to us also three neutral, yet distinct,
(Ǝx)-quantificational forms (together with their isomorphs), as a philosopher
who thinks that Wittgenstein denies a distinction, craves for a generality!
Jill now becomes x. W4ja5Ǝx3F1x2ja5, Ǝx5W2ja5F1x4ja3, Ǝx5W3ja4F1x2ja4. As Grice
notes, since in (xii) the individual variable x (ranging over Jill) does not
dominate the segment following the (Ǝx) quantifier, the formulation does not
display any existential or de re, force, and is suitable therefore for
representing the internal readings (ii) or (iii), if we have to allow, as we do
have, if we want to faithfully represent ordinary discourse, for the possibility
of expressing the fact that a particular person, Jill, does not actually exist.
syntactics: Grice loved two devices of the syntactic kind: subscripts
and square brackets (for the assignment of common-ground
status). Grice is a conservative (dissenting rationalist) when it
comes to syntax and semantics. He hardly uses pragmatics albeit in a loose way
(pragmatic import, pragmatic inference), but was aware of Morriss
triangle. Syntax is presented along the lines of Gentzen, i.e. a system of
natural deduction in terms of inference rules of introduction and elimination
for each formal device. Semantics pertains rather to Witterss
truth-values, i.e. the assignment of a satisfactory-valuation: the true and the
good. Refs.: The most direct source is “Vacuous names,” but the keyword
‘syntax’ is helpful. The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
tautological: Grice would often use ‘tautological,’ and
‘self-contradiction’ presupposes ‘analyticity,’ or rather the
analytic-synthetic distinction. Is it contradictory, or a self-contradiction,
to say that one’s neighbour’s three-year-old child is an adult? Is there an
implicatum for ‘War is not war’? Grice refers to Bayes in WOW re Grices
paradox, and to crazy Bayesy, as Peter Achinstein does (Newton was crazy, but
not Bayesy). We can now, in principle, characterize the desirability
of the action a 1 , relative to each end (E1 and E2), and to each combination
of ends (here just E1 and E2), as a function of the desirability of the end and
the probability that the action a 1 will realize that end, or combination of
ends. If we envisage a range of possible actions, which includes a 1 together
with other actions, we can imagine that each such action has a certain degree
of desirability relative to each end (E1 and (or) E2) and to their combination.
If we suppose that, for each possible action, these desirabilities can be
compounded (perhaps added), then we can suppose that one particular possible
action scored higher (in actiondesirability relative to these ends) than any
alternative possible action; and that this is the action which wins out; that
is, is the action which is, or at least should, end p.105 be performed. (The
computation would in fact be more complex than I have described, once account
is taken of the fact that the ends involved are often not definite
(determinate) states of affairs (like becoming President), but are
variable in respect of the degree to which they might be realized (if ones end
is to make a profit from a deal, that profit might be of a varying magnitude);
so one would have to consider not merely the likelihood of a particular actions
realizing the end of making a profit, but also the likelihood of its realizing
that end to this or that degree; and this would considerably complicate the
computational problem.) No doubt most readers are far too sensible ever to have
entertained any picture even remotely resembling the "Crazy-Bayesy"
one I have just described. Grice was fascinated by the fact that paradox
translates the Grecian neuter paradoxon. Some of the paradoxes of entailment,
entailment and paradoxes. This is not the first time Grice uses paradox. As a
classicist, he was aware of the nuances between paradox (or paradoxon, as he
preferred, via Latin paradoxum, and aporia, for example. He was interested
in Strawsons treatment of this or that paradox of entailment. He even called
his own paradox involving if and probablility Grices paradox.
telementationalism: this is a special note, or rather, a very moving proem, on
Grices occasion of delivering his lectures on ‘Aspects of reason and reasoning’
at Oxford as the Locke Lectures at Merton. Particularly apt in mentioning, with
humility, his having failed, *thrice* [sic] to obtain the Locke lectureship,
Strawson did, at once, but feeling safe under the ægis of that great English
philosopher (viz. Locke! always implicated, never explicited) now. Grice starts
the proem in a very moving, shall we say, emotional, way: I find it difficult
to convey to you just how happy I am, and how honoured I feel, in being invited
to give these lectures. Difficult, but not impossible. I think of this
university and this city, it has a cathedral, which were my home for thirty-six
years, as my spiritual and intellectual parents. The almost majestic plural is
Grices implicature to the town and gown! Whatever I am was originally fashioned
here; I never left Oxford, Oxford made me, and I find it a moving experience to
be, within these splendid and none too ancient walls, once more engaged in my
old occupation of rendering what is clear obscure, by flouting the desideratum
of conversational clarity and the conversational maxim, avoid obscurity of
expression, under be perspicuous [sic]!. Grices implicature on none too ancient
seems to be addressed to the truly ancient walls that saw Athenian dialectic!
On the other hand, Grices funny variant on the obscurum per obscurius ‒ what
Baker found as Grices skill in rendering an orthodoxy into a heterodoxy!
Almost! By clear Grice implicates Lewis and his clarity is not enough! I am, at
the same time, proud of my mid-Atlantic [two-world] status, and am, therefore,
delighted that the Old World should have called me in, or rather recalled me,
to redress, for once, the balance of my having left her for the New. His
implicature seems to be: Strictly, I never left? Grice concludes his proem: I
am, finally, greatly heartened by my consciousness of the fact that that great
English philosopher, under whose ægis I am now speaking, has in the late
afternoon of my days extended to me his Lectureship as a gracious consolation
for a record threefold denied to me, in my early morning, of his Prize. I pray
that my present offerings may find greater favour in his sight than did those
of long ago. They did! Even if Locke surely might have found favour to Grices
former offerings, too, Im sure. Refs.: The allusions to Locke are in “Aspects.”
Good references under ‘ideationalism,’ above, especially in connection with
Myro’s ‘modest mentalism,’ The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
teleology: how does soul originate from matter? Does the vegetal soul
have a telos. Purposive-behaviour is obvious in plants (phototropism). If it is
present in the vegetal soul, it is present in the animal soul. If it is present
in the animal soul, it is present in the rational soul. With each stage, alla
Hartmann, there are distinctions in the specification of the telos. Grice could
be more continental than Scheler! Grices métier. Unity of science was a very
New-World expression that Grice did not quite buy. Grice was brought up in a
world, the Old World, indeed, as he calls it in his Proem to the Locke
lectures, of Snows two cultures. At the time of Grices philosophising,
philosophers such as Winch (who indeed quotes fro Grice) were contesting the
idea that science is unitary, when it comes to the explanation of rational
behaviour. Since a philosophical approach to the explanation of rational
behaviour, including conversational behaviour (to account for the
conversational implicata) is his priority, Grice needs to distinguish himself
from those who propose a unified science, which Grice regards as eliminationist
and reductionist. Grice is ambivalent about science and also playful
(philosophia regina scientiarum). Grice seems to presuppose, or implicate,
that, since there is the devil of scientism, science cannot get at teleology.
The devil is in the physiological details, which are irrelevant. The language
Grice uses to describe his Ps as goal-oriented, aimed at survival and
reproduction, seems teleological and somewhat scientific, though. But he means
that ironically! As the scholastics use it, teleology is a science, the science
of telos, or finality (cf. Aristotle on telos aitia, causa finalis. The unity
of science is threatened by teleology, and vice versa. Unified science seeks
for a mechanistically derivable teleology. But Grices sympathies lie for
detached finality. Grice is obsessed with the Greek idea of a telos, as
slightly overused by Aristotle. Grice thinks that some actions are for their
own sake. What is the telos of Oscar Wilde? Can we speak of Oscar Wilde’s
métier? If a tiger is to tigerise, a human is to humanise, and a person is to
personise. Grice thought that teleology is a key philosophical way to contest
mechanism, so popular in The New World. Strictly, and Grice knew this,
teleology is constituted as a discipline. One term that Cicero was unable to
translate! For the philosopher, teleology is that part of philosophy that
studies the realm of the telos. Informally, teleological is opposed to
mechanistic. Grice is interested in the mechanism/teleology debate, indeed
jumps into it, with a goal in mind! Grice finds some New-World philosophers too
mechanistic-oriented, in contrast with the more two-culture atmosphere he was
familiar with at Oxford! Code is the Aristotelian, and he and Grice are
especially concerned in the idea of causa finalis. For Grice only detached
finality poses a threat to Mechanism, as it should! Axiological objectivity is
possible only given finality or purpose in Nature, the admissibility of a final
cause. Refs.: There are specific essays on ‘teleology,’ ‘final cause,’ and
‘finality,’ the The Grice Papers. Some of the material published in “Reply to
Richards” (repr. in “Conception”) and “Actions and events,” The H. P. Grice
Papers, BANC.
‘that’-clause: Grice thought of Staal as particularly good at this type
of formalistic philosophy, which was still adequate to reflect the subtleties
of ordinary language. How do we define a Griceian action? How do we
define a Griceian event? This is Grices examination and criticism of Davidson,
as a scientific realist, followed by a Kantian approach to freedom and causation.
Grice is especially interested in the logical form, or explicitum, so that he
can play with the implicatum. One of his favourite examples: He fell on his
sword, having tripped as he crossed the Galliæ. Grice manages to quote from
many and varied authors (some of which you would not expect him to quote) such
as Reichenbach, but also Robinson, of Oriel, of You Names it fame (for any x,
if you can Names it, x exists). Robinson has a brilliant essay on parts of Cook
Wilsons Statement and inference, so he certainly knows what he is talking
about. Grice also quotes from von Wright and Eddington. Grice offers a
linguistic botanic survey of autonomy and free (sugar-free, free fall,
implicature-free) which some have found inspirational. His favourite is Finnegans
alcohol-free. Finnegans obvious implicature is that everything is
alcohol-laden. Grice kept a copy of Davidsons The logical form of action
sentences, since surely Davidson, Grice thought, is making a primary
philosophical point. Horses run fast; therefore, horses run. A Davidsonian
problem, and there are more to come! Smith went fishing. Grices category shift
allows us to take Smiths fishing as the grammatical Subjects of an action
sentence. Cf. indeed the way to cope with entailment in The horse runs fast;
therefore, the horse runs. Grices Actions and events is Davidsonian in
motivation, but Kantian in method, one of those actions by Grice to promote a
Griceian event! Davidson had published, Grice thought, some pretty influential
(and provocative, anti-Quineian) stuff on actions and events, or events and
actions, actually, and, worse, he was being discussed at Oxford, too, over
which Grice always keeps an eye! Davidsons point, tersely put, is that while
p.q (e.g. It is raining, and it is pouring) denotes a concatenation of events.
Smith is fishing denotes an action, which is a kind of event, if you are
following him (Davidson, not Smith). However, Davidson is fighting against the
intuition, if you are a follower of Whitehead and Russell, to symbolise the
Smith is fishing as Fs, where s stands for Smith and F for fishing. The logical
form of a report of an event or an action seems to be slightly more
complicated. Davidsons point specifically involves adverbs, or adverbial
modifiers, and how to play with them in terms of entailment. The horse runs
fast; therefore, the horse runs. Symbolise that! as Davidson told Benson Mates!
But Mates had gone to the restroom. Grice explores all these and other topics
and submits the thing for publication. Grice quotes, as isnt his wont, from
many and various philosophers, not just Davidson, whom he saw every Wednesday,
but others he didnt, like Reichenbach, Robinson, Kant, and, again even a
physicist like Eddington. Grice remarks that Davidson is into hypothesis,
suppositio, while he is, as he should, into hypostasis, substantia. Grice then
expands on the apparent otiosity of uttering, It is a fact that grass is green.
Grice goes on to summarise what he ironically dubs an ingenious argument.
Let σ abbreviate the operator consists
in the fact that , which, when prefixed to a sentence, produces a
predicate or epithet. Let S abbreviate Snow is white, and
let G abbreviate Grass is green. In that case, xσS is 1 just in
case xσ(y(y=y and S) = y(y=y) is 1, since the first part of the
sub-sentence which follows σ in the main sentence is logically equivalent
logically equivalent to the second part. And xσ(y(y=y and S) =
y(y=y) is 1 just in case xσ(y(if y=y, G) = y(y=y) is 1,
since y(if y=y, S) and y(if y=y, G) are each a singular term, which, if
S and G are both true, each refers to y(y=y), and are therefore
co-referential and inter-substitutable. And xσ(y(if y=y, G) =
y(y=y) is true just in case xσG is 1, since G is logically equivalent
to the sub-sentence which follows σ. So, this fallacy goes, provided that
S and G are both 1, regardless of what an utterer explicitly conveys by
uttering a token of it, any event which consists of the otiose fact that S also
consists of the otiose fact that G, and vice versa, i. e. this randomly
chosen event is identical to any other randomly chosen event. Grice hastens to
criticise this slingshot fallacy licensing the inter-substitution of this or
that co-referential singular term and this or that logically equivalent
sub-sentence as officially demanded because it is needed to license a
patently valid, if baffling, inference. But, if in addition to providing
this benefit, the fallacy saddles the philosopher with a commitment to a
hideous consequence, the rational course is to endeavour to find a way of
retaining the benefit while eliminating the disastrous accompaniment, much
as in set theory it seems rational to seek as generous a comprehension
axiom as the need to escape this or that paradox permits. Grice proposes
to retain the principle of co-reference, but prohibit is
use after the principle of logical equivalence has been
used. Grice finds such a measure to have some intuitive appeal. In
the fallacy, the initial deployment of the principle of logical
equivalence seems tailored to the production of a sentence
which provides opportunity for trouble-raising application of
the principle of co-referentiality. And if that is what the game is,
why not stop it? On the assumption that this or that problem which
originally prompts this or that analysis is at least on their way towards
independent solution, Grice turns his attention to the possibility of
providing a constructivist treatment of things which might perhaps have
more intuitive appeal than a naïve realist approach. Grice begins with a
class of happenstance attributions, which is divided into this or that
basic happenstance attribution, i.e. ascriptions to a Subjects-item of an
attribute which is metabolically expressible, and this or that non-basic
resultant happenstance attribution, in which the attribute ascribed,
though not itself metabolically expressible, is such that its possession
by a Subjects item is suitably related to the possession by that or by some
other Subjects item, of this or that attribute which is metabolically
expressible. Any member of the class of happenstance attributions may be
used to say what happens, or happens to be the case, without talking about
any special entity belonging to a class of a happening or a happenstance. A
next stage involves the introduction of the operator consists of the fact that This
operator, when prefixed to a sentence S that makes a happen-stance
attribution to a Subjects-item, yields a predicate which is satisfied by an
entity which is a happenstance, provided that sentence S is doxastically satisfactory,
i. e., 1, and that some further metaphysical condition obtains, which ensures
the metaphysical necessity of the introduction into reality of the category of
a happenstance, thereby ensuring that this new category is not just a
class of this or that fiction. As far as the slingshot fallacy, and the
hideous consequence that all facts become identical to one Great Big Fact, in
the light of a defence of Reichenbach against the realist attack, Grice is
reasonably confident that a metaphysical extension of reality will not saddle
him with an intolerable paradox, pace the caveat that, to some, the slingshot
is not contradictory in the way a paradox is, but merely an unexpected
consequence ‒ not seriously hideous, at that. What this metaphysical condition
would be which would justify the metaphysical extension remains, alas, to be
determined. It is tempting to think that the metaphysical condition is
connected with a theoretical need to have this or that happenstance as this or
that item in, say, a causal relation. Grice goes on to provide a progression of
linguistic botanising including free. Grice distinguishes four
elements or stages in the step-by-step development of freedom. A first
stage is the transeunt causation one finds in inanimate objects, as when we
experience a stone in free fall. This is Hume’s realm, the atomistss realm.
This is external or transeunt casuation, when an object is affected by
processes in other objects. A second stage is internal or immanent causation,
where a process in an object is the outcome of previous stages in that process,
as in a freely moving body. A third stage is the internal causation of a living
being, in which changes are generated in a creature by internal features of the
creature which are not earlier stages of the same change, but independent
items, the function or finality of which is to provide for the good of the
creature in question. A fourth stage is a culminating stage at which the
conception of a certain mode by a human of something as being for that creatures
good is sufficient to initiate the doing of that thing. Grice expands on this
interesting last stage. At this stage, it is the case that the creature is
liberated from every factive cause. There is also a discussion of von Wrights
table of adverbial modifiers, or Grices pentagram. Also an exploration of
specificity: Jack buttering a parsnip in the bathroom in the presence of Jill.
Grice revisits some of his earlier concerns, and these are discussed in the
appropriate places, such as his exploration on the Grecian etymology of aition.
“That”-clause should be preferred to ‘oratio obliqua,’ since the latter is a
misnomer when you ascribe a psychological state rather than an utterance.
Refs.: The main sources are given under ‘oratio obliqua’ above, The BANC.
theory: Grice needs a theory. Not so much for his approach to
mean. He polemises with Rountree, of Somerville, that you dont need a thory to
analyse mean. Indeed, you cannot have a theory to analyse mean, because mean is
a matter of intuition, not a theoretical concept. But Grice appeals to theory,
when dealing with willing. He knows what willing means because he relies on a
concept of folk-science. In this folk-science, willing is a theoretical
concept. Grice arrived at this conclusion by avoiding the adjective souly, and
seeing that there is no word to describe willing other than by saying it is a
psychoLOGICAL concept, i.e. part of a law within that theory of folk-science.
That law will include, by way of ramsified naming or describing willing as a
predicate-constant. Now, this is related to metaphysics. His liberal or
ecunmenical metaphysics is best developed in terms of his ontological marxism
presented just after he has expanded on this idea of willing as a theoretical
concept, within a law involving willing (say, Grices Optimism-cum-Pesimism
law), within the folk-science of psychology that explains his behaviour. For
Aristotle, a theoria, was quite a different animal, but it had to do with
contemplatio, hence the theoretical (vita contemplativa) versus the practical
(vita activa). Grices sticking to Aristotle’srare use of theory inspires him to
develop his fascinating theory of the theory-theory. Grice realised that there is no way to refer
to things like intending except with psychological, which he takes to mean,
belonging to a pscyhological theory. Grice was keen to theorise on
theorising. He thought that Aristotle’s first philosophy (prote
philosophia) is best rendered as Theory-theory. Grice kept using Oxonian
English spelling, theorising, except when he did not! Grice calls himself
folksy: his theories, even if Subjects to various types of Ramseyfication, are
popular in kind! And ceteris paribus! Metaphysical construction is
disciplined and the best theorising the philosopher can hope for! The way
Grice conceives of his theory-theory is interesting to revisit. A route by
which Grice hopes to show the centrality of metaphysics (as prote philosophia)
involves taking seriously a few ideas. If any region of enquiry is to be
successful as a rational enterprise, its deliverance must be
expressable in the shape of one or another of the possibly different types of
theory. A characterisation of the nature and range of a possible kind of
theory θ is needed. Such a body of characterisation must itself
be the outcome of rational enquiry, and so must itself exemplify
whatever requirement it lays down for any theory θ in
general. The characterisation must itself be expressible as a
theory θ, to be called, if you like, Grice politely puts it, theory-theory,
or meta-theory, θ2. Now, the specification and justification of the ideas
and material presupposed by any theory θ, whether such account
falls within the bounds of Theory-theory, θ2 would be properly called
prote philosophia (first philosophy) and may turn out to relate to what is
generally accepted as belonging to the Subjects matter of metaphysics. It
might, for example, turn out to be establishable that any
theory θ has to relate to a certain range of this or that Subjects
item, has to attribute to each item this or that predicate or attribute, which
in turn has to fall within one or another of the range of types or
categories. In this way, the enquiry might lead to recognised metaphysical
topics, such as the nature of being, its range of application, the nature of
predication and a systematic account of categories. Met. , philosophical
eschatology, and Platos Republic, Thrasymachus, social justice, Socrates, along
with notes on Zeno, and topics for pursuit, repr.in Part II, Explorations in
semantics and metaphysics to WOW , metaphysics, philosophical
eschatology, Platos Republic, Socrates, Thrasymachus, justice, moral right,
legal right, Athenian dialectic. Philosophical eschatology is a sub-discipline
of metaphysics concerned with what Grice calls a category shift. Grice, having
applied such a technique to Aristotle’s aporia on philos (friend) as alter ego,
uses it now to tackle Socratess view, against Thrasymachus, that right applies
primarily to morality, and secondarily to legality. Grice has a specific reason
to include this in his WOW Grices exegesis of Plato on justice displays Grices
take on the fact that metaphysics needs to be subdivided into ontology proper
and what he calls philosophical eschatology, for the study of things like
category shift and other construction routines. The exploration of Platos
Politeia thus becomes an application of Grices philosophically eschatological
approach to the item just, as used by Socrates (morally just) and Thrasymachus
(legally just). Grice has one specific essay on Aristotle in PPQ. So he thought
Plato merited his own essay, too! Grices focus is on Plato’s exploration of
dike. Grice is concerned with a neo-Socratic (versus neo-Thrasymachean) account
of moral justice as conceptually (or axiologically) prior to legal justice. In
the proceeding, he creates philosophical eschatology as the other branch to
metaphysics, along with good ol ontology. To say that just crosses a
categorial barrier (from the moral to the legal) is to make a metaphysical,
strictly eschatological, pronouncement. The Grice Papers locate the Plato essay
in s. II, the Socrates essay in s. III, and the Thrasymachus essay, under social
justice, in s. V. Grice is well aware that in his account of fairness, Rawls
makes use of his ideas on personal identity. The philosophical elucidation of
fairness is of great concern for Grice. He had been in touch with such
explorations as Nozicks and Nagels along anti-Rawlsian lines. Grices ideas on
rationality guide his exploration of social justice. Grice keeps revising the
Socrates notes. The Plato essay he actually dates. As it happens, Grices most
extensive published account of Socrates is in this commentary on Platos
Republic: an eschatological commentary, as he puts it. In an entertaining
fashion, Grice has Socrates, and neo-Socrates, exploring the logic and grammar
of just against the attack by Thrasymachus and neo-Thrasymachus. Grices point
is that, while the legal just may be conceptually prior to the moral just, the
moral just is evaluationally or axiologically prior. Refs.: There is a specific
essay on ‘theorising’ in the Grice Papers, but there are scattered sources
elsewhere, such as “Method” (repr. in “Conception”), BANC.
uncertainty: ‘Certainly,’ appears to apply to utterances in the
credibility and the desirability realm. Grice sometimes uses ‘to be sure.’ He
notoriously wants to distinguish it from ‘know.’ Grice explores the topic of
incorrigibility and ends up with corrigibility which almost makes a Popperian
out of him. In the end, its all about the converational implciata and
conversation as rational co-operation. Why does P2 should judge that P1 is
being more or less certain about what he is talking? Theres a rationale for
that. Our conversation does not consist of idle remarks. Grices example:
"The Chairman of the British Academy has a corkscrew in his pocket.
Urmsons example: "The king is visiting Oxford tomorrow. Why? Oh, for no
reason at all. As a philosophical psychologist, and an empiricist with realist
tendencies, Grice was obsessed with what he called (in a nod to the Kiparskys)
the factivity of know. Surely, Grices preferred collocation, unlike surely
Ryles, is "Grice knows that p." Grice has no problem in seeing this
as involving three clauses: First, p. Second, Grice believes that p, and third,
p causes Grices belief. No mention of certainty. This is the neo-Prichardian in
Grice, from having been a neo-Stoutian (Stout was obsessed, as a few Oxonians
like Hampshire and Hart were, with certainty). If the three-prong analysis of
know applies to the doxastic, Grices two-prong analysis of intending in ‘Intention
and UNcertainty,’ again purposively avoiding certainty, covers the buletic
realm. This does not mean that Grice, however proud he was of his ignorance of
the history of philosophy (He held it as a badge of honour, his tuteee Strawson
recalls), had read some of the philosophical classics to realise that certainty
had been an obsession of what Ryle abusively (as he himself puts it) called
Descartes and the Establishments "official doctrine"! While ps true
in Grices analysis of know is harmless enough, there obviously is no correlate
for ps truth in the buletic case. Grices example is Grice intending to scratch his
head, via his willing that Grice scratches his head in t2. In this case, as he
notes, the doxastic eleent involves the uniformity of nature, and ones more or
less relying that if Grice had a head to be scratched in t1, he will have a
head to be sratched in t2, when his intention actually GETS satisfied, or
fulfilled. Grice was never worried about buletic satisfaction. As the
intentionalist that Suppes showed us Grice was, Grice is very much happy to say
that if Smith intends to give Joness a job, the facct as to whether Jones
actually gets the job is totally irrelevant for most philosophical purposes. He
gets more serious when he is happier with privileged access than
incorrigibility in “Method.” But he is less strict than Austin. For Austin,
"That is a finch implies that the utterer KNOWS its a finch. While Grice
has a maxim, do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence (Gettiers
analysandum) and a super-maxim, try to make your contribution one that is
true, the very phrasing highlights Grices cavalier to this! Imagine Kant
turning on his grave. "Try!?". Grice is very clever in having try in
the super-maxim, and a prohibition as the maxim, involving falsehood avoidance,
"Do not say what you believe to be false." Even here he is cavalier.
"Cf. "Do not say what you KNOW to be false." If Gettier were
wrong, the combo of maxims yields, "Say what you KNOW," say what you
are certain about! Enough for Sextus Empiricus having one single maxim:
"Either utter a phenomenalist utterance, a question or an order, or keep your
mouth shut!." (cf. Grice, "My lips are sealed," as cooperative
or helfpul in ways -- "At least he is not lying."). Hampshire,
in the course of some recent remarks,l advances the view that self-prediction
is (logically) impossible. When I say I know that I shall do X (as against,
e.g., X will happen to me, or You will do X), I am not contemplating myself, as
I might someone else, and giving tongue to a conjecture about myself and my
future acts, as I might be doing about someone else or about the behaviour ofan
animal -for that would be tantamount (if I understand him rightly) to looking
upon myself from outside, as it were, and treating my own acts as mere caused
events. In saying that I know that I shall do X, I am, on this view, saying
that I have decided to do X: for to predict that I shall in certain
circumstances in fact do X or decide to do X, with no reference to whether or
not I have already decided to do it - to say I can tell you now that I shall in
fact act in manner X, although I am, as a matter of fact, determined to do the
very opposite - does not make sense. Any man who says I know myself too well to
believe that, whatever I now decide, I shall do anything other than X when the
circumstances actually arise is in fact, if I interpret Hampshires views
correctly, saying that he does not really, i.e. seriously, propose to set
himself against doing X, that he does not propose even to try to act otherwise,
that he has in fact decided to let events take their course. For no man who has
truly decided to try to avoid X can, in good faith, predict his own failure to
act as he has decided. He may fail to avoid X, and he may predict this; but he
cannot both decide to try to avoid X and predict that he will not even try to
do this; for he can always try; and he knows this: he knows that this is what
distinguishes him from non-human creatures in nature. To say that he will fail
even to try is tantamount to saying that he has decided not to try. In this
sense I know means I have decided and (Murdoch, Hampshire, Gardiner and Pears,
Freedom and Knowledge, in Pears, Freedom and the Will) cannot in principle be
predictive. That, if I have understood it, is Hampshires position, and I have a
good deal of sympathy with it, for I can see that self-prediction is often an
evasive way of disclaiming responsibility for difficult decisions, while
deciding in fact to let events take their course, disguising this by
attributing responsibility for what occurs to my own allegedly unalterable
nature. But I agree with Hampshires critics in the debate, whom I take to be
maintaining that, although the situation he describes may often occur, yet
circumstances may exist in which it is possible for me both to say that I am,
at this moment, resolved not to do X, and at the same time to predict that I
shall do X, because I am not hopeful that, when the time comes, I shall in fact
even so much as try to resist doing X. I can, in effect, say I know myself
well. When the crisis comes, do not rely on me to help you. I may well run
away; although I am at this moment genuinely resolved not to be cowardly and to
do all I can to stay at your side. My prediction that my resolution will not in
fact hold up is based on knowledge of my own character, and not on my present
state of mind; my prophecy is not a symptom of bad faith (for I am not, at this
moment, vacillating) but, on the contrary, of good faith, of a wish to face the
facts. I assure you in all sincerity that my present intention is to be brave
and resist. Yet you would run a great risk if you relied too much on my present
decision; it would not be fair to conceal my past failures of nerve from you. I
can say this about others, despite the most sincere resolutions on their part,
for I can foretell how in fact they will behave; they can equally predict this
about me. Despite Hampshires plausible and tempting argument, I believe that
such objective self-knowledge is possible and occur. From Descartes to
Stout and back. Stout indeed uses both intention and certainty, and in the
same paragraph. Stout notes that, at the outset, performance falls far short of
intention. Only a certain s. of contractions of certain muscles, in proper
proportions and in a proper order, is capable of realising the end aimed at,
with the maximum of rapidity and certainty, and the minimum of obstruction and
failure, and corresponding effort. At the outset of the process of acquisition,
muscles are contracted which are superfluous, and which therefore operate as
disturbing conditions. Grices immediate trigger, however, is Ayer on sure
that, and having the right to be sure, as his immediate trigger later will be
Hampshire and Hart. Grice had high regard for Hampshires brilliant Thought and
action. He was also concerned with Stouts rather hasty UNphilosophical,
but more scientifically psychologically-oriented remarks about assurance in
practical concerns. He knew too that he was exploring an item of the
philosophers lexicon (certus) that had been brought to the forum when Anscombe
and von Wright translate Witters German expression Gewißheit in Über
Gewißheit as Certainty. The Grecians were never sure about being sure. But
the modernist turn brought by Descartes meant that Grice now had to deal with
incorrigibility and privileged access to this or that P, notably himself (When I
intend to go, I dont have to observe myself, Im on the stage, not in the
audience, or Only I can say I will to London, expressing my intention to do so.
If you say, you will go you are expressing yours! Grice found Descartes
very funny ‒ in a French way. Grice is interested in contesting Ayer and other
Oxford philosophers, on the topic of a criterion for certainty. In so
doing, Grice choses Descartess time-honoured criterion of clarity and
distinction, as applied to perception. Grice does NOT quote Descartes
in French! In the proceedings, Grice distinguishes between two kinds of
certainty apparently ignored by Descartes: (a) objective
certainty: Ordinary-language variant: It is certain that p, whatever
it refers to, cf. Grice, it is an illusion; what is it? (b) Subjective
certainty: Ordinary-language variant: I am certain that p. I
being, of course, Grice, in my bestest days, of course! There are further
items on Descartes in the Grice Collection, notably in the last s. of topics
arranged alphabetically. Grice never cared to publish his views on
Descartes until he found an opportunity to do so when compiling his WOW. Grice
is not interested in an exegesis of Descartess thought. He doesnt care to give
a reference to any edition of Descartess oeuvre. But he plays with certain. It
is certain that p is objective certainty, apparently. I am certain that p is
Subjectsive certainty, rather. Oddly, Grice will turn to UNcertainty as it
connects with intention in his BA lecture. Grices interest in Descartes
connects with Descartess search for a criterion of certainty in terms of
clarity and distinction of this or that perception. Having explored the
philosophy of perception with Warnock, its only natural he wanted to give
Descartess rambles a second and third look! Descartes on clear and distinct
perception, in WOW, II semantics and metaphysics, essay, Descartes on clear and
distinct perception and Malcom on dreaming, perception, Descartes, clear and
distinct perception, Malcolm, dreaming. Descartes meets Malcolm, and vice
versa. Descartes on clear and distinct perception, in WOW, Descartes
on clear and distinct perception, Descartes on clear and distinct perception,
in WOW, part II, semantics and metaphysics, essay. Grice gives a short overview
of Cartesian metaphysics for the BBC 3rd programme. The best example,
Grice thinks, of a metaphysical snob is provided by Descartes, about
whose idea of certainty Grice had philosophised quite a bit, since it is in
total contrast with Moore’s. Descartes is a very scientifically minded philosopher, with very clear ideas about the proper direction for science. Descartes,
whose middle Names seems to have been Euclid, thinks that mathematics, and in
particular geometry, provides the model for a scientific procedure, or
method. And this determines all of Descartess thinking in two ways. First,
Descartes thinks that the fundamental method in science is the axiomatic
deductive method of geometry, and this Descartes conceives (as Spinoza morality
more geometrico) of as rigorous reasoning from a self-evident axiom (Cogito,
ergo sum.). Second, Descartes thinks that the Subjects matter of physical
science, from mechanics to medicine, must be fundamentally the same as the
Subjects matter of geometry! The only characteristics that the objects studied
by geometry poses are spatial characteristics. So from the point of view of
science in general, the only important features of things in the physical world
were also their spatial characteristics, what he called extensio, res extensa.
Physical science in general is a kind of dynamic, or kinetic, geometry.
Here we have an exclusive preference for a certain type of scientific
method, and a certain type of scientific explanation: the method is deductive,
the type of explanation mechanical. These beliefs about the right way to do
science are exactly reflected in Descartess ontology, one of the two branches
of metaphysics; the other is philosophical eschatology, or the study of
categories), and it is reflected in his doctrine, that is, about what really
exists. Apart from God, the divine substance, Descartes recognises just
two kinds of substance, two types of real entity. First, there is material
substance, or matter; and the belief that the only scientifically important
characteristics of things in the physical world are their spatial
characteristics goes over, in the language of metaphysics, into the doctrine
that these are their only characteristics. Second, and to Ryle’s horror,
Descartes recognizes the mind or soul, or the mental substance, of which the
essential characteristic is thinking; and thinking itself, in its pure form at
least, is conceived of as simply the intuitive grasping of this or
that self-evident axiom and this or that of its deductive consequence. These
restrictive doctrines about reality and knowledge naturally call for
adjustments elsewhere in our ordinary scheme of things. With the help of the
divine substance, these are duly provided. It is not always obvious that
the metaphysicians scheme involves this kind of ontological preference, or
favoritism, or prejudice, or snobbery this tendency, that is, to promote one or
two categories of entity to the rank of the real, or of the ultimately real, to
the exclusion of others, Descartess entia realissima. One is taught at Oxford
that epistemology begins with the Moderns such as Descartes, which is not true.
Grice was concerned with “certain,” which was applied in Old Roman times to
this or that utterer: the person who is made certain in reference to a thing,
certain, sure. Lewis and Short have a few quotes: “certi sumus periisse omnia;”
“num quid nunc es certior?,” “posteritatis, i. e. of posthumous fame,”
“sententiæ,” “judicii,” “certus de suā geniturā;” “damnationis;” “exitii,”
“spei,” “matrimonii,” “certi sumus;” in the phrase “certiorem facere aliquem;”
“de aliquā re, alicujus rei, with a foll, acc. and inf., with a rel.-clause or absol.;”
“to inform, apprise one of a thing: me certiorem face: “ut nos facias certiores,”
“uti Cæsarem de his rebus certiorem faciant;” “qui certiorem me sui consilii
fecit;” “Cæsarem certiorem faciunt, sese non facile ab oppidis vim hostium
prohibere;” “faciam te certiorem quid egerim;” with subj. only, “milites
certiores facit, paulisper intermitterent proelium,” pass., “quod crebro
certior per me fias de omnibus rebus,” “Cæsar certior factus est, tres jam
copiarum partes Helvetios id flumen transduxisse;” “factus certior, quæ res
gererentur,” “non consulibus certioribus factis,” also in posit., though
rarely; “fac me certum quid tibi est;” “lacrimæ suorum tam subitæ matrem certam
fecere ruinæ,” uncertainty, Grice loved the OED, and its entry for will
was his favourite. But he first had a look to shall. For Grice, "I shall
climb Mt. Everest," is surely a prediction. And then Grice turns to the
auxiliary he prefers, will. Davidson, Intending, R. Grandy and Warner,
PGRICE. “Uncertainty,” “Aspects.” “Conception,” Davidson on intending,
intending and trying, Brandeis.”Method,” in “Conception,” WOW . Hampshire and Hart.
Decision, intention, and certainty, Mind, Harman, Willing and intending in PGRICE.
Practical reasoning. Review of Met. 29.
Thought, Princeton, for functionalist approach alla Grice’s “Method.” Principles
of reasoning. Rational action and the extent of intention. Social theory and practice.
Jeffrey, Probability kinematics, in The logic of decision, cited by Harman in
PGRICE. Kahneman and Tversky, Judgement under uncertainty, Science, cited by
Harman in PGRICE. Nisbet and Ross, Human inference, cited by Harman in PGRICE. Pears,
Predicting and deciding. Prichard, Acting, willing, and desiring, in Moral obligations,
Oxford ed. by Urmson Speranza, The Grice
Circle Wants You. Stout, Voluntary action. Mind 5, repr in Studies in
philosophy and psychology, Macmillan, cited by Grice, “Uncertainty.” Urmson,
‘Introduction’ to Prichard’s ‘Moral obligations.’ I shant but Im not
certain I wont – Grice. How uncertain can Grice be? This is the Henriette Herz
BA lecture, and as such published in The Proceedings of the BA. Grice
calls himself a neo-Prichardian (after the Oxford philosopher) and cares to
quote from a few other philosophers ‒ some of whom he was not
necessarily associated with: such as Kenny and Anscombe, and some of whom he
was, notably Pears. Grices motto: Where there is a neo-Prichardian
willing, there is a palæo-Griceian way! Grice quotes Pears, of Christ Church,
as the philosopher he found especially congenial to explore areas in what both
called philosophical psychology, notably the tricky use of intending as
displayed by a few philosophers even in their own circle, such as Hampshire and
Hart in Intention, decision, and certainty. The title of Grices lecture is
meant to provoke that pair of Oxonian philosophers Grice knew so well and who
were too ready to bring in certainty in an area that requires deep
philosophical exploration. This is the Henriette Herz
Trust annual lecture. It means its delivered annually by different
philosophers, not always Grice! Grice had been appointed a FBA earlier, but he
took his time to deliver his lecture. With your lecture, you implicate,
Hi! Grice, and indeed Pears, were motivated by Hampshires and Harts essay on
intention and certainty in Mind. Grice knew Hampshire well, and had
actually enjoyed his Thought and Action. He preferred Hampshires Thought and
action to Anscombes Intention. Trust Oxford being what it is that TWO volumes
on intending are published in the same year! Which one shall I read first?
Eventually, neither ‒ immediately. Rather, Grice managed to unearth some
sketchy notes by Prichard (he calls himself a neo-Prichardian) that Urmson had
made available for the Clarendon Press ‒ notably Prichards essay on willing
that. Only a Corpus-Christi genius like Prichard will distinguish will to,
almost unnecessary, from will that, so crucial. For Grice, wills that ,
unlike wills to, is properly generic, in
that p, that follows the that-clause, need NOT refer to the Subjects of the
sentence. Surely I can will that Smith wins the match! But Grice also quotes
Anscombe (whom otherwise would not count, although they did share a discussion
panel at the American Philosophical Association) and Kenny, besides
Pears. Of Anscombe, Grice borrows (but never returns) the direction-of-fit
term of art, actually Austinian. From Kenny, Grice borrows (and returns) the
concept of voliting. His most congenial approach was Pearss. Grice had of
course occasion to explore disposition and intention on earlier
occasions. Grice is especially concerned with a dispositional analysis to
intending. He will later reject it in “Uncertainty.” But that was
Grice for you! Grice is especially interested in distinguishing his views from
Ryles over-estimated dispositional account of intention, which Grice sees as
reductionist, and indeed eliminationist, if not boringly behaviourist, even in
analytic key. The logic of dispositions is tricky, as Grice will later explore
in connection with rationality, rational propension or propensity, and
metaphysics, the as if operator). While Grice focuses on uncertainty, he is
trying to be funny. He knew that Oxonians like Hart and Hampshire were obsessed
with certainty. I was so surprised that Hampshire and Hart were claiming
decision and intention are psychological states about which the agent is
certain, that I decided on the spot that that could certainly be a nice
topic for my BA lecture! Grice granted that in some cases, a declaration of an
intention can be authorative in a certain certain way, i. e. as implicating
certainty. But Grice wants us to consider: Marmaduke Bloggs intends to climb
Mt. Everest. Surely he cant be certain hell succeed. Grice used the
same example at the APA, of all places. To amuse Grice, Davidson, who was
present, said: Surely thats just an implicature! Just?! Grice was
almost furious in his British guarded sort of way. Surely not
just! Pears, who was also present, tried to reconcile: If I may,
Davidson, I think Grice would take it that, if certainty is implicated, the
whole thing becomes too social to be true. They kept discussing
implicature versus entailment. Is certainty entailed then? Cf. Urmson on
certainly vs. knowingly, and believably. Davidson asked. No,
disimplicated! is Grices curt reply. The next day, he explained to
Davidson that he had invented the concept of disimplicature just to tease him,
and just one night before, while musing in the hotel room! Talk of uncertainty
was thus for Grice intimately associated with his concern about the misuse of
know to mean certain, especially in the exegeses that Malcolm made popular
about, of all people, Moore! V. Scepticism and common sense and Moore and
philosophers paradoxes above, and Causal theory and Prolegomena for a summary
of Malcoms misunderstanding Moore! Grice manages to quote from Stouts Voluntary
action and Brecht. And he notes that not all speakers are as sensitive as they
should be (e.g. distinguishing modes, as realised by shall vs. will). He
emphasizes the fact that Prichard has to be given great credit for seeing that
the accurate specification of willing should be willing that and not willing
to. Grice is especially interested in proving Stoutians (like Hampshire and
Hart) wrong by drawing from Aristotles prohairesis-doxa distinction, or in his
parlance, the buletic-doxastic distinction. Grice quotes from Aristotle.
Prohairesis cannot be opinion/doxa. For opinion is thought to relate to all
kinds of things, no less to eternal things and impossible things than to things
in our own power; and it is distinguished by its falsity or truth, not by its
badness or goodness, while choice is distinguished rather by these. Now with
opinion in general perhaps no one even says it is identical. But it is not
identical even with any kind of opinion; for by choosing or deciding, or
prohairesis, what is good or bad we are men of a certain character, which we
are not by holding this or that opinion or doxa. And we choose to get or avoid
something good or bad, but we have opinions about what a thing is or whom it is
good for or how it is good for him; we can hardly be said to opine to get or
avoid anything. And choice is praised for being related to the right object
rather than for being rightly related to it, opinion for being truly related to
its object. And we choose what we best know to be good, but we opine what we do
not quite know; and it is not the same people that are thought to make the best
choices and to have the best opinions, but some are thought to have fairly good
opinions, but by reason of vice to choose what they should not. If opinion
precedes choice or accompanies it, that makes no difference; for it is not this
that we are considering, but whether it is identical with some kind of opinion.
What, then, or what kind of thing is it, since it is none of the things we have
mentioned? It seems to be voluntary, but not all that is voluntary to be an
object of choice. Is it, then, what has been decided on by previous
deliberation? At any rate choice involves a rational principle and thought.
Even the Names seems to suggest that it is what is chosen before other things.
His final analysis of G intends that p is in terms of, B1, a buletic condition,
to the effect that G wills that p, and D2, an attending doxastic condition, to
the effect that G judges that B1 causes p. Grice ends this essay with a nod to
Pears and an open point about the justifiability (other than evidential) for
the acceptability of the agents deciding and intending versus the evidential
justifiability of the agents predicting that what he intends will be satisfied.
It is important to note that in his earlier Disposition and intention, Grice
dedicates the first part to counterfactual if general. This is a logical point.
Then as an account for a psychological souly concept ψ. If G does A, sensory
input, G does B, behavioural output. No ψ without the behavioural output that ψ
is meant to explain. His problem is with the first person. The functionalist I
does not need a black box. The here
would be both incorrigibility and privileged access. Pology only explains their
evolutionary import. Refs.: The main source is his BA lecture on ‘uncertainty,’
but using the keyword ‘certainty’ is useful too. His essay on Descartes in WoW
is important, and sources elsehere in the Grice Papers, such as the predecessor
to the “Uncertainty” lecture in “Disposition and intention,” also his
discussion of avowal (vide references above), incorrigibility and privileged
access in “Method,” repr. in “Conception,” BANC
universalium: Grice holds a set-theoretical approach to the
universalium. Grice is willing to provide always a set-theoretical
extensionalist (in terms of predicate) and an intensionalist variant in terms
of property and category. Grice explicitly uses ‘X’ for utterance-type
(WOW:118), implying a distinction with the utterance-token. Grice gets engaged
in a metabolical debate concerning the reductive analysis of what an
utterance-type means in terms of a claim to the effect that, by uttering
x, an utterance-token of utterance-type X, the utterer means that p. The
implicature is x (utterance-token). Grice is not enamoured with the type/token
or token/type distinction. His thoughts on logical form are provocative. f
you cannot put it in logical form, it is not worth saying. Strawson
infamously reacted with a smile. Oh, no: if you CAN put it in logical form, it
is not worth saying. Grice refers to the type-token distinction when he uses x
for token and X for type. Since Bennett cares to call Grice a
meaning-nominalist we should not care about the type X anyway. He expands on
this in Retrospective Epilogue. Grice should have payed more attention to the
distinction seeing that it was Ogdenian. A common mode of estimating the
amount of matter in a printed book is to count the number of words. There will
ordinarily be about twenty thes on a page, and, of course, they count as twenty
words. In another use of the word word, however, there is but one word the in
the English language; and it is impossible that this word should lie visibly on
a page, or be heard in any voice. Such a Form, Peirce, as cited by Ogden and
Richards, proposes to term a type. A single object such as this or that word on
a single line of a single page of a single copy of a book, Peirce ventures to
call a token. In order that a type may be used, it has to be embodied in a
token which shall be a sign of the type, and thereby of the object the type
signifies, and Grice followed suit. Refs.: Some of the sources are given under
‘abstractum.’ Also under ‘grecianism,’ since Grice was keen on exploring what
Aristotle has to say about this in Categoriae, due to his joint research with Austin,
Code, Friedman, and Strawson. Grice also has a specific Peirceian essay on the
type-token distinction. BANC.
Urmson’s
bribe. It seems few Oxonian philosohpers
of Grice’s playgroup had his analytic acumen. Consider his sophisticated
account of ‘meaning.’ It’s different if you are a graduate student from the New
World, and you have to prove yourself intelligent. But for Grice’s playgroup
companion, only three or four joined in the analysis. The first is Urmson. The
second is Strawson. The case by Urmson involved a tutee offering to buy
Gardiner an expensive dinner, hoping that Gardiner will give him
permission for an over-night visit to London. Gardiner knows that his
tutee wants his permission. The appropriate analysans for "By offering to
buy Gardiner an expensive dinner, the tuttee means that Gardiner should give
him permission for an overnight stay in London" are fulfilled: (1) The
tutee offers to buy Gardiner an expensive dinner with the intention of
producing a certain response on the part of Gardiner (2) The tutee intends that
Gardiner should recognize (know, think) that the tutee is offering to buy him
an expensive dinner with the intention of producing this response; (3) The
tutee intends that Gardiners recognition (thought) that the tutee has the
intention mentioned in (2) should be at least part of Gardiners reason for
producing the response mentioned. If in general to specify in (i) the nature of
an intended response is to specify what was meant, it should be correct not
only to say that by offering to buy Gardiner an expensive dinner, the tutee
means that Gardiner is to give him permission for an overnight stay in London,
but also to say that he meas that Gardiner should (is to) give him permission
for an over-night visit to London. But in fact one would not wish to say either
of these things; only that the tutee meant Gardiner to give him permission. A
restriction seems to be required, and one which might serve to eliminate this
range of counterexamples can be identified from a comparison of two scenarios.
Grice goes into a tobacconists shop, ask for a packet of my favorite
cigarettes, and when the unusually suspicious tobacconist shows that he wants
to see the color of my money before he hands over the goods, I put down the
price of the cigarettes on the counter. Here nothing has been meant.
Alternatively, Grice goes to his regular tobacconist (from whom I also purchase
other goods) for a packet of my regular brand of Players Navy Cuts, the price
of which is distinctive, say 43p. Grice says nothing, but puts down 43p. The
tobacconist recognizes my need, and hands over the packet. Here, I think, by
putting down 43p I meant something-Namesly, that I wanted a packet of Players
Navy Cuts. I have at the same time provided an inducement. The distinguishing
feature of the second example seems to be that here the tobacconist recognized,
and was intended to recognize, what he was intended to do from my
"utterance" (my putting down the money), whereas in the first example
this was not the case. Nor is it the case with respect to Urmson’s case of the
tutees attempt to bribe Gardiner. So one might propose that the analysis of
meaning be amended accordingly. U means something by uttering x is true if: (i)
U intends, by uttering x, to induce a certain response in A (2) U intends A to
recognize, at least in part from the utterance of x, that U intends to produce
that response (3) U intends the fulfillment of the intention mentioned in (2)
to be at least in part As reason for fulfilling the intention mentioned in (i).
This copes with Urmsons counterexample to Grices proposal in the Oxford
Philosophical Society talk involving the tutee attempting to bribe Gardiner.
utilitarianism: ultimately, Grice’s meta-ethics, like Hare’s,
Nowell-Smith’s, Austin’s, Hampshire’s, and Warnock’s derives into a qualified
utilitarianism, with notions of agreeableness and eudaemonia being crucial. Grice
well knows that for Aristotle pleasure is just one out of the three sources for
phulia; the others being profit, and virtue. As an English utilitarian, or
English futilitarian, Grice plays with Griceian pleasures. Democritus, as
Grice remarks, seems to be the earliest philosopher to have categorically embraced
a hedonistic philosophy. Democritus claims that the supreme goal of life is
contentment or cheerfulness, stating that joy and sorrow are the distinguishing
mark of things beneficial and harmful. The Cyrenaics are an ultra-hedonist
Grecoam school of philosophy founded by Aristippus. Many of the principles of
the school were set by his grandson, Aristippus the Younger, and Theodorus. The
Cyrenaic school is one of the earliest Socratic schools. The Cyrenaics teach
that the only intrinsic ‘agathon’ is pleasure ‘hedone,’ which means not just
the absence of pain, but a positively enjoyable momentary sensation. A physical
pleasure is stronger than a pleasure of anticipation or memory. The Cyrenaics
do, however, recognize the value of social obligation, and that pleasure may be
gained from altruism. The Cyrenaic school dies out within a century, and is
replaced by Epicureanism. The Cyrenaics are known for their sceptical
epistemology. The Cyrenaics reduce logic to a basic doctrine concerning the
criterion of truth. The Cyrenaics think that one can only know with certainty
his immediate sense-experience, e. g., that he is having a sweet sensation. But
one can know nothing about the nature of the object that causes this sensation,
e.g., that honey is sweet. The Cyrenaics also deny that we can have knowledge
of what the experience of others are like. All knowledge is immediate
sensation. Sensation is a motion which is purely subjective, and is painful,
indifferent or pleasant, according as it is violent, tranquil or gentle.
Further, sensation is entirely individual and can in no way be described as
constituting absolute objective knowledge. Feeling, therefore, is the only
possible criterion of knowledge and of conduct. The way of being affected is alone
knowable. Thus the sole aim for everyone should be pleasure. Cyrenaicism
deduces a single, universal aim for all which is pleasure. Furthermore, feeling
is momentary and homogeneous. It follows that past and future pleasure have no
real existence for us, and that in present pleasure there is no distinction of
kind. Socrates speaks of the higher pleasure of the intellect. The Cyrenaics
denies the validity of this distinction and say that bodily pleasure (hedone
somatike), being more simple and more intense, is preferable. Momentary
pleasure, preferably of a physical kind, is the only good for a human. However,
an action which gives immediate pleasure can create more than their equivalent
of pain. The wise person should be in control (egcrateia) of pleasure rather
than be enslaved to it, otherwise pain results, and this requires judgement to
evaluate this or that pleasure of life. Regard should be paid to law and
custom, because even though neither law nor custom have an intrinsic value on
its own, violating law or custom leads to an unpleasant penalty being imposed
by others. Likewise, friendship and justice are useful because of the pleasure
they provide. Thus the Cyrenaics believe in the hedonistic value of social
obligation and altruistic behaviour. Epicureanism is a system of
philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus, an atomic materialist,
following in the steps of Democritus and Leucippus. Epicurus’s materialism
leads him to a general stance against superstition or the idea of divine intervention.
Following Aristippus, Epicurus believes that the greatest good is to seek
modest, sustainable pleasure in the form of a state of tranquility and freedom
from fear (ataraxia) and absence of bodily pain (aponia) through knowledge of
the workings of the world and the limits of desire. The combination of these
two states, ataraxia and aponia, is supposed to constitute happiness in its
highest form. Although Epicureanism is a form of hedonism, insofar as it
declares pleasure as the sole intrinsic good, its conception of absence of pain
as the greatest pleasure and its advocacy of a simple life make it different
from hedonism as it is commonly understood. In the Epicurean view, the highest
pleasure (tranquility and freedom from fear) is obtained by knowledge,
friendship and living a virtuous and temperate life. Epicurus lauds the
enjoyment of a simple pleasure, by which he means abstaining from the bodily
desire, such as sex and the appetite, verging on asceticism. Epicurus argues
that when eating, one should not eat too richly, for it could lead to
dissatisfaction later, such as the grim realization that one could not afford such
delicacies in the future. Likewise, sex could lead to increased lust and
dissatisfaction with the sexual partner. Epicurus does not articulate a broad
system of social ethics that has survived but had a unique version of the
golden rule. It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living
wisely and well and justly, agreeing neither to harm nor be harmed, and it is
impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life.
Epicureanism is originally a challenge to Platonism, though later it became the
main opponent of Stoicism. Epicurus and his followers shun politics. After the
death of Epicurus, his school is headed by Hermarchus. Later many Epicurean
societies flourish in the Late Hellenistic era and during the Roman era, such
as those in Antiochia, Alexandria, Rhodes and Ercolano. The poet Lucretius is
its most known Roman proponent. By the end of the Roman Empire, having
undergone attack and repression, Epicureanism has all but died out, and would
be resurrected in the seventeenth century by the atomist Pierre Gassendi. Some
writings by Epicurus have survived. Some scholars consider the epic poem “De
natura rerum” by Lucretius to present in one unified work the core arguments
and theories of Epicureanism. Many of the papyrus scrolls unearthed at the
Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum are Epicurean texts. At least some are
thought to have belonged to the Epicurean Philodemus. Cf. Barnes on
epicures and connoiseurs. Many a controversy arising out of this or that value
judgement is settled by saying, ‘I like it and you don’t, and that s the end of
the matter.’ I am content to adopt this solution of the difficulty on matters such
as food and drink. Even here, though, we admit the existence of epicures and
connoisseurs.Why are we not content to accept the same solution on every matter
where value is concerned? The reason I am not so content lies in the fact that
the action of one man dictated by his approval of something is frequently
incompatible with the action of another man dictated by his approval of
something. This is obviously philosophical, especially for the Grecian
hedonistic Epicureians made popular by Marius and Walter Pater at Oxford. L and
S have "ἡδονή,” also “ἁδονά,” or in a chorus in tragedy, “ἡδονά,”
ultimately from "ἥδομαι,” which they render it as “enjoyment, pleasure,”
“prop. of sensual pleasure.” αἱ τοῦ σώματος or περὶ τὸ σῶμα ἡ.; αἱ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα
ἡ. Plato, Republic, 328d; σωματικαὶ ἡ. Arist. Eth. Nich. 1151a13; αἱ περὶ πότους
καὶ περὶ ἐδωδὰς ἡ. Plato, Republic, 389e; but also ἀκοῆς ἡ; ἡ ἀπὸ τοῦ εἰδέναι
ἡ. Pl. R. 582b; of malicious pleasure, ἡ ἐπὶ τοῖς τῶν φίλων κακοῖς, ἐπὶ ταῖς
λοιδορίαις ἡ.; ἡδονῇ ἡσσᾶσθαι, ἡδοναῖς χαρίζεσθαι, to give way to pleasure; Pl.
Lg. 727c; κότερα ἀληθείη χρήσομαι ἢ ἡδονῆ; shall I speak truly or so as to
humour you? εἰ ὑμῖν ἡδονὴ τοῦ ἡγεμονεύειν; ἡ. εἰσέρχεταί τιϝι εἰ, “one feels
pleasure at the thought that …” ; ἡδονὴν ἔχειν τινός to be satisfied with; ἡδονὴν
ἔχει, φέρει; ἡδονὴ ἰδέσθαι (θαῦμα ἰδέσθαι), of a temple; δαίμοσιν πρὸς
ἡδονήν; ὃ μέν ἐστι πρὸς ἡ.; πρὸς ἡ.
Λέγειν, “to speak so as to please another”; δημηγορεῖν; οὐ πρὸς ἡ. οἱ ἦν τὰ
ἀγγελλόμενα; πάντα πρὸς ἡ. ἀκούοντας; later πρὸς ἡδονῆς εἶναί τινι; καθ᾽ ἡδονὴν
κλύειν; καθ᾽ ἡδονήν ἐστί μοι; καθ᾽ ἡ. τι δρᾶν, ποιεῖν; καθ᾽ ἡδονὰς τῷ δήμῳ τὰ
πράγματα ἐνδιδόναι; ἐν ἡδονῇ ἐστί τινι, it is a pleasure or delight to another;
ἐν ἡδονῇ ἔχειν τινάς, to take pleasure in them; ἐν ἡδονῇ ἄρχοντες, oοἱ λυπηροί;
μεθ᾽ ἡδονῆς; ὑφ᾽ ἡδονῆς; ὑπὸ τῆς ἡ; ἡδονᾷ with pleasure; a pleasure; ἡδοναὶ
τραγημάτων sweetmeats; plural., desires after pleasure, pleasant lusts. In
Ionic philosophers, taste, flavour, usually joined with χροιή. Note that
Aristotle uses somatike hedone. As a Lit. Hum. Oxon., and especially as a
tutee of Hardie at Corpus, Grice is almost too well aware of the centrality of
hedone in Aristotles system. Pleasure is sometimes rendered “placitum,” as in “ad
placitum,” in scholastic philosophy, but that is because scholastic philosophy
is not as Hellenic as it should be. Actually, Grice prefers “agreeable.” One of
Grices requisites for an ascription of eudaemonia (to have a fairy godmother)
precisely has the system of ends an agent chooses to realise to be an agreeable
one. One form or mode of agreeableness, Grice notes, is, unless counteracted,
automatically attached to the attainment of an object of desire, such
attainment being routinely a source of satisfaction. The generation of such a
satisfaction thus provides an independent ground for preferring one system of
ends to another. However, some other mode of agreeableness, such as e. g. being
a source of delight, which is not routinely associated with the fulfilment of this
or that desire, could discriminate, independently of other features relevant to
such a preference, between one system of ends and another. Further, a system of
ends the operation of which is especially agreeable is stable not only
vis-à-vis a rival system, but also against the somewhat weakening effect of ‘egcrateia,’
incontinence, or akrasia, if you mustn’t. A disturbing influence, as Aristotle
knows from experience, is more surely met by a principle in consort with a
supporting attraction than by the principle alone. Grices favourite hedonistic
implicatum was “please,” as in “please, please me,” by The Beatles. While Grice claims to love Kantotle, he cannot hide
his greater reverence for Aristotle, instilled early on at Corpus. An Oxonian
need not recite Kant in what during the Second World War was referred to as the
Hun, and while Aristotle was a no-no at Clifton (koine!), Hardie makes Grice
love him. With eudaemonia, Grice finds a perfect synthetic futilitarian concept
to balance his innate analytic tendencies. There is Grecian eudaemonism and there
is Griceian eudaemonism. L and S are not too helpful. They have “εὐδαιμονία”
(Ion. –ιη), which they render not as happiness, but as “prosperity, good
fortune, opulence;” “χρημάτων προσόδῳ καὶ τῇ ἄλλῃ εὐ.;” of countries; “μοῖρ᾽
εὐδαιμονίας.” In a second use, the expression is indeed rendered as “true,
full happiness;” “εὐ. οὐκ ἐν βοσκήμασιν οἰκεῖ οὐδ᾽ ἐν χρυσῷ; εὐ. ψυχῆς,
oκακοδαιμονίη, cf. Pl. Def. 412d, Arist. EN 1095a18, sometimes personified as a
divinity. There is eudaemonia and there is kakodaemonia. Of course, Grice’s
locus classicus is EN 1095a18, which is Grice’s fairy godmother, almost. Cf.
Austin on agathon and eudaimonia in Aristotle’s ethics, unearthed by Urmson and
Warnock, a response to an essay by Prichard in “Philosophy” on the meaning of
agathon in Aristotle’s ethics. Pritchard argues that Aristotle regards “agathon”
to mean conducive to “eudaemonia,” and, consequently, that Aristotle maintains
that every deliberate action stems, ultimately, from the desire for eudaemonia.
Austin finds fault with this. First, agathon in Aristotle does not have a
single usage, and a fortiori not the one Pritchard suggests. Second, if one has
to summarise the usage of “agathon” in one phrase, “being desired” cannot
fulfil this function, for there are other objects of desire besides “τό
άγαθόν,” even if Davidson would disagree. Prichard endeavours to specify what
Aristotle means by αγαθον. In some contexts, “agathon” seems to mean simply that
being desired or an ultimate or non‐ultimate end or aim of a person. In other
contexts, “αγαθον” takes on a normative quality. For his statements to have
content, argues Prichard, Aristotle must hold that when we pursue something of
a certain kind, such as an honour, we pursue it as “a good.” Prichard argues
that by "αγαθον" Aristotle actually means, except in the Nicomachean
Ethics, conducive to eudaemonia, and holds that when a man acts deliberately,
he does it from a desire to attain eudaemonia. Prichard attributes this
position to Plato as well, despite the fact that both thinkers make statements
inconsistent with this view of man’s ultimate aim. Grice takes life seriously:
philosophical biology. He even writes an essay entitled “Philosophy of life,”
listed is in PGRICE. Grice bases his thought on his tutee Ackrill’s Dawes Hicks
essay for the BA, who quotes extensively from Hardie. Grice also reviews that “serious
student of Greek philosophy,” Austin, in his response to Prichard, Grice’s
fairy godmother. Much the most plausible conjecture regarding what Grecian
eudaimonia means is that eudaemonia is to be understood as the name for that
state or condition which one’s good dæmon would, if he could, ensure for one.
One’s good dæmon is a being motivated, with respect to one, solely by concern
for one’s eudaemonia, well-being or happiness. To change the idiom, eudæmonia
is the general characterisation of what a full-time and unhampered fairy
godmother would secure for one. Grice is concerned with the specific system of
ends that eudaemonia consists for Ariskant. Grice borrows, but never returns,
some reflections by his fomer tuttee at St. Johns, Ackrill. Ackrills point is
about the etymological basis for eudaemonia, from eudaemon, the good dæmon, as
Grice prefers. Grice thinks the metaphor should be disimplicated, and taken literally.
Grice concludes with a set of ends that justify our ascription of eudaemonia to
the agent. For Grice, as for Kantotle, telos and eudaemonia are related in
subtle ways. For eudaemonia we cannot deal with just one end, but a system of
ends, although such a system may be a singleton. Grice specifies a subtle way
of characterising end so that a particular ascription of an end may entail an
ascription of eudaemonia. Grice follows the textual criticism of his tutee Ackrill,
in connection with the Socratic point that eudaemonia is literally related to
the eudaemon. In PGRICE Warner explores Grice’s concept of eudaemonia. Warner
is especially helpful with the third difficult Carus lecture by Grice, a
metaphysical defence of absolute value. Warner connects with Grice in such
topics as the philosophy of perception seen in an evolutionary light and the
Kantotelian idea of eudaemonia. In response to Warner’s overview of the oeuvre of
Grice for the festschrift that Warner co-edited with Grandy, Grice refers to
the editors collectively as Richards. While he feels he has to use “happiness,”
Grice is always having Aristotle’s eudaemonia in mind. The implicatum of Smith
is ‘happy’ is more complex than Kantotle thinks. Austen knew. For Emma, you decide
if youre happy. Ultimately, for Grice, the rational life is the happy life. Grice
took life seriously: philosophical biology! Grice is clear when reprinting the
Descartes essay in WOW, where he does quote from Descartes sources quite a bit,
even if he implicates he is no Cartesian scholar – what Oxonian would? It
concerns certainty. And certainty is originally Cantabrigian (Moore), but also
Oxonian, in parts. Ayer says that to know is to assure that one is certain or
sure. So he could connect. Grice will at various stages of his development play
and explore this authoritative voice of introspection: incorrigibility and
privileged access. He surely wants to say that a declaration of an intention is
authoritative. And Grice plays with meaning, too when provoking Malcolm in a
don recollection: Grice: I want you to bring me a paper tomorrow. Strawson: You
mean a newspaper? Grice: No, a philosophical essay. Strawson: How do you know?
Are you certain you mean that? Grice finds not being certain about what one
means Strawsonian and otiose. Tutees. Grice loved to place himself in the role
of the philosophical hack, dealing with his tutees inabilities, a whole week
long – until he could find refreshment in para-philosophy on the Saturday
morning. Now, the logical form of certain is a trick. Grice would symbolize it
as numbering of operators. If G ψs p, G ψs ψs p, and G ψs ψs ψs p, and so ad infinitum. This is a bit like certainty. But
not quite! When he explores trust, Grice considers something like a backing for
it. But does conclusive evidence yield certainty? He doesnt think so.
Certainty, for Grice should apply to any psychological attitude, state or
stance. And it is just clever of him that when he had to deliver his BA lecture
he chooses ‘intention and uncertainty’ as its topic, just to provoke. Not surprisingly,
the “Uncertainty” piece opens with the sceptics challenge. And he will not
conclude that the intender is certain. Only that theres some good chance (p ˃0.5)
that what he intends will get through! When there is a will, there is a way, when
there is a neo-Prichardian will-ing, there is a palæo-Griceian way-ing! Perhaps
by know Moore means certain. Grice was amused by the fact that Moore thought that
he knew that behind the curtains at the lecture hall at the University of
Wisconsin at Madison, there was a window, when there wasnt. He uses Moores
misuse of know – according to Malcolm – both in Causal theory and Prolegomena.
And of course this relates to the topic of the sceptics implicature, above,
with the two essays Scepticism and Common sense and Moore and Philosophers
Paradoxes repr. partially in WOW. With regard to certainty, it is interesting
to compare it, as Grice does, not so much with privileged access, but with
incorrigibility. Do we not have privileged access to our own beliefs
and desires? And, worse still, may it not be true that at least some of our
avowals of our beliefs and desires are incorrigible? One of Grices
problems is, as he puts it, how to accommodate privileged access and,
maybe, incorrigibility. This or that a second-order state may be, in
some fashion, incorrigible. On the contrary, for Grice, this or that
lower-order, first-order judging is only a matter for privileged
access. Note that while he is happy to allow privileged access to
lower-order souly states, only those who are replicated at a higher-order or
second-order may, in some fashion, be said to count as an incorrigible avowal.
It rains. P judges it rains (privileged access). P judges that P judges that it
rains (incorrigible). The justification is conversational. It rains says the P,
or expresses the P. Grice wants to be able to say that if a P expresses that p,
the P judges2 that p. If the P expresses that it rains, the P
judges that he judges that it rains. In this fashion, his second-order,
higher-order judging is incorrigible, only. Although Grice may allow for it to
be corrected by a third-order judging. It is not required that we should stick
with judging here. Let Smith return the money that he owes to Jones. If P
expresses !p, P ψ-s2 that !p. His second-order, higher-order
buletic state is incorrigible (if ceteris paribus is not corrected by a
third-order buletic or doxastic state). His first-order buletic state is a
matter only of privileged access. For a study of conversation as rational
co-operation this utilitarian revival modifies the standard exegesis of Grice
as purely Kantian, and has him more in agreement with the general Oxonian
meta-ethical scene. Refs.: Under ‘futilitarianism,’ we cover Grice’s views on
‘pleasure’ (he has an essay on “Pleasure,”) and “eudaemonia” (He has an essay
on ‘happiness’); other leads are given under ‘grecianism,’ since this is the Grecian
side to Grice’s Ariskant; for specific essays on ‘pleasure,’ and ‘eudaimonia,’ the
keywords ‘pleasure’ and ‘happiness’ are useful. A good source is the essay on
happiness in “Aspects,” which combines ‘eudaemonia’ and ‘agreebleness,’ his
futilitarianism turned Kantotelian. BANC.
validum: the validum is the correct form out of Roman ‘valeor.’
There’s also the axiologicum: Grice sometimes enjoys sounding pretentious and
uses the definite article ‘the’ indiscriminately, just to tease Flew, his
tutee, who said that talking of ‘the self’ is just ‘rubbish’. It is different
with Grice’s ‘the good’ (to agathon), ‘the rational,’ (to logikon), ‘the
valuable’ (valitum), and ‘the axiological’. Of course, whilesticking with
‘value,’ Grice plays with Grecian “τιμή.” Lewis and Short have ‘vălor,’ f.
‘valeo,’ which they render as ‘value,’ adding that it is supposed to translate
in Gloss. Lab, Grecian ‘τιμή.’ ‘valor, τιμή, Gloss. Lab.’ ‘Valere,’ which of course algo gives English
‘valid,’ that Grice overuses, is said by Lewis and Short to be cognate with
“vis,” “robur,” “fortissimus,” cf. debilis” and they render as “to be strong.”
So one has to be careful here. “Axiology” is a German thing, and not used at
Clifton or Oxford, where they stick with ‘virtus’ or ‘arete.’ This or that
Graeco-Roman philosopher may have explored a generic approach to ‘value.’ Grice
somewhat dismisses Hare who in Language of Morals very clearly distinguishes
between deontic ‘ought’ and teleological, value-judgemental ‘good.’ For ‘good’
may have an aesthetic use: ‘that painting is good,’ the food is good). The
sexist ‘virtus’ of the Romans perhaps did a disservice to Grecian ‘arete,’ but
Grice hardly uses ‘arete,’ himself. It is etymologically unrelated to
‘agathon,’ yet rumour has it that ‘arete,’ qua ‘excellence,’ is ‘aristos,’ the
superlative of ‘agathon.’ Since Aristotle is into the ‘mesotes,’ Grice worries
not. Liddell and Scott have “ἀρετή” and render it simpliciter as “goodness,
excellence, of any kind,” adding that “in Hom. esp. of manly qualities”: “ποδῶν
ἀρετὴν ἀναφαίνων;” “ἀμείνων παντοίας ἀρετὰς ἠμὲν πόδας ἠδὲ μάχεσθαι καὶ νόον;”
so of the gods, “τῶν περ καὶ μείζων ἀ. τιμή τε βίη τε;” also of women, “ἀ. εἵνεκα
for valour,” “ἀ. ἀπεδείκνυντο,” “displayed brave deeds.” But when Liddell and Scott give the
philosophical references (Plathegel and Ariskant), they do render “ἀρετή,” as
‘value,’ generally,
excellence, “ἡ ἀ. τελείωσίς τις” Arist. Met. 1021b20, cf. EN1106a15, etc.; of
persons, “ἄνδρα πὺξ ἀρετὰν εὑρόντα,” “τὸ φρονεῖν ἀ. μεγίστη,” “forms of excellence,
“μυρίαι ἀνδρῶν ἀ.;” “δικαστοῦ αὕτη ἀ.;” esp. moral virtue, opp. “κακία,” good
nature, kindness, etc. We should not be so concerned about this, were not for
the fact that Grice explored Foot, not just on meta-ethics as a ‘suppositional’
imperratives, but on ‘virtue’ and
‘vice,’ by Foot, who had edited a reader in meta-ethics for the series of
Grice’s friend, Warnock. Grice knows that when he hears the
phrases value system, or belief system, he is conversing with a relativist. So
he plays jocular here. If a value is not a concept, a value system at least is
not what Davidson calls a conceptual scheme. However, in “The conception of
value” (henceforth, “Conception”) Grice does argue that value IS a concept, and
thus part of the conceptual scheme by Quine. Hilary Putnam congratulates Grice
on this in “Fact and value,” crediting Baker – i. e. Judy – into the bargain.
While utilitarianism, as exemplified by Bentham, denies that a moral intuition
need be taken literally, Bentham assumes the axiological conceptual scheme of
hedonistic eudaemonism, with eudaemonia as the maximal value (summum bonum)
understood as hedone. The idea of
a system of values (cf. system of ends) is meant to unify the goals of the
agent in terms of the pursuit of eudæmonia. Grice wants to disgress from
naturalism, and the distinction between a
description and anything else. Consider the use of ‘rational’ as applied to
‘value.’ A naturalist holds that ‘rational’ can be legitimately apply to the
‘doxastic’ realm, not to the ‘buletic’ realm. A desire (or a ‘value’) a
naturalist would say is not something of which ‘rational’ is predicable.
Suppose, Grice says, I meet a philosopher who is in the habit of pushing pins
into other philosophers. Grice asks the philosopher why he does this. The
philosopher says that it gives him pleasure. Grice asks him whether it is the
fact that he causes pain that gives him pleasure. The philosopher replies that
he does not mind whether he causes pain. What gives him pleasure is the
physical sensation of driving a pin into a philosopher’s body. Grice asks him
whether he is aware that his actions cause pain. The philosopher says that he
is. Grice asks him whether he would not feel pain if others did this to him.
The philosopher agrees that he would. I ask him whether he would allow this to
happen. He says that he guesses he would seek to prevent it. Grice asks him
whether he does not think that others must feel pain when he drives pins into
them, and whether he should not do to others what he would try to prevent them
from doing to him. The philosopher says that pins driven into him cause him
pain and he wishes to prevent this. Pins driven by him into others do not cause
him pain, but pleasure, and he therefore wishes to do it. Grice asks him
whether the fact that he causes pain to other philosophers does not seem to him
to be relevant to the issue of whether it is rationally undesirable to drive
pins into people. He says that he does not see what possible difference can
pain caused to others, or the absence of it, make to the desirability of
deriving pleasure in the way that he does. Grice asks him what it is that gives him
pleasure in this particular activity. The philosopher replies that he likes
driving pins into a philosopher’s resilient body. Grice asks whether he would
derive equal pleasure from driving pins into a tennis ball. The philosopher
says that he would derive equal pleasure, that into what he drives his pins, a
philosopher or a tennis ball, makes no difference to him – the pleasure is
similar, and he is quite prepared to have a tennis ball substituted, but what
possible difference can it make whether his pins perforate living men or tennis
balls? At this point, Grice begins to suspect that the philosopher is evil.
Grice does not feel like agreeing with a naturalist, who reasons that the
pin-pushing philosopher is a philosopher with a very different scale of moral
values from Grice, that a value not being susceptible to argument, Grice may
disagree but not reason with the pin-pushing philosopher. Grice rather sees the
pin-pushing philosopher beyond the reach of communication from the world
occupied by him. Communication is as unattainable as it is with a philosopher
who that he is a doorknob, as in the story by Hoffman. A value enters into the
essence of what constitutes a person. The pursuit of a rational end is part of
the essence of a person. Grice does not claim any originality for his position
(which much to Ariskant), only validity. The implicatum by Grice is that
rationalism and axiology are incompatible, and he wants to cancel that. So the
keyword here is rationalistic axiology, in the neo-Kantian continental vein,
with a vengeance. Grice arrives at value (validitum, optimum, deeming) via
Peirce on meaning. And then there is the truth “value,” a German
loan-translation (as value judgment, Werturteil). The sorry story of deontic
logic, Grice says, faces Jørgensens dilemma. The dilemma by
Jørgensens is best seen as a trilemma, Grice says; viz. Reasoning requires that
premise and conclusion have what Boole, Peirce, and Frege call a “truth” value.
An imperative dos not have a “truth” value. There may be a reasoning with an
imperative as premise or conclusion. A philosopher can reject the first horn and
provide an inference mechanism on elements – the input of the premise and the
output of the conclusion -- which are not presupposed to have a “truth” value.
A philosopher can reject the second horn and restrict ‘satisfactory’ value to a
doxastic embedding a buletic (“He judges he wills…”). A philosopher can reject
the third horn, and refuse to explore the desideratum. Grice generalizes over
value as the mode-neutral ‘satisfactory.’ Both ‘p’ and “!p” may be
satisfactory. ‘.p’ has doxastic value (0/1); ‘!p’ has buletic value (0/1). The mode marker of the utterance
guides the addresse you as to how to read ‘satisfactory.’ Grice’s
‘satisfactory’ is a variation on a theme by Hofstadter and McKinsey, who
elaborate a syntax for the imperative mode, using satisfaction. They refer to
what they call the ‘satisfaction-function’ of a fiat. A fiat is ‘satisfied’ (as
The door is closed may also be said to be satisfied iff the door is closed) iff
what is commanded is the case. The fiat ‘Let the door be closed’ is satisfied
if the door is closed. An unary or dyadic operator becomes a
satisfaction-functor. As Grice puts it,
an inferential rule, which flat rationality is the capacity to apply,
is not arbitrary. The inferential rule picks out a transition of
acceptance in which transmission of ‘satisfactory’ is guaranteed or expected.
As Grice notes, since mode marker indicate the species ‘satisfactory’ does. He imports into the object-language ‘It is satisfactory-d/p
that’ just in case psi-d/b-p is satisfactory. Alla Tarski, Grice
introduces ‘It is acceptable that’: It is acceptable that psi-d/b-p is
satisfactory-b/d just in case ‘psi-d/b-p is satisfactory-d/b’ is
satisfactory-b/d. Grice goes on to provide a generic
value-assignment for satisfactoriness-functors. For coordinators: “φ Λ ψ” is 1-b/d just in case φ is
1-b/d and ψ is 1-b/d. “φ ν ψ” is 1-b/d just in
case one of the pair, φ and ψ, is 1-b/d. For subordinator: “φ⊃ψ” is 1-b/d just in case either
φ is 0-b/d or ψ is 0-b/d. There are, however, a number of points to
be made. It is not fully clear to Grice just how strong the motivation is for
assigning a value to a mode-neutral, generic functor. Also he is assuming
symmetry, leaving room for a functor is introduced if a restriction is imposed.
Consider a bi-modal utterance. “The beast is filthy and do not touch it” and
“The beast is filthy and I shall not touch it” seem all right. The commutated
“Do not touch the beast and it is filthy” is dubious. “Touch the beast and it
will bite you,” while idiomatic is hardly an imperative, since ‘and’ is hardly
a conjunction. “Smith is taking a bath or leave the bath-room door open” is
intelligible. The commutated “Leave the bath-room door open or Smith is taking
a bath” is less so. In a bi-modal utterance, Grice makes a case for the buletic
to be dominant over the doxastic. The crunch comes, however, with one of the
four possible unary satisfactoriness-functors, especially with regard to the
equivalence of “~psi-b/d-p” and
“psi-b/d-~p). Consider “Let it be that I now put my hand on my head” or “Let it be that my bicycle faces north” in which
neither seems to be either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. And it is a trick to
assign a satisfactory value to “~psi-b/d-p” and “~psi-b/d~p.” Do we proscribe
this or that form altogether, for every cases? But that would seem to be a
pity, since ~!~p seems to be quite promising as a representation for you may
(permissive) do alpha that satisfies p; i.e., the utterer explicitly conveys
his refusal to prohibit his addressee A doing alpha. Do we disallow embedding
of (or iterating) this or that form? But that (again if we use ~!p and
~!~p to represent may) seems too restrictive. Again, if !p is neither
buletically satisfactory nor buletically unsatisfactory (U could care less) do
we assign a value other than 1 or 0 to !p (desideratively neuter, 0.5). Or do
we say, echoing Quine, that we have a buletically satisfactoriness value gap?
These and other such problems would require careful consideration. Yet Grice
cannot see that those problems would prove insoluble, any more than this or
that analogous problem connected with Strawsons presupposition (Dont arrest the
intruder!) are insoluble. In Strawsons case, the difficulty is not so much to
find a solution as to select the best solution from those which present
themselves. Grice takes up the topic of a calculus in connection with the
introduction rule and the elimination rule of a modal such as must. We
might hope to find, for each member of a certain family of modalities, an
introduction rule and an elimination rule which would be analogous to the rules
available for classical logical constants. Suggestions are not hard to come by.
Let us suppose that we are seeking to provide such a pair of rules for the
particular modality of necessity □. For (□,+) Grice considers the following (Grice thinks equivalent)
forms: if φ is demonstrable, □φ is
demonstrable. Provided φ is dependent on no assumptions, derive φ from □φ. For (□,-), Grice considers From □φ derive φ. It is
to be understood, of course, that the values of the syntactical variable φ
would contain either a buletic or a doxastic mode markers. Both !p and .p would
be proper substitutes for φ but p would not. Grice wonders: [W]hat should be
said of Takeuti’s conjecture (roughly) that the nature of the introduction rule
determines the character of the elimination rule? There seems to be no
particular problem about allowing an introduction rule which tells us that, if
it is established in P’s personalised system that φ, it is necessary, with
respect to P, that φ is doxastically satisfactory/establishable. The
accompanying elimination rule is, however, slightly less promising. If we
suppose such a rule to tell us that, if one is committed to the idea that it is
necessary, with respect to P, that φ, one is also committed to whatever is
expressed by φ, we shall be in trouble. For such a rule is not acceptable. φ
will be a buletic expression such as Let it be that Smith eats his hat. And my
commitment to the idea that Smiths system requires him to eat his hat does not
ipso facto involve me in accepting volitively Let Smith eat his hat. But if we
take the elimination rule rather as telling us that, if it is necessary, with
respect to X, that let X eat his hat, then let X eat his hat possesses
satisfactoriness-with-respect-to-X, the situation is easier. For this
person-relativised version of the rule seems inoffensive, even for Takeuti, we
hope. Grice, following Mackie, uses absolutism, as opposed to relativism, which denies the
rational basis to attitude ascriptions (but cf. Hare on Subjectsivism). Grice
is concerned with the absence of a thorough discussion of value by English
philosophers, other than Hare (and he is only responding to Mackie!).
Continental philosophers, by comparison, have a special discipline, axiology,
for it! Similarly, a continental-oriented tradition Grice finds in The New
World in philosophers of a pragmatist bent, such as Carus. Grice wants to
say that rationality is a value, because it is a faculty that a creature
(human) displays to adapt and survive to his changing environments. The
implicature of the title is that values have been considered in the English
philosophical tradition, almost alla Nietzsche, to belong to the realm
irrational. Grice grants that axiological implicatum rests on a PRE-rational
propension. While Grice could play with “the
good” in the New World, as a Lit. Hum. he knew he had to be slightly more
serious. The good is one of the values, but what is valuing? Would the New
Worlders understand valuing unattached to the pragmatism that defines them?
Grice starts by invoking Hume on his bright side: the concept of value, versus
the conception of value. Or rather, how the concept of value derives from the
conception of value. A distinction that would even please Aquinas (conceptum/conceptio),
and the Humeian routine. Some background for his third Carus lecture. He tries
to find out what Mackie means when he says that a value is ultimately
Subjectsive. What about inter-Subjectsive, and constructively objective? Grice
constructs absolute value out of relative value. But once a rational pirot P
(henceforth, P – Grice liked how it sounded like Locke’s parrot) constructs
value, the P assigns absolute status to rationality qua value. The P cannot
then choose not to be rational at the risk of ceasing to exist (qua person, or
essentially rationally human agent). A human, as opposed to a person, assigns
relative value to his rationality. A human is accidentally rational. A person
is necessarily so. A distinction seldom made by Aristotle and some of his
dumbest followers obsessed with the modal-free adage, Homo rationale
animal. Short and Lewis have “hūmānus” (old form: hemona humana et hemonem
hominem dicebant, Paul. ex Fest. p. 100 Müll.; cf. homo I.init.), adj., f.
“homo,” and which they render as “of or belonging to man, human.” Grice also
considers the etymology of ‘person.’ Lewis and Short have ‘persōna,’ according to Gabius Bassus ap. Gell. 5, 7, 1
sq., f. ‘persŏno,’ “to sound through, with the second syllable lengthened.’
Falsa est (finitio), si dicas, Equus est animal rationale: nam est equus
animal, sed irrationale, Quint.7,3,24:homo est animal rationale; “nec si mutis
finis voluptas, rationalibus quoque: quin immo ex contrario, quia mutis, ideo
non rationalibus;” “a rationali ad rationale;” “τὸ λογικόν ζῷον,”
ChrysiStoic.3.95; ἀρεταὶ λ., = διανοητικαί, oἠθικαί, Arist. EN1108b9; “λογικός,
ή, όν, (λόγος), ζῶον λόγον ἔχον NE, 1098a3-5. λόγον δὲ μόνον ἄνθρωπος ἔχει τῶν
ζῴων, man alone of all animals possesses speech, from the Politics. Grice takes
the stratification of values by Hartmann much more seriously than Barnes. Grice
plays with rational motivation. He means it seriously. The motivation is the
psychological bite, but since it is qualified by rational, it corresponds to
the higher more powerful bit of the soul, the rational soul. There are, for
Grice, the Grecians, Kantotle and Plathegel, three souls: the vegetal, the
animal, and the rational. As a matter of history, Grice reaches value (in its
guises of optimum and deeming) via his analysis of meaning by Peirce. Many
notions are value-paradeigmatic. The most important of all philosophical
notions that of rationality, presupposes objective value as one of its
motivations. For Grice, ratio can be understood cognoscendi but also essendi,
indeed volendi and fiendi, too. Rational motivation involves a ratio
cognoscendi and a ratio volendi; objective, “objectum,” and “objectus,” ūs, m.
f. “obicio,” rendered as “a casting before, a putting against, in the way, or
opposite, an opposing; or, neutr., a lying before or opposite (mostly poet. and
in postAug. prose): dare objectum parmaï, the opposing of the shield” “vestis;”
“insula portum efficit objectu laterum,” “by the opposition,” “cum terga
flumine, latera objectu paludis tegerentur;” “molis;” “regiones, quæ Tauri
montis objectu separantur;” “solem interventu lunæ occultari, lunamque terræ
objectu, the interposition,” “eademque terra objectu suo umbram noctemque
efficiat;” “al. objecta soli: hi molium objectus (i. e. moles objectas) scandere,
the projection,” transf., that which presents itself to the sight, an object,
appearance, sight, spectacle;” al. objecto;
and if not categoric. This is analogous to the overuse by Grice of
psychoLOGICAL when he just means souly. It is perhaps his use of
psychological for souly that leads to take any souly concept as a theoretical
concept within a folksy psychoLOGICAL theory. Grice considered the
stratification of values, alla Hartmann, unlike Barnes, who dismissed him in
five minutes. “Some like Philippa Foot, but Hare is MY man,” Grice would say.
“Virtue” ethics was becoming all the fashion, especially around Somerville.
Hare was getting irritated by the worse offender, his Anglo-Welsh tutee,
originally with a degree from the other place, Williams. Enough for Grice to
want to lecture on value, and using Carus as an excuse! Mackie was what
Oxonians called a colonial, and a clever one! In fact, Grice quotes from Hares
contribution to a volume on Mackie. Hares and Mackies backgrounds could not be
more different. Like Grice, Hare was a Lit. Hum., and like Grice, Hare loves
the Grundlegung. But unlike Grice and Barnes, Hare would have nothing to say
about Stevenson. Philosophers in the play group of Grice never took the
critique by Ayer of emotivism seriously. Stevenson is the thing. V. Urmson on
the emotive theory of ethics, tracing it to English philosphers like Ogden,
Barnes, and Duncan-Jones. Barnes was opposing both Prichard (who was the Whites
professor of moral philosophy – and more of an interest than Moore is, seeing
that Prichard is Barness tutor at Corpus) and Hartmann. Ryle would have nothing
to do with Hartmann, but these were the days before Ryle took over Oxford, and
forbade any reference to a continental philosopher, even worse if a “Hun.” Grice
reaches the notion of value through that of meaning. If Peirce is simplistic,
Grice is not. But his ultra-sophisticated analysis ends up being deemed to hold
in this or that utterer. And deeming is valuing, as is optimum. While Grice
rarely used axiology, he should! A set of three lectures, which
are individually identified below. I love Carus! Grice was undecided as to
what his Carus lectures were be on. Grice explores meaning under its value
optimality guise in Meaning revisited. Grice thinks that a value-paradeigmatic
notion allows him to respond in a more apt way to what some critics were
raising as a possible vicious circle in his approach to semantic and
psychological notions. The Carus lectures are then dedicated to the
construction, alla Hume, of a value-paradeigmatic notion in general, and value
itself. Grice starts by quoting Austin, Hare, and Mackie, of
Oxford. The lectures are intended to a general audience, provided it is a
philosophical general audience. Most of the second lecture is a subtle
exploration by Grice of the categorical imperative of Kant, with which he had
struggled in the last Locke lecture in “Aspects,” notably the reduction of the
categorical imperative to this or that counsel of prudence with an implicated
protasis to the effect that the agent is aiming at eudæmonia. The Carus
Lectures are three: on objectivity and value, on relative and absolute value,
and on metaphysics and value. The first lecture, on objectivity and value,
is a review Inventing right and wrong by Mackie, quoting Hare’s
antipathy for a value being ‘objective’. The second lecture, on relative and
absolute value, is an exploration on the categorical imperative, and its
connection with a prior hypothetical or suppositional imperative. The
third lecture, on metaphycis and value, is an eschatological defence of
absolute value. The collective citation should be identified by each lecture
separately. This is a metaphysical defence by Grice of absolute value. The
topic fascinates Grice, and he invents a few routines to cope with it.
Humeian projection rationally reconstructs the intuitive concept being of
value. Category shift allows to put a value such as the disinterestedness
by Smith in grammatical subject position, thus avoiding to answer that the
disinterestedness of Smith is in the next room, since it is not the
spatio-temporal continuan prote ousia that Smith is. But the
most important routine is that of trans-substantatio, or metousiosis. A
human reconstructs as a rational personal being, and alla Kantotle, whatever
he judges is therefore of absolute value. The issue involves for Grice the
introduction of a telos qua aition, causa finalis (final cause), role, or
métier. The final cause of a tiger is to tigerise, the final cause of a
reasoner is to reason, the final cause of a person is to personise. And this
entails absolute value, now metaphysically defended. The justification involves
the ideas of end-setting, unweighed rationality, autonomy, and freedom. In
something like a shopping list that Grice provides for issues on free.
Attention to freedom calls for formidably difficult undertakings including the
search for a justification for the adoption or abandonment of an ultimate end.
The point is to secure that freedom does not dissolve into compulsion or chance.
Grice proposes four items for this shopping list. A first point is that full
action calls for strong freedom. Here one has to be careful that since Grice
abides by what he calls the Modified Occams Razor in the third James lecture on
Some remarks about logic and conversation, he would not like to think of this
two (strong freedom and weak freedom) as being different senses of free. Again,
his calls for is best understood as presupposes. It may connect with, say,
Kanes full-blown examples of decisions in practical settings that call for or
presuppose libertarianism. A second point is that the buletic-doxastic
justification of action has to accomodate for the fact that we need freedom
which is strong. Strong or serious autonomy or freedom ensures that this or
that action is represented as directed to this or that end E which are is not
merely the agents, but which is also freely or autonomously adopted or pursued
by the agent. Grice discusses the case of the gym instructor commanding, Raise
your left arm! The serious point then involves this free adoption or free
pursuit. Note Grices use of this or that personal-identity pronoun: not merely
mine, i.e. not merely the agents, but in privileged-access position. This
connects with what Aristotle says of action as being up to me, and Kant’s idea
of the transcendental ego. An end is the agents in that the agent adopts
it with liberum arbitrium. This or that ground-level desire may be
circumstantial. A weak autonomy or freedom satisfactorily accounts for this or
that action as directed to an end which is mine. However, a strong autonomy or
freedom, and a strong autonomy or freedom only, accounts for this or that
action as directed to an end which is mine, but, unlike, say, some ground-level
circumstantial desire which may have sprung out of some circumstantial
adaptability to a given scenario, is, first, autonomously or freely adopted by
the agent, and, second, autonomously or freely pursued by the agent. The use of
the disjunctive particle or in the above is of some interest. An agent may
autonomously or freely adopt an end, yet not care to pursue it autonomously or
freely, even in this strong connotation that autonomous or free sometimes has.
A further point relates to causal indeterminacy. Any attempt to remedy this situation
by resorting to causal indeterminacy or chance will only infuriate the
scientist without aiding the philosopher. This remark by Grice has to be
understood casually. For, as it can be shown, this or that scientist may well
have resorted to precisely that introduction and in any case have not
self-infuriated. The professional tag that is connoted by philosopher should
also be seen as best implicated than entailed. A scientist who does resort to
the introduction of causal indeterminacy may be eo ipso be putting forward a
serious consideration regarding ethics or meta-ethics. In other words, a
cursory examination of the views of a scientist like Eddington, beloved by
Grice, or this or that moral philosopher like Kane should be born in mind when
considering this third point by Grice. The reference by Grice to chance,
random, and causal indeterminacy, should best be understood vis-à-vis
Aristotles emphasis on tykhe, fatum, to the effect that this or that event may
just happen just by accident, which may well open a can of worms for the naive
Griceian, but surely not the sophisticated one (cf. his remarks on
accidentally, in Prolegomena). A further item in Grices shopping list involves
the idea of autonomous or free as a value, or optimum. The specific character
of what Grice has as strong autonomy or freedom may well turn out to
consist, Grice hopes, in the idea of this or that action as the outcome of a
certain kind of strong valuation ‒ where this would include the
rational selection, as per e.g. rational-decision theory, of this or that
ultimate end. What Grice elsewhere calls out-weighed or extrinsically weighed
rationality, where rational includes the buletic, of the end and not the means
to it. This or that full human action calls for the presence of this or that
reason, which require that this or that full human action for which this or
that reason accounts should be the outcome of a strong rational valuation. Like
a more constructivist approach, this line suggests that this or that action may
require, besides strong autonomy or freedom, now also strong valuation. Grice
sets to consider how to adapt the buletic-doxastic soul progression to reach
these goals. In the case of this or that ultimate end E, justification should
be thought of as lying, directly, at least, in this or that outcome, not on the
actual phenomenal fulfilment of this or that end, but rather of the, perhaps
noumenal, presence qua end. Grice relates to Kants views on the benevolentia or
goodwill and malevolentia, or evil will, or illwill. Considers Smiths action of
giving Jones a job. Smith may be deemed to have given Jones a job, whether or
not Jones actually gets the job. It is Smiths benevolentia, or goodwill, not
his beneficentia, that matters. Hence in Short and Lewis, we have “bĕnĕfĭcentĭa,”
f. “beneficus,” like “magnificentia” f. magnificus, and “munificentia” f. munificus;
Cicero, Off. 1, 7, 20, and which they thus render as “the quality of beneficus,
kindness, beneficence, an honorable and kind treatment of others”
(omaleficentia, Lact. Ira Dei, 1, 1; several times in the philos. writings of
Cicero. Elsewhere rare: quid praestantius bonitate et beneficentiā?”
“beneficentia, quam eandem vel benignitatem vel liberalitatem appellari licet,”
“comitas ac beneficentia,” “uti beneficentiā adversus supplices,”“beneficentia
augebat ornabatque subjectsos.” In a more general fashion then, it is the mere
presence of an end qua end of a given action that provides the justification of
the end, and not its phenomenal satisfaction or fulfilment. Furthermore,
the agents having such and such an end, E1, or such and such a combination of
ends, E1 and E2, would be justified by showing that the agents having this end
exhibits some desirable feature, such as this or that combo being harmonious.
For how can one combine ones desire to smoke with ones desire to lead a healthy
life? Harmony is one of the six requirements by Grice for an application of
happy to the life of Smith. The buletic-doxastic souly ascription is back in
business at a higher level. The suggestion would involve an appeal, in the
justification of this or that end, to this or that higher-order end which would
be realised by having this or that lower, or first-order end of a certain sort.
Such valuation of this or that lower-order end lies within reach of a
buletic-doxastic souly ascription. Grice has an important caveat at this point.
This or that higher-order end involved in the defense would itself stand in
need of justification, and the regress might well turn out to be vicious. One
is reminded of Watson’s requirement for a thing like freedom or personal
identity to overcome this or that alleged counterexample to freewill provided
by H. Frankfurt. It is after the laying of a shopping list, as it were,
and considerations such as those above that Grice concludes his reflection with
a defense of a noumenon, complete with the inner conflict that it brings.
Attention to the idea of autonomous and free leads the philosopher to the need
to resolve if not dissolve the most important unsolved problem of philosophy,
viz. how an agent can be, at the same time, a member of both the phenomenal
world and the noumenal world, or, to settle the internal conflict between one
part of our rational nature, the doxastic, even scientific, part which seems to
call for the universal reign of a deterministic law and the other buletic part
which insists that not merely moral responsibility but every variety of
rational belief demands exemption from just such a reign. In this lecture,
Grice explores freedom and value from a privileged-access incorrigible
perspective rather than the creature construction genitorial justification.
Axiology – v. axiological. Refs.: The main source is The construction of
value, the Carus lectures, Clarendon. But there are scattered essays on value
and valuing in the Grice Papers. H. P. Grice, “Objectivity and value,” s. V, c.
8-f. 18, “The rational motivation for objective value,” s. V, c. 8-f. 19,
“Value,” s. V, c. 9-f. 20; “Value, metaphysics, and teleology,” s. V, c. 9-f.
23, “Values, morals, absolutes, and the metaphysical,” s. V., c. 9-f. 24; “Value sub-systems and the Kantian
problem,” s. V. c. 9-ff. 25-27; “Values and rationalism,” s. V, c. 9-f. 28;
while the Carus are in the second series, in five folders, s. II, c-2, ff.
12-16, the H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
verum: The Old Romans did not have an article. For them it is the
unum, the verum, the bonum, and the pulchrum. They were trying to translate the
very articled Grecian ‘to alethes,’ ‘to agathon,’ and ‘to kallon.’ Grecian
Grice is able to restore the articles. He would use ‘the alethic’ for the
‘verum,’ after von Wright. But occasionally uses the ‘verum’ root. E. g. when
his account of ‘personal identity’ was seen to fail to distinguish between a
‘veridical’ memory and a non-veridical one. If it had not been for Strawson’s
‘ditto’ theory to the ‘verum,’ Grice would not have minded much. Like Austin,
his inclination was for a ‘correspondence’ theory of truth alla Aristotle and
Tarski, applied to the utterance, or ‘expressum.’ So, while we cannot say that
an utterer is TRUE, we can say that he is TRUTHFUL, and trustworthy
(Anglo-Saxon ‘trust,’ being cognate with ‘true,’ and covering both the
credibility and desirability realms. Grice approaches the ‘verum’ in terms of
predicate calculus. So we need at least an utterance of the form, ‘the dog is
shaggy.’ An utterance of ‘The dog is shaggy’ is true iff the denotatum of ‘the
dog’ is a member of the class ‘shaggy.’ So, when it comes to ‘verum,’ Grice
feels like ‘solving’ a problem rather than looking for new ones. He thought
that Strawson’s controversial ‘ditto’ was enough of a problem ‘to get rid of.’
Yog and Zog: Grice, feeling paradoxical, invites us to suppose a
scenario involving ‘if.’ He takes it as a proof that his account of the
conversational implicatum of ‘if’ is, as Strawson did not agree, correct, and
that what an utterer explicitly conveys by ‘if p, q’ is ‘p > q.’ that two chess players, Yog and Zog, play 100
games under the following conditions. Yog is white nine of ten times. There are
no draws. And the results are: Yog, when white, won 80 of 90 games.
Yog, when black, won zero of ten games. This implies that: 8/9
times, if Yog was white, Yog won. 1/2 of the time, if Yog lost, Yog was
black. 9/10 that either Yog wasnt white
or he won. From these statements, it might appear one could make these
deductions by contraposition and conditional disjunction: If Yog was
white, then 1/2 of the time Yog won. 9/10 times, if Yog was white, then he
won. But both propositions are untrue. They contradict the assumption. In
fact, they do not provide enough information to use Bayesian reasoning to reach
those conclusions. That might be clearer if the propositions had instead been
stated differently. When Yog was white, Yog won 8/9 times. No information is
given about when Yog was black. When Yog lost, Yog was black 1/2 the time. No
information is given about when Yog won. (9/10 times, either Yog was black and
won, Yog was black and lost, or Yog was white and won. No information is
provided on how the 9/10 is divided among those three situations. The paradox
by Grice shows that the exact meaning of statements involving conditionals and
probabilities is more complicated than may be obvious on casual examination. Refs.:
Grice’s interest with ‘if’ surely started after he carefully read the section
on ‘if’ and the horseshoe in Strawson’s Introduction to Logical Theory. He was
later to review his attack on Strawson in view of Strawson’s defense in ‘If and
the horseshoe.’ The polemic was pretty much solved as a matter of different
intuitions: what Grice sees as a conversational implicatum, Strawson does see
as an ‘implicatum,’ but a non-defeasible one – what Grice would qualify as
‘conventional.’ Grice leaves room for an implicatum to be nonconversational and
yet nonconventional, but it is not worth trying to fit Strawson’s suggestion in
this slot, since Strawson, unlike Grice, has nothing against a convention.
Grice was motivated to formulate his ‘paradox,’ seeing that Strawson was saying
that the so-called ‘paradoxes’ of ‘entailment’ and ‘implication’ are a
misnomer. “They are not paradoxical; they are false!” Grice has specific essays
on both the paradoxes of entailment and the paradoxes of implication. The H. P.
Grice Papers, BANC MSS 90/135c, The University of California, Berkeley.
No comments:
Post a Comment