Ideatum.
Quite used by Grice. Cf. Conceptum. Sub-perceptual.
Idem
“amicus est tamquam alter idem,” a second self, Identicum.
Grecian ‘tautotes.’ late L. identitās (Martianus
Capella, c425), peculiarly formed from ident(i)-, for L. idem ‘same’ + -tās,
-tātem: see -ty. Various suggestions have been offered as to the
formation. Need was evidently felt of a noun of condition or quality from
idem to express the notion of ‘sameness’, side by side with those of ‘likeness’
and ‘oneness’ expressed by similitās and ūnitās: hence the form of the
suffix. But idem had no combining
stem. Some have thought that ident(i)-
was taken from the L. adv. "identidem" ‘over and over again,
repeatedly’, connexion with which appears to be suggested by Du Cange's
explanation of identitās as ‘quævis actio repetita’. Meyer-Lübke suggests
that in the formation there was present some association between idem and id
ens ‘that being’, whence "identitās" like "entitās."
But assimilation to "entitās" may have been
merely to avoid the solecism of *idemitās or *idemtās. sameness. However originated, "ident(i)-" (either from
adverb "identidem" or an assimilation of "id ens," "id
ens," that being, "id entitas" "that entity") became
the combining stem of idem, and the series ūnitās, ūnicus, ūnificus, ūnificāre,
was paralleled by identitās, identicus, identificus, identificāre: see identic,
identific, identify above.] to OED 3rd:
identity, n. Pronunciation: Brit./ʌɪˈdɛntᵻti/ , U.S. /aɪˈdɛn(t)ədi/
Forms: 15 idemptitie, 15 ydemptyte, 15–16 identitie, 15– identity, 16
idemptity. Etymology: < Middle French
identité, ydemtité, ydemptité, ydentité (French identité) quality or condition
of being the same (a1310; 1756 in sense ‘individuality, personality’, 1801 in
sense ‘distinct impression of a single person or thing presented to or
perceived by others’) and its etymon post-classical Latin identitat-,
identitas quality of being the same (4th cent.), condition or fact that a
person or thing is itself and not something else (8th cent. in a British
source), fact of being the same (from 12th cent. in British sources), continual
sameness, lack of variety, monotony (from 12th cent. in British sources; 14th
cent. in a continental source) < classical Latin idem same (see idem
n.) + -tās (see -ty suffix1) [sameness], after post-classical Latin
essentitas ‘being’ (4th cent.).The Latin word was formed to provide a
translation equivalent for ancient Greek ταὐτότης (tautotes) identity. 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.
Implicatum.
Wht is implicated may not be the result of any maxim, and yet not conventional –
depending on a feature of context. But nothing like a maxim – Strawson Wiggins
p. 523.
incorrigibility: On WoW: 142, Grice refers to the ‘authority’ of the
utterer as a ‘rational being’ to DEEM that an M-intention is an antecedent
condition for his act of meaning. Grice uses ‘privilege’ as synonym for
‘authority’ here. But not in the phrase ‘privileged access.’ His point is not
so much about the TRUTH (which ‘incorrigibility’ suggests), but about the
DEEMING. It is part of the authority or privilege of the utterer as rational to
provide an ACCEPTABLE assignment of an M-intention behind his utterance.
inscriptum
-- inscriptionalism -- nominalism. While Grice pours scorn on the American
School of Latter-Day Nominalists,
nominalism, as used by Grice is possibly a misnomer. He doesn’t mean Occam, and
Occam did not use ‘nominalismus.’ “Terminimus’ at most. So one has to be
careful. The implicature is that the nominalist calls a ‘name’ what others
shouldn’t. Mind, Grice had two
nominalist friends: S. N. Hamphsire (Scepticism and meaning”) and A. M.
Quinton, of the play group! In “Properties and classes,” for the Aristotelian
Society. And the best Oxford philosophical stylist, Bradley, is also a
nominalist. There are other, more specific arguments against universals.
One is that postulating such things leads to a vicious infinite regress. For
suppose there are universals, both monadic and relational, and that when an
entity instantiates a universal, or a group of entities instantiate a
relational universal, they are linked by an instantiation relation. Suppose now
that a instantiates the universal F. Since there
are many things that instantiate many universals, it is plausible to suppose
that instantiation is a relational universal. But if instantiation is a
relational universal, when a instantiates F, a, F and
the instantiation relation are linked by an instantiation relation. Call this
instantiation relation i2 (and suppose it, as is
plausible, to be distinct from the instantiation relation (i1)
that links a and F). Then since i2 is
also a universal, it looks as if a, F, i1 and i2 will
have to be linked by another instantiation relation i3,
and so on ad infinitum. (This argument has its source in Bradley
1893, 27–8.)
insinuation
insinuate
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.
izzing: under ‘conjunctum,’ we see that there is an alternative
vocabulary, of ‘copulatum.’ But Grice prefers to narrow the use of ‘copula’ to
izzing’ and ‘hazzing.’ Oddly, Grice sees izzing as a ‘predicate,’ and
symbolises it as Ixy. While he prefers ‘x izzes y,’ he also uses ‘x izz y.’
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.
lit.
hum. While Grice would take tutees under different curricula, he preferred Lit.
Hum. So how much philosophy did this include. Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Kant,
and Mill. And that was mainly it. We are referring to the ‘philosophy’
component. Ayer used to say that he would rather have been a judge. But at
Oxford of that generation, having a Lit. Hum. perfectly qualified you as a
philosopher. And people like Ayer, who would rather be a juddge, end up being a
philosopher after going through the Lit. Hum. Grice himself comes as a “Midlands
scholarship boy” straight from Clifton on a classics scholarship, and being
from the Midlands, straight to Corpus. The fact that he got on so well with
Hardie helped. The fact that his interim at Merton worked was good. The fact
that the thing at Rossall did NOT work was good. The fact that he becamse a
fellow at St. John’s OBVIOUSLY helped. The fact that he had Strawson as a tutee
ALSO helped helped. H. P. Grice, Literae Humaniores (Philosophy), Oxon.
logical form: If you can’t put it in symbols, it’s not worth saying. Oh,
no, if you can put it in symbols, it’s not worth saying. Grice loved the adage,
“quod per litteras demonstrare volumus, universaliter demonstramus.”
low-subjective contraster: in WoW: 140, Grice distinguishes between a subjective
contraster (such as “The pillar box seems red,” “I see that the pillar box is
red,” “I believe that the pillar box is red” and “I know that the pillar box is
red”) and an objective contraster (“The pillar box is red.”) Within these
subjective contraster, Grice proposes a sub-division between nonfactive
(“low-subjective”) and (“high-subjective”). Low-subjective contrasters are “The
pillar box seems red” and “I believe that the pillar box is red,” which do NOT
entail the corresponding objective contraster. The high-subjective contraster,
being factive or transparent, does. The entailment in the case of the
high-subjective contraster is explained via truth-coniditions: “A sees that the
pillar box is red” and “A knows that the pillar box is red” are analysed ‘iff’
the respective low-subjective contraster obtains (“The pillar box seems red,”
and “A believes that the pillar box is red”), the corresponding objective
contraster also obtains (“The pillar box is red”), and a third condition
specifying the objective contraster being the CAUSE of the low-subjective
contraster. Grice repeats his account of suprasegmental. Whereas in “Further
notes about logic and conversation,” he had focused on the accent on the
high-subjective contraster (“I KNOW”), he now focuses his attention on the
accent on the low subjective contraster. “I BELIEVE that the pillar box is
red.” It is the accented version that gives rise to the implicatum, generated
by the utterer’s intention that the addressee’s will perceive some restraint or
guardedness on the part of the utterer of ‘going all the way’ to utter a claim
to ‘seeing’ or ‘knowing’, the
high-subjective contraster, but stopping short at the low-subjective
contraster.
martian conversational implicatum: Grice converses with a
Martian. About Martian x-s that the pillar box is red. (upper x-ing
organ) Martian y-s that the pillar box is red. (lower y-ing organ). Grice: Is
x-ing that the pillar box is red LIKE y-ing that the pillar-box is red?
Martian: Oh, no; there's all the difference in the world! Analogy x smells
sweet. x tastes sweet. Martian x-s the the pillar box is red-x. Martian y-s
that the pillar box is red-y. Martian x-s the pillar box is medium red. Martian
y-s the pillar box is light red.
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: The category of mode translates ‘tropos,’ modus. Kant
wrongly assumed it was Modalitat, which irritated Grice so much that he echoed
Kant as saying ‘manner’! 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, and being into analogy and focal
meaning, if he HAD to have semantic multiplicity, for the case of ‘is,’ (being)
or ‘good,’ it had to be a UNIFIED semantic multiplicity, as displayed by
paronymy. 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.’ The only one who took up Grice’s
challenge at Oxford was L. J. Cohen, “Grice on the particles of natural
language,” which got a great response by Oxonian R. C. S. Walker (citing D.
Bostock, a tutee of Grice), to which Cohen again responded “Can the
conversationalist hypothesis be defended.” Cohen clearly centres his criticism
on the razor. He had an early essay, citing Grice, on the DIVERSITY of meaning.
Cohen opposes Grice’s conversationalist hypothesis to his own ‘semantic
hypothesis’ (“Multiply senses all you want.”)
myth: “My succession of stages is a methodological myth designed
to exhibit the conceptual link between expression and communication. Rather
than Plato, he appeals to Rawls and the myth of the social conpact! 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.
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.
objectivum. Here the contrast is what what is subjective, or
subjectivum. Notably value. For Hartmann and Grice, a value is rational,
objective and absolute, and categorical (not relative).
objectum. For Grice the subjectum is prior. While ‘subject’ and
‘predicate’ are basic Aristotelian categories, the idea of the direct object or
indirect object seems to have little philosophical relevance. (but cf. “What is
the meaning of ‘of’? Genitivus subjectivus versus enitivus objectivus. The
usage that is more widespread is a misnomer for ‘thing’. When an empiricist
like Grice speaks of an ‘obble’ or an ‘object,’ he means a thing. That is
because, since Hume there’s no such thing as a ‘subject’ qua self. And if there
is no subject, there is no object. No Copernican revolution for empiricists.
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). This ontological Marxism is latter day. In “Some
remarks,” he expresses his disregard for what he calls a “Wittgensteinian”
limitation in expecting behavioural manifestation of an ascription about a
soul. Yet in “Method” he quotes almost verbatim from Witters, “No psychological
postulation without the behaviour the postulation is meant to explain.” It was
possibly D. K. Lewis who made him change his mind. Grice was obsessed with
Aristotle on ‘being,’ and interpreted Aristotle as holding a thesis of unified
semantic ‘multiplicity.’ This is in agreement with the ontological Marxism, in
more than one ways. By accepting a denotatum for a praedicatum like
‘desideratum,’ Grice is allowing the a desideratum may be the subject of
discourse. It is an ‘entity’ in this fashion.
oratio obliqua: The use of ‘oratio’ here Grice disliked. One can see a
squarrel grabbing a nut, Toby judges that a nut is to eat. So we would have a
‘that’-clause, and in a way, an ‘oratio obliqua,’ which is what the UTTERER
(not the squarrel) would produce as ‘oratio recta,’ ‘A nut is to eat,’ should
the circumstance obtains. At some points he allows things like “Snow is white”
means that snow is white. Something at the Oxford Philosohical Society he would
not. Grice is vague in this. If the verb is a ‘verbum dicendi,’ ‘oratio
obliqua’ is literal. If it’s a verbum sentiendi or percipiendi, volendi, credendi,
or cognoscenti, the connection is looser. 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, and minimax.
In terms of the principle of least conversational effort, the optimal move is
the least costly. To utter, “The pillar box seems red” when you can utter, “The
pillar box IS red” is to go into the trouble when you shouldn’t. So this
maximin regulates the conversational exchange. The utterer is meant to be
optimally efficient, and the addressee is intended to recognise that.
ostensum: 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. In primo actu non indiget volunta* diiectivo , sed sola_»
objecti ostensio ... non potest errar* ciica finem in universali ostensum , potest tamen secundum eos ...
oxonianism: See playgroup. The playgroup was Oxonian. There are
aspects of Grice’s philosophy which are Oxonian but not playgroup-related, and
had to do with his personal inclinations. The fact that it was Hardie who was
his tutor and instilled on him a love for Aristotle. Grice’s rapport with H. A.
Prichard. Grice would often socialize with members of Ryle’s group, such as O.
P. Wood, J. D. Mabbott, and W. C. Kneale. And of course, he had a knowleddge of
the history of Oxford philosophy, quoting from J. C. Wilson, G. F. Stout, H. H.
Price, Bosanquet, Bradley. He even had his Oxonian ‘enemies,’ Dummett,
Anscombe. And he would quote from independents, like A. J. P. Kenny. But if he
had to quote someone first, it was a member of his beloved playgroup: Austin,
Strawson, Warnock, Urmson, Hare, Hart, Hampshire. 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.
palæo-Griceian: H. P. Grice was the first member of the play group to come
up with a system of ‘pragmatic rules.’ Or perhaps he wasn’t. In any case,
palaeo-Griceian refers to any attempt by someone who is an Oxonian English
philosopher who suggested something like H. P. Grice later did! There are
palaeo-Griceian suggestions in Bradley – “Logic” --, Bosanquet, J. C. Wilson
(“Statement and inference”) and a few others. Within those who interacted with
Grice to provoke him into the ‘pragmatic rule’ account were two members of the
play group. One was not English, but a Scot: G. A. Paul. Paul had been to ‘the
other place,’ and was at Oxford trying to spread Witters’s doctrine. The
bafflement one gets from “I certainly don’t wish to cast any doubt on the
matter, but that pillar box seems red to me; and the reason why it is does,
it’s because it is red, and its redness causes in my sense of vision the
sense-datum that the thing is red.” Grice admits that he first came out with
the idea when confronted with this example. Mainly Grice’s motivation is to
hold that such a ‘statement’ (if statement, it is, -- vide Bar-Hillel) is true.
The other member was English: P. F. Strawson. And Grice notes that it was
Strawson’s Introduction to logical theory that motivated him to apply a
technique which had proved successful in the area of the philosophy of
perception to this idea by Strawson that Whitehead and Russell are ‘incorrect.’
Again, Grice’s treatment concerns holding a ‘statement’ to be ‘true.’
Besides
these two primary cases, there are others. First, is the list of theses in
“Causal Theory.” None of them are assigned to a particular philosopher, so the
research may be conducted towards the identification of these. The theses are,
besides the one he is himself dealing, the sense-datum ‘doubt or denial’
implicatum: One, What is actual is not also possible. Two, What is known to be
the case is not also believed to be the case. Three, Moore was guilty of
misusing the lexeme ‘know.’ Four, To say that someone is responsible is to say
that he is accountable for something condemnable. Six, A horse cannot look like
a horse. Now, in “Prolegomena” he add further cases. Again, since this are
palaeo-Griceian, it may be a matter of tracing the earliest occurrences. In
“Prolegomena,” Grice divides the examples in Three Groups. The last is an easy
one to identity: the ‘performatory’ approach: for which he gives the example by
Strawson on ‘true,’ and mentions two other cases: a performatory use of ‘I
know’ for I guarantee; and the performatory use of ‘good’ for ‘I approve’
(Ogden). The second group is easy to identify since it’s a central concern and
it is exactly Strawson’s attack on Whitehead and Russell. But Grice is clear
here. It is mainly with regard to ‘if’ that he wants to discuss Strawson, and
for which he quotes him at large. Before talking about ‘if’, he mentions the
co-ordinating connectives ‘and’ and ‘or’, without giving a source. So, here
there is a lot to research about the thesis as held by other philosophers even
at Oxford (where, however, ‘logic’ was never considered a part of philosophy
proper). The first group is the most varied, and easier to generalise, because
it refers to any ‘sub-expression’ held to occur in a full expression which is
held to be ‘inappropriate.’ Those who judge the utterance to be inappropriate
are sometimes named. Grice starts with Ryle and The Concept of Mind – palaeo-Griceian,
in that it surely belongs to Grice’s previous generation. It concerns the use
of the adverb ‘voluntary’ and Grice is careful to cite Ryle’s description of
the case, using words like ‘incorrect,’ and that a ‘sense’ claimed by
philosophers is an absurd one. Then there is a third member of the playgroup –
other than G. A. Paul and P. F. Strawson – the Master Who Wobbles, J. L.
Austin. Grice likes the way Austin offers himself as a good target – Austin was
dead by then, and Grice would otherwise not have even tried – Austin uses
variables: notably Mly, and a general thesis, ‘no modification without
aberration.’ But basically, Grice agrees that it’s all about the ‘philosophy of
action.’ So in describing an agent’s action, the addition of an adverb makes
the whole thing inappropriate. This may relate to at least one example in
“Causal” involving ‘responsible.’ While Grice there used the noun and
adjective, surely it can be turned into an adverb. The fourth member of the
playgroup comes next: H. L. A. Hart. Grice laughs at Hart’s idea that to add
‘carefully’ in the description of an action the utterer is committed to the
idea that the agent THINKS the steps taken for the performance are reasonable.
There is a thesis he mentions then which alla “Causal Theory,” gets uncredited
– about ‘trying.’ But he does suggest Witters. And then there is his own ‘doubt
or denial’ re: G. A. Paul, and another one in the field of the philosophy of
perception that he had already mentioned vaguely in “Causal”: a horse cannot
look like a horse. Here he quotes Witters in extenso, re: ‘seeing as.’ While
Grice mentions ‘philosophy of action,’ there is at least one example involving
‘philosophical psychology’: B. S. Benjamin on C. D. Broad on the factiveness of
‘remember.’ When one thinks of all the applications that the ‘conversational
model’ has endured, one realizes that unless your background is philosophical,
you are bound not to realise the centrality of Grice’s thesis for philosophical
methodology.
paradigm-case
argument: The idiom was coined by Grice’s first tutee at St. John’s, G. N. A.
Flew, and he applied it to ‘free will.’ Grice later used it to describe the
philosophising by Urmson (in “Retrospetive”). he 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! Cf. aporia. The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC MSS 90/135c,
The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
perceptum:
the traditional distinction is perceptum-conceptum: nihil est in intellectu
quod prius non fuerit in sensu. this is Grice on sense-datum. Grice feels that
the kettle is hot; Grice sees that the kettle is hot; Grice perceives that the
kettle is hot. WoW:251 uses this example. It may be argued that the use of
‘see’ is there NOT factive. Cf. “I feel hot but it’s not hot.” Grice modifies
the thing to read, “DIRECTLY PERCEIVING”: Grice only indirectly perceives that
the kettle is hot’ if what he is doing is ‘seeing’ that the kettle is hot. When
Grice sees that the kettle is hot, it is a ‘secondary’ usage of ‘see,’ because
it means that Grice perceives that the kettle has some visual property that
INDICATES the presence of hotness (Grice uses phi for the general formula). 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:
He plays with the fact that empiricists don’t regard philosophy as a sovereign
monarch: philosophia regina scientiarum, provided it’s queen consort. In
“Conceptual analysis and the province of philosophy,” he plays with the idea
that Philosophy is the Supreme Science. 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.
In “Some remarks about the senses,” Grice distinguishes a physicalist
identification of the senses (in terms of the different stimuli and the
mechanisms that connects the organs to the brain) versus other criteria,
notably one involving introspection and the nature of ‘experience’ – “providing,”
he adds, that ‘seeing’ is an experience! 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! In alphabetical order. It is this group that made history. J. L. Austin, A. G. N. Flew, P. L. Gardiner,
H. P. Grice, S. N. Hampshire, R. M. Hare, H. L. A. Hart, P. H. Nowell-Smith, G. A. Paul, D. F. Pears,
P. F. Strawson, J. F. Thomson, J. O. Urmson, G. J. Warnock, A. D. Woozley.
Grice distinguishes it very well from Ryle’s group, and the group of
neo-Wittgensteinians. And those three groups were those only involved with
‘ordinary language.’
Principle. Grice. Principle of
conversational helpfulness. “I call it ‘principle,’ echoing Boethius.”Mention should also he made of Boethius’ conception, that
there are certain principles, sentences which have no demonstration — probatio
— which he calls principales propositiones or probationis principia. Here is
the fragment from his Commentary on Topics treating of principles; El iliac
quidem (propositiones) quarum nulla probatio est, maximae ac principales
vocantur, quod his illas necesse est approbari, quae ut demonstrari valeant,
non recusant/ est auteni maxima proposiiio ut liaec « si de aequalibus aequalia
demas, quae derelinquitur aequalia sunt », ita enim hoc per se notion est, ut
aliud notius quo approbari valeat esse non possit; quae proposi- tiones cum
(idem sui natura propria gerant, non solum alieno ad (idem non egent argumento,
oerum ceteris quoque probationis sclent esse principium; igitur per se notae
propositiones, quibus nihil est notius, indemonstrabiles ac maxime et
principales vocantur (“Indeed those sentences that have no demonstration are
called maximum or principal [sentences], because they are not rejected since
they are necessary to those that have to be demonstrated and which are valid
for making a demonstration ; but a maximum sentence such as « if from equal
[quantifies], equal [quantities] are taken, what is left are equal
[quantities]*, is self- evident, and there is nothing which can be better known
self-evidently valid, and self- demonstrating, therefore they are sentences
containing their certitude in their very nature and not only do they need no
additional argument to demonstrate their certitude, but are also the principles
of demonstration of the other [sentences]; so they are, self-evident sen-
tences, nothing being better known than they are, and are called undemonstrable
or maxi- mum and principal”). Boethius’ idea coincides with Aristotle’s;
deduction must start from somewhere, we must begin with something unproved. The
Stagirite, how- ever, gave an explanation of the existence of principles and
the possibility of their being grasjied by the active intellect, whereas with
Boethius princi- ples appear as severed from the sentences demonstrated in a
more formal manner: there are two kinds of sentences: some which are
demonstrable and others which need no demonstration
practical
reason: In “Epilogue” Grice states that the principle of conversational
rationality is a sub-principle of the principle of rationality, simpliciter,
which is not involved with ‘communication’ per se. This is an application of
Occam’s razor: Rationalities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity.” This
motto underlies his aequi-vocality thesis: one reason: desiderative side,
judicative side. 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. In Logic, the verb 'kategoreo' is
'predicate of a person or thing,' “τί τινος” Arist.Cat.3a19,al., Epicur.Fr.250;
κυρίως, καταχρηστικῶς κ., Phld.Po.5.15; “ἐναντίως ὑπὲρ τῶν αὐτῶν” Id.Oec.p.60
J.: —more freq. in Pass., to be predicated of . . , τινος Arist.Cat.2a21, APr.
26b9, al.; “κατά τινος” Id.Cat.2a37; “κατὰ παντὸς ἢ μηδενός” Id.APr.24a15: less
freq. “ἐπί τινος” Id.Metaph.998b16, 999a15; so later “ἐφ᾽ ἑνὸς οἴονται θεοῦ
ἑκάτερον τῶν ὀνομάτων -εῖσθαι” D.H.2.48; “περί τινος” Arist. Top.140b37; “τὸ
κοινῇ -ούμενον ἐπὶ πᾶσιν” Id.SE179a8: abs., τὸ κατηγορούμενον the
predicate, opp. τὸ ὑποκείμενον (the subject), Id.Cat.1b11,
cf.Metaph.1043a6, al.; κατηγορεῖν καὶ -εῖσθαι to be subject and predicate,
Id.APr.47b1. BANC.
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.” When Grice qualifies this as ‘rational’ effort, what other
efforts are there? Note that the lexeme ‘effort’ does NOT feature in the
formulation of the principle itself. Grice confesses to be strongly inclined to
assent to the principle of economy of rational conversational effort or the
principle of economy of conversational effort, or the principle of economy of
conversational expenditure, or the principle of minimisation of rational expenditure,
or the principle of minimization of conversational expenditure, or the principle
of minimisation of rational cost, or the conversational maximin. The principle
of least cost. The principle of economy of rational expenditure states that,
where there is a ratiocinative procedure for arriving rationally at certain
outcome, a procedure which, because it is ratiocinative, involves an
expenditure of time and energy, if there is a NON-ratiocinative, and so more
economical procedure which is likely, for the most part, to reach the same
outcome as the ratiocinative procedure, provided the stakes are not too high,
it is rational to employ the cheaper though somewhat less reliable
non-ratiocinative procedure as a substitute for ratiocination. Grice thinks
this principle would meet with genitorial approval, in which case the genitor
would install it for use should opportunity arise. This applies to the charge
of overcomplexity and ‘psychological irreality’ of the reasoning involved in
the production and design of the maximally efficient conversational move and
the reasoning involved in the recognition of the implicatum by the addressee.
In “Epilogue” he goes by yet another motto, Do not multiply rationalities
beyond necessity: The principle of conversational rationality, as he calls it
in the Epilogue, is a sub-principle of a principle of rationality simpiciter,
not applying to a pursuit related to ‘communication,’ as he puts it.
propositio universalis A proposition (protasis), then,
is a sentence affirming or denying something of something; and this is either
universal or particular or indefinite. By universal I mean a statement that
something belongs to all or none of something; by particular that it belongs to
some or not to some or not to all; by indefinite that it does or does not
belong, without any mark of being universal or particular, e.g. ‘contraries are
subjects of the same science’, or ‘pleasure is not good’. (Prior Analytics I,
1, 24a16–21.)
propositional complexum: In logic, the first
proposition of a syllogism (class.): “propositio est, per quem locus is
breviter exponitur, ex quo vis omnis oportet emanet ratiocinationis,” Cic. Inv.
1, 37, 67; 1, 34, 35; Auct. Her. 2, 18, 28.— B. Transf. 1. A principal subject,
theme (class.), Cic. de Or. 3, 53; Sen. Ben. 6, 7, 1; Quint. 5, 14, 1.— 2.
Still more generally, a proposition of any kind (post-Aug.), Quint. 7, 1, 47, §
9; Gell. 2, 7, 21.—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-transmissum: Used by Grice in WoW: 287, and
emphasised by J. Baker. The gist of communication. trans-mitto or trāmitto ,
mīsi, missum, 3, v. a. I. To send, carry, or convey across, over, or through;
to send off, despatch, transmit from one place or person to another (syn.:
transfero, traicio, traduco). A. Lit.: “mihi illam ut tramittas: argentum
accipias,” Plaut. Ep. 3, 4, 27: “illam sibi,” id. ib. 1, 2, 52: “exercitus
equitatusque celeriter transmittitur (i. e. trans flumen),” are conveyed
across, Caes. B. G. 7, 61: “legiones,” Vell. 2, 51, 1: “cohortem Usipiorum in
Britanniam,” Tac. Agr. 28: “classem in Euboeam ad urbem Oreum,” Liv. 28, 5, 18:
“magnam classem in Siciliam,” id. 28, 41, 17: “unde auxilia in Italiam
transmissurus erat,” id. 23, 32, 5; 27, 15, 7: transmissum per viam tigillum,
thrown over or across, id. 1, 26, 10: “ponte transmisso,” Suet. Calig. 22 fin.:
in partem campi pecora et armenta, Tac. A. 13, 55: “materiam in formas,” Col.
7, 8, 6.— 2. To cause to pass through: “per corium, per viscera Perque os
elephanto bracchium transmitteres,” you would have thrust through, penetrated,
Plaut. Mil. 1, 30; so, “ensem per latus,” Sen. Herc. Oet. 1165: “facem telo per
pectus,” id. Thyest. 1089: “per medium amnem transmittit equum,” rides, Liv. 8,
24, 13: “(Gallorum reguli) exercitum per fines suos transmiserunt,” suffered to
pass through, id. 21, 24, 5: “abies folio pinnato densa, ut imbres non
transmittat,” Plin. 16, 10, 19, § 48: “Favonios,” Plin. Ep. 2, 17, 19; Tac. A.
13, 15: “ut vehem faeni large onustam transmitteret,” Plin. 36, 15, 24, § 108.—
B. Trop. 1. To carry over, transfer, etc.: “bellum in Italiam,” Liv. 21, 20, 4;
so, “bellum,” Tac. A. 2, 6: “vitia cum opibus suis Romam (Asia),” Just. 36, 4,
12: vim in aliquem, to send against, i. e. employ against, Tac. A. 2, 38.— 2.
To hand over, transmit, commit: “et quisquam dubitabit, quin huic hoc tantum
bellum transmittendum sit, qui, etc.,” should be intrusted, Cic. Imp. Pomp. 14,
42: “alicui signa et summam belli,” Sil. 7, 383: “hereditas transmittenda
alicui,” to be made over, Plin. Ep. 8, 18, 7; and with inf.: “et longo
transmisit habere nepoti,” Stat. S. 3, 3, 78 (analog. to dat habere, Verg. A.
9, 362; “and, donat habere,” id. ib. 5, 262); “for which: me famulo famulamque
Heleno transmisit habendam,” id. ib. 3, 329: “omne meum tempus amicorum
temporibus transmittendum putavi,” should be devoted, Cic. Imp. Pomp. 1, 1:
“poma intacta ore servis,” Tac. A. 4, 54.— 3. To let go: animo transmittente
quicquid acceperat, letting pass through, i. e. forgetting, Sen. Ep. 99, 6:
“mox Caesarem vergente jam senectā munia imperii facilius tramissurum,” would
let go, resign, Tac. A. 4, 41: “Junium mensem transmissum,” passed over,
omitted, id. ib. 16, 12 fin.: “Gangen amnem et quae ultra essent,” to leave
unconquered, Curt. 9, 4, 17: “leo imbelles vitulos Transmittit,” Stat. Th. 8,
596.— II. To go or pass over or across, to cross over; to cross, pass, go
through, traverse, etc. A. Lit. 1. In gen. (α). Act.: “grues cum maria
transmittant,” Cic. N. D. 2, 49, 125: “cur ipse tot maria transmisit,” id. Fin.
5, 29, 87; so, “maria,” id. Rep. 1, 3, 6: “satis constante famā jam Iberum
Poenos transmisisse,” Liv. 21, 20, 9 (al. transisse): “quem (Euphratem) ponte,”
Tac. A. 15, 7: “fluvium nando,” Stat. Th. 9, 239: “lacum nando,” Sil. 4, 347:
“murales fossas saltu,” id. 8, 554: “equites medios tramittunt campos,” ride
through, Lucr. 2, 330; cf.: “cursu campos (cervi),” run through, Verg. A. 4,
154: quantum Balearica torto Funda potest plumbo medii transmittere caeli, can
send with its hurled bullet, i. e. can send its bullet, Ov. M. 4, 710: “tectum
lapide vel missile,” to fling over, Plin. 28, 4, 6, § 33; cf.: “flumina disco,”
Stat. Th. 6, 677.—In pass.: “duo sinus fuerunt, quos tramitti oporteret:
utrumque pedibus aequis tramisimus,” Cic. Att. 16, 6, 1: “transmissus amnis,”
Tac. A. 12, 13: “flumen ponte transmittitur,” Plin. Ep. 8, 8, 5.— (β). Neutr.:
“ab eo loco conscendi ut transmitterem,” Cic. Phil. 1, 3, 7: “cum exercitus
vestri numquam a Brundisio nisi summā hieme transmiserint,” id. Imp. Pomp. 12,
32: “cum a Leucopetrā profectus (inde enim tramittebam) stadia circiter CCC.
processissem, etc.,” id. Att. 16, 7, 1; 8, 13, 1; 8, 11, 5: “ex Corsicā subactā
Cicereius in Sardiniam transmisit,” Liv. 42, 7, 2; 32, 9, 6: “ab Lilybaeo
Uticam,” id. 25, 31, 12: “ad vastandam Italiae oram,” id. 21, 51, 4; 23, 38,
11; 24, 36, 7: “centum onerariae naves in Africam transmiserunt,” id. 30, 24,
5; Suet. Caes. 58: “Cyprum transmisit,” Curt. 4, 1, 27. — Pass. impers.: “in
Ebusum insulam transmissum est,” Liv. 22, 20, 7.—* 2. In partic., to go over,
desert to a party: “Domitius transmisit ad Caesa rem,” Vell. 2, 84 fin. (syn.
transfugio).— B. Trop. (post-Aug.). 1. In gen., to pass over, leave untouched
or disregarded (syn praetermitto): “haud fas, Bacche, tuos taci tum tramittere
honores,” Sil. 7, 162; cf.: “sententiam silentio, deinde oblivio,” Tac. H. 4, 9
fin.: “nihil silentio,” id. ib. 1, 13; “4, 31: aliquid dissimulatione,” id. A.
13, 39: “quae ipse pateretur,” Suet. Calig. 10; id. Vesp. 15. — 2. In partic.,
of time, to pass, spend (syn. ago): “tempus quiete,” Plin. Ep. 9, 6, 1: so,
“vitam per obscurum,” Sen. Ep. 19, 2: steriles annos, Stat. S. 4, 2, 12:
“aevum,” id. ib. 1, 4, 124: “quattuor menses hiemis inedia,” Plin. 8, 25, 38, §
94: “vigiles noctes,” Stat. Th. 3, 278 et saep. — Transf.: “febrium ardorem,”
i. e. to undergo, endure, Plin. Ep. 1, 22, 7; cf. “discrimen,” id. ib. 8, 11,
2: “secessus, voluptates, etc.,” id. ib. 6, 4, 2.
quasi-demonstratum: 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.
ramification – Starwson Wiggins p. 520, the principle ramifies into the maxims.
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.
re-praesentatum. Suppose Grice joins the Oxfordshire
cricket club. He will represent Oxfordshire. He will do for Oxfordshire what
Oxfordshire cannot do for herself. Similarly, by uttering “Smoke!,” the utterer
means that there is fire somewhere. “Smoke!” is a communication-device if it
does for smoke what smoke cannot do for itself, influence thoughts and
behaviour. Or does it?! It MWheIGHT. But suppose that the fire is some distant
from the addresse. And the utterer HAS LEARNED That there is fire in the
distance. So he utters ‘Smoke!’ Where? Oh, you won’t see it. But I was told
there is smoke on the outskirts. Thanks for warning me! rĕ-praesento , āvi,
ātum, 1, v. a. I. To bring before one, to bring back; to show, exhibit,
display, manifest, represent (class.): “per quas (visiones) imagines rerum
absentium ita repraesentantur animo, ut eas cernere oculis ac praesentes habere
videamur,” Quint. 6, 2, 29: “memoriae vis repraesentat aliquid,” id. 11, 2, 1;
cf. Plin. Ep. 9, 28, 3: “quod templum repraesentabat memoriam consulatūs mei,”
Cic. Sest. 11, 26: si quis vultu torvo ferus simulet Catonem, Virtutemne
repraesentet moresque Catonis? * Hor. Ep. 1, 19, 14: “imbecillitatem ingenii
mei,” Val. Max. 2, 7, 6: “movendi ratio aut in repraesentandis est aut
imitandis adfectibus,” Quint. 11, 3, 156: “urbis species repraesentabatur
animis,” Curt. 3, 10, 7; cf.: “affectum patris amissi,” Plin. Ep. 4, 19, 1:
“nam et vera esse et apte ad repraesentandam iram deūm ficta possunt,” Liv. 8,
6, 3 Weissenb. ad loc.: “volumina,” to recite, repeat, Plin. 7, 24, 24, § 89:
“viridem saporem olivarum etiam post annum,” Col. 12, 47, 8: “faciem veri
maris,” id. 8, 17, 6: “colorem constantius,” to show, exhibit, Plin. 37, 8, 33,
§ 112: “vicem olei,” i. e. to supply the place of, id. 28, 10, 45, § 160; cf.
id. 18, 14, 36, § 134.— B. Of painters, sculptors, etc., to represent, portray,
etc. (post-Aug. for adumbro): “Niceratus repraesentavit Alcibiadem,” Plin. 34,
8, 19, § 88.—With se, to present one's self, be present, Col. 1, 8, 11; 11, 1,
26; Dig. 48, 5, 15, § 3.— II. In partic., mercant. t. t., to pay immediately or
on the spot; to pay in ready money: reliquae pecuniae vel usuram Silio
pendemus, dum a Faberio vel ab aliquo qui Faberio debet, repraesentabimus,
shall be enabled to pay immediately, Cic. Att. 12, 25, 1; 12, 29, 2: “summam,”
Suet. Aug. 101: “legata,” id. Calig. 16: “mercedem,” id. Claud. 18; id. Oth. 5;
Front. Strat. 1, 11, 2 Oud. N. cr.: “dies promissorum adest: quem etiam
repraesentabo, si adveneris,” shall even anticipate, Cic. Fam. 16, 14, 2; cf.
fideicommissum, to discharge immediately or in advance, Dig. 35, 1, 36.— B.
Transf., in gen., to do, perform, or execute any act immediately, without
delay, forthwith; hence, not to defer or put off; to hasten (good prose): se,
quod in longiorem diem collaturus esset, repraesentaturum et proximā nocte
castra moturum, * Caes. B. G. 1, 40: “festinasse se repraesentare consilium,”
Curt. 6, 11, 33: “petis a me, ut id quod in diem suum dixeram debere differri,
repraesentem,” Sen. Ep. 95, 1; and Front. Aquaed. 119 fin.: “neque exspectare
temporis medicinam, quam repraesentare ratione possimus,” to apply it
immediately, Cic. Fam. 5, 16, 6; so, “improbitatem suam,” to hurry on, id. Att.
16, 2, 3: “spectaculum,” Suet. Calig. 58: “tormenta poenasque,” id. Claud. 34:
“poenam,” Phaedr. 3, 10, 32; Val. Max. 6, 5, ext. 4: “verbera et plagas,” Suet.
Vit. 10: “vocem,” to sing immediately, id. Ner. 21 et saep.: “si repraesentari
morte meā libertas civitatis potest,” can be immediately recovered, Cic. Phil.
2, 46, 118: “minas irasque caelestes,” to fulfil immediately, Liv. 2, 36, 6
Weissenb. ad loc.; cf. Suet. Claud. 38: “judicia repraesentata,” held on the
spot, without preparation, Quint. 10, 7, 2.— C. To represent, stand in the
place of (late Lat.): nostra per eum repraesentetur auctoritas, Greg. M. Ep. 1,
1.
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.””
signatum:
As Grice notes, there is a distinction between Aristotle’s use, in De Int., of
‘sumbolon,’ for which Aristotle sometimes means ‘semeion,’ and their Roman
counterparts, ‘signum’ sounds otiose enough. But ‘significo’ does not. There is
this –fico thing that sounds obtrusive. The Romans, however, were able to
distinguish between ‘make a sign,’ and just ‘signal.’ The point is important
when Grice tries to apply the Graeco-Roman philosophical terminology to a lexeme
which does not belong in there: “mean.” His example is someone in pain,
uttering “Oh.” If he later gains voluntary control, by uttering “Oh” he means
that he is in pain, and even at a later stage, provided he learns ‘lupe,’ he
may utter the expression which is somewhat correlated in a non-iconic fashion
with something which iconically is a vehicle for U to mean that he is in pain.
In this way, in a communication-system, a communication-device, such as “Oh”
does for the state of affairs something that the state of affairs cannot do for
itself, govern the addresee’s thoughts and behaviour (very much as the
Oxfordshire cricket team does for Oxfordshire what Oxfordshire cannot do for
herself, viz. to engage in a game of cricket. There’s rae-presentatum, for you!
Short and Lewis have ‘signare,’ from ‘signum,’ and which they render as ‘to set
a mark upon, to mark, mark out, designate (syn.: noto, designo),’ Lit. A. In
gen. (mostly poet. and in post-Aug. prose): discrimen non facit neque signat
linea alba, Lucil. ap. Non. 405, 17: “signata sanguine pluma est,” Ov. M. 6,
670: “ne signare quidem aut partiri limite campum Fas erat,” Verg. G. 1, 126:
“humum limite mensor,” Ov. M. 1, 136; id. Am. 3, 8, 42: “moenia aratro,” id. F.
4, 819: “pede certo humum,” to print, press, Hor. A. P. 159; cf.: “vestigia
summo pulvere,” to mark, imprint, Verg. G. 3, 171: auratā cyclade humum, Prop.
4 (5), 7, 40. “haec nostro signabitur area curru,” Ov. A. A. 1, 39: “locum, ubi
ea (cistella) excidit,” Plaut. Cist. 4, 2, 28: “caeli regionem in cortice
signant,” mark, cut, Verg. G. 2, 269: “nomina saxo,” Ov. M. 8, 539: “rem
stilo,” Vell. 1, 16, 1: “rem carmine,” Verg. A. 3, 287; “for which: carmine
saxum,” Ov. M. 2, 326: “cubitum longis litteris,” Plaut. Rud. 5, 2, 7: “ceram
figuris,” to imprint, Ov. M. 15, 169: “cruor signaverat herbam,” had stained,
id. ib. 10, 210; cf. id. ib. 12, 125: “signatum sanguine pectus,” id. A. A. 2,
384: “dubiā lanugine malas,” id. M. 13, 754: “signata in stirpe cicatrix,”
Verg. G. 2, 379: “manibus Procne pectus signata cruentis,” id. ib. 4, 15:
“vocis infinitios sonos paucis notis,” Cic. Rep. 3, 2, 3: “visum objectum
imprimet et quasi signabit in animo suam speciem,” id. Fat. 19, 43.— B. In
partic. 1. To mark with a seal; to seal, seal up, affix a seal to a thing
(usually obsignare): “accepi a te signatum libellum,” Cic. Att. 11, 1, 1:
“volumina,” Hor. Ep. 1, 13, 2: locellum tibi signatum remisi, Caes. ap. Charis.
p. 60 P.: “epistula,” Nep. Pel. 3, 2: “arcanas tabellas,” Ov. Am. 2, 15, 15:
“signatis quicquam mandare tabellis,” Tib. 4, 7, 7: “lagenam (anulus),” Mart.
9, 88, 7: “testamentum,” Plin. Ep. 2, 20, 8 sq.; cf. Mart. 5, 39, 2: “nec nisi
signata venumdabatur (terra),” Plin. 35, 4, 14, § 33.—Absol., Mart. 10, 70, 7;
Quint. 5, 7, 32; Suet. Ner. 17.— 2. To mark with a stamp; hence, a. Of money,
to stamp, to coin: “aes argentum aurumve publice signanto,” Cic. Leg. 3, 3, 6;
cf.: “qui primus ex auro denarium signavit ... Servius rex primus signavit aes
... Signatum est nota pecudum, unde et pecunia appellata ... Argentum signatum
est anno, etc.,” Plin. 33, 3, 13, § 44: “argentum signatum,” Cic. Verr. 2, 5, 25,
§ 63; Quint. 5, 10, 62; 5, 14, 26: “pecunia signata Illyriorum signo,” Liv. 44,
27, 9: “denarius signatus Victoriā,” Plin. 33, 3, 13, § 46: “sed cur navalis in
aere Altera signata est,” Ov. F. 1, 230: “milia talentūm argenti non signati
formā, sed rudi pondere,” Curt. 5, 2, 11.— Hence, b. Poet.: “signatum memori
pectore nomen habe,” imprinted, impressed, Ov. H. 13, 66: “(filia) quae patriā
signatur imagine vultus,” i. e. closely resembles her father, Mart. 6, 27, 3.—
c. To stamp, i. e. to license, invest with official authority (late Lat.):
“quidam per ampla spatia urbis ... equos velut publicos signatis, quod dicitur,
calceis agitant,” Amm. 14, 6, 16.— 3. Pregn., to distinguish, adorn, decorate
(poet.): “pater ipse suo superūm jam signat honore,” Verg. A. 6, 781 Heyne:
caelum corona, Claud. Nupt. Hon. et Mar. 273. to point out, signify, indicate,
designate, express (rare; more usually significo, designo; in Cic. only Or. 19,
64, where dignata is given by Non. 281, 10; “v. Meyer ad loc.): translatio
plerumque signandis rebus ac sub oculos subiciendis reperta est,” Quint. 8, 6,
19: “quotiens suis verbis signare nostra voluerunt (Graeci),” id. 2, 14, 1;
cf.: “appellatione signare,” id. 4, 1, 2: “utrius differentiam,” id. 6, 2, 20;
cf. id. 9, 1, 4; 12, 10, 16: “nomen (Caieta) ossa signat,” Verg. A. 7, 4: “fama
signata loco est,” Ov. M. 14, 433: “miratrixque sui signavit nomine terras,”
designated, Luc. 4, 655; cf.: “(Earinus) Nomine qui signat tempora verna suo,”
Mart. 9, 17, 4: “Turnus ut videt ... So signari oculis,” singled out, looked
to, Verg. A. 12, 3: signare responsum, to give a definite or distinct answer,
Sen. Ben. 7, 16, 1.—With rel.-clause: “memoria signat in quā regione quali
adjutore legatoque fratre meo usus sit,” Vell. 2, 115.— B. To distinguish, recognize:
“primi clipeos mentitaque tela Adgnoscunt, atque ora sono discordia signant,”
Verg. A. 2, 423; cf.: “sonis homines dignoscere,” Quint. 11, 3, 31: “animo
signa quodcumque in corpore mendum est,” Ov. R. Am. 417.— C. To seal, settle,
establish, confirm, prescribe (mostly poet.): “signanda sunt jura,” Prop. 3
(4), 20, 15. “signata jura,” Luc. 3, 302: jura Suevis, Claud. ap. Eutr. 1, 380;
cf.: “precati deos ut velint ea (vota) semper solvi semperque signari,” Plin.
Ep. 10, 35 (44). To close, end: “qui prima novo signat quinquennia lustro,”
Mart. 4, 45, 3.—Hence, A. signan-ter , adv. (acc. to II. A.), expressly,
clearly, distinctly (late Lat. for the class. significanter): “signanter et
breviter omnia indicare,” Aus. Grat. Act. 4: “signanter et proprie dixerat,” Hier.
adv. Jovin. 1, 13 fin. signātus, a, um, P. a. 1. (Acc. to I. B. 1. sealed;
hence) Shut up, guarded, preserved (mostly ante- and post-class.): signata
sacra, Varr. ap. Non. 397, 32: limina. Prop. 4 (5), 1, 145. Chrysidem negat
signatam reddere, i. e. unharmed, intact, pure, Lucil. ap. Non. 171, 6; cf.:
“assume de viduis fide pulchram, aetate signatam,” Tert. Exhort. 12.— 2. (Acc.
to II. A.) Plain, clear, manifest (post-class. for “significans” – a back
formation!): “quid expressius atque signatius in hanc causam?” Tert. Res. Carn.Adv.:
signātē , clearly, distinctly (post-class.): “qui (veteres) proprie atque
signate locuti sunt,” Gell. 2, 6, 6; Macr. S. 6, 7 Comp.: “signatius explicare
aliquid,” Amm. 23, 6, 1.
significatum:
Grice plays with the expression-communication distinction. When dealing with a
lexeme that does NOT belong in the Graeco-Roman tradition, that of “mean,” he
is never sure. His doubts were hightlighted in essays on “Grice without an
audience.” 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. If Grice
uses Kiparsky’s factive, he is also using ‘nominalisation’ as grammarians use
it. Refs.: Grice, “Reply to Richards,” in PGRICE, also BANC.
subjectivism: When Grice
speaks of the subjective condition on intention, he is using ‘subject,’ in a
way a philosophical psychologist would. He does not mean Kant’s transcendental
subject or ego. Grice means the simpler empiricist subject, personal identity,
or self. The choice is unfelicitious in that ‘subject’ contrasts with ‘object.’
So when he speaks of a ‘subjective’ person he means an ‘ego-centric’ condition,
or a self-oriented condition, or an agent-oriented condition, or an
‘utterer-oriented’ or ‘utterer-relative’ condition. But this is tricky. His
example: “Nixon should get that chair of theology.” The utterer may have to put
into Nixon’s shoes. He has to perceive Nixon as a PERSON, a rational agent,
with views of his own. So, the philosophical psychologist that Grice is has to
think of a conception of the self by the self, and the conception of the other
by the self. Wisdom used to talk of ‘other minds;’ Grice might speak of other
souls. 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.
subjectum. Grice is very
familiar with this since it’s the literal transliteration of Aristotle’s
hypokeimenon, opp. in a specific context, to the ‘prae-dicatum,’ or
categoroumenon. And with the same sort of ‘ambiguity,’ qua opposite a category
of expression, thought, or reality. In philosophical circles, one has to be
especially aware of the subject-object distinction (which belong in
philosophical psychology) and the thing which belongs in ontology. Of course
there’s the substance (hypousia, substantia), the essence, and the sumbebekon,
accidens. So one has to be careful. Grice expands on Strawson’s explorations
here. Philosophy, to underlie, as the foundation in which something else
inheres, to be implied or presupposed by something else, “ἑκάστῳ τῶν ὀνομάτων .
. ὑ. τις ἴδιος οὐσία” Pl.Prt.349b, cf. Cra.422d, R.581c, Ti.Locr.97e: τὸ
ὑποκείμενον has three main applications: (1) to the matter which underlies the
form, opp. εἶδος, ἐντελέχεια, Arist.Metaph.983a30; (2) to the substance (matter
+ form) which underlies the accidents, opp. πάθη, συμβεβηκότα, Id.Cat.1a20,27,
Metaph.1037b16, 983b16; (3) to the logical subject to which attributes are
ascribed, opp. τὸ κατηγορούμενον, Id.Cat.1b10,21, Ph.189a31: applications (1)
and (2) are distinguished in Id.Metaph.1038b5, 1029a1-5, 1042a26-31: τὸ ὑ. is
occasionally used of what underlies or is presupposed in some other way, e. g.
of the positive termini presupposed by change, Id.Ph.225a3-7. b. exist, τὸ
ἐκτὸς ὑποκείμενον the external reality, Stoic.2.48, cf. Epicur.Ep.1pp.12,24 U.;
“φῶς εἶναι τὸ χρῶμα τοῖς ὑ. ἐπιπῖπτον” Aristarch. Sam. ap. Placit.1.15.5; “τὸ
κρῖνον τί τε φαίνεται μόνον καὶ τί σὺν τῷ φαίνεσθαι ἔτι καὶ κατ᾽ ἀλήθειαν ὑπόκειται”
S.E.M.7.143, cf. 83,90,91, 10.240; = ὑπάρχω, τὰ ὑποκείμενα πράγματα the
existing state of affairs, Plb.11.28.2, cf. 11.29.1, 15.8.11,13, 3.31.6,
Eun.VSp.474 B.; “Τίτος ἐξ ὑποκειμένων ἐνίκα, χρώμενος ὁπλις μοῖς καὶ τάξεσιν
αἷς παρέλαβε” Plu.Comp.Phil.Flam.2; “τῆς αὐτῆς δυνάμεως ὑποκειμένης” Id.2.336b;
“ἐχομένου τοῦ προσιόντος λόγου ὡς πρὸς τὸν ὑποκείμενον” A.D.Synt.122.17. c. ὁ
ὑ. ἐνιαυτός the year in question, D.S.11.75; οἱ ὑ. καιροί the time in question,
Id.16.40, Plb.2.63.6, cf. Plu.Comp.Sol.Publ.4; τοῦ ὑ. μηνός the current month,
PTeb.14.14 (ii B. C.), al.; ἐκ τοῦ ὑ. φόρου in return for a reduction from the
said rent, PCair.Zen.649.18 (iii B. C.); πρὸς τὸ ὑ. νόει according to the
context, Gp.6.11.7. Note that both Grice and Strawson oppose Quine’s Humeian
dogma that, since the subjectum is beyond comprehension, we can do with a
‘predicate’ calculus, only. Vide Strawson, “Subject and predicate in logic and
grammar.” Refs: H. P. Grice, Work on the categories with P. F. Strawson, The H.
P. Grice Papers, BANC MSS 90/135c.
subperceptum. In WoW:139,
Grice refers to “the pillar box seems red” as “SUB-PERCEPTUAL,” the first of a
trio. The second is the perceptual, “A perceives that the pillar box is red,”
and the third, “The pillar box is red.” He wishes to explore the
truth-conditons of the subperceptum, and although first in the list, is last in
the analsysis. Grice proposes: ‘The pillar box seems red” iff (1) the pillar
box is red; (2) A perceives that the pillar box is red; and (3) (1) causes (2).
In this there is a parallelism with his quasi-causal account of ‘know’ (and his
caveat that ‘literally,’ we may just know that 2 + 2 = 4 (and such) (“Meaning
Revisited). In what he calls ‘accented sub-perceptum,’ the idea is that the U
is choosing the superceptum (“seems”) as opposed to his other obvious choices
(“The pillar box IS red,”) and the passive-voice version of the ‘perceptum’:
“The pillar box IS PERCEIVED red.” The ‘accent’ generates the D-or-D
implicatum: By uttering “The pillar box seems red,” U IMPLICATES that it is
denied that or doubted that the pillar box is perceived red by U or that the
pillar box is red. In this, the accented version contrasts with the unaccented
version where the implicatum is NOT generated, and the U remains uncommitted re:
this doubt or denial implicatum. It is this uncommitment that will allow to
disimplicate or cancel the implicatum should occasion arise. The reference
Grice makes between the sub-perceptum and the perceptum is grammatical, not
psychological. Or else he may be meaning that in uttering, “I perceive that the
pillar box is red,” one needs to appeal to Kant’s apperception of the ego. Refs.:
Pecocke, Sense and content, Grice, BANC.
subscriptum: Grice plays
with various roots of ‘scriptum.’ He was bound to. Moore had showed that ‘good’
was not ‘descriptive.’ Grice thinks it’s pseudo-descriptive. So here we have
the first, ‘descriptum,’ where what is meant is Griceian: By uttering the “The
cat is on the mat” U means, by his act of describing, that the cat is on the
mat. Then there’s the ‘prae-scriptum.’ Oddly, Grice, when criticizing the
‘descriptive’ fallacy, seldom mentions the co-relative ‘prescriptum.’ “Good”
would be understood in terms of a ‘prae-scriptum’ that appeals to his utterer’s
intentions. Then there’s the subscriptum. This may have various use, both in
Grice. “I subscribe,” and in the case of “Pegasus flies.” Where the utterer
subscribes to his ontological commitment. subscript device. Why does Grice
think we NEED a subscript device? Obviously, his wife would not use it. I mean,
you cannot pronounce a subscript device or a square-bracket device. So his
point is ironic. “Ordinary” language does not need it. But if Strawson and
Quine are going to be picky about stuff – ontological commitment, ‘existential
presupposition,’ let’s subscribe and bracket! Note that Quine’s response to
Grice is perfunctory: “Brackets would have done!” 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.
Suggestio falsi -- suggest
summum genus.
The categories. There is infimum genus, or sub-summum. Talk of categories
becomes informal in Grice when he ‘echoes’ Kant in the mention of four
‘functions’ that generate for Kant twelve categories. Grice however uses the
functions themselves, echoing Ariskant, rather, as ‘caegory’. We have then a
category of conversational quantity (involved in a principle of maximization of
conversational informativeness). We have a category of conversational quality
(or a desideratum of conversational candour). We have a category of
conversational relation (cf. Strawson’s principle of relevance along with
Strawson’s principles of the presumption of knowledge and the presumption of
ignorance). Lastly, we have a category of conversational mode. For some reason,
Grice uses ‘manner’ sometimes in lieu of Meiklejohn’s apt translation of Kant’s
modality into the shorter ‘mode.’ The four have Aristotelian pedigree, indeed
Grecian and Graeco-Roman: The quantity is Kant’s quantitat which is Aristotle’s
posotes (sic abstract) rendered in Roman as ‘quantitas.’ Of course, Aristotle
derives ‘posotes,’ from ‘poson,’ the quantum. No quantity without quantum. The
quality is Kant’s qualitat, which again has Grecian and Graeco-Roman pediegree.
It is Aristotel’s poiotes (sic in abstract), rendered in Roman as qualitas.
Again, derived from the more basic ‘poion,’ or ‘quale.’ Aristotle was unable to
find a ‘-tes’ ending form for what Kant has as ‘relation.’ ‘pros it’ is used,
and first translated into Roman as ‘relatio.’ We see here that we are talking
of a ‘summum genus.’ For who other but a philosopher is going to lecture on the
‘pros it’? What Aristotle means is that Socrates is to the right of Plato.
Finally, for Grice’s mode, there is Kant’s wrong ‘modalitat,’ since this refers
to Aristotle ‘te’ and translated in Roman as ‘modus,’ which Meiklejohn, being a
better classicist than Kant, renders as ‘mode,’ and not the pretentious
sounding ‘modality.’ Now for Kant, 12 categories are involved here. Why?
Because he subdivides each summum genus into three sub-summum or ‘inferiore’
genus. This is complex. Kant would DISAGREE with Grice’s idea that a subject
can JUDGE in generic terms, say, about the quantum. The subject has THREE
scenarios. It’s best to reverse the order, for surely unity comes before
totality. One scenario, he utters a SINGULAR or individual utterance (Grice on
‘the’). The CATEGORY is the first category, THE UNUM or UNITAS. The one. The
unity. Second scenario, he utters a PARTICULAR utterance (Grice’s “some (at
least one). Here we encounter the SECOND category, that of PLURALITAS, the
plurum, plurality. It’s a good thing Kant forgot that the Greeks had a dual
number, and that Urquhart has fourth number, a re-dual. A third scenario: the
nirvana. He utters a UNIVERSAL (totum) utterance (Grice on “all”). The category
is that of TOTUM, TOTALITAS, totality. Kant does not deign to specify if he
means substitutional or non-substitutional. For the quale, there are again
three scenarios for Kant, and he would deny that the subject is confronted with
the FUNCTION quale and be able to formulate a judgement. The first scenario
involves the subject uttering a PROPOSITIO DEDICATIVA (Grice elaborates on this
before introducing ‘not’ in “Indicative conditionals” – “Let’s start with some
unstructured amorophous proposition.” Here the category is NOT AFFIRMATION, but
the nirvana “REALITAS,” Reality, reale.Second scenario, subject utters a
PROPOSITIO ABDICATIVA (Grice on ‘not’). While Kant does not consider affirmatio
a category (why should he?), he does consider NEGATIO a category. Negation. See
abdicatum. Third scenario, subject utters an PROPOSITIO INFINITA. Here the
category is that of LIMITATION, which is quite like NEGATIO (cf. privatio,
stelesis, versus habitus or hexis), but not quite. Possibly LIMITATUM. Regarding
the ‘pros ti.’ The first scenario involves a categorema, PROPOSITIO CATEGORICA.
Here Kant seems to think that there is ONE category called “INHERENCE AND
SUBSTISTENCE or substance and accident. There seem rather two. He will go to
this ‘pair’ formulation in one more case in the relation, and for the three
under modus. If we count the ‘categorical pairs’ as being two categories. The
total would not be 12 categories but 17, which is a rather ugly number for a
list of categories, unles it is not. Kant is being VERY serious here, because
if he has SUBSTISTENCE or SUBSTANCE as a category, this is SECUNDA SUBSTANTIA
or ‘deutero-ousia.’ It is a no-no to count the prote ousia or PRIMA SUBSTANTIA
as a category. It is defined as THE THING which cannot be predicated of
anything! “SUMBEBEKOS” is a trick of Kant, for surely EVERYTHING BUT THE
SUBSTANCE can be seen as an ‘accidens’ (In fact, those who deny categories,
reduce them to ‘attribute’, or ‘property.’ The second scenario involves an ‘if’
Grice on ‘if’ – PROPOSITIO CONDITIONALIS – hypothetike protasis -- this
involves for the first time a MOLECULAR proposition. As in the previous case,
we have a ‘category pair’, which is formulated either as CAUSALITY (CAUSALITAS)
and DEPENDENCE (Dependentia), or “cause’ (CAUSA) and ‘effect’ (Effectum). Kant
is having in mind Strawson’s account of ‘if’ (The influence of P. F. Strawson
on Kant). For since this is the hypothetical, Kant is suggeseting that in ‘if
p, q’ q depends on p, or q is an effect of its cause, p. As in “If it rains, the
boots are in the closet.” (J). The third scenario also involves a molectural proposition, A
DISJUNCTUM. PROPOSITIO DISJUNCTIVA. Note that in Kant, ‘if’ before ‘or’! His
implicature: subordination before coordination, which makes sense. Grice on
‘or.’ FOR SOME REASON, the category here for Kant is that of COMMUNITAS
(community) or RECIPROCITAS, reciprocity. He seems to be suggesting that if you
turn to the right or to the left, you are reciprocally forbidden to keep on
going straight. For the modus, similar. Here Kant is into modality. Again, it
is best to re-order the scenarios in terms of priority. Here it’s the middle
which is basic. The first scenario, subject utters an ASSERTORIC. The category
is a pair: EXISTENCE (how is this different from REALITY) and NON-EXISTENCE
(how is this different from negation?). He has in mind: ‘the cat is in the
room,’ ‘the room is empty.’ Second scenario, the subject doubts. subject utters
a problematical. (“The pillar box may be red”). Here we have a category pair:
POSSIBILITIAS (possibility) and, yes, IMPOSSIBILITAS – IMPOSSIBILITY. This is
odd, because ‘impossibility’ goes rather with the negation of necessity. The
third and last scenario, subject utters an APODEICTIC. Here again there is a
category pair – yielding 17 as the final number --: NECESSITAS, necessity, and
guess what, CONTINGENTIA, or contingency. Surely, possibilitas and contingentia
are almost the same thing. It may be what Grice has in mind when he blames a
philosopher to state that ‘what is actual is not also possible.’ Or not.
syntactics: The
Latinate is ‘contactum.’ Morris thought he was being bright when he proposed
‘syntactics,’ “long for syntax,” he wrote. syntax, περὶ τῆς ς. τῶν λεγομένων, title of work by Chrysipp., Stoic.2.6, cf. Plu.2.731f (pl.);
“τὴν ς. τῶν ὀνομάτων” Gal.16.736, cf. 720; περὶ συντάξεως, title of work by A.D.; but also, compound forms, Id.Conj.214.7; ποιεῖσθαι μετά τινος τὴν ς. ib.221.19; also, rule
for combination of sounds or letters, τὸ χ (in δέγμενος)“ εἰς γ μετεβλήθη, τῆς ς. οὕτως ἀπαιτούσης” EM252.45, cf. Luc.Jud. Voc.3; also, connected speech, ἐν τῇ ς. ἐγκλιτέον Sch.Il.16.85.Grice’s presupposition is that a
‘syntactics’ is not enough for a system to be a ‘communication-system’. Nothing
is communicated. With the syntagma, there is no communicatum. 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. A syntactic approach to Grice’s System does not require value-assignment.
The system is constructed alla Gentzen with introduction and elimination rules
which are regarded as syntactic in nature. One can easily
check that the rules statedabove adequately characterise the meaning of
classical conjunction which is true iff both conjuncts are true. Hence the
syntactic deducibility relation coincides with the semantic relation of /=
or logical consequence (or entailment). Refs.: The most direct source is “Vacuous
names,” but the keyword ‘syntax’ is helpful. The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
tautologum: Grice uses ‘tautological’
variously. It is tautological that we smell smells, for example. This is an
extension of ‘paradigm-case,’ re: analyticity. Without ‘analytic’ there is no
‘tautologicum.’ tautŏlŏgĭa ,
ae, f., = ταυτολογία,I.a repetition of the same meaning in
different words, tautology, Mart. Cap. 5, § 535;
Charis, p. 242 P. ταὐτολογ-έω ,A.repeat what has been said, “περί τινος” Plb.1.1.3; “ὑπέρ τινος” Id.1.79.7; “τ. τὸν λόγον” Str.12.3.27:—abs., Plb.36.12.2, Phld. Po.Herc.994.30, Hermog.Inv.3.15.
Oddly why Witters restricts tautology to truth-table propositional logic,
Grice’s two examples are predicate calculus: Women are women and war is war. 4.46 GER [→OGD | →P/M] Unter den
möglichen Gruppen von Wahrheitsbedingungen gibt es zwei extreme Fälle. In dem
einen Fall ist der Satz für sämtliche Wahrheitsmöglichkeiten der Elementarsätze
wahr. Wir sagen, die Wahrheitsbedingungen sind t a u t o l o g i s c h. Im
zweiten Fall ist der Satz für sämtliche Wahrheitsmöglichkeiten falsch: Die
Wahrheitsbedingungen sind k o n t r a d i k t o r i s c h. Im ersten Fall
nennen wir den Satz eine Tautologie, im zweiten Fall eine Kontradiktion. 4.461 GER [→OGD | →P/M] Der Satz
zeigt was er sagt, die Tautologie und die Kontradiktion, dass sie nichts sagen.
Die Tautologie hat keine Wahrheitsbedingungen, denn sie ist bedingungslos wahr;
und die Kontradiktion ist unter keiner Bedingung wahr. Tautologie und
Kontradiktion sind sinnlos. (Wie der Punkt, von dem zwei Pfeile in
entgegengesetzter Richtung auseinandergehen.) (Ich weiß z. B. nichts über das
Wetter, wenn ich weiß, dass es regnet oder nicht regnet.) 4.4611 GER [→OGD |
→P/M] Tautologie und Kontradiktion sind aber nicht unsinnig; sie gehören zum
Symbolismus, und zwar ähnlich wie die „0“ zum Symbolismus der Arithmetik. 4.462
GER [→OGD | →P/M] Tautologie und Kontradiktion sind nicht Bilder der
Wirklichkeit. Sie stellen keine mögliche Sachlage dar. Denn jene lässt j e d e mögliche
Sachlage zu, diese k e i n e. In der Tautologie heben die Bedingungen der
Übereinstimmung mit der Welt—die darstellenden Beziehungen—einander auf, so
dass sie in keiner darstellenden Beziehung zur Wirklichkeit steht. 4.463 GER
[→OGD | →P/M] Die Wahrheitsbedingungen bestimmen den Spielraum, der den
Tatsachen durch den Satz gelassen wird. (Der Satz, das Bild, das Modell, sind
im negativen Sinne wie ein fester Körper, der die Bewegungsfreiheit der anderen
beschränkt; im positiven Sinne, wie der von fester Substanz begrenzte Raum,
worin ein Körper Platz hat.) Die Tautologie lässt der Wirklichkeit den
ganzen—unendlichen—logischen Raum; die Kontradiktion erfüllt den ganzen
logischen Raum und lässt der Wirklichkeit keinen Punkt. Keine von beiden kann
daher die Wirklichkeit irgendwie bestimmen. 4.464 GER [→OGD | →P/M] Die
Wahrheit der Tautologie ist gewiss, des Satzes möglich, der Kontradiktion
unmöglich. (Gewiss, möglich, unmöglich: Hier haben wir das Anzeichen jener
Gradation, die wir in der Wahrscheinlichkeitslehre brauchen.) 4.465 GER [→OGD |
→P/M] Das logische Produkt einer Tautologie und eines Satzes sagt dasselbe, wie
der Satz. Also ist jenes Produkt identisch mit dem Satz. Denn man kann das
Wesentliche des Symbols nicht ändern, ohne seinen Sinn zu ändern. 4.466 GER
[→OGD | →P/M] Einer bestimmten logischen Verbindung von Zeichen entspricht eine
bestimmte logische Verbindung ihrer Bedeutungen; j e d e b e l i e - b i g e
Verbindung entspricht nur den unverbundenen Zeichen. Das heißt, Sätze, die für
jede Sachlage wahr sind, können überhaupt keine Zeichenverbindungen sein, denn
sonst könnten ihnen nur bestimmte Verbindungen von Gegenständen entsprechen.
(Und keiner logischen Verbindung entspricht k e i n e Verbindung der
Gegenstände.) Tautologie und Kontradiktion sind die Grenzfälle der
Zeichenverbindung, nämlich ihre Auflösung. 4.4661 GER [→OGD | →P/M] Freilich
sind auch in der Tautologie und Kontradiktion die Zeichen noch mit einander
verbunden, d. h. sie stehen in Beziehungen zu einander, aber diese Beziehungen
sind bedeu- tungslos, dem S y m b o l unwesentlich. 4.46 OGD [→GER | →P/M] Among the
possible groups of truthconditions there are two extreme cases. In the one case
the proposition is true for all the truth-possibilities of the elementary
propositions. We say that the truth-conditions are tautological. In the second
case the proposition is false for all the truth-possibilities. The
truth-conditions are self-contradictory. In the first case we call the
proposition a tautology, in the second case a contradiction. 4.461 OGD [→GER |
→P/M] The proposition shows what it says, the tautology and the contradiction
that they say nothing. The tautology has no truth-conditions, for it is
unconditionally true; and the contradiction is on no condition true. Tautology
and contradiction are without sense. (Like the point from which two arrows go
out in opposite directions.) (I know, e.g. nothing about the weather, when I
know that it rains or does not rain.) 4.4611 OGD [→GER | →P/M] Tautology and
contradiction are, however, not nonsensical; they are part of the symbol- ism,
in the same way that “0” is part of the symbolism of Arithmetic. 4.462 OGD
[→GER | →P/M] Tautology and contradiction are not pictures of the reality. They
present no possible state of affairs. For the one allows every possible state
of affairs, the other none. In the tautology the conditions of agreement with
the world—the presenting relations— cancel one another, so that it stands in no
presenting relation to reality. 4.463 OGD [→GER | →P/M] The truth-conditions
determine the range, which is left to the facts by the proposition. (The
proposition, the picture, the model, are in a negative sense like a solid body,
which restricts the free movement of another: in a positive sense, like the
space limited by solid substance, in which a body may be placed.) Tautology
leaves to reality the whole infinite logical space; contradiction fills the
whole logi- cal space and leaves no point to reality. Neither of them,
therefore, can in any way determine reality. 4.464 OGD [→GER | →P/M] The truth
of tautology is certain, of propositions possible, of contradiction impossible.
(Certain, possible, impossible: here we have an indication of that gradation
which we need in the theory of probability.) 4.465 OGD [→GER | →P/M] The
logical product of a tautology and a proposition says the same as the
proposition. Therefore that product is identical with the proposition. For the
essence of the symbol cannot be altered without altering its sense. 4.466 OGD
[→GER | →P/M] To a definite logical combination of signs corresponds a definite
logical combination of their meanings; every arbitrary combination only
corresponds to the unconnected signs. That is, propositions which are true for
ev- ery state of affairs cannot be combinations of signs at all, for otherwise
there could only correspond to them definite combinations of objects. (And to
no logical combination corresponds no combination of the objects.) Tautology
and contradiction are the limiting cases of the combination of symbols, namely
their dissolution. 4.4661 OGD [→GER | →P/M] Of course the signs are also
combined with one another in the tautology and contradiction, i.e. they stand
in relations to one another, but these relations are meaningless, unessential
to the symbol. 4.46
P/M [→GER | →OGD] Among the possible groups of truthconditions there are two
extreme cases. In one of these cases the proposition is true for all the
truth-possibilities of the elementary propositions. We say that the
truth-conditions are tautological. In the second case the proposition is false
for all the truth-possibilities: the truth-conditions are contradictory. In the
first case we call the proposition a tautology; in the second, a contradiction.
4.461 P/M [→GER | →OGD] Propositions show what they say: tautolo- gies and
contradictions show that they say nothing. A tautology has no truth-conditions,
since it is unconditionally true: and a contradiction is true on no condition.
Tautologies and contradictions lack sense. (Like a point from which two arrows
go out in opposite directions to one another.) (For example, I know nothing
about the weather when I know that it is either raining or not raining.) 4.4611
P/M [→GER | →OGD] Tautologies and contradictions are not, however, nonsensical.
They are part of the symbolism, much as ‘0’ is part of the symbolism of
arithmetic. 4.462 P/M [→GER | →OGD] Tautologies and contradictions are not
pictures of reality. They do not represent any possible situations. For the
former admit all possible situations, and latter none. In a tautology the
conditions of agreement with the world—the representational relations—cancel
one another, so that it does not stand in any representational relation to
reality. 4.463 P/M [→GER | →OGD] The truth-conditions of a proposition determine
the range that it leaves open to the facts. (A proposition, a picture, or a
model is, in the negative sense, like a solid body that restricts the freedom
of movement of others, and, in the positive sense, like a space bounded by
solid substance in which there is room for a body.) A tautology leaves open to
reality the whole—the infinite whole—of logical space: a contradiction fills
the whole of logical space leaving no point of it for reality. Thus neither of
them can determine reality in any way. 4.464 P/M [→GER | →OGD] A tautology’s
truth is certain, a proposition’s possible, a contradiction’s impossible.
(Certain, possible, impossible: here we have the first indication of the scale
that we need in the theory of probability.) 4.465 P/M [→GER | →OGD] The logical
product of a tautology and a proposition says the same thing as the
proposition. This product, therefore, is identical with the proposition. For it
is impossible to alter what is essential to a symbol without altering its
sense. 4.466 P/M [→GER | →OGD] What corresponds to a determinate logical
combination of signs is a determinate logical combination of their meanings. It
is only to the uncombined signs that absolutely any combination corresponds. In
other words, propositions that are true for every situation cannot be
combinations of signs at all, since, if they were, only determinate
combinations of objects could correspond to them. (And what is not a logical
combination has no combination of objects corresponding to it.) Tautology and
contradiction are the limiting cases—indeed the disintegration—of the
combination of signs. 4.4661 P/M [→GER | →OGD] Admittedly the signs are still
combined with one another even in tautologies and contradictions—i.e. they
stand in certain relations to one another: but these relations have no meaning,
they are not essential to the symbol. 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: The coinage is interesting. Since
Grice has an essay on ‘modest mentalism,’ and would often use ‘mental’ for
‘psychological,’ it does make sense. ‘Ideationalism’ is analogous. 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: This is an expansion on the desideratum. Cf. ‘desirable,’
and ‘desirability,’ and ‘end.’ Grice feels like introducing goal-oriented conceptual
machinery. In a later stage of his career he ensured that this machinery be
seen as NOT mechanistically derivable. Which is odd seeing that in the
‘progression’ of the ‘soul,’ he allows for talk of adaptiveness and survival
which suggest a mechanist explanation. If an agent has a desideratum that means
that, to echo Bennett, A displays a goal-oriented behaviour, where the goal is
the ‘telos.’ Smoke cannot ‘mean’ fire, because smoke doesn’t really behave in a
goal-oriented matter. Grice does play with the idea of finality in nature,
because that would allow him to justify the objectivity of his system. 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’s priority for the ‘that’-clause is multiple. He
dislikes what he calls an ‘amorphous’ propositional complex. His idea is to have
at least ‘The S is P,’ one act involving a subjectum or denotatum, and one
involving the praedicatum. There is also what he calls sub-perceptual
utterances. They do look like structured (“That red pillar seems red”) but they
are not perceptual reports like “I perceive that the pillar box is red.” At
points he wanst to restrict utterer’s communucatum to a ‘that’-clause; but
ignoring Austin’s remark that to wonder about what a ‘word’ ‘means’ is
senseless, Grice sometimes allows for things like ‘The cat sat on the mat’ to
‘mean’ that the cat sat on the mat. Grice thinks that his account of ‘the
red-seeming pillar box’ succeeded, and that it was this success that prompted
him to apply the thing to other areas, notably Strawson, but one hopes, all the
theses he presents in “Causal” and “Prolegomena.” But he does not go back to
the is/seems example, other than perhaps the tie is/seems blue. The reason is
that the sense-datum theory is very complex. Note “seems.” “It seems to me
that…” but the ‘that’-clause not as a content of a state of the agent. If the
pillar box seems red to Grice because it is red, what ‘that’-clause are we
talking about to involve in the implicatum? And what generates the implicatum.
“By uttering “The pillar box seems red,” U conversationally implicates that
there is a denial or doubt, somewhere as to whether the pillar box IS red.” 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. For those into implicata and conversation
as rational cooperation, when introducing the implicatum he mentions
‘pre-theoretical adequacy’ of the model. So he is thinking of the
conversational theory as a theory in the strict sense, with ‘explanatory’ and
not merely taxonomical power. So one task is to examine in which way the
conversational theory is a theory that explains, rather than merely ad hoc ex
post facto commentary. 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: One of Grice’s problem is with ‘know’ and ‘certainty.’ He
grants that we only know that 2 + 2 = 4. He often identifies ‘knowledge’ with
‘certainty.’ He does not explore a cancellation like, “I am certain but I do
not know.” The reason being that he defends common sense against the sceptic,
and so his attitude towards certainty has to be very careful. The second
problem is that he wants ‘certainty’ to deal within the desiderative realm. To
do that, he divides an act of intending into two: an act of accepting and act
of willing. The ‘certainty’ is found otiose if the intender is seen as ‘willing
that p’ and accepting that the willing will be the cause for the desideratum to
obtain. n WoW:141, Grice proposes that
‘A is certain that p’ ENTAILS either ‘A is certain that he is certain that p,
OR AT LEAST that it is not the case that A is UNCERTAIN that A is certain that
p.” ‘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: This is a Gricism. It all started with arbor porphyriana. It
is supposed to translate Aristotle’s “to kath’olou” (which happens to be one of
the categories in Kant, “alleheit,” and which Aristotle contrasts with “to
kath’ekastou,” (which Kant has as a category, SINGULARITAS. For a nominalist,
any predicate is a ‘name,’ hence ‘nominalism.’ Opposite ‘realism.’ “Nominalism”
is actually a misnomer. The opposite of realism is anti-realism. We need
something like ‘universalism,’ (he who believes in the existence, not necessary
‘reality’ of a universal) and a ‘particularist,’ or ‘singularist,’ who does
not. Note that the opposite of ‘particularism,’ is ‘totalism.’ (Totum et pars).
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. Urmson’s use of the bribe is
‘accidental.’ What Urmson is getting at is that if the briber intends the bribe
acts as a cause to effect a response, even a cognitive one, in the bribe, the
propositional complexum, “This is a bribe,” should not necessarily be
communicated. It is amazing how Grice changed the example into one about
physical action. They seem different. On the other hand, Grice would not have
cared to credit Urmson had it not believed it worth knowing that the criticism
arose within the Play Group (Grice admired Urmson). In his earlier “Meaning,”
Grice presents his own self-criticisms to arrive at a more refined analysis.
But in “Utterer’s meaning and intention,” when it comes to the SUFFICIENCY,
it’s all about other people: notably Urmson and Strawson. Grice cites Stampe
before Strawson, but many ignore Stampe on the basis that Strawson does not
credit him, and there is no reason why he should have been aware of it. But
Stampe was at Oxford at the time so this is worth noting. It has to be
emphasised that the author list is under ‘sufficiency.’ Under necessity, Grice
does not credit the source of the objections, so we can assume it is Grice
himself, as he had presented criticisms to his own view within the same
‘Meaning.’ It is curious that Grice loved Stampe. Grice CHANGED Urmon’s
example, and was unable to provide a specific scenario to Strawson’s alleged
counterexample, because Strawson is vague himself. But Stampe’s, Grice left
unchanged. 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.
utile: Grice being keen on neuter adjectives, he saw the ‘utile’
at the root of utilitarianism. There is much ‘of value’ in the old Roman
concept of ‘utile.’ Lewis and Short have it as Neutr. absol.: ūtĭle , is, n., what
is useful, the useful: omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci, Hor. A. P.
343: “bonus atque fidus Judex honestum praetulit utili,” id. C. 4, 9, 41:
“utilium tardus provisor,” id. A. P. 164: “sententiae de utilibus honestisque,”
Quint. 3, 8, 13; cf. id. 1, 2, 29. —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.
Utterer. The distinction is between what an
utterer means and what the logical and necessary implication. He doesn’t need
to say this since ‘imply’ in the logical usage does not take utterer as
subject. It’s what the utterer SAYS that implies this or that. (Strawson and
Wiggins, p. 519). with W.F.R. Hardie Hardie, W.F.R. at Corpus
Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi...
validum: the validum is the correct form out of Roman ‘valeor.’ Grice
finds the need for the English equivalent, and plays with constructing the
‘concept’ “to be of value”! There’s also the axiologicum. The root for ‘value’
as ‘axis’ is found in Grice’s favourite book of the Republic, the First! 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.’
Weapon.
Grice forged a new weapon. Fashioning new skids to put under his feet –
Strawson wiggins p. 522
Yog and Zog: This is an expansion by Grice on the implicatum of a
‘propositio conditionalis.’ 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.
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