causatum: Is the causatum involved in the communicatum. Grice
relies on this only in Meaning Revisited, where he presents a transcendental
argument for the justification. This is what is referred in the literature as
“H. P. Grice’s Triangle.” Borrowing from Aristotle in De Interpretatione, Grice
speaks of three corners of the triangle and correspondences obtaining between
them. There’s a psychophysical correspondence between the soul of the emissor,
the soul of the emissee, and the shared experience of the denotata of the
communication device the emissor employs. Then there’s the psychosemiotic
correspondence between the communication device and the state of the soul in
the emissor that is transferred, in a soul-to-soul transfer to the emissee. And
finally, there is a semiophyiscal correspondence between the communication
device and the world. When it comes to the causation, the belief that there is
fire is caused by there being fire. The emissor wants to transfer his belief,
and utters. “Smoke!”. The soul-to-soul transfer is effected. The fire that
caused the smoke that caused the belief in the the emissor now causes a belief
in the emissee. If that’s not a causal account of communication, I don’t know
what it is. Grice is no expressionist in that a solipsistic telementational
model is of no use if there is no ‘hookup’ as he puts it with the world that
causes this ‘shared experience’ that is improved by the existence of a
communication device. Grice’s idea of
‘cause’ is his ‘bite’ on reality. He chooses ‘Phenomenalism’ as an enemy.
Causal realism is at the heart of Grice’s programme. As an Oxonian, he was well
aware that to trust a cause is to be anti-Cambridge, where they follow Hume’s
and Kant’s scepticism. Grice uses ‘cause’ rather casually. His most serious
joke is “Charles I’s decapitation willed his death” – but it is not easy to
trace a philosopher who explicitly claim that ‘to cause’ is ‘to will.’ For in God the means and the end preexist in the cause as willed together.
Causation figures large in Grice, notably re: the perceptum. The agent
perceives that the pillar box is red. The cause is that the pillar box is red.
Out of that, Grice constructs a whole theory of conversation. Why would someone
just report what a THING SEEMS to him when he has no doubt that it was THE
THING that caused the thing to SEEM red to him? Applying some sort of
helpfulness, it works: the addressee is obviously more interested in what the
thing IS, not what it seems. A sense-datum is not something you can eat. An
apple is. So, the assumption is that a report of what a thing IS is more
relevant than a report about what a thing SEEMS. So, Grice needs to find a rationale that justifies,
ceteris paribus, the utterance of “The thing seems phi.” Following helpfulness,
U utters “The thing seems phi” when the U is not in a position to say what the
thing IS phi. The denial, “The thing is not phi” is in the air, and also the
doubt, “The thing may not be phi.” Most without a philosophical background who
do not take Grice’s joke of echoing Kant’s categories (Kant had 12, not 4!) play
with quantitas, qualitas, relatio and modus. Grice in “Causal” uses ‘weak’ and
‘strong’ but grants he won’t ‘determine’ in what way ‘the thing seems phi’ is
‘weaker’ than ‘the thing is phi.’ It might well be argued that it’s STRONGER:
the thing SEEEMS TO BE phi.’ In the previous “Introduction to Logical Theory,”
Strawson just refers to Grice’s idea of a ‘pragmatic rule’ to the effect that
one utter the LOGICALLY stronger proposition. Let’s revise dates. Whereas Grice
says that his confidence in the success of “Causal,” he ventured with
Strawson’s “Intro,” Strawson is citing Grice already. Admittedly, Strawson
adds, “in a different context.” But Grice seems pretty sure that “The thing
seems phi” is WEAKER than “The thing is phi.” In 1961 he is VERY CLEAR that
while what he may have said to Strawson that Strawson reported in that footnote
was in terms of LOGICAL STRENGTH (in terms of entailment, for extensional
contexts). In “Causal,” Grice is clear that he does not think LOGICAL STRENGTH
applies to intensional contexts. In later revisions, it is not altogether clear
how he deals with the ‘doubt or denial.’ He seems to have been more interested
in refuting G. A. Paul (qua follower of Witters) than anything else. In his
latest reformulation of the principle, now a conversational category, he is not
specific about phenomenalist reports. A causal law is a statement describing a
regular and invariant connection between types of events or states, where the
connections involved are causal in some sense. When one speaks of causal laws
as distinguished from laws that are not 123 category mistake causal law 123 causal, the intended distinction may
vary. Sometimes, a law is said to be causal if it relates events or states
occurring at successive times, also called a law of succession: e.g.,
‘Ingestion of strychnine leads to death.’ A causal law in this sense contrasts
with a law of coexistence, which connects events or states occurring at the
same time e.g., the Wiedemann-Franz law relating thermal and electric
conductivity in metals. One important kind of causal law is the deterministic
law. Causal laws of this kind state exceptionless connections between events,
while probabilistic or statistical laws specify probability relationships
between events. For any system governed by a set of deterministic laws, given
the state of a system at a time, as characterized by a set of state variables,
these laws will yield a unique state of the system for any later time or,
perhaps, at any time, earlier or later. Probabilistic laws will yield, for a
given antecedent state of a system, only a probability value for the occurrence
of a certain state at a later time. The laws of classical mechanics are often
thought to be paradigmatic examples of causal laws in this sense, whereas the
laws of quantum mechanics are claimed to be essentially probabilistic. Causal
laws are sometimes taken to be laws that explicitly specify certain events as causes
of certain other events. Simple laws of this kind will have the form ‘Events of
kind F cause events of kind G’; e.g., ‘Heating causes metals to expand’. A
weaker related concept is this: a causal law is one that states a regularity
between events which in fact are related as cause to effect, although the
statement of the law itself does not say so laws of motion expressed by
differential equations are perhaps causal laws in this sense. These senses of
‘causal law’ presuppose a prior concept of causation. Finally, causal laws may
be contrasted with teleological laws, laws that supposedly describe how certain
systems, in particular biological organisms, behave so as to achieve certain
“goals” or “end states.” Such laws are sometimes claimed to embody the idea
that a future state that does not as yet exist can exert an influence on the
present behavior of a system. Just what form such laws take and exactly how
they differ from ordinary laws have not been made wholly clear, however. Grice was not too happy with the causal
theory of proper names, the view that proper names designate what they name by
virtue of a kind of causal connection to it. Perhaps his antipathy was due to
the fact that he was Herbert Grice, and so was his father. This led Grice to
start using once at Clifton and Oxford, “H. P.” and eventually, dropping the
“Herbert” altogether and become “Paul Grice.” This view is a special case, and
in some instances an unwarranted interpretation, of a direct reference view of
names. On this approach, proper names, e.g., ‘Machiavelli’, are, as J. S. Mill
wrote, “purely denotative. . . . they denote the individuals who are called by
them; but they do not indicate or imply any attributes as belonging to those
individuals” A System of Logic, 1879. Proper names may suggest certain
properties to many competent speakers, but any such associated information is
no part of the definition of the name. Names, on this view, have no
definitions. What connects a name to what it names is not the latter’s
satisfying some condition specified in the name’s definition. Names, instead,
are simply attached to things, applied as labels, as it were. A proper name,
once attached, becomes a socially available device for making the relevant name
bearer a subject of discourse. On the other leading view, the descriptivist
view, a proper name is associated with something like a definition.
‘Aristotle’, on this view, applies by definition to whoever satisfies the
relevant properties e.g., is ‘the teacher
of Alexander the Great, who wrote the Nicomachean Ethics’. Russell, e.g.,
maintained that ordinary proper names which he contrasted with logically proper
or genuine names have definitions, that they are abbreviated definite
descriptions. Frege held that names have sense, a view whose proper
interpretation remains in dispute, but is often supposed to be closely related
to Russell’s approach. Others, most notably Searle, have defended descendants
of the descriptivist view. An important variant, sometimes attributed to Frege,
denies that names have articulable definitions, but nevertheless associates
them with senses. And the bearer will still be, by definition as it were, the
unique thing to satisfy the relevant mode of presentation. causal
overdetermination causal theory of proper names 124 124 The direct reference approach is
sometimes misleadingly called the causal theory of names. But the key idea need
have nothing to do with causation: a proper name functions as a tag or label
for its bearer, not as a surrogate for a descriptive expression. Whence the
allegedly misleading term ‘causal theory of names’? Contemporary defenders of
Mill’s conception like Keith Donnellan and Kripke felt the need to expand upon
Mill’s brief remarks. What connects a present use of a name with a referent?
Here Donnellan and Kripke introduce the notion of a “historical chains of
communication.” As Kripke tells the story, a baby is baptized with a proper
name. The name is used, first by those present at the baptism, subsequently by
those who pick up the name in conversation, reading, and so on. The name is
thus propagated, spread by usage “from link to link as if by a chain” Naming
and Necessity, 0. There emerges a historical chain of uses of the name that,
according to Donnellan and Kripke, bridges the gap between a present use of the
name and the individual so named. This “historical chain of communication” is
occasionally referred to as a “casual chain of communication.” The idea is that
one’s use of the name can be thought of as a causal factor in one’s listener’s
ability to use the name to refer to the same individual. However, although
Kripke in Naming and Necessity does occasionally refer to the chain of
communication as causal, he more often simply speaks of the chain of
communication, or of the fact that the name has been passed “by tradition from
link to link” p. 106. The causal aspect is not one that Kripke underscores. In
more recent writings on the topic, as well as in lectures, Kripke never
mentions causation in this connection, and Donnellan questions whether the
chain of communication should be thought of as a causal chain. This is not to
suggest that there is no view properly called a “causal theory of names.” There
is such a view, but it is not the view of Kripke and Donnellan. The causal
theory of names is a view propounded by physicalistically minded philosophers
who desire to “reduce” the notion of “reference” to something more
physicalistically acceptable, such as the notion of a causal chain running from
“baptism” to later use. This is a view whose motivation is explicitly rejected
by Kripke, and should be sharply distinguished from the more popular anti-Fregean
approach sketched above. Causation is the relation between cause and effect, or
the act of bringing about an effect, which may be an event, a state, or an
object say, a statue. The concept of causation has long been recognized as one
of fundamental philosophical importance. Hume called it “the cement of the
universe”: causation is the relation that connects events and objects of this
world in significant relationships. The concept of causation seems pervasively
present in human discourse. It is expressed by not only ‘cause’ and its
cognates but by many other terms, such as ‘produce’, ‘bring about’, ‘issue’,
‘generate’, ‘result’, ‘effect’, ‘determine’, and countless others. Moreover,
many common transitive verbs “causatives”, such as ‘kill’, ‘break’, and ‘move’,
tacitly contain causal relations e.g., killing involves causing to die. The
concept of action, or doing, involves the idea that the agent intentionally
causes a change in some object or other; similarly, the concept of perception
involves the idea that the object perceived causes in the perceiver an
appropriate perceptual experience. The physical concept of force, too, appears
to involve causation as an essential ingredient: force is the causal agent of
changes in motion. Further, causation is intimately related to explanation: to
ask for an explanation of an event is, often, to ask for its cause. It is
sometimes thought that our ability to make predictions, and inductive inference
in general, depends on our knowledge of causal connections or the assumption
that such connections are present: the knowledge that water quenches thirst
warrants the predictive inference from ‘X is swallowing water’ to ‘X’s thirst
will be quenched’. More generally, the identification and systematic
description of causal relations that hold in the natural world have been
claimed to be the preeminent aim of science. Finally, causal concepts play a
crucial role in moral and legal reasoning, e.g., in the assessment of
responsibilities and liabilities. Event causation is the causation of one event
by another. A sequence of causally connected events is called a causal chain.
Agent causation refers to the act of an agent person, object in bringing about
a change; thus, my opening the window i.e., my causing the window to open is an
instance of agent causation. There is a controversy as to whether agent
causation is reducible to event causation. My opening the window seems
reducible to event causation since in reality a certain motion of my arms, an
event, causes the window to open. Some philosophers, however, have claimed that
not all cases of agent causation are so reducible. Substantival causation is
the creation of a genuinely new substance, or object, rather than causing
changes in preexisting substances, or merely rearranging them. The possibility
of substantival causation, at least in the natural world, has been disputed by
some philosophers. Event causation, however, has been the primary focus of
philosophical discussion in the modern and contemporary period. The analysis of
event causation has been controversial. The following four approaches have been
prominent: the regularity analysis, the counterfactual analysis, the
manipulation analysis, and the probabilistic analysis. The heart of the
regularity or nomological analysis, associated with Hume and J. S. Mill, is the
idea that causally connected events must instantiate a general regularity
between like kinds of events. More precisely: if c is a cause of e, there must
be types or kinds of events, F and G, such that c is of kind F, e is of kind G,
and events of kind F are regularly followed by events of kind G. Some take the
regularity involved to be merely de facto “constant conjunction” of the two
event types involved; a more popular view is that the regularity must hold as a
matter of “nomological necessity” i.e.,
it must be a “law.” An even stronger view is that the regularity must represent
a causal law. A law that does this job of subsuming causally connected events
is called a “covering” or “subsumptive” law, and versions of the regularity
analysis that call for such laws are often referred to as the “covering-law” or
“nomic-subsumptive” model of causality. The regularity analysis appears to give
a satisfactory account of some aspects of our causal concepts: for example,
causal claims are often tested by re-creating the event or situation claimed to
be a cause and then observing whether a similar effect occurs. In other
respects, however, the regularity account does not seem to fare so well: e.g.,
it has difficulty explaining the apparent fact that we can have knowledge of
causal relations without knowledge of general laws. It seems possible to know,
for instance, that someone’s contraction of the flu was caused by her exposure
to a patient with the disease, although we know of no regularity between such
exposures and contraction of the disease it may well be that only a very small
fraction of persons who have been exposed to flu patients contract the disease.
Do I need to know general regularities about itchings and scratchings to know
that the itchy sensation on my left elbow caused me to scratch it? Further, not
all regularities seem to represent causal connections e.g., Reid’s example of
the succession of day and night; two successive symptoms of a disease.
Distinguishing causal from non-causal regularities is one of the main problems
confronting the regularity theorist. According to the counterfactual analysis,
what makes an event a cause of another is the fact that if the cause event had
not occurred the effect event would not have. This accords with the idea that
cause is a condition that is sine qua non for the occurrence of the effect. The
view that a cause is a necessary condition for the effect is based on a similar
idea. The precise form of the counterfactual account depends on how
counterfactuals are understood e.g., if counterfactuals are explained in terms
of laws, the counterfactual analysis may turn into a form of the regularity
analysis. The counterfactual approach, too, seems to encounter various
difficulties. It is true that on the basis of the fact that if Larry had
watered my plants, as he had promised, my plants would not have died, I could
claim that Larry’s not watering my plants caused them to die. But it is also
true that if George Bush had watered my plants, they would not have died; but
does that license the claim that Bush’s not watering my plants caused them to
die? Also, there appear to be many cases of dependencies expressed by
counterfactuals that, however, are not cases of causal dependence: e.g., if
Socrates had not died, Xanthippe would not have become a widow; if I had not
raised my hand, I would not have signaled. The question, then, is whether these
non-causal counterfactuals can be distinguished from causal counterfactuals
without the use of causal concepts. There are also questions about how we could
verify counterfactuals in particular,
whether our knowledge of causal counterfactuals is ultimately dependent on
knowledge of causal laws and regularities. Some have attempted to explain
causation in terms of action, and this is the manipulation analysis: the cause
is an event or state that we can produce at will, or otherwise manipulate, to
produce a certain other event as an effect. Thus, an event is a cause of
another provided that by bringing about the first event we can bring about the
second. This account exploits the close connection noted earlier between the
concepts of action and cause, and highlights the important role that knowledge
of causal connections plays in our control of natural events. However, as an
analysis of the concept of cause, it may well have things backward: the concept
of action seems to be a richer and more complex concept that presupposes the
concept of cause, and an analysis of cause in terms of action could be accused
of circularity. The reason we think that someone’s exposure to a flu patient
was the cause of her catching the disease, notwithstanding the absence of an
appropriate regularity even one of high probability, may be this: exposure to
flu patients increases the probability of contracting the disease. Thus, an
event, X, may be said to be a probabilistic cause of an event, Y, provided that
the probability of the occurrence of Y, given that X has occurred, is greater
than the antecedent probability of Y. To meet certain obvious difficulties,
this rough definition must be further elaborated e.g., to eliminate the
possibility that X and Y are collateral effects of a common cause. There is
also the question whether probabilistic causation is to be taken as an analysis
of the general concept of causation, or as a special kind of causal relation,
or perhaps only as evidence indicating the presence of a causal relationship.
Probabilistic causation has of late been receiving increasing attention from
philosophers. When an effect is brought about by two independent causes either
of which alone would have sufficed, one speaks of causal overdetermination.
Thus, a house fire might have been caused by both a short circuit and a
simultaneous lightning strike; either event alone would have caused the fire,
and the fire, therefore, was causally overdetermined. Whether there are actual
instances of overdetermination has been questioned; one could argue that the
fire that would have been caused by the short circuit alone would not have been
the same fire, and similarly for the fire that would have been caused by the
lightning alone. The steady buildup of pressure in a boiler would have caused
it to explode but for the fact that a bomb was detonated seconds before,
leading to a similar effect. In such a case, one speaks of preemptive, or
superseding, cause. We are apt to speak of causes in regard to changes;
however, “unchanges,” e.g., this table’s standing here through some period of
time, can also have causes: the table continues to stand here because it is
supported by a rigid floor. The presence of the floor, therefore, can be called
a sustaining cause of the table’s continuing to stand. A cause is usually
thought to precede its effect in time; however, some have argued that we must
allow for the possibility of a cause that is temporally posterior to its
effect backward causation sometimes
called retrocausation. And there is no universal agreement as to whether a
cause can be simultaneous with its effect
concurrent causation. Nor is there a general agreement as to whether
cause and effect must, as a matter of conceptual necessity, be “contiguous” in
time and space, either directly or through a causal chain of contiguous
events contiguous causation. The attempt
to “analyze” causation seems to have reached an impasse; the proposals on hand
seem so widely divergent that one wonders whether they are all analyses of one
and the same concept. But each of them seems to address some important aspect
of the variegated notion that we express by the term ‘cause’, and it may be
doubted whether there is a unitary concept of causation that can be captured in
an enlightening philosophical analysis. On the other hand, the centrality of
the concept, both to ordinary practical discourse and to the scientific
description of the world, is difficult to deny. This has encouraged some
philosophers to view causation as a primitive, one that cannot be further
analyzed. There are others who advocate the extreme view causal nihilism that
causal concepts play no role whatever in the advanced sciences, such as
fundamental physical theories of space-time and matter, and that the very
notion of cause is an anthropocentric projection deriving from our confused
ideas of action and power. Causatum -- Dretske, Fred b.2, philosopher best known for his externalistic
representational naturalism about experience, belief, perception, and
knowledge. Educated at Purdue and
the of Minnesota, he has taught at
the of Wisconsin 088 and Stanford 898. In Seeing and Knowing 9 Dretske develops
an account of non-epistemic seeing, denying that seeing is believing that for a subject S to see a dog, say, S
must apply a concept to it dog, animal, furry. The dog must look some way to S
S must visually differentiate the dog, but need not conceptually categorize it.
This contrasts with epistemic seeing, where for S to see that a dog is before
him, S would have to believe that it is a dog. In Knowledge and the Flow of
Information 1, a mind-independent objective sense of ‘information’ is applied
to propositional knowledge and belief content. “Information” replaced Dretske’s
earlier notion of a “conclusive reason” 1. Knowing that p requires having a
true belief caused or causally sustained by an event that carries the
information that p. Also, the semantic content of a belief is identified with
the most specific digitally encoded piece of information to which it becomes
selectively sensitive during a period of learning. In Explaining Behavior 8,
Dretske’s account of representation and misrepresentation takes on a
teleological flavor. The semantic meaning of a structure is now identified with
its indicator function. A structure recruited for a causal role of indicating
F’s, and sustained in that causal role by this ability, comes to mean F thereby providing a causal role for the
content of cognitive states, and avoiding epiphenomenalism about semantic
content. In Naturalizing the Mind 5, Dretske’s theory of meaning is applied to
the problems of consciousness and qualia. He argues that the empirically
significant features of conscious experience are exhausted by their functional
and hence representational roles of indicating external sensible properties. He
rejects the views that consciousness is composed of a higher-order hierarchy of
mental states and that qualia are due to intrinsic, non-representational
features of the underlying physical systems. Dretske is also known for his contributions
on the nature of contrastive statements, laws of nature, causation, and
epistemic non-closure, among other topics.
CAUSATUM -- Ducasse, C. J., philosopher of mind and aesthetician. He
arrived in the United States in 0, received his Ph.D. from Harvard 2, and
taught at the of Washington 226 and
Brown 658. His most important work is
Nature, Mind and Death 1. The key to his general theory is a non-Humean view of
causation: the relation of causing is triadic, involving i an initial event, ii
the set of conditions under which it occurs, and iii a resulting event; the
initial event is the cause, the resulting event is the effect. On the basis of
this view he constructed a theory of categories
an explication of such concepts as those of substance, property, mind,
matter, and body. Among the theses he defended were that minds are substances,
that they causally interact with bodies, and that human beings are free despite
every event’s having a cause. In A Critical Examination of the Belief in a Life
after Death 1, he concluded that “the balance of the evidence so far obtained
is on the side of . . . survival.” Like Schopenhauer, whom he admired, Ducasse
was receptive to the religious and philosophical writings of the Far East. He
wrote with remarkable objectivity on the philosophical problems associated with
so-called paranormal phenomena. Ducasse’s epistemological views are developed
in Truth, Knowledge and Causation 8. He sets forth a realistic theory of
perception he says, about sense-qualities, “Berkeley is right and the realists
are wrong” and, of material things, “the realists are right and Berkeley is
wrong”. He provides the classical formulation of the “adverbial theory” or
sense-qualities, according to which such qualities are not objects of experience
or awareness but ways of experiencing or of being aware. One does not perceive
a red material object by sensing a red sense-datum; for then perceiving would
involve three entities i the perceiving
subject, ii the red sense-datum, and iii the red material object. But one may
perceive a red material object by sensing redly; then the only entities
involved are i the perceiving subject and ii the material object. Ducasse
observes that, analogously, although it may be natural to say “dancing a
waltz,” it would be more accurate to speak of “dancing waltzily.”
causa
sui:
an expression used by Grice’s mother, a High Church, as applied to God to mean
in part that God owes his existence to nothing other than himself. It does not
mean that God somehow brought himself into existence. The idea is that the very
nature of God logically requires that he exists. What accounts for the
existence of a being that is causa sui is its own nature.
cavellian
implicaturum: c. s.,
b.6, philosopher whose work has
explored skepticism and its consequences. He was Walter M. Cabot Professor of
Aesthetics and General Value Theory at Harvard from 3 until 7. Central to
Cavell’s thought is the view that skepticism is not a theoretical position to
be refuted by philosophical theory or dismissed as a mere misuse of ordinary
language; it is a reflection of the fundamental limits of human knowledge of
the self, of others, and of the external world, limits that must be
accepted in his term “acknowledged” because the refusal to do so results in
illusion and risks tragedy. Cavell’s work defends J. L. Austin from both
positivism and deconstructionism Must We Mean What We Say?, 9, and The Pitch of
Philosophy, 4, but not because Cavell is an “ordinary language” philosopher.
Rather, his defense of Austin has combined with his response to skepticism to
make him a philosopher of the ordinary: he explores the conditions of the
possibility and limits of ordinary language, ordinary knowledge, ordinary
action, and ordinary human relationships. He uses both the resources of
ordinary language and the discourse of philosophers, such as Vitters,
Heidegger, Thoreau, and Emerson, and of the arts. Cavell has explored the
ineliminability of skepticism in Must We Mean What We Say?, notably in its
essay on King Lear, and has developed his analysis in his 9 magnum opus, The
Claim of Reason. He has examined the benefits of acknowledging the limits of
human self-understanding, and the costs of refusing to do so, in a broad range
of contexts from film The World Viewed, 1; Pursuits of Happiness, 1; and
Contesting Tears, 6 to philosophy The
Senses of Walden, 2; and the chapters on Emerson in This New Yet Unapproachable
America, 9, and Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome, 0. A central argument in
The Claim of Reason develops Cavell’s approach by looking at Vitters’s notion
of criteria. Criteria are not rules for the use of our words that can guarantee
the correctness of the claims we make by them; rather, criteria bring out what
we claim by using the words we do. More generally, in making claims to
knowledge, undertaking actions, and forming interpersonal relationships, we
always risk failure, but it is also precisely in that room for risk that we
find the possibility of freedom. This argument is indebted not only to Vitters
but also to Kant, especially in the Critique of Judgment. Cavell has used his
view as a key to understanding classics of the theater and film. Regarding such
tragic figures as Lear, he argues that their tragedies result from their
refusal to accept the limits of human knowledge and human love, and their
insistence on an illusory absolute and pure love. The World Viewed argues for a
realistic approach to film, meaning that we should acknowledge that our
cognitive and emotional responses to films are responses to the realities of
the human condition portrayed in them. This “ontology of film” prepared the way
for Cavell’s treatment of the genre of comedies of remarriage in Pursuits of
Happiness. It also grounds his treatment of melodrama in Contesting Tears, which
argues that human beings must remain tragically unknown to each other if the
limits to our knowledge of each other are not acknowledged. In The Claim of
Reason and later works Cavell has also contributed to moral philosophy by his
defense against Rawls’s critique of
“moral perfectionism” of “Emersonian
perfectionism”: the view that no general principles of conduct, no matter how
well established, can ever be employed in practice without the ongoing but
never completed perfection of knowledge of oneself and of the others on and
with whom one acts. Cavell’s Emersonian perfectionism is thus another
application of his Vittersian and Kantian recognition that rules must always be
supplemented by the capacity for judgment.
cavendish:
m. duchess of Newcastle, English author of some dozen works in a variety of
forms. Her central philosophical interest was the developments in natural
science of her day. Her earliest works endorsed a kind of atomism, but her
settled view, in Philosophical Letters 1664, Observations upon Experimental
Philosophy 1666, and Grounds of Natural Philosophy 1668, was a kind of organic
materialism. Cavendish argues for a hierarchy of increasingly fine matter,
capable of self-motion. Philosophical Letters, among other matters, raises problems
for the notion of inert matter found in Descartes, and Observations upon
Experimental Philosophy criticizes microscopists such as Hooke for committing a
double error, first of preferring the distortions introduced by instruments to
unaided vision and second of preferring sense to reason.
celsus:
philosopher known only as the author of a work called “Alethes logos,” which is
quoted extensively by Origen of Alexandria in his response, Against Celsus.
“Alethes logos” is mainly important because it is the first anti-Christian
polemic of which we have significant knowledge. Origen considers Celsus to be
an Epicurean, but he is uncertain about this. There are no traces of
Epicureanism in Origen’s quotations from Celsus, which indicate instead that he
is a platonist, whose conception of an unnameable first deity transcending
being and knowable only by “synthesis, analysis, or analogy” is based on Plato’s
description of the Good in Rep. VI. In accordance with the Timaeus, Celsus
believes that God created “immortal things” and turned the creation of “mortal
things” over to them. According to him, the universe has a providential
organization in which humans hold no special place, and its history is one of
eternally repeating sequences of events separated by catastrophes.
certum: While Grice plays with ‘certum,’ he is happier with
UNcertum. To be certain is to have dis-cerned. Oddly, Grice ‘evolved’ from an
interest in the certainty and incorrigibility that ‘ordinary’ and the
first-person gives to situations of ‘conversational improbability’ and
indeterminate implicatura under conditions of ceteris paribus risk and
uncertainty in survival. “To be certain that p” is for Grice one of those
‘diaphanous’ verbs. While it is best to improve Descartes’s fuzzy lexicon – and
apply ‘certus’ to the emissor, if Grice is asked, “What are you certain of?,”
“I have to answer, ‘p’”. certum:
certitude, from ecclesiastical medieval Roman “certitudo,” designating in
particular Christian conviction, is heir to two meanings of “certum,” one
objective and the other subjective: beyond doubt, fixed, positive, real,
regarding a thing or knowledge, or firm in his resolutions, decided, sure,
authentic, regarding an individual. Although certitudo has no Grecian
equivalent, the Roman verb “cernere,” (cf. discern), from which “certum” is
derived, has the concrete meaning of pass through a sieve, discern, like the
Grecian “ϰρίνειν,” select, sieve, judge, which comes from the same root. Thus
begins the relationship between certitude, judgment, and truth, which since
Descartes has been connected with the problematics of the subject and of
self-certainty. The whole terminological system of truth is thus involved, from
unveiling and adequation to certitude and obviousness. Then there’s Certainty,
Objectivity, Subjectivity, and Linguistic Systems The objective aspect manifests itself first,
“certitudo” translating e. g. the
determined nature of objects or known properties as the commentaries on
Aristotle’s Met. translated into Roman, or the incontestably true nature of
principles. With the revolution of the subject inaugurated by Cartesian Phil. ,
the second aspect comes to the fore: some reasons, ideas, or propositions are
true and certain, or true and evident, but the most certain and the most evident
of all, and thus in a sense the truest, is the certitude of my own existence, a
certainty that the subject attributes to itself: The thematics of certainty
precedes that of consciousness both historically and logically, but it ends up
being incorporated and subordinated by it. Certainty thus becomes a quality or
disposition of the subject that reproduces, in the field of rational knowledge,
the security or assurance that the believer finds in religious faith, and that
shields him from the wavering of the soul. It will be noted that Fr. retains the possibility of reversing the
perspective by exploiting the Roman etymology, as Descartes does in the
Principles of Phil. when he transforms
the certitudo probabilis of the Scholastics Aquinas into moral certainty. On
the other hand, Eng. tends to objectify “certainty” to the maximum in
opposition to belief v. BELIEF, whereas G.
hears in “Gewissheit” the root “wissen,” to know, to have learned and
situates it in a series with Bewusstsein and Gewissen, clearly marking the
constitutive relationship to the subject in opposition to Glaube on the one
hand, and to Wahrheit and Wahrscheinlichkeit lit., appearance of truth, i.e.,
probability on the other. Then there’s Knots of Problems On the relations between certainty and
belief, the modalities of subjective experience. On the relation between
individual certainty and the wise man’s constancy. On the relations between
certainty and truth, the confrontation between subjectivity and objectivity in
the development of knowledge. On the relations between certainty and
probability, the modalities of objective knowledge insofar as it is related to
a subject’s experience. uncertainty.
This is Grice’s principle of 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 implicaturum! 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 implicaturum 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 disimplicaturum 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. Certum -- Certainty: cf. H. P. Grice, “Intention and uncertainty.” the
property of being certain, which is either a psychological property of persons
or an epistemic feature of proposition-like objects e.g., beliefs, utterances,
statements. We can say that a person, S, is psychologically certain that p
where ‘p’ stands for a proposition provided S has no doubt whatsoever that p is
true. Thus, a person can be certain regardless of the degree of epistemic
warrant for a proposition. In general, philosophers have not found this an
interesting property to explore. The exception is Peter Unger, who argued for
skepticism, claiming that 1 psychological certainty is required for knowledge
and 2 no person is ever certain of anything or hardly anything. As applied to
propositions, ‘certain’ has no univocal use. For example, some authors e.g.,
Chisholm may hold that a proposition is epistemically certain provided no
proposition is more warranted than it. Given that account, it is possible that
a proposition is certain, yet there are legitimate reasons for doubting it just
as long as there are equally good grounds for doubting every equally warranted
proposition. Other philosophers have adopted a Cartesian account of certainty
in which a proposition is epistemically certain provided it is warranted and
there are no legitimate grounds whatsoever for doubting it. Both Chisholm’s and
the Cartesian characterizations of epistemic certainty can be employed to
provide a basis for skepticism. If knowledge entails certainty, then it can be
argued that very little, if anything, is known. For, the argument continues,
only tautologies or propositions like ‘I exist’ or ‘I have beliefs’ are such
that either nothing is more warranted or there are absolutely no grounds for
doubt. Thus, hardly anything is known. Most philosophers have responded either
by denying that ‘certainty’ is an absolute term, i.e., admitting of no degrees,
or by denying that knowledge requires certainty Dewey, Chisholm, Vitters, and
Lehrer. Others have agreed that knowledge does entail absolute certainty, but
have argued that absolute certainty is possible e.g., Moore. Sometimes
‘certain’ is modified by other expressions, as in ‘morally certain’ or
‘metaphysically certain’ or ‘logically certain’. Once again, there is no
universally accepted account of these terms. Typically, however, they are used
to indicate degrees of warrant for a proposition, and often that degree of
warrant is taken to be a function of the type of proposition under
consideration. For example, the proposition that smoking causes cancer is
morally certain provided its warrant is sufficient to justify acting as though
it were true. The evidence for such a proposition may, of necessity, depend
upon recognizing particular features of the world. On the other hand, in order
for a proposition, say that every event has a cause, to be metaphysically
certain, the evidence for it must not depend upon recognizing particular
features of the world but rather upon recognizing what must be true in order
for our world to be the kind of world it is
i.e., one having causal connections. Finally, a proposition, say that
every effect has a cause, may be logically certain if it is derivable from
“truths of logic” that do not depend in any way upon recognizing anything about
our world. Since other taxonomies for these terms are employed by philosophers,
it is crucial to examine the use of the terms in their contexts. 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
character, mid-14c., carecter, "symbol marked or branded on the
body;" mid-15c., "symbol or drawing used in sorcery;" late 15c.,
"alphabetic letter, graphic symbol standing for a sound or syllable;"
from Old French caratere "feature, character" (13c., Modern French
caractère), from Latin character, from Greek kharaktēr "engraved
mark," also "symbol or imprint on the soul," properly
"instrument for marking," from kharassein "to engrave,"
from kharax "pointed stake," a word of uncertain etymology which
Beekes considers "most probably Pre-Greek." The Latin ch-
spelling was restored from 1500s. The meaning of Greek kharaktēr was
extended in Hellenistic times by metaphor to "a defining quality,
individual feature." In English, the meaning "sum of qualities that
define a person or thing and distinguish it from another" is from 1640s.
That of "moral qualities assigned to a person by repute" is from
1712. You remember Eponina, who kept her husband alive in an underground
cavern so devotedly and heroically? The force of character she showed in
keeping up his spirits would have been used to hide a lover from her husband if
they had been living quietly in Rome. Strong characters need strong
nourishment. [Stendhal "de l'Amour," 1822] Sense of
"person in a play or novel" is first attested 1660s, in reference to
the "defining qualities" he or she is given by the author. Meaning
"a person" in the abstract is from 1749; especially "eccentric
person" (1773). Colloquial sense of "chap, fellow" is from 1931.
Character-actor, one who specializes in characters with marked peculiarities,
is attested from 1861; character-assassination is from 1888; character-building
(n.) from 1886. -- the comprehensive set of ethical and intellectual
dispositions of a person. Intellectual virtues
like carefulness in the evaluation of evidence promote, for one, the practice of seeking
truth. Moral or ethical virtues
including traits like courage and generosity dispose persons not only to choices and
actions but also to attitudes and emotions. Such dispositions are generally
considered relatively stable and responsive to reasons. Appraisal of character
transcends direct evaluation of particular actions in favor of examination of
some set of virtues or the admirable human life as a whole. On some views this
admirable life grounds the goodness of particular actions. This suggests
seeking guidance from role models, and their practices, rather than relying
exclusively on rules. Role models will, at times, simply perceive the salient
features of a situation and act accordingly. Being guided by role models
requires some recognition of just who should be a role model. One may act out
of character, since dispositions do not automatically produce particular
actions in specific cases. One may also have a conflicted character if the
virtues one’s character comprises contain internal tensions between, say,
tendencies to impartiality and to friendship. The importance of formative
education to the building of character introduces some good fortune into the
acquisition of character. One can have a good character with a disagreeable
personality or have a fine personality with a bad character because personality
is not typically a normative notion, whereas character is.
charron:
p., H. P. Grice, “Do not multiply truths beyond necessity.” theologian who
became the principal expositor of Montaigne’s ideas, presenting them in
didactic form. His first work, The Three Truths 1595, presented a negative
argument for Catholicism by offering a skeptical challenge to atheism,
nonChristian religions, and Calvinism. He argued that we cannot know or
understand God because of His infinitude and the weakness of our faculties. We
can have no good reasons for rejecting Christianity or Catholicism. Therefore,
we should accept it on faith alone. His second work, On Wisdom 1603, is a
systematic presentation of Pyrrhonian skepticism coupled with a fideistic
defense of Catholicism. The skepticism of Montaigne and the Grecian skeptics is
used to show that we cannot know anything unless God reveals it to us. This is
followed by offering an ethics to live by, an undogmatic version of Stoicism.
This is the first modern presentation of a morality apart from any religious
considerations. Charron’s On Wisdom was extremely popular in France and
England. It was read and used by many philosophers and theologians during the
seventeenth century. Some claimed that his skepticism opened his defense of
Catholicism to question, and suggested that he was insincere in his fideism. He
was defended by important figures in the
Catholic church.
chiliagon: referred to by Grice in “Some remarks about the senses.’
In geometry, a chiliagon, or 1000-gon is a polygon with 1,000 sides. Philosophers commonly refer to chiliagons
to illustrate ideas about the nature and workings of thought, meaning, and
mental representation. A chiliagon is a regular
chiliagon Polygon 1000.svg A regular chiliagon Type Regular polygon Edges and
vertices 1000 Schläfli symbol {1000}, t{500}, tt{250}, ttt{125} Coxeter diagram
CDel node 1.pngCDel 10.pngCDel 0x.pngCDel 0x.pngCDel node.png CDel node
1.pngCDel 5.pngCDel 0x.pngCDel 0x.pngCDel node 1.png Symmetry group Dihedral
(D1000), order 2×1000 Internal angle (degrees) 179.64° Dual polygon Self
Properties Convex, cyclic, equilateral, isogonal, isotoxal A whole
regular chiliagon is not visually discernible from a circle. The lower section
is a portion of a regular chiliagon, 200 times as large as the smaller one,
with the vertices highlighted. In geometry, a chiliagon (/ˈkɪliəɡɒn/) or
1000-gon is a polygon with 1,000 sides. Philosophers commonly refer to
chiliagons to illustrate ideas about the nature and workings of thought,
meaning, and mental representation. Contents 1 Regular chiliagon 2
Philosophical application 3 Symmetry 4 Chiliagram 5 See also 6 References
Regular chiliagon A regular chiliagon is represented by Schläfli symbol {1,000}
and can be constructed as a truncated 500-gon, t{500}, or a twice-truncated
250-gon, tt{250}, or a thrice-truncated 125-gon, ttt{125}. The measure of
each internal angle in a regular chiliagon is 179.64°. The area of a regular
chiliagon with sides of length a is given by {\displaystyle
A=250a^{2}\cot {\frac {\pi }{1000}}\simeq 79577.2\,a^{2}}A=250a^{2}\cot {\frac
{\pi }{1000}}\simeq 79577.2\,a^{2} This result differs from the area of its
circumscribed circle by less than 4 parts per million. Because 1,000 = 23
× 53, the number of sides is neither a product of distinct Fermat primes nor a
power of two. Thus the regular chiliagon is not a constructible polygon.
Indeed, it is not even constructible with the use of neusis or an angle
trisector, as the number of sides is neither a product of distinct Pierpont
primes, nor a product of powers of two and three. Philosophical application
René Descartes uses the chiliagon as an example in his Sixth Meditation to
demonstrate the difference between pure intellection and imagination. He says
that, when one thinks of a chiliagon, he "does not imagine the thousand
sides or see them as if they were present" before him – as he does when
one imagines a triangle, for example. The imagination constructs a
"confused representation," which is no different from that which it
constructs of a myriagon (a polygon with ten thousand sides). However, he does
clearly understand what a chiliagon is, just as he understands what a triangle
is, and he is able to distinguish it from a myriagon. Therefore, the intellect
is not dependent on imagination, Descartes claims, as it is able to entertain
clear and distinct ideas when imagination is unable to. Philosopher Pierre
Gassendi, a contemporary of Descartes, was critical of this interpretation,
believing that while Descartes could imagine a chiliagon, he could not
understand it: one could "perceive that the word 'chiliagon' signifies a
figure with a thousand angles [but] that is just the meaning of the term, and
it does not follow that you understand the thousand angles of the figure any
better than you imagine them." The example of a chiliagon is also referenced
by other philosophers, such as Immanuel Kant. David Hume points out that it is
"impossible for the eye to determine the angles of a chiliagon to be equal
to 1996 right angles, or make any conjecture, that approaches this
proportion."[4] Gottfried Leibniz comments on a use of the chiliagon by
John Locke, noting that one can have an idea of the polygon without having an
image of it, and thus distinguishing ideas from images. Henri Poincaré uses the
chiliagon as evidence that "intuition is not necessarily founded on the
evidence of the senses" because "we can not represent to ourselves a
chiliagon, and yet we reason by intuition on polygons in general, which include
the chiliagon as a particular case." Inspired by Descartes's chiliagon example,
Grice, R. M. Chisholm and other 20th-century philosophers have used similar
examples to make similar points. Chisholm's ‘speckled hen,’ which need not have
a determinate number of speckles to be successfully imagined, is perhaps the
most famous of these. Symmetry The symmetries of a regular chiliagon.
Light blue lines show subgroups of index 2. The 4 boxed subgraphs are
positionally related by index 5 subgroups. The regular chiliagon has Dih1000
dihedral symmetry, order 2000, represented by 1,000 lines of reflection. Dih100
has 15 dihedral subgroups: Dih500, Dih250, Dih125, Dih200, Dih100, Dih50,
Dih25, Dih40, Dih20, Dih10, Dih5, Dih8, Dih4, Dih2, and Dih1. It also has 16
more cyclic symmetries as subgroups: Z1000, Z500, Z250, Z125, Z200, Z100, Z50,
Z25, Z40, Z20, Z10, Z5, Z8, Z4, Z2, and Z1, with Zn representing π/n radian
rotational symmetry. John Conway labels these lower symmetries with a
letter and order of the symmetry follows the letter.[8] He gives d (diagonal)
with mirror lines through vertices, p with mirror lines through edges
(perpendicular), i with mirror lines through both vertices and edges, and g for
rotational symmetry. a1 labels no symmetry. These lower symmetries allow
degrees of freedom in defining irregular chiliagons. Only the g1000 subgroup has
no degrees of freedom but can be seen as directed edges. Chiliagram A
chiliagram is a 1,000-sided star polygon. There are 199 regular forms[9] given
by Schläfli symbols of the form {1000/n}, where n is an integer between 2 and
500 that is coprime to 1,000. There are also 300 regular star figures in the
remaining cases. For example, the regular {1000/499} star polygon is
constructed by 1000 nearly radial edges. Each star vertex has an internal angle
of 0.36 degrees.[10] {1000/499} Star polygon 1000-499.svg Star polygon
1000-499 center.png Central area with moiré patterns See also Myriagon Megagon
Philosophy of Mind Philosophy of Language References Meditation VI by
Descartes (English translation). Sepkoski, David (2005). "Nominalism
and constructivism in seventeenth-century mathematical philosophy".
Historia Mathematica. 32: 33–59. doi:10.1016/j.hm.2003.09.002. Immanuel
Kant, "On a Discovery," trans. Henry Allison, in Theoretical
Philosophy After 1791, ed. Henry Allison and Peter Heath, Cambridge UP, 2002
[Akademie 8:121]. Kant does not actually use a chiliagon as his example,
instead using a 96-sided figure, but he is responding to the same question
raised by Descartes. David Hume, The Philosophical Works of David Hume,
Volume 1, Black and Tait, 1826, p. 101. Jonathan Francis Bennett (2001),
Learning from Six Philosophers: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley,
Hume, Volume 2, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198250924, p. 53. Henri
Poincaré (1900) "Intuition and Logic in Mathematics" in William Bragg
Ewald (ed) From Kant to Hilbert: A Source Book in the Foundations of
Mathematics, Volume 2, Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 0198505361, p.
1015. Roderick Chisholm, "The Problem of the Speckled Hen",
Mind 51 (1942): pp. 368–373. "These problems are all descendants of
Descartes's 'chiliagon' argument in the sixth of his Meditations" (Joseph
Heath, Following the Rules: Practical Reasoning and Deontic Constraint, Oxford:
OUP, 2008, p. 305, note 15). The Symmetries of Things, Chapter 20
199 = 500 cases − 1 (convex) − 100 (multiples of 5) − 250 (multiples of 2) + 50
(multiples of 2 and 5) 0.36 = 180 (1 - 2 /(1000 / 499) ) = 180 ( 1 – 998 /
1000 ) = 180 ( 2 / 1000 ) = 180 / 500 chiliagon vte Polygons (List) Triangles
Acute Equilateral Ideal IsoscelesObtuseRight Quadrilaterals Antiparallelogram Bicentric
CyclicEquidiagonalEx-tangentialHarmonic Isosceles
trapezoidKiteLambertOrthodiagonal Parallelogram Rectangle Right kite Rhombus Saccheri
SquareTangentialTangential trapezoidTrapezoid By number of sides Monogon
(1) Digon (2) Triangle (3) Quadrilateral (4) Pentagon (5) Hexagon (6) Heptagon
(7) Octagon (8) Nonagon (Enneagon, 9) Decagon (10) Hendecagon (11) Dodecagon
(12) Tridecagon (13) Tetradecagon (14) Pentadecagon (15) Hexadecagon (16) Heptadecagon
(17) Octadecagon (18) Enneadecagon (19)Icosagon (20)Icosihenagon [de]
(21)Icosidigon (22) Icositetragon (24) Icosihexagon (26) Icosioctagon (28) Triacontagon
(30) Triacontadigon (32) Triacontatetragon (34) Tetracontagon (40) Tetracontadigon
(42)Tetracontaoctagon (48)Pentacontagon (50) Pentacontahenagon [de] (51) Hexacontagon
(60) Hexacontatetragon (64) Heptacontagon (70)Octacontagon (80) Enneacontagon
(90) Enneacontahexagon (96) Hectogon (100) 120-gon257-gon360-gonChiliagon
(1000) Myriagon (10000) 65537-gonMegagon (1000000) 4294967295-gon [ru;
de]Apeirogon (∞) Star polygons Pentagram Hexagram Heptagram Octagram Enneagram Decagram
Hendecagram Dodecagram Classes Concave Convex Cyclic Equiangular Equilateral Isogonal
Isotoxal Pseudotriangle Regular Simple SkewStar-shaped Tangential Categories:
Polygons1000 (number).
choice,
v. rational choice. choice sequence, a variety of infinite sequence introduced
by L. E. J. Brouwer to express the non-classical properties of the continuum
the set of real numbers within intuitionism. A choice sequence is determined by
a finite initial segment together with a “rule” for continuing the sequence.
The rule, however, may allow some freedom in choosing each subsequent element.
Thus the sequence might start with the rational numbers 0 and then ½, and the
rule might require the n ! 1st element to be some rational number within ½n of
the nth choice, without any further restriction. The sequence of rationals thus
generated must converge to a real number, r. But r’s definition leaves open its
exact location in the continuum. Speaking intuitionistically, r violates the
classical law of trichotomy: given any pair of real numbers e.g., r and ½, the
first is either less than, equal to, or greater than the second. From the 0s
Brouwer got this non-classical effect without appealing to the apparently
nonmathematical notion of free choice. Instead he used sequences generated by
the activity of an idealized mathematician the creating subject, together with
propositions that he took to be undecided. Given such a proposition, P e.g. Fermat’s last theorem that for n 2 there is no general method of finding
triplets of numbers with the property that the sum of each of the first two
raised to the nth power is equal to the result of raising the third to the nth
power or Goldbach’s conjecture that every even number is the sum of two prime
numbers we can modify the definition of
r: The n ! 1st element is ½ if at the nth stage of research P remains
undecided. That element and all its successors are ½ ! ½n if by that stage P is
proved; they are ½ † ½n if P is refuted. Since he held that there is an endless
supply of such propositions, Brouwer believed that we can always use this
method to refute classical laws. In the early 0s Stephen Kleene and Richard
Vesley reproduced some main parts of Brouwer’s theory of the continuum in a
formal system based on Kleene’s earlier recursion-theoretic interpretation of
intuitionism and of choice sequences. At about the same time but in a different and occasionally
incompatible vein Saul Kripke formally
captured the power of Brouwer’s counterexamples without recourse to recursive
functions and without invoking either the creating subject or the notion of
free choice. Subsequently Georg Kreisel, A. N. Troelstra, Dirk Van Dalen, and
others produced formal systems that analyze Brouwer’s basic assumptions about
open-futured objects like choice sequences.
Church’s
thesis, thesis, proposed by A. Church at a meeting of
the Mathematical Society “that the
notion of an effectively calculable function of positive integers should be
identified with that of a recursive function. . . .” This proposal has been
called Church’s thesis since Kleene uses that name in his Introduction to
Metamathematics. The informal notion of an effectively calculable function
effective procedure, or algorithm had been used in mathematics and logic to
indicate that a class of problems is solvable in a “mechanical fashion” by
following fixed elementary rules. Underlying epistemological concerns came to
the fore when modern logic moved in the late nineteenth century from axiomatic
to formal presentations of theories. Hilbert suggested in 4 that such formally
presented theories be taken as objects of mathematical study, and
metamathematics has been pursued vigorously and systematically since the 0s. In
its pursuit, concrete issues arose that required for their resolution a
delimitation of the class of effective procedures. Hilbert’s important
Entscheidungsproblem, the decision problem for predicate logic, was one such issue.
It was solved negatively by Church and Turing
relative to the precise notion of recursiveness; the result was obtained
independently by Church and Turing, but is usually called Church’s theorem. A
second significant issue was the general formulation of the incompleteness
theorems as applying to all formal theories satisfying the usual
representability and derivability conditions, not just to specific formal
systems like that of Principia Mathematica. According to Kleene, Church
proposed in 3 the identification of effective calculability with
l-definability. That proposal was not published at the time, but in 4 Church
mentioned it in conversation to Gödel, who judged it to be “thoroughly
unsatisfactory.” In his Princeton Lectures of 4, Gödel defined the concept of a
recursive function, but he was not convinced that all effectively calculable
functions would fall under it. The proof of the equivalence between
l-definability and recursiveness by Church and Kleene led to Church’s first
published formulation of the thesis as quoted above. The thesis was reiterated
in Church’s “An Unsolvable Problem of Elementary Number Theory” 6. Turing
introduced, in “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the
Entscheidungsproblem” 6, a notion of computability by machines and maintained
that it captures effective calculability exactly. Post’s paper “Finite
Combinatory Processes, Formulation 1” 6 contains a model of computation that is
strikingly similar to Turing’s. However, Post did not provide any analysis; he
suggested considering the identification of effective calculability with his
concept as a working hypothesis that should be verified by investigating ever
wider formulations and reducing them to his basic formulation. The classic
papers of Gödel, Church, Turing, Post, and Kleene are all reprinted in Davis,
ed., The Undecidable, 5. In his 6 paper Church gave one central reason for the
proposed identification, namely that other plausible explications of the
informal notion lead to mathematical concepts weaker than or equivalent to
recursiveness. Two paradigmatic explications, calculability of a function via
algorithms or in a logic, were considered by Church. In either case, the steps
taken in determining function values have to be effective; and if the effectiveness
of steps is, as Church put it, interpreted to mean recursiveness, then the
function is recursive. The fundamental interpretative difficulty in Church’s
“step-by-step argument” which was turned into one of the “recursiveness
conditions” Hilbert and Bernays used in their 9 characterization of functions
that can be evaluated according to rules was bypassed by Turing. Analyzing
human mechanical computations, Turing was led to finiteness conditions that are
motivated by the human computer’s sensory limitations, but are ultimately based
on memory limitations. Then he showed that any function calculable by a human
computer satisfying these conditions is also computable by one of his machines.
Both Church and Gödel found Turing’s analysis convincing; indeed, Church wrote
in a 7 review of Turing’s paper that Turing’s notion makes “the identification
with effectiveness in the ordinary not explicitly defined sense evident
immediately.” This reflective work of partly philosophical and partly
mathematical character provides one of the fundamental notions in mathematical
logic. Indeed, its proper understanding is crucial for judging the
philosophical significance of central metamathematical results like Gödel’s incompleteness theorems or
Church’s theorem. The work is also crucial for computer science, artificial
intelligence, and cognitive psychology, providing in these fields a basic
theoretical notion. For example, Church’s thesis is the cornerstone for Newell
and Simon’s delimitation of the class of physical symbol systems, i.e.
universal machines with a particular architecture; see Newell’s Physical Symbol
Systems 0. Newell views the delimitation “as the most fundamental contribution
of artificial intelligence and computer science to the joint enterprise of
cognitive science.” In a turn that had been taken by Turing in “Intelligent
Machinery” 8 and “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” 0, Newell points out
the basic role physical symbol systems take on in the study of the human mind:
“the hypothesis is that humans are instances of physical symbol systems, and,
by virtue of this, mind enters into the physical universe. . . . this
hypothesis sets the terms on which we search for a scientific theory of
mind.”
Ciceronian
implicaturum: Marcus Tullius, Roman statesman, orator,
essayist, and letter writer. He was important not so much for formulating
individual philosophical arguments as for expositions of the doctrines of the
major schools of Hellenistic philosophy, and for, as he put it, “teaching
philosophy to speak Latin.” The significance of the latter can hardly be
overestimated. Cicero’s coinages helped shape the philosophical vocabulary of
the Latin-speaking West well into the early modern period. The most
characteristic feature of Cicero’s thought is his attempt to unify philosophy
and rhetoric. His first major trilogy, On the Orator, On the Republic, and On
the Laws, presents a vision of wise statesmen-philosophers whose greatest
achievement is guiding political affairs through rhetorical persuasion rather
than violence. Philosophy, Cicero argues, needs rhetoric to effect its most
important practical goals, while rhetoric is useless without the psychological,
moral, and logical justification provided by philosophy. This combination of
eloquence and philosophy constitutes what he calls humanitas a coinage whose enduring influence is
attested in later revivals of humanism
and it alone provides the foundation for constitutional governments; it
is acquired, moreover, only through broad training in those subjects worthy of
free citizens artes liberales. In philosophy of education, this Ciceronian
conception of a humane education encompassing poetry, rhetoric, history,
morals, and politics endured as an ideal, especially for those convinced that
instruction in the liberal disciplines is essential for citizens if their
rational autonomy is to be expressed in ways that are culturally and
politically beneficial. A major aim of Cicero’s earlier works is to appropriate
for Roman high culture one of Greece’s most distinctive products, philosophical
theory, and to demonstrate Roman superiority. He thus insists that Rome’s laws
and political institutions successfully embody the best in Grecian political
theory, whereas the Grecians themselves were inadequate to the crucial task of
putting their theories into practice. Taking over the Stoic conception of the
universe as a rational whole, governed by divine reason, he argues that human
societies must be grounded in natural law. For Cicero, nature’s law possesses
the characteristics of a legal code; in particular, it is formulable in a
comparatively extended set of rules against which existing societal
institutions can be measured. Indeed, since they so closely mirror the
requirements of nature, Roman laws and institutions furnish a nearly perfect
paradigm for human societies. Cicero’s overall theory, if not its particular
details, established a lasting framework for anti-positivist theories of law
and morality, including those of Aquinas, Grotius, Suárez, and Locke. The final
two years of his life saw the creation of a series of dialogue-treatises that
provide an encyclopedic survey of Hellenistic philosophy. Cicero himself
follows the moderate fallibilism of Philo of Larissa and the New Academy.
Holding that philosophy is a method and not a set of dogmas, he endorses an
attitude of systematic doubt. However, unlike Cartesian doubt, Cicero’s does
not extend to the real world behind phenomena, since he does not envision the
possibility of strict phenomenalism. Nor does he believe that systematic doubt
leads to radical skepticism about knowledge. Although no infallible criterion
for distinguishing true from false impressions is available, some impressions,
he argues, are more “persuasive” probabile and can be relied on to guide
action. In Academics he offers detailed accounts of Hellenistic epistemological
debates, steering a middle course between dogmatism and radical skepticism. A
similar strategy governs the rest of his later writings. Cicero presents the
views of the major schools, submits them to criticism, and tentatively supports
any positions he finds “persuasive.” Three connected works, On Divination, On
Fate, and On the Nature of the Gods, survey Epicurean, Stoic, and Academic
arguments about theology and natural philosophy. Much of the treatment of
religious thought and practice is cool, witty, and skeptically detached much in the manner of eighteenth-century
philosophes who, along with Hume, found much in Cicero to emulate. However, he
concedes that Stoic arguments for providence are “persuasive.” So too in
ethics, he criticizes Epicurean, Stoic, and Peripatetic doctrines in On Ends 45
and their views on death, pain, irrational emotions, and happiChurch-Turing
thesis Cicero, Marcus Tullius 143 143
ness in Tusculan Disputations 45. Yet, a final work, On Duties, offers a
practical ethical system based on Stoic principles. Although sometimes
dismissed as the eclecticism of an amateur, Cicero’s method of selectively
choosing from what had become authoritative professional systems often displays
considerable reflectiveness and originality.
circulus –
Grice’s circle -- Grice’s circle -- circular reasoning, reasoning that, when
traced backward from its conclusion, returns to that starting point, as one
returns to a starting point when tracing a circle. The discussion of this topic
by Richard Whatley in his Logic sets a high standard of clarity and
penetration. Logic textbooks often quote the following example from Whatley: To
allow every man an unbounded freedom of speech must always be, on the whole,
advantageous to the State; for it is highly conducive to the interests of the
Community, that each individual should enjoy a liberty perfectly unlimited, of
expressing his sentiments. This passage illustrates how circular reasoning is
less obvious in a language, such as English, that, in Whatley’s words, is
“abounding in synonymous expressions, which have no resemblance in sound, and
no connection in etymology.” The premise and conclusion do not consist of just
the same words in the same order, nor can logical or grammatical principles
transform one into the other. Rather, they have the same propositional content:
they say the same thing in different words. That is why appealing to one of
them to provide reason for believing the other amounts to giving something as a
reason for itself. Circular reasoning is often said to beg the question.
‘Begging the question’ and petitio principii are translations of a phrase in
Aristotle connected with a game of formal disputation played in antiquity but
not in recent times. The meanings of ‘question’ and ‘begging’ do not in any
clear way determine the meaning of ‘question begging’. There is no simple
argument form that all and only circular arguments have. It is not logic, in
Whatley’s example above, that determines the identity of content between the
premise and the conclusion. Some theorists propose rather more complicated
formal or syntactic accounts of circularity. Others believe that any account of
circular reasoning must refer to the beliefs of those who reason. Whether or
not the following argument about articles in this dictionary is circular
depends on why the first premise should be accepted: 1 The article on inference
contains no split infinitives. 2 The other articles contain no split
infinitives. Therefore, 3 No article contains split infinitives. Consider two
cases. Case I: Although 2 supports 1 inductively, both 1 and 2 have solid
outside support independent of any prior acceptance of 3. This reasoning is not
circular. Case II: Someone who advances the argument accepts 1 or 2 or both,
only because he believes 3. Such reasoning is circular, even though neither
premise expresses just the same proposition as the conclusion. The question
remains controversial whether, in explaining circularity, we should refer to
the beliefs of individual reasoners or only to the surrounding circumstances.
One purpose of reasoning is to increase the degree of reasonable confidence
that one has in the truth of a conclusion. Presuming the truth of a conclusion
in support of a premise thwarts this purpose, because the initial degree of
reasonable confidence in the premise cannot then exceed the initial degree of
reasonable confidence in the conclusion. Circulus -- diallelon from ancient
Grecian di allelon, ‘through one another’, a circular definition. A definition
is circular provided either the definiendum occurs in the definiens, as in ‘Law
is a lawful command’, or a first term is defined by means of a second term,
which in turn is defined by the first term, as in ‘Law is the expressed wish of
a ruler, and a ruler is one who establishes laws.’ A diallelus is a circular
argument: an attempt to establish a conclusion by a premise that cannot be
known unless the conclusion is known in the first place. Descartes, e.g.,
argued: I clearly and distinctly perceive that God exists, and what I clearly
and distinctly perceive is true. Therefore, God exists. To justify the premise
that clear and distinct perceptions are true, however, he appealed to his
knowledge of God’s existence.
civil
disobedience: explored by H. P. Grice in his analysis
of moral vs. legal right -- a deliberate violation of the law, committed in
order to draw attention to or rectify perceived injustices in the law or
policies of a state. Illustrative questions raised by the topic include: how
are such acts justified, how should the legal system respond to such acts when
justified, and must such acts be done publicly, nonviolently, and/or with a
willingness to accept attendant legal sanctions?
clarke:
s. Grice analyses Clark’s proof of the
existence of God in “Aspects of reasoning” -- English philosopher, preacher,
and theologian. Born in Norwich, he was educated at Cambridge, where he came
under the influence of Newton. Upon graduation Clarke entered the established
church, serving for a time as chaplain to Queen Anne. He spent the last twenty
years of his life as rector of St. James, Westminster. Clarke wrote extensively
on controversial theological and philosophical issues the nature of space and time, proofs of the
existence of God, the doctrine of the Trinity, the incorporeality and natural
immortality of the soul, freedom of the will, the nature of morality, etc. His
most philosophical works are his Boyle lectures of 1704 and 1705, in which he
developed a forceful version of the cosmological argument for the existence and
nature of God and attacked the views of Hobbes, Spinoza, and some proponents of
deism; his correspondence with Leibniz 171516, in which he defended Newton’s
views of space and time and charged Leibniz with holding views inconsistent
with free will; and his writings against Anthony Collins, in which he defended
a libertarian view of the agent as the undetermined cause of free actions and
attacked Collins’s arguments for a materialistic view of the mind. In these
works Clarke maintains a position of extreme rationalism, contending that the
existence and nature of God can be conclusively demonstrated, that the basic
principles of morality are necessarily true and immediately knowable, and that
the existence of a future state of rewards and punishments is assured by our
knowledge that God will reward the morally just and punish the morally
wicked.
class:
the class for those philosophers whose class have no members -- a term
sometimes used as a synonym for ‘set’. When the two are distinguished, a class
is understood as a collection in the logical sense, i.e., as the extension of a
concept e.g. the class of red objects. By contrast, sets, i.e., collections in
the mathematical sense, are understood as occurring in stages, where each stage
consists of the sets that can be formed from the non-sets and the sets already
formed at previous stages. When a set is formed at a given stage, only the
non-sets and the previously formed sets are even candidates for membership, but
absolutely anything can gain membership in a class simply by falling under the
appropriate concept. Thus, it is classes, not sets, that figure in the
inconsistent principle of unlimited comprehension. In set theory, proper
classes are collections of sets that are never formed at any stage, e.g., the
class of all sets since new sets are formed at each stage, there is no stage at
which all sets are available to be collected into a set.
republicanism: cf. Cato
-- Grice was a British subject and found classical republicanism false -- also
known as civic humanism, a political outlook developed by Machiavelli in
Renaissance Italy and by James Harrington in England, modified by
eighteenth-century British and Continental writers and important for the
thought of the founding fathers. Drawing
on Roman historians, Machiavelli argued that a state could hope for security
from the blows of fortune only if its male citizens were devoted to its
well-being. They should take turns ruling and being ruled, be always prepared
to fight for the republic, and limit their private possessions. Such men would
possess a wholly secular virtù appropriate to political beings. Corruption, in
the form of excessive attachment to private interest, would then be the most
serious threat to the republic. Harrington’s utopian Oceana 1656 portrayed
England governed under such a system. Opposing the authoritarian views of
Hobbes, it described a system in which the well-to-do male citizens would elect
some of their number to govern for limited terms. Those governing would propose
state policies; the others would vote on the acceptability of the proposals.
Agriculture was the basis of economics, civil rights classical republicanism
145 145 but the size of estates was to
be strictly controlled. Harringtonianism helped form the views of the political
party opposing the dominance of the king and court. Montesquieu in France drew
on classical sources in discussing the importance of civic virtue and devotion
to the republic. All these views were well known to Jefferson, Adams, and
other colonial and revolutionary
thinkers; and some contemporary communitarian critics of culture return to classical republican ideas.
clemens: formative
teacher in the early Christian church who, as a “Christian gnostic,” combined
enthusiasm for Grecian philosophy with a defense of the church’s faith. He
espoused spiritual and intellectual ascent toward that complete but hidden
knowledge or gnosis reserved for the truly enlightened. Clement’s school did
not practice strict fidelity to the authorities, and possibly the teachings, of
the institutional church, drawing upon the Hellenistic traditions of
Alexandria, including Philo and Middle Platonism. As with the law among the
Jews, so, for Clement, philosophy among the pagans was a pedagogical
preparation for Christ, in whom logos, reason, had become enfleshed.
Philosophers now should rise above their inferior understanding to the perfect
knowledge revealed in Christ. Though hostile to gnosticism and its speculations,
Clement was thoroughly Hellenized in outlook and sometimes guilty of Docetism,
not least in his reluctance to concede the utter humanness of Jesus.
Clifford:
W. K., -- H. P. Grice was attracted to Clifford’s idea of the ‘ethics of
belief,’ -- philosopher. Educated at King’s , London, and Trinity , Cambridge,
he began giving public lectures in 1868, when he was appointed a fellow of
Trinity, and in 1870 became professor of applied mathematics at , London. His academic career ended
prematurely when he died of tuberculosis. Clifford is best known for his
rigorous view on the relation between belief and evidence, which, in “The
Ethics of Belief,” he summarized thus: “It is wrong always, everywhere, and for
anyone, to believe anything on insufficient evidence.” He gives this example.
Imagine a shipowner who sends to sea an emigrant ship, although the evidence
raises strong suspicions as to the vessel’s seaworthiness. Ignoring this
evidence, he convinces himself that the ship’s condition is good enough and, after
it sinks and all the passengers die, collects his insurance money without a
trace of guilt. Clifford maintains that the owner had no right to believe in
the soundness of the ship. “He had acquired his belief not by honestly earning
it in patient investigation, but by stifling his doubts.” The right Clifford is
alluding to is moral, for what one believes is not a private but a public
affair and may have grave consequences for others. He regards us as morally
obliged to investigate the evidence thoroughly on any occasion, and to withhold
belief if evidential support is lacking. This obligation must be fulfilled
however trivial and insignificant a belief may seem, for a violation of it may
“leave its stamp upon our character forever.” Clifford thus rejected
Catholicism, to which he had subscribed originally, and became an agnostic.
James’s famous essay “The Will to Believe” criticizes Clifford’s view.
According to James, insufficient evidence need not stand in the way of
religious belief, for we have a right to hold beliefs that go beyond the
evidence provided they serve the pursuit of a legitimate goal.
Griceian anti-sneak
closure. A set of objects, O, is said to exhibit closure or to be closed under
a given operation, R, provided that for every object, x, if x is a member of O
and x is R-related to any object, y, then y is a member of O. For example, the
set of propositions is closed under deduction, for if p is a proposition and p
entails q, i.e., q is deducible from p, then q is a proposition simply because
only propositions can be entailed by propositions. In addition, many subsets of
the set of propositions are also closed under deduction. For example, the set
of true propositions is closed under deduction or entailment. Others are not.
Under most accounts of belief, we may fail to believe what is entailed by what
we do, in fact, believe. Thus, if knowledge is some form of true, justified
belief, knowledge is not closed under deduction, for we may fail to believe a
proposition entailed by a known proposition. Nevertheless, there is a related
issue that has been the subject of much debate, namely: Is the set of justified
propositions closed under deduction? Aside from the obvious importance of the
answer to that question in developing an account of justification, there are
two important issues in epistemology that also depend on the answer. Subtleties
aside, the so-called Gettier problem depends in large part upon an affirmative
answer to that question. For, assuming that a proposition can be justified and
false, it is possible to construct cases in which a proposition, say p, is
justified, false, but believed. Now, consider a true proposition, q, which is
believed and entailed by p. If justification is closed under deduction, then q
is justified, true, and believed. But if the only basis for believing q is p,
it is clear that q is not known. Thus, true, justified belief is not sufficient
for knowledge. What response is appropriate to this problem has been a central
issue in epistemology since E. Gettier’s publication of “Is Justified True
Belief Knowledge?” Analysis, 3. Whether justification is closed under deduction
is also crucial when evaluating a common, traditional argument for skepticism.
Consider any person, S, and let p be any proposition ordinarily thought to be
knowable, e.g., that there is a table before S. The argument for skepticism
goes like this: 1 If p is justified for S, then, since p entails q, where q is
‘there is no evil genius making S falsely believe that p’, q is justified for
S. 2 S is not justified in believing q. Therefore, S is not justified in
believing p. The first premise depends upon justification being closed under
deduction.
cockburn:
c. English philosopher and playwright who made a significant contribution to
the debates on ethical rationalism sparked by Clarke’s Boyle lectures 170405.
The major theme of her writings is the nature of moral obligation. Cockburn
displays a consistent, non-doctrinaire philosophical position, arguing that
moral duty is to be rationally deduced from the “nature and fitness of things”
Remarks, 1747 and is not founded primarily in externally imposed sanctions. Her
writings, published anonymously, take the form of philosophical debates with
others, including Samuel Rutherforth, William Warburton, Isaac Watts, Francis
Hutcheson, and Lord Shaftesbury. Her best-known intervention in contemporary
philosophical debate was her able defense of Locke’s Essay in 1702.
cogito
ergo sum – Example given by Grice of Descartes’s conventional implicaturum.
“What Descartes said was, “je pense; donc, j’existe.” The ‘donc’ implicaturum
is an interesting one to analyse. cited by Grice in “Descartes on clear and
distinct perception.” ‘I think, therefore I am’, the starting point of
Descartes’s system of knowledge. In his Discourse on the Method 1637, he
observes that the proposition ‘I am thinking, therefore I exist’ je pense, donc
je suis is “so firm and sure that the most extravagant suppositions of the
skeptics were incapable of shaking it.” The celebrated phrase, in its
better-known Latin version, also occurs in the Principles of Philosophy 1644,
but is not to be found in the Meditations 1641, though the latter contains the
fullest statement of the reasoning behind Descartes’s certainty of his own
existence.
potching
and cotching: Grice coined ‘cotching’ because he was
irritated to hear that Chomsky couldn’t stand ‘know’ and how to coin ‘cognise’
to do duty for it! cognition -- cognitive dissonance, mental discomfort arising
from conflicting beliefs or attitudes held simultaneously. Leon Festinger, who
originated the theory of cognitive dissonance in a book of that title 7,
suggested that cognitive dissonance has motivational characteristics. Suppose a
person is contemplating moving to a new city. She is considering both
Birmingham and Boston. She cannot move to both, so she must choose. Dissonance
is experienced by the person if in choosing, say, Birmingham, she acquires
knowledge of bad or unwelcome features of Birmingham and of good or welcome
aspects of Boston. The amount of dissonance depends on the relative intensities
of dissonant elements. Hence, if the only dissonant factor is her learning that
Boston is cooler than Birmingham, and she does not regard climate as important,
she will experience little dissonance. Dissonance may occur in several sorts of
psychological states or processes, although the bulk of research in cognitive
dissonance theory has been on dissonance in choice and on the justification and
psychological aftereffects of choice. Cognitive dissonance may be involved in
two phenomena of interest to philosophers, namely, self-deception and weakness
of will. Why do self-deceivers try to get themselves to believe something that,
in some sense, they know to be false? One may resort to self-deception when knowledge
causes dissonance. Why do the weak-willed perform actions they know to be
wrong? One may become weak-willed when dissonance arises from the expected
consequences of doing the right thing. -- cognitive psychotherapy, an
expression introduced by Brandt in A Theory of the Good and the Right to refer
to a process of assessing and adjusting one’s desires, aversions, or pleasures
henceforth, “attitudes”. This process is central to Brandt’s analysis of
rationality, and ultimately, to his view on the justification of morality.
Cognitive psychotherapy consists of the agent’s criticizing his attitudes by
repeatedly representing to himself, in an ideally vivid way and at appropriate
times, all relevant available information. Brandt characterizes the key definiens
as follows: 1 available information is “propositions accepted by the science of
the agent’s day, plus factual propositions justified by publicly accessible
evidence including testimony of others about themselves and the principles of
logic”; 2 information is relevant provided, if the agent were to reflect
repeatedly on it, “it would make a difference,” i.e., would affect the attitude
in question, and the effect would be a function of its content, not an
accidental byproduct; 3 relevant information is represented in an ideally vivid
way when the agent focuses on it with maximal clarity and detail and with no
hesitation or doubt about its truth; and 4 repeatedly and at appropriate times
refer, respectively, to the frequency and occasions that would result in the
information’s having the maximal attitudinal impact. Suppose Mary’s desire to
smoke were extinguished by her bringing to the focus of her attention, whenever
she was about to inhale smoke, some justified beliefs, say that smoking is
hazardous to one’s health and may cause lung cancer; Mary’s desire would have
been removed by cognitive psychotherapy. According to Brandt, an attitude is
rational for a person provided it is one that would survive, or be produced by,
cognitive psychotherapy; otherwise it is irrational. Rational attitudes, in
this sense, provide a basis for moral norms. Roughly, the correct moral norms
are those of a moral code that persons would opt for if i they were motivated
by attitudes that survive the process of cognitive psychotherapy; and ii at the
time of opting for a moral code, they were fully aware of, and vividly
attentive to, all available information relevant to choosing a moral code for a
society in which they are to live for the rest of their lives. In this way,
Brandt seeks a value-free justification for moral norms one that avoids the problems of other
theories such as those that make an appeal to intuitions. -- cognitive science, an interdisciplinary
research cluster that seeks to account for intelligent activity, whether
exhibited by living organisms especially adult humans or machines. Hence,
cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence constitute its core. A number
of other disciplines, including neuroscience, linguistics, anthropology, and
philosophy, as well as other fields of psychology e.g., developmental
psychology, are more peripheral contributors. The quintessential cognitive
scientist is someone who employs computer modeling techniques developing
computer programs for the purpose of simulating particular human cognitive
activities, but the broad range of disciplines that are at least peripherally
constitutive of cognitive science have lent a variety of research strategies to
the enterprise. While there are a few common institutions that seek to unify
cognitive science e.g., departments, journals, and societies, the problems
investigated and the methods of investigation often are limited to a single
contributing discipline. Thus, it is more appropriate to view cognitive science
as a cross-disciplinary enterprise than as itself a new discipline. While
interest in cognitive phenomena has historically played a central role in the
various disciplines contributing to cognitive science, the term properly
applies to cross-disciplinary activities that emerged in the 0s. During the
preceding two decades each of the disciplines that became part of cogntive
science gradually broke free of positivistic and behavioristic proscriptions
that barred systematic inquiry into the operation of the mind. One of the
primary factors that catalyzed new investigations of cognitive activities was
Chomsky’s generative grammar, which he advanced not only as an abstract theory
of the structure of language, but also as an account of language users’ mental
knowledge of language their linguistic competence. A more fundamental factor
was the development of approaches for theorizing about information in an
abstract manner, and the introduction of machines computers that could
manipulate information. This gave rise to the idea that one might program a
computer to process information so as to exhibit behavior that would, if
performed by a human, require intelligence. If one tried to formulate a
unifying question guiding cognitive science research, it would probably be: How
does the cognitive system work? But even this common question is interpreted
quite differently in different disciplines. We can appreciate these differences
by looking just at language. While psycholinguists generally psychologists seek
to identify the processing activities in the mind that underlie language use,
most linguists focus on the products of this internal processing, seeking to
articulate the abstract structure of language. A frequent goal of computer
scientists, in contrast, has been to develop computer programs to parse natural
language input and produce appropriate syntactic and semantic representations.
These differences in objectives among the cognitive science disciplines
correlate with different methodologies. The following represent some of the
major methodological approaches of the contributing disciplines and some of the
problems each encounters. Artificial intelligence. If the human cognition
system is viewed as computational, a natural goal is to simulate its
performance. This typically requires formats for representing information as
well as procedures for searching and manipulating it. Some of the earliest
AIprograms drew heavily on the resources of first-order predicate calculus,
representing information in propositional formats and manipulating it according
to logical principles. For many modeling endeavors, however, it proved
important to represent information in larger-scale structures, such as frames
Marvin Minsky, schemata David Rumelhart, or scripts Roger Schank, in which
different pieces of information associated with an object or activity would be
stored together. Such structures generally employed default values for specific
slots specifying, e.g., that deer live in forests that would be part of the
representation unless overridden by new information e.g., that a particular
deer lives in the San Diego Zoo. A very influential alternative approach,
developed by Allen Newell, replaces declarative representations of information
with procedural representations, known as productions. These productions take
the form of conditionals that specify actions to be performed e.g., copying an
expression into working memory if certain conditions are satisfied e.g., the
expression matches another expression. Psychology. While some psychologists
develop computer simulations, a more characteristic activity is to acquire
detailed data from human subjects that can reveal the cognitive system’s actual
operation. This is a challenging endeavor. While cognitive activities transpire
within us, they frequently do so in such a smooth and rapid fashion that we are
unaware of them. For example, we have little awareness of what occurs when we
recognize an object as a chair or remember the name of a client. Some cognitive
functions, though, seem to be transparent to consciousness. For example, we
might approach a logic problem systematically, enumerating possible solutions
and evaluating them serially. Allen Newell and Herbert Simon have refined
methods for exploiting verbal protocols obtained from subjects as they solve
such problems. These methods have been quite fruitful, but their limitations
must be respected. In many cases in which we think we know how we performed a
cognitive task, Richard Nisbett and Timothy Wilson have argued that we are
misled, relying on folk theories to describe how our minds work rather than
reporting directly on their operation. In most cases cognitive psychologists
cannot rely on conscious awareness of cognitive processes, but must proceed as
do physiologists trying to understand metabolism: they must devise experiments
that reveal the underlying processes operative in cognition. One approach is to
seek clues in the errors to which the cognitive system cognitive science
cognitive science is prone. Such errors might be more easily accounted for by
one kind of underlying process than by another. Speech errors, such as
substituting ‘bat cad’ for ‘bad cat’, may be diagnostic of the mechanisms used
to construct speech. This approach is often combined with strategies that seek
to overload or disrupt the system’s normal operation. A common technique is to
have a subject perform two tasks at once
e.g., read a passage while watching for a colored spot. Cognitive
psychologists may also rely on the ability to dissociate two phenomena e.g.,
obliterate one while maintaining the other to establish their independence.
Other types of data widely used to make inferences about the cognitive system
include patterns of reaction times, error rates, and priming effects in which
activation of one item facilitates access to related items. Finally,
developmental psychologists have brought a variety of kinds of data to bear on
cognitive science issues. For example, patterns of acquisition times have been
used in a manner similar to reaction time patterns, and accounts of the origin
and development of systems constrain and elucidate mature systems. Linguistics.
Since linguists focus on a product of cognition rather than the processes that
produce the product, they tend to test their analyses directly against our
shared knowledge of that product. Generative linguists in the tradition of
Chomsky, for instance, develop grammars that they test by probing whether they
generate the sentences of the language and no others. While grammars are
certainly G.e to developing processing models, they do not directly determine
the structure of processing models. Hence, the central task of linguistics is
not central to cognitive science. However, Chomsky has augmented his work on
grammatical description with a number of controversial claims that are psycholinguistic
in nature e.g., his nativism and his notion of linguistic competence. Further,
an alternative approach to incorporating psycholinguistic concerns, the
cognitive linguistics of Lakoff and Langacker, has achieved prominence as a
contributor to cognitive science. Neuroscience. Cognitive scientists have
generally assumed that the processes they study are carried out, in humans, by
the brain. Until recently, however, neuroscience has been relatively peripheral
to cognitive science. In part this is because neuroscientists have been chiefly
concerned with the implementation of processes, rather than the processes
themselves, and in part because the techniques available to neuroscientists
such as single-cell recording have been most suitable for studying the neural
implementation of lower-order processes such as sensation. A prominent
exception was the classical studies of brain lesions initiated by Broca and
Wernicke, which seemed to show that the location of lesions correlated with
deficits in production versus comprehension of speech. More recent data suggest
that lesions in Broca’s area impair certain kinds of syntactic processing.
However, other developments in neuroscience promise to make its data more
relevant to cognitive modeling in the future. These include studies of simple
nervous systems, such as that of the aplysia a genus of marine mollusk by Eric
Kandel, and the development of a variety of techniques for determining the
brain activities involved in the performance of cognitive tasks e.g., recording
of evoked response potentials over larger brain structures, and imaging
techniques such as positron emission tomography. While in the future
neuroscience is likely to offer much richer information that will guide the
development and constrain the character of cognitive models, neuroscience will
probably not become central to cognitive science. It is itself a rich,
multidisciplinary research cluster whose contributing disciplines employ a host
of complicated research tools. Moreover, the focus of cognitive science can be
expected to remain on cognition, not on its implementation. So far cognitive
science has been characterized in terms of its modes of inquiry. One can also
focus on the domains of cognitive phenomena that have been explored. Language
represents one such domain. Syntax was one of the first domains to attract wide
attention in cognitive science. For example, shortly after Chomsky introduced
his transformational grammar, psychologists such as George Miller sought
evidence that transformations figured directly in human language processing.
From this beginning, a more complex but enduring relationship among linguists,
psychologists, and computer scientists has formed a leading edge for much
cognitive science research. Psycholinguistics has matured; sophisticated
computer models of natural language processing have been developed; and
cognitive linguists have offered a particular synthesis that emphasizes
semantics, pragmatics, and cognitive foundations of language. Thinking and
reasoning. These constitute an important domain of cognitive science that is
closely linked to philosophical interests. Problem cognitive science cognitive
science solving, such as that which figures in solving puzzles, playing games,
or serving as an expert in a domain, has provided a prototype for thinking.
Newell and Simon’s influential work construed problem solving as a search
through a problem space and introduced the idea of heuristics generally reliable but fallible simplifying devices
to facilitate the search. One arena for problem solving, scientific reasoning
and discovery, has particularly interested philosophers. Artificial
intelligence researchers such as Simon and Patrick Langley, as well as
philosophers such as Paul Thagard and Lindley Darden, have developed computer
programs that can utilize the same data as that available to historical
scientists to develop and evaluate theories and plan future experiments.
Cognitive scientists have also sought to study the cognitive processes
underlying the sorts of logical reasoning both deductive and inductive whose
normative dimensions have been a concern of philosophers. Philip JohnsonLaird,
for example, has sought to account for human performance in dealing with
syllogistic reasoning by describing a processing of constructing and
manipulating mental models. Finally, the process of constructing and using
analogies is another aspect of reasoning that has been extensively studied by
traditional philosophers as well as cognitive scientists. Memory, attention,
and learning. Cognitive scientists have differentiated a variety of types of
memory. The distinction between long- and short-term memory was very
influential in the information-processing models of the 0s. Short-term memory
was characterized by limited capacity, such as that exhibited by the ability to
retain a seven-digit telephone number for a short period. In much cognitive
science work, the notion of working memory has superseded short-term memory,
but many theorists are reluctant to construe this as a separate memory system
as opposed to a part of long-term memory that is activated at a given time.
Endel Tulving introduced a distinction between semantic memory general
knowledge that is not specific to a time or place and episodic memory memory
for particular episodes or occurrences. More recently, Daniel Schacter proposed
a related distinction that emphasizes consciousness: implicit memory access
without awareness versus explicit memory which does involve awareness and is
similar to episodic memory. One of the interesting results of cognitive
research is the dissociation between different kinds of memory: a person might
have severely impaired memory of recent events while having largely unimpaired
implicit memory. More generally, memory research has shown that human memory
does not simply store away information as in a file cabinet. Rather,
information is organized according to preexisting structures such as scripts,
and can be influenced by events subsequent to the initial storage. Exactly what
gets stored and retrieved is partly determined by attention, and psychologists
in the information-processing tradition have sought to construct general
cognitive models that emphasize memory and attention. Finally, the topic of
learning has once again become prominent. Extensively studied by the
behaviorists of the precognitive era, learning was superseded by memory and
attention as a research focus in the 0s. In the 0s, artificial intelligence
researchers developed a growing interest in designing systems that can learn;
machine learning is now a major problem area in AI. During the same period,
connectionism arose to offer an alternative kind of learning model. Perception
and motor control. Perceptual and motor systems provide the inputs and outputs
to cognitive systems. An important aspect of perception is the recognition of
something as a particular kind of object or event; this requires accessing
knowledge of objects and events. One of the central issues concerning
perception questions the extent to which perceptual processes are influenced by
higher-level cognitive information top-down processing versus how much they are
driven purely by incoming sensory information bottom-up processing. A related
issue concerns the claim that visual imagery is a distinct cognitive process
and is closely related to visual perception, perhaps relying on the same brain
processes. A number of cognitive science inquiries e.g., by Roger Shepard and
Stephen Kosslyn have focused on how people use images in problem solving and
have sought evidence that people solve problems by rotating images or scanning
them. This research has been extremely controversial, as other investigators
have argued against the use of images and have tried to account for the
performance data that have been generated in terms of the use of
propositionally represented information. Finally, a distinction recently has
been proposed between the What and Where systems. All of the foregoing issues
concern the What system which recognizes and represents objects as exemplars of
categories. The Where system, in contrast, concerns objects in their
environment, and is particularly adapted to the dynamics of movement. Gibson’s
ecological psychology is a long-standing inquiry into this aspect of
perception, and work on the neural substrates is now attracting the interest of
cognitive scientists as well. Recent developments. The breadth of cognitive
science has been expanding in recent years. In the 0s, cognitive science
inquiries tended to focus on processing activities of adult humans or on computer
models of intelligent performance; the best work often combined these
approaches. Subsequently, investigators examined in much greater detail how
cognitive systems develop, and developmental psychologists have increasingly
contributed to cognitive science. One of the surprising findings has been that,
contrary to the claims of William James, infants do not seem to confront the
world as a “blooming, buzzing confusion,” but rather recognize objects and
events quite early in life. Cognitive science has also expanded along a
different dimension. Until recently many cognitive studies focused on what
humans could accomplish in laboratory settings in which they performed tasks
isolated from reallife contexts. The motivation for this was the assumption
that cognitive processes were generic and not limited to specific contexts.
However, a variety of influences, including Gibsonian ecological psychology
especially as interpreted and developed by Ulric Neisser and Soviet activity
theory, have advanced the view that cognition is much more dynamic and situated
in real-world tasks and environmental contexts; hence, it is necessary to study
cognitive activities in an ecologically valid manner. Another form of expansion
has resulted from a challenge to what has been the dominant architecture for
modeling cognition. An architecture defines the basic processing capacities of
the cognitive system. The dominant cognitive architecture has assumed that the
mind possesses a capacity for storing and manipulating symbols. These symbols
can be composed into larger structures according to syntactic rules that can
then be operated upon by formal rules that recognize that structure. Jerry
Fodor has referred to this view of the cognitive system as the “language of
thought hypothesis” and clearly construes it as a modern heir of rationalism.
One of the basic arguments for it, due to Fodor and Zenon Pylyshyn, is that
thoughts, like language, exhibit productivity the unlimited capacity to
generate new thoughts and systematicity exhibited by the inherent relation
between thoughts such as ‘Joan loves the florist’ and ‘The florist loves Joan’.
They argue that only if the architecture of cognition has languagelike
compositional structure would productivity and systematicity be generic
properties and hence not require special case-by-case accounts. The challenge
to this architecture has arisen with the development of an alternative
architecture, known as connectionism, parallel distributed processing, or
neural network modeling, which proposes that the cognitive system consists of
vast numbers of neuronlike units that excite or inhibit each other. Knowledge
is stored in these systems by the adjustment of connection strengths between
processing units; consequently, connectionism is a modern descendant of
associationism. Connectionist networks provide a natural account of certain
cognitive phenomena that have proven challenging for the symbolic architecture,
including pattern recognition, reasoning with soft constraints, and learning.
Whether they also can account for productivity and systematicity has been the
subject of debate. Philosophical theorizing about the mind has often provided a
starting point for the modeling and empirical investigations of modern
cognitive science. The ascent of cognitive science has not meant that
philosophers have ceased to play a role in examining cognition. Indeed, a
number of philosophers have pursued their inquiries as contributors to
cognitive science, focusing on such issues as the possible reduction of
cognitive theories to those of neuroscience, the status of folk psychology
relative to emerging scientific theories of mind, the merits of rationalism
versus empiricism, and strategies for accounting for the intentionality of
mental states. The interaction between philosophers and other cognitive
scientists, however, is bidirectional, and a number of developments in
cognitive science promise to challenge or modify traditional philosophical
views of cognition. For example, studies by cognitive and social psychologists
have challenged the assumption that human thinking tends to accord with the
norms of logic and decision theory. On a variety of tasks humans seem to follow
procedures heuristics that violate normative canons, raising questions about
how philosophers should characterize rationality. Another area of empirical
study that has challenged philosophical assumptions has been the study of
concepts and categorization. Philosophers since Plato have widely assumed that
concepts of ordinary language, such as red, bird, and justice, should be
definable by necessary and sufficient conditions. But celebrated studies by
Eleanor Rosch and her colleagues indicated that many ordinary-language concepts
had a prototype structure instead. On this view, the categories employed in
human thinking are characterized by prototypes the clearest exemplars and a
metric that grades exemplars according to their degree of typicality. Recent
investigations have also pointed to significant instability in conceptual
structure and to the role of theoretical beliefs in organizing categories. This
alternative conception of concepts has profound implications for philosophical
methodologies that portray philosophy’s task to be the analysis of
concepts.
palæo-Kantian, Kantian, neo-Kantian.
Cohen, Hermann – Grice liked to think of himself as a neo-Kantian (“rather than
a palaeo-Kantian, you see”) --
philosopher who originated and led, with Paul Natorp, the Marburg School
of neo-Kantianism. He taught at Marburg. Cohen wrote commentaries on Kant’s
Critiques prior to publishing System der Philosophie 212, which consisted of
parts on logic, ethics, and aesthetics. He developed a Kantian idealism of the
natural sciences, arguing that a transcendental analysis of these sciences
shows that “pure thought” his system of Kantian a priori principles
“constructs” their “reality.” He also developed Kant’s ethics as a democratic
socialist ethics. He ended his career at a rabbinical seminary in Berlin,
writing his influential Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums
“Religion of Reason out of the Sources of Judaism,” 9, which explicated Judaism
on the basis of his own Kantian ethical idealism. Cohen’s ethical-political
views were adopted by Kurt Eisner 18679, leader of the Munich revolution of 8,
and also had an impact on the revisionism of orthodox Marxism of the G. Social
Democratic Party, while his philosophical writings greatly influenced Cassirer.
coherence – since H. P.
Grice was a correspondentist, he hated Bradley. -- theory of truth, the view that either the
nature of truth or the sole criterion for determining truth is constituted by a
relation of coherence between the belief or judgment being assessed and other
beliefs or judgments. As a view of the nature of truth, the coherence theory
represents an alternative to the correspondence theory of truth. Whereas the
correspondence theory holds that a belief is true provided it corresponds to
independent reality, the coherence theory holds that it is true provided it
stands in a suitably strong relation of coherence to other beliefs, so that the
believer’s total system of beliefs forms a highly or perhaps perfectly coherent
system. Since, on such a characterization, truth depends entirely on the
internal relations within the system of beliefs, such a conception of truth
seems to lead at once to idealism as regards the nature of reality, and its
main advocates have been proponents of absolute idealism mainly Bradley,
Bosanquet, and Brand Blanshard. A less explicitly metaphysical version of the
coherence theory was also held by certain members of the school of logical
positivism mainly Otto Neurath and Carl Hempel. The nature of the intended
relation of coherence, often characterized metaphorically in terms of the
beliefs in question fitting together or dovetailing with each other, has been
and continues to be a matter of uncertainty and controversy. Despite occasional
misconceptions to the contrary, it is clear that coherence is intended to be a
substantially more demanding relation than mere consistency, involving such
things as inferential and explanatory relations within the system of beliefs.
Perfect or ideal coherence is sometimes described as requiring that every
belief in the system of beliefs entails all the others though it must be
remembered that those offering such a characterization do not restrict
entailments to those that are formal or analytic in character. Since actual
human systems of belief seem inevitably to fall short of perfect coherence,
however that is understood, their truth is usually held to be only approximate
at best, thus leading to the absolute idealist view that truth admits of
degrees. As a view of the criterion of truth, the coherence theory of truth
holds that the sole criterion or standard for determining whether a belief is
true is its coherence with other beliefs or judgments, with the degree of
justification varying with the degree of coherence. Such a view amounts to a
coherence theory of epistemic justification. It was held by most of the
proponents of the coherence theory of the nature of truth, though usually
without distinguishing the two views very clearly. For philosophers who hold
both of these views, the thesis that coherence is the sole criterion of truth
is usually logically prior, and the coherence theory of the nature of truth is
adopted as a consequence, the clearest argument being that only the view that
perfect or ideal coherence is the nature of truth can make sense of the appeal
to degrees of coherence as a criterion of truth. -- coherentism, in epistemology, a theory of
the structure of knowledge or justified beliefs according to which all beliefs
representing knowledge are known or justified in virtue of their relations to
other beliefs, specifically, in virtue of belonging to a coherent system of
beliefs. Assuming that the orthodox account of knowledge is correct at least in
maintaining that justified true belief is necessary for knowledge, we can
identify two kinds of coherence theories of knowledge: those that are
coherentist merely in virtue of incorporating a coherence theory of
justification, and those that are doubly coherentist because they account for
both justification and truth in terms of coherence. What follows will focus on
coherence theories of justification. Historically, coherentism is the most significant
alternative to foundationalism. The latter holds that some beliefs, basic or
foundational beliefs, are justified apart from their relations to other
beliefs, while all other beliefs derive their justification from that of
foundational beliefs. Foundationalism portrays justification as having a
structure like that of a building, with certain beliefs serving as the
foundations and all other beliefs supported by them. Coherentism rejects this
image and pictures justification as having the structure of a raft. Justified
beliefs, like the planks that make up a raft, mutually support one another.
This picture of the coherence theory is due to the positivist Otto Neurath.
Among the positivists, Hempel shared Neurath’s sympathy for coherentism. Other
defenders of coherentism from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
were idealists, e.g., Bradley, Bosanquet, and Brand Blanshard. Idealists often
held the sort of double coherence theory mentioned above. The contrast between
foundationalism and coherentism is commonly developed in terms of the regress
argument. If we are asked what justifies one of our beliefs, we
characteristically answer by citing some other belief that supports it, e.g.,
logically or probabilistically. If we are asked about this second belief, we
are likely to cite a third belief, and so on. There are three shapes such an
evidential chain might have: it could go on forever, if could eventually end in
some belief, or it could loop back upon itself, i.e., eventually contain again a
belief that had occurred “higher up” on the chain. Assuming that infinite
chains are not really possible, we are left with a choice between chains that
end and circular chains. According to foundationalists, evidential chains must
eventually end with a foundational belief that is justified, if the belief at
the beginning of the chain is to be justified. Coherentists are then portrayed
as holding that circular chains can yield justified beliefs. This portrayal is,
in a way, correct. But it is also misleading since it suggests that the
disagreement between coherentism and foundationalism is best understood as
concerning only the structure of evidential chains. Talk of evidential chains
in which beliefs that are further down on the chain are responsible for beliefs
that are higher up naturally suggests the idea that just as real chains
transfer forces, evidential chains transfer justification. Foundationalism then
sounds like a real possibility. Foundational beliefs already have
justification, and evidential chains serve to pass the justification along to
other beliefs. But coherentism seems to be a nonstarter, for if no belief in
the chain is justified to begin with, there is nothing to pass along. Altering
the metaphor, we might say that coherentism seems about as likely to succeed as
a bucket brigade that does not end at a well, but simply moves around in a
circle. The coherentist seeks to dispel this appearance by pointing out that
the primary function of evidential chains is not to transfer epistemic status, such
as justification, from belief to belief. Indeed, beliefs are not the primary
locus of justification. Rather, it is whole systems of belief that are
justified or not in the primary sense; individual beliefs are justified in
virtue of their membership in an appropriately structured system of beliefs.
Accordingly, what the coherentist claims is that the appropriate sorts of
evidential chains, which will be circular
indeed, will likely contain numerous circles constitute justified systems of belief. The individual
beliefs within such a system are themselves justified in virtue of their place
in the entire system and not because this status is passed on to them from
beliefs further down some evidential chain in which they figure. One can,
therefore, view coherentism with considerable accuracy as a version of
foundationalism that holds all beliefs to be foundational. From this
perspective, the difference between coherentism and traditional foundationalism
has to do with what accounts for the epistemic status of foundational beliefs,
with traditional foundationalism holding that such beliefs can be justified in
various ways, e.g., by perception or reason, while coherentism insists that the
only way such beliefs can be justified is by being a member of an appropriately
structured system of beliefs. One outstanding problem the coherentist faces is
to specify exactly what constitutes a coherent system of beliefs. Coherence
clearly must involve much more than mere absence of mutually contradictory
beliefs. One way in which beliefs can be logically consistent is by concerning
completely unrelated matters, but such a consistent system of beliefs would not
embody the sort of mutual support that constitutes the core idea of
coherentism. Moreover, one might question whether logical consistency is even
necessary for coherence, e.g., on the basis of the preface paradox. Similar
points can be made regarding efforts to begin an account of coherence with the
idea that beliefs and degrees of belief must correspond to the probability
calculus. So although it is difficult to avoid thinking that such formal
features as logical and probabilistic consistency are significantly involved in
coherence, it is not clear exactly how they are involved. An account of
coherence can be drawn more directly from the following intuitive idea: a
coherent system of belief is one in which each belief is epistemically
supported by the others, where various types of epistemic support are
recognized, e.g., deductive or inductive arguments, or inferences to the best
explanation. There are, however, at least two problems this suggestion does not
address. First, since very small sets of beliefs can be mutually supporting,
the coherentist needs to say something about the scope a system of beliefs must
have to exhibit the sort of coherence required for justification. Second, given
the possibility of small sets of mutually supportive beliefs, it is apparently
possible to build a system of very broad scope out of such small sets of
mutually supportive beliefs by mere conjunction, i.e., without forging any
significant support relations among them. Yet, since the interrelatedness of
all truths does not seem discoverable by analyzing the concept of
justification, the coherentist cannot rule out epistemically isolated
subsystems of belief entirely. So the coherentist must say what sorts of
isolated subsystems of belief are compatible with coherence. The difficulties
involved in specifying a more precise concept of coherence should not be
pressed too vigorously against the coherentist. For one thing, most
foundationalists have been forced to grant coherence a significant role within
their accounts of justification, so no dialectical advantage can be gained by
pressing them. Moreover, only a little reflection is needed to see that nearly
all the difficulties involved in specifying coherence are manifestations within
a specific context of quite general philosophical problems concerning such
matters as induction, explanation, theory choice, the nature of epistemic
support, etc. They are, then, problems that are faced by logicians,
philosophers of science, and epistemologists quite generally, regardless of
whether they are sympathetic to coherentism. Coherentism faces a number of
serious objections. Since according to coherentism justification is determined
solely by the relations among beliefs, it does not seem to be capable of taking
us outside the circle of our beliefs. This fact gives rise to complaints that
coherentism cannot allow for any input from external reality, e.g., via
perception, and that it can neither guarantee nor even claim that it is likely
that coherent systems of belief will make contact with such reality or contain
true beliefs. And while it is widely granted that justified false beliefs are
possible, it is just as widely accepted that there is an important connection
between justification and truth, a connection that rules out accounts according
to which justification is not truth-conducive. These abstractly formulated
complaints can be made more vivid, in the case of the former, by imagining a
person with a coherent system of beliefs that becomes frozen, and fails to
change in the face of ongoing sensory experience; and in the case of the
latter, by pointing out that, barring an unexpected account of coherence, it
seems that a wide variety of coherent systems of belief are possible, systems
that are largely disjoint or even incompatible.
collier:
a., Grice found the Clavis Universalis
quite fun (“to read”). -- English philosopher, a Wiltshire parish priest whose
Clavis Universalis 1713 defends a version of immaterialism closely akin to
Berkeley’s. Matter, Collier contends, “exists in, or in dependence on mind.” He
emphatically affirms the existence of bodies, and, like Berkeley, defends
immaterialCoimbra commentaries Collier, Arthur 155 155 ism as the only alternative to
skepticism. Collier grants that bodies seem to be external, but their
“quasi-externeity” is only the effect of God’s will. In Part I of the Clavis
Collier argues as Berkeley had in his New Theory of Vision, 1709 that the
visible world is not external. In Part II he argues as Berkeley had in the
Principles, 1710, and Three Dialogues, 1713 that the external world “is a being
utterly impossible.” Two of Collier’s arguments for the “intrinsic repugnancy”
of the external world resemble Kant’s first and second antinomies. Collier
argues, e.g., that the material world is both finite and infinite; the
contradiction can be avoided, he suggests, only by denying its external
existence. Some scholars suspect that Collier deliberately concealed his debt
to Berkeley; most accept his report that he arrived at his views ten years
before he published them. Collier first refers to Berkeley in letters written
in 171415. In A Specimen of True Philosophy 1730, where he offers an
immaterialist interpretation of the opening verse of Genesis, Collier writes
that “except a single passage or two” in Berkeley’s Dialogues, there is no
other book “which I ever heard of” on the same subject as the Clavis. This is a
puzzling remark on several counts, one being that in the Preface to the
Dialogues, Berkeley describes his earlier books. Collier’s biographer reports
seeing among his papers now lost an outline, dated 1708, on “the question of
the visible world being without us or not,” but he says no more about it. The
biographer concludes that Collier’s independence cannot reasonably be doubted;
perhaps the outline would, if unearthed, establish this.
collingwood:
r. g.—cited by H. P. Grice in “Metaphysics,” in D. F. Pears, “The nature of
metaphysics.” – Like Grice, Collingwood was influenced by J. C. Wilson’s
subordinate interrogation. English philosopher and historian. His father, W. G.
Collingwood, John Ruskin’s friend, secretary, and biographer, at first educated
him at home in Coniston and later sent him to Rugby School and then Oxford.
Immediately upon graduating in 2, he was elected to a fellowship at Pembroke ;
except for service with admiralty intelligence during World War I, he remained
at Oxford until 1, when illness compelled him to retire. Although his
Autobiography expresses strong disapproval of the lines on which, during his
lifetime, philosophy at Oxford developed, he was a varsity “insider.” He was
elected to the Waynflete Professorship, the first to become vacant after he had
done enough work to be a serious candidate. He was also a leading archaeologist
of Roman Britain. Although as a student Collingwood was deeply influenced by
the “realist” teaching of John Cook Wilson, he studied not only the British idealists,
but also Hegel and the contemporary
post-Hegelians. At twenty-three, he published a translation of Croce’s
book on Vico’s philosophy. Religion and Philosophy 6, the first of his attempts
to present orthodox Christianity as philosophically acceptable, has both
idealist and Cook Wilsonian elements. Thereafter the Cook Wilsonian element
steadily diminished. In Speculum Mentis4, he investigated the nature and
ultimate unity of the four special ‘forms of experience’ art, religion, natural science, and history and their relation to a fifth comprehensive
form philosophy. While all four, he
contended, are necessary to a full human life now, each is a form of error that
is corrected by its less erroneous successor. Philosophy is error-free but has
no content of its own: “The truth is not some perfect system of philosophy: it
is simply the way in which all systems, however perfect, collapse into
nothingness on the discovery that they are only systems.” Some critics
dismissed this enterprise as idealist a description Collingwood accepted when
he wrote, but even those who favored it were disturbed by the apparent
skepticism of its result. A year later, he amplified his views about art in
Outlines of a Philosophy of Art. Since much of what Collingwood went on to write
about philosophy has never been published, and some of it has been negligently
destroyed, his thought after Speculum Mentis is hard to trace. It will not be
definitively established until the more than 3,000 s of his surviving
unpublished manuscripts deposited in the Bodleian Library in 8 have been
thoroughly studied. They were not available to the scholars who published
studies of his philosophy as a whole up to 0. Three trends in how his
philosophy developed, however, are discernible. The first is that as he
continued to investigate the four special forms of experience, he came to
consider each valid in its own right, and not a form of error. As early as 8,
he abandoned the conception of the historical past in Speculum Mentis as simply
a spectacle, alien to the historian’s mind; he now proposed a theory of it as
thoughts explaining past actions that, although occurring in the past, can be
rethought in the present. Not only can the identical thought “enacted” at a
definite time in the past be “reenacted” any number of times after, but it can
be known to be so reenacted if colligation physical evidence survives that can
be shown to be incompatible with other proposed reenactments. In 334 he wrote a
series of lectures posthumously published as The Idea of Nature in which he
renounced his skepticism about whether the quantitative material world can be
known, and inquired why the three constructive periods he recognized in
European scientific thought, the Grecian, the Renaissance, and the modern,
could each advance our knowledge of it as they did. Finally, in 7, returning to
the philosophy of art and taking full account of Croce’s later work, he showed
that imagination expresses emotion and becomes false when it counterfeits
emotion that is not felt; thus he transformed his earlier theory of art as
purely imaginative. His later theories of art and of history remain alive; and
his theory of nature, although corrected by research since his death, was an
advance when published. The second trend was that his conception of philosophy
changed as his treatment of the special forms of experience became less
skeptical. In his beautifully written Essay on Philosophical Method 3, he
argued that philosophy has an object the
ens realissimum as the one, the true, and the good of which the objects of the special forms of
experience are appearances; but that implies what he had ceased to believe,
that the special forms of experience are forms of error. In his Principles of
Art 8 and New Leviathan 2 he denounced the idealist principle of Speculum
Mentis that to abstract is to falsify. Then, in his Essay on Metaphysics 0, he
denied that metaphysics is the science of being qua being, and identified it
with the investigation of the “absolute presuppositions” of the special forms of
experience at definite historical periods. A third trend, which came to
dominate his thought as World War II approached, was to see serious philosophy
as practical, and so as having political implications. He had been, like
Ruskin, a radical Tory, opposed less to liberal or even some socialist measures
than to the bourgeois ethos from which they sprang. Recognizing European
fascism as the barbarism it was, and detesting anti-Semitism, he advocated an
antifascist foreign policy and intervention in the civil war in support of the republic. His
last major publication, The New Leviathan, impressively defends what he called
civilization against what he called barbarism; and although it was neglected by
political theorists after the war was won, the collapse of Communism and the
rise of Islamic states are winning it new readers.
Grice’s
combinatory logic, a branch of logic that deals with formal
systems designed for the study of certain basic operations for constructing and
manipulating functions as rules, i.e. as rules of calculation expressed by
definitions. The notion of a function was fundamental in the development of
modern formal or mathematical logic that was initiated by Frege, Peano,
Russell, Hilbert, and others. Frege was the first to introduce a generalization
of the mathematical notion of a function to include propositional functions,
and he used the general notion for formally representing logical notions such
as those of a concept, object, relation, generality, and judgment. Frege’s
proposal to replace the traditional logical notions of subject and predicate by
argument and function, and thus to conceive predication as functional
application, marks a turning point in the history of formal logic. In most
modern logical systems, the notation used to express functions, including
propositional functions, is essentially that used in ordinary mathematics. As
in ordinary mathematics, certain basic notions are taken for granted, such as
the use of variables to indicate processes of substitution. Like the original
systems for modern formal logic, the systems of combinatory logic were designed
to give a foundation for mathematics. But combinatory logic arose as an effort
to carry the foundational aims further and deeper. It undertook an analysis of
notions taken for granted in the original systems, in particular of the notions
of substitution and of the use of variables. In this respect combinatory logic
was conceived by one of its founders, H. B. Curry, to be concerned with the
ultimate foundations and with notions that constitute a “prelogic.” It was
hoped that an analysis of this prelogic would disclose the true source of the
difficulties connected with the logical paradoxes. The operation of applying a
function to one of its arguments, called application, is a primitive operation
in all systems of combinatory logic. If f is a function and x a possible
argument, then the result of the application operation is denoted fx. In
mathematics this is usually written fx, but the notation fx is more convenient
in combinatory logic. The G. logician M. Schönfinkel, who started combinatory
logic in 4, observed that it is not necessary to introduce color realism
combinatory logic functions of more than one variable, provided that the idea
of a function is enlarged so that functions can be arguments as well as values
of other functions. A function Fx,y is represented with the function f, which
when applied to the argument x has, as a value, the function fx, which, when
applied to y, yields Fx,y, i.e. fxy % Fx,y. It is therefore convenient to omit
parentheses with association to the left so that fx1 . . . xn is used for . . . fx1 . . . xn. Schönfinkel’s main result
was to show how to make the class of functions studied closed under explicit
definition by introducing two specific primitive functions, the combinators S
and K, with the rules Kxy % x, and Sxyz % xzyz. To illustrate the effect of S
in ordinary mathematical notation, let f and g be functions of two and one
arguments, respectively; then Sfg is the function such that Sfgx % fx,gx.
Generally, if ax1, . . . ,xn is an expression built up from constants and the
variables shown by means of the application operation, then there is a function
F constructed out of constants including the combinators S and K, such that Fx1
. . . xn % ax1, . . . , xn. This is essentially the meaning of the combinatory
completeness of the theory of combinators in the terminology of H. B. Curry and
R. Feys, Combinatory Logic 8; and H. B. Curry, J. R. Hindley, and J. P. Seldin,
Combinatory Logic, vol. II 2. The system of combinatory logic with S and K as
the only primitive functions is the simplest equation calculus that is
essentially undecidable. It is a type-free theory that allows the formation of
the term ff, i.e. self-application, which has given rise to problems of
interpretation. There are also type theories based on combinatory logic. The
systems obtained by extending the theory of combinators with functions
representing more familiar logical notions such as negation, implication, and
generality, or by adding a device for expressing inclusion in logical
categories, are studied in illative combinatory logic. The theory of
combinators exists in another, equivalent form, namely as the type-free
l-calculus created by Church in 2. Like the theory of combinators, it was
designed as a formalism for representing functions as rules of calculation, and
it was originally part of a more general system of functions intended as a
foundation for mathematics. The l-calculus has application as a primitive operation,
but instead of building up new functions from some primitive ones by
application, new functions are here obtained by functional abstraction. If ax
is an expression built up by means of application from constants and the
variable x, then ax is considered to define a function denoted lx.a x, whose
value for the argument b is ab, i.e. lx.a xb % ab. The function lx.ax is
obtained from ax by functional abstraction. The property of combinatory
completeness or closure under explicit definition is postulated in the form of
functional abstraction. The combinators can be defined using functional
abstraction i.e., K % lx.ly.x and S % lx.ly.lz.xzyz, and conversely, in the
theory of combinators, functional abstraction can be defined. A detailed
presentation of the l-calculus is found in H. Barendregt, The Lambda Calculus,
Its Syntax and Semantics 1. It is possible to represent the series of natural
numbers by a sequence of closed terms in the lcalculus. Certain expressions in
the l-calculus will then represent functions on the natural numbers, and these
l-definable functions are exactly the general recursive functions or the Turing
computable functions. The equivalence of l-definability and general
recursiveness was one of the arguments used by Church for what is known as
Church’s thesis, i.e., the identification of the effectively computable
functions and the recursive functions. The first problem about recursive
undecidability was expressed by Church as a problem about expressions in the l
calculus. The l-calculus thus played a historically important role in the
original development of recursion theory. Due to the emphasis in combinatory
logic on the computational aspect of functions, it is natural that its method
has been found useful in proof theory and in the development of systems of
constructive mathematics. For the same reason it has found several applications
in computer science in the construction and analysis of programming languages.
The techniques of combinatory logic have also been applied in theoretical linguistics,
e.g. in so-called Montague grammar. In recent decades combinatory logic, like
other domains of mathematical logic, has developed into a specialized branch of
mathematics, in which the original philosophical and foundational aims and
motives are of little and often no importance. One reason for this is the
discovery of the new technical applications, which were not intended
originally, and which have turned the interest toward several new mathematical
problems. Thus, the original motives are often felt to be less urgent and only
of historical significance. Another reason for the decline of the original
philosophical and foundational aims may be a growing awareness in the
philosophy of mathematics of the limitations of formal and mathematical methods
as tools for conceptual combinatory logic combinatory logic clarification, as
tools for reaching “ultimate foundations.”
commitment: Grice’s commitment to the 39
Articles. An utterer is committed to those and
only those entities to which the bound variables of his utterance must be
capable of referring in order that the utterance made be true.” Cf. Grice on
substitutional quantification for his feeling Byzantine, and ‘gap’ sign in the
analysis.
common-ground status assignment: While
Grice was invited to a symposium on ‘mutual knowledge,’ he never was for
‘regressive accounts’ of ‘know,’ perhaps because he had to be different, and
the idea of the mutual or common knowledge was the obvious way to deal with his
account of communication. He rejects it and opts for an anti-sneak clause. In
the common-ground he uses the phrase, “What the eye no longer sees, the heart
no longer grieves for.” What does he mean? He means that in the case of some
recognizable divergence between the function of a communication device in a
rational calculus and in the vernacular, one may have to assign ‘common ground
status’ to certain features, e. g. [The king of France is] bald. By using the
square brackets, or subscripts, in “Vacuous names and descriptions,” the
material within their scope is ‘immune’ to refutation. It has some sort of
conversational ‘inertia.’ So the divergence, for which Grice’s heart grieved,
is no more to be seen by Grice’s eye. Strwson and Wiggins view that this is
only tentative for Grice. the regulations for common-ground assignment have to
do with general rational constraints on conversation. Grice is clear in
“Causal,” and as Strawson lets us know, he was already clear in “Introduction”
when talking of a ‘pragmatic rule.’ Strawson states the rule in terms of making
your conversational contribution the logically strongest possible. If we abide by an
imperative of conversational helpfulness, enjoining the maximally giving and
receiving of information and the influencing and being influenced by others in
the institution of a decisions, the sub-imperative follows to the effect, ‘Thou
shalt NOT make a weak move compared to the stronger one that thou canst
truthfully make, and with equal or greater economy of means.’“Causal” provides a more difficult version, because it
deals with non-extensional contexts where ‘strong’ need not be interpreted as
‘logical strength’ in terms of entailment. Common ground status assignment
springs from the principle of conversational helpfulness or conversational
benevolence. What would be the benevolent point of ‘informing’ your addressee
what you KNOW your addressee already knows? It is not even CONCEPTUALLY
possible. You are not ‘informing’ him if you are aware that he knows it. So,
what Strawson later calls the principle of presumption of ignorance and the
principle of the presumption of knowledge are relevant. There is a balance
between the two. If Strawson asks Grice, “Is the king of France bald?” Grice is
entitled to assume that Strawson thinks two things Grice will perceive as having
been assigned a ‘common-ground’ status as uncontroversial topic not worth
conversing about. First, Strawson thinks that there is one king. (∃x)Fx. Second, Strawson thinks that there is at most one
king. (x)(y)((Fx.Fy)⊃ x=y).
That the king is bald is NOT assigned common-ground status, because Grice
cannot expect that Strawson thinks that Grice KNOWS that. Grice symbolises the
common-ground status by means of subscripts. He also uses square-bracekts, so
that anything within the scope of the square brackets is immune to controversy,
or as Grice also puts it, conversationally _inert_: things we don’t talk about.
communication device: Grice always has ‘or
communication devices’ at the tip of his tongue. “Language or communication
devices” (WoW: 284). A device is produced. A device can be misunderstood.
communicatum: With the linguistic turn, as Grice notes, it was all
about ‘language.’ But at Oxford they took a cavalier attitude to language, that
Grice felt like slightly rectifying, while keeping it cavalier as we like it at
Oxford. The colloquialism of ‘mean’ does not translate well in the Graeco-Roman
tradition Grice was educated via his Lit. Hum. (Philos.) and at Clifton.
‘Communicate’ might do. On top, Grice does use ‘communicate’ on various
occasions in WoW. By psi-transmission,
something that belonged in the emissor becomes ‘common property,’ ‘communion’
has been achived. Now the recipient KNOWS that it is raining (shares the belief
with the emissor) and IS GOING to bring that umbrella (has formed a desire). “Communication”
is cognate with ‘communion,’ while conversation is cognate with ‘sex’! When
Grice hightlights the ‘common ground’ in ‘communication’ he is being slightly
rhetorical, so it is good when he weakens the claim from ‘common ground’ to ‘non-trivial.’
A: I’m going to the concert. My uncle’s brother went to that concert. The
emissor cannot presume that his addressee KNEW that he had an unlce let alone
that his uncle had a brother (the emissor’s father). But any expansion would
trigger the wrong implicaturum. One who likes ‘communication’ is refined
Strawson (I’m using refined as J. Barnes does it, “turn Plato into refined
Strawson”). Both in his rat-infested example and at the inaugural lecture at
Oxford. Grice, for one, has given us reason to think that, with sufficient
care, and far greater refinement than I have indicated, it is possible to
expound such a concept of communication-intention or, as he calls it, utterer's
meaning, which is proof against objection. it is a commonplace that Grice belongs, as
most philosophers of the twentieth century, to the movement of the linguistic
turn. Short and Lewis have “commūnĭcare,” earlier “conmunicare,” f. communis,
and thus sharing the prefix with “conversare.” Now “communis” is an interesting
lexeme that Grice uses quite centrally in his idea of the ‘common ground’ –
when a feature of discourse is deemed to have been assigned ‘common-ground
status.’ “Communis” features the “cum-” prefix, commūnis (comoinis); f. “con” and
root “mu-,” to bind; Sanscr. mav-; cf.: immunis, munus, moenia. The
‘communicatum’ (as used by Tammelo in
social philosophy) may well cover what Grice would call the total
‘significatio,’ or ‘significatum.’ Grice takes this seriously. Let us start
then by examining what we mean by ‘linguistic,’ or ‘communication.’ It is
curious that while most Griceians overuse ‘communicative’ as applied to
‘intention,’ Grice does not. Communicator’s intention, at most. This is the
Peirce in Grice’s soul. Meaning provides an excellent springboard for Grice to
centre his analysis on psychological or soul-y verbs as involving the agent and
the first person: smoke only figuratively means fire, and the expression smoke
only figuratively (or metabolically) means that there is fire. It is this or
that utterer (say, Grice) who means, say, by uttering Where theres smoke theres
fire, or ubi fumus, ibi ignis, that where theres smoke theres fire. A
means something by uttering x, an utterance-token is roughly equivalent to
utterer U intends the utterance of x to produce some effect in his addressee A
by means of the recognition of this intention; and we may add that to ask what
U means is to ask for a specification of the intended effect - though, of
course, it may not always be possible to get a straight answer involving a
that-clause, for example, a belief that
He does provide a more specific example involving the that-clause at a
later stage. 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. Besides St. John The Baptist, and Salome, Grice
cites few Namess in Meaning. But he makes a point about Stevenson! For
Stevenson, smoke means fire. Meaning develops out of an interest by Grice on
the philosophy of Peirce. In his essays on Peirce, Grice quotes from many other
authors, including, besides Peirce himself (!), Ogden, Richards, and Ewing, or
A. C. Virtue is not a fire-shovel Ewing, as Grice calls him, and this or that
cricketer. In the characteristic Oxonian fashion of a Lit. Hum., Grice has no
intention to submit Meaning to publication. Publishing is vulgar. Bennett,
however, guesses that Grice decides to publish it just a year after his Defence
of a dogma. Bennett’s argument is that Defence of a dogma pre-supposes some
notion of meaning. However, a different story may be told, not necessarily
contradicting Bennetts. It is Strawson who submits the essay by Grice to The
Philosophical Review (henceforth, PR) Strawson attends Grices talk on Meaning
for The Oxford Philosophical Society, and likes it. Since In defence of a dogma
was co-written with Strawson, the intention Bennett ascribes to Grice is
Strawsons. Oddly, Strawson later provides a famous alleged counter-example to
Grice on meaning in Intention and convention in speech acts, following J. O.
Urmson’s earlier attack to the sufficiency of Grices analysans -- which has
Grice dedicating a full James lecture (No. 5) to it. there is Strawsons
rat-infested house for which it is insufficient. An interesting fact,
that confused a few, is that Hart quotes from Grices Meaning in his critical
review of Holloway for The Philosophical Quarterly. Hart quotes Grice
pre-dating the publication of Meaning. Harts point is that Holloway should have
gone to Oxford! In Meaning, Grice may be seen as a practitioner of
ordinary-language philosophy: witness his explorations of the factivity (alla
know, remember, or see) or lack thereof of various uses of to mean. The second
part of the essay, for which he became philosophically especially popular,
takes up an intention-based approach to semantic notions. The only authority
Grice cites, in typical Oxonian fashion, is, via Ogden and Barnes, Stevenson,
who, from The New World (and via Yale, too!) defends an emotivist theory of
ethics, and making a few remarks on how to mean is used, with scare quotes, in
something like a causal account (Smoke means fire.). After its publication
Grices account received almost as many alleged counterexamples as rule-utilitarianism
(Harrison), but mostly outside Oxford, and in The New World. New-World
philosophers seem to have seen Grices attempt as reductionist and as
oversimplifying. At Oxford, the sort of counterexample Grice received, before
Strawson, was of the Urmson-type: refined, and subtle. I think your account
leaves bribery behind. On the other hand, in the New World ‒ in what Grice
calls the Latter-Day School of Nominalism, Quine is having troubles with
empiricism. Meaning was repr. in various collections, notably in Philosophical
Logic, ed. by Strawson. It should be remembered that it is Strawson who has the
thing typed and submitted for publication. Why Meaning should be repr. in a
collection on Philosophical Logic only Strawson knows. But Grice does say that
his account may help clarify the meaning of entails! It may be Strawsons implicaturum
that Parkinson should have repr. (and not merely credited) Meaning by Grice in
his series for Oxford on The theory of meaning. The preferred quotation for Griceians
is of course The Oxford Philosophical Society quote, seeing that Grice recalled
the exact year when he gave the talk for the Philosophical Society at Oxford!
It is however, the publication in The Philosophi, rather than the quieter
evening at the Oxford Philosophical Society, that occasioned a tirade of
alleged counter-examples by New-World philosophers. Granted, one or two
Oxonians ‒ Urmson and Strawson ‒ fell in! Urmson criticises the sufficiency of
Grices account, by introducing an alleged counter-example involving bribery.
Grice will consider a way out of Urmsons alleged counter-example in his fifth
Wiliam James Lecture, rightly crediting and thanking Urmson for this! Strawsons
alleged counter-example was perhaps slightly more serious, if regressive. It
also involves the sufficiency of Grices analysis. Strawsons rat-infested house
alleged counter-example started a chain which required Grice to avoid,
ultimately, any sneaky intention by way of a recursive clause to the effect
that, for utterer U to have meant that p, all meaning-constitutive intentions
should be above board. But why this obsession by Grice with mean? He is being
funny. Spots surely dont mean, only mean.They dont have a mind. Yet Grice opens
with a specific sample. Those spots mean, to the doctor, that you, dear, have
measles. Mean? Yes, dear, mean, doctors orders. Those spots mean measles. But
how does the doctor know? Cannot he be in the wrong? Not really, mean is
factive, dear! Or so Peirce thought. Grice is amazed that Peirce thought that
some meaning is factive. The hole in this piece of cloth means that a bullet
went through is is one of Peirce’s examples. Surely, as Grice notes, this is an
unhappy example. The hole in the cloth may well have caused by something else,
or fabricated. (Or the postmark means that the letter went through the post.)
Yet, Grice was having Oxonian tutees aware that Peirce was krypto-technical.
Grice chose for one of his pre-Meaning seminars on Peirce’s general theory of
signs, with emphasis on general, and the correspondence of Peirce and Welby.
Peirce, rather than the Vienna circle, becomes, in vein with Grices dissenting
irreverent rationalism, important as a source for Grices attempt to English
Peirce. Grices implicaturum seems to be that Peirce, rather than Ayer, cared
for the subtleties of meaning and sign, never mind a verificationist theory
about them! Peirce ultra-Latinate-cum-Greek taxonomies have Grice very nervous,
though. He knew that his students were proficient in the classics, but still. Grice
thus proposes to reduce all of Peirceian divisions and sub-divisions (one
sub-division too many) to mean. In the proceedings, he quotes from Ogden,
Richards, and Ewing. In particular, Grice was fascinated by the correspondence of
Peirce with Lady Viola Welby, as repr. by Ogden/Richards in, well, their study
on the meaning of meaning. Grice thought the science of symbolism pretentious,
but then he almost thought Lady Viola Welby slightly pretentious, too, if youve
seen her; beautiful lady. It is via Peirce that Grice explores examples such as
those spots meaning measles. Peirce’s obsession is with weathercocks almost as
Ockham was with circles on wine-barrels. Old-World Grices use of New-World
Peirce is illustrative, thus, of the Oxonian linguistic turn focused on
ordinary language. While Peirce’s background was not philosophical, Grice
thought it comical enough. He would say that Peirce is an amateur, but then he
said the same thing about Mill, whom Grice had to study by heart to get his B.
A. Lit. Hum.! Plus, as Watson commented, what is wrong with amateur? Give me an
amateur philosopher ANY day, if I have to choose from professional Hegel! In
finding Peirce krypo-technical, Grice is ensuing that his tutees, and indeed
any Oxonian philosophy student (he was university lecturer) be aware that to
mean should be more of a priority than this or that jargon by this or that (New
World?) philosopher!? Partly! Grice wanted his students to think on their own,
and draw their own conclusions! Grice cites Ewing, Ogden/Richards, and many
others. Ewing, while Oxford-educated, had ended up at Cambridge (Scruton almost
had him as his tutor) and written some points on Meaninglessness! Those spots
mean measles. Grice finds Peirce krypto-technical and proposes to English him
into an ordinary-language philosopher. Surely it is not important whether we
consider a measles spot a sign, a symbol, or an icon. One might just as well
find a doctor in London who thinks those spots symbolic. If Grice feels like
Englishing Peirce, he does not altogether fail! meaning, reprints, of
Meaning and other essays, a collection of reprints and offprints of Grices
essays. Meaning becomes a central topic of at least two strands in
Retrospective epilogue. The first strand concerns the idea of the centrality of
the utterer. What Grice there calls meaning BY (versus meaning TO), i.e. as he
also puts it, active or agents meaning. Surely he is right in defending an
agent-based account to meaning. Peirce need not, but Grice must, because he is
working with an English root, mean, that is only figurative applicable to
non-agentive items (Smoke means rain). On top, Grice wants to conclude that
only a rational creature (a person) can meanNN properly. Non-human animals may
have a correlate. This is a truly important point for Grice since he surely is
seen as promoting a NON-convention-based approach to meaning, and also
defending from the charge of circularity in the non-semantic account of
propositional attitudes. His final picture is a rationalist one. P1 G
wants to communicate about a danger to P2. This presupposes there IS
a danger (item of reality). Then P1 G believes there is a
danger, and communicates to P2 G2 that there is a danger. This
simple view of conversation as rational co-operation underlies Grices account
of meaning too, now seen as an offshoot of philosophical psychology, and indeed
biology, as he puts it. Meaning as yet another survival mechanism. While he
would never use a cognate like significance in his Oxford Philosophical Society
talk, Grice eventually starts to use such Latinate cognates at a later stage of
his development. In Meaning, Grice does not explain his goal. By sticking with
a root that the Oxford curriculum did not necessarily recognised as
philosophical (amateur Peirce did!), Grice is implicating that he is starting
an ordinary-language botanising on his own repertoire! Grice was amused by the
reliance by Ewing on very Oxonian examples contra Ayer: Surely Virtue aint a
fire-shovel is perfectly meaningful, and if fact true, if, Ill admit, somewhat
misleading and practically purposeless at Cambridge. Again, the dismissal by
Grice of natural meaning is due to the fact that natural meaning prohibits its
use in the first person and followed by a that-clause. ‘I mean-n that p’ sounds
absurd, no communication-function seems in the offing, there is no ‘sign for,’
as Woozley would have it. Grice found, with Suppes, all types of primacy
(ontological, axiological, psychological) in utterers meaning. In Retrospective
epilogue, he goes back to the topic, as he reminisces that it is his
suggestion that there are two allegedly distinguishable meaning concepts, even
if one is meta-bolical, which may be called natural meaning and non-natural
meaning. There is this or that test (notably factivity-entailment vs.
cancelation, but also scare quotes) which may be brought to bear to distinguish
one concept from the other. We may, for example, inquire whether a particular
occurrence of the predicate mean is factive or non-factive, i. e., whether for
it to be true that [so and so] means that p, it does or does not have to be the
case that it is true that p. Again, one may ask whether the use of quotation
marks to enclose the specification of what is meant would be inappropriate or
appropriate. If factivity, as in know, remember, and see, is present and
quotation marks, oratio recta, are be inappropriate, we have a case of natural
meaning. Otherwise the meaning involved is non-natural meaning. We may now ask
whether there is a single overarching idea which lies behind both members of
this dichotomy of uses to which the predicate meaning that seems to be Subjects.
If there is such a central idea it might help to indicate to us which of the
two concepts is in greater need of further analysis and elucidation and in what
direction such elucidation should proceed. Grice confesses that he has only
fairly recently come to believe that there is such an overarching idea and that
it is indeed of some service in the proposed inquiry. The idea behind both uses
of mean is that of consequence, or consequentia, as Hobbes has it. If x means
that p, something which includes p or the idea of p, is a consequence of x. In
the metabolic natural use of meaning that p, p, this or that consequence, is
this or that state of affairs. In the literal, non-metabolic, basic,
non-natural use of meaning that p, (as in Smith means that his neighbour’s
three-year child is an adult), p, this or that consequence is this or that
conception or complexus which involves some other conception. This perhaps
suggests that of the two concepts it is, as it should, non-natural meaning
which is more in need of further elucidation. It seems to be the more
specialised of the pair, and it also seems to be the less determinate. We may,
e. g., ask how this or that conception enters the picture. Or we may ask
whether what enters the picture is the conception itself or its justifiability.
On these counts Grice should look favorably on the idea that, if further
analysis should be required for one of the pair, the notion of non-natural
meaning would be first in line. There are factors which support the suitability
of further analysis for the concept of non-natural meaning. MeaningNN that
p (non-natural meaning) does not look as if it Namess an original feature of
items in the world, for two reasons which are possibly not mutually
independent. One reason is that, given suitable background conditions, meaning,
can be changed by fiat. The second reason is that the presence of meaningNN is
dependent on a framework provided by communication, if that is not too
circular. Communication is in the philosophical lexicon. Lewis and
Short have “commūnĭcātĭo,” f. communicare,"(several times in Cicero,
elsewhere rare), and as they did with negatio and they will with significatio,
Short and Lewis render, unhelpfully, as a making common, imparting,
communicating. largitio et communicatio civitatis;” “quaedam societas et
communicatio utilitatum,” “consilii communicatio, “communicatio sermonis,” criminis
cum pluribus; “communicatio nominum, i. e. the like appellation of several objects;
“juris; “damni; In rhetorics, communicatio, trading on the communis, a figure,
translating Grecian ἀνακοίνωσις, in accordance with which the utterer turns to
his addressee, and, as it were, allows him to take part in the inquiry. It
seems to Grice, then, at least reasonable and possibly even emphatically
mandatory, to treat the claim that a communication vehicle, such as this and
that expression means that p, in this transferred, metaphoric, or meta-bolic
use of means that as being reductively analysable in terms of this or that
feature of this or that utterer, communicator, or user of this or that expression.
The use of meaning that as applied to this or that expression is posterior
to and explicable through the utterer-oriented, or utterer-relativised use,
i.e. involving a reference to this or that communicator or user of this or that
expression. More specifically, one should license a metaphorical use of mean,
where one allows the claim that this or that expression means that p, provided
that this or that utterer, in this or that standard fashion, means that p, i.e.
in terms of this or that souly statee toward this or that propositional
complexus this or that utterer ntends, in a standardly fashion, to produce by
his uttering this or that utterance. That this or that expression means (in
this metaphorical use) that p is thus explicable either in terms of this
or that souly state which is standardly intended to produce in this or that
addressee A by this or that utterer of this or that expression, or in this or
that souly staken up by this or that utterer toward this or that activity or
action of this or that utterer of this or that expression. Meaning was in
the air in Oxfords linguistic turn. Everybody was talking meaning. Grice
manages to quote from Hares early “Mind” essay on the difference between
imperatives and indicatives, also Duncan-Jones on the fugitive
proposition, and of course his beloved Strawson. Grice was also concerned
by the fact that in the manoeuvre of the typical ordinary-language philosopher,
there is a constant abuse of mean. Surely Grice wants to stick with the
utterers meaning as the primary use. Expressions mean only derivatively. To do
that, he chose Peirce to see if he could clarify it with meaning that. Grice
knew that the polemic was even stronger in London, with Ogden and Lady Viola Welby.
In the more academic Oxford milieu, Grice knew that a proper examination of
meaning, would lead him, via Kneale and his researches on the history of
semantics, to the topic of signification that obsessed the modistae (and their
modus significandi). For what does L and S say about about this? This is
Grice’s reply to popular Ogden. They want to know what the meaning of meaning
is? Here is the Oxononian response by Grice, with a vengeance. Grice is not an
animist nor a mentalist, even modest. While he allows for natural
phenomena to mean (smoke means fire), meaning is best ascribed to some utterer,
where this meaning is nothing but the intentions behind his
utterance. This is the fifth James lecture. Grice was careful enough to
submit it to PR, since it is a strictly philosophical development of the views
expressed in Meaning which Strawson had submitted on Grice’s behalf to the same
Review and which had had a series of responses by various philosophers. Among
these philosophers is Strawson himself in Intention and convention in the the
theory of speech acts, also in PR. Grice quotes from very many other
philosophers in this essay, including: Urmson, Stampe,
Strawson, Schiffer, and Searle. Strawson is especially relevant since
he started a series of alleged counter-examples with his infamous example of
the rat-infested house. Grice particularly treasured Stampes alleged
counter-example involving his beloved bridge! Avramides earns a D. Phil Oxon.
on that, under Strawson! This is Grices occasion to address some of the
criticisms ‒ in the form of alleged counter-examples, typically, as his
later reflections on epagoge versus diagoge note ‒ by Urmson,
Strawson, and other philosophers associated with Oxford, such as Searle,
Stampe, and Schiffer. The final analysandum is pretty complex (of the type that
he did find his analysis of I am hearing a sound complex in Personal
identity ‒ hardly an obstacle for adopting it), it became yet
another target of attack by especially New-World philosophers in the pages of
Mind, Nous, and other journals, This is officially the fifth James lecture.
Grice takes up the analysis of meaning he had presented way back at the Oxford
Philosophical Society. Motivated mainly by the attack by Urmson and by Strawson
in Intention and convention in speech acts, that offered an alleged
counter-example to the sufficiency of Grices analysis, Grice ends up
introducing so many intention that he almost trembled. He ends up seeing
meaning as a value-paradeigmatic concept, perhaps never realisable in a
sublunary way. But it is the analysis in this particular essay where he is at
his formal best. He distinguishes between protreptic and exhibitive utterances,
and also modes of correlation (iconic, conventional). He symbolises the utterer
and the addressee, and generalises over the type of psychological state,
attitude, or stance, meaning seems to range (notably indicative vs.
imperative). He formalises the reflexive intention, and more importantly, the
overtness of communication in terms of a self-referential recursive intention
that disallows any sneaky intention to be brought into the picture of
meaning-constitutive intentions. Grice thought he had dealt with Logic and
conversation enough! So he feels of revising his Meaning. After all, Strawson
had had the cheek to publish Meaning by Grice and then go on to criticize it in
Intention and convention in speech acts. So this is Grices revenge, and he
wins! He ends with the most elaborate theory of mean that an Oxonian could ever
hope for. And to provoke the informalists such as Strawson (and his disciples
at Oxford – led by Strawson) he pours existential quantifiers like the plague!
He manages to quote from Urmson, whom he loved! No word on Peirce, though, who
had originated all this! His implicaturum: Im not going to be reprimanted in
informal discussion about my misreading Peirce at Harvard! The concluding note
is about artificial substitutes for iconic representation, and meaning as a
human institution. Very grand. This is Grices metabolical projection of utterers
meaning to apply to anything OTHER than utterers meaning, notably a token of
the utterers expression and a TYPE of the utterers expression, wholly or in
part. Its not like he WANTS to do it, he NEEDS it to give an account of implicaturum.
The phrase utterer is meant to provoke. Grice thinks that speaker is too
narrow. Surely you can mean by just uttering stuff! This is the sixth James
lecture, as published in “Foundations of Language” (henceforth, “FL”), or “The
foundations of language,” as he preferred. As it happens, it became a popular
lecture, seeing that Searle selected this from the whole set for his Oxford
reading in philosophy on the philosophy of language. It is also the essay cited
by Chomsky in his influential Locke lectures. Chomsky takes Grice to be a
behaviourist, even along Skinners lines, which provoked a reply by Suppes, repr.
in PGRICE. In The New World, the H. P. is often given in a more simplified
form. Grice wants to keep on playing. In Meaning, he had said x means that p is
surely reducible to utterer U means that p. In this lecture, he lectures us as
to how to proceed. In so doing he invents this or that procedure: some basic,
some resultant. When Chomsky reads the reprint in Searles Philosophy of
Language, he cries: Behaviourist! Skinnerian! It was Suppes who comes to Grices
defence. Surely the way Grice uses expressions like resultant procedure are
never meant in the strict behaviourist way. Suppes concludes that it is much
fairer to characterise Grice as an intentionalist. Published in FL, ed. by
Staal, Repr.in Searle, The Philosophy of Language, Oxford, the sixth James
Lecture, FL, resultant procedure, basic procedure. Staal asked Grice to
publish the sixth James lecture for a newish periodical publication of whose
editorial board he was a member. The fun thing is Grice complied! This is
Grices shaggy-dog story. He does not seem too concerned about resultant
procedures. As he will ll later say, surely I can create Deutero-Esperanto and
become its master! For Grice, the primacy is the idiosyncratic, particularized
utterer in this or that occasion. He knows a philosopher craves for generality,
so he provokes the generality-searcher with divisions and sub-divisions of
mean. But his heart does not seem to be there, and he is just being
overformalistic and technical for the sake of it. I am glad that Putnam, of all
people, told me in an aside, you are being too formal, Grice. I stopped with
symbolism since! Communication. This is Grice’s clearest anti-animist attack by
Grice. He had joins Hume in mocking causing and willing: The decapitation of
Charles I as willing Charles Is death. Language semantics alla Tarski. Grice
know sees his former self. If he was obsessed, after Ayer, with mean, he now
wants to see if his explanation of it (then based on his pre-theoretic
intuition) is theoretically advisable in terms other than dealing with those
pre-theoretical facts, i.e. how he deals with a lexeme like mean. This is a bit
like Grice: implicaturum, revisited. An axiological approach to meaning. Strictly
a reprint of Grice, which should be the preferred citation. The date is given
by Grice himself, and he knew! Grice also composed some notes on Remnants on
meaning, by Schiffer. This is a bit like Grices meaning re-revisited. Schiffer
had been Strawsons tutee at Oxford as a Rhode Scholar in the completion of
his D. Phil. on Meaning, Clarendon. Eventually, Schiffer grew sceptic, and let
Grice know about it! Grice did not find Schiffers arguments totally
destructive, but saw the positive side to them. Schiffers arguments should
remind any philosopher that the issues he is dealing are profound and bound to
involve much elucidation before they are solved. This is a bit like Grice: implicaturum,
revisited. Meaning revisited (an ovious nod to Evelyn Waughs Yorkshire-set
novel) is the title Grice chose for a contribution to a symposium at Brighton
organised by Smith. Meaning revisited (although Grice has earlier drafts
entitled Meaning and philosophical psychology) comprises three sections. In the
first section, Grice is concerned with the application of his modified Occam’s
razor now to the very lexeme, mean. Cf. How many senses does sense have? Cohen:
The Senses of Senses. In the second part, Grice explores an evolutionary model
of creature construction reaching a stage of non-iconic representation.
Finally, in the third section, motivated to solve what he calls a major problem ‒
versus the minor problem concerning the transition from the meaning by the
utterer to the meaning by the expression. Grice attempts to construct meaning
as a value-paradeigmatic notion. A version was indeed published in the
proceedings of the Brighton symposium, by Croom Helm, London. Grice has a
couple of other drafts with variants on this title: philosophical psychology
and meaning, psychology and meaning. He keeps, meaningfully, changing the order.
It is not arbitrary that the fascinating exploration by Grice is in three
parts. In the first, where he applies his Modified Occams razor to mean, he is
revisiting Stevenson. Smoke means fire and I mean love, dont need different senses
of mean. Stevenson is right when using scare quotes for smoke ‘meaning’ fire
utterance. Grice is very much aware that that, the rather obtuse terminology of
senses, was exactly the terminology he had adopted in both Meaning and the
relevant James lectures (V and VI) at Harvard! Now, its time to revisit and to
echo Graves, say, goodbye to all that! In the second part he applies Pology.
While he knows his audience is not philosophical ‒ it is not Oxford ‒ he
thinks they still may get some entertainment! We have a P feeling pain,
simulating it, and finally uttering, I am in pain. In the concluding section,
Grice becomes Plato. He sees meaning as an optimum, i.e. a value-paradeigmatic
notion introducing value in its guise of optimality. Much like Plato thought
circle works in his idiolect. Grice played with various titles, in the Grice
Collection. Theres philosophical psychology and meaning. The reason is obvious.
The lecture is strictly divided in sections, and it is only natural that Grice
kept drafts of this or that section in his collection. In WOW Grice notes that
he re-visited his Meaning re-visited at a later stage, too! And he meant it!
Surely, there is no way to understand the stages of Grice’s development of his
ideas about meaning without Peirce! It is obvious here that Grice thought that
mean two figurative or metabolical extensions of use. Smoke means fire and Smoke
means smoke. The latter is a transferred use in that impenetrability means lets
change the topic if Humpty-Dumpty m-intends that it and Alice are to change the
topic. Why did Grice feel the need to add a retrospective epilogue? He loved to
say that what the “way of words” contains is neither his first, nor his last
word. So trust him to have some intermediate words to drop. He is at his most
casual in the very last section of the epilogue. The first section is more of a
very systematic justification for any mistake the reader may identify in the
offer. The words in the epilogue are thus very guarded and qualificatory. Just
one example about our focus: conversational implicate and conversation as
rational co-operation. He goes back to Essay 2, but as he notes, this was
hardly the first word on the principle of conversational helpfulness, nor
indeed the first occasion where he actually used implicaturum. As regards
co-operation, the retrospective epilogue allows him to expand on a causal
phrasing in Essay 2, “purposive, indeed rational.” Seeing in retrospect how the
idea of rationality was the one that appealed philosophers most – since it
provides a rationale and justification for what is otherwise an arbitrary
semantic proliferation. Grice then distinguishes between the thesis that
conversation is purposive, and the thesis that conversation is rational. And,
whats more, and in excellent Griceian phrasing, there are two theses here, too.
One thing is to see conversation as rational, and another, to use his very
phrasing, as rational co-operation! Therefore, when one discusses the secondary
literature, one should be attentive to whether the author is referring to
Grices qualifications in the Retrospective epilogue. Grice is careful to date
some items. However, since he kept rewriting, one has to be careful. These
seven folder contain the material for the compilation. Grice takes the
opportunity of the compilation by Harvard of his WOW, representative of the
mid-60s, i. e. past the heyday of ordinary-language philosophy, to review the
idea of philosophical progress in terms of eight different strands which
display, however, a consistent and distinctive unity. Grice keeps playing with
valediction, valedictory, prospective and retrospective, and the different
drafts are all kept in The Grice Papers. The Retrospective epilogue, is divided
into two sections. In the first section, he provides input for his eight
strands, which cover not just meaning, and the assertion-implication
distinction to which he alludes to in the preface, but for more substantial
philosophical issues like the philosophy of perception, and the defense of
common sense realism versus the sceptial idealist. The concluding section
tackles more directly a second theme he had idenfitied in the preface, which is
a methodological one, and his long-standing defence of ordinary-language
philosophy. The section involves a fine distinction between the Athenian
dialectic and the Oxonian dialectic, and tells the tale about his fairy
godmother, G*. As he notes, Grice had dropped a few words in the preface explaining
the ordering of essays in the compilation. He mentions that he hesitated to
follow a suggestion by Bennett that the ordering of the essays be
thematic and chronological. Rather, Grice chooses to publish the whole set
of seven James lectures, what he calls the centerpiece, as part I. II, the
explorations in semantics and metaphysics, is organised more or less
thematically, though. In the Retrospective epilogue, Grice takes up this
observation in the preface that two ideas or themes underlie his Studies: that
of meaning, and assertion vs. implication, and philosophical methodology. The
Retrospective epilogue is thus an exploration on eight strands he identifies in
his own philosophy. Grices choice of strand is careful. For Grice, philosophy,
like virtue, is entire. All the strands belong to the same knit, and therefore
display some latitudinal, and, he hopes, longitudinal unity, the latter made
evidence by his drawing on the Athenian dialectic as a foreshadow of the
Oxonian dialectic to come, in the heyday of the Oxford school of analysis, when
an interest in the serious study of ordinary language had never been since and
will never be seen again. By these two types of unity, Grice means the obvious
fact that all branches of philosophy (philosophy of language, or semantics,
philosophy of perception, philosophical psychology, metaphysics, axiology,
etc.) interact and overlap, and that a historical regard for ones philosophical
predecessors is a must, especially at Oxford. Why is Grice obsessed with
asserting? He is more interested, technically, in the phrastic, or dictor.
Grice sees a unity, indeed, equi-vocality, in the buletic-doxastic continuum.
Asserting is usually associated with the doxastic. Since Grice is always ready
to generalise his points to cover the buletic (recall his Meaning, “theres by
now no reason to stick to informative cases,”), it is best to re-define his
asserting in terms of the phrastic. This is enough of a strong point. As Hare
would agree, for emotivists like Barnes, say, an utterance of buletic force may
not have any content whatsoever. For Grice, there is always a content, the
proposition which becomes true when the action is done and the desire is
fulfilled or satisfied. Grice quotes from Bennett. Importantly, Grice focuses
on the assertion/non-assertion distinction. He overlooks the fact that for this
or that of his beloved imperative utterance, asserting is out of the question,
but explicitly conveying that p is not. He needs a dummy to stand for a
psychological or souly state, stance, or attitude of either boule or doxa, to
cover the field of the utterer mode-neutrally conveying explicitly that his
addressee A is to entertain that p. The explicatum or explicitum sometimes does
the trick, but sometimes it does not. It is interesting to review the Names
index to the volume, as well as the Subjects index. This is a huge collection,
comprising 14 folders. By contract, Grice was engaged with Harvard, since it is
the President of the College that holds the copyrights for the James lectures.
The title Grice eventually chooses for his compilation of essays, which goes
far beyond the James, although keeping them as the centerpiece, is a tribute to
Locke, who, although obsessed with his idealist and empiricist new way of
ideas, leaves room for both the laymans and scientists realist way of things,
and, more to the point, for this or that philosophical semiotician to offer
this or that study in the way of words. Early in the linguistic turn minor
revolution, the expression the new way of words, had been used derogatorily.
WOW is organised in two parts: Logic and conversation and the somewhat
pretentiously titled Explorations in semantics and metaphysics, which offers
commentary around the centerpiece. It also includes a Preface and a very rich
and inspired Retrospective epilogue. From part I, the James lectures, only
three had not been previously published. The first unpublished lecture is
Prolegomena, which really sets the scene, and makes one wonder what the few
philosophers who quote from The logic of grammar could have made from the
second James lecture taken in isolation. Grice explores Aristotle’s “to
alethes”: “For the true and the false exist with respect to synthesis and
division (peri gar synthesin kai diaireisin esti to pseudos kai to alethes).”
Aristotle insists upon the com-positional form of truth in several texts: cf.
De anima, 430b3 ff.: “in truth and falsity, there is a certain composition (en
hois de kai to pseudos kai to alethes, synthesis tis)”; cf. also Met. 1027b19
ff.: the true and the false are with respect to (peri) composition and
decomposition (synthesis kai diaresis).” It also shows that Grices style is
meant for public delivery, rather than reading. The second unpublished lecture
is Indicative conditionals. This had been used by a few philosophers, such as
Gazdar, noting that there were many mistakes in the typescript, for which Grice
is not to be blamed. The third is on some models for implicaturum. Since this
Grice acknowledges is revised, a comparison with the original handwritten
version of the final James lecture retrieves a few differences From Part II, a
few essays had not been published before, but Grice, nodding to the
longitudinal unity of philosophy, is very careful and proud to date
them. Commentary on the individual essays is made under the appropriate
dates. Philosophical correspondence is quite a genre. Hare would express in a
letter to the Librarian for the Oxford Union, “Wiggins does not want to be
understood,” or in a letter to Bennett that Williams is the worse offender of
Kantianism! It was different with Grice. He did not type. And he wrote only
very occasionally! These are four folders with general correspondence, mainly
of the academic kind. At Oxford, Grice would hardly keep a correspondence, but
it was different with the New World, where academia turns towards the
bureaucracy. Grice is not precisely a good, or reliable, as The BA puts it,
correspondent. In the Oxford manner, Grice prefers a face-to-face interaction,
any day. He treasures his Saturday mornings under Austins guidance, and he
himself leads the Play Group after Austins demise, which, as Owen reminisced,
attained a kind of cult status. Oxford is different. As a tutorial fellow in
philosophy, Grice was meant to tutor his students; as a University Lecturer he
was supposed to lecture sometimes other fellowss tutees! Nothing about this
reads: publish or perish! This is just one f. containing Grices own favourite
Griceian references. To the historian of analytic philosophy, it is of
particular interest. It shows which philosophers Grice respected the most, and
which ones the least. As one might expect, even on the cold shores of Oxford,
as one of Grices tutees put it, Grice is cited by various Oxford philosophers.
Perhaps the first to cite Grice in print is his tutee Strawson, in “Logical
Theory.” Early on, Hart quotes Grice on meaning in his review in The
Philosophical Quarterly of Holloways Language and Intelligence before Meaning
had been published. Obviously, once Grice and Strawson, In defense of a dogma
and Grice, Meaning are published by The Philosophical Review, Grice is
discussed profusely. References to the implicaturum start to appear in the
literature at Oxford in the mid-1960s, within the playgroup, as in Hare and
Pears. It is particularly intriguing to explore those philosophers Grice picks
up for dialogue, too, and perhaps arrange them alphabetically, from Austin to
Warnock, say. And Griceian philosophical references, Oxonian or other, as they
should, keep counting! The way to search the Grice Papers here is using
alternate keywords, notably “meaning.” “Meaning” s. II, “Utterer’s meaning and
intentions,” s. II, “Utterer’s meaning, sentence-meaning, and word meaning,” s.
II, “Meaning revisited,” s. II. – but also “Meaning and psychology,” s. V,
c.7-ff. 24-25. While Grice uses
“signification,” and lectured on Peirce’s “signs,” “Peirce’s general theory of
signs,” (s. V, c. 8-f. 29), he would avoid such pretentiously sounding
expressions. Searching under ‘semantic’ and ‘semantics’ (“Grammar and
semantics,” c. 7-f. 5; “Language semantics,” c. 7-f.20, “Basic Pirotese,
sentence semantics and syntax,” c. 8-f. 30, “Semantics of children’s language,”
c. 9-f. 10, “Sentence semantics” (c. 9-f. 11); “Sentence semantics and
propositional complexes,” c. 9-f.12, “Syntax and semantics,” c. 9-ff. 17-18) may
help, too. Folder on Schiffer (“Schiffer,” c. 9-f. 9), too.
Grice on the compactness
theorem, a theorem for first-order logic: if every finite subset of a given
infinite theory T is consistent, then the whole theory is consistent. The
result is an immediate consequence of the completeness theorem, for if the
theory were not consistent, a contradiction, say ‘P and not-P’, would be
provable from it. But the proof, being a finitary object, would use only finitely
many axioms from T, so this finite subset of T would be inconsistent. This
proof of the compactness theorem is very general, showing that any language
that has a sound and complete system of inference, where each rule allows only
finitely many premises, satisfies the theorem. This is important because the
theorem immediately implies that many familiar mathematical notions are not
expressible in the language in question, notions like those of a finite set or
a well-ordering relation. The compactness theorem is important for other
reasons as well. It is the most frequently applied result in the study of
first-order model theory and has inspired interesting developments within set
theory and its foundations by generating a search for infinitary languages that
obey some analog of the theorem.
Grice’s complementary
class, the class of all things not in a given class. For example, if C is the
class of all red things, then its complementary class is the class containing
everything that is not red. This latter class includes even non-colored things,
like numbers and the class C itself. Often, the context will determine a less
inclusive complementary class. If B 0 A, then the complement of B with respect
to A is A B. For example, if A is the
class of physical objects, and B is the class of red physical objects, then the
complement of B with respect to A is the class of non-red physical
objects.
Grice on completeness, a
property that something typically, a set
of axioms, a logic, a theory, a set of well-formed formulas, a language, or a
set of connectives has when it is strong
enough in some desirable respect. 1 A set of axioms is complete for the logic L
if every theorem of L is provable using those axioms. 2 A logic L has weak
semantical completeness if every valid sentence of the language of L is a
theorem of L. L has strong semantical completeness or is deductively complete
if for every set G of sentences, every logical consequence of G is deducible
from G using L. A propositional logic L is Halldén-complete if whenever A 7 B
is a theorem of L, where A and B share no variables, either A or B is a theorem
of L. And L is Post-complete if L is consistent but no stronger logic for the
same language is consistent. Reference to the “completeness” of a logic, without
further qualification, is almost invariably to either weak or strong semantical
completeness. One curious exception: second-order logic is often said to be
“incomplete,” where what is meant is that it is not axiomatizable. 3 A theory T
is negation-complete often simply complete if for every sentence A of the
lancommon notions completeness 162 162
guage of T, either A or its negation is provable in T. And T is omega-complete
if whenever it is provable in T that a property f / holds of each natural number
0, 1, . . . , it is also provable that every number has f. Generalizing on
this, any set G of well-formed formulas might be called omega complete if vA[v]
is deducible from G whenever A[t] is deducible from G for all terms t, where
A[t] is the result of replacing all free occurrences of v in A[v] by t. 4 A
language L is expressively complete if each of a given class of items is
expressible in L. Usually, the class in question is the class of twovalued
truth-functions. The propositional language whose sole connectives are - and 7
is thus said to be expressively or functionally complete, while that built up
using 7 alone is not, since classical negation is not expressible therein. Here
one might also say that the set {-,7} is expressively or functionally complete,
while {7} is not.
completion: Grice speaks of ‘complete’ and ‘incomplete. Consider
“Fido is shaggy.” That’s complete. “Fido” is incomplete – like pig. “is shaggy”
is incomplete. This is Grice’s Platonism, hardly the nominalism that Bennett
abuses Grice with! For the rational pirot (not the parrot) has access to a
theory of complete --. When lecturing on Peirce, Grice referred to Russell’s
excellent idea of improving on Peirce. “Don’t ask for the meaning of ‘red,’ ask
for the meaning of ‘x is red.” Cf. Plato, “Don’t try to see horseness, try to
see ‘x is a horse. Don’t be stupid.” Now “x is red” is a bit incomplete. Surely
it can be rendered by the complete, “Something, je-ne-sais-quoi, to use Hume’s
vulgarism, is red.” So, to have an act of referring without an act of
predicating is incomplete. But still useful for philosophical analysis.
complexum: versus the ‘simplex.’ Grice starts with the simplex. All
he needs is a handwave to ascribe ‘the emissor communicates that he knows the
route.’ The proposition which is being transmitted HAS to be complex: Subject,
“The emissor”, copula, “is,” ‘predicate: “a knower of the route.”Grice allows
for the syntactically unstructured handwave to be ‘ambiguous’ so that the
intention on the emissor’s part involves his belief that the emissee will take
this rather than that proposition as being transmitted: Second complex:
“Subject: Emissor, copula: is, predicate: about to leave the emissee.”Vide the
altogether nice girl, and the one-at-a-time sailor. The topic is essential in
seeing Grice within the British empiricist tradition. Empiricists always loved
a simplex, like ‘red.’ In his notes on ‘Meaning’ and “Peirce,’ Grice notes that
for a ‘simplex’ like “red,” the best way to deal with it is via a Russellian
function, ‘x is red.’ The opposite of ‘simplex’ is of course a ‘complexum.’ hile
Grice does have an essay on the ‘complexum,’ he is mostly being jocular. His
dissection of the proposition proceds by considering ‘the a,’ and its
denotatum, or reference, and ‘is the b,’ which involves then the predication.
This is Grice’s shaggy-dog story. Once we have ‘the dog is shaggy,’ we have a
‘complexum,’ and we can say that the utterer means, by uttering ‘Fido is
shaggy,’ that the dog is hairy-coated. Simple, right? It’s the jocular in
Grice. He is joking on philosophers who look at those representative of the
linguistic turn, and ask, “So what do you have to say about reference and
predication,’ and Grice comes up with an extra-ordinary analysis of what is to
believe that the dog is hairy-coat, and communicating it. In fact, the
‘communicating’ is secondary. Once Grice has gone to metabolitical extension of
‘mean’ to apply to the expression, communication becomes secondary in that it
has to be understood in what Grice calls the ‘atenuated’ usage involving this
or that ‘readiness’ to have this or that procedure, basic or resultant, in
one’s repertoire! Bealer is one of Grices most brilliant tutees in the New
World. The Grice collection contains a full f. of correspondence with
Bealer. Bealer refers to Grice in his influential Clarendon essay on
content. Bealer is concerned with how pragmatic inference may intrude in the
ascription of a psychological, or souly, state, attitude, or stance. Bealer
loves to quote from Grice on definite descriptions in Russell and in the
vernacular, the implicaturum being that Russell is impenetrable! Bealers mentor
is Grices close collaborator Myro, so he knows what he is talking about. Grice
explored the matter of subperception at Oxford only with G. J. Warnock.
Grice’s complexe
significabile plural: -- Grice used to say jocularly that he wasn’t commited to
propositions; only to propositional complexes -- complexe significabilia, also
called complexum significabile, in medieval philosophy, what is signified only
by a complexum a statement or declarative sentence, by a that-clause, or by a
dictum an accusative ! infinitive construction, as in: ‘I want him to go’. It
is analogous to the modern proposition. The doctrine seems to have originated
with Adam de Wodeham in the early fourteenth century, but is usually associated
with Gregory of Rimini slightly later. Complexe significabilia do not fall
under any of the Aristotelian categories, and so do not “exist” in the ordinary
way. Still, they are somehow real. For before creation nothing existed except
God, but even then God knew that the world was going to exist. The object of
this knowledge cannot have been God himself since God is necessary, but the
world’s existence is contingent, and yet did not “exist” before creation.
Nevertheless, it was real enough to be an object of knowledge. Some authors who
maintained such a view held that these entities were not only signifiable in a
complex way by a statement, but were themselves complex in their inner structure;
the term ‘complexum significabile’ is unique to their theories. The theory of
complexe significabilia was vehemently criticized by late medieval
nominalists. Refs.: The main reference is in
‘Reply to Richards.’ But there is “Sentence semantics and propositional
complexes,” c. 9-f. 12, BANC.
possibile –
“what is actual is not also possible – grave mistake!” – H. P. Grice.
compossible, capable of existing or occurring together. E.g., two individuals
are compossible provided the existence of one of them is compatible with the
existence of the other. In terms of possible worlds, things are compossible
provided there is some possible world to which all of them belong; otherwise
they are incompossible. Not all possibilities are compossible. E.g., the extinction
of life on earth by the year 3000 is possible; so is its continuation until the
year 10,000; but since it is impossible that both of these things should
happen, they are not compossible. Leibniz held that any non-actualized
possibility must be incompossible with what is actual.
intensio
-- comprehension, as applied to a term, the set of attributes implied by a
term. The comprehension of ‘square’, e.g., includes being four-sided, having
equal sides, and being a plane figure, among other attributes. The
comprehension of a term is contrasted with its extension, which is the set of
individuals to which the term applies. The distinction between the extension
and the comprehension of a term was introduced in the Port-Royal Logic by
Arnauld and Pierre Nicole in 1662. Current practice is to use the expression
‘intension’ rather than ‘comprehension’. Both expressions, however, are
inherently somewhat vague.
iron-age
physics: Grice on Russellian compresence, an unanalyzable
relation in terms of which Russell, in his later writings especially in Human
Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits, 8, took concrete particular objects to be
analyzable. Concrete particular objects are analyzable in terms of complexes of
qualities all of whose members are compresent. Although this relation can be
defined only ostensively, Russell states that it appears in psychology as
“simultaneity in one experience” and in physics as “overlapping in space-time.”
Complete complexes of compresence are complexes of qualities having the
following two properties: 1 all members of the complex are compresent; 2 given
anything not a member of the complex, there is at least one member of the
complex with which it is not compresent. He argues that there is strong
empirical evidence that no two complete complexes have all their qualities in
common. Finally, space-time pointinstants are analyzed as complete complexes of
compresence. Concrete particulars, on the other hand, are analyzed as series of
incomplete complexes of compresence related by certain causal laws.
Grice’s
computatio sive logica -- computability, roughly, the
possibility of computation on a Turing machine. The first convincing general
definition, A. N. Turing’s 6, has been proved equivalent to the known plausible
alternatives, so that the concept of computability is generally recognized as
an absolute one. Turing’s definition referred to computations by imaginary
tape-processing machines that we now know to be capable of computing the same
functions whether simple sums and products or highly complex, esoteric
functions that modern digital computing machines could compute if provided with
sufficient storage capacity. In the form ‘Any function that is computable at
all is computable on a Turing machine’, this absoluteness claim is called Turing’s
thesis. A comparable claim for Alonzo Church’s 5 concept of lcomputability is
called Church’s thesis. Similar theses are enunciated for Markov algorithms,
for S. C. Kleene’s notion of general recursiveness, etc. It has been proved
that the same functions are computable in all of these ways. There is no hope
of proving any of those theses, for such a proof would require a definition of
‘computable’ a definition that would
simply be a further item in the list, the subject of a further thesis. But
since computations of new kinds might be recognizable as genuine in particular
cases, Turing’s thesis and its equivalents, if false, might be decisively
refuted by discovery of a particular function, a way of computing it, and a
proof that no Turing machine can compute it. The halting problem for say Turing
machines is the problem of devising a Turing machine that computes the function
hm, n % 1 or 0 depending on whether or not Turing machine number m ever halts,
once started with the number n on its tape. This problem is unsolvable, for a
machine that computed h could be modified to compute a function gn, which is
undefined the machine goes into an endless loop when hn, n % 1, and otherwise
agrees with hn, n. But this modified machine
Turing machine number k, say would
have contradictory properties: started with k on its tape, it would eventually
halt if and only if it does not. Turing proved unsolvability of the decision
problem for logic the problem of devising a Turing machine that, applied to
argument number n in logical notation, correctly classifies it as valid or
invalid by reducing the halting problem to the decision problem, i.e., showing
how any solution to the latter could be used to solve the former problem, which
we know to be unsolvable. computer theory,
the theory of the design, uses, powers, and limits of modern electronic digital
computers. It has important bearings on philosophy, as may be seen from the
many philosophical references herein. Modern computers are a radically new kind
of machine, for they are active physical realizations of formal languages of
logic and arithmetic. Computers employ sophisticated languages, and they have
reasoning powers many orders of magnitude greater than those of any prior
machines. Because they are far superior to humans in many important tasks, they
have produced a revolution in society that is as profound as the industrial
revolution and is advancing much more rapidly. Furthermore, computers
themselves are evolving rapidly. When a computer is augmented with devices for
sensing and acting, it becomes a powerful control system, or a robot. To
understand the implications of computers for philosophy, one should imagine a
robot that has basic goals and volitions built into it, including conflicting
goals and competing desires. This concept first appeared in Karel C v apek’s
play Rossum’s Universal Robots 0, where the word ‘robot’ originated. A computer
has two aspects, hardware and programming languages. The theory of each is
relevant to philosophy. The software and hardware aspects of a computer are
somewhat analogous to the human mind and body. This analogy is especially
strong if we follow Peirce and consider all information processing in nature
and in human organisms, not just the conscious use of language. Evolution has
produced a succession of levels of sign usage and information processing:
self-copying chemicals, self-reproducing cells, genetic programs directing the
production of organic forms, chemical and neuronal signals in organisms,
unconscious human information processing, ordinary languages, and technical
languages. But each level evolved gradually from its predecessors, so that the
line between body and mind is vague. The hardware of a computer is typically
organized into three general blocks: memory, processor arithmetic unit and
control, and various inputoutput devices for communication between machine and
environment. The memory stores the data to be processed as well as the program
that directs the processing. The processor has an arithmetic-logic unit for
transforming data, and a control for executing the program. Memory, processor,
and input-output communicate to each other through a fast switching system. The
memory and processor are constructed from registers, adders, switches, cables,
and various other building blocks. These in turn are composed of electronic
components: transistors, resistors, and wires. The input and output devices
employ mechanical and electromechanical technologies as well as electronics.
Some input-output devices also serve as auxiliary memories; floppy disks and
magnetic tapes are examples. For theoretical purposes it is useful to imagine
that the computer has an indefinitely expandable storage tape. So imagined, a
computer is a physical realization of a Turing machine. The idea of an
indefinitely expandable memory is similar to the logician’s concept of an
axiomatic formal language that has an unlimited number of proofs and theorems.
The software of a modern electronic computer is written in a hierarchy of
programming languages. The higher-level languages are designed for use by human
programmers, operators, and maintenance personnel. The “machine language” is
the basic hardware language, interpreted and executed by the control. Its words
are sequences of binary digits or bits. Programs written in intermediate-level
languages are used by the computer to translate the languages employed by human
users into the machine language for execution. A programming language has
instructional means for carrying out three kinds of operations: data operations
and transfers, transfers of control from one part of the program to the other,
and program self-modification. Von Neumann designed the first modern
programming language. A programming language is general purpose, and an
electronic computer that executes it can in principle carry out any algorithm
or effective procedure, including the simulation of any other computer. Thus
the modern electronic computer is a practical realization of the abstract
concept of a universal Turing machine. What can actually be computed in
practice depends, of course, on the state of computer technology and its
resources. It is common for computers at many different spatial locations to be
interconnected into complex networks by telephone, radio, and satellite communication
systems. Insofar as users in one part of the network can control other parts,
either legitimately or illegitimately e.g., by means of a “computer virus”, a
global network of computers is really a global computer. Such vast computers
greatly increase societal interdependence, a fact of importance for social
philosophy. The theory of computers has two branches, corresponding to the
hardware and software aspects of computers. The fundamental concept of hardware
theory is that of a finite automaton, which may be expressed either as an
idealized logical network of simple computer primitives, or as the
corresponding temporal system of input, output, and internal states. A finite
automaton may be specified as a logical net of truth-functional switches and simple
memory elements, connected to one another by computer theory computer theory
idealized wires. These elements function synchronously, each wire being in a
binary state 0 or 1 at each moment of time t % 0, 1, 2, . . . . Each switching
element or “gate” executes a simple truth-functional operation not, or, and,
nor, not-and, etc. and is imagined to operate instantaneously compare the
notions of sentential connective and truth table. A memory element flip-flop,
binary counter, unit delay line preserves its input bit for one or more
time-steps. A well-formed net of switches and memory elements may not have
cycles through switches only, but it typically has feedback cycles through
memory elements. The wires of a logical net are of three kinds: input, internal,
and output. Correspondingly, at each moment of time a logical net has an input
state, an internal state, and an output state. A logical net or automaton need
not have any input wires, in which case it is a closed system. The complete
history of a logical net is described by a deterministic law: at each moment of
time t, the input and internal states of the net determine its output state and
its next internal state. This leads to the second definition of ‘finite
automaton’: it is a deterministic finite-state system characterized by two
tables. The transition table gives the next internal state produced by each
pair of input and internal states. The output table gives the output state
produced by each input state and internal state. The state analysis approach to
computer hardware is of practical value only for systems with a few elements
e.g., a binary-coded decimal counter, because the number of states increases as
a power of the number of elements. Such a rapid rate of increase of complexity
with size is called the combinatorial explosion, and it applies to many
discrete systems. However, the state approach to finite automata does yield
abstract models of law-governed systems that are of interest to logic and
philosophy. A correctly operating digital computer is a finite automaton. Alan
Turing defined the finite part of what we now call a Turing machine in terms of
states. It seems doubtful that a human organism has more computing power than a
finite automaton. A closed finite automaton illustrates Nietzsche’s law of
eternal return. Since a finite automaton has a finite number of internal
states, at least one of its internal states must occur infinitely many times in
any infinite state history. And since a closed finite automaton is
deterministic and has no inputs, a repeated state must be followed by the same
sequence of states each time it occurs. Hence the history of a closed finite
automaton is periodic, as in the law of eternal return. Idealized neurons are
sometimes used as the primitive elements of logical nets, and it is plausible
that for any brain and central nervous system there is a logical network that
behaves the same and performs the same functions. This shows the close relation
of finite automata to the brain and central nervous system. The switches and
memory elements of a finite automaton may be made probabilistic, yielding a
probabilistic automaton. These automata are models of indeterministic systems.
Von Neumann showed how to extend deterministic logical nets to systems that
contain selfreproducing automata. This is a very basic logical design relevant
to the nature of life. The part of computer programming theory most relevant to
philosophy contains the answer to Leibniz’s conjecture concerning his
characteristica universalis and calculus ratiocinator. He held that “all our
reasoning is nothing but the joining and substitution of characters, whether
these characters be words or symbols or pictures.” He thought therefore that
one could construct a universal, arithmetic language with two properties of
great philosophical importance. First, every atomic concept would be
represented by a prime number. Second, the truth-value of any logically
true-or-false statement expressed in the characteristica universalis could be
calculated arithmetically, and so any rational dispute could be resolved by
calculation. Leibniz expected to do the computation by hand with the help of a
calculating machine; today we would do it on an electronic computer. However,
we know now that Leibniz’s proposed language cannot exist, for no computer or
computer program can calculate the truth-value of every logically true-orfalse
statement given to it. This fact follows from a logical theorem about the
limits of what computer programs can do. Let E be a modern electronic computer
with an indefinitely expandable memory, so that E has the power of a universal
Turing machine. And let L be any formal language in which every arithmetic
statement can be expressed, and which is consistent. Leibniz’s proposed
characteristica universalis would be such a language. Now a computer that is
operating correctly is an active formal language, carrying out the instructions
of its program deductively. Accordingly, Gödel’s incompleteness theorems for
formal arithmetic apply to computer E. It follows from these theorems that no
program can enable computer E to decide of an arbitrary statecomputer theory
computer theory 166 166 ment of L
whether or not that statement is true. More strongly, there cannot even be a
program that will enable E to enumerate the truths of language L one after
another. Therefore Leibniz’s characteristica universalis cannot exist.
Electronic computers are the first active or “live” mathematical systems. They
are the latest addition to a long historical series of mathematical tools for
inquiry: geometry, algebra, calculus and differential equations, probability
and statistics, and modern mathematics. The most effective use of computer
programs is to instruct computers in tasks for which they are superior to
humans. Computers are being designed and programmed to cooperate with humans so
that the calculation, storage, and judgment capabilities of the two are
synthesized. The powers of such humancomputer combines will increase at an
exponential rate as computers continue to become faster, more powerful, and
easier to use, while at the same time becoming smaller and cheaper. The social
implications of this are very important. The modern electronic computer is a
new tool for the logic of discovery Peirce’s abduction. An inquirer or inquirers
operating a computer interactively can use it as a universal simulator,
dynamically modeling systems that are too complex to study by traditional
mathematical methods, including non-linear systems. Simulation is used to
explain known empirical results, and also to develop new hypotheses to be
tested by observation. Computer models and simulations are unique in several
ways: complexity, dynamism, controllability, and visual presentability. These
properties make them important new tools for modeling and thereby relevant to
some important philosophical problems. A humancomputer combine is especially
suited for the study of complex holistic and hierarchical systems with feedback
cf. cybernetics, including adaptive goal-directed systems. A hierarchical-feedback
system is a dynamic structure organized into several levels, with the compounds
of one level being the atoms or building blocks of the next higher level, and
with cyclic paths of influence operating both on and between levels. For
example, a complex human institution has several levels, and the people in it
are themselves hierarchical organizations of selfcopying chemicals, cells,
organs, and such systems as the pulmonary and the central nervous system. The
behaviors of these systems are in general much more complex than, e.g., the
behaviors of traditional systems of mechanics. Contrast an organism, society,
or ecology with our planetary system as characterized by Kepler and Newton.
Simple formulas ellipses describe the orbits of the planets. More basically,
the planetary system is stable in the sense that a small perturbation of it
produces a relatively small variation in its subsequent history. In contrast, a
small change in the state of a holistic hierarchical feedback system often
amplifies into a very large difference in behavior, a concern of chaos theory.
For this reason it is helpful to model such systems on a computer and run
sample histories. The operator searches for representative cases, interesting
phenomena, and general principles of operation. The humancomputer method of
inquiry should be a useful tool for the study of biological evolution, the
actual historical development of complex adaptive goal-directed systems.
Evolution is a logical and communication process as well as a physical and chemical
process. But evolution is statistical rather than deterministic, because a
single temporal state of the system results in a probabilistic distribution of
histories, rather than in a single history. The genetic operators of mutation
and crossover, e.g., are probabilistic operators. But though it is stochastic,
evolution cannot be understood in terms of limiting relative frequencies, for
the important developments are the repeated emergence of new phenomena, and
there may be no evolutionary convergence toward a final state or limit. Rather,
to understand evolution the investigator must simulate the statistical spectra
of histories covering critical stages of the process. Many important
evolutionary phenomena should be studied by using simulation along with
observation and experiment. Evolution has produced a succession of levels of
organization: selfcopying chemicals, self-reproducing cells, communities of
cells, simple organisms, haploid sexual reproduction, diploid sexuality with
genetic dominance and recessiveness, organisms composed of organs, societies of
organisms, humans, and societies of humans. Most of these systems are complex
hierarchical feedback systems, and it is of interest to understand how they
emerged from earlier systems. Also, the interaction of competition and
cooperation at all stages of evolution is an important subject, of relevance to
social philosophy and ethics. Some basic epistemological and metaphysical
concepts enter into computer modeling. A model is a well-developed concept of
its object, representing characteristics like structure and funccomputer theory
computer theory 167 167 tion. A model
is similar to its object in important respects, but simpler; in mathematical
terminology, a model is homomorphic to its object but not isomorphic to it.
However, it is often useful to think of a model as isomorphic to an embedded
subsystem of the system it models. For example, a gas is a complicated system
of microstates of particles, but these microstates can be grouped into macrostates,
each with a pressure, volume, and temperature satisfying the gas law PV % kT.
The derivation of this law from the detailed mechanics of the gas is a
reduction of the embedded subsystem to the underlying system. In many cases it
is adequate to work with the simpler embedded subsystem, but in other cases one
must work with the more complex but complete underlying system. The law of an
embedded subsystem may be different in kind from the law of the underlying
system. Consider, e.g., a machine tossing a coin randomly. The sequence of
tosses obeys a simple probability law, while the complex underlying mechanical
system is deterministic. The random sequence of tosses is a probabilistic
system embedded in a deterministic system, and a mathematical account of this
embedding relation constitutes a reduction of the probabilistic system to a
deterministic system. Compare the compatibilist’s claim that free choice can be
embedded in a deterministic system. Compare also a pseudorandom sequence, which
is a deterministic sequence with adequate randomness for a given finite
simulation. Note finally that the probabilistic system of quantum mechanics
underlies the deterministic system of mechanics. The ways in which models are
used by goaldirected systems to solve problems and adapt to their environments
are currently being modeled by humancomputer combines. Since computer software
can be converted into hardware, successful simulations of adaptive uses of
models could be incorporated into the design of a robot. Human intentionality
involves the use of a model of oneself in relation to others and the
environment. A problem-solving robot using such a model would constitute an
important step toward a robot with full human powers. These considerations lead
to the central thesis of the philosophy of logical mechanism: a finite
deterministic automaton can perform all human functions. This seems plausible
in principle and is treated in detail in Merrilee Salmon, ed., The Philosophy
of Logical Mechanism: Essays in Honor of Arthur W. Burks,0. A digital computer
has reasoning and memory powers. Robots have sensory inputs for collecting
information from the environment, and they have moving and acting devices. To
obtain a robot with human powers, one would need to put these abilities under
the direction of a system of desires, purposes, and goals. Logical mechanism is
a form of mechanism or materialism, but differs from traditional forms of these
doctrines in its reliance on the logical powers of computers and the logical
nature of evolution and its products. The modern computer is a kind of complex
hierarchical physical system, a system with memory, processor, and control that
employs a hierarchy of programming languages. Humans are complex hierarchical
systems designed by evolution with
structural levels of chemicals, cells, organs, and systems e.g., circulatory,
neural, immune and linguistic levels of genes, enzymes, neural signals, and
immune recognition. Traditional materialists did not have this model of a
computer nor the contemporary understanding of evolution, and never gave an
adequate account of logic and reasoning and such phenomena as goaldirectedness
and self-modeling.
conatum: Aristotle
distinguishes three types of living beings: vegetables, φυτά, which possess
only the ability to nourish themselves τὸ θϱεπτιϰόν; animals, ζαῷ, which
possess the faculty of sensing τὸ αἰσθητιϰόν, which opens onto that of
desiring, τὸ ὀϱεϰτιϰόν, to orektikon, (desdideratum); and man and — he says—any
other similar or superior being, who possess in addition the ability to think,
“τὸ διανοητιϰόν τε ϰαὶ νοῦς.” -- De An., 414a 29-b.orme, the technical Stoic
definition of πάθος, viz. as a particular kind of conation, or
impulse (ορμή). ... 4 ' This definition (amorem ipsum conatum amicitiae
faeiendae ex ... emotion and moral self-management in Galen's philosophical psychology', ..cōnātum ,
i, usu. in plur.: cōnāta ,
ōrum, n., v. conor.. The term is used by an the
Wilde Reader at Oxford, that Grice once followed – until he became a
neo-Prichardian instead.(philosophy) The power or act which directs or impels to
effort of any kind, whether muscular or psychical. quotations 1899, George
Frederick Stout, A Manual of Psychology, page
234:Any pleasing
sense-experience, when it has once taken place, will, on subsequent occasions,
give rise to a conation,
when its conditions are only partially repeated...
conceptus: Grice obviously uses Frege’s
notion of a ‘concept.’ One of Grice’s metaphysical routines is meant to produce
a logical construction of a concept or generate a new concept. Aware of the
act/product distinction, Grice distinguishes between the conceptum, or concept,
and the conception, or conceptio. Grice allows that ‘not’ may be a ‘concept,’
so he is not tied to the ‘equine’ idea by Frege of the ‘horse.’ Since an agent
can fail to conceive that his neighbour’s three-year old is an adult, Grice
accepts that ‘conceives’ may take a ‘that’-clause. In ‘ordinary’ language, one
does not seem to refer, say, to the concept that e = mc2, but that may be a
failure or ‘ordinary’ language. In the canonical cat-on-the-mat, we have Grice
conceiving that the cat is on the mat, and also having at least four concepts:
the concept of ‘cat,’ the concept of ‘mat,’ the concept of ‘being on,’ and the
concept of the cat being on the mat. Griceian Meinongianism --
conceivability, capability of being conceived or imagined. Thus, golden
mountains are conceivable; round squares, inconceivable. As Descartes pointed
out, the sort of imaginability required is not the ability to form mental
images. Chiliagons, Cartesian minds, and God are all conceivable, though none
of these can be pictured “in the mind’s eye.” Historical references include
Anselm’s definition of God as “a being than which none greater can be
conceived” and Descartes’s argument for dualism from the conceivability of
disembodied existence. Several of Hume’s arguments rest upon the maxim that
whatever is conceivable is possible. He argued, e.g., that an event can occur
without a cause, since this is conceivable, and his critique of induction
relies on the inference from the conceivability of a change in the course of
nature to its possibility. In response, Reid maintained that to conceive is
merely to understand the meaning of a proposition. Reid argued that
impossibilities are conceivable, since we must be able to understand
falsehoods. Many simply equate conceivability with possibility, so that to say
something is conceivable or inconceivable just is to say that it is possible or
impossible. Such usage is controversial, since conceivability is broadly an
epistemological notion concerning what can be thought, whereas possibility is a
metaphysical notion concerning how things can be. The same controversy can
arise regarding the compossible, or co-possible, where two states of affairs
are compossible provided it is possible that they both obtain, and two
propositions are compossible provided their conjunction is possible.
Alternatively, two things are compossible if and only if there is a possible
world containing both. Leibniz held that two things are compossible provided
they can be ascribed to the same possible world without contradiction. “There
are many possible universes, each collection of compossibles making one of
them.” Others have argued that non-contradiction is sufficient for neither
possibility nor compossibility. The claim that something is inconceivable is
usually meant to suggest more than merely an inability to conceive. It is to
say that trying to conceive results in a phenomenally distinctive mental
repugnance, e.g. when one attempts to conceive of an object that is red and
green all over at once. On this usage the inconceivable might be equated with
what one can “just see” to be impossible. There are two related usages of ‘conceivable’:
1 not inconceivable in the sense just described; and 2 such that one can “just
see” that the thing in question is possible. Goldbach’s conjecture would seem a
clear example of something conceivable in the first sense, but not the second.
Grice was also interested in conceptualism as an answer to the problem of the
universale. conceptualism, the view that there are no universals and that the
supposed classificatory function of universals is actually served by particular
concepts in the mind. A universal is a property that can be instantiated by
more than one individual thing or particular at the same time; e.g., the shape
of this , if identical with the shape of the next , will be one property
instantiated by two distinct individual things at the same time. If viewed as
located where the s are, then it would be immanent. If viewed as not having
spatiotemporal location itself, but only bearing a connection, usually called
instantiation or exemplification, to things that have such location, then the
shape of this would be transcendent and
presumably would exist even if exemplified by nothing, as Plato seems to have
held. The conceptualist rejects both views by holding that universals are
merely concepts. Most generally, a concept may be understood as a principle of
classification, something that can guide us in determining whether an entity
belongs in a given class or does not. Of course, properties understood as
universals satisfy, trivially, this definition and thus may be called concepts,
as indeed they were by Frege. But the conceptualistic substantive views of
concepts are that concepts are 1 mental representations, often called ideas,
serving their classificatory function presumably by resembling the entities to
be classified; or 2 brain states that serve the same function but presumably
not by resemblance; or 3 general words adjectives, common nouns, verbs or uses
of such words, an entity’s belonging to a certain class being determined by the
applicability to the entity of the appropriate word; or 4 abilities to classify
correctly, whether or not with the aid of an item belonging under 1, 2, or 3.
The traditional conceptualist holds 1. Defenders of 3 would be more properly
called nominalists. In whichever way concepts are understood, and regardless of
whether conceptualism is true, they are obviously essential to our
understanding and knowledge of anything, even at the most basic level of
cognition, namely, recognition. The classic work on the topic is Thinking and
Experience 4 by H. H. Price, who held 4.
conditionalis: The conditional is of special interest to Grice because
his ‘impilcature’ has a conditional form. In other words, ‘implicaturum’ is a
variant on ‘implication,’ and the conditionalis has been called ‘implication’ –
‘even a material one, versus a formal one by Whitehead and Russell. So it is of
special philosophical interest. Since Grice’s overarching interest is
rationality, ‘conditionalis’ features in the passage from premise to
conclusion, deemed tautological: the ‘associated conditional” of a valid piece
of reasoning. “This is an interesting Latinism,” as Grice puts it. For those in
the know, it’s supposed to translate ‘hypothetical,’ that Grice also uses. But
literally, the transliteration of ‘hypothetica’ is ‘sub-positio,’ i.e. ‘suppositio,’
so infamous in the Dark Ages! So one has to be careful. For some reason,
Boethius disliked ‘suppositio,’ and preferred to add to the Latinate
philosophical vocabulary, with ‘conditionalis,’ the hypothetical, versus the
categoric, become the ‘conditionale.’ And the standard was not the Diodoran,
but the Philonian, also known, after Whitehead, as the ‘implicatio materialis.’
While this sounds scholastic, it isn’t. Cicero may have used ‘implicatio
materialis.’ But Whitehead’s and Russell’s motivation is a different one. They
start with the ‘material’, by which they mean a proposition WITH A TRUTH VALUE.
For implication that does not have this restriction, they introduce ‘implicatio
formalis,’ or ‘formal implication.’ In their adverbial ways, it goes p formally
implies q. trictly, propositio conditionalis:
vel substitutive, versus propositio praedicativa in Apuleius. Classical Latin condicio was
confused in Late Latin with conditio "a making," from conditus,
past participle of condere "to put together." The sense
evolution in Latin apparently was from "stipulation" to
"situation, mode of being."
Grice lists ‘if’ as the third binary functor in his response to Strawson. The
relations between “if” and “⊃” have already, but only in part,
been discussed. 1 The sign “⊃” is called the Material Implication
sign a name I shall consider later. Its meaning is given by the rule that any
statement of the form ‘p⊃q’ is false in the case in which the first of its constituent
statements is true and the second false, and is true in every other case
considered in the system; i. e., the falsity of the first constituent statement
or the truth of the second are, equally, sufficient conditions of the truth of
a statement of material implication ; the combination of truth in the first
with falsity in the second is the single, necessary and sufficient, condition
(1 Ch. 2, S. 7) of its falsity. The standard or primary -- the importance of
this qualifying phrase can scarcely be overemphasized. There are uses of “if …
then … ” which do not answer to the
description given here,, or to any other descriptions given in this chapter
-- use of an “if … then …” sentence,
on the other hand, we saw to be in circumstances where, not knowing whether
some statement which could be made by the use of a sentence corresponding in a
certain way to the first clause of the hypothetical is true or not, or
believing it to be false, we nevertheless consider that a step in reasoning
from that statement to a statement related in a similar way to the second
clause would be a sound or reasonable step ; the second statement also being
one of whose truth we are in doubt, or which we believe to be false. Even in
such circumstances as these we may sometimes hesitate to apply the word ‘true’
to hypothetical statements (i.e., statements which could be made by the use of
“if ... then …,” in its standard significance), preferring to call them
reasonable or well-founded ; but if we apply ‘true’ to them at all, it will be
in such circumstances as these. Now one of the sufficient conditions of the
truth of a statement of material implication may very well be fulfilled without
the conditions for the truth, or reasonableness, of the corresponding
hypothetical statement being fulfilled ; i.e., a statement of the form ‘p⊃q’ does not entail the corresponding statement of the form
“if p then q.” But if we are prepared to accept the hypothetical statement, we
must in consistency be prepared to deny the conjunction of the statement
corresponding to the first clause of the sentence used to make the hypothetical
statement with the negation of the statement corresponding to its second clause
; i.e., a statement of the form “if p then q” does entail the corresponding statement
of the form ‘p⊃q.’ The force of “corresponding” needs elucidation. Consider
the three following very ordinary specimens of hypothetical sentences. If the
Germans had invaded England in 1940, they would have won the war. If Jones were
in charge, half the staff would have been dismissed. If it rains, the match will
be cancelled. The sentences which could be used to make statements
corresponding in the required sense to the subordinate clauses can be
ascertained by considering what it is that the speaker of each hypothetical
sentence must (in general) be assumed either to be in doubt about or to believe
to be not the case. Thus, for (1) to (8), the corresponding pairs of sentences
are as follows. The Germans invaded England in 1940; they won the war. Jones is
in charge; half the staff has been dismissed. It will rain; the match will be
cancelled. Sentences which could be used to make the statements of material
implication corresponding to the hypothetical statements made by these
sentences can now be framed from these pairs of sentences as follows. The Germans
invaded England in 1940 ⊃ they won the war. Jones is in charge ⊃ half the staff has been, dismissed. It will rain ⊃ the match will be cancelled. The very fact that these
verbal modifications are necessary, in order to obtain from the clauses of the
hypothetical sentence the clauses of the corresponding material implication
sentence is itself a symptom of the radical difference between hypothetical
statements and truth-functional statements. Some detailed differences are also
evident from these examples. The falsity of a statement made by the use of ‘The
Germans invaded England in 1940’ or ‘Jones is in charge’ is a sufficient
condition of the truth of the corresponding statements made by the use of (Ml)
and (M2) ; but not, of course, of the corresponding statements made by the use
of (1) and (2). Otherwise, there would normally be no point in using sentences
like (1) and (2) at all; for these sentences would normally carry – but not
necessarily: one may use the pluperfect or the imperfect subjunctive when one
is simply working out the consequences of an hypothesis which one may be
prepared eventually to accept -- in the tense or mood of the verb, an
implication of the utterer's belief in the falsity of the statements
corresponding to the clauses of the hypothetical. It is not raining is
sufficient to verify a statement made by the use of (MS), but not a
statement made by the use of (3). Its not raining Is also sufficient to verify
a statement made by the use of “It will rain ⊃
the match will not be cancelled.” The formulae ‘p revise ⊃q’ and ‘q revise⊃
q' are consistent with one another, and the joint assertion of corresponding
statements of these forms is equivalent to the assertion of the corresponding
statement of the form * *-~p. But “If it rains, the match will be cancelled” is
inconsistent with “If it rains, the match will not be cancelled,” and their
joint assertion in the same context is self-contradictory. Suppose we call the
statement corresponding to the first clause of a sentence used to make a
hypothetical statement the antecedent of the hypothetical statement; and the
statement corresponding to the second clause, its consequent. It is sometimes
fancied that whereas the futility of identifying conditional statements with
material implications is obvious in those cases where the implication of the
falsity of the antecedent is normally carried by the mood or tense of the verb
(e.g., (I) or (2)), there is something to be said for at least a partial
identification in cases where no such implication is involved, i.e., where the
possibility of the truth of both antecedent and consequent is left open (e.g.,
(3). In cases of the first kind (‘unfulfilled’ or ‘subjunctive’ conditionals)
our attention is directed only to the last two lines of the truth-tables for *
p ⊃ q ', where the antecedent has the truth-value, falsity; and
the suggestion that ‘~p’ entails ‘if p, then q’ is felt to be obviously wrong.
But in cases of the second kind we may inspect also the first two lines, for
the possibility of the antecedent's being fulfilled is left open; and the
suggestion that ‘p . q’ entails ‘if p, then q’ is not felt to be obviously
wrong. This is an illusion, though engendered by a reality. The fulfilment of
both antecedent and consequent of a hypothetical statement does not show that
the man who made the hypothetical statement was right; for the consequent might
be fulfilled as a result of factors unconnected with, or in spite of, rather
than because of, the fulfilment of the antecedent. We should be prepared to say
that the man who made the hypothetical statement was right only if we were also
prepared to say that the fulfilment of the antecedent was, at least in part,
the explanation of the fulfilment of the consequent. The reality behind the
illusion is complex : en. 3 it is, partly, the fact that, in many cases, the
fulfilment of both antecedent and consequent may provide confirmation for the
view that the existence of states of affairs like those described by the
antecedent is a good reason for expecting states of affairs like those
described by the consequent ; and it is, partly, the fact that a man whosays,
for example, 4 If it rains, the match will be cancelled * makes a prediction
(viz.. that the match will be cancelled) under a proviso (viz., that it rains),
and that the cancellation of the match because of the rain therefore leads us
to say, not only that the reasonableness of the prediction was confirmed, but
also that the prediction itself was confirmed. Because a statement of the form
“p⊃q” does not entail the corresponding statement of the form '
if p, then q ' (in its standard employment), we shall expect to find, and have
found, a divergence between the rules for '⊃'
and the rules for ' if J (in its standard employment). Because ‘if p, then q’
does entail ‘p⊃q,’ we shall also expect to find some degree of parallelism
between the rules; for whatever is entailed by ‘p "3 q’ will be entailed
by ‘if p, then q,’ though not everything which entails ‘p⊃q’ will entail ‘if p, then q.’ Indeed, we find further
parallels than those which follow simply from the facts that ‘if p, then q’
entails ‘p⊃q’ and that entailment is transitive. To laws (19)-(23)
inclusive we find no parallels for ‘if.’ But for (15) (p⊃j).JJ⊃? (16) (P ⊃q).~qZ)~p (17) p'⊃q s ~q1)~p (18) (?⊃j).(?
⊃r) ⊃ (p⊃r) we find that, with certain reservations, 1 the following
parallel laws hold good : (1 The reservations are important. It is, e. g.,
often impossible to apply entailment-rule (iii) directly without obtaining
incorrect or absurd results. Some modification of the structure of the clauses
of the hypothetical is commonly necessary. But formal logic gives us no guide
as to which modifications are required. If we apply rule (iii) to our specimen
hypothetical sentences, without modifying at all the tenses or moods of the
individual clauses, we obtain expressions which are scarcely English. If we
preserve as nearly as possible the tense-mood structure, in the simplest way
consistent with grammatical requirements, we obtain the sentences : If the
Germans had not won the war, they would not have invaded England in
1940.) If half the staff had not been dismissed, Jones would not be in
charge. If the match is not cancelled, it will not rain. But these sentences,
so far from being logically equivalent to the originals, have in each case a
quite different sense. It is possible, at least in some such cases, to frame
sentences of more or less the appropriate pattern for which one can imagine a
use and which do stand in the required logical relationship to the original
sentences (e.g., ‘If it is not the case that half the staff has been dismissed,
then Jones can't be in charge;’ or ‘If the Germans did not win the war, it's
only because they did not invade England in 1940;’ or even (should historical
evidence become improbably scanty), ‘If the Germans did not win the war, it
can't be true that they invaded England in 1940’). These changes reflect
differences in the circumstances in which one might use these, as opposed to
the original, sentences. Thus the sentence beginning ‘If Jones were in charge
…’ would normally, though not necessarily, be used by a man who antecedently
knows that Jones is not in charge : the sentence beginning ‘If it's not the
case that half the staff has been dismissed …’ by a man who is working towards
the conclusion that Jones is not in charge. To say that the sentences are
nevertheless logically equivalent is to point to the fact that the grounds for
accepting either, would, in different circumstances, have been grounds for accepting
the soundness of the move from ‘Jones is in charge’ to ‘Half the staff has been
dismissed.’) (i) (if p, then q; and p)^q
(ii) (if p, then qt and not-g) Dnot-j? (iii) (if p, then f) ⊃ (if not-0, then not-j?) (iv) (if p, then f ; and iff, then
r) ⊃(if j>, then r) (One must remember that calling the
formulae (i)-(iv) is the same as saying that, e.g., in the case of (iii), c if
p, then q ' entails 4 if not-g, then not-j> '.) And similarly we find that,
for some steps which would be invalid for 4 if ', there are corresponding steps
that would be invalid for “⊃,” e. g. (p^q).q :. p are invalid inference-patterns,
and so are if p, then q ; and q /. p if p, then ; and not-j? /. not-f .The
formal analogy here may be described by saying that neither * p 13 q ' nor * if
j?, then q * is a simply convertible formula. We have found many laws (e.g.,
(19)-(23)) which hold for “⊃” and not for “if.” As an example of
a law which holds for “if,” but not for
“⊃,” we may give the analytic formula “ ~[(if p, then q) * (if
p, then not-g)]’. The corresponding formula 4 ~[(P 3 ?) * (j? 3 ~?}]’ is not
analytic, but (el (28)) is equivalent to the contingent formula ‘~~p.’ The
rules to the effect that formulae such as (19)-{23) are analytic are sometimes
referred to as ‘paradoxes of implication.’ This is a misnomer. If ‘⊃’ is taken as identical either with ‘entails’ or, more
widely, with ‘if ... then …’ in its
standard use, the rules are not paradoxical, but simply incorrect. If ‘⊃’ is given the meaning it has in the system of truth functions,
the rules are not paradoxical, but simple and platitudinous consequences of the
meaning given to the symbol. Throughout this section, I have spoken of a
‘primary or standard’ use of “if … then …,” or “if,” of which the main
characteristics were: that for each hypothetical statement made by this use of
“if,” there could be made just one statement which would be the antecedent of
the hypothetical and just one statement which would be its consequent; that the
hypothetical statement is acceptable (true, reasonable) if the antecedent
statement, if made or accepted, would, in the circumstances, be a good ground
or reason for accepting the consequent statement; and that the making of the
hypothetical statement carries the implication either of uncertainty about, or
of disbelief in, the fulfilment of both antecedent and consequent. (1 Not all
uses of * if ', however, exhibit all these characteristics. In particular,
there is a use which has an equal claim to rank as standard and which is
closely connected with the use described, but which does not exhibit the first
characteristic and for which the description of the remainder must consequently
be modified. I have in mind what are sometimes called 'variable' or 'general’
hypothetical : e.g., ‘lf ice is left in the sun, it melts,’ ‘If the side of a
triangle is produced, the exterior angle is equal to the sum of the two
interior and opposite angles ' ; ' If a child is very strictly disciplined in
the nursery, it will develop aggressive tendencies in adult life,’ and so on.
To a statement made by the use of a sentence such as these there corresponds no
single pair of statements which are, respectively, its antecedent and
consequent. On the other 1 There is much more than this to be said about this
way of using ‘if;’ in particular, about the meaning of the question whether the
antecedent would be a good ground or reason for accepting the consequent and
about the exact way in which this question is related to the question of
whether the hypothetical is true {acceptable, reasonable) or not hand, for
every such statement there is an indefinite number of non-general hypothetical
statements which might be called exemplifications, applications, of the
variable hypothetical; e.g., a statement made by the use of the sentence ‘If
this piece of ice is left in the sun, it will melt.’ To the subject of variable
hypothetical I may return later. 1 Two relatively uncommon uses of ‘if’ may be
illustrated respectively by the sentences ‘If he felt embarrassed, he showed no
signs of it’ and ‘If he has passed his exam, I’m a Dutchman (I'll eat my hat,
&c.)’ The sufficient and necessary condition of the truth of a statement
made by the first is that the man referred to showed no sign of embarrassment.
Consequently, such a statement cannot be treated either as a standard
hypothetical or as a material implication. Examples of the second kind are
sometimes erroneously treated as evidence that ‘if’ does, after all, behave
somewhat as ‘⊃’ behaves. The evidence for this is, presumably, the facts
(i) that there is no connexion between antecedent and consequent; (ii) that the
consequent is obviously not (or not to be) fulfilled ; (iii) that the intention
of the speaker is plainly to give emphatic expression to the conviction that
the antecedent is not fulfilled either ; and (iv) the fact that “(p ⊃ q) . ~q” entails “~p.” But this is a strange piece of
logic. For, on any possible interpretation, “if p then q” has, in respect of
(iv), the same logical powers as ‘p⊃q;’
and it is just these logical powers that we are jokingly (or fantastically)
exploiting. It is the absence of connexion referred to in (i) that makes it a
quirk, a verbal flourish, an odd use of ‘if.’ If hypothetical statements were
material implications, the statements would be not a quirkish oddity, but a
linguistic sobriety and a simple truth. Finally, we may note that ‘if’ can be employed not simply in making
statements, but in, e.g., making provisional announcements of intention (e.g.,
‘If it rains, I shall stay at home’) which, like unconditional announcements of
intention, we do not call true or false but describe in some other way. If the
man who utters the quoted sentence leaves home in spite of the rain, we do not
say that what he said was false, though we might say that he lied (never really
intended to stay in) ; or that he changed his mind. There are further uses of
‘if’ which I shall not discuss. 1 v. ch. 7, I. The safest way to read the
material implication sign is, perhaps, ‘not both … and not …’ The material
equivalence sign ‘≡’ has the meaning given by the
following definition : p q =df=⊃/'(p⊃ff).(sOj)'
and the phrase with which it is sometimes identified, viz., ‘if and only if,’
has the meaning given by the following definition: ‘p if and only if q’ =df ‘if
p then g, and if q then p.’ Consequently, the objections which hold against the
identification of ‘p⊃q” with ‘if p then q’ hold with double force against the
identification of “p≡q’ with ‘p if and only if q.’ ‘If’
is of particular interest to Grice. The interest in the ‘if’ is double in
Grice. In doxastic contexts, he needs it for his analysis of ‘intending’
against an ‘if’-based dispositional (i.e. subjective-conditional) analysis. He
is of course, later interested in how Strawson misinterpreted the ‘indicative’
conditional! It is later when he starts to focus on the ‘buletic’ mode marker,
that he wants to reach to Paton’s categorical (i.e. non-hypothetical)
imperative. And in so doing, he has to face the criticism of those Oxonian
philosophers who were sceptical about the very idea of a conditional buletic
(‘conditional command – what kind of a command is that?’. Grice would refere to
the protasis, or antecedent, as a relativiser – where we go again to the
‘absolutum’-‘relativum’ distinction. The conditional is also paramount in
Grice’s criticism of Ryle, where the keyword would rather be ‘disposition.’
Then ther eis the conditional and disposition. Grice is a philosophical
psychologist. Does that make sense? So are Austin (Other Minds), Hampshire
(Dispositions), Pears (Problems in philosophical psychology) and Urmson
(Parentheticals). They are ALL against Ryle’s silly analysis in terms of
single-track disposition" vs. "many-track disposition," and
"semi-disposition." If I hum and walk, I can either hum or walk. But
if I heed mindfully, while an IN-direct sensing may guide me to YOUR soul, a
DIRECT sensing guides me to MY soul. When Ogden consider attacks to meaning,
theres what he calls the psychological, which he ascribes to Locke Grices
attitude towards Ryle is difficult to assess. His most favourable assessment
comes from Retrospective epilogue, but then he is referring to Ryle’s fairy
godmother. Initially, he mentions Ryle as a philosopher engaged in, and
possibly dedicated to the practice of the prevailing Oxonian methodology, i.e.
ordinary-language philosophy. Initially, then, Grice enlists Ryle in
the regiment of ordinary-language philosophers. After introducing Athenian
dialectic and Oxonian dialectic, Grice traces some parallelisms, which should
not surprise. It is tempting to suppose that Oxonian dialectic reproduces some
ideas of Athenian dialectic. It would actually be surprising if there
were no parallels. Ryle was, after all, a skilled and enthusiastic student of
Grecian philosophy. Interestingly, Grice then has Ryles fairy godmother as
proposing the idea that, far from being a basis for rejecting the
analytic-synthetic distinction, opposition that there are initially two
distinct bundles of statements, bearing the labels analytic and synthetic,
lying around in the world of thought waiting to be noticed, provides us with
the key to making the analytic-synthetic distinction acceptable. The
essay has a verificationist ring to it. Recall Ayer and the
verificationists trying to hold water with concepts like fragile and the
problem of counterfactual conditionals vis-a-vis observational and
theoretical concepts. Grices essay has two parts: one on disposition as
such, and the second, the application to a type of psychological
disposition, which would be phenomenalist in a way, or verificationist, in
that it derives from introspection of, shall we say, empirical
phenomena. Grice is going to analyse, I want a sandwich. One person
wrote in his manuscript, there is something with the way Grice goes to work.
Still. Grice says that I want a sandwich (or I will that I eat a sandwich)
is problematic, for analysis, in that it seems to refer to experience that is
essentially private and unverifiable. An analysis of intending that p in terms
of being disposed that p is satisfied solves this. Smith wants a sandwich, or
he wills that he eats a sandwich, much as Toby needs nuts, if Smith opens the
fridge and gets one. Smith is disposed to act such that p is satisfied.
This Grice opposes to the ‘special-episode’ analysis of intending that p. An
utterance like I want a sandwich iff by uttering the utterance, the utterer is
describing this or that private experience, this or that private
sensation. This or that sensation may take the form of a highly specific
souly sate, like what Grice calls a sandwich-wanting-feeling. But then, if
he is not happy with the privacy special-episode analysis, Grice is also
dismissive of Ryles behaviourism in The concept of mind, fresh from
the press, which would describe the utterance in terms purely of this or that observable
response, or behavioural output, provided this or that sensory input. Grice
became friendlier with functionalism after Lewis taught him how. The
problem or crunch is with the first person. Surely, Grice claims, one does not
need to wait to observe oneself heading for the fridge before one is in a
position to know that he is hungry. Grice poses a problem for the
protocol-reporter. You see or observe someone else, Smith, that Smith wants a
sandwich, or wills that he eats a sandwich. You ask for evidence. But when it
is the agent himself who wants the sandwich, or wills that he eats a
sandwich, Grice melodramatically puts it, I am not in the
audience, not even in the front row of the stalls; I am on the
stage. Genial, as you will agree. Grice then goes on to offer an
analysis of intend, his basic and target attitude, which he has just used to
analyse and rephrase Peirces mean and which does relies on this or that piece
of dispositional evidence, without divorcing itself completely from the privileged
status or access of first-person introspective knowledge. In “Uncertainty,”
Grice weakens his reductive analysis of intending that, from neo-Stoutian,
based on certainty, or assurance, to neo-Prichardian, based on predicting. All
very Oxonian: Stout was the sometime Wilde reader in mental philosophy (a post
usually held by a psychologist, rather than a philosopher ‒ Stouts favourite
philosopher is psychologist James! ‒ and Prichard was Cliftonian and the proper
White chair of moral philosophy. And while in “Uncertainty” he allows that
willing that may receive a physicalist treatment, qua state, hell later turn a
functionalist, discussed under ‘soul, below, in his “Method in
philosophical psychology (from the banal to the bizarre” (henceforth, “Method”),
in the Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association,
repr. in “Conception.” Grice can easily relate to Hamsphires "Thought and
Action," a most influential essay in the Oxonian scene. Rather than Ryle!
And Grice actually addresses further topics on intention drawing on Hampshire,
Hart, and his joint collaboration with Pears. Refs.: The main reference is
Grice’s early essay on disposition and intention, The H. P. Grice. Refs.: The
main published source is Essay 4 in WOW, but there are essays on ‘ifs and
cans,’ so ‘if’ is a good keyword, on ‘entailment,’ and for the connection with
‘intending,’ ‘disposition and intention,’ BANC.
confirmatum –
disconfirmatum -- confirmation, an evidential relation between evidence and any
statement especially a scientific hypothesis that this evidence supports. It is
essential to distinguish two distinct, and fundamentally different, meanings of
the term: 1 the incremental sense, in which a piece of evidence contributes at
least some degree of support to the hypothesis in question e.g., finding a fingerprint of the suspect at
the scene of the crime lends some weight to the hypothesis that the suspect is
guilty; and 2 the absolute sense, in which a body of evidence provides strong
support for the hypothesis in question
e.g., a case presented by a prosecutor making it practically certain
that the suspect is guilty. If one thinks of confirmation in terms of
probability, then evidence that increases the probability of a hypothesis
confirms it incrementally, whereas evidence that renders a hypothesis highly
probable confirms it absolutely. In each of the two foregoing senses one can
distinguish three types of confirmation: i qualitative, ii quantitative, and
iii comparative. i Both examples in the preceding paragraph illustrate
qualitative confirmation, for no numerical values of the degree of confirmation
were mentioned. ii If a gambler, upon learning that an opponent holds a certain
card, asserts that her chance of winning has increased from 2 /3 to ¾, the claim
is an instance of quantitative incremental confirmation. If a physician states
that, on the basis of an X-ray, the probability that the patient has
tuberculosis is .95, that claim exemplifies quantitative absolute confirmation.
In the incremental sense, any case of quantitative confirmation involves a
difference between two probability values; in the absolute sense, any case of
quantitative confirmation involves only one probability value. iii Comparative
confirmation in the incremental sense would be illustrated if an investigator
said that possession of the murder weapon weighs more heavily against the
suspect than does the fingerprint found at the scene of the crime. Comparative
confirmation in the absolute sense would occur if a prosecutor claimed to have
strong cases against two suspects thought to be involved in a crime, but that
the case against one is stronger than that against the other. Even given
recognition of the foregoing six varieties of confirmation, there is still
considerable controversy regarding its analysis. Some authors claim that
quantitative confirmation does not exist; only qualitative and/or comparative
confirmation are possible. Some authors maintain that confirmation has nothing
to do with probability, whereas others
known as Bayesians analyze
confirmation explicitly in terms of Bayes’s theorem in the mathematical
calculus of probability. Among those who offer probabilistic analyses there are
differences as to which interpretation of probability is suitable in this
context. Popper advocates a concept of corroboration that differs fundamentally
from confirmation. Many real or apparent paradoxes of confirmation have been
posed; the most famous is the paradox of the ravens. It is plausible to suppose
that ‘All ravens are black’ can be incrementally confirmed by the observation
of one of its instances, namely, a black crow. However, ‘All ravens are black’
is logically equivalent to ‘All non-black things are non-ravens.’ By parity of
reasoning, an instance of this statement, namely, any nonblack non-raven e.g.,
a white shoe, should incrementally confirm it. Moreover, the equivalence
condition whatever confirms a hypothesis
must equally confirm any statement logically equivalent to it seems eminently reasonable. The result
appears to facilitate indoor ornithology, for the observation of a white shoe
would seem to confirm incrementally the hypothesis that all ravens are black.
Many attempted resolutions of this paradox can be found in the literature.
conjunctum: One has to be careful because the
scholastic vocabulary also misleadingly has ‘copulatum’ for this. The
‘copulatum’ should be restricted to other usages, which Grice elaborates on
‘izzing’ and hazing. traditional parlance, one ‘pars orationis.’ Aulus Gellius writes; “What the Greeks call
“sympleplegmenon” we call conjunctum or copulatum, copulative sentence. For
example. The Stoic copulative sentence — sumpleplegmenon axioma — is translated
by “conjunctum” or “copulatum,” for example: „P. Scipio, son of Paulus, was a
consul twice and was given the honour of triumph and also performed the
function of censor and was the colleague of L. Mummius during his censorship”.
Here, Aulus Gellius made a noteworthy remark, referring to the value of truth
of the composing propositions ■ (a Stoic problem). In keeping with the Stoics,
he wrote: “If one element of the copulative sentence is false, even if all the
other elements are true, the copulative sentence is false” (“in omni aiitem
conjuncto si unum est mendacium etiamsi, caetera vera sunt, totum esse
mendacium dicitur”). In the identification of ‘and’ with ‘Λ’ there
is already a considerable distortion of the facts. ‘And’ can perform many jobs
which ‘Λ’
cannot perform. It can, for instance, be used to couple nouns (“Tom and William
arrived”), or adjectives (“He was hungry and thirsty”), or adverbs (“He walked
slowly and painfully”); while ' . ' can be used only to couple expressions
which could appear as separate sentences. One might be tempted to say that
sentences in which “and” coupled words or phrases, were short for sentences in
which “and” couples clauses; e.g., that “He was hungry and thirsty” was short
for “He was hungry and he was thirsty.” But this is simply false. We do not
say, of anyone who uses sentences like “Tom and William arrived,” that he is
speaking elliptically, or using abbreviations. On the contrary, it is one of
the functions of “and,” to which there is no counterpart In the case of “.,” to
form plural subjects or compound predicates. Of course it is true of many
statements of the forms “x and y” are/* or ' x is /and g \ that they are logically
equivalent to corresponding statements of the" form * x Is /and yisf'oT^x
is /and x is g \ But, first, this is a fact about the use, in certain contexts,
of “and,” to which there corresponds no
rule for the use of * . '. And, second, there are countless contexts for which
such an equivalence does not hold; e.g. “Tom and Mary made friends” is not
equivalent to “Tom made friends and Mary made friends.” They mean, usually,
quite different things. But notice that one could say “Tom and Mary made friends;
but not with one another.” The implication of mutuality in the first phrase is
not so strong but that it can be rejected without self-contradiction; but it is
strong enough to make the rejection a slight shock, a literary effect. Nor does
such an equivalence hold if we replace “made friends” by “met yesterday,” “were
conversing,” “got married,” or “were playing chess.” Even “Tom and William
arrived” does not mean the same as “Tom arrived and William arrived;” for the
first suggests “together” and the second an order of arrival. It might be
conceded that “and” has functions which “ .” has not (e.g., may carry in
certain contexts an implication of mutuality which ‘.’ does not), and yet claimed that the rules
which hold for “and,” where it is used to couple clauses, are the same as the
rules which hold for “.” Even this is not true. By law (11), " p , q ' is
logically equivalent to * q . p ' ; but “They got married and had a child” or
“He set to work and found a job” are by no means logically equivalent to “They
had a child and got married” or “He found a job and set to work.” One might try
to avoid these difficulties by regarding ‘.’ as having the function, not of '
and ', but of what it looks like, namely a full stop. We should then have to
desist from talking of statements of the forms ' p .q\ * p . J . r * &CM
and talk of sets-of-statements of these forms instead. But this would not
avoid all, though it would avoid some, of the difficulties. Even in a passage
of prose consisting of several indicative sentences, the order of the sentences
may be in general vital to the sense, and in particular, relevant (in a way
ruled out by law (II)) to the truth-conditions of a set-of-statements made by
such a passage. The fact is that, in general, in ordinary speech and writing,
clauses and sentences do not contribute to the truthconditions of things said
by the use of sentences and paragraphs in which they occur, in any such simple
way as that pictured by the truth-tables for the binary connectives (' D ' * .
', 4 v ', 35 ') of the system, but in far more subtle, various, and complex
ways. But it is precisely the simplicity of the way in which, by the definition
of a truth-function, clauses joined by these connectives contribute to the
truth-conditions of sentences resulting from the junctions, which makes
possible the stylized, mechanical neatness of the logical system. It will not
do to reproach the logician for his divorce from linguistic realities, any more
than it will do to reproach the abstract painter for not being a
representational artist; but one may justly reproach him if he claims to be a
representational artist. An abstract painting may be, recognizably, a painting
of something. And the identification of “.” with ‘and,’ or with a full stop, is
not a simple mistake. There is a great deal of point in comparing them. The
interpretation of, and rules for, “.”define a minimal linguistic operation,
which we might call ‘simple conjunction’ and roughly describe as the joining
together of two (or more) statements in the process of asserting them both (or
all). And this is a part of what we often do with ' and ', and with the full
stop. But we do not string together at random any assertions we consider true;
we bring them together, in spoken or written sentences or paragraphs, only when
there is some further reason for the rapprochement, e.g., when they record
successive episodes in a single narrative. And that for the sake of which we
conjoin may confer upon the sentences embodying the conjunction logical
features at variance with the rules for “.” Thus we have seen that a statement
of the form “p and q” may carry an implication of temporal order incompatible
with that carried by the corresponding statement of the form “q and p.” This is
not to deny that statements corresponding to these, but of the forms ‘pΛq’
and ‘qΛp’would
be, if made, logically equivalent; for such statements would carry no
implications, and therefore no incompatible implications, of temporal order.
Nor is it to deny the point, and merit, of the comparison; the statement of the
form ‘pΛq’
means at least a part of what is meant by the corresponding statement of the
form ‘p and q.’ We might say: the form
‘p q’ is an abstraction from the different uses of the form ‘p and q.’ Simple conjunction is a minimal element in
colloquial conjunction. We may speak of ‘. ‘ as the conjunctive sign; and read
it, for simplicity's sake, as “and” or “both … and … “I have already remarked
that the divergence between the meanings given to the truth-functional
constants and the meanings of the ordinary conjunctions with which they are
commonly identified is at a minimum in the cases of ' ~ ' and ‘.’ We have seen,
as well, that the remaining constants of the system can be defined in terms of
these two. Other interdefinitions are equally possible. But since ^’ and ‘.’ are more nearly identifiable with ‘not’ and
‘and’ than any other constant with any other English word, I prefer to
emphasize the definability of the remaining constants in terms of ‘ .’ and ‘~.’
It is useful to remember that every rule or law of the system can be expressed
in terms of negation and simple conjunction. The system might, indeed, be
called the System of Negation and Conjunction. Grice lists ‘and’ as the first
binary functor in his response to Strawson. Grice’s conversationalist
hypothesis applies to this central ‘connective.’ Interestingly, in his essay on
Aristotle, and discussing, “French poet,” Grice distinguishes between
conjunction and adjunction. “French” is adjuncted to ‘poet,’ unlike ‘fat’ in ‘fat
philosopher.’ And Grice:substructural
logics, metainference, implicaturum. Grice explores some of the
issues regarding pragmatic enrichment and substructural logics with a special
focus on the first dyadic truth-functor, ‘and.’ In particular, attention is
given to a sub-structural “rule” pertaining to the commutativeness of
conjunction, applying a framework that sees Grice as clarifying the extra
material that must be taken into account, and which will referred to as the ‘implicaturum.’
Grice is thus presented as defending a “classical-logical” rule that assigns
commutativeness to conjunction while accounting for Strawson-type alleged
counterexamples to the effect that some utterances of the schema “p and q”
hardly allow for a ‘commutative’ “inference” (“Therefore, q and p”). How to
proceed conservatively while allowing room for pluralism? Embracing the
“classical-logical” syntactic introduction-cum-elimination and semantic
interpretation of “and,” the approach by Cook Wilson in “Statement and
inference” to the inferential métier of “and” is assessed. If Grice grants that
there is some degree of artificiality in speaking of the meaning or sense of
“and,” the polemic brings us to the realm of ‘pragmatic inference,’ now
contrasted to a ‘logical inference.’ The endorsement by Grice of an
‘impoverished’ reading of conjunction appears conservative vis-à-vis not just
Strawson’s ‘informalist’ picture but indeed the formalist frameworks of
relevant, linear, and ordered logic. An external practical decision à la Carnap
is in order, that allows for an enriched, stronger, reading, if not in terms of
a conventional implicaturum, as Strawson suggests. A ‘classical-logic’ reading
in terms of a conversational implicaturum agrees with Grice’s ‘Bootstrap,’ a
methodological principle constraining the meta-language/object-language divide.
Keywords: conjunction, pragmatic
enrichment, H. Paul Grice, Bootstrap. “[I]n recent years, my disposition to
resort to formalism has markedly diminished. This retreat may well have been
accelerated when, of all people, Hilary Putnam remarked to me that I was too
formal!”H.P. Grice, ‘Prejudices and predilections; which become, the life and
opinions of Paul Grice,’ in Grandy & Warner, 1986:61 Keywords:
metainference, substructural logics, classical logic, conjunction, H. Paul
Grice, pragmatic inference; Rudolf Carnap, bootstrap, modernism, formalism,
neotraditionalism, informalism, pragmatics, inference, implicaturum,
extensional conjunction, intensional conjunction, multiplicative conjunction,
additive conjunction. Grice’s approach consistent with Rudolf Carnap’s logical
pluralism that allows room for the account put forward by H. Paul Grice in
connection with a specific meta-inference (or second-order “… yields …”) as it
may help us take an ‘external’ practical decision as to how to recapture a
structural ‘rule’ of classical logic. The attempt involves a reconsideration,
with a special focus on the sub-structural classical logic rules for
conjunction of Grice’s ultimately metaphilosophical motivation in the opening
paragraphs to “Logic and Conversation.” Grice explores stick the first dyadic truth-functor Grice lists. In
fact, it’s the first alleged divergence, between “p and q” and “p. . q” that
Grice had quotes in “Prolegomena” to motivate his audience, and the example he
brings up vis-à-vis an ‘alleged’ “linguistic offence” (a paradox?) that an
utterer may incur by uttering “He got into bed and took his clothes off, but I
don’t mean to suggest he did it in that order” (Grice 1981:186). Implicatura
are cancellable. In the present scheme, which justifies substructural logics,
this amounts to any ‘intensional’ reading of a connective (e. g. ‘and’) being
susceptible of being turned or ‘trans-formed’ into the correlative extensional one in
light of the cancelling clause, which brings new information to the addressee
A. This is hardly problematic if we consider that sub-structural logics do not aim to capture the
‘semantics’ of a logical constant, and that the sub-structural logical
‘enrichment’ is relevant, rather, for the constant’s ‘inferential role.’Neither
is it problematic that the fact that the ‘inferential role’ of a logical
constant (such as ‘and’) may change (allowing this ‘trans-formation’ from
classical-logical extensional to sub-structural logical intension, given new
information which will be used by the addressee A to ‘work out’ the utterer U’s
meaning. The obvious, but worthemphasizing,
entailment in Grice’s assertion about the “mistake” shared by Formalism and
Informalism is that FORMALISM (as per the standard presentations of ‘classical
logic’) does commit a mistake! Re-capturing the FORMALISM of classical logic is
hardly as direct in the Griceian programme as one would assume. Grice’s
ultimate meta-philosophical motivation, though, seems to be more in agreement
with FORMALISM. Formalism can repair the mistake, Grice thinks, not by allowing
a change in the assigning of an ‘interpretation’ rule of an empoverished “and”
(““p and q” is 1 iff both p and q are 1, 0 otherwise.” (Cfr. Pap: “Obviously, I cannot prove that
“(p and q) ≡ (q and p)” is tautologous (and that
therefore “He got into bed and took off his clothes’ iff ‘he took of his
clothes and got into bed,’) unless I first
construct an adequate truth-table defining the use of “and.”
But surely one of the points of constructing such a table is to ‘reproduce’ or
capture’ the meaning of ‘and’ in a natural language! The proposal seems
circular!) and a deductive ‘syntactics’ rule,
involving the Gentzen-type elimination of ‘and’ (“ “p and q” yields “p”; and
its reciprocal, “ “p and q” yields “q”.” To avoid commiting the mistake,
formalism must recognise the conversational implicaturum ceteris paribus
derived from some constraint of rational co-operation (in particular, the
desideratum or conversational maxim, “be orderly!”) and allow for some
syntactical scope device to make the implicaturum obvious, an ‘explicatum,’
almost (without the need to reinforce “and” into “and then”). In Grice’s
examples, it may not even be a VIOLATION, but a FLOUT, of a conversational
maxim or desideratum, within the observance of an overarching co-operation
principle (A violation goes unnoticed; a flout is a rhetorical device. Cfr.
Quintilian’s observation that Homer would often use “p & q” with the implicaturum
“but not in that order” left to the bard’s audience to work out). Grice’s attempt
is to recapture “classical-logic” “and,” however pragmatically ‘enriched,’
shares some features with other sub-structural logics, since we have allowed
for a syntactical tweak of the ‘inference’ rules; which we do via the
pragmatist (rather than pragmatic) ‘implicatural’ approach to logic,
highlighting one pragmatic aspect of a logic without CUT. Grice grants that “p and q” should read “p .
q” “when [“p . q” is] interpreted in the classical two-valued way.” His wording
is thus consistent with OTHER ways (notably relevant logic, linear and ordered
logic). Grice seems to have as one of his ‘unspeakable truths’ things like “He
got into bed and took his clothes off,” “said of a man who proceeds otherwise.”
After mentioning “and” “interpreted in the classical
two-valued way,” Grice dedicates a full
paragraph to explore the classical logic’s manifesto. The idea is to
provide a SYSTEM that will give us an algorithm to decide which formulae are
theorems. The ‘logical consequence’ (or “… yields …”) relation is given a
precise definition.Grice notes that “some logicians [whom he
does not mention] may at some time have wanted to claim that there are in fact
no such divergences [between “p and q” and “p . q”]; but such claims, if made
at all, have been somewhat rashly made, and those suspected of making them have
been subjected to some pretty rough handling.” “Those
who concede that such divergences [do] exist” are the formalists. “An outline
of a not uncharacteristic FORMALIST position may be given as follows,” Grice
notes. We proceed to number the thesis since it sheds light on what makes a
sub-structural logic sub-structural“Insofar as logicians are concerned with the
formulation of very general patterns of VALID INFERENCE (“… yields…”) the
formal device (“p . q”) possesses a decisive advantage over their natural
counterpart (“p and q.”) For it will be possible to construct in terms of the
formal device (“p . q”) a system of very general formulas, a considerable
number of which can be regarded as, or are closely related to, a pattern of
inferences the expression of which involves the device.”“Such a system may
consist of a certain set of simple formulas that MUST BE ACCEPTABLE if the
device has the MEANING (or sense) that has been ASSIGNED to it, and an
indefinite number of further formulas, many of them less obviously acceptable
(“q . p”), each of which can be shown to be acceptable if the members of the
original set are acceptable.”“We have, thus, a way of handling dubiously
acceptable patterns of inference (“q. p,” therefore, “p. q”) and if, as is
sometimes possible, we can apply A DECISION PROCEDURE, we have an even better
way.”“Furthermore, from a PHILOSOPHICAL point of view, the possession by the
natural counterpart (“p and q”) of that element in their meaning (or sense),
which they do NOT share with the corresponding formal device, is to be regarded
as an IMPERFECTION; the element in question is an undesirable excrescence. For
the presence of this element has the result that the CONCEPT within which it
appears cannot be precisely/clearly defined, and that at least SOME statements
involving it cannot, in some circumstances, be assigned a definite TRUTH VALUE;
and the indefiniteness of this concept is not only objectionable in itself but
leaves open the way to METAPHYSICS: we cannot be certain that the
natural-language expression (“p and q”) is METAPHYSICALLY ‘LOADED.’”“For these
reasons, the expression, as used in natural speech (“p and q”), CANNOT be
regarded as finally acceptable, and may tum out to be, finally, not fully
intelligible.” “The proper course is to conceive and begin to construct an
IDEAL language, incorporating the formal device (“p . q”), the sentences of
which will be clear, determinate in TRUTH-VALUE, and certifiably FREE FROM
METAPHYSICAL IMPLICATIONS.”“The foundations of SCIENCE will now be
PHILOSOPHICALLY SECURE, since the statements of the scientist will be
EXPRESSIBLE (though not necessarily actually expressed) within this ideal
language.”What kind of enrichment are we talking
about? It may be understood as a third conjunct ptn-l & qtn
& (tn > tn-l) FIRST
CONJUNCT + SECOND CONJUNCT + “TEMPORAL SUCCESSION” p AND THEN q To
buttress the buttressing of ‘and,’ Grice uses ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ for other
operators like ‘disjunction – and his rationale for the Modified Occam’s razor
would be: “A STRONGER SENSE for a truth-functional dyadic operator SHOULD NOT
BE POSTULATED when A WEAK (or minimal) SENSE does, provided we add the
CANCELLABLE IMPLICATURUM.” Grice SIMPLIFIES semantics, but there’s no free
lunch, since he now has to explain how the IMPLICATURUM arises. Let’s revise the way “and,” the
first ‘dyadic’ device in “Logic and Conversation,” is invoked by Grice in
“Prolegomena.” “He got into bed and took his clothes off,” “said of a someone
who took his clothes off and got into bed.”
Cfr. theorems ∧I
= ` ∀ φ ψ• [φ; ψ] |= φ ∧ ψ ∧E
= ` ∀ φ ψ• ([φ ∧ ψ] |= φ) ∧ ([φ ∧ ψ] |= ψ)We have: He got into bed and took his clothes
off (Grice, 1989:9). He took his clothes off and got into bed (Grice, 1989:9). He got into bed and took his clothes
off but I don’t want to suggest that he did those things in that order (Grice,
1981:186). He
first took his clothes off and then got into bed (Grice 1989:9). In invoking
Strawson’s Introduction to Logical Theory, is Grice being fair? Strawson had
noted, provocatively: “[The formula] “p . q’ is logically
equivalent to ‘q . p’; but [the English] ‘They got married and had a child’ or
‘He set to work and found a job’ are by no means logically equivalent to ‘They
had a child and got married’ or ‘He found a job and set to work.’”How easier
things would have gone should Strawson have used the adjective ‘pragmatic’ that
he mentions later in his treatise in connection with Grice. Strawson is
sticking with the truth-functionality and thinking of ‘equivalence’ in terms of
‘iff’ – but his remark may be rephrased as involving a notion of ‘inference.’ In
terms of LOGICAL INFERENCE, the premise “He got into bed and took his clothes
off” YIELDS “He took off his clothes and got into bed,” even if that does NOT
‘yield’ in terms of ceteris paribus PRAGMATIC inference. It would have pleased Grice to read the above as: “[The formula] “p
. q’ is equivalentL to ‘q . p’; but [the English] ‘They got married
and had a child’ or ‘He set to work and found a job’ are by no means equivalentP
to ‘They had a child and got married’ or ‘He found a job and set to work.’” By appealing to a desideratum of
rational co-operative discourse, “be orderly,” Grice thinks he can restore
“and” to its truth-functional sense, while granting that the re-inforced “then”
(or an alleged extra sense of “temporal succession,” as he has it in
“Prolegomena”) is merely and naturally (if cancellable on occasion)
conversationally implicated (even if under a generalised way) under the
assumption that the addressee A will recognise that the utterer U is observing
the desideratum, and is being orderly. But witness variants to the cancellation
(3) above. There is an indifferent, indeterminate form: He got into bed and
took off his clothes, though I don’t mean to imply that he did that in that
order.versus the less indeterminate He got into bed and took his clothes off,
but not in that order. +> i.e. in the reverse one.Postulating a pragmatic
desideratum allows Grice to keep any standard sub-structural classical rule for
“and” and “&” (as s he does when he goes more formalist in “Vacuous Names,”
his tribute to Quine).How are to interpret the Grice/Strawson ‘rivalry’ in
meta-inference? Using Frege’s assertion “⊦LK” as our operator to read “…
yields…” we have:p & q ⊦LK q & p
and q & p ⊦LK
p & q.
In “Prolegomena,” then, Grice
introduces:“B. Examples involve an area of special interest to me [since he was
appointed logic tutor at St. John’s], namely
that of expressions which are candidates for being natural analogues to logical
constants and which may, or may not, ‘diverge’ in meaning [not use] from the
related constants (considered as elements in a classical logic, standardly
interpreted). It has, for example, been suggested that because it would be
incorrect or inappropriate [or misleading, even false?] to say “He got into bed
and took off his clothes” of [someone] who first took off his clothes and then
got into bed, it is part of the meaning [or sense] or part of one meaning
[sub-sense] of “and” to convey temporal succession” (Grice 1989:8). The
explanation in terms of a reference to “be orderly” is mentioned in
“Presupposition and conversational implicaturum” (Grice 1981:186). Grice
notes: “It has been suggested by [an informalist like] Strawson, in [An]
Introduction to Logical Theory [by changing the title of Strawson’s essay,
Grice seems to be implicating that Strawson need not sound pretentious] that
there is a divergence between the ordinary use or meaning of ‘and’ and the
conjunction sign [“.”] of propositional or predicate calculus because “He took
off his clothes and got into to bed” does not seem to have the same meaning as
“He got into bed and took off his clothes.”” Grice goes on: “[Strawson’s] suggestion here is, of course, that, in order properly
to represent the ordinary use of [the
word] “and,” one would have to allow a special sense (or sub-sense) for [the word] “and” which contained
some reference to the idea that what was
mentioned before [the word] “and” was temporally prior to what was mentioned
after it, and that, on that supposition,
one could deal with this case.”Grice goes on: “[Contra Strawson,] I want to
suggest in reply that it is not necessary
[call him an Occamist, minimalist] if one operates on some general principle
[such as M. O. R., or Modified Occam’s Razor] of keeping down, as far as possible, the number of special sense
[sic] of words that one has to invoke, to give countenance to the
alleged divergence of meaning.” The
constraint is not an arbitrary assignation of sense, but a rational one derived
from the nature of conversation:“It is just that there is a general supposition
[which would be sub-sidiary to the general maxim of Manner or ‘Modus’ (‘be
perspicuous! [sic]’) that one presents one's material in an orderly manner and, if what one is engaged upon is a narration (if
one is talking about events), then the
most orderly manner for a narration of events is an order that corresponds to the order in which they took
place.”Grice concludes: “So, the meaning of the expression ‘He took off his
clothes and he got into bed” and the
corresponding expression with a [classical] logician's constant
"&" [when given a standard two-valued interpretation] (i.e. “He took his clothes off & he got into
bed") would be exactly the same.”Grice’s
indifference with what type of formalism to adopt is obvious: “And, indeed, if
anybody actually used in ordinary speech the "&" as a piece of vocabulary instead of as a formal(ist)
device, and used it to connect together sentences of this type, they would collect just the same
[generalised conversational] implicatura as the ordinary English sentences have without any extra explanation
of the meaning of the word ‘and’.” It is
then that Grice goes on to test the ‘cancellability,’ producing the
typical Gricean idiom, above:He took his
clothes off and got into bed but I don't mean to suggest that he did those
things in that order. Grice goes on: “I should say that I did suggest, in
[my essay] on implicaturum, two sorts of
tests by which one might hope to
identify a conversational implicaturum. [...] I did not mean to suggest that
these tests were final, only that they were useful. One test was the
possibility of cancellation; that is to say, could one without [classical]
logical absurdity [when we have a standard two-valued interpretation], attach a
cancellation clause. For instance, could I say (9)?” Grice: “If that is not a
linguistic offense [and ‘false’], or does not seem to be, then, so far as it
goes, it is an indication that what one has here is a conversational implicaturum,
and that the original [alleged meaning, sense, or] suggestion of temporal
succession [is] not part of the conventional meaning of the sentence.” Grice
(1981, p. 186). Formalising the temporal succession is
never enough but it may help, and (9) becomes (10):p & q and ptn-l &
qtn where “tn-l” is a temporal index
for a time prior to “tn”. It is interesting to note that Chomsky, of all
people, in 1966, a year before Grice’s William James lectures, in Aspects of
the theory of syntax refers to “A [sic] P. Grice” as propounding that temporal
succession be considered implicaturum (Since this pre-dates the William James
lectures by a year, it was via the seminars at Oxford that reached Chomsky at
MIT via some of Grice’s tutees).Let us revise Urmson’s wording in his treatment
of the ‘clothes’ example, to check if Grice is being influenced by Urmson’s
presentation of the problem to attack Strawson. Urmson notes: “In
formal[ist] logic, the connective[…] ‘and’ [is] always given a minimum
[empoverished] meaning, as [I] have done above, such that any complex
[molecular sentence] formed by the use of [it] alone is [always] a
truth-function of its constituents.”Urmson goes on to sound almost like
Strawson, whose Introduction to Logical Theory he credits. Urmson notes: “In
ordinary discourse the connective[… ‘and]] often [has] a *richer* meaning.”Urmson
must be credited, with this use of ‘richer’ as the father of pragmatic
enRICHment!Urmson goes on: “Thus ‘He took his clothes off and got into bed’
implies temporal succession and has a different meaning from [the impoverished,
unreinforced] ‘He got into bed and took off his clothes.’” Urmson does not play
with Grice’s reinforcement: “He first got into bed and then took his clothes
off.’ Urmson goes on, however, in his concluding remark, to side with Grice
versus Strawson, as he should! Urmson notes: “[Formal(ist) l]ogicians would
justify their use of the minimum [impoverished, unreinforced, weak] meaning by
pointing out that it is the common element in all our uses [or every use] of
‘and.’” (Urmson,
1956:9-10). The
commutativeness of ‘and’ in the examples he gives is rejected by Strawson. How does Strawson reflect this in his sub-structural rule
for ‘and’? As Humberstone puts it, “It
is possible to define a version of the calculus, which defines most of the
syntax of the logical operators by means of axioms, and which uses only one
inference rule.”Axioms: Let φ, χ and ψ stand for
well-formed formulae. The wff's themselves would not contain any Greek letters,
but only capital Roman letters, connective operators, and parentheses. The
axioms include:ANDFIRST-CONJUNCT: φ ∧ χ → φ and ANDSECOND-CONJUNCT:
φ ∧ χ → χ. Our (13) and (14)
correspond to Gentzen’s “conjunction elimination” (or (& -), as Grice has
it in “Vacuous Names.”). The relation
between (13) and (14) reflects the commutativity of the conjunction operator.
Cfr. Cohen 1971: “Another conversational maxim
of Grice's, “be orderly”, is
intended to govern such matters as the formalist can show that it was not
appropriate to postulate a special non-commutative temporal
conjunction.”“The locus classicus for complaints of this nature being Strawson (1952).”
Note that the commutative “and” is derived from Grice’s elimination of
conjunction, “p & q ⊦ p” and “p & q ⊦ q -- as used by Grice in his system Q.Also note that the
truth-evaluation would be for Grice ‘semantic,’ rather than ‘syntactic’ as the
commutative (understood as part of elimination). Grice has it as: If phi and
psi are formulae, “φ and ” is 1 iff both φ and ψ are true, 0 otherwise. Grice grants
that however “baffling” (or misleading) would be to utter or assert (7)
if no one has doubts about the
temporal order of the reported the events, due to the expectation that the
utterer is observing the conversational maxim “be orderly” subsumed under the
conversational category of ‘Modus’ (‘be perspicuous! [sic]” – cfr. his earlier
desideratum of conversational clarity). Relevant logic (which was emerging by
the time Grice was delivering his William James lectures) introduces two
different formal signs for ‘conjunction’: the truth-functional conjunction
relevant logicians call ‘extensional’ conjunction, and they represent by (13).
Non-truth-functional conjunction is represented by ‘X’ and termed fusion or
‘intensional’ conjunction: p ^ q versus p X q.
The truth-table for Strawson’s enriched uses of
“and” is not the standard one, since we require the additional condition that
“p predates q,” or that one conjunct predates the other. Playing with structural and
substructural logical rules is something Carnap would love perhaps more than
Grice, and why not, Strawson? They liked to play with ‘deviant’ logics. For
Carnap, the choice of a logic is a pragmatic ‘external’ decision – vide his
principle of tolerance and the rather extensive bibliography on Carnap as a
logic pluralist. For Grice, classical logic is a choice guided by his respect
for ordinary language, WHILE attempting to PROVOKE the Oxonian establishment by
rallying to the defense of an under-dogma and play the ‘skilful heretic’
(turning a heterodoxy into dogma). Strawson is usually more difficult to
classify! In his contribution to Grandy & Warner (1986), he grants that
Grice’s theory may be ‘more beautiful,’ and more importantly, seems to suggest
that his view be seen as endorsing Grice’s account of a CONVENTIONAL implicaturum
(For Strawson, ‘if’ (used for unasserted antecedent and consequence)
conventionally implicates the same inferrability condition that ‘so’ does for
asserted equivalents. The aim is to allow for a
logically pluralist thesis, almost alla Carnap about the ‘inferential role’ of
a logical constant such as ‘and’, which embraces ‘classical,’ (or ‘formalist,’
or ‘modernist’), relevant, linear and ordered logic. PLURALISM (versus MONISM)
has it that, for any logical constant c (such as “and”), “c” has more than one *correct*
inferential “role.” The pluralist thesis depends on a specific interpretation
of the vocabulary of sub-structural logics. According to this specific
interpretation, a classical logic captures the literal, or EXPLICIT,
explicatum, or truth-functional or truth-conditonal meaning, or what Grice
would have as ‘dictiveness’ of a logical constant. A sub-structural logic
(relevant logic, linear and ordered logic), on the other hand, encodes a
pragmatically,” i.e. not SEMANTICALLY, “-enriched sense” of a logical constant
such as “and.” Is this against the spirit of Grice’s overall thesis as
formulated in his “M. O. R.,” Modified Occam’s Razor, “Senses [of ‘and’] are
not to be multiplied beyond necessity”? But it’s precisely Grice’s Occamism (as
Neale calls it) that is being put into question. At Oxford, at the time, EVERYBODY (except
Grice!) was an informalist. He is coming to the defense of Russell, Oxford’s
underdog! (underdogma!). Plus, it’s important to understand the INFORMALISM
that Grice is attacking – Oxford’s ORTHO-doxy – seriously. Grice is being the
‘skilful HERETIC,’ in the words of his successor as Tutorial Fellow at Oxford,
G. P. Baker. We may proceed by four stages.
First, introduce the philosophical motivation for the pluralist thesis.
It sounds good to be a PLURALIST. Strawson was not. He was an informalist.
Grice was not, he was a post-modernist. But surely we not assuming that one
would want to eat the cake and have it! Second, introduce the calculus for the
different (or ‘deviant,’ as Haack prefers) logics endorsed in the pluralist
thesis – classical itself, relevant, linear and ordered logic. Third, shows how
the different “behaviours” of an item of logical vocabulary (such as “and”) of
each of these logics (and they all have variants for ‘conjunction.’ In the case
of ‘relevant’ logic, beyond Grice’s “&,” or classical conjunction, there is
“extensional conjunction,” FORMALISED as “p X q”, or fusion, and “INTENSIONAL
conjunction,” formalized by “p O q”. These can be, not semantically
(truth-functionally, or truth-conditional, or at the level of the EXPLICATUM),
but pragmatically interpreted (at the level of the IMPLICATURUM). Fourth, shows
how the *different* (or ‘deviant,’ or pluralist), or alternative inferential
“roles” (that justifies PLURALISM) that *two* sub-structural logics (say,
Grice’s classical “&” the Strawson’s informalist “and”) attribute to a
logical constant “c” can co-exist – hence pluralism. A particular version of
logical “pluralism” can be argued from the plurality of at least *two*
alterative equally legitimate formalisations of the logical vocabulary, such as
the first dyadic truth-functor, or connective, “and,” which is symbolized by Grice
as “&,” NOT formalized by Strawson (he sticks with “and”) and FORMALISED by
relevant logicians as ‘extensional’ truth-functional conjunction (fision, p X
a) and intentional non-truth-functional conjunction (p O q). In particular, it can be argued that the
apparent “rivalry” between classical logic (what Grice has as Modernism, but he
himself is a post-modernist) and relevant logic (but consider Grice on
Strawson’s “Neo-Traditionalism,” first called INFORMALISM by Grice) can be
resolved, given that both logics capture and formalise normative and legitimate
alternative senses of ‘logical consequence.’ A revision of
the second paragraph to “Logic and Conversation” should do here. We can
distinguish between two operators for “… yields …”: ├ and ├: “A1, A2, … An├MODERNISM/FORMALISM-PAUL B” and “A1, A2, … An├NEO-TRADITIONALISM/INFORMALISM-PETER
B. As Paoli has it: “[U]pholding weakening amounts to failing to
take at face value the [slightly Griceian] expression ‘assertable on the basis
of’.’”Paoli goes on:“If I am in a
position to assert [the conclusion q, “He took his clothes off and got into
bed”] on the basis of the information provided by [the premise p, “He got into
bed and took his clothes off”], I need NOT be in a position to assert the
conclusion P [“He took his clothes off and got into bed”] on the basis of both
p (“He got into bed and took off his clothes” and an extra premise C - where C
is just an idle assumption (“The events took place in the order reported”) ,
irrelevant to my conclusion.”Can we regard Strawson as holding that
UNFORMALISED “and” is an INTENSIONAL CONJUNCTION? Another option is to see
Strawson as holding that the UNFORMALISED “and” can be BOTH truth-functional
and NON-truth-functional (for which case, the use of a different expression,
“and THEN,” is preferred). The Gricean theory of implicaturum is capable of
explaining this mismatch (bewtween “and” and “&”).Grice argues that the
[truth-conditional, truth-functional] semantics [DICTUM or EXPLICATUM, not IMPLICATURUM
– cfr. his retrospective epilogue for his view on DICTIVENESS] of “and”
corresponds [or is identical, hence the name of ‘identity’ thesis versus
‘divergence’ thesis] to the classical “∧,”
& of Russell/Whitehead, and Quine, and Suppes, and that the
[truth-functional semantics of “if [p,] [q]” corresponds to the classical p ⊃ q.” There is scope for
any theory capable of resolving or [as Grice would have it] denying the
apparent disagreement [or ‘rivalry’] among two or more logics.” What Grice does
is DENY THE APPARENT DISAGREEMENT. It’s
best to keep ‘rivalry’ for the fight of two ‘warring camps’ like FORMALISM and
INFORMALISM, and stick with ‘disagreement’ or ‘divergence’ with reference to
specific constants. For Strawson, being a thorough-bred Oxonian, who perhaps
never read the Iliad in Greek – he was Grice’s PPE student – the RIVALRY is not
between TWO different formalisations, but between the ‘brusque’ formalisation
of the FORMALISTS (that murder his English!) and NO FORMALISATION at all. Grice
calls this ‘neo-traditionalist,’ perhaps implicating that the
‘neo-traditionalists’ WOULD accept some level of formalisation (Aristotle did!)
ONLY ONE FORMALISATION, the Modernism. INFORMALISM or Neo-Traditionalism aims
to do WITHOUT formalisation, if that means using anything, but, say, “and” and
“and then”. Talk of SENSES helps. Strawson may say that “and” has a SENSE which
differs from “&,” seeing that he would find “He drank the poison and died,
though I do not mean to imply in that order” is a CONTRADICTION. That is why
Strawson is an ‘ordinary-LANGUAGE philosopher,” and not a logician! (Or should
we say, an ‘ordinary-language logician’? His “Introduction to Logical Theory”
was the mandatory reading vademecum for GENERATIONS of Oxonians that had to
undergo a logic course to get their M. A. Lit. Hum.Then there’s what we can
call “the Gricean picture,” only it’s not too clear who painted it!We may agree
that there is an apparent “mismatch,” as opposed to a perfect “match” that
Grice would love! Grice thought with Russell that grammar is a pretty good
guide to logical form. If the utterer says “and” and NOT “and then,” there is
no need to postulate a further SENSE to ‘and.’Russell would criticize
Strawson’s attempt to reject modernist “&” as a surrogate for “and” as
Strawson’s attempt to regress to a stone-age metaphysics. Grice actually at
this point, defended Strawson: “stone-age PHYSICS!” And this relates to “…
yields…” and Frege’s assertion “/-“ as ‘Conclusion follows from Premise’ where
‘Premise yields Conclusion’ seems more natural in that we preserve the order
from premise to conclusion. We shouldn’t underestimate one crucial feature of
an implicaturum: its cancellability, on which Grice expands quite a bit in
1981: “He got into bed and took his clothes off, although I don’t intend to
suggest, in any shape or form, that he proceed to do those things in the order
I’ve just reported!”The lack of any [fixed, rigid, intolerant] structural rule
implies that AN INSTANCE I1 of the a logical constant (such as “and”) that
*violate* any of Grice’s conversational maxim (here “be orderly!”) associated
with the relevant structural rule [here we may think of ADDITION AND
SIMPLIFICATION as two axioms derived from the Gentzen-type elimination of
“and”, or the ‘interpretation’ of ‘p & q’ as 1 iff both p and q are 1, but
0 otherwise] and for which the derived conversational implicaturum is false
[“He went to bed and took his clothes off, but not in that order!”] should be
distinguished from ANY INSTANCE I2 that does NOT violate the relevant maxim (“be
orderly”) and for which the conversational IMPLICATURUM (“tn > tn-l”) is
true.” We may nitpick here.Grice would rather prefer, ‘when the IMPLICATURUM
applies.” An implicaturum is by definition cancellable (This is clear when
Grice expands in the excursus “A causal theory of perception.” “I would hardly
be said to have IMPLIED that Smith is hopeless in philosophy should I utter,
“He has beautiful handwriting; I don’t mean to imply he is hopeless in
philosophy,” “even if that is precisely what my addressee ends up thinking!”When
it comes to “and,” we are on clearer ground. The kinds of “and”-implicaturums
may be captured by a distinction of two ‘uses’ of conjunctions in a single
substructural system S that does WITHOUT a ‘structural rule’ such as exchange,
contraction or both. Read, relies, very UNLIKE Strawson, on wo FORMALISATIONS
besides “and” (for surely English “and” does have a ‘form,’ too, pace Strawson)
in Relevant Logic: “p ^ q” and “p X q.” “p
^ q” and “p X q” have each a different inferential role. If the reason the
UTTERER has to assert it – via the DICTUM or EXPLICATUM [we avoid ‘assert’
seeing that we want logical constants to trade on ‘imperative contexts,’ too –
Grice, “touch the beast and it will bite you!” -- is the utterer’s belief that
Smith took his clothes AND THEN got into bed, it would be illegitimate,
unwarranted, stupid, otiose, incorrect, inappropriate, to infer that Smith did
not do these two things in that order upon discovering that he in fact DID
those things in the order reported. The
very discovery that Smith did the things in the order reported would “just
spoil” or unwarrant the derivation that would justify our use of “… yields …”
(¬A ¬(A u B) A ¬B”). As Read notes, we have ADJUNCTION
‘p and q’ follows from p and q – or p and q yields ‘p and q.’ And we have SIMPLIFICATION:
p and q follow from ‘p and q,’ or ‘p and q’ yields p, and ‘p and q’ yields q.”
Stephen Read: “From adjunction and simplification we can infer, by
transitivity, that q follows from p and q, and so by the Deduction Equivalence,
‘if p, q’ follows from q.’” “However, […] this has the unacceptable consequence
that ‘if’ is truth-functional.” “How can
this consequence be avoided?” “Many options are open.” “We can reject the
transitivity of entailment, the deduction equivalence, adjunction, or
simplification. Each has been tried; and each seems contrary to intuition.” “We
are again in the paradoxical situation that each of these conceptions seems
intuitively soundly based; yet their combination appears to lead to something
unacceptable.” “Are we nonetheless forced to reject one of these plausible
principles?” “Fortunately, there is a fifth option.” Read: “There is a familiar
truth-functional conjunction, expressed by ‘p and q’, which entails each of p
and q, and so for the falsity (Grice’s 0) of which the falsity of either
conjunct suffices, and the truth of both for the truth of the whole.” “But
there is also a NON-truth-functional conjunction, a SENSE of ‘p and q’ whose
falsity supports the inference from p to ‘~q’.” “These two SENSES of
‘conjunction’ cannot be the same, for, if the ground for asserting ‘not-(p and
q)’ (e.g. “It is not the case that he got into bed and took off his clothes”) is
simply that ‘p’ is false, to learn that p is true, far from enabling one to
proceed to ‘~q’, undercuts the warrant for asserting ‘~(p & q)’ in the
first place.” “In this sense, ‘~(p & q)’ is weaker than both ‘~p’ and ‘~q’,
and does not, even with the addition of p, entail ‘~q’, even though one
possible ground for asserting ‘~(p & q))’, viz ‘~q’, clearly does.” Stephen
Read: “The intensional sense of ‘and’ is often referred to as fusion; I will
use the symbol ‘×’ for it. Others write ‘◦.’”We add some relevant observations
by a palaeo-Griceian: Ryle. Ryle often felt
himself to be an outsider. His remarks on “and” are however illuminating in the
context of our discussion of meta-inference in substructural logic.Ryle writes:
“I have spoken as if our ordinary ‘and’ […] [is] identical with the logical
constant with which the formal logician operates.”“But this is not true.”“The
logician’s ‘and’ […] [is] not our familiar civilian term[…].”“It is [a]
conscript term, in uniform and under military discipline, with memories,
indeed, of [its] previous more free and easy civilian life, though it is not
leaving that life now.”“If you hear on good authority that she took arsenic and
fell ill you will reject the rumour that she fell ill and took arsenic.”“This
familiar use of ‘and’ carries with it the temporal notion expressed by ‘and
subsequently’ and even the causal notion expressed by ‘and in
consequence.’”“The logician’s conscript ‘and’ does only its appointed duty – a
duty in which ‘she took arsenic and fell ill’ is an absolute paraphrase of ‘she
fell ill and took arsenic.’ This might be call the minimal force of ‘and.’”
(Ryle,, 1954:118). When we speaks of PRAGMATIC enrichment, we obviously
don’t mean SEMANTIC enrichment. There is a distinction, obviously, between the ‘pragmatic
enrichment’ dimension, as to whether the ‘enriched’ content is IMPLICATED or,
to use a neologism, ‘EX-plicated.’ Or cf. as Kent Bach would prefer,
“IMPLICITATED” (vide his “Implciture.”) Commutative
law: p & q iff q & p. “Axiom AND-1” and “Axiom AND-2” correspond
to "conjunction elimination". The relation between “AND-1” and
“AND-2” reflects the commutativity of the conjunction operator. A VERY IMPORTANT POINT to consider is Grice’s
distinction between ‘logical inference’ and ‘pragmatic inference.’ He does so
in “Retrospective Epilogue” in 1987. “A few years after the appearance of […]
Introduction to Logical Theory, I was devoting much attention to what might be
loosely called the distinction between logical and pragmatic inferences. …
represented as being a matter not of logical but of pragmatic import.” (Grice
1987:374).Could he be jocular? He is emphasizing the historical role of his
research. He mentions FORMALISM and INFORMALISM and notes that his own interest
in maxims or desiderata of rational discourse arose from his interest to
distinguish between matters of “logical inference” from those of “pragmatic
inference.” Is Grice multiplying ‘inference’ beyond necessity? It would seem
so. So it’s best to try to reformulate his proposal, in agreement with logical
pluralism.By ‘logical inference’ Grice must mean ‘practical/alethic
satisfactoriness-based inference,’ notably the syntactics and semantics
(‘interpretative’) modules of his own System Q. By ‘pragmatic inference’ he
must mean a third module, the pragmatic module, with his desiderata. We may say
that for Grice ‘logical inference’ is deductive (and inductive), while
‘pragmatic inference’ is abductive. Let us apply this to the ‘clothes off’
exampleThe Utterer said: “Smith got into bed and took his clothes off, but I’m
reporting the events in no particular order.” The ‘logical inference’ allows to
treat ‘and’ as “&.” The ‘pragmatic inference’ allows the addressee to
wonder what the utterer is meaning! Cf. Terres on “⊢k” for “logical inference” and “⊢r,” “⊢l,” and “⊢o,” for pragmatic inference, and where the
subscripts “k,” “r,” “l” and “o” stand for ‘classical,’ ‘relevant,’ ‘linear’
and ‘ordered’ logic respectively, with each of the three
sub-structural notions of “follows from” or “… yields …” require the pragmatic enrichment of a logical constant, that ‘classical logical’
inference may retain the ‘impoverished’ version (Terres, 2019, Inquiry, p. 13). Grice himself mentions
this normative dimension:
“I would like to be able to think of the standard type of conversational
practice not merely
as something that all or most do IN FACT follow but as something that it is REASONABLE for us to
follow, that we SHOULD NOT abandon.”Grice, 1989a, p.48]However, the fact that
we should observe the conversational maxims may not yet be a reason for endorsing the allegedly
‘deviant’ inferential role of a logical constant in the three sub-structural
logics under examination.The legitimacy of the ‘deviant’ ‘inferential role’ of
each constant in each sub-structural logic emerges, rather from at least two
sources.A first source is a requirement for logic (or reasoning) to be
normative: that its truth-bearers [or satisfactoriness-bearers, to allow for
‘imperative’-mode inferences) are related to what Grice calls ‘psychological
attitudes’ of ‘belief’ (indicative-mode inference) and ‘desire’
(imperative-mode inference) (Grice, 1975, cfr. Terres, Inquiry, 2019, p. 13).
As Steinberg puts it:“Presumably, if logic is normative for thinking or
reasoning, its normative force will stem, at least in part, from the fact that
truth bearers which act as the relata of our consequence relation and the
bearers of other logical properties are identical to (or at least are very
closely related in some other way) to the objects of thinking or reasoning: the
contents of one’s mental states or acts such as the content of one’s beliefs or
inferences, for example.”[Steinberger, 2017a – and cf. Loar’s similar approach
when construing Grice’s maxims as ‘empirical generalisations’ of ‘functional states’
for a less committed view of the embedding of logical and pragmatic inference
within the scope of psychological-attitude ascriptions). A second source for
the legitimacy of the ‘deviant’ inferential role is the fact that the pragmatic
enrichment of the logical vocabulary (both a constant and ‘… yields …) is part,
or a ‘rational-construction,’ of our psychological representation of certain
utterances involving the natural counterparts of those constants. This may NOT
involve a new sense of ‘and’ which is with what Grice is fighting. While the
relevant literature emphasizes “reasons to assert” (vide Table on p. 9,
Terres, 2019), it is worth pointing out that the model should be applicable to
what we might broadly construe as ‘deontic’ reasoning (e.g. Grice on “Arrest
the intruder!” in Grice 1989, and more generally his practical syllogisms in
Grice 2001). We seem to associate “assert” with ‘indicative-mode’ versions only
of premise and conclusion. “Reasons to express” or “reasons to make it
explicit” may serve as a generalization to cover both “indicative-mode” and
“imperative-mode” versions of the inferences to hand. When Grice says that,
contra Strawson, he wants to see things in terms of ‘pragmatic inference,’ not
‘logical inference,’ is he pulling himself up by his own bootstraps? Let us
clarify.When thinking of what META-language
need be used to formulate both Grice’s final account vis-à-vis Strawson’s, it
is relevant to mention that Grice once invoked what he called the “Bootstrap”
principle. In the course of considering a ‘fine distinction’ in various levels
of conceptual priority, slightly out of the blue, he adds – this is from
“Prejudices and predilections, which become, the life and opinions of Paul
Grice,” so expect some informality, and willingness to amuse: “It is perhaps
reasonable to regard such fine distinctions as indispensable if we are to
succeed in the business of pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps,” Grice
writes. And then trust him to add: “In this connection, it will be relevant for
me to say that I once invented (though I did not establish its validity) a
principle which I labelled as ‘Bootstrap.’” Trust him to call with a good
title. “The principle,” Grice goes on, “laid down that, when one is introducing
some primitive concept [such as conjunction] of a theory [or calculus or
system] formulated in an object-language [G1], one has freedom to
use any concept from a battery of concepts expressible in the meta-language
[System G2], subject to the condition that a *counterpart* of such a
concept [say, ‘conjunction’] is sub-sequently definable, or otherwise
derivable, in the object-language [System G1].”Grice concludes by
emphasizing the point of the manoeuvre:
“So, the more economically one introduces a primitive object-language concept,
the less of a task one leaves oneself for the morrow.” [Grice 1986]. With
uncharacteristic humbleness, Grice notes that while he was able to formulate
and label “Bootstrap,” he never cared to establish its ‘validity.’ We hope we
have! “Q. E. D.,” as they say! Cf. Terres, 2019, Inquiry, p. 17: In conclusion,
the pragmatic interpretation of substructural logics may be a new and
interesting research field for the logical pluralist who wishes to endorse
classical and/or substructural logics, but also for the logical monist who aims
to interpret their divergence with a pluralist logician. The possibility is
also open of an interesting dialogue between philosophical logicians and
philosophers of language as they explore the pragmatic contributions of a logical
constant to the meaning of a complete utterance, given that a substructural
logic encodes what has been discussed by philosophers of language, the enriched
‘explicatum’ of the logical constant. And Grice. References: Werner Abraham, ‘A linguistic approach to metaphor.’ in
Abraham, Ut videam: contributions to an understanding of linguistics. Jeffrey
C. Beall and Greg Restall. ‘Logical consequence,’ in Edward N. Zalta, editor,
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Fall 2009 edition, 2009. Rudolf Carnap, 1942. Introduction to Semantics.
L.J. Cohen, 1971. Grice on the logical particles
of natural language, in Bar-Hillel, Pragmatics of Natural language, repr. in
Cohen, Language and knowledge.L.J. Cohen, 1977. ‘Can the conversationalist
hypothesis be defended?’ Philosophical Studies, repr. in Cohen, Logic and
knowledge. Davidson, Donald and J. Hintikka (1969). Words and objections:
essays on the work of W. V. Quine. Dordrecht: Reidel. Bart Geurts, Quantity implicaturums.Bart
Geurts and Nausicaa Pouscoulous. Embedded implicaturums?!? Semantics and
pragmatics, 2:4–1, 2009.Jean-Yves Girard. Linear logic: its syntax and
semantics. London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series, pp. 1–42, 1995.H.P.
Grice. 1967a. ‘Prolegomena,’ in Studies in the Way of Words.H.P. Grice. 1967b.
Logic and conversation. Studies in the Way of Words, Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, MA, pages 22–40, 1989.H.P. Grice. 1967c. ‘Indicative conditionals.
Studies in the Way of Words, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, pages
58–85, 1989.H.P. Grice. 1969. ‘Vacuous Names,’
in Words and objections: essays on the work of W. V. Quine, edited by Donald
Davidson and Jaako Hintikka, Dordrecht: Reidel. H.P. Grice, 1981.
‘Presupposition and conversational implicaturum,’ in Paul Cole, Radical Pragmatics,
New York, Academic Press. H.P. Grice, 1986. ‘Reply to Richards,’ in Philosophical
Grounds of Rationality: Intentions, Categories, Ends, ed. by Richard Grandy and
Richard Warner, Oxford: The Clarendon Press.H.P. Grice. 2001. Aspects of
reason, being the John Locke Lectures delivered at Oxford, Oxford: Clarendon.
H.P. Grice, n.d. ‘Entailment,’ The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC MSS 90/135c, The
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Loar,
B. F. Meaning and mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mates, Benson,
Elementary Logic. Oxford: Clarendon Press.George Myro, 1986. ‘Time and
identity,’ in Richard Grandy and Richard Warner, Philosophical Grounds of
Rationality: Intentions, Categories, Ends. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Francesco
Paoli, Substructural logic. Arthur Pap. 1949. ‘Are all necessary propositions
analytic?’, repr. in The limits of logical empiricism.Peacocke, Christopher A.
B. (1976), What is a logical constant? The Journal of Philosophy.Quine, W. V.
O. 1969. ‘Reply to H. P. Grice,’ in Davidson and Hintikka, Words and
objections: esssays on the work of W. V. Quine. Dordrecht: Reidel. Stephen
Read, A philosophical approach to inference. A.Rieger, A simple
theory of conditionals. Analysis, 2006.Robert van Rooij. 2010. ‘Conversational implicaturums,’Gilbert Ryle. 1954. ‘Formal and
Informal logic,’ in Dilemmas, The Tarner Lectures 1953. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, Chapter 8. Florian
Steinberger. The normative status of logic. In Edward N. Zalta, editor, The
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford
University, spring 2017 edition, 2017.P. F. Strawson (1952). Introduction to Logical Theory.
London: Methuen.P. F. Strawson (1986). ‘‘If’ and ‘⊃’’ R. Grandy and R. O. Warner,
Philosophical Grounds of Rationality, Intentions, Categories, Ends, repr. in
his “Entity and Identity, and Other Essays. Oxford: Clarendon PressJ.O. Urmson.
Philosophical analysis: its development between the two world wars. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1956. R. C. S. Walker. “Conversational implicaturum,”
in S. W. Blackburn, Meaning, reference, and necessity. Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, 1975, pp. 133-81A. N. Whitehead and B. A. W. Russell, 1913.
Principia Mathematica. Cambridge University Press.
Conjunctum -- conjunction, the logical operation on a pair of
propositions that is typically indicated by the coordinating conjunction ‘and’.
The truth table for conjunction is Besides ‘and’, other coordinating
conjunctions, including ‘but’, ‘however’, ‘moreover’, and ‘although’, can
indicate logical conjunction, as can the semicolon ‘;’ and the comma ‘,’. conjunction elimination. 1 The argument form
‘A and B; therefore, A or B’ and arguments of this form. 2 The rule of
inference that permits one to infer either conjunct from a conjunction. This is
also known as the rule of simplification or 8-elimination. conjunction introduction. 1 The argument form
‘A, B; therefore, A and B’ and arguments of this form. 2 The rule of inference
that permits one to infer a conjunction from its two conjuncts. This is also
known as the rule of conjunction introduction, 8-introduction, or adjunction. Conjunctum
-- Why Grice used inverse V as symbol for “and” Conjunctum -- De Morgan, A.
prolific British mathematician, logician, and philosopher of mathematics and
logic. He is remembered chiefly for several lasting contributions to logic and
philosophy of logic, including discovery and deployment of the concept of
universe of discourse, the cofounding of relational logic, adaptation of what
are now known as De Morgan’s laws, and several terminological innovations
including the expression ‘mathematical induction’. His main logical works, the
monograph Formal Logic 1847 and the series of articles “On the Syllogism”
184662, demonstrate wide historical and philosophical learning, synoptic
vision, penetrating originality, and disarming objectivity. His relational
logic treated a wide variety of inferences involving propositions whose logical
forms were significantly more complex than those treated in the traditional
framework stemming from Aristotle, e.g. ‘If every doctor is a teacher, then
every ancestor of a doctor is an ancestor of a teacher’. De Morgan’s conception
of the infinite variety of logical forms of propositions vastly widens that of
his predecessors and even that of his able contemporaries such as Boole,
Hamilton, Mill, and Whately. De Morgan did as much as any of his contemporaries
toward the creation of modern mathematical logic. -- De Morgan’s laws, the logical principles -
A 8 B S - A 7 - B, - A 7 B S - A 8 - B, - -A 8 - B S A 7 B, and - - A 7 - B S A
8 B, though the term is occasionally used to cover only the first two. Refs.The main published source is
“Studies in the Way of Words” (henceforth, “WOW”), I (especially Essays 1 and
4), “Presupposition and conversational implicaturum,” in P. Cole, and the two
sets on ‘Logic and conversation,’ in The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
connectum
-- connected, said of a relation R where, for any two distinct elements x and y
of the domain, either xRy or yRx. R is said to be strongly connected if, for
any two elements x and y, either xRy or yRx, even if x and y are identical.
Given the domain of positive integers, for instance, the relation ‹ is
connected, since for any two distinct numbers a and b, either a ‹ b or b ‹ a. ‹
is not strongly connected, however, since if a % b we do not have either a ‹ b
or b ‹ a. The relation o, however, is Confucius connected 174 174 strongly connected, since either a o b
or b o a for any two numbers, including the case where a % b. An example of a
relation that is not connected is the subset relation 0, since it is not true
that for any two sets A and B, either A 0 B or B 0 A. connectionism, an approach to modeling
cognitive systems which utilizes networks of simple processing units that are
inspired by the basic structure of the nervous system. Other names for this
approach are neural network modeling and parallel distributed processing.
Connectionism was pioneered in the period 065 by researchers such as Frank
Rosenblatt and Oliver Selfridge. Interest in using such networks diminished
during the 0s because of limitations encountered by existing networks and the
growing attractiveness of the computer model of the mind according to which the
mind stores symbols in memory and registers and performs computations upon
them. Connectionist models enjoyed a renaissance in the 0s, partly as the
result of the discovery of means of overcoming earlier limitations e.g.,
development of the back-propagation learning algorithm by David Rumelhart, Geoffrey
Hinton, and Ronald Williams, and of the Boltzmann-machine learning algorithm by
David Ackley, Geoffrey Hinton, and Terrence Sejnowski, and partly as
limitations encountered with the computer model rekindled interest in
alternatives. Researchers employing connectionist-type nets are found in a
variety of disciplines including psychology, artificial intelligence,
neuroscience, and physics. There are often major differences in the endeavors
of these researchers: psychologists and artificial intelligence researchers are
interested in using these nets to model cognitive behavior, whereas
neuroscientists often use them to model processing in particular neural
systems. A connectionist system consists of a set of processing units that can
take on activation values. These units are connected so that particular units
can excite or inhibit others. The activation of any particular unit will be
determined by one or more of the following: inputs from outside the system, the
excitations or inhibitions supplied by other units, and the previous activation
of the unit. There are a variety of different architectures invoked in
connectionist systems. In feedforward nets units are clustered into layers and
connections pass activations in a unidirectional manner from a layer of input
units to a layer of output units, possibly passing through one or more layers
of hidden units along the way. In these systems processing requires one pass of
processing through the network. Interactive nets exhibit no directionality of
processing: a given unit may excite or inhibit another unit, and it, or another
unit influenced by it, might excite or inhibit the first unit. A number of
processing cycles will ensue after an input has been given to some or all of
the units until eventually the network settles into one state, or cycles
through a small set of such states. One of the most attractive features of
connectionist networks is their ability to learn. This is accomplished by
adjusting the weights connecting the various units of the system, thereby
altering the manner in which the network responds to inputs. To illustrate the
basic process of connectionist learning, consider a feedforward network with
just two layers of units and one layer of connections. One learning procedure
commonly referred to as the delta rule first requires the network to respond,
using current weights, to an input. The activations on the units of the second
layer are then compared to a set of target activations, and detected
differences are used to adjust the weights coming from active input units. Such
a procedure gradually reduces the difference between the actual response and
the target response. In order to construe such networks as cognitive models it
is necessary to interpret the input and output units. Localist interpretations
treat individual input and output units as representing concepts such as those
found in natural language. Distributed interpretations correlate only patterns
of activation of a number of units with ordinary language concepts. Sometimes
but not always distributed models will interpret individual units as
corresponding to microfeatures. In one interesting variation on distributed
representation, known as coarse coding, each symbol will be assigned to a
different subset of the units of the system, and the symbol will be viewed as
active only if a predefined number of the assigned units are active. A number
of features of connectionist nets make them particularly attractive for
modeling cognitive phenomena in addition to their ability to learn from
experience. They are extremely efficient at pattern-recognition tasks and often
generalize very well from training inputs to similar test inputs. They can
often recover complete patterns from partial inputs, making them good models
for content-addressable memory. Interactive networks are particularly useful in
modeling cognitive tasks in which multiple constraints must be satisfied
simultaneously, or in which the goal is to satisfy competing constraints as
well as possible. In a natural manner they can override some constraints on a
problem when it is not possible to satisfy all, thus treating the constraints
as soft. While the cognitive connectionist models are not intended to model
actual neural processing, they suggest how cognitive processes can be realized
in neural hardware. They also exhibit a feature demonstrated by the brain but
difficult to achieve in symbolic systems: their performance degrades gracefully
as units or connections are disabled or the capacity of the network is
exceeded, rather than crashing. Serious challenges have been raised to the
usefulness of connectionism as a tool for modeling cognition. Many of these
challenges have come from theorists who have focused on the complexities of
language, especially the systematicity exhibited in language. Jerry Fodor and
Zenon Pylyshyn, for example, have emphasized the manner in which the meaning of
complex sentences is built up compositionally from the meaning of components,
and argue both that compositionality applies to thought generally and that it
requires a symbolic system. Therefore, they maintain, while cognitive systems
might be implemented in connectionist nets, these nets do not characterize the
architecture of the cognitive system itself, which must have capacities for
symbol storage and manipulation. Connectionists have developed a variety of
responses to these objections, including emphasizing the importance of
cognitive functions such as pattern recognition, which have not been as
successfully modeled by symbolic systems; challenging the need for symbol
processing in accounting for linguistic behavior; and designing more complex
connectionist architectures, such as recurrent networks, capable of responding
to or producing systematic structures.
connotatum –
intension -- connotation. 1 The ideas and associations brought to mind by an
expression used in contrast with ‘denotation’ and ‘meaning’. 2 In a technical
use, the properties jointly necessary and sufficient for the correct
application of the expression in question.
sequentia:
consequentia -- consequentialism, the doctrine that the moral rightness of an
act is determined solely by the goodness of the act’s consequences. Prominent
consequentialists include J. S. Mill, Moore, and Sidgwick. Maximizing versions
of consequentialism the most common
sort hold that an act is morally right
if and only if it produces the best consequences of those acts available to the
agent. Satisficing consequentialism holds that an act is morally right if and
only if it produces enough good consequences on balance. Consequentialist
theories are often contrasted with deontological ones, such as Kant’s, which
hold that the rightness of an act is determined at least in part by something
other than the goodness of the act’s consequences. A few versions of consequentialism
are agentrelative: that is, they give each agent different aims, so that
different agents’ aims may conflict. For instance, egoistic consequentialism
holds that the moral rightness of an act for an agent depends solely on the
goodness of its consequences for him or her. However, the vast majority of
consequentialist theories have been agent-neutral and consequentialism is often
defined in a more restrictive way so that agentrelative versions do not count
as consequentialist. A doctrine is agent-neutral when it gives to each agent
the same ultimate aims, so that different agents’ aims cannot conflict. For
instance, utilitarianism holds that an act is morally right if and only if it
produces more happiness for the sentient beings it affects than any other act
available to the agent. This gives each agent the same ultimate aim, and so is
agent-neutral. Consequentialist theories differ over what features of acts they
hold to determine their goodness. Utilitarian versions hold that the only consequences
of an act relevant to its goodness are its effects on the happiness of sentient
beings. But some consequentialists hold that the promotion of other things
matters too achievement, autonomy,
knowledge, or fairness, for instance. Thus utilitarianism, as a maximizing,
agent-neutral, happiness-based view is only one of a broad range of
consequentialist theories. consequentia
mirabilis, the logical principle that if a statement follows from its own
negation it must be true. Strict consequentia mirabilis is the principle that
if a statement follows logically from its own negation it is logically true.
The principle is often connected with the paradoxes of strict implication,
according to which any statement follows from a contradiction. Since the
negation of a tautology is a contradiction, every tautology follows from its
own negation. However, if every expression of the form ‘if p then q’ implies
‘not-p or q’ they need not be equivalent, then from ‘if not-p then p’ we can
derive ‘not-not-p or p’ and by the principles of double negation and repetition
derive p. Since all of these rules are unexceptionable the principle of
consequentia mirabilis is also unexceptionable. It is, however, somewhat
counterintuitive, hence the name ‘the astonishing implication’, which goes back
to its medieval discoverers or rediscoverers.
Consistentia:
consistency, in traditional Aristotelian logic, a semantic notion: two or more
statements are called consistent if they are simultaneously true under some
interpretation cf., e.g., W. S. Jevons, Elementary Lessons in Logic, 1870. In
modern logic there is a syntactic definition that also fits complex e.g.,
mathematical theories developed since Frege’s Begriffsschrift 1879: a set of
statements is called consistent with respect to a certain logical calculus, if
no formula ‘P & P’ is derivable from those statements by the rules of the
calculus; i.e., the theory is free from contradictions. If these definitions
are equivalent for a logic, we have a significant fact, as the equivalence amounts
to the completeness of its system of rules. The first such completeness theorem
was obtained for sentential or propositional logic by Paul Bernays in 8 in his
Habilitationsschrift that was partially published as Axiomatische Untersuchung
des Aussagen-Kalküls der “Principia Mathematica,” 6 and, independently, by Emil
Post in Introduction to a General Theory of Elementary Propositions, 1; the
completeness of predicate logic was proved by Gödel in Die Vollständigkeit der
Axiome des logischen Funktionenkalküls, 0. The crucial step in such proofs
shows that syntactic consistency implies semantic consistency. Cantor applied
the notion of consistency to sets. In a well-known letter to Dedekind 9 he
distinguished between an inconsistent and a consistent multiplicity; the former
is such “that the assumption that all of its elements ‘are together’ leads to a
contradiction,” whereas the elements of the latter “can be thought of without
contradiction as ‘being together.’ “ Cantor had conveyed these distinctions and
their motivation by letter to Hilbert in 7 see W. Purkert and H. J. Ilgauds,
Georg Cantor, 7. Hilbert pointed out explicitly in 4 that Cantor had not given
a rigorous criterion for distinguishing between consistent and inconsistent
multiplicities. Already in his Über den Zahlbegriff 9 Hilbert had suggested a
remedy by giving consistency proofs for suitable axiomatic systems; e.g., to
give the proof of the “existence of the totality of real numbers or in the terminology of G. Cantor the proof of the fact that the system of real
numbers is a consistent complete set” by establishing the consistency of an
axiomatic characterization of the reals
in modern terminology, of the theory of complete, ordered fields. And he
claimed, somewhat indeterminately, that this could be done “by a suitable
modification of familiar methods.” After 4, Hilbert pursued a new way of giving
consistency proofs. This novel way of proceeding, still aiming for the same
goal, was to make use of the formalization of the theory at hand. However, in
the formulation of Hilbert’s Program during the 0s the point of consistency
proofs was no longer to guarantee the existence of suitable sets, but rather to
establish the instrumental usefulness of strong mathematical theories T, like
axiomatic set theory, relative to finitist mathematics. That focus rested on
the observation that the statement formulating the syntactic consistency of T
is equivalent to the reflection principle Pra, ‘s’ P s; here Pr is the finitist
proof predicate for T, s is a finitistically meaningful statement, and ‘s’ its
translation into the language of T. If one could establish finitistically the
consistency of T, one could be sure on
finitist grounds that T is a reliable
instrument for the proof of finitist statements. There are many examples of
significant relative consistency proofs: i non-Euclidean geometry relative to
Euclidean, Euclidean geometry relative to analysis; ii set theory with the
axiom of choice relative to set theory without the axiom of choice, set theory
with the negation of the axiom of choice relative to set theory; iii classical
arithmetic relative to intuitionistic arithmetic, subsystems of classical
analysis relative to intuitionistic theories of constructive ordinals. The
mathematical significance of relative consistency proofs is often brought out
by sharpening them to establish conservative extension results; the latter may
then ensure, e.g., that the theories have the same class of provably total
functions. The initial motivation for such arguments is, however, frequently
philosophical: one wants to guarantee the coherence of the original theory on
an epistemologically distinguished basis.
The English constitution
– an example Grice gives of a ‘vacuous name’ -- constitution, a relation
between concrete particulars including objects and events and their parts,
according to which at some time t, a concrete particular is said to be
constituted by the sum of its parts without necessarily being identical with
that sum. For instance, at some specific time t, Mt. Everest is constituted by
the various chunks of rock and other matter that form Everest at t, though at t
Everest would still have been Everest even if, contrary to fact, some
particular rock that is part of the sum had been absent. Hence, although Mt.
Everest is not identical to the sum of its material parts at t, it is
constituted by them. The relation of constitution figures importantly in recent
attempts to articulate and defend metaphysical physicalism naturalism. To
capture the idea that all that exists is ultimately physical, we may say that
at the lowest level of reality, there are only microphysical phenomena,
governed by the laws of microphysics, and that all other objects and events are
ultimately constituted by objects and events at the microphysical level.
context:
while Grice jocularly echoes Firth with his ‘context of utterance,’ he thought
the theory of context was ‘totally lacking in context.’ H. P. Grice, “The
general theory of context,” -- contextualism, the view that inferential justification
always takes place against a background of beliefs that are themselves in no
way evidentially supported. The view has not often been defended by name, but
Dewey, Popper, Austin, and Vitters are arguably among its notable exponents. As
this list perhaps suggests, contextualism is closely related to the “relevant
alternatives” conception of justification, according to which claims to
knowledge are justified not by ruling out any and every logically possible way
in which what is asserted might be false or inadequately grounded, but by
excluding certain especially relevant alternatives or epistemic shortcomings,
these varying from one context of inquiry to another. Formally, contextualism
resembles foundationalism. But it differs from traditional, or substantive,
foundationalism in two crucial respects. First, foundationalism insists that
basic beliefs be self-justifying or intrinsically credible. True, for
contemporary foundationalists, this intrinsic credibility need not amount to
incorrigibility, as earlier theorists tended to suppose: but some degree of
intrinsic credibility is indispensable for basic beliefs. Second, substantive
foundational theories confine intrinsic credibility, hence the status of being
epistemologically basic, to beliefs of some fairly narrowly specified kinds. By
contrast, contextualists reject all forms of the doctrine of intrinsic
credibility, and in consequence place no restrictions on the kinds of beliefs
that can, in appropriate circumstances, function as contextually basic. They
regard this as a strength of their position, since explaining and defending
attributions of intrinsic credibility has always been the foundationalist’s
main problem. Contextualism is also distinct from the coherence theory of
justification, foundationalism’s traditional rival. Coherence theorists are as
suspicious as contextualists of the foundationalist’s specified kinds of basic
beliefs. But coherentists react by proposing a radically holistic model of
inferential justification, according to which a belief becomes justified
through incorporation into a suitably coherent overall system of beliefs or
“total view.” There are many well-known problems with this approach: the
criteria of coherence have never been very clearly articulated; it is not clear
what satisfying such criteria has to do with making our beliefs likely to be
true; and since it is doubtful whether anyone has a very clear picture of his
system of beliefs as a whole, to insist that justification involves comparing
the merits of competing total views seems to subject ordinary justificatory
practices to severe idealization. Contextualism, in virtue of its formal
affinity with foundationalism, claims to avoid all such problems.
Foundationalists and coherentists are apt to respond that contextualism reaps
these benefits by failing to show how genuinely epistemic justification is
possible. Contextualism, they charge, is finally indistinguishable from the
skeptical view that “justification” depends on unwarranted assumptions. Even
if, in context, these are pragmatically acceptable, epistemically speaking they
are still just assumptions. This objection raises the question whether
contextualists mean to answer the same questions as more traditional theorists,
or answer them in the same way. Traditional theories of justification are
framed so as to respond to highly general skeptical questions e.g., are we justified in any of our beliefs
about the external world? It may be that contextualist theories are or should
be advanced, not as direct answers to skepticism, but in conjunction with
attempts to diagnose or dissolve traditional skeptical problems. Contextualists
need to show how and why traditional demands for “global” justification
misfire, if they do. If traditional skeptical problems are taken at face value,
it is doubtful whether contextualism can answer them.
continental
breakfast: Grice enjoyed a continental breakfast at Oxford, and
an English breakfast in Rome – As for ‘continental’ “philosophy,” Grice applied
it to the gradually changing spectrum of philosophical views that in the
twentieth century developed in Continental Europe and that are notably
different from the various forms of analytic philosophy that during the same
period flourished at Oxford. Immediately after World War II the expression “philosophie
continentale” was more or less synonymous with ‘phenomenology’. The latter
term, already used earlier in G. idealism, received a completely new meaning in
the work of Husserl. Later on “phainomenologie” was also applied, often with
substantial changes in meaning, to the thought of a great number of other
Continental philosophers such as Scheler, Alexander Pfander, Hedwig Conrad-Martius,
and Nicolai Hartmann. For Husserl the aim of philosophy is to prepare humankind
for a genuinely philosophical form of life, in and through which each human
being gives him- or herself a rule through reason. Since the Renaissance, many
philosophers have tried in vain to materialize this aim. In Husserl’s view, the
reason was that philosophers failed to use the proper philosophical method.
Husserl’s phenomenology was meant to provide philosophy with the method needed.
Among those deeply influenced by Husserl’s ideas the so-called existentialists
must be mentioned first. If ‘existentialism’ is construed strictly, it refers
mainly to the philosophy of Sartre and Beauvoir. In a very broad sense
‘existentialism’ refers to the ideas of an entire group of thinkers influenced
methodologically by Husserl and in content by Marcel, Heidegger, Sartre, or
Merleau-Ponty, and one may go and include S. N. Hampshire into the bargain. In
this case one often speaks of existential phenomenology. When Heidegger’s
philosophy became better known at Oxford, ‘continental philosophy’ received
again a new meaning. From Heidegger’s first publication, Being and Time 7, it
was clear that his conception of phenomenology differs from that of Husserl in
several important respects. That is why he qualified the term and spoke of
hermeneutic phenomenology and clarified the expression by examining the
“original” meaning of the Grecian words from which the term was formed. In his
view phenomenology must try “to let that which shows itself be seen from itself
in the very way in which it shows itself from itself.” Heidegger applied the
method first to the mode of being of man with the aim of approaching the
question concerning the meaning of being itself through this phenomenological
interpretation. Of those who took their point of departure from Heidegger, but
also tried to go beyond him, Gadamer and Ricoeur must be mentioned. The
structuralist movement in France added another connotation to ‘Continental
philosophy’. The term structuralism above all refers to an activity, a way of
knowing, speaking, and acting that extends over a number of distinguished
domains of human activity: linguistics, aesthetics, anthropology, psychology,
psychoanalysis, mathematics, philosophy of science, and philosophy itself.
Structuralism, which became a fashion in Paris and later in Western Europe
generally, reached its high point on the Continent between 0 and 0. It was
inspired by ideas first formulated by Russian formalism 626 and Czech
structuralism 640, but also by ideas derived from the works of Marx and Freud.
In France Foucault, Barthes, Althusser, and Derrida were the leading figures.
Structuralism is not a new philosophical movement; it must be characterized by
structuralist activity, which is meant to evoke ever new objects. This can be
done in a constructive and a reconstructive manner, but these two ways of
evoking objects can never be separated. One finds the constructive aspect
primarily in structuralist aesthetics and linguistics, whereas the
reconstructive aspect is more apparent in philosophical reflections upon the
structuralist activity. Influenced by Nietzschean ideas, structuralism later
developed in a number of directions, including poststructuralism; in this
context the works of Gilles Deleuze, Lyotard, Irigaray, and Kristeva must be
mentioned. After 0 ‘Continental philosophy’ received again a new connotation:
deconstruction. At first deconstruction presented itself as a reaction against
philosophical hermeneutics, even though both deconstruction and hermeneutics
claim their origin in Heidegger’s reinterpretation of Husserl’s phenomenology.
The leading philosopher of the movement is Derrida, who at first tried to think
along phenomenological and structuralist lines. Derrida formulated his “final”
view in a linguistic form that is both complex and suggestive. It is not easy
in a few sentences to state what deconstruction is. Generally speaking one can
say that what is being deconstructed is texts; they are deconstructed to show
that there are conflicting conceptions of meaning and implication in every text
so that it is never possible definitively to show what a text really means.
Derrida’s own deconstructive work is concerned mainly with philosophical texts,
whereas others apply the “method” predominantly to literary texts. What
according to Derrida distinguished philosophy is its reluctance to face the
fact that it, too, is a product of linguistic and rhetorical figures.
Deconstruction is here that process of close reading that focuses on those
elements where philosophers in their work try to erase all knowledge of its own
linguistic and rhetorical dimensions. It has been said that if construction
typifies modern thinking, then deconstruction is the mode of thinking that
radically tries to overcome modernity. Yet this view is simplistic, since one
also deconstructs Plato and many other thinkers and philosophers of the
premodern age. People concerned with social and political philosophy who have
sought affiliation with Continental philosophy often appeal to the so-called
critical theory of the Frankfurt School in general, and to Habermas’s theory of
communicative action in particular. Habermas’s view, like the position of the
Frankfurt School in general, is philosophically eclectic. It tries to bring
into harmony ideas derived from Kant, G. idealism, and Marx, as well as ideas
from the sociology of knowledge and the social sciences. Habermas believes that
his theory makes it possible to develop a communication community without
alienation that is guided by reason in such a way that the community can stand
freely in regard to the objectively given reality. Critics have pointed out
that in order to make this theory work Habermas must substantiate a number of
assumptions that until now he has not been able to justify.
Grice’s
contingency planning -- “What is actual is not also possible”
“What is necessary is not also contingent” -- contingent, neither impossible
nor necessary; i.e., both possible and non-necessary. The modal property of
being contingent is attributable to a proposition, state of affairs, event,
or more debatably an object. Muddles about the relationship
between this and other modal properties have abounded ever since Aristotle, who
initially conflated contingency with possibility but later realized that
something that is possible may also be necessary, whereas something that is
contingent cannot be necessary. Even today many philosophers are not clear
about the “opposition” between contingency and necessity, mistakenly supposing
them to be contradictory notions probably because within the domain of true
propositions the contingent and the necessary are indeed both exclusive and
exhaustive of one another. But the contradictory of ‘necessary’ is
‘non-necessary’; that of ‘contingent’ is ‘non-contingent’, as the following
extended modal square of opposition shows: These logico-syntactical relationships
are preserved through various semantical interpretations, such as those
involving: a the logical modalities proposition P is logically contingent just
when P is neither a logical truth nor a logical falsehood; b the causal or
physical modalities state of affairs or event E is physically contingent just
when E is neither physically necessary nor physically impossible; and c the
deontic modalities act A is morally indeterminate just when A is neither
morally obligatory nor morally forbidden. In none of these cases does
‘contingent’ mean ‘dependent,’ as in the phrase ‘is contingent upon’. Yet just
such a notion of contingency seems to feature prominently in certain
formulations of the cosmological argument, all created objects being said to be
contingent beings and God alone to be a necessary or non-contingent being.
Conceptual clarity is not furthered by assimilating this sense of ‘contingent’
to the others.
contrapositum: the
immediate logical operation on any categorical proposition that is accomplished
by first forming the complements of both the subject term and the predicate
term of that proposition and then interchanging these complemented terms. Thus,
contraposition applied to the categorical proposition ‘All cats are felines’
yields ‘All non-felines are non-cats’, where ‘nonfeline’ and ‘non-cat’ are,
respectively, the complements or complementary terms of ‘feline’ and ‘cat’. The
result of applying contraposition to a categorical proposition is said to be
the contrapositive of that proposition.
contraries, any pair of propositions that cannot both be true but can
both be false; derivatively, any pair of properties that cannot both apply to a
thing but that can both fail to apply to a thing. Thus the propositions ‘This
object is red all over’ and ‘This object is green all over’ are contraries, as
are the properties of being red all over and being green all over.
Traditionally, it was considered that the categorical A-proposition ‘All S’s
are P’s’ and the categorical E-proposition ‘No S’s are P’s’ were contraries;
but according to De Morgan and most subsequent logicians, these two
propositions are both true when there are no S’s at all, so that modern
logicians do not usually regard the categorical A- and E-propositions as being
true contraries. contravalid,
designating a proposition P in a logical system such that every proposition in
the system is a consequence of P. In most of the typical and familiar logical
systems, contravalidity coincides with self-contradictoriness.
voluntary
and rational control – the power structure of the soul --
Grice’s intersubjective conversational control, -- for Grice only what is under
one’s control is communicated – spots mean measles only metaphorically, the
spots don’t communicate measles. An involuntary cry does not ‘mean.’ Only a
simulated cry of pain is a vehicle by which an emissor may mean that he is in
pain. an apparently causal phenomenon closely akin to power and important for
such topics as intentional action, freedom, and moral responsibility. Depending
upon the control you had over the event, your finding a friend’s stolen car may
or may not be an intentional action, a free action, or an action for which you
deserve moral credit. Control seems to be a causal phenomenon. Try to imagine
controlling a car, say, without causing anything. If you cause nothing, you
have no effect on the car, and one does not control a thing on which one has no
effect. But control need not be causally deterministic. Even if a genuine
randomizer in your car’s steering mechanism gives you only a 99 percent chance
of making turns you try to make, you still have considerable control in that
sphere. Some philosophers claim that we have no control over anything if causal
determinism is true. That claim is false. When you drive your car, you normally
are in control of its speed and direction, even if our world happens to be
deterministic.
conversational
avowal: The phrase is a Ryleism, but
Grice liked it. Grice’s point is with corrigibility or lack thereof. He recalls
his tutorials with Strawson. “I want you to bring me a paper on Friday.” “You
mean The Telegraph?” “You know what I mean.”
“But perhaps you don’t.” Grice’s favourite conversational avowal,
mentioned by Grice, is a declaration of an intention.. Grice starts using the
phrase ‘conversational avowal’ after exploring Ryle’s rather cursory
exploration of them in The Concept of Mind. This is interesting because in
general Grice is an anti-ryleist. The verb is of course ‘to avow,’ which
is ultimately a Latinate from ‘advocare.’ A processes or event of the soul is,
on the official view, supposed to be played out in a private theatre. Such an
event is known directly by the man who has them either through the faculty of
introspection or the ‘phosphorescence’ of consciousness. The subject is,
on this view, incorrigible—his avowals of the state of his soul cannot be
corrected by others—and he is infallible—he cannot be wrong about which states
he is in. The official doctrine mistakenly construes an avowals or a
report of such an episode as issuing from a special sort of observation or
perception of shadowy existents. We should consider some differences
between two sorts of 'conversational' avowals: (i) I feel a tickle and (ii) I
feel ill. If a man feels a tickle, he has a tickle, and if he has a tickle, he
feels it. But if he feels ill, he may not be ill, and if he is ill, he may
not feel ill. Doubtless a man’s feeling ill is some evidence for his being
ill. But feeling a tickle is not evidence for his having a tickle, any more
than striking a blow is evidence for the occurrence of a blow. In ‘feel a
tickle’ and ‘strike a blow’, ‘tickle’ and ‘blow’ are cognate accusatives to the
verbs ‘feel’ and ‘strike’. The verb and its accusative are two expressions
for the same thing, as are the verbs and their accusatives in ‘I dreamt a
dream’ and ‘I asked a question’. But ‘ill’ and ‘capable of climbing the tree’
are not cognate accusatives to the verb ‘to feel.' So they are not in grammar
bound to signify feelings, as ‘tickle’ is in grammar bound to signify a
feeling. Another purely grammatical point shows the same thing. It is
indifferent whether I say ‘I feel a tickle’ or ‘I have a tickle’; but ‘I have .
. .’ cannot be completed by ‘. . . ill’, (cf. ‘I have an illness’), ‘. . .
capable of climbing the tree’, (cf. I have a capability to climb that tree’) ‘.
. . happy’ (cf. ‘I have a feeling of happiness’ or ‘I have happiness in my
life’) or ‘. . . discontented’ (cf. ‘I have a feeling of strong discontent
towards behaviourism’). If we try to restore the verbal parallel by bringing in
the appropriate abstract nouns, we find a further incongruity; ‘I feel
happiness’(I feel as though I am experiencing happiness), ‘I feel illness’ (I
feel as though I do have an illness’) or ‘I feel ability to climb the tree’ (I
feel that I am endowed with the capability to climb that tree), if they mean
anything, they do not mean at all what a man means by uttering ‘I feel happy,’
or ‘I feel ill,’ or ‘I feel capable of climbing the tree’. On the other
hand, besides these differences between the different uses of ‘I feel . . .’
there are important CONVERSATIONAL analogies as well. If a man says that
he has a tickle, his co-conversationalist does not ask for his evidence, or
requires him to make quite sure. Announcing a tickle is not proclaiming the
results of an investigation. A tickle is not something established by
careful witnessing, or something inferred from a clue, nor do we praise for his
powers of observation or reasoning a man who let us know that he feels tickles,
tweaks and flutters. Just the same is true of avowals of moods. If a man
makes a conversational contribution, such as‘I feel bored’, or ‘I feel
depressed’, his co-conversationalist does not usually ask him for his evidence,
or request him to make sure. The co-conversationalist may accuse the man of
shamming to him or to himself, but the co-conversationalist does not accuse him
of having been careless in his observations or rash in his inferences, since a
co-conversationalist would not usually think that his conversational avowal is
a report of an observation or a conclusion. He has not been a good or a
bad detective; he has not been a detective at all. Nothing would surprise us
more than to hear him say ‘I feel depressed’ in the alert and judicious tone of
voice of a detective, a microscopist, or a diagnostician, though this tone of
voice is perfectly congruous with the NON-AVOWAL past-tense ‘I WAS feeling
depressed’ or the NON-AVOWAL third-person report, ‘HE feels depressed’. If the
avowal is to do its conversational job, it must be said in a depressed tone of
voice. The conversational avowal must be blurted out to a sympathizer, not
reported to an investigator. Avowing ‘I feel depressed’ is doing one of the
things, viz. one CONVERSATIONAL thing, that depression is the mood to do. It is
not a piece of scientific premiss-providing, but a piece of ‘conversational
moping.’That is why, if the co-conversationalist is suspicious, he does not ask
‘Fact or fiction?’, ‘True or false?’, ‘Reliable or unreliable?’, but ‘Sincere
or shammed?’ The CONVERSATIONAL avowal of moods requires not acumen, but
openness. It comes from the heart, not from the head. It is not
discovery, but voluntary non-concealment. Of course people have to learn how to
use avowal expressions appropriately and they may not learn these lessons very
well. They learn them from ordinary discussions of the moods of others and from
such more fruitful sources as novels and the theatre. They learn from the same
sources how to cheat both other people and themselves by making a sham
conversational avowal in the proper tone of voice and with the other proper
histrionic accompaniments. If we now raise the question ‘How does a man find
out what mood he is in?’ one can answer that if, as may not be the case, he
finds it out at all, he finds it out very much as we find it out. As we have
seen, he does not groan ‘I feel bored’ because he has found out that he is
bored, any more than the sleepy man yawns because he has found out that he is
sleepy. Rather, somewhat as the sleepy man finds out that he is sleepy by
finding, among other things, that he keeps on yawning, so the bored man finds
out that he is bored, if he does find this out, by finding that among other
things he glumly says to others and to himself ‘I feel bored’ and ‘How bored I
feel’. Such a blurted avowal is not merely one fairly reliable index among
others. It is the first and the best index, since being worded and voluntarily
uttered, it is meant to be heard and it is meant to be understood. It calls for
no sleuth-work.In some respects a conversational avowal of a moods, like ‘I
feel cheerful,’ more closely resemble announcements of sensations like ‘I feel
a tickle’ than they resemble utterances like ‘I feel better’ or ‘I feel capable
of climbing the tree’. Just as it would be absurd to say ‘I feel a tickle but
maybe I haven’t one’, so, in ordinary cases, it would be absurd to say ‘I feel
cheerful but maybe I am not’. But there would be no absurdity in saying ‘I FEEL
better but, to judge by the doctor’s attitude, perhaps I am WORSE’, or ‘I do
FEEL as if I am capable of climbing the tree but maybe I cannot climb it.’This
difference can be brought out in another way. Sometimes it is natural to say ‘I
feel AS IF I could eat a horse’, or ‘I feel AS IF my temperature has returned
to normal’. But, more more immediate conversational avowals, it would seldom if
ever be natural to say ‘I feel AS IF I were in the dumps’, or ‘I feel AS IF I
were bored’, any more than it would be natural to say ‘I feel AS IF I had a
pain’. Not much would be gained by discussing at length why we use ‘feel’ in
these different ways. There are hosts of other ways in which it is also used. I
can say ‘I felt a lump in the mattress’, ‘I felt cold’, ‘I felt queer’, ‘I felt
my jaw-muscles stiffen’, ‘I felt my gorge rise’, ‘I felt my chin with my
thumb’, ‘I felt in vain for the lever’, ‘I felt as if something important was
about to happen’, ‘I felt that there was a flaw somewhere in the argument’, ‘I
felt quite at home’, ‘I felt that he was angry’. A feature common to most
of these uses of ‘feel’ is that the utterer does not want further questions to
be put. They would be either unanswerable questions, or unaskable questions.
That he felt it is enough to settle some debates.That he merely felt it is enough
to show that debates should not even begin. Names of moods, then, are not the
names of feelings. But to be in a particular mood is to be in the mood, among
other things, to feel certain sorts of feelings in certain sorts of situations.
To be in a lazy mood, is, among other things, to tend to have sensations of
lassitude in the limbs when jobs have to be done, to have cosy feelings of
relaxation when the deck-chair is resumed, not to have electricity feelings
when the game begins, and so forth. But we are not thinking primarily of
these feelings when we say that we feel lazy; in fact, we seldom pay much heed
to sensations of these kinds, save when they are abnormally acute. Is
a name of a mood a name of an emotion?
The only tolerable reply is that of course they are, in that some people some
of the time use ‘emotion’. But then we must add that in this usage an emotion
is not something that can be segregated from thinking, daydreaming, voluntarily
doing things, grimacing or feeling pangs and itches. To have the emotion, in
this usage, which we ordinarily refer to as ‘being bored’, is to be in the mood
to think certain sorts of thoughts, and not to think other sorts, to yawn and
not to chuckle, to converse with stilted politeness, and not to talk with animation,
to feel flaccid and not to feel resilient. Boredom is not some unique
distinguishable ingredient, scene or feature of all that its victim is doing
and undergoing. Rather it is the temporary complexion of that totality. It is
not like a gust, a sunbeam, a shower or the temperature; it is like the
morning’s weather. An unstudied conversational utterance may embody an
explicit interest phrase, or a conversational avowal, such as ‘I want it’, ‘I
hope so’, ‘That’s what I intend’, ‘I quite dislike it’, ‘Surely I am
depressed’, ‘I do wonder, too’, ‘I guess so’ and ‘I am feeling hungry.’The
surface grammar (if not logical form) makes it tempting to misconstrue all the
utterances as a description. But in its primary employment such a
conversational avowal as ‘I want it’ is not used to convey information.‘I want
it’ is used to make a request or demand. ‘I want it’ is no more meant as a
contribution to general knowledge than ‘please’. For a co-conversationalist to
respond with the tag ‘Do you?’ or worse, as Grice’s tutee, with ‘*how* do you
*know* that you want it?’ is glaringly inappropriate. Nor, in their primary
employment, are conversational avowals such as ‘I hate it’ or ‘That’s what I I
intend’ used for the purpose of telling one’s addressee facts about the utterer;
or else we should not be surprised to hear them uttered in the cool,
informative tones of voice in which one says ‘HE hates it’ and ‘That’s what he
intends’. We expect a conversational avowal, on the contrary, to be spoken in a
revolted and a resolute tone of voice respectively. It is an utterances of a
man in a revolted and resolute frame of mind. A conversational avowal is a
thing said in detestation and resolution and not a thing said in order to
advance biographical knowledge about detestations and resolutions. A man
who notices the unstudied utterances of the utterer, who may or may not be
himself, is, if his interest in the utterer has the appropriate direction,
especially well situated to pass comments upon the qualities and frames of mind
of its author.‘avowal’ as a philosophical lexeme may not invite an immediate
correlate in the Graeco-Roman, ultimately Grecian, tradition. ‘Confessio’
springs to mind, but this is not what Grice is thinking about. He is more
concerned with issues of privileged access and incorrigibility, or
corrigibility, rather, as per the alleged immediacy of a first-person report of
the form, “I feel that …” . Grice does use ‘avowal’ often especially in the
early stages, when the logical scepticism about incorrigibility comes under
attack. Just to be different, Grice is interested in the corrigibility of the
avowal. The issue is of some importance in his account of the act of
communication, and how one can disimplicate what one means. Grice loves to play
with his tutee doubting as to whether he means that p or q. Except at Oxford,
the whole thing has a ridiculous ring to it. I want you to bring me a paper by
Friday. You mean the newspaper? You very well know what I mean. But perhaps you
do not. Are you sure you mean a philosophy paper when you utter, ‘I want you to
bring a paper by Friday’? As Grice notes, in case of self-deception and
egcrateia, it may well be that the utterer does not know what he desires, if
not what he intends, if anything. Freud and Foucault run galore. The topic will
interest a collaborator of Grice’s, Pears, with his concept of ‘motivated
irrationality.’ Grice likes to discuss a category mistake. I may be
categorically mistaken but I am not categorically confused. Now when it comes
to avowal-avowal, it is only natural that if he is interested in Aristotle on
‘hedone,’ Grice would be interested in Aristotle on ‘lupe.’ This is very
philosophical, as Urmson agrees. Can one ‘fake’ pain? Why would one fake pain?
Oddly, this is for Grice the origin of language. Is pleasure just the absence
of pain? Liddell and Soctt have “λύπη” and render it as pain of body, oἡδον;
also, sad plight or condition, but also pain of mind, grief; “ά; δῆγμα δὲ λύπης
οὐδὲν ἐφ᾽ ἧπαρ προσικνεῖται; τί γὰρ καλὸν ζῆν βίοτον, ὃς λύπας φέρει; ἐρωτικὴ
λ.’ λύπας προσβάλλειν;” “λ. φέρειν τινί; oχαρά.” Oddly, Grice goes back to pain
in Princeton, since it is explored by Smart in his identity thesis. Take
pain. Surely, Grice tells the Princetonians, it sounds harsh, to echo Berkeley,
to say that it is the brain of Smith being in this or that a state which is
justified by insufficient evidence; whereas it surely sounds less harsh that it
is the C-fibres that constitute his ‘pain,’ which he can thereby fake. Grice
distinguishes between a complete unstructured utterance token – “Ouch” – versus
a complete syntactically structured erotetic utterance of the type, “Are you in
pain?”. At the Jowett, Corpus Barnes has read Ogden and says ‘Ouch’ (‘Oh’)
bears an ‘emotional’ or ‘emotive’ communicatum provided there is an intention
there somewhere. Otherwise, no communicatum occurs. But if there is an
intention, the ‘Oh’ can always be a fake. Grice distinguishes between a ‘fake’
and a ‘sneak.’ If U intends A to perceive ‘Oh’ as a fake, U means that he is in
pain. If there is a sneaky intention behind the utterance, which U does NOT
intend his A to recognise, there is no communicatum. Grice criticises emotivism
as rushing ahead to analyse a nuance before exploring what sort of a nuance it
is. Surely there is more to the allegedly ‘pseudo-descriptive’ ‘x is good,’
than U meaning that U emotionally approves of x. In his ‘myth,’ Grice uses pain
magisterially as an excellent example for a privileged-access allegedly
incorrigible avowal, and stage 0 in his creature progression. By uttering
‘Oh!,’ under voluntary control, Barnes means, iconically, that he is in pain.
Pain fall under the broader keyword: emotion, as anger does. Cf. Aristotle on
the emotion in De An., Rhet., and Eth. Nich. Knowing that at Oxford, if you are
a classicist, you are not a philosopher, Grice never explores the Stoic, say,
approach to pain, or lack thereof (“Which is good, since Walter Pater did it
for me!”). Refs.: “Can I have a pain in my tail?” The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC
MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley.
conversational benevolence: In Grice it’s not benevolence per
se but as a force in a two-force model, with self-love on the other side. The
fact that he later subsumed everything under ONE concept: that of co-operation
(first helpfulness) testifies that he is placing more conceptual strength on
‘benevolence’ than ‘self love.’ But the self-love’ remains in all the caveats
and provisos that Grice keeps guarding his claims with: ‘ceteris paribus,’
‘provided there’s not much effort involved,’ ‘if no unnecessary trouble
arises,’ and so on. It’s never benevolence simpliciter or tout court. When it
comes to co-operation, the self-love remains: the mutual goal of that
co-operation is in the active and the passive voice – You expect me to be
helpful as much as I expect you to be helpful. We are in this together. The
active/passive voice formulation is emphatic in Grice: informing AND BEING
INFORMED; influencing AND BEING INFLUENCED. The self-love goes: I won’t inform
you unless you’ll inform me. I won’t influence you unless you influence me. The
‘influence’ bit does not seem to cooperative. But the ‘inform’ side does. By
‘inform,’ the idea is that the psi-transmission concerns a true belief. “I’ll
be truthful if you will.” This is the sort of thing that Nietzsche found
repugnant and identified with the golden rule was totally immoral. – It was
felt by Russell to be immoral enough that he cared to mention in a letter to
The Times about how abusive Nietzsche can be – yet what a gem “Beyond good and
evil” still is! In the hypocritical milieu that Grice expects his tuttees know
they are engaged in, Grice does not find Nietzsche pointing to a repugnant
fact, but a practical, even jocular way of taking meta-ethics in a light way. There
is nothing other-oriented about benevolence. What Grice needs is conversational
ALTRUISM, or helpfulness – ‘cooperation’ has the advantage, with the ‘co-’, of
avoiding the ‘mutuality’ aspect, which is crucial (“What’s the good of helping
you – I’m not your servant! – if thou art not going to help me!” It may be said
that when Butler uses ‘benevolentia’ he means others. “It is usually understood
that one is benevolent towards oneself, if that makes sense.” Grice writes.
Then there’s Smith promising Jones a job – and the problem that comes with it.
For Grice, if Smith promised a job to Jones, and Jones never gets it – “that’s
Jones’s problem.” So we need to distinguish beneficentia and benevolentia. The
opposite is malevolentia and maleficientia. Usually Grice states his maxims as
PROHIBITIONS: “Do not say what you believe to be false” being the wittiest! So,
he might just as well have appealed to or invoked a principle of absence of
conversational ill-will. Grice uses ‘conversational benevolence’ narrowly, to
refer to the assumption that conversationalists will agree to make a
contribution appropriate to the shared purposes of the exhcnage. It contrasts
with the limiting conversational self-love, which is again taken narrowly to
indicate that conversationalists are assumed to be conversationally
‘benevolent,’ in the interpretation above, provided doing that does not get
them into unnecessary trouble. The type of rationality that Grice sees in
conversational is one that sees conversation as ‘rational co-operation.’ So it
is obvious that he has to invoke some level of benevolence. When tutoring his
rather egoistic tutees he had to be careful, so he hastened to add a principle
of conversational self-love. It was different when lecturing outside a tutorial!
In fact ‘benevolence’ here is best understood as ‘altruism’. So, if there is a
principle of conversational egoism, there is a correlative principle of
conversational altruism. If Grice uses ‘self-love,’ there is nothing about
‘love,’ in ‘benevolence.’ Butler may have used ‘other-love’! Even if of course
we must start with the Grecians! We must not forget that Plato and Aristotle
despised "autophilia", the complacency and self-satisfaction making
it into the opposite of "epimeleia heautou” in Plato’s Alcibiades.
Similarly, to criticize Socratic ethics as a form of egoism in opposition to a
selfless care of others is inappropriate. Neither a self-interested seeker of
wisdom nor a dangerous teacher of self-love, Socrates, as the master of
epimeleia heautou, is the hinge between the care of self and others. One has to
be careful here. A folk-etymological connection between ‘foam’ may not be
needed – when the Romans had to deal with Grecian ‘aphrodite.’ This requires
that we look for another linguistic botany for Grecian ‘self-love’ that Grice
opposes to ‘benevolentia.’ Hesiod derives Aphrodite from “ἀφρός,” ‘sea-foam,’ interpreting
the name as "risen from the foam", but most modern scholars regard
this as a spurious folk etymology. Early modern scholars of classical mythology
attempted to argue that Aphrodite's name was of Griceain or Indo-European
origin, but these efforts have now been mostly abandoned. Aphrodite's name is
generally accepted to be of non-Greek, probably Semitic, origin, but its exact
derivation cannot be determined. Scholars in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, accepting Hesiod's "foam" etymology as genuine,
analyzed the second part of Aphrodite's name as -odítē "wanderer" or -dítē
"bright". Janda, also accepting Hesiod's etymology, has argued in
favor of the latter of these interpretations and claims the story of a birth
from the foam as an Indo-European mytheme. Similarly, an Indo-European compound
abʰor-, very" and dʰei- "to shine" have been proposed, also
referring to Eos. Other have argued that these hypotheses are unlikely since
Aphrodite's attributes are entirely different from those of both Eos and the
Vedic deity Ushas.A number of improbable non-Greek etymologies have also been
suggested. One Semitic etymology compares Aphrodite to the Assyrian ‘barīrītu,’
the name of a female demon that appears in Middle Babylonian and Late
Babylonian texts. Hammarström looks to Etruscan, comparing eprϑni
"lord", an Etruscan honorific loaned into Greek as πρύτανις.This
would make the theonym in origin an honorific, "the lady".Most
scholars reject this etymology as implausible, especially since Aphrodite
actually appears in Etruscan in the borrowed form Apru (from Greek Aphrō, clipped
form of Aphrodite). The medieval Etymologicum Magnum offers a highly contrived
etymology, deriving Aphrodite from the compound habrodíaitos (ἁβροδίαιτος),
"she who lives delicately", from habrós and díaita. The alteration
from b to ph is explained as a "familiar" characteristic of Greek
"obvious from the Macedonians". It is much easier with the Romans. Lewis and Short have ‘ămor,’ old form “ămŏs,”
“like honos, labos, colos, etc.’ obviously from ‘amare,’ and which they render
as ‘love,’ as in Grice’s “conversational self-love.” Your tutor will reprimand
you if you spend too much linguistic botany on ‘eros.’ “Go straight to
‘philos.’” But no. There are philosophical usages of ‘eros,’ especially when it
comes to the Grecian philosophers Grice is interested in: Aristotle reading
Plato, which becomes Ariskant reading Plathegel. So, Liddell and Scott have
“ἔρως” which of course is from a verb, or two: “ἕραμαι,” “ἐράω,” and which they
render as “love, mostly of the sexual passion, ““θηλυκρατὴς ἔ.,” “ἐρῶσ᾽ ἔρωτ᾽
ἔκδημον,” “ἔ. τινός love for one, S.Tr.433, “παίδων” E. Ion67, and “generally,
love of a thing, desire for it,” ““πατρῴας γῆς” “δεινὸς εὐκλείας ἔ.” “ἔχειν
ἔμφυτον ἔρωτα περί τι” Plato, Lg. 782e ; “πρὸς τοὺς λόγους” (love of law),
“ἔρωτα σχὼν τῆς Ἑλλάδος τύραννος γενέσθαι” Hdt.5.32 ; ἔ. ἔχει με c. inf.,
A.Supp.521 ; “θανόντι κείνῳ συνθανεῖν ἔρως μ᾽ ἔχει” S.Fr.953 ; “αὐτοῖς ἦν ἔρως
θρόνους ἐᾶσθαι” Id.OC367 ; ἔ. ἐμπίπτει μοι c. inf., A.Ag.341, cf. Th.6.24 ; εἰς
ἔρωτά τινος ἀφικέσθαι, ἐλθεῖν, Antiph.212.3,Anaxil.21.5 : pl., loves, amours,
“ἀλλοτρίων” Pi.N.3.30 ; “οὐχ ὅσιοι ἔ.” E.Hipp.765 (lyr.) ; “ἔρωτες ἐμᾶς πόλεως”
Ar.Av.1316 (lyr.), etc. ; of dolphins, “πρὸς παῖδας” Arist.HA631a10 :
generally, desires, S.Ant.617 (lyr.). 2. object of love or desire, “ἀπρόσικτοι
ἔρωτες” Pi.N.11.48, cf. Luc.Tim.14. 3. passionate joy, S.Aj.693 (lyr.); the god
of love, Anacr.65, Parm.13, E.Hipp.525 (lyr.), etc.“Έ. ἀνίκατε μάχαν” S.Ant.781
(lyr.) : in pl., Simon.184.3, etc. III. at Nicaea, a funeral wreath, EM379.54.
IV. name of the κλῆρος Ἀφροδίτης, Cat.Cod.Astr.1.168 ; = third κλῆρος,
Paul.Al.K.3; one of the τόποι, Vett.Val.69.16. And they’ll point to you that
the Romans had ‘amor’ AND ‘cupidus’ (which they meant as a transliteration of
epithumia). If for Kant and Grice it is the intention that matters, ill-will
counts. If Smith does not want Jones have a job, Smith has ill-will towards
Jones. This is all Kant and Grice need to call Smith a bad person. It means it
is the ill-will that causes Joness not having a job. A conceptual elucidation.
Interesting from a historical point of view seeing that Grice had introduced a
principle of conversational benevolence (i.e. conversational goodwill) pretty
early. Malevolentia was over-used by Cicero, translating the Grecian. Grice
judges that if Jones fails to get the job that benevolent Smith promised, Smith
may still be deemed, for Kant, if not Aristotle, to have given him the
job. A similar elucidation was carried by Urmson with his idea of
supererogation (heroism and sainthood). For a hero or saint, someones goodwill
but not be good enough! Which does not mean it is ill, either! Conversational
benevolence -- Self-love Philosophical theology -- Edwards, J., philosopher and
theologian. He was educated at Yale, preached in New York City, and in 1729
assumed a Congregational pastorate in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he
became a leader in the Great Awakening. Because of a dispute with his
parishioners over qualifications for communion, he was forced to leave in 1750.
In 1751, he took charge of congregations in Stockbridge, a frontier town sixty
miles to the west. He was elected third president of Princeton in 1757 but died
shortly after inauguration. Edwards deeply influenced Congregational and
Presbyterian theology in America for over a century, but had little impact on
philosophy. Interest in him revived in the middle of the twentieth century,
first among literary scholars and theologians and later among philosophers.
While most of Edwards’s published work defends the Puritan version of Calvinist
orthodoxy, his notebooks reveal an interest in philosophical problems for their
own sake. Although he was indebted to Continental rationalists like
Malebranche, to the Cambridge Platonists, and especially to Locke, his own
contributions are sophisticated and original. The doctrine of God’s absolute
sovereignty is explicated by occasionalism, a subjective idealism similar to
Berkeley’s, and phenomenalism. According to Edwards, what are “vulgarly” called
causal relations are mere constant conjunctions. True causes necessitate their
effects. Since God’s will alone meets this condition, God is the only true
cause. He is also the only true substance. Physical objects are collections of
ideas of color, shape, and other “corporeal” qualities. Finite minds are series
of “thoughts” or “perceptions.” Any substance underlying perceptions, thoughts,
and “corporeal ideas” must be something that “subsists by itself, stands
underneath, and keeps up” physical and mental qualities. As the only thing that
does so, God is the only real substance. As the only true cause and the only
real substance, God is “in effect being in general.” God creates to communicate
his glory. Since God’s internal glory is constituted by his infinite knowledge
of, love of, and delight in himself as the highest good, his “communication ad
extra” consists in the knowledge of, love of, and joy in himself which he
bestows upon creatures. The essence of God’s internal and external glory is
“holiness” or “true benevolence,” a disinterested love of being in general
i.e., of God and the beings dependent on him. Holiness constitutes “true
beauty,” a divine splendor or radiance of which “secondary” ordinary beauty is
an imperfect image. God is thus supremely beautiful and the world is suffused
with his loveliness. Vindications of Calvinist conceptions of sin and grace are
found in Freedom of the Will 1754 and Original Sin 1758. The former includes
sophisticated defenses of theological determinism and compatibilism. The latter
contains arguments for occasionalism and interesting discussions of identity.
Edwards thinks that natural laws determine kinds or species, and kinds or
species determine criteria of identity. Since the laws of nature depend on
God’s “arbitrary” decision, God establishes criteria of identity. He can thus,
e.g., constitute Adam and his posterity as “one thing.” Edwards’s religious
epistemology is developed in A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections 1746
and On the Nature of True Virtue 1765. The conversion experience involves the
acquisition of a “new sense of the heart.” Its core is the mind’s apprehension
of a “new simple idea,” the idea of “true beauty.” This idea is needed to
properly understand theological truths. True Virtue also provides the fullest
account of Edwards’s ethics a moral
sense theory that identifies virtue with benevolence. Although indebted to
contemporaries like Hutcheson, Edwards criticizes their attempts to construct
ethics on secular foundations. True benevolence embraces being in general.
Since God is, in effect, being in general, its essence is the love of God. A
love restricted to family, nation, humanity, or other “private systems” is a
form of self-love. Refs.: The source is Grice’s seminar
in the first set on ‘Logic and conversation.’ The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
conversational category: used jocularly by Grice. But can it be used
non-jocularly? How can the concept of ‘category,’ literally, apply to what
Grice says it applies, so that we have, assuming Kant is using ‘quantity,’
‘quality,’ ‘relation’ and ‘mode,’ as SUPRA-categories (functions, strictly) for
his twelve categories? Let’s revise, the quantity applies to the quantification
(in Frege’s terms) or what Boethius applied to Aristotle’s posotes – and there
are three categories involved, but the three deal with the ‘quantum: ‘every,’
‘some,’ and ‘one.’ ‘some’ Russell would call an indefinite. Strictly, if Grice
wants to have a category of conversational quantity – it should relate to the
‘form’ of the ‘conversational move.’ “Every nice girl loves a sailor” would be
the one with most ‘quantity.’ Grice sees a problem there, and would have that
rather translated as ‘The altogether nice girl loves the one-at-a-time sailor.’
But that would be the most conversational move displaying ‘most quantity.’ (It
can be argued it isn’t). When it comes to the category of conversational quality,
the three categories by Kant under the ‘function’ of qualitas involves the well
known trio, the affirmative, the negative, and the infinite. In terms of the
‘quality’ of a conversational move, it may be argued that a move in negative
form (as in Grice, “I’m not hearing any noise,” “That pillar box is not blue”
seem to provide ‘less’ quality than the affirmative counterparts. But as in
quantity, it is not sure Kant has some ordering in mind. It seems he does. It
seems he ascribes more value to the first category in each of the four
functions. When it comes to the category of conversational relation, the
connection with Kant could be done. Since this involves the categoric, the
hypothetic, and the disjunctive. So here we may think that a conversational move
will be either a categoric response – A: Mrs Smith is a wind bag. B: The
weather has been delightful. Or a hypothetical. A: Mrs Smith is a wind bag. B:
If that’s what you think. Or a dijunctive: Mrs. Smith is a wind bag. B: Or she
is not. When it comes, lastly, to the category of conversational mode, we have
just three strict categories under this ‘function’ in Kant, which relate to the
strength of the copula: ‘must be,’ must not be’ and ‘may.’ A conversational
move that states a necessity would be the expected move. “You must do it.”
Impossibility involves negation, so it is more problematic. And ‘may be’ is an
open conversational move. So there IS a way to justify the use of
‘conversational category’ to apply to the four functions that Kant decides the
Aristotelian categories may subsumed into. He knows that Kant has TWELVE
categories, but he keeps lecturing the Harvardites about Kant having FOUR
categories. On top, he finds ‘modus’ boring, and, turned a manierist, changes
the idiom. This is what Austin called a ‘philosophical hack’ searching for some
para-philosophy! One has to be careful here. Grice does speak of this or that
‘conversational category.’ Seeing that he is ‘echoing,’ as he puts it,
Ariskant, we migt just as well have an entry for each of the four. These would
be the category of conversational quantity, the category of conversational
quality, the category of conversational relation, and the category of
conversational modality. Note that in this rephrasing Grice applies
‘conversational’ directly to the category. As Boethius pointed out (and Grice
loved to read Minio-Paullelo’s edition of Boethus’s commentary on the
Categories), the motivation by Aristotle to posit this or that category was
expository. A mind cannot know a multitude of things, so we have to ‘reduce’
things. It is important to note that while ‘quantitas,’ ‘qualitas’ ‘relatio’
and ‘modus’ are used by Kant, he actually augments the number of categories.
These four would be supra-categories. The sub-categories, or categories themselves
turn out to be twelve. Kant proposed 12 categories: unity, plurality, and
totality for concept of quantity; reality, negation, and limitation, for the
concept of quality; inherence and subsistence, cause and effect, and community
for the concept of relation; and possibility-impossibility,
existence-nonexistence, and necessity and contingency. Kategorien sind
nach Kant apriorisch und unmittelbar gegeben. Sie sind Werkzeuge des Urteilens
und Werkzeuge des Denkens. Als solche dienen sie nur der Anwendung und haben
keine Existenz. Sie bestehen somit nur im menschlichen Verstand. Sie sind nicht
an Erfahrung gebunden.[5] Durch ihre Unmittelbarkeit sind sie auch nicht an
Zeichen gebunden.[6] Kants erkenntnistheoretisches Ziel ist es, über
die Bedingungen der Geltungskraft von Urteilen Auskunft zu geben. Ohne diese
Auskunft können zwar vielerlei Urteile gefällt werden, sie müssen dann
allerdings als „systematische Doktrin(en)“ bezeichnet werden.[7] Kant kritisiert damit das rein analytische Denken
der Wissenschaft als falsch und stellt ihm die Notwendigkeit des
synthetisierenden Denkens gegenüber.[8] Kant begründet die Geltungskraft mit dem Transzendentalen Subjekt.[9] Das Transzendentalsubjekt ist dabei ein reiner
Reflexionsbegriff, welcher das synthetisierende Dritte darstellt (wie in
späteren Philosophien Geist (Hegel), Wille, Macht, Sprache und Wert (Marx)),
das nicht durch die Sinne wahrnehmbar ist. Kant sucht hier die Antwort auf die
Frage, wie der Mensch als vernunftbegabtes Wesen konstituiert werden kann,
nicht in der Analyse, sondern in einer Synthesis.[10]Bei Immanuel Kant, der somit als bedeutender Erneuerer der bis dahin
„vorkritischen“ Kategorienlehre gilt, finden sich zwölf „Kategorien der reinen
Vernunft“. Für Kant sind diese Kategorien Verstandesbegriffe, nicht aber Ausdruck des tatsächlichen Seins
der Dinge an sich. Damit wandelt sich die ontologische Sichtweise der Tradition in eine erkenntnistheoretische Betrachtung, weshalb Kants „kritische“
Philosophie (seit der Kritik der
reinen Vernunft) oft
auch als „Kopernikanische
Wende in der
Philosophie“ bezeichnet wird.Quantität, Qualität, Relation und Modalität sind die vier grundlegenden Urteilsfunktionen des
Verstandes, nach denen die Kategorien gebildet werden. Demnach sind z. B.
der Urteilsfunktion „Quantität“ die Kategorien bzw. Urteile „Einheit“,
„Vielheit“ und „Allheit“ untergeordnet, und der Urteilsfunktion „Relation“ die
Urteile der „Ursache“ und der „Wirkung“.Siehe auch: Kritik der
reinen Vernunft und Transzendentale
AnalytikBereits
bei Friedrich
Adolf Trendelenburg findet
man den Hinweis auf die verbreitete Kritik, dass Kant die den Kategorien
zugrunde liegenden Urteilsformen nicht systematisch hergeleitet und damit als
notwendig begründet hat. Einer der Kritikpunkte ist dabei, dass die Kategorien
sich teilweise auf Anschauungen (Einzelheit, Realität, Dasein), teilweise auf
Abstraktionen wie Zusammenfassen, Begrenzen oder Begründen (Vielheit, Allheit,
Negation, Limitation, Möglichkeit, Notwendigkeit) beziehen.
conversational
compact: conversational pact in Grice’s conversational
quasi-contractualism, contractarianism, a family of moral and political
theories that make use of the idea of a social contract. Traditionally English
philosophers such as Hobbes and Locke used the social contract idea to justify
certain conceptions of the state. In the twentieth century philosophers such as
G. R. Grice, H. P. Grice, and John Rawls have used the social contract notion (‘quasi-contractualism’
in Grice’s sense) to define and defend moral conceptions both conceptions of
political justice and individual morality, often but not always doing so in
addition to developing social contract theories of the state. The term
‘contractarian’ most often applies to this second type of theory. There are two
kinds of moral argument that the contract image has spawned, the first rooted
in Hobbes and the second rooted in Kant. Hobbesians start by insisting that
what is valuable is what a person desires or prefers, not what he ought to
desire or prefer for no such prescriptively powerful object exists; and
rational action is action that achieves or maximizes the satisfaction of
desires or preferences. They go on to insist that moral action is rational for
a person to perform if and only if such action advances the satisfaction of his
desires or preferences. And they argue that because moral action leads to
peaceful and harmonious living conducive to the satisfaction of almost
everyone’s desires or preferences, moral actions are rational for almost
everyone and thus “mutually agreeable.” But Hobbesians believe that, to ensure
that no cooperative person becomes the prey of immoral aggressors, moral
actions must be the conventional norms in a community, so that each person can
expect that if she behaves cooperatively, others will do so too. These
conventions constitute the institution of morality in a society. So the
Hobbesian moral theory is committed to the idea that morality is a human-made
institution, which is justified only to the extent that it effectively furthers
human interests. Hobbesians explain the existence of morality in society by
appealing to the convention-creating activities of human beings, while arguing
that the justification of morality in any human society depends upon how well
its moral conventions serve individuals’ desires or preferences. By considering
“what we could agree to” if we reappraised and redid the cooperative
conventions in our society, we can determine the extent to which our present
conventions are “mutually agreeable” and so rational for us to accept and act
on. Thus, Hobbesians invoke both actual agreements or rather, conventions and
hypothetical agreements which involve considering what conventions would be
“mutually agreeable” at different points in their theory; the former are what
they believe our moral life consists in; the latter are what they believe our
moral life should consist in i.e., what
our actual moral life should model. So the notion of the contract does not do
justificational work by itself in the Hobbesian moral theory: this term is used
only metaphorically. What we “could agree to” has moral force for the
Hobbesians not because make-believe promises in hypothetical worlds have any
binding force but because this sort of agreement is a device that merely
reveals how the agreed-upon outcome is rational for all of us. In particular,
thinking about “what we could all agree to” allows us to construct a deduction
of practical reason to determine what policies are mutually advantageous. The
second kind of contractarian theory is derived from the moral theorizing of
Kant. In his later writings Kant proposed that the “idea” of the “Original
Contract” could be used to determine what policies for a society would be just.
When Kant asks “What could people agree to?,” he is not trying to justify
actions or policies by invoking, in any literal sense, the consent of the
people. Only the consent of real people can be legitimating, and Kant talks
about hypothetical agreements made by hypothetical people. But he does believe
these make-believe agreements have moral force for us because the process by
which these people reach agreement is morally revealing. Kant’s contracting
process has been further developed by subsequent philosophers, such as Rawls,
who concentrates on defining the hypothetical people who are supposed to make
this agreement so that their reasoning will not be tarnished by immorality,
injustice, or prejudice, thus ensuring that the outcome of their joint
deliberations will be morally sound. Those contractarians who disagree with
Rawls define the contracting parties in different ways, thereby getting
different results. The Kantians’ social contract is therefore a device used in
their theorizing to reveal what is just or what is moral. So like Hobbesians,
their contract talk is really just a way of reasoning that allows us to work
out conceptual answers to moral problems. But whereas the Hobbesians’ use of
contract language expresses the fact that, on their view, morality is a human invention
which if it is well invented ought to be mutually advantageous, the Kantians’
use of the contract language is meant to show that moral principles and
conceptions are provable theorems derived from a morally revealing and
authoritative reasoning process or “moral proof procedure” that makes use of
the social contract idea. Both kinds of contractarian theory are
individualistic, in the sense that they assume that moral and political
policies must be justified with respect to, and answer the needs of,
individuals. Accordingly, these theories have been criticized by communitarian
philosophers, who argue that moral and political policies can and should be
decided on the basis of what is best for a community. They are also attacked by
utilitarian theorists, whose criterion of morality is the maximization of the
utility of the community, and not the mutual satisfaction of the needs or
preferences of individuals. Contractarians respond that whereas utilitarianism
fails to take seriously the distinction between persons, contractarian theories
make moral and political policies answerable to the legitimate interests and
needs of individuals, which, contra the communitarians, they take to be the
starting point of moral theorizing.
conversational co-öperation: Grice is perfectly right that ‘helpfulness’ does not
‘equate’ cooperation. His earlier principle of conversational helpfulness
becomes the principle of conversational co-operation.Tthere is a distinction
between mutual help and cooperation. First, the Romans never knew. Their
‘servants’ were ‘help’ – and this remains in the British usage of ‘civil
servant,’ one who helps. Some philosophical tutees by Hare were often reminded,
in the midst of their presenting their essays, “Excuse me for interrupting,
Smith, but have you considered a career in the civil service?” Then some Romans
found Christianism fashionable, and they were set to translate the Bible. So
when this Hebrew concept appeared, they turned it into ad-judicatum, which was
translated by Wycliff as ‘help.’ Now ‘operatio’ is quite a different animal.
It’s the ‘opus’ of the Romans, who also had ‘labor.’ Surely to ‘co-laborate’ is
to ‘co-operate.’ There is an idea that ‘operate,’ can be more otiose, in the
view of Rogers Albritton. “He is operating the violin,” was his favourite
utterance. “Possibly his opus 5.” The fact that English needs a hyphen and an
umlaut does not make it very ‘ordinary’ in Austin’s description. Grice is more
interested in the conceptualization of this, notably as it relates to rationality.
Can cooperation NOT be rational? For most libertarians, cooperation IS
“irrational,” rather. But Grice points is subtler. He is concerned with an
emissor communicating that p. The least thing he deserves is a rational
recipient. “Otherwise I might just as well scream to the walls!” Used by Grice
WOW:368 – previously, ‘rational cooperation’ – what cooperation is not
rational? Grice says that if Smith promised Jones a job; Jones doesn’t get it.
Smith must be DEEMED to have given the job to Jones. It’s the intention, as
Kant shows, the pure motive, that matters. Ditto for communication. If
Blackburn draws a skull, he communicates that there is danger. If his addressee
fails to recognise the emissor’s intention the emissor will still be deemed to
have communicated that there is danger. So communication does NOT require
co-operation. His analysis of “emissor communicates that p” is not one of
“emissor successfully communicates that p,” because “communicates” reduces to
“intends” not to ‘fulfilled intention.’ Cooperation enters when we go beyond
ONE act of communication. To communicate is to give information and to
influence another, and it is also to receive information and to be influenced
by another. When these communicative objectives are made explicit, helpfulness
or cooperation becomes essential. He uses ‘converational cooperation” and
“supreme principle of conversational cooperation” (369). He uses ‘supreme
conversational principle” of “cooperativeness” (369), to avoid seeing the
conversational imperatives as an unorganized heap of conversational
obligations. Another variant is Grice’s use of “principle of conversational
co-operation.” He also uses “principle of conversational rational
co-operation.” Note that irrational or non-rational co-operation is not an
oxymoron. Another expression is conversational cooperative rationality. So
Grice was amused that you can just as well refer to ‘cooperative rationality”
or “rational cooperation,” “a category shift if ever there was one.”
conversational explicitum: To be explicit is bad manners at Oxford if not in Paris or
MIT. The thing is to imply! Englishmen are best at implying – their love for
understatement is unequalled in the world. Grice needs the explicatio, or
explicit. Because the mistake the philosopher makes is at the level of the
implicatio, as Nowell-Smith, and C. K. Grant had noted. It is not OBVIOUSLY at
the explicit level. Grice was never interested in the explicit level, and takes
a very cavalier attitude to it. “This brief indication of my use of say leaves
it open whether a man who says (today) Harold Wilson is a great man and another
who says (also today) The British Prime Minister is a great man would, if each
knew that the two singular terms had the same reference, have said the same
thing. But whatever decision is made about this question, the apparatus that I
am about to provide will be capable of accounting for any implicaturums that
might depend on the presence of one rather than another of these singular terms
in the sentence uttered. Such implicaturums would merely be related to
different maxims.”Rephrase: “A brief indication of my use of ‘the explicit’
leaves it open whether a man who states (today), ‘Harold Wilson is a great man’
thereby stating that Wilson is a great man, and another who states (also
today),‘The British Prime Minister is a great man,’ viz. that the Prime
Minister is a great mand, would, if each singular term, ‘the Prime Minister’
and ‘Wilson’ has the same denotatum (co-relata) have put forward in an explicit
fashion the same propositional complex, and have stated the same thing. On the
face of it, it would seem they have not. But cf. ‘Wilson will be the prime
minister’ versus ‘Wilson shall be the prime minister.’ Again, a subtler
question arises as to whether the first emissor who has stated that Wilson will
be the next prime minster and the other one who has stated that Wilson *shall*
be the next prime minster, have both but forward the same proposition. If the
futurm indicatum is ENTAILED by the futurum intentionale, the question is easy
to settle. Whatever methodological decision or stipulation I end up making
about the ‘explicitum,’ the apparatus that I rely on is capable of accounting
for any implicaturum that might depend on the presence of this or that singular
term in the utterance. Such an implicaturum would merely be related to a
different conversational maxims. Urmson has elaborated on this, “Mrs. Smith’s
husband just passed by.” “You mean the postman! Why did you use such contrived
‘signular term’?” If the emissor draws a skull what he explicitly conveys is
that this is a skull. This is the EPLICITUM. If he communicates that there is
danger, that’s via some further reasoning. That associates a skull with death. Grice’s
example is Grice displaying his bandaged leg. Strictly, he communicates that he
has a bandaged leg. Second, that his leg is bandaged (the bandage may be fake).
And third, that he cannot play cricket. It all started in Oxford when they
started to use ‘imply’ in a sense other than the ‘logical’ one. This got Grice
immersed in a deep exploration of types of ‘implication.’ There is the implicaturum,
and the implicitum, both from ‘implico.’ As correlative there is the
explicatio, which yields both the explicatum and the explicitum. Grice has
under the desideratum of conversational clarity that a conversationalist is
assumed to make the point of his conversational contribution ‘explicit.’ So in
his polemic with G. A. Paul, Grice knows that the ‘doubt-or-denial’ condition
will be at the level NOT of the explicitum or explicatum. Surely an implicaturum
can be CANCELLED explicitly. Grice uses ‘contextual’ or ‘explicit,’ here but
grants that the ‘contextual’ may be subsumed under the ‘explicit.’ It is when the sub-perceptual utterance is
copulated with the formulation of the explicatum of the implicaturum that Grice
shows G. A. Paul that the statement is still ‘true,’ and which Grice sees as a
reivindication of the causal theory of perception. In the twenty or so examples
of philosophical mistakes, both in “Causal” and “Prolegomena,” all the mistakes
can be rendered back to the ‘explicatum’ versus ‘implicaturum’ distinction.
Unfortunately, each requires a philosophical background to draw all the
‘implications,’ and Grice has been read by people without a philosophical
background who go on to criticise him for ignoring things where he never had
focused his attention on. His priority is to deal with these philosophical
mistakes. He also expects the philosopher to come up with a general
methodological statement. Grice distinguishes between the conversational
explicitum and the conversational explicatum. Grice plays with ‘explicit’ and
‘implicit’ at various places. He often uses ‘explicit’and ‘implicit’
adverbially: the utterer explicitly conveys that p versus the utterer
implicitly conveys that p (hints that p, suggests that p, indicates that p,
implicates that p, implies that p). Grice regards that both dimensions form
part of the total act of signification, accepting as a neutral variant, that
the utterer has signified that p.
conversational game: In a conversational game, you don’t say “The pillar box
seems red” if you know it IS red. So, philosophers at Oxford (like Austin,
Strawson, Hare, Hampshire, and Hart) are all victims of ignoring the rules of
the game, and just not understanding that a game is being played. the expression is used by Grice
systematically. He speaks of players making the conversational move in the
conversational game following the conversational rule, v. rational choice
conversational
haggle -- bargaining theory, the branch of game theory that
treats agreements, e.g., wage agreements between labor and management. In the
simplest bargaining problems there are two bargainers. They can jointly realize
various outcomes, including the outcome that occurs if they fail to reach an
agreement, i.e. if they fail to help each other or co-operate. Each bargainer
assigns a certain amount of utility to each outcome. The question is, what
outcome will they realise if each conversationalist is rational? Methods of
solving bargaining problems are controversial. The best-known proposals are Grice’s
and Nash’s and Kalai and Smorodinsky’s. Grice proposes that if you want to get
a true answer to your question, you should give a true answer to you
co-conversationalist’s question (“ceteris paribus”). Nash proposes maximizing
the product of utility gains with respect to the disagreement point. Kalai and
Smorodinsky propose maximsiing utility gains with respect to the disagreement
point, subject to the constraint that the ratio of utility gains equals the
ratio of greatest possible gains. These three methods of selecting an outcome
have been axiomatically characterized. For each method, there are certain
axioms of outcome selection such that that method alone satisfies the axioms.
The axioms incorporate principles of rationality from cooperative game theory.
They focus on features of outcomes rather than bargaining strategies. For
example, one axiom requires that the outcome selected be Pareto-optimal, i.e.,
be an outcome such that no alternative is better for one of the bargainers and
not worse for the other. A bargaining problem may become more complicated in
several ways. First, there may be more than two bargainers (“Suppose Austin
joins in.”). If unanimity is not required for beneficial agreements, splinter
groups or co-alitions may form. Second, the protocol for offers, counte-roffers
(“Where does C live?” “Why do you want to know?”) etc., may be relevant. Then
principles of *non-cooperative* but competitive game theory concerning war
strategies (“l’art de la guerre”) are needed to justify this or that solution.
Third, the context of a bargaining problem may be relevant. For instance,
opportunities for side payments, differences in bargaining power, and
interpersonal comparisons of utility may influence the solution. Fourth,
simplifying assumptions, such as the assumption that bargainers have complete
information about their bargaining situation, may be discarded. Bargaining
theory is part of the philosophical study of rationality. It is also important
in ethics as a foundation for contractarian theories of morality and for
certain theories of distributive justice.
conversational helpfulness. It’s not clear if ‘helpfulness’ has a Graeco-Roman
counterpart! The Grecians and the Romans could be VERY individualistic! – adiuvare,
(adiuare, old for adiūverare), iūtus, āre,” which Lewis and Short render as “to
help, assist, aid, support, further, sustain. “fortīs fortuna adiuvat, T.:
maerorem orationis meae lacrimis suis: suā sponte eos, N.: pennis adiutus
amoris, O.: in his causis: alqm ad percipiendam virtutem: si quid te adiuero,
poet ap. C.: ut alqd consequamur, adiuvisti: multum eorum opinionem adiuvabat,
quod, etc., Cs.—With ellips. of obj, to be of assistance, help: ad verum
probandum: non multum, Cs.: quam ad rem humilitas adiuvat, is convenient,
Cs.—Supin. acc.: Nectanebin adiutum profectus, N.—P. pass.: adiutus a
Demosthene, N.—Fig.: clamore militem, cheer, L.: adiuvat hoc quoque, this too
is useful, H.: curā adiuvat illam (formam), sets off his beauty, O. Grice is right that ‘cooperation’ does NOT equate
‘helpfulness’ and he appropriately changes
his earlier principle of conversational helpfulness to a principle of
conversational co-operation. Was there a Graeco-Roman equivalent for
Anglo-Saxon ‘help’? helpmeet (n.) a ghost word from the 1611 translation of the
Bible, where it originally was a two-word noun-adjective phrase translating
Latin adjutorium simile sibi [Genesis ii.18] as "an help meet for
him," and meaning literally "a helper like himself." See help
(n.) + meet (adj.). By 1670s it was hyphenated help-meet and mistaken as a
modified noun. Compare helpmate. The original Hebrew is 'ezer keneghdo. Related
entries & more aid (v.) "to
assist, help," c. 1400, from Old French aidier "help, assist"
(Modern French aider), from Latin adiutare, frequentative of adiuvare (past
participle adiutus) "to give help to," from ad "to" (see
ad-) + iuvare "to help, assist, give strength, support, sustain,"
which is from a PIE source perhaps related to the root of iuvenis "young
person" (see young (adj.)). Related: Aided; aiding. Related entries &
more succor (n.) c. 1200, socour,
earlier socours "aid, help," from Anglo-French succors "help,
aid," Old French socors, sucurres "aid, help, assistance"
(Modern French secours), from Medieval Latin succursus "help,
assistance," from past participle of Latin succurrere "run to help,
hasten to the aid of," from assimilated form of sub "up to" (see
sub-) + currere "to run" (from PIE root *kers- "to run").
Final -s mistaken in English as a plural inflection and dropped late 13c.
Meaning "one who aids or helps" is from c. 1300. There is a fashion
in which to help is to cooperate, but co-operate, strictly, requires operation
by A and operation by B. We do use cooperate loosely. “She is very
cooperative.” “Help” seems less formal. One can help without ever engaging or
honouring the other’s goal. I can help you buy a house, say. So the principle
of conversational cooperation is stricter and narrower than the principle of
conversational helpfulness. Cooperation involves reciprocity and mutuality in a
way that helpfulness does not. That’s why Grice needs to emphasise that there
is an expectation of MUTUAL helpfulness. One is expected to be helpful, and one
expects the other to be helpful. Grice was doubtful about the implicaturum of
‘co-operative,’ – after all, who at Oxford wants a ‘co-operative.’ It sounds
anti-Oxonian. So Grice elaborates on ‘helping others’ and ‘assuming others will
help you’ in the event that we ‘are doing something together.’ Does this equate
cooperation, he wonders. Just in case, he uses ‘helpfulness’ as a variant.
There are other concepts he plays with, notably ‘altruism,’ and ‘benevolence,’
or other-love.’Helpfulness is Grice’s favourite virtue. Grice is clear that
reciprocity is essential here. One exhibits helpfulness and expects helpfulness
from his conversational partner. He dedicates a set of seven lectures to it,
entitled as follows. Lecture 1, Prolegomena; Lecture 2: Logic and Conversation;
Lecture 3: Further notes on logic and conversation; Lecture 4: Indicative
conditionals; Lecture 5: Us meaning and intentions; Lecture 6: Us meaning,
sentence-meaning, and word-meaning; and Lecture 7: Some models for implicaturum.
I hope they dont expect me to lecture on James! Grice admired James, but
not vice versa. Grice entitled the set as being Logic and Conversation.
That is the title, also, of the second lecture. Grice keeps those titles seeing
that it was way the whole set of lectures were frequently cited, and that the
second lecture had been published under that title in Davidson and
Harman, The Logic of Grammar. The content of each lecture is
indicated below. In the first, Grice manages to quote from
Witters. In the last, he didnt! The original set consisted of
seven lectures. To wit: Prolegomena, Logic and conversation, Further notes on
logic and conversation, Indicative Conditionals, Us meaning and intentions, Us
meaning, sentence-meaning, and word meaning, and Some models for implicaturum.
They were pretty successful at Oxford. While the notion of an implicaturum had
been introduced by Grice at Oxford, even in connection with a principle of
conversational helpfulness, he takes the occasion now to explore the type of
rationality involved. Observation of the principle of conversational
helpfulness is rational (reasonable) along the following lines: anyone who
cares about the two central goals to conversation (give/receive information,
influence/be influened) is expected to have an interest in participating in a
conversation that is only going to be profitable given that it is conducted
along the lines set by the principle of conversational helpfulness. In
Prolegomena he lists Austin, Strawson, Hare, Hart, and himself, as victims of a
disregard for the implicaturum. In the third lecture he introduces his razor,
Senses are not to be muliplied beyond necessity. In Indicative conditionals he
tackles Strawson on if as not representing the horse-shoe of Whitehead and Russell.
The next two lectures on the meaning by the utterer and intentions, and meaning
by the utterer, sentence-meaning, and word-meaning refine his earlier, more
austere, account of this particularly Peirceian phenomenon. He concludes the
lectures with an exploration on the relevance of the implicaturum to philosophical
psychology. Grice was well aware that many philosophers had become
enamoured with the s. and would love to give it a continuous perusal. The set
is indeed grandiose. It starts with a Prolegomena to set the scene: He notably
quotes himself in it, which helps, but also Strawson, which sort of justifies
the general title. In the second lecture, Logic and Conversation, he expands on
the principle of conversational helpfulness and the explicitum/implicaturum
distinction – all very rationalist! The third lecture is otiose in that he
makes fun of Ockham: Senses are not to be multiplied beyond necessity. The
fourth lecture, on Indicative conditionals, is indeed on MOST of the formal
devices he had mentioned on Lecture II, notably the functors (rather than the quantifiers
and the iota operator, with which he deals in Presupposition and conversational
implicaturum, since, as he notes, they refer to reference). This lecture is the
centrepiece of the set. In the fifth lecture, he plays with mean, and discovers
that it is attached to the implicaturum or the implicitum. In the sixth
lecture, he becomes a nominalist, to use Bennetts phrase, as he deals with dog
and shaggy in terms of this or that resultant procedure. Dont ask me what they
are! Finally, in “Some models for implicaturum,” he attacks the charge of
circularity, and refers to nineteenth-century explorations on the idea of
thought without language alla Wundt. I dont think a set of James lectures had
even been so comprehensive! Conversational helpfulness. This is Grice at his
methodological best. He was aware that the type of philosophying he was about
to criticise wass a bit dated, but whats wrong with being old-fashioned? While
this may be seen as a development of his views on implicaturum at that seminal
Oxford seminar, it may also be seen as Grice popularising the views for a
New-World, non-Oxonian audience. A discussion of Oxonian philosophers of
the play group of Grice, notably Austin, Hare, Hart, and Strawson. He adds
himself for good measure (“Causal theory”). Philosophers, even at Oxford, have
to be careful with the attention that is due to general principles of
discourse. Grice quotes philosophers of an earlier generation, such as Ryle,
and some interpreters or practitioners of Oxonian analysis, such as Benjamin
and Searle. He even manages to quote from Witterss Philosophical
investigations, on seeing a banana as a banana. There are further items in the
Grice collection that address Austins manoeuvre, Austin on ifs and cans, Ifs
and cans, : conditional, power. Two of Grices favourites. He opposed
Strawsons view on if. Grice thought that if was the horseshoe of Whitehead and
Russell, provided we add an implicaturum to an entailment. The can is
merely dispositional, if not alla Ryle, alla Grice! Ifs and cans, intention,
disposition. Austin had brought the topic to the fore as an exploration of
free will. Pears had noted that conversational implicaturum may account for the
conditional perfection (if yields iff). Cf. Ayers on Austin on if and can.
Recall that for Grice the most idiomatic way to express a disposition is with
the Subjectsive mode, the if, and the can ‒ The ice can break. Cf. the mistake:
It is not the case that what you must do, you can do. The can-may distinction
is one Grice played with too. As with will and shall, the attachment of one
mode to one of the lexemes is pretty arbitrary and not etymologically justified
‒ pace Fowler on it being a privilege of this or that Southern Englishman as
Fowler is. If he calls it Prolegomena, he is being jocular. Philosophers
Mistakes would have been too provocative. Benjamin, or rather Broad, erred, and
so did Ryle, and Ludwig Witters, and my friends, Austin (the mater that
wobbled), and in order of seniority, Hart (I heard him defend this about
carefully – stopping at every door in case a dog comes out at breakneck speed),
Hare (To say good is to approve), and Strawson (“Logical theory”: To utter if
p, q is to implicate some inferrability, To say true! is to endorse –
Analysis). If he ends with Searle, he is being jocular. He quotes Searle from
an essay in British philosophy in Lecture I, and from an essay in Philosophy in
America in Lecture V. He loved Searle, and expands on the Texas oilmens club
example! We may think of Grice as a linguistic botanizer or a meta-linguistic
botanizer: his hobby was to collect philosophers mistakes, and he catalogued
them. In Causal theory he produces his first list of seven. The pillar box
seems red to me. One cannot see a dagger as a dagger. Moore didnt know that the
objects before him were his own hands. What is actual is not also possible. For
someone to be called responsible, his action should be condemnable. A cause
must be given only of something abnormal or unusual (cf. ætiology). If you know
it, you dont believe it. In the Prolegomena, the taxonomy is more complicated.
Examples A (the use of an expression, by Austin, Benjamin, Grice, Hart, Ryle,
Wittgenstein), Examples B (Strawson on and, or, and especially if), and
Examples C (Strawson on true and Hare on good – the performative theories). But
even if his taxonomy is more complicated, he makes it more SO by giving other examples
as he goes on to discuss how to assess the philosophical mistake. Cf. his
elaboration on trying, I saw Mrs. Smith cashing a cheque, Trying to cash a
cheque, you mean. Or cf. his remarks on remember, and There is an analogy here
with a case by Wittgenstein. In summary, he wants to say. Its the philosopher
who makes his big mistake. He has detected, as Grice has it, some
conversational nuance. Now he wants to exploit it. But before rushing ahead to
exploit the conversational nuance he has detected, or identified, or collected
in his exercise of linguistic botanising, the philosopher should let us know
with clarity what type of a nuance it is. For Grice wants to know that the
nuance depends on a general principle (of goal-directed behaviour in general,
and most likely rational) governing discourse – that participants in a
conversation should be aware of, and not on some minutiæ that has been
identified by the philosopher making the mistake, unsystematically, and merely
descriptively, and taxonomically, but without ONE drop of explanatory adequacy.
The fact that he directs this to his junior Strawson is the sad thing. The rest
are all Grices seniors! The point is of philosophical interest, rather than
other. And he keeps citing philosophers, Tarski or Ramsey, in the third James
leture, to elaborate the point about true in Prolegomena. He never seems
interested in anything but an item being of philosophical interest, even if
that means HIS and MINE! On top, he is being Oxonian: Only at Oxford my
colleagues were so obsessed, as it has never been seen anywhere else, about the
nuances of conversation. Only they were all making a big mistake in having no
clue as to what the underlying theory of conversation as rational co-operation
would simplify things for them – and how! If I introduce the explicatum as a
concession, I shall hope I will be pardoned! Is Grices intention epagogic, or
diagogic in Prolegomena? Is he trying to educate Strawson, or just delighting
in proving Strawson wrong? We think the former. The fact that he quotes himself
shows that Grice is concerned with something he still sees, and for the rest of
his life will see, as a valid philosophical problem. If philosophy generated no
problems it would be dead. Refs.: H. P. Grice, “Whence I took helpfulness,’; the
main sources are the two sets on ‘logic and conversation.’ There are good
paraphrases in other essays when he summarises his own views, as he did at
Urbana. The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
conversational imperative: Grice is loose in the use of ‘imperative.’ It obviously
has to do with the will in command mode! -- The problem with ‘command’ is that
for Habermas, it springs from ‘power,’ and we need to have it sprung from
‘auctoritas,’ rather – the voice of reason, that is – “Impero” gives also pre-pare.
“Imperare, prepare, etc. What was the Greek for ‘imperative mode’? προστακτική
prostaktike. προσ-τακτικός , ή, όν, A.of or for
commanding, imperative, imperious, τὸ π. [ἡ ψυχή], opp. τὸ ὑπηρετικόν (of the
body), Arist.Top.128b19; “π. τινῶν” Corn.ND16; “λόγος” Plu.2.1037f;
Προστακτικός (sc. λόγος), title of work by Protagoras, D.L.9.55; “βραχυλογία”
Plu.Phoc.5; also of persons, “ἄρχων” Max.Tyr.13.2 (Sup.). II. Gramm., ἡ -κὴ
ἔγκλισις the imperative mood, D.T.638.7, A.D.Synt.31.20; π. ἐκφορὰ τῶν ῥημάτων
ib.69.20; “τὸ π. σχῆμα” Anon.Fig.24; also “τὸ -κόν” D.L. 7.66,67, Ps.-Plu.Vit.Hom.53.
Adv. “-κῶς” in the imperative mood, D.H.4.18, Sch.Ar.Av.1163.Grice became
famous for his ‘maxims,’ which in Nowell-Smith’s view they are more like rules
of etiquette for sylish conversation. As such, many had been proposed. But
Grice proposes them AS A PHILOSOPHER would, and ONLY TO REBUFF the mistake made
by this or that philosopher who would rather EXPLAIN the phenomenon in terms
OTHER than involving as PART OF THE DATA, i. e. as a datum (as he says) or
assumption, that there are these ‘assumptions,’ which guide behaviour. Grice is
having in mind Kant’s “Imperativ.” He also uses ‘conversational objective.” In
most versions that Grice provides of the ‘general expectations’ of rational
discourse, he chooses the obvious imperative form. On occasion he does use
‘imperative.’ Grice is vague as to the term of choice for this or that
‘expectation.’ According to Strawson, Grice even once used ‘conversational
rule,’ and he does use ‘conversational rule of the conversational game of
making this or that conversational move.’ Notably, he also uses ‘conversational
principle,’ and ‘conversational desideratum.’ And ‘maxim’! And ‘conversational
directive (371), and ‘conversational obligation’ (369). By ‘conversational
maxim,’ he means ‘conversational maxim.’ He uses ‘conversational sub-maxim’
very occasionally. He rather uses ‘conversational super-maxim.’ He uses
‘immanuel,’ and he uses ‘conversational immanuel.’ It is worth noting that the
choice of word influences the exegesis. Loar takes these things to be ‘empirical
generalisations over functional states’! And Grice agrees that there is a dull,
empiricist way, in which these things can be seen as things people conform to.
There is a quasi-contractualist approach to: things people convene on. And
there is an Ariskantian approach: things people SHOULD abide by. Surely Grice
is not requiring that the conversationalists ARE explicitly or consciously
AWARE of these things. There is a principle of effort of economical reason to
cope with that!
conversational implicaturum. Grice plays with the ambiguity of ‘implication’ as a
logical term, and ‘implicitness’ as a rhetorical one. He wants to make a
distinction between ‘dicere,’ to convey explicitly that p, and to convey
implicitly, or ‘imply’ (always applied to the emissor) that q. A joke. Surely
if he is going to use ‘implicaturum’ in Roman, this would be ‘implicaturum
conversationale,’ if there were such thing. And there were! The Roman is formed
from cum- plus ‘verso.’ So there’s Roman ‘conversatio.’ And –alis, ale is a
productive suffix. Or implicitum. Grice
is being philosophical and sticking with ‘implicatio’ as used by logicians.
Implicitum does not have much of a philosophical pedigree. But even
‘implicatio’ was not THAT used, ‘consequentia’ was preferred, as in ‘non
sequitur, and seguitur, quod demonstrandumm erat. Strawson criticism of ‘the,’
only tentative by Grice, unlike ‘if,’ so forgivable! See common-ground status. Grice
loved an implicaturum. The use of ‘conversational’ by Grice is NEVER emphatic.
In his detailed, even fastidious, taxonomy of ‘implication,’ he decisively does
not want to have a mere conventional implicaturum (as in “She was poor but she
was honest”) as conversational. Not even a “Thank you”, generated by the maxim
“be polite.” That would be an implicaturum which is nonconventional and yet NOT
conversational, because ‘be polite’ is NOT a conversational maxim (moral,
aesthetic, and social maxims are not). And an implicaturum. An elaboration of
his Oxonian seminar on Logic and conversation. Theres a principle of
conversational helpfulness, which includes a desideratum of conversational
candour and a desideratum of conversational clarity, and the sub-principle of
conversational self-interest clashing with the sub-principle of conversational
benevolence. The whole point of the manoeuvre is to provide a rational basis
for a conversational implicaturum, as his term of art goes. Observation of the
principle of conversational helpfulness is rational/reasonable along the
following lines: anyone who is interested in the two goals conversation is
supposed to serve ‒ give/receive information, influence/be influenced ‒ should
only care to enter a conversation that will be only profitable under the
assumption that it is conducted in accordance with the principle of
conversational helfpulness, and attending desiderata and sub-principles. Grice
takes special care in listing tests for the proof that an implicaturum is
conversational in this rather technical usage: a conversational implicaturum is
rationally calculable (it is the content of a psychological state, attitude or
stance that the addressee assigns to the utterer on condition that he is being
helpful), non-detachable, indeterminate, and very cancellable, thus never part
of the sense and never an entailment of this or that piece of philosophical
vocabulary, in Davidson and Harman, the logic of Grammar, also in Cole and
Morgan, repr. in a revised form in Grice, logic and conversation, the second
James lecture, : principle of conversational helpfulness, implicaturum,
cancellability. While the essay was also repr. by Cole and Morgan. Grice
always cites it from the two-column reprint in The Logic of Grammar, ed. by
Davidson and Harman. Most people without a philosophical background first encounter
Grice through this essay. A philosopher usually gets first acquainted with his
In defence of a dogma, or Meaning. In Logic and Conversation, Grice
re-utilises the notion of an implicaturum and the principle of conversational helpfulness
that he introduced at Oxford to a more select audience. The idea Grice is that
the observation of the principle of conversational helfpulness is rational
(reasonable) along the following lines: anyone who is concerned with the
two goals which are central to conversation (to give/receive information,
to influence/be influenced) should be interested in participating in a
conversation that is only going to be profitable on the assumption that it
is conducted along the lines of the principle of conversational
helfpulness. Grices point is methodological. He is not at all interested
in conversational exchanges as such. Unfortunately, the essay starts in
media res, and skips Grices careful list of Oxonian examples of disregard
for the key idea of what a conversant implicates by the conversational
move he makes. His concession is that there is an explicatum or explicitum
(roughly, the logical form) which is beyond pragmatic constraints. This
concession is easily explained in terms of his overarching irreverent,
conservative, dissenting rationalism. This lecture alone had been read by
a few philosophers leaving them confused. I do not know what Davidson and
Harman were thinking when they reprinted just this in The logic of grammar. I
mean: it is obviously in media res. Grice starts with the logical devices, and
never again takes the topic up. Then he explores metaphor, irony, and
hyperbole, and surely the philosopher who bought The logic of grammar must be
left puzzled. He has to wait sometime to see the thing in full completion.
Oxonian philosophers would, out of etiquette, hardly quote from unpublished
material! Cohen had to rely on memory, and thats why he got all his Grice
wrong! And so did Strawson in If and the horseshoe. Even Walker responding to
Cohen is relying on memory. Few philosophers quote from The logic of grammar.
At Oxford, everybody knew what Grice was up to. Hare was talking implicaturum
in Mind, and Pears was talking conversational implicaturum in Ifs and cans. And
Platts was dedicating a full chapter to “Causal Theory”. It seems the Oxonian
etiquette was to quote from Causal Theory. It was obvious that Grices
implication excursus had to read implicaturum! In a few dictionaries of
philosophy, such as Hamlyns, under implication, a reference to Grices locus
classicus Causal theory is made – Passmore quotes from Causal theory in Hundred
years of philosophy. Very few Oxonians would care to buy a volume published in
Encino. Not many Oxonian philosophers ever quoted The logic of grammar, though.
At Oxford, Grices implicatura remained part of the unwritten doctrines of a
few. And philosophers would not cite a cajoled essay in the references. The implicaturum
allows a display of truth-functional Grice. For substitutional-quantificational
Grice we have to wait for his treatment of the. In Prolegomena, Grice had
quoted verbatim from Strawsons infamous idea that there is a sense of
inferrability with if. While the lecture covers much more than if (He only said
if; Oh, no, he said a great deal more than that! the title was never meant to
be original. Grice in fact provides a rational justification for the three
connectives (and, or, and if) and before that, the unary functor not.
Embedding, Indicative conditionals: embedding, not and If, Sinton on Grice on
denials of indicative conditionals, not, if. Strawson had elaborated on
what he felt was a divergence between Whiteheads and Russells horseshoe, and
if. Grice thought Strawsons observations could be understood in terms of
entailment + implicaturum (Robbing Peter to Pay Paul). But problems, as first noted
to Grice, by Cohen, of Oxford, remain, when it comes to the scope of the implicaturum
within the operation of, say, negation. Analogous problems arise with implicatura
for the other earlier dyadic functors, and and or, and Grice looks for a single
explanation of the phenomenon. The qualification indicative is modal.
Ordinary language allows for if utterances to be in modes other than the
imperative. Counter-factual, if you need to be philosophical krypto-technical,
Subjectsive is you are more of a classicist! Grice took a cavalier to the
problem: Surely it wont do to say You couldnt have done that, since you were in
Seattle, to someone who figuratively tells you hes spend the full summer
cleaning the Aegean stables. This, to philosophers, is the centerpiece of the
lectures. Grice takes good care of not, and, or, and concludes with the if of
the title. For each, he finds a métier, alla Cook Wilson in Statement and
Inference. And they all connect with rationality. So he is using material from
his Oxford seminars on the principle of conversational helpfulness. Plus Cook
Wilson makes more sense at Oxford than at Harvard! The last bit, citing Kripke
and Dummett, is meant as jocular. What is important is the teleological
approach to the operators, where a note should be made about dyadicity. In
Prolegomena, when he introduces the topic, he omits not (about which he was
almost obsessed!). He just gives an example for and (He went to bed and took
off his dirty boots), one for or (the garden becomes Oxford and the kitchen
becomes London, and the implicaturum is in terms, oddly, of ignorance: My wife
is either in town or country,making fun of Town and Country), and if. His
favourite illustration for if is Cock Robin: If the Sparrow did not kill him,
the Lark did! This is because Grice is serious about the erotetic, i.e.
question/answer, format Cook Wilson gives to things, but he manages to bring
Philonian and Megarian into the picture, just to impress! Most importantly, he
introduces the square brackets! Hell use them again in Presupposition and
Conversational Implicaturum and turns them into subscripts in Vacuous Namess.
This is central. For he wants to impoverish the idea of the implicaturum. The
explicitum is minimal, and any divergence is syntactic-cum-pragmatic import.
The scope devices are syntactic and eliminable, and as he knows: what the eye
no longer sees, the heart no longer grieves for! The modal implicaturum.
Since Grice uses indicative, for the title of his third James lecture
(Indicative Conditionals) surely he implicates subjunctive ‒ i.e.
that someone might be thinking that he should give an account of
indicative-cum-subjective. This relates to an example Grice gives in Causal
theory, that he does not reproduce in Prolegomena. Grice states the philosophical
mistake as follows. What is actual is not also possible. Grice seems to be
suggesting that a subjective conditional would involve one or other of the
modalities, he is not interested in exploring. On the other hand, Mackie has
noted that Grices conversationalist hypothesis (Mackie quotes verbatim from
Grices principle of conversational helpfulness) allows for an explanation of
the Subjectsive if that does not involve Kripke-type paradoxes involving
possible worlds, or other. In Causal Theory, Grice notes that the issue with
which he has 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 he 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. An examples which occurs to
me is the following. What is actual is not also possible. 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 Grices objector seems to Grice to
involve a type of manoeuvre which is characteristic of more than one
contemporary mode of philosophizing. He is not condemning that kind of
manoeuvre. He 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. If was also of special interest to Grice
for many other reasons. He defends a dispositional account of intending that in
terms of ifs and cans. He considers akrasia conditionally. He explored the
hypothetical-categorical distinction in the buletic mode. He was concerned with
therefore as involved with the associated if of entailment. Refs.: “Implicaturum”
is introduced in Essay 2 in WoW – but there are scattered references elsewhere.
He often uses the plural ‘implicatura’ too, as in “Retrospective Epilogue,” The
H. P. Grice Papers, BANC. An implicaturum requires a complexum. Frege was the
topic of the explorations by Dummett. A tutee of Grices once brought
Dummetts Frege to a tutorial and told Grice that he intended to explore
this. Have you read it? No I havent, Grice answered. And after a pause, he
went on: And I hope I will not. Hardly promising, the tutee thought. Some
authors, including Grice, but alas, not Frege, have noted some similarities
between Grices notion of a conventional implicaturum and Freges schematic and
genial rambles on colouring. Aber Farbung, as Frege would state! Grice was more
interested in the idea of a Fregeian sense, but he felt that if he had to play
with Freges aber he should! One of Grices metaphysical construction-routines,
the Humeian projection, is aimed at the generation of concepts, in most cases
the rational reconstruction of an intuitive concept displayed in ordinary
discourse. We arrive at something like a Fregeian sense. Grice exclaimed,
with an intonation of Eureka, almost. And then he went back to
Frege. Grices German was good, so he could read Frege, in the vernacular.
For fun, he read Frege to his children (Grices, not Freges): In einem obliquen
Kontext, Frege says, Grice says, kann ja z. B. die Ersetzung eines „aber durch
ein „und, die in einem direkten Kontext keinen Unterschied des Wahrheitswerts
ergibt, einen solchen Unterschied bewirken. Ill make that easy for you,
darlings: und is and, and aber is but. But surely, Papa, aber is not cognate
with but! Its not. That is Anglo-Saxon, for you. But is strictly Anglo-Saxon
short for by-out; we lost aber when we sailed the North Sea. Grice went on:
Damit wird eine Abgrenzung von Sinn und Färbung (oder Konnotationen) eines
Satzes fragwürdig. I. e. he is saying that She was poor but she was honest only
conventionally implicates that there is a contrast between her poverty and her
honesty. I guess he heard the ditty during the War? Grice ignored that remark,
and went on: Appell und Kundgabe wären ferner von Sinn und Färbung genauer zu
unterscheiden. Ich weiß so auf interessante Bedeutungs Komponenten hin,
bemüht sich aber nicht, sie genauer zu differenzieren, da er letztlich nur
betonen will, daß sie in der Sprache der Logik keine Rolle spielen. They play a
role in the lingo, that is! What do? Stuff like but. But surely they are not
rational conversational implicatura!? No, dear, just conventional tricks you
can ignore on a nice summer day! Grice however was never interested in what he
dismissively labels the conventional implicaturum. He identifies it because he
felt he must! Surely, the way some Oxonian philosophers learn to use stuff
like, on the one hand, and on the other, (or how Grice learned how to use men
and de in Grecian), or so, or therefore, or but versus and, is just to allow
that he would still use imply in such cases. But surely he wants conversational
to stick with rationality: conversational maxim and converational implicaturum
only apply to things which can be justified transcendentally, and not
idiosyncrasies of usage! Grice follows Church in noting that Russell misreads
Frege as being guilty of ignoring the use-mention distinction, when he doesnt.
One thing that Grice minimises is that Freges assertion sign is composite. Tha
is why Baker prefers to use the dot “.” as the doxastic correlative for the
buletic sign ! which is NOT composite. The sign „├‟ is composite. Frege
explains his Urteilstrich, the vertical component of his sign ├ as conveying
assertoric force. The principal role of the horizontal component as such is to
prevent the appearance of assertoric force belonging to a token of what does
not express a thought (e.g. the expression 22). ─p expresses a thought even if
p does not.) cf. Hares four sub-atomic particles: phrastic (dictum), neustic
(dictor), tropic, and clistic. Cf. Grice on the radix controversy: We do not
want the “.” in p to become a vanishing sign. Grices Frege, Frege, Words, and
Sentences, Frege, Farbung, aber. Frege was one of Grices obsessions. A Fregeian
sense is an explicatum, or implicitum, a concession to get his principle of
conversational helpfulness working in the generation of conversational implicatura,
that can only mean progress for philosophy! Fregeian senses are not to be
multiplied beyond necessity. The employment of the routine of Humeian
projection may be expected to deliver for us, as its result,
a concept – the concept(ion) of value, say, in something like a
Fregeian sense, rather than an object. There is also a strong affinity
between Freges treatment of colouring (of the German particle aber, say) and
Grices idea of a convetional implicaturum (She was poor, but she was
honest,/and her parents were the same,/till she met a city feller,/and she lost
her honest Names, as the vulgar Great War ditty went). Grice does not seem
interested in providing a philosophical exploration of conventional implicatura,
and there is a reason for this. Conventional implicatura are not
essentially connected, as conversational implicatura are, with rationality.
Conventional implicatura cannot be calculable. They have less of a
philosophical interest, too, in that they are not cancellable. Grice sees
cancellability as a way to prove some (contemporary to him, if dated)
ordinary-language philosophers who analyse an expression in terms of sense and
entailment, where a cancellable conversational implicaturum is all there is (to
it). He mentions Benjamin in Prolegomena, and is very careful in noting
how Benjamin misuses a Fregeian sense. In his Causal theory, Grice lists
another mistake: What is known to be the case is not believed to be the
case. Grice gives pretty few example of a conventional implicaturum:
therefore, as in the utterance by Jill: Jack is an Englishman; he is,
therefore, brave. This is interesting because therefore compares to so
which Strawson, in PGRICE, claims is the asserted counterpart to if. But
Strawson is never associated with the type of linguistic botany that Grice is.
Grice also mentions the idiom, on the one hand/on the other hand, in some
detail in “Epilogue”: My aunt was a nurse in the Great War; my sister, on the
other hand, lives on a peak at Darien. Grice thinks that Frege misuses the
use-mention distinction but Russell corrects that. Grice bases this on Church.
And of course he is obsessed with the assertion sign by Frege, which Grice
thinks has one stroke tooo many. The main reference is give above for
‘complexum.’ Those without a philosophical background tend to ignore a joke by
Grice. His echoing Kant in the James is a joke, in the sense that he is using
Katns well-known to be pretty artificial quartet of ontological caegories to
apply to a totally different phenomenon: the taxonomy of the maxims! In his
earlier non-jocular attempts, he applied more philosophical concepts with a
more serious rationale. His key concept, conversation as rational co-operation,
underlies all his attempts. A pretty worked-out model is in terms then of this
central, or overarching principle of conversational helpfulness (where
conversation as cooperation need not be qualified as conversation as rational
co-operation) and being structured by two contrasting sub-principles: the
principle of conversational benevolence (which almost overlaps with the
principle of conversational helpfulness) and the slightly more jocular
principle of conversational self-love. There is something oxymoronic about
self-love being conversational, and this is what leads to replace the two
subprinciples by a principle of conversational helfpulness (as used in WoW:IV)
simpliciter. His desideratum of conversational candour is key. The clash
between the desideratum of conversational candour and the desideratum of
conversational clarity (call them supermaxims) explains why I believe that p
(less clear than p) shows the primacy of candour over clarity. The idea remains
of an overarching principle and a set of more specific guidelines. Non-Oxonian
philosophers would see Grices appeal to this or that guideline as ad hoc, but
not his tutees! Grice finds inspiration in Joseph Butler’s sermon on benevolence
and self-love, in his sermon 9, upon the love of our neighbour, preached on
advent Sunday. And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly
comprehended in this saying, Namesly, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,
Romans xiii. 9. It is commonly observed, that there is a disposition in
men to complain of the viciousness and corruption of the age in which they
live, as greater than that of former ones: which is usually followed with this
further observation, that mankind has been in that respect much the same in all
times. Now, to determine whether this last be not contradicted by the accounts
of history: thus much can scarce be doubted, that vice and folly takes
different turns, and some particular kinds of it are more open and avowed in
some ages than in others; and, I suppose, it may be spoken of as very much the
distinction of the present, to profess a contracted spirit, and greater regards
to self-interest, than appears to have been done formerly. Upon this account it
seems worth while to inquire, whether private interest is likely to be promoted
in proportion to the degree in which self-love engrosses us, and prevails over
all other principles; "or whether the contracted affection may not
possibly be so prevalent as to disappoint itself, and even contradict its own
end, private good?" Repr. in revised form as WOW, I. Grice felt
the need to go back to his explantion (cf. Fisher, Never contradict. Never
explain) of the nuances about seem and cause (“Causal theory”.). Grice uses ‘My
wife is in the kitchen or the bedroom,’ by Smith, as relying on a requirement
of discourse. But there must be more to it. Variations on a theme by Grice.
Make your contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by
the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are
engaged. Variations on a theme by Grice. I wish to represent a
certain subclass of non-conventional implicaturcs, which I shall
call conversational implicaturcs, as being essentially connected with
certain general features of discourse; so my next step is to try to say what
these features are. The following may provide a first approximation to a
general principle. Our talk exchanges do not normally consist of a succession
of disconnected remarks, and would not be rational if they did. They are
characteristically, to some degree at least, cooperative efforts; and each
participant recognizes in them, to some extent, a common purpose or set of
purposes, or at least a mutually accepted direction. This purpose or direction
may be fixed from the start (e.g., by an initial proposal of a question for
discussion), or it may evolve during the exchange; it may be fairly definite,
or it may be so indefinite as to leave very considerable latitude to the
participants, as in a casual conversation. But at each stage, some possible
conversational moves would be excluded as conversationally unsuitable. We might
then formulate a rough general principle which participants will be expected
ceteris paribus to observe, viz.: Make your conversational contribution such as
is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or
direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged. One might label this
the co-operative principle. We might then formulate a rough general principle
which participants will be expected ceteris paribus to
observe, viz.: Make your contribution such as is required, at the
stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk
exchange in which you are engaged. One might label this the Cooperative
Principle. Strictly, the principle itself is not co-operative: conversants
are. Less literary variant: Make your move such as is required by the
accepted goal of the conversation in which you are engaged. But why logic and
conversation? Logica had been part of the trivium for ages ‒ Although they
called it dialectica, then. Grice on the seven liberal arts. Moved by
Strawsons treatment of the formal devices in “Introduction to logical theory”
(henceforth, “Logical theory”), Grice targets these, in their
ordinary-discourse counterparts. Strawson indeed characterizes Grice as his
logic tutor – Strawson was following a PPE., and his approach to logic is
practical. His philosophy tutor was Mabbott. For Grice, with a M. A. Lit.
Hum. the situation is different. Grice knows that the Categoriae and De Int. of
his beloved Aristotle are part of the Logical Organon which had been so
influential in the history of philosophy. Grice attempts to reconcile
Strawsons observations with the idea that the formal devices reproduce some
sort of explicatum, or explicitum, as identified by Whitehead and Russell in
Principia Mathematica. In the proceedings, Grice has to rely on some general
features of discourse, or conversation as a rational co-operation. The
alleged divergence between the ordinary-language operators and their formal
counterparts is explained in terms of the conversational implicatura,
then. I.e. the content of the psychological attitude that the addressee A has
to ascribe to the utterer U to account for any divergence between the formal
device and its alleged ordinary-language counterpart, while still assuming that
U is engaged in a co-operative transaction. The utterer and his
addressee are seen as caring for the mutual goals of conversation ‒
the exchange of information and the institution of decisions ‒ and
judging that conversation will only be profitable (and thus reasonable and
rational) if conducted under some form of principle of conversational
helpfulness. The observation of a principle of conversational helpfulness
is reasonable (rational) along the following lines: anyone who cares
about the goals that are central to conversation/communication (such as giving
and receiving information, influencing and being influenced by others) must be
expected to have an interest, given suitable circumstances, in participating in
a conversation that will be profitable ONLY on the assumption that it is
conducted in general accordance with a principle of conversational
helpfulness. In titling his seminar Logic and conversation, Grice is thinking
Strawson. After all, in the seminal “Logical theory,” that every Oxonian
student was reading, Strawson had the cheek to admit that he never ceased to
learn logic from his tutor, Grice. Yet he elaborates a totally anti Griceian
view of things. To be fair to Strawson, the only segment where he acknwoledges
Grices difference of opinion is a brief footnote, concerning the strength or
lack thereof, of this or that quantified utterance. Strawson uses an adjective
that Grice will seldom do, pragmatic. On top, Strawson attributes the adjective
to rule. For Grice, in Strawsons wording, there is this or that pragmatic rule
to the effect that one should make a stronger rather than a weaker
conversational move. Strawsons Introduction was published before Grice aired
his views for the Aristotelian Society. In this seminar then Grice takes the
opportunity to correct a few misunderstandings. Important in that it is
Grices occasion to introduce the principle of conversational helpfulness as
generating implicatura under the assumption of rationality. The lecture makes
it obvious that Grices interest is methodological, and not philological. He is
not interest in conversation per se, but only as the source for his principle
of conversational helpfulness and the notion of the conversational implicaturum,
which springs from the distinction between what an utterer implies and what his
expression does, a distinction apparently denied by Witters and all too
frequently ignored by Austin. Logic and conversation, an Oxford seminar, implicaturum,
principle of conversational helpfulness, eywords: conversational implicaturum,
conversational implicaturum. Conversational Implicaturum Grices main
invention, one which trades on the distinction between what an utterer implies
and what his expression does. A distinction apparently denied by Witters,
and all too frequently ignored by, of all people, Austin. Grice is
implicating that Austins sympathies were for the Subjectsification of
Linguistic Nature. Grice remains an obdurate individualist, and never
loses sight of the distinction that gives rise to the conversational implicaturum,
which can very well be hyper-contextualised, idiosyncratic, and perfectly
particularized. His gives an Oxonian example. I can very well mean that my
tutee is to bring me a philosophical essay next week by uttering It is
raining.Grice notes that since the object of the present exercise, is to
provide a bit of theory which will explain, for a certain family of
cases, why is it that a particular implicaturum is present, I
would suggest that the final test of the adequacy and utility of this
model should be: can it be used to construct an explanation of
the presence of such an implicaturum, and is it more comprehensive
and more economical than any rival? is the no doubt pre-theoretical explanation
which one would be prompted to give of such an implicaturum consistent with, or
better still a favourable pointer towards the requirements involved in the
model? cf. Sidonius: Far otherwise: whoever disputes with you will find those
protagonists of heresy, the Stoics, Cynics, and Peripatetics, shattered with
their own arms and their own engines; for their heathen followers, if they
resist the doctrine and spirit of Christianity, will, under your teaching, be
caught in their own familiar entanglements, and fall headlong into their
own toils; the barbed syllogism of your arguments will hook the
glib tongues of the casuists, and it is you who will tie
up their slippery questions in categorical clews, after the
manner of a clever physician, who, when compelled by reasoned thought, prepares
antidotes for poison even from a serpent.qvin potivs experietvr qvisqve
conflixerit stoicos cynicos peripateticos hæresiarchas propriis armis propriis
qvoqve concvti machiNamesntis nam sectatores eorum Christiano dogmati ac sensvi
si repvgnaverint mox te magistro ligati vernaculis implicaturis in
retia sua præcipites implagabvntur syllogismis tuæ propositionis vncatis
volvbilem tergiversantvm lingvam inhamantibvs dum spiris categoricis lubricas qvæstiones
tv potivs innodas acrivm more medicorvm qui remedivm contra venena cum ratio
compellit et de serpente conficivnt. If he lectured on Logic and
Conversation on implicaturum, Grice must have thought that Strawsons area was
central. Yet, as he had done in Causal theory and as he will at Harvard, Grice
kept collecting philosophers mistakes. So its best to see Grice as a
methodologist, and as using logic and conversation as an illustration of his
favourite manoeuvre, indeed, central philosophical manoeuver that gave him a
place in the history of philosophy. Restricting this manoeuvre to just an area
minimises it. On the other hand, there has to be a balance: surely logic and
conversation is a topic of intrinsic interest, and we cannot expect all
philosophers – unless they are Griceians – to keep a broad unitarian view of
philosophy as a virtuous whole. Philosophy, like virtue, is entire.
Destructive implicaturum to it: Mr. Puddle is our man in æsthetics implicates
that he is not good at it. What is important to Grice is that the mistakes of
these philosophers (notably Strawson!) arise from some linguistic phenomena, or,
since we must use singular expressions this or that linguistic phenomenon. Or
as Grice puts it, it is this or that linguistic phenomenon which provides the
material for the philosopher to make his mistake! So, to solve it, his theory
of conversation as rational co-operation is posited – technically, as a way to
explain (never merely describe, which Grice found boring ‒ if English, cf.
never explain, never apologise ‒ Jacky Fisher: Never contradict. Never
explain.) these phenomena – his principle of conversational helpfulness and the
idea of a conversational implicaturum. The latter is based not so much on
rationality per se, but on the implicit-explicit distinction that he constantly
plays with, since his earlier semiotic-oriented explorations of Peirce. But
back to this or that linguistic phenomenon, while he would make fun of Searle
for providing this or that linguistic phenomenon that no philosopher would ever
feel excited about, Grice himself was a bit of a master in illustrating this a
philosophical point with this or that linguistic phenomenon that would not be
necessarily connected with philosophy. Grice rarely quotes authors, but surely
the section in “Causal theory,” where he lists seven philosophical theses
(which are ripe for an implicaturum treatment) would be familiar enough for
anybody to be able to drop a names to attach to each. At Harvard, almost every
example Grice gives of this or that linguistic phenomenon is UN-authored (and
sometimes he expands on his own view of them, just to amuse his audience – and
show how committed to this or that thesis he was), but some are not unauthored.
And they all belong to the linguistic turn: In his three groups of examples,
Grice quotes from Ryle (who thinks he knows about ordinary language), Witters,
Austin (he quotes him in great detail, from Pretending, Plea of excuses, and No
modification without aberration,), Strawson (in “Logical theory” and on Truth
for Analysis), Hart (as I have heard him expand on this), Grice, Searle, and
Benjamin. Grice implicates Hare on ‘good,’ etc. When we mention the
explicit/implicit distinction as source for the implicaturum, we are referring
to Grices own wording in Retrospective epilogue where he mentions an utterer as
conveying in some explicit fashion this or that, as opposed to a gentler, more
(midland or southern) English, way, via implicaturum, or implIciture, if you
mustnt. Cf. Fowler: As a southern Englishman, Ive stopped trying teaching a
northern Englishman the distinction between ought and shall. He seems to get it
always wrong. It may be worth exploring how this connects with rationality. His
point would be that that an assumption that the rational principle of conversational
helpfulness is in order allows P-1 not just to convey in a direct explicit
fashion that p, but in an implicit fashion that q, where q is the implicaturum.
The principle of conversational helpfulness as generator of this or that implicatura,
to use Grices word (generate). Surely, He took off his boots and went to bed; I
wont say in which order sounds hardly in the vein of conversational helpfulness
– but provided Grice does not see it as logically incoherent, it is still a
rational (if not reasonable) thing to say. The point may be difficult to
discern, but you never know. The utterer may be conveying, Viva Boole. Grices
point about rationality is mentioned in his later Prolegomena, on at least two
occasions. Rational behaviour is the phrase he uses (as applied first to
communication and then to discourse) and in stark opposition with a
convention-based approach he rightly associates with Austin. Grice is here less
interested here as he will be on rationality, but coooperation as such. Helpfulness
as a reasonable expecation (normative?), a mutual one between decent chaps, as
he puts it. His charming decent chap is so Oxonian. His tutee would expect no
less ‒ and indeed no more! A rather obscure exploration on the connection of
semiotics and philosophical psychology. Grice is aware that there is an
allegation in the air about a possible vicious circle in trying to define
category of expression in terms of a category of representation. He does not
provide a solution to the problem which hell take up in his Method in
philosophical psychology, in his role of President of the APA. It is the implicaturum
behind the lecture that matters, since Grice will go back to it, notably in the
Retrospective Epilogue. For Grice, its all rational enough. Theres a P, in a
situation, say of danger – a bull ‒. He perceives the bull. The bulls attack
causes this perception. Bull! the P1 G1 screams, and causes in
P2 G2 a rearguard movement. So where is the circularity? Some
pedants would have it that Bull cannot be understood in a belief about a bull
which is about a bull. Not Grice. It is nice that he brought back implicaturum,
which had become obliterated in the lectures, back to title position! But it is
also noteworthy, that these are not explicitly rationalist models for implicaturum.
He had played with a model, and an explanatory one at that, for implicaturum,
in his Oxford seminar, in terms of a principle of conversational helpfulness, a
desideratum of conversational clarity, a desideratum of conversational candour,
and two sub-principles: a principle of conversational benevolence, and a
principle of conversational self-interest! Surely Harvard could be spared of
the details! Implicaturum. Grice disliked a presupposition. BANC also contains
a folder for Odd ends: Urbana and non-Urbana. Grice continues with the
elaboration of a formal calculus. He originally baptised it System Q in honour
of Quine. At a later stage, Myro will re-Names it System G, in a special
version, System GHP, a highly powerful/hopefully plausible version of System G,
in gratitude to Grice. Odd Ends: Urbana and Not Urbana, Odds and ends:
Urbana and not Urbana, or not-Urbana, or Odds and ends: Urbana and non Urbana,
or Oddents, urbane and not urbane, semantics, Urbana lectures. The Urbana
lectures are on language and reality. Grice keeps revising them, as these items
show. Language and reality, The University of Illinois at Urbana, The
Urbana Lectures, Language and reference, language and reality, The Urbana
lectures, University of Illinois at Urbana, language, reference, reality. Grice
favours a transcendental approach to communication. A beliefs by a
communicator worth communicating has to be true. An order by a
communicator worth communicating has to be satisfactory. The fourth lecture is
the one Grice dates in WOW . Smith has not ceased from beating his wife,
presupposition and conversational implicaturum, in Radical pragmatics, ed. by
R. Cole, repr. in a revised form in Grice, WOW, II, Explorations in semantics
and metaphysics, essay, presupposition and implicaturum, presupposition,
conversational implicaturum, implicaturum, Strawson. Grice: The loyalty
examiner will not summon you, do not worry. The cancellation by Grice could be
pretty subtle. Well, the loyalty examiner will not be summoning you at any
rate. Grice goes back to the issue of negation and not. If, Grice notes, is is
a matter of dispute whether the government has a very undercover person who
interrogates those whose loyalty is suspect and who, if he existed, could be
legitimately referred to as the loyalty examiner; and if, further, I am known
to be very sceptical about the existence of such a person, I could perfectly
well say to a plainly loyal person, Well, the loyalty examiner will not be
summoning you at any rate, without, Grice would think, being taken to
imply that such a person exists. Further, if the utterer U is well known to
disbelieve in the existence of such a person, though others are inclined to
believe in him, when U finds a man who is apprised of Us position, but who is
worried in case he is summoned, U may try to reassure him by uttering, The
loyalty examiner will not summon you, do not worry. Then it would be clear that
U uttered this because U is sure there is no such person. The lecture was
variously reprinted, but the Urbana should remain the preferred citation. There
are divergences in the various drafts, though. The original source of this
exploration was a seminar. Grice is interested in re-conceptualising Strawsons
manoeuvre regarding presupposition as involving what Grice disregards as a
metaphysical concoction: the truth-value gap. In Grices view, based on a
principle of conversational tailoring that falls under his principle of
conversational helpfulness ‒ indeed under the desideratum of
conversational clarity (be perspicuous [sic]). The king of France is bald
entails there is a king of France; while The king of France aint bald merely
implicates it. Grice much preferred Collingwoods to Strawsons
presuppositions! Grice thought, and rightly, too, that if his notion of the
conversational implicaturum was to gain Oxonian currency, it should supersede
Strawsons idea of the præ-suppositum. Strawson, in his attack to Russell,
had been playing with Quines idea of a truth-value gap. Grice shows that
neither the metaphysical concoction of a truth-value gap nor the philosophical
tool of the præ-suppositum is needed. The king of France is bald entails that there
is a king of France. It is part of what U is logically committed to by what he
explicitly conveys. By uttering, The king of France is not bald on the other
hand, U merely implicitly conveys or implicates that there is a king of France.
A perfectly adequate, or impeccable, as Grice prefers, cancellation, abiding
with the principle of conversational helpfulness is in the offing. The king of
France ain’t bald. What made you think he is? For starters, he ain’t real!
Grice credits Sluga for having pointed out to him the way to deal with the
definite descriptor or definite article or the iota quantifier the formally.
One thing Russell discovered is that the variable denoting function is to be
deduced from the variable propositional function, and is not to be taken as an
indefinable. Russell tries to do without the iota i as an indefinable, but
fails. The success by Russell later, in On denoting, is the source of all his
subsequent progress. The iota quantifier consists of an inverted iota to be
read the individuum x, as in (℩x).F(x). Grice opts for the
Whiteheadian-Russellian standard rendition, in terms of the iota operator.
Grices take on Strawson is a strong one. The king of France is bald; entails
there is a king of France, and what the utterer explicitly conveys is
doxastically unsatisfactory. The king of France aint bald does not. By uttering
The king of France aint bald U only implicates that there is a king of France,
and what he explicitly conveys is doxastically satisfactory. Grice knew he was
not exactly robbing Peter to pay Paul, or did he? It is worth placing the
lecture in context. Soon after delivering in the New World his exploration on
the implicaturum, Grice has no better idea than to promote Strawsons philosophy
in the New World. Strawson will later reflect on the colder shores of the Old
World, so we know what Grice had in mind! Strawsons main claim to fame in the
New World (and at least Oxford in the Old World) was his On referring, where he
had had the cheek to say that by uttering, The king of France is not bald, the
utterer implies that there is a king of France (if not that, as Grice has it,
that what U explicitly conveys is doxastically satisfactory. Strawson later
changed that to the utterer presupposes that there is a king of France. So
Grice knows what and who he was dealing with. Grice and Strawson had
entertained Quine at Oxford, and Strawson was particularly keen on that turn of
phrase he learned from Quine, the truth-value gap. Grice, rather, found it
pretty repulsive: Tertium exclusum! So, Grice goes on to argue that by uttering
The king of France is bald, one entailment of what U explicitly conveys is
indeed There is a king of France. However, in its negative co-relate, things
change. By uttering The king of France aint bald, the utterer merely implicitly
conveys or implicates (in a pretty cancellable format) that there is a king of
France. The king of France aint bald: theres no king of France! The loyalty
examiner is like the King of France, in ways! The piece is crucial for Grices
re-introduction of the square-bracket device: [The king of France] is bald;
[The king of France] aint bald. Whatever falls within the scope of the square
brackets is to be read as having attained common-ground status and therefore,
out of the question, to use Collingwoods jargon! Grice was very familiar with
Collingwood on presupposition, meant as an attack on Ayer. Collingwoods reflections
on presuppositions being either relative or absolute may well lie behind Grices
metaphysical construction of absolute value! The earliest exploration by Grice
on this is his infamous, Smith has not ceased from beating his wife, discussed
by Ewing in Meaninglessness for Mind. Grice goes back to the example in the
excursus on implying that in Causal Theory, and it is best to revisit this
source. Note that in the reprint in WOW Grice does NOT go, one example of
presupposition, which eventually is a type of conversational implicaturum.
Grices antipathy to Strawsons presupposition is metaphysical: he dislikes the
idea of a satisfactory-value-gap, as he notes in the second paragraph to Logic
and conversation. And his antipathy crossed the buletic-doxastic divide! Using φ to represent a sentence in either mode,
he stipulate that ~φ is satisfactory just in case ⌈φ⌉ is unsatisfactory. A crunch,
as he puts it, becomes obvious: ~ ⊢The king of France is bald may perhaps be
treated as equivalent to ⊢~(The king of France
is bald). But what about ~!Arrest the intruder? What do we say in cases like,
perhaps, Let it be that I now put my hand on my head or Let it be that my
bicycle faces north, in which (at least on occasion) it seems to be that
neither !p nor !~p is either satisfactory or unsatisfactory? If !p is neither
satisfactory nor unsatisfactory (if that make sense, which doesnt to me), does
the philosopher assign a third buletically satisfactory value (0.5) to !p
(buletically neuter, or indifferent). Or does the philosopher say that we have
a buletically satisfactory value gap, as Strawson, following Quine, might
prefer? This may require careful consideration; but I cannot see that the
problem proves insoluble, any more than the analogous problem connected with Strawsons
doxastic presupposition is insoluble. The difficulty is not so much to find a
solution as to select the best solution from those which present themselves.
The main reference is Essay 2 in WoW, but there are scattered references
elsewhere. Refs.: The main sources are the two
sets of ‘logic and conversation,’ in BANC, but there are scattered essays on ‘implicaturum’
simpliciter, too -- “Presupposition and
conversational implicaturum,” c. 2-f. 25; and “Convesational implicaturum,” c.
4-f. 9, “Happiness, discipline, and implicaturums,” c. 7-f. 6; “Presupposition
and implicaturum,” c. 9-f. 3, The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
conversational manual: -- Grice was fascinated by the etymology of ‘etiquette’ – from
Frankish *stikkan, cognate with Old English stician "to pierce," from
Proto-Germanic *stikken "to be stuck," stative form from PIE *steig-
"to stick; pointed" (It.
etichetta) -- of conversational rational etiquette -- conversational iimmanuel,
cnversational manual. Before playing with ‘immanuel,’ Grice does use ‘manual’
more technically. A know-how. “Surely, I can have a manual, but don’t know how
to play bridge.” “That’s not how I’m using ‘manual.’” It should be pointed out
that it’s the visual thing that influenced. When people (especially non-philosophers)
saw the list of maxims, they thought: “Washington!” “A manual!”. In the Oxford
seminrs, Grice was never so ‘additive.’ His desideratum of conversational
clarity, his desideratum of conversational candour, his principle of
conversational self-love and his principle of conversational benevolence, plus
his principle of conversational helpfulness, were meant as ‘philosophical’
leads to explain this or that philosophical mistake. The seminars were given
for philosophy tutees. And Grice is playing on the ‘manuals of etiquette’ –
conversational etiquette. If you do not BELONG to this targeted audience, it is
likely that you’ll misconstrue Grice’s point, and you will! Especially R. T.
L.!The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete
Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in All His Relations Towards Society by Cecil
B. Hartley. Wit and vivacity are two highly important ingredients in the
conversation of a man in polite society, yet a straining for effect, or forced
wit, is in excessively bad taste. There is no one more insupportable in society
than the everlasting talkers who scatter puns, witticisms, and jokes with so
profuse a hand that they become as tiresome as a comic newspaper, and whose
loud laugh at their own wit drowns other voices which might speak matter more
interesting. The really witty man does not shower forth his wit so
indiscriminately; his charm consists in wielding his powerful weapon delicately
and easily, and making each highly polished witticism come in the right place
and moment to be effectual. While real wit is a most delightful gift, and its
use a most charming accomplishment, it is, like many other bright weapons,
dangerous to use too often. You may wound where you meant only to amuse, and
remarks which you mean only in for general applications, may be construed into
personal affronts, so, if you have the gift, use it wisely, and not too freely.
The most important requisite for a good conversational power is education, and,
by this is meant, not merely the matter you may store in your memory from
observation or books, though this is of vast importance, but it also includes
the developing of the mental powers, and, above all, the comprehension. An
English writer says, “A man should be able, in order to enter into conversation,
to catch rapidly the meaning of anything that is advanced; for instance, though
you know nothing of science, you should not be obliged to stare and be silent,
when a man who does understand it is explaining a new discovery or a new
theory; though you have not read a word of Blackstone, your comprehensive
powers should be sufficiently acute to enable you to take in the statement that
may be made of a recent cause; though you may not have read some particular
book, you should be capable of appreciating the criticism which you hear of it.
Without such power—simple enough, and easily attained by attention and
practice, yet too seldom met with in general society—a conversation which
departs from the most ordinary topics cannot be maintained without the risk of
lapsing into a lecture; with such power, society becomes instructive as well as
amusing, and you have no remorse at an evening’s end at having wasted three or
four hours in profitless banter, or simpering platitudes. This facility of
comprehension often startles us in some women, whose education we know to have
been poor, and whose reading is limited. If they did not rapidly receive your
ideas, they could not, therefore, be fit companions for intellectual men, and
it is, perhaps, their consciousness of a deficiency which leads them to pay the
more attention to what you say. It is this which makes married women so much
more agreeable to men of thought than young ladies, as a rule, can be, for they
are accustomed to the society of a husband, and the effort to be a companion to
his mind has engrafted the habit of attention and ready reply.”
conversational maxim. The idea of a maxim implies freewill and freedom in
general. A beautiful thing about Grice’s conversational maxims is that surely
they do not ‘need to be necessarily’ independent, as Strawson and Wiggins emphatically
put it (p.520). The important thing is other. A conversational maxim is
UNIVERSALISABLE (v. universalierung) into a ‘manual,’ the “Immanuel,” strictly,
the “Conversational Immanuel.” Grice is making fun of those ‘conversational
manuals’ for the learning of some European language in the Grand Tour (as in
“Learn Swiss in five easy lessons”). Grice is echoing Kant. Maximen (subjektive
Grundsätze): selbstgesetzte Handlungsregeln, die ein Wollen ausdrücken, vs.
Imperative (objektive Grundsätze): durch praktische Vernunft bestimmt;
Ratschläge, moralisch relevante Grundsätze. („das Gesetz aber ist das objektive
Prinzip, gültig für jedes vernünftige Wesen, und der Grundsatz, nach dem es handeln
soll, d. i. ein Imperativ.“) das Problem ist jedoch die Subjektivität der
Maxime. When considering Grice’s concept of a ‘conversational maxim,’ one has
to be careful. First, he hesitated as to the choice of the label. He used
‘objective’ and ‘desideratum’ before. And while few cite this, in WoW:PandCI he
adds one – leading the number of maxims to ten, what he called the
‘conversational catalogue.’ So when exploring the maxims, it is not necessary
to see their dependence on the four functions that Kant tabulated: quantitas,
qualitas, relatio, and modus, or quantity, quality, relation, and mode (Grice
follows Meiklejohn’s translation), but in terms of their own formulation, one
by one. Grice
formulates the overarching principle: “We might then formulate a rough general
principle which participants will be expected (ceteris paribus) to observe,
namely: Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage
at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange
in which you are engaged. One might label this the COOPEHATIVE PIUNCIPLE.”He
then goes on to introduce the concept of a ‘conversational maxim.’“On the
assumption that some such general principle as this is acceptable, one may
perhaps distinguish four categories under one or another of which will fall
certain more specific MAXIMS maxims and
submaxims, the following of which will, in general, yield results in accordance
with the Cooperative Principle.” Note that in his
comparative “more specific maxims,” he is implicating that, in terms of the
force, the principle is a MAXIM. Had he not wanted this implicaturum, he could
have expressed it as: “On the assumption that some such general principle as
this is acceptable, one may perhaps distinguish four categories under one or
another of which will fall certain MAXIMS.”
He is
comparing the principle with the maxims in terms of ‘specificity.’ I.e. the
principle is the ‘summun genus,’ as it were, the category is the ‘inferior
genus,’ and the maxim is the ‘species infima.’He is having in mind something
like arbor porphyriana. For why otherwise care to distinguish in the
introductory passage, between ‘maxims and submaxims.’ This use of ‘submaxim’ is
very interesting. Because it is unique. He would rather call the four maxims as
SUPRA-maxims, supermaxim, or supramaxim. And leaving ‘maxim’ for what here he
is calling the submaxim.Note that if one challenges the ‘species infima,’ one
may proceed to distinguish this or that sub-sub-maxim falling under the maxim.
Take “Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.” Since this, as he
grants, applies mainly to informative cases, one may consider that it is
actually a subsubmaxim. The submaxim would be: “Do not say that for which you
are not entitled” (alla Nowell-Smith). And then provide one subsubmaxim for the
desideratum: “Do not give an order which you are not entitled to give” or “Do
not order that for you lack adequate authority,” and the other subsubmaxim for
the creditum: “Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.”Grice: “Echoing
Kant, I call these categories Quantity, Quality, Relation, and Manner.” Or
Mode. “Manner” may be Ross’s translation of Aristotle’s ‘mode.’ Consider the
exploration of Aristotle on ‘modus’ in Categoriae. It is such a mixed bag that
surely ‘manner’ is not inappropriate!“The category of QUANTITY” – i. e. either
the conversational category of quantity, or as one might prefer, the category
of conversational quantity – “relates to the quantity of information to be
provided,”So it’s not just ANY QUANTUM, as Aristotle or Kant, or Ariskant have
it – just QUANTITY OF INFORMATION, whatever ‘information’ is, and how the
quantity of information is to be assessed. E g. Grice surely shed doubts re:
the pillar box seems red and the pillar box is red. He had till now used
‘strength,’ even ‘logical strength,’ in terms of entailment – and here, neither
the phenomenalist nor the physicalist utterance entail the other.“and under it
fall the following maxims:”That is, he goes straight to the ‘conversational
maxim.’ He will provide supermaxim for the other three conversational
categories.Why is the category of conversational quantity lacking a
supermaxim?The reason is that it would seem redundant and verbose: ‘be
appropriately informative.’ By having TWO maxims, he is playing with a weighing
in, or balance between one maxim and the other. Cf.To say the truth, all the
truth, and nothing but the truth.No more no less.One maximm states the ‘at
most,’ the other maxim states the ‘at least.’One maxim states the ‘maxi,’ the
other maxim states the ‘min.’ Together they state the ‘maximin.’First, “Make
your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of
the exchange).”It’s the contribution which is informative, not the utterer. Cf.
“Be as informative as is required.” Grice implicates that if you make your
contribution as informative as is required YOU are being as informative as is
required. But there is a category-shift here. Grice means, ‘required BY the
goal of the exchange). e.g.How are youFine thanks – the ‘and you’ depends on
whether you are willing to ‘keep the conversation going’ or your general mood.
Second, “Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.”“ (The
second maxim is disputable;”He goes on to give a different reason. But the
primary reason is that “Do not make your contribution more informative than is
required” is ENTAILED by “Make your contribution as informative as is required
(for the current purposes of the exchange)” – vide R. M. Hare on “Imperative
inferences” IN a diagram:Make your contribution as informative as is required
(for the current purposes of the exchange)Therefore, do not make your
contribution more informative than is required (by the current purposes of the
exchange).Grice gives another reason (he will give yet a further one) why the
maxim is ‘disputable.’“it might be said that to be overinformative is not a
transgression of the CP but merely a waste of time.”For both
conversationalists, who are thereby abiding by Ferraro’s law of the least
conversational effort.”“A waste of time” relates to Grice’s previous
elaborations on ‘undue effort’ and ‘unnecessary trouble.’He is proposing a
conversational maximin.When he formulates his principle of economy of rational
effort, it is a waste of ‘time and energy.’Here it is just ‘time.’ “Energy” is
a more generic concept.“However, it might be answered that such
overinformativeness may be confusing in that it is liable to raise side
issues;”Methinks the lady doth protest too much.His example, “He was in a
blacked out city.”It does not seem to relate to the pillar boxA: What color is
the pillar boxB: It seems red.Such a ‘confusion’ and ‘side issue,’ if so
designed, is part of the implicaturum.“and there may also be an indirect
effect, in that the hearers (or addressee) may be misled as a result of
thinking that there is some particular POINT in the provision of the excess of
information.”Cf. Peter Winch on “H. P. Grice’s Conversational Point.”More
boringly, it is part of the utterer’s INTENTION to provide an excess of
information.”This may be counterproductive, or not.“Meet Mr. Puddle”“Meet Mr.
Puddle, our man in nineteenth-century continental philosophy.”The introducer
point: to keep the conversation going.Effect on Grice: Mr. Puddle is hopeless
at nineteenth-century continental philosophy (OR HE IS BEING UNDERDESCRIBED). One
has to think of philosophically relevant examples here, which is all that Grice
cares for. Malcolm says, “Moore knows it; because he’s seen it!” – Malcolm
implicates that Grice will not take Malcolm’s word. So Malcom needs to provide
the excess of information, and add, to his use of ‘know,’ which Malcolm claims
Moore does not know how to use, the ‘reason’ – If knowledge is justified true
belief, Malcolm is conveying explicitly that Moore knows and ONE OF THE
CONDITIONS for it. Cf.I didn’t know you were pregnant.You still do not. (Here
the cancellation is to the third clause). Grice: “However this may be, there is
perhaps a different [second] reason for doubt about the admission of this
second maxim, viz., that its effect will be secured by a later maxim, which
concems relevance.)”He could be a lecturer. His use of ‘later’ entails he knows
in advance what he is going to say. Cf. Foucault:“there is another reason to
doubt. The effect is secured by a maxim concerning relevance.”No “later” about
it!Grice:“Under the category of QUALITY falls a supermaxim” – he forgets to
add, as per obvious, “The category of quality relates to the QUALITY of
information.” In this way, there is some reference to Aristotle’s summumm
genus. PROPOSITIO DEDICATIVA, PROPOSITIO ABDICATIVA, PROPOSITIO INFINITA. Cf.
Apuleius and Boethius on QUALITAS of propositio. Dedicatio takes priority over
abdicatio. So one expects one’s co-conversationalist to say that something IS
the case. Note too, that, if he used “more specific maxims and submaxims,” he
means “more specific supermaxims and maxims” – He is following Porophyry in
being confusing! Cf. supramaxim. Grice “-'Try to make your contribution one
that is true' –“This surely requires generality – and Grice spent the next two
decades about it. He introduced the predicate ‘acceptability.’ “Try to make
your contribution one that is acceptable”“True for your statements; good for
your desiderative-mode utterances.”“and two more specific maxims:”“1. Do not say
what you believe to be false.”There is logic here. It is easy to TRY to make
your contribution one that is true.” And it is easy NOT to say what you believe
to be false. Grice is forbidding Kant to have a maxim on us: “Be truthful!” “Say
the true!” “MAKE – don’t just TRY – to make your contribution one that is
true.”“I was only trying.”Cf. Moses, “Try not to kill” “Thou shalt trye not to
kylle.”Grice:“2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.”This is
involved with truth. In “Truth and other enigmas,” Dummett claims that truth
is, er, an enigma. For some philosophers, all you can guarantee is that you
have evidence. Lacking evidence for what?The qualification, “adequate,” turns
the maxim slightly otiose. Do not say that for you lack evidence which would
make your contribution not a true one.However, Grice is thinking Gettier. And
Gettier allows that one CAN have ADEQUATE EVIDENCE, and p NOT be true.If we are
talking ‘acceptability’ it’s more ‘ground’ or ‘reason’, rather than ‘evidential
justification.’ Grice is especially obsessed with this, in his explorations on
‘intending,’ where ‘acceptance’ is deemed even in the lack of ‘evidential
justification,’ and leaving him wondering what he means by ‘non-evidential
justification.’“Under the category of RELATION I place a single maxim, viz.,
'Be relevant.'”The category comes from Aristotle, ‘pros it.’ And ‘re-‘ in
relation is cognate with ‘re-‘ in ‘relevant.’RELATION refers to ‘refer,’ Roman
‘referre.’ But in Anglo-Norman, you do have ‘relate’ qua verb. To ‘refer’ or
‘re-late,’ is to bring y back to x. As Russell well knows in his fight with
Bradley’s theory of ‘relation,’ a relation involves x and y. A relation is a two-place
predicate. What about X = xIs identity a relation, in the case of x = x?Can a
thing relate to itself?In cases where we introduce two variables. The maxim
states that one brings y back to x.“Mrs. Smith is an old windbag.”“The weather
has been delightful for this time of year, hasn’t it.”If INTENDED to mean, “You
ARE ignorant!,” then the conversationalist IS bring back “totally otiose remark
about the weather” to the previous insulting comment.To utter an utterly
irrelevant second move you have to be Andre Breton.“Though the maxim itself is
terse, its formulation conceals a number of problems that exercise me a good
deal: questions about what different kinds and focuses of relevance there may
be, how these shift in the course of a talk exchange, how to allow for the fact
that subjects of conversation are legitimately changed, and so on. I find the
treatment of such questions exceedingly difficult, and I hope to revert to them
in a later work.”He is having in mind Nowell-Smith, who had ‘be relevant’ as
the most important of the rules of conversational etiquette, or how etiquette
becomes logical. But Nowell-Smith felt overwhelmed by Grice and left for the
north, to settle in the very fashionable Kent. Grice is also having in mind
Urmson’s appositeness (Criteria of intensionality). “Why did you title your
painting “Maga’s Daughter”? She’s your wife!” – and Grice is also having in
mind P. F. Strawson and what Strawson has as the principle of relevance
vis-à-vis the principles of presumption of ignorance and knowledge.So it was in
the Oxonian air.“Finally, under the category of MODE, which I understand as
relating not (like the previous categories) to what is said [THE CONTENT, THE
EXPLICITUM, THE COMMUNICATUM, THE EXPLICATUM] but, rather, to HOW what is said
is to be said,”Grice says that ‘meaning’ is diaphanous. An utterer means that p
reduces to what an utterer means by x. This diaphanousness ‘meaning’ shares
with ‘seeing.’ “To expand on the experience of seeing is just to expand on what
is seen.’He is having the form-content distinction.If that is a distinction. This
multi-layered dialectic displays the true nature of the speculative
form/content distinction: all content is form and all form is content, not in a
uniform way, but through being always more or less relatively indifferent or
posited. The Role of the Form/Content
Distinction in Hegel's Science of ...deontologistics.files.wordpress.com ›
2012/01 › formc... PDF Feedback About Featured Snippets Web results The Form-Content Distinction in Moral
Development Researchwww.karger.com › Article › PDF The form-content distinction
is a potentially useful conceptual device for understanding certain
characteristics of moral development. In the most general sense it ... by CG
Levine - 1979 - Cited by 25 - Related articles The Form-Content Distinction in Moral
Development Research ...www.karger.com › Article › Abstract Dec 23, 2009 - The
Form-Content Distinction in Moral Development Research. Levine C.G.. Author
affiliations. University of Western Ontario, London, Ont. by CG Levine - 1979
- Cited by 25 - Related articles
Preschool children's mastery of the form/content distinction in
...www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › pubmed Preschool children's mastery of the
form/content distinction in communicative tasks. Hedelin L(1), Hjelmquist E.
Author information: (1)Department of Psychology, ... by L Hedelin - 1998 -
Cited by 10 - Related articles Form
and Content: An Introduction to Formal Logic - Digital
...digitalcommons.conncoll.edu › cgi › viewcontentPDF terminology has to do
with anything. In this context, 'material' means having to do with content.
This is our old friend, the form/content distinction again. Consider. by DD
Turner - 2020 Simmel's Dialectic of
Form and Content in Recent Work in ...www.tandfonline.com › doi › full May 1,
2019 - This suggests that for Simmel, the form/content distinction was not a
dualism; instead, it was a duality.11 Ronald L. Breiger, “The Duality of
... Are these distinctions between
“form” and “content” intentionally ...www.reddit.com › askphilosophy › comments
› are_th... The form/content distinction also doesn't quite fit the distinction
between form and matter (say, in Aristotle), although Hegel develops the
distinction between form ... Preschool
Children's Mastery of the Form/Content Distinction ...link.springer.com ›
article Preschoolers' mastery of the form/content distinction in language and
communication, along its contingency on the characteristics of p. by L Hedelin
- 1998 - Cited by 10 - Related articles
Verbal Art: A Philosophy of Literature and Literary Experiencebooks.google.com
› books Even if form and content were in fact inseparable in the sense
indicated, that would not make the form/content distinction unjustified. Form
and matter are clearly ... Anders Pettersson - 2001 - Literary Criticism One Century of Karl Jaspers' General
Psychopathologybooks.google.com › books He then outlines the most important
implications of the form–content distinction in a statement which is identical
in the first three editions, with only minor ... Giovanni Stanghellini, Thomas
Fuchs - 2013 - Medical“I include the supermaxim-'Be perspicuous' –” Or
supramaxim. So the “more specific maxims and submaxims” becomes the clumsier
“supermaxims and maxims”Note that in under the first category it is about
making your contribution, etc. Now it is the utterer himself who has to be
‘perspicuous,’ as it is the utterer who has to be relevant. It’s not the
weaker, “Make your contribution a perspicuous one.” Or “Make your contribution
a relevant one (to the purposes of the exchange).”Knowing that most confound
‘perspicacity’ with ‘perspicuity,’ he added “sic,” but forgot to pronounce it,
in case it was felt as insulting. He has another ‘sic’ under the prolixity
maxim.“and various maxims such as: The “such as” is a colloquialism.Surely it
was added in the ‘lecture’ format. In written, it becomes viz. The fact that
the numbers them makes for ‘such as’ rather disimplicaturable. “1. Avoid
obscurity of expression.”Unless you are Heracleitus. THEY told me, Heraclitus,
they told me you were dead, /They
brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed./I wept as I remember'd
how often you and I/Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the
sky./And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest,/A handful of grey
ashes, long, long ago at rest,/Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales,
awake;/For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take. In a way this is
entailed by “Be perspicuous,” if that means ‘be clear,’ in obtuse English.Be
clearTherefore, or what is the same thing. Thou shalt not not be obscure.2.
Avoid ambiguity.”Except as a trope, or ‘figure, (schema, figura).
“Aequi-vocate, if that will please your clever addressee.” Cf. Parker’s zeugma:
“My apartment was so small, that I've barely enough room to lay a hat and a few
friends“3. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).”Here he added a ‘sic’ that
he failed to pronounce in case it may felt as insulting. But the idea of a
self-refuting conversational maxim is surely Griceian, in a quessertive way. Since
this concerns FORM rather than CONTENT, it is not meant to overlap with
‘informativeness.’So given that p and q are equally informative, if q is less
brief (longer – ars longa, vita brevis), utter p. This has nothing to do with
logical strength. It is just to be assessed in a SYNTACTICAL way.Vide
“Syntactics in Semiotics”“4. Be orderly.”This involves two moves in the
contribution or ‘turn.’ One cannot be ‘disorderly,’ if one just utters ‘p.’ So
this involves a molecular proposition. The ‘order’ can be of various types. Indeed,
one of Grice’s example is “Jones is between Smith and Williams” – order of
merit or size?‘Between’ is not ambiguous!There is LOGICAL order, which is
prior.But there is a more absolute use of ‘orderly.’ ‘keep your room tidy.’orderly
(adj.) 1570s, "arranged in order," from order (n.) + -ly (1). Meaning
"observant of rule or discipline, not unruly" is from 1590s. Related:
Orderliness.He does not in the lecture give a philosophical example, but later
will in revisiting the Urmson example and indeed Strawson, but mainly Urmson,
“He went to bed and took off his boots,” and indeed Ryle, “She felt frail and
took arsenic.”“And one might need others.”Regarding ‘mode,’ that is. “It is
obvious that the observance of some of these maxims is a matter of less urgency
than is the observance of others;”Not as per ‘moral’ demands, since he’ll say
these are not MORAL.“a man who has expressed himself with undue prolixity
would, in general, be open to milder comment than would a man who has said something
he believes to be false.”Except in Oscar Wilde’s circle, where they were
obsessed with commenting on prolixities! Cf. Hare against Kant, “Where is the
prisoner?” “He left [while he is hiding in the attic].”That’s why Grice has the
‘in general.’“Indeed, it might be felt that the importance of at least the
first maxim of Quality is such that it should not be included in a scheme of
the kind I am constructing;”But since ‘should’ is weak, I will. “other maxims
come into operation only on the assumption that this maxim of Quality is
satisfied.”So the keyword is co-ordination.“While this may be correct, so far
as the generation of implicaturums is concerned it seems to play a role not
totally different from the other maxims, and it will be convenient, for the
present at least, to treat it as a member of the list of maxims.”He is having
weighing, and clashing in mind. And he wants a conversationalist to honour
truth over informativeness, which begs the question that as he puts it, ‘false’
“information” is no information.In the earlier lectures, tutoring, or as a
university lecturer, he was sure that his tutee will know that he was
introducing maxims ONLY WITH THE PURPOSE, NEVER TO MORALISE, but as GENERATORS
of implicatura – in philosophers’s mistakes.But this manoeuver is only NOW disclosed.
Those without a philosophical background may not realise about this. “There
are, of course, all sorts of other maxims (aesthetic, social, or moral in
character), such as 'Be polite', that are also normally observed by
participants in talk exchanges, and these may also generate nonconventional implicaturums.”He
is obviously aware that Émile DurkheimWill Know that
‘conversational’ is subsumed under ‘social,’ if not Williamson (perhaps). – keyword: ‘norm.’ Grice excludes ‘moral’
because while a moral maxim makes a man ‘good,’ a conversational maxim makes a
man a ‘good’ conversationalist. Not because there is a distinction in
principle!“The conversational maxims, however, and the conversational implicaturums
connected with them, are specially connected (I hope) with”He had this way with
idioms.Cf. Einstein,“E =, I hope, mc2.”“the particular purposes that talk (and
so, talk exchange)”He is playing Dutch.The English lost the Anglo-Saxon for
‘talk.’ They have ‘language,’ and the Hun has ‘Sprache.’ But only the Dutch
have ‘taal.’So he is distinguishing between the TOOL and the USE of the TOOL.“is
adapted lo serve and is primlarily employed to serve.”The ‘adapted’ is
mechanistic talk. He mentions ‘evolutionarily’ elsewhere. He means ‘the
particular goal language evolved to serve, viz.’ groom.Grooming, Gossip and the
Evolution of Language is a 1996 book by the anthropologist Robin Dunbar, in
which the author argues that language evolved from social grooming. He further
suggests that a stage of this evolution was the telling of gossip, an argument
supported by the observation that language is adapted for storytelling.
The book has been criticised on the grounds that since words are so cheap,
Dunbar's "vocal grooming" would fall short in amounting to an honest signal.
Further, the book provides no compelling story[citation needed] for how
meaningless vocal grooming sounds might become syntactical speech. Thesis
Dunbar argues that gossip does for group-living humans what manual grooming
does for other primates—it allows individuals to service their relationships
and thus maintain their alliances on the basis of the principle: if you scratch
my back, I'll scratch yours. Dunbar argues that as humans began living in
increasingly larger social groups, the task of manually grooming all one's
friends and acquaintances became so time-consuming as to be unaffordable.[1] In
response to this problem, Dunbar argues that humans invented 'a cheap and
ultra-efficient form of grooming'—vocal grooming. To keep allies happy, one now
needs only to 'groom' them with low-cost vocal sounds, servicing multiple
allies simultaneously while keeping both hands free for other tasks. Vocal
grooming then evolved gradually into vocal language—initially in the form of
'gossip'.[1] Dunbar's hypothesis seems to be supported by the fact that the
structure of language shows adaptations to the function of narration in
general.[2] Criticism Critics of Dunbar's theory point out that the very
efficiency of "vocal grooming"—the fact that words are so cheap—would
have undermined its capacity to signal honest commitment of the kind conveyed
by time-consuming and costly manual grooming.[3] A further criticism is that
the theory does nothing to explain the crucial transition from vocal
grooming—the production of pleasing but meaningless sounds—to the cognitive
complexities of syntactical speech.[citation needed] References
Dunbar, R. I. M. (1996). Grooming, gossip and the evolution of language.
London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 9780571173969. OCLC 34546743. von Heiseler,
Till Nikolaus (2014) Language evolved for storytelling in a super-fast
evolution. In: R. L. C. Cartmill, Eds. Evolution of Language. London: World
Scientific, pp. 114-121.
https://www.academia.edu/9648129/LANGUAGE_EVOLVED_FOR_STORYTELLING_IN_A_SUPER-FAST_EVOLUTION
Power, C. 1998. Old wives' tales: the gossip hypothesis and the reliability of
cheap signals. In J. R. Hurford, M. Studdert Kennedy and C. Knight (eds),
Approaches to the Evolution of Language: Social and Cognitive Bases. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, pp. 111 29. Categories: 1996 non-fiction
booksAmerican non-fiction booksBooks by Robin DunbarEnglish-language
booksEvolution of languageHarvard University Press booksPopular science
booksGrice: “I have stated my maxims”the maxims“as if this purpose were a
maximally effective exchange of information;”“MAXIMALLY EFFECTIVE”“this
specification is, of course, too narrow,”But who cares?This is slightly sad in
that he is thinking Strawson and forgetting his (Grice’s) own controversy with G.
A. Paul on the sense-datum, for ‘the pillar box seems red’ and ‘the pillar box
is red,’ involving an intensional context, are less amenable to fall under the
maxims.“and the scheme needs to be generalized to allow for such general
purposes as influencing or directing the actions of others.”He has a more
obvious way below:Giving and receving informationInfluencing and being
influenced by others.He never sees the purpose as MAXIMAL INFORMATION, but
maximally effective EXCHANGE of information – does he mean merely ‘transmission.’
It may well be.If I say, “I rain,” I have ex-changed information.I don’t need
anything in return.If so, it makes sense that he is equating INFORMING With INFLUENCING or better DIRECTION your
addresse’s talk.Note that, for all he loved introspection and conversational
avowals, and self-commands, these do not count.It’s informing your addressee
about some state of affairs, and directing his action. Grice is always clear
that the ULTIMATE GOAL is the utterer’s ACTION.“As one of my avowed aims is to
see talking as a special case or variety of purposive, indeed rational,
behavior, it may be worth noting that the specific expectations or presumptions
connected with at least some of the foregoing maxims have their analogues in
the sphere of transactions that are not talk exchanges.”Transaction is a good
one.TRANS-ACTIO“I list briefly one such analog for each conversational
category.”While he uses ‘conversational category,’ he also applies it to the
second bit: ‘category of conversational quantity,’ ‘category of conversational
quality,’ ‘category of conversational relation,’ and ‘category of
conversational mode.’ But it is THIS application that justifies the
sub-specifications.They are not categories of thought or ontological or
‘expression’.His focus is on the category as conversation.His focus is on the
‘conversational category.’“1. Quantity. If you are assisting me to mend a car,
I expect your contribution to be neither more nor less than is required; if, e.
g., at a particular stage I need fourscrews, I expect you to hand me four,
rather than two or six. He always passed six, since two will drop.“Make your
contribution neither more nor less informative than is required (for the
purposes of the exchange).”This would have covered the maxi and the min.“NEITHER
MORE NOR LESS” is the formula of effectiveness, and economy, and minimization
of expenditure.“2. Quality. I expect your contributions to be genuine and not
spurious.”Here again he gives an expansion of the conversational category,
which is more general than ‘try to make your contribution one that is true,’
and the point about the ‘quality of information,’ which he did not make.Perhaps
because it would have led him to realise that ‘false’ information, i.e.
‘information’ which is not genuine and spurious, is not ‘information.’But “Make
your contribution one that is genuine and not spurious.”Be candid.Does not need
a generalization as it covers both informational and directive utterances.“If I
need sugar as an ingredient in the cake you are assisting me to make, I do not
expect you to hand me salt;”Or you won’t eat the cake.“if I need a spoon, I do
not expect a trick spoon made of rubber.”Spurious and genuine are different.In
the ‘trick spoon,’ the conversationalist is just not being SERIOUS.But surely a
maxim, “Be serious” is too serious. – Seriously!“3. Relation. I expect a
partner's contribution to be appropriate to immediate needs at each stage of
the transaction;”Odd that he would use ‘appropriate,’ which was the topic of
the “Prolegomena,” and what he was supposed to EXPLAIN, not to use in the
explanation.For each of the philosophers making a mistake are giving a judgment
of ‘appropriateness,’ conversational appropriateness. Here it is good that he
relativises the ‘appropriateness’ TO the ‘need’.Grice is not quite sticking to
the etymology of ‘relatio’ and ‘refer,’ bring y back to x. Or he is. Bring y
(your contribution) back to the need x.Odd that he thinks he’ll expand more on
relation, when he did a good bit!“if I am mixing ingredients for a cake, I do
not expect to be handed a good book, or even an oven cloth (though this might
be an appropriate contribution at a later stage).”“I just expect you to be
silent.”“4. Manner. I expect a partner to make it clear what contribution he is
making, and to execute his performance with reasonable dispatch.” For Lewis,
clarity is not enough!The ‘Execute your performance with reasonable dispatch!’
seems quite different from “Be perspicuous.”“Execute your performance with
reasonable dispatch”Is more like“Execute your performance”And not just STAND
there!A: What time is it B just stands there“These analogies are relevant to
what I regard as a fundamental question about the principle of conversational
helpfulness and its attendant conversational maxims,”For Boethius, it is a
PRINCIPLE because it does not need an answer!“viz., what the basis is for the
assumption which we seem to make, and on which (I hope) it will appear that a
great range of implicaturums depend [especially as we keep on EXPLOITING the
rather otiose maxims], that talkers will ingeneral (ceteris paribus and in the
absence of indications to the contrary) proceed in the manner that these
principles prescribe.”Grice really doesn’t care! He is into the EXPLOITING of
the maxim, as in his response to the Scots philosopher G. A. Paul:“Paul, I
surely do not mean to imply that you may end up believing that I have a doubt
about the pillar box being red: it seems red to me, as I have this sense-datum
of ‘redness’ which attaches to me as I am standing in front of the pillar box
in clear daylight.”Grice is EXPLOITING the desideratum, YET STILL SAYING
SOMETHING TRUE, so at least he is not VIOLATING the principle of conversational
helpfulness, or the category of conversational quality, or the desideratum of
conversational candour.And that is what he is concerned with. “A dull but, no doubt at a certain level,
adequate answer is that it is just a well-recognized empirical fact that *people*
(not pirots, although perhaps Oxonians, rather than from Malagasy) DO behave in
these ways;”Elinor Ochs was terrified Grice’s maxims are violated – never
exploited, she thought – in Madagascar.“they, i. e. people, or Oxonians, have
learned to do so in childhood and not lost the habit of doing so; and, indeed,
it would involve a good deal of effort to make a radical departure from the
habit. It is much easier, for example, to tell the truth than to invent lies.”Effort
again; least effort. And ease. Great Griceian guidelines!“I am, however, enough
of a rationalist to want to find a basis that underlies these facts,”OR
EXPLAIN.“undeniable though they may be;”BEIGIN OF A THEORY FOR A THEORY – not
the theory for the generation of implicate, but for the theory of conversation.He
is less interested in this than the other. “I would like to be able to think of
the standard type of conversational practice not merely as something that all
or most do IN FACT follow but as something that it is REASONABLE for us to
follow, that we SHOULD NOT abandon. For a time, I was attracted by the idea that
observance of the principle of conversational helpfulness and the conversational
maxims, in a talk exchange, could be thought of as a quasi-contractual matter,
with parallels outside the realm of discourse. If you pass by when I am
struggling with my stranded car, I no doubt have some degree of expectation
that you will offer help, but once you join me in tinkering under the hood, my
expectations become stronger and take more specific forms (in the absence of
indications that you are merely an incompetent meddler); and talk exchanges
seemed to me to exhibit, characteristically, certain features that jointly
distinguish cooperative transactions:”So how is this not
quasi-contractual? He is listing THIS OR
THAT FEATURE that jointly distinguishes a cooperative transaction – all grand
great words.But he wants to say that ‘quasi-contractual’ is NO RATIONAL!He is
playing, as a philosopher, with the very important point of what follows from
what.A1. Conversasation is purposiveA2. Conversation is rationalA3. Conversation
is cooperativeA4. There is such a thing as non-rational cooperation (is there?)So
he is aiming at the fact that the FEATURES that jointly distinguish cooperative
transactions NEED NOT BE PRESENT, and Grice surely does not wish THAT to
demolish his model. If he bases it in general constraints of rationality, the
better.“1. The participants have some common immediate aim, like getting a car
mended; their ultimate aims may, of course, be independent and even in
conflict-each may want to get the car mended in order to drive off, leaving the
other stranded. In characteristic talk exchanges, there is a common aim even
if, as in an over-the-wall chat, it is a second-order one,”Is he being logical?“second-order
predicate calculus”“meta-language”He means higher or supervenientOr
‘operative’“, that each party should, for the time being, identify himself with
the transitory conversational interests of the other.”By identify he means
assume.YOU HAVE TO DESIRE what your partner desires.The intersection between
your desirability and your addressee’s desirability is not NULL.And the way to
do this is conditionalIF: You perceive B has Goal G, you assume Goal G. “2. The
contributions of the participants .should be dovetailed, mutually dependent. Unless
it’s one of those seminars by Grice and J. F. Thomson!“3. There is some sort of
understanding (which may be explicit but which is often tacit)”i.e. implicated
rather than explicated – part of the implicaturum, or implicitum, rather than
the explicatum or explicitum.“that, other things being equal, the transaction
should continue in appropriate style unless both parties are agreeable that it
should terminate. You do not just shove off or start doing something else.”This
is especially tricky over the phone (“He never ends!” Or in psychiatric
interviews!)Note that ‘starting doing something else’ may work. E. g. watch
your watch!“But while some such quasi-contractual basis as this may apply to
some cases, there are too many types of exchange, like quarreling and letter
writing, that it fails to fit comfortably.”TWO OPPOSITE EXAMPLES.Fighting is
arguing is competition, adversarial, epagogue, not conversation,
cooperation, friendly, collaborative
venture, and diagoge.Letter writing is usually otiose – “what, with the
tellyphone!” And letter writing is no conversation.“In any case, one feels that
the talker who is irrelevant or obscure has primarily let down not his audience
but himself.”And the talker who is mendacious has primarily let Kant down!”“So
I would like t< be able to show that observance of the principle of
conversational helfpulness and maxims is reasonal de (rational) along the
following lines”That any Aristkantian rationalist would agree to.“: that any
one who cares about the goals that are central to conversation/communication
(e.g., giving and receiving information, influencing and being influenced by
others) must be expected to have an interest, given suitable circumstances, in
participation in talk exchanges that will be profitable only on the assumption
that they are conducted in general accordance with the principle of
conversational helpfulness and the maxims.”Where the keyword is: profit,
effort, least effort, no energy, no undue effort, no unnecessary trouble. That
conversation is reasonable unless it is unreasonable. That a conversational
exchange should be rational unless it shows features of irrationality.“Whether
any such conclusion can be reached, I am uncertain;”It’s not clear what the
premises are!Plus, he means DEDUCTIVELY reached? Transcendentally reached?
Empirically reached? Philosophically reached? Conclusively reached? Etc.It
seems the conclusion need not be reached, because we never departed from the
state of the affairs that the conclusion describes.“in any case, I am fairly
sure that I cannot reach it until I am a good deal clearer about the nature of
relevance and of the circumstances in which it is required.”For perhaps “I
don’t want to imply any doubt, but that pillar box seems red.”IS irrelevant,
yet true!“It is now time to show the connection between the principle of
conversational helfpulness and the conversational maxims, on the one hand, and
conversational implicaturum on the other.”This is clearer in the seminars. The
whole thing was a preamble “A participant in a talk exchange may fail to fulfill
a maxim in various ways, which include the following: 1. He may quietly and unostentatiously
VIOLATE (or fail to observe) a maxim; if so, in some cases he will be liable to
mislead.”And be blamed by Kant.Mislead should not worry Grice, cf. “Misleading,
but true.”The violate (or fail to observe) shows that (1) covers two
specifications. Tom may be unaware that there was such a maxim as to ‘be brief,
avoid unnecessary prolixity, unless you need to eschew obfuscation!”This is
Grice’s anti-Ryleism. He doesn’t want to say that there is KNOWLEDGE of the
maxims. For one may know what the maxims are and fail to observe them “2. He
may OPT OUT from the operation both of the maxim and of the principle of
conversational helpfulness; he may say, indicate, or allow it to become plain
that he is unwilling to cooperate in the way the maxim requires. He may say, e.
g., I cannot say more; my lips are sealed.” Where is the criminal?I cannot say
more; my lips are sealed.I shall unseal them. What do you mean ‘cannot.’ You
don’t mean ‘may not,’ do you?I think Grice means ‘may not.’Is the universe
finite? Einstein: I cannot say more; my lips are sealed. “3. He may be faced by
a CLASH of maxims [That’s why he needs more than one – or at least two
specifications of the same maxim]: He may be unable, e. g., to fulfill the
first maxim of Quantity (Be as informative as is required) without violating
the second maxim of Quality (Have adequate evidence for what you say).” Odd
that he doesn’t think this generates implicaturum: He has obviously studied the
sub-perceptualities here.For usually, a phenomenalist, like Sextus, thinks that
by utteringThe pillar box seems red to me – that is all I have adequate
evidence forHe is conveying that he is unable to answer the question (“What
colour is the pillar box?”) And being as ‘informative’ as is requiredWithout
saying something for which it is not the case that he has or will ever have
adequate evidence.Cf.Student at Koenigsberg to Kant: What’s the noumenon?Kant:
My lips are sealed.It may require some research to list ALL CLASHES.Because
each clash shows some EVALUATION qua reasoning, and it may be all VERY CETERIS
PARIBUS.Cf.Where is the criminal?My lips are sealed.The utterer has NOT opted
out. He has answered, via implicaturum, that he is not telling. He is being
relevant. He is not telling because he doesn’t want to DISCLOSE the whereabouts
of the alleged criminal, etc. For Kant, this is not a conversation! Odd that
Grice is ‘echoing Kant,’ where Kant would hardly allow a clash with ‘Be truthful!’“4.
He may FLOUT a maxim; that is, he may BLATANTLY fail to fulfill (or observe)
it.Mock? Taunt?The magic flute. Grice’s magic flute.flout (v.) "treat with
disdain or contempt" (transitive), 1550s, intransitive sense "mock,
jeer, scoff" is from 1570s; of uncertain origin; perhaps a special use of
Middle English “flowten,”"to play the flute" (compare Middle Dutch
“fluyten,” "to play the flute," also "to jeer"). Related:
Flouted; flouting.Grice: “One thing we do not know is if the flute came to
England via Holland.”“Or he may, as we may say, ‘play the flute’ with a maxim,
expecting others to be agreeable.”“Or he may, as we might say, ‘play the flute’
with the conversational maxim, expecting others to join with some other musical
instrument – or something – occasionally the same.”“On the assumption that the
speaker is able to fulfill the maxim and to do so without violating another
maxim (because oi a clash), is not opting out, and is not, in view of the
blatancy of his performance, trying to mislead,”This is interesting. It’s the
TRYING to mislead.Grice and G. A. Paul:Grice cannot be claimed to have TRIED to
mislead, and thus deemed to have misled G. A. Paul, even if he had, when he
said, “I hardly think there is any doubt about it, but that pillar box seems
red to me.”“the hearer is faced with a minor problem:”Implicaturum: This
reasoning is all abductive – to the ‘best’ explanation“How can his saying what
he did say be reconciled with the supposition that he is observing the overall
principle of conversational helfpulness?”This was one of Grice’s conversations
with G. A. Paul:Paul (to Grice): This is what I do not understand, Grice. How
can your saying what you did say be reconciled with the supposition that you
are not going to mislead me?”Unfortunately, on that Saturday, Paul went to the
Irish Sea. Grice “This situation is one that characteristically”There are
others – vide clash, above – but not marked by Grice as one such situation – “gives
rise to a conversational implicaturum; and when a conversational implicaturum
is generated”Chomskyan jargon borrowed from Austin (“I don’t see why Austin
admired Chomsky so!”)“in this way, I shall say that a maxim is being
EXPLOITED.”Why not ‘flouted’? Some liked the idea of playing the flute.EXPLOIT
is figurative.Grice exploits a Griceian maxim.exploit
(v.) c. 1400, espleiten, esploiten "to accomplish, achieve, fulfill,"
from Old French esploitier, espleiter "carry out, perform,
accomplish," from esploit (see exploit (n.)). The sense of "use
selfishly" first recorded 1838, from a sense development in French perhaps
from use of the word with reference to mines, etc. (compare exploitation).
Related: Exploited; exploiting.exploit (n.) late 14c., "outcome of an
action," from Old French esploit "a carrying out; achievement,
result; gain, advantage" (12c., Modern French exploit), a very common
word, used in senses of "action, deed, profit, achievement," from
Latin explicitum "a thing settled, ended, or displayed," noun use of
neuter of explicitus, past participle of explicare "unfold, unroll,
disentangle," from ex "out" (see ex-) + plicare "to
fold" (from PIE root *plek- "to plait"). Meaning
"feat, achievement" is c. 1400. Sense evolution is from
"unfolding" to "bringing out" to "having
advantage" to "achievement." Related: Exploits. exploitative
(adj.) "serving for or used in exploitation," 1882, from French
exploitatif, from exploit (see exploit (n.)). Alternative exploitive (by 1859)
appears to be a native formation from exploit + -ive.exploitation (n.) 1803,
"productive working" of something, a positive word among those who
used it first, though regarded as a Gallicism, from French exploitation, noun
of action from exploiter (see exploit (v.)). Bad sense developed 1830s-50s, in
part from influence of French socialist writings (especially Saint Simon), also
perhaps influenced by use of the word in U.S. anti-slavery writing; and
exploitation was hurled in insult at activities it once had crowned as
praise. It follows from this science [conceived by Saint Simon] that the
tendency of the human race is from a state of antagonism to that of an
universal peaceful association -- from the dominating influence of the military
spirit to that of the industriel one; from what they call l'exploitation de
l'homme par l'homme to the exploitation of the globe by industry.
["Quarterly Review," April & July 1831] Grice: “I am now
in a position to characterize the notion of conversational implicaturum.”Not to
provide a reductive analysis. The concept is too dear for me to torture it with
one of my metaphysical routines.”“A man who, by (in, when) saying (or making as
if to say) that p”That seems good for the analysandumGrice loves the “by (in,
when)” “(or making as if to). Note the oratio obliqua.Or ‘that’-clause. So this
is not ‘uttering’As in the analysans of ‘meaning that.’“By uttering ‘x’ U means
that p.’The “by” already involves a clause with a ‘that’-clause.So this is not
a report of a physical event.It is a report embued already with intentionality.The
utterer is not just ‘uttering’The utterer is EXPLICITLY conveying that p.We
cannot say MEANING that p.Because Grice uses “mean” as opposed to “explicitly
convey”His borderline scenarios are such,“Keep me company, dear”“If we are to
say that when he uttererd that he means that his wife was to keep him company
or not is all that will count for me to change my definition of ‘mean’ or
not.”Also irony.But here it is more complicated. A man utters, “Grice defeated
Strawson”If he means it ironically, to mean that Strawson defeated Grice, it is
not the case that the utterer MEANT the opposite. He explicitly conveyed that.Grice
considers the Kantian ‘cause and effect,’“If I am dead, I shall have no time
for reading.”He is careful here that the utterer does not explicitly conveys
that he will have no time for reading – because it’s conditioned on he being
dead.“has implicated that q,” “may be said to have conversationally implicated
that q,”So this is a specification alla arbor porphyrana of ‘By explicitly
conveying that p, U implicitly conveys that q.’Where he is adding the second-order
adverb, ‘conversationally.’By explicitly conveying that p, U has implicitly
conveyed that q in a CONVERSATIONAL FASHION” iff or if“PROVIDED THAT”“(1) he is
to be presumed to be observing the conversational maxims, or at least the principle
of conversational helfpulness;”Especially AT LEAST, because he just said that
an implicaturum is ‘generated’ (Chomskyan jargon) when AT LEAST A MAXIM IS played the flute.“(2) the
supposition that he is aware that, or thinks that, q is required in order to
make his saying or making as if to say p (or doing so in THOSE terms)
consistent with this presumption;”THIS IS THE CRUCIAL CLAUSE – and the one that
not only requires ONE’S RATIONALITY, but the expectation that one’s addressee,
BEING RATIONAL, will expect the utterer to BE RATIONAL.This is the
‘rationalisation’ he refers to in “Retrospective Epilogue.”Note that ‘q’ is
obviously now the content of a state in the utterer’s soul – a desideratum or a
creditum --, at least a CREDITUM, in view of Grice’s view of everything at
least exhibitive and perhaps protreptic --“and (3) the speaker thinks (and
would expect the hearer to think that the speaker thinks) that it is within the
competence of the hearer to work out, or grasp intuitively, that the supposition
mentioned in (2) IS required.”All that jargon about mutuality is a result of
Strawson tutoring Schiffer!“Apply this to my initial example, to B's remark that
C has not yet been to prison.”What made Grice think of such a convoluted
example?He was laughing at Searle for providing non-philosophical examples, and
there he is!“In a suitable setting A might reason as follows:”“(1) B has
APPARENTLY violated – indeed he has played the flute with -- the maxim 'Be
relevant' and so may be regarded as [ALSO] having flouted one of the maxims
conjoining perspicuity,”In previous versions, under the desideratum of
conversational clarity Grice had it that the desideratum included the
expectation of this ‘relatedness’ AND that of ‘perspicuity’ (sic). In the above,
Grice is stating that if you are irrelevant (or provide an unrelated
contribution) you are not being perspicuous.But “He hasn’t been to prison” is
perspicuous enough.And so is the link to the question --.Plus, wasn’t
perspicuity only to apply to the ‘mode,’ to the ‘form,’ rather than the
content.Here it is surely the CONTENT – that it is not the case that C is a
criminal – that triggers it all.So, since there is a “not,” here this is
parallel to the example examined by Strawson in the footnote to “Logical
Theory.”The utterer is saying that it is not the case that C has been in prison
yet.The ‘yet’ makes all the difference, even if a Fregeian colouring
‘convention’!“It is not the case that C has been in prison” Is, admittedly, not
very perspicuous.“So what, neither has the utterer nor the addressee.”So there
is an equivocation here as to the utterance perhaps not being perspicuous,
while the utterer IS perspicuous.“yet I have no reason to suppose that he is
opting out from the operation of the CP;”Or playing the flute with my beloved
principle of conversational helpfulness.“(2) given the circumstances, I can
regard his irrelevance as only apparent – as when we say that a plastic flower
is not a flower, or to use Austin’s example, “That decoy duck is surely not a
duck! That trick rubber spoon is no spoon! -- if, and only if, I suppose him to
think that C is potentially dishonest;”As many are!The potentially is the
trick.Recall Aristotle: “Will I say that I am potentially dishonest?! Not me!
PLATO was! Theophrastus WILL! Or is it ‘shall’?”“(3) B knows that I am capable
of working out step (2). So B implicates that C is potentially dishonest.'”Unless
he goes on like I go with G. A. Paul, “I do not mean of course to mean that I
mean that he is potentially dishonest, because although he is, he shouldn’t, or
rather, I don’t think you are expecting me to convey explicitly that he shouln’t
or should for that matter.”“The presence of a conversational implicaturum must
be capable of being worked out; for even if it can in fact be intuitively
grasped, unless the intuition is replaceable by an argument, the implicaturum
(if present at all) will not count as a CONVERSATIONAL implicaturum.”This is
the Humpty Dumpty in Grice.Cf. Provide the sixteen derivational steps in Jane
Austen’s Novel remark, “I sense and sensibilia” – This is what happens
sometimes when people who are not philosophers engage with Grice!For a
philosopher, it is clear Grice is not being serious there. He is mocking an
‘ideal’-language philosopher (as Waissmann called them). Let’s revise the
word:By “counting” he means “DEEM.” He has said that “She is poor, but she is
honest,” is NOT CALCULABLE. So if an argument is not produced, this may not be
a matter of argument.Philosophers are OBSESSED, and this is Grice’s trick, with
ARGUMENT. Recall Grice on Hardie, “Unlike my father, who was rather blunt,
Hardie taught me to ARGUE for this or that reason.”His mention of “INTUITION”
is not perspicuous. He told J. M. Rountree that meaning is a matter of
INTUITION, not a theoretical concept within a theory.So it’s not like Grice
does not trust the intuition. So the point is TERMINOLOGICAL and
methodological. Terminological, in that this is a specfification of
‘conversationally,’ rather than for cases like “How rude!” (he just flouted the
maxim ‘be polite!’ but ‘be polite’ is not a CONVERSATIONAL maxim. Is Grice
implicating that nonconversational nonconventional implicate are not
calculable? We don’t think so.But he might.I think he will. Because in the case
of ‘aesthetic maxim,’ ‘moral maxim,’ and ‘social maxim’ – such as “be polite,”
– the calculation may involve such degree of gradation that you better not get
Grice started!“it will be a CONVENTIONAL implicaturum.”OK – So perhaps he does
allow that non-conventional non-conversational implicate ARE calculable.But he
may add:“Unless the intuition is replaceable by an argument, it will not be a
conversational implicaturum; it will be a conventional implicaturum.”Strawson:
“And what nonconventional nonconversational implicate?Grice: You are right,
Strawon. Let me modify and refine the point: “It will be a dull, boring,
undetachable, conventional implicaturum – OR any of those dull implicate that
follow from (or result – I won’t use ‘generate’) one of those maxims that I
have explicitly said they were NOT conversational maxims.“For surely, there is
something very ‘contradictory-sounding’ to me saying that the implicaturum is
involved with the flouting of a maxim which is NOT a conversational maxim, and
yet that the maxim is a CONVERSATIONAL implicaturum.”“Therefore, I restrict
calculability to CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURUM, because it involves the
conversational maxims that contributors are expected to be reciprocal; whereas
you’ll agree that Queen Victoria does not need to be abide with ‘be polite,’ as
she frequently did not – “We are not amused, you fools! Only Gilbert and
Sullivan amuse me!””“To work out that a particular CONVERSATIONAL [never mind
nonconversational nonconventional] implicaturum is present, the hearer will
reply on the following data:”As opposed to ‘sense-datum.’Perhaps assumption,
alla Gettier, is better:“ (1) the conventional meaning of the words used,
together with the identity of any references that may be involved;”WoW Quite a
Bit. This is the reason why Grice entitled WoW his first book.In he hasn’t been
to ‘prison’ we are not using ‘prison’ as Witters does (“My language is my
prison”).Strawson: But is that the CONVENTIONAL meaning? Even for King Alfred?He hasn't been to prisonprison (n.) early 12c., from Old French
prisoun "captivity, imprisonment; prison; prisoner, captive" (11c.,
Modern French prison), altered (by influence of pris "taken;" see
prize (n.2)) from earlier preson, from Vulgar Latin *presionem, from Latin
prensionem (nominative prensio), shortening of prehensionem (nominative
*prehensio) "a taking," noun of action from past participle stem of
prehendere "to take" (from prae- "before," see pre-, +
-hendere, from PIE root *ghend- "to seize, take"). "Captivity,"
hence by extension "a place for captives," the MAIN modern sense.”
(There are 34 other unmain ones). He hasn't been to a place for captives
yet.You mean he is one.Cf. He hasn't been to asylum.You mean Foucault?(2) the principle
of conversational helpfulness and this and that conversational maxim;”This is
more crucial seeing that the utterer may utter something which has no
conventional meaning?Cf. Austin, “Don’t ask for the meaning of a word! Less so
for the ‘conventional’ one!”What Grice needs is ‘the letter,’ so he can have
the ‘spirit’ as the implicaturum. Or he needs the lines, so he can have the implicaturum
as a reading ‘between the lines.’If the utterance is a gesture, like showing a
bandaged leg, or a Neapolitan rude gesture, it is difficult to distinguish or
to identify what is EXPLICITLY conveyed.By showing his bandaged leg, U
EXPLICITLY conveys that he has a bandaged leg. And IMPLICITLY conveys that he
cannot really play cricket.The requirement of ‘denotatum’ is even tricker,
“Swans are beautiful.” Denotata? Quantificational? Substitutional?In any case,
Grice is not being circular in requiring that the addressee should use as an
assumption or datum that U thinks that the expression E is generally uttered by
utterers when they m-intend that p.But there are tricks here.“(3) the context,
linguistic or otherwise, of the utterance;”Cf. Grice, “Is there a general
context for a general theory of context?”“(4) other items of background
knowledge;”So you don’t get:How is C getting on at the bank? My lips are sealed
Why do you care Mind your own business. Note that “he hasn’t been to prison
yet” (meaning the tautologous ‘he is potentially dishonest’) is the sort of
tricky answer to a tricky question! In asking, the asker KNOWS that he’ll get
that sort of reply knowing the utterer as he does. “and (5) the fact (or
supposed fact) that all relevant items falling under the previous headings are
available to both participants and both participants know or assume this to be
the case.”This is Schiffer reported by Strawson.“A general pattern for the
working out of a conversational implicaturum might be given as follows:”Again
the abductive argument that any tutee worth of Hardie might expect 'He has said
that p;”Ie explicitly conveys that p.Note the essential oratio obliqua, or
that-clause.“there is no reason to suppose. that he is not observing the
maxims, or at least the principle of conversational helpfulness”That is, he is
not a prisoner of war, or anything.“He could not be doing this unless he
thought that q;”Or rather, even if more tautologically still, he could not be
doing so REASONABLY, as Austin would forbid, unless…’ For if the utterer is
IRRATIONAL (or always playing the flute) surely he CAN do it!“he knows (and
knows that I know that he knows) that I can see that the supposition that he
thinks that q IS required;”Assumed MUTUAL RATIONALITY, which Grice fails to
have added as assumption or datum. Cf. paraconsistent logics – “he is using
‘and’ and ‘or’ in a ‘deviant’ logical way, to echo Quine,” – He is an intuitionist,
his name is Dummett.“he has done nothing to stop me thinking that q; he intends
me to think, or is at least willing to allow me to think, that q; and so he has
implicated that q.'”The ‘or’ is delightful, for m-intention requires
‘intention,’ but the intention figures in previous positions, so ‘willingess to
allow the addressee to think’ does PERFECTLY FINE! Especially at Oxford where
we are ever so subtle!
conversational
maxim of ambiguity avoidance, the: Grice thought that there
should be a way to characterise each maxim other than by its formulation. “It’s
a good exercise to grasp the concept behind the maxim.” Quality relates to
Strength or Fortitutde, the first to “at
least,” the second to “at most.” For Quality, he has a supra-maxim, “of trust”
– the two maxims are “maxim of candour” and “maxim of evidence”. Under
relation, “maxim of relevance.” Under manner, suprapaxim “maxim of perspicuity”
and four maxims, the first is exactly the same as the supramaxim, “maxim of
percpicuity” now becomes “maxim of obscurity avoidance” – or “maxim of clarity”
– obscure and clear are exact opposites – perspicuous [sic] is more of a trick.
The second maxin under mode is this one of ambiguity avoidance – perhaps there
should be a positive way to express this: be univocal. Do not be equivocal. Do
not equivocate, univocate! The next two, plus the extra one that makes this a
catalogue – the next is ‘maxim of brevity’ or “conversational maxim of
unnecessary prolixity avoidance,” here we see the ‘sic’: “Grice’s maxim of
conversational brevity, or of avoidance of conversationally unnecessary
prolixity.” The next is “maxim of order” – and the one that makes this a
decalogue: “maxim of conversational tailoring” --. a phonological or
orthographic form having multiple meanings senses, characters, semantic representations
assigned by the language system. A lexical ambiguity occurs when a lexical item
word is assigned multiple meanings by the language. It includes a homonymy,
i.e., distinct lexical items having the same sound or form but different senses ‘knight’/’night’, ‘lead’ n./‘lead’ v., ‘bear’
n./‘bear’ v.; and b polysemy, i.e., a single lexical item having multiple
senses ‘lamb’ the animal/‘lamb’ the
flesh, ‘window’ glass/‘window’ opening. The distinction between homonymy and
polysemy is problematic. A structural ambiguity occurs when a phrase or
sentence is correlated by the grammar of the language with distinct constituent
structures phrase markers or sequences of phrase markers. Example: ‘Competent
women and men should apply’
‘[NP[NPCompetent women] and men] . . .’ vs. ‘[NPCompetent[NPwomen and
men]] . . .’, where ‘NP’ stands for ‘noun phrase’. A scope ambiguity is a
structural ambiguity deriving from alternative interpretations of scopes of
operators see below. Examples: ‘Walt will diet and exercise only if his doctor
approves’ sentence operator scope:
doctor’s approval is a necessary condition for both diet and exercise wide
scope ‘only if’ vs. approval necessary for exercise but not for dieting wide
scope ‘and’; ‘Bertie has a theory about every occurrence’ quantifier scope: one grand theory explaining
all occurrences ‘a theory’ having wide scope over ‘every occurrence’ vs. all
occurrences explained by several theories together ‘every occurrence’ having
wide scope. The scope of an operator is the shortest full subformula to which
the operator is attached. Thus, in `A & B C’, the scope of ‘&’ is ‘A
& B’. For natural languages, the scope of an operator is what it
C-commands. X C-commands Y in a tree diagram provided the first branching node that
dominates X also dominates Y. An occurrence of an operator has wide scope
relative to that of another operator provided the scope of the former properly
includes scope of the latter. Examples: in ‘~A & B’, ’-’ has wide scope
over ‘&’; in ‘Dx Ey Fxy’, the existential quantifier has wide scope over
the universal quantifier. A pragmatic ambiguity is duality of use resting on
pragmatic principles such as those which underlie reference and conversational implicaturum;
e.g., depending on contextual variables, ‘I don’t know that he’s right’ can
express doubt or merely the denial of genuine knowledge.
maxim of conversational
maximin informativeness
maxim of maximal
conversational informativeness
maxim of minimal
conversational informativeness
maxim of conversational
trust
maxim of conversational
veracity
maxim of conversational
evidential adequacy
Maxim of conversational
relevance
Maxim of conversational perspicuity
Maxim of conversational clarity,
or maxim of conversational obscurity avoidance
Maxim of conversational
ambiguity avoidance, maxim of conversational equivocation avoidance, maxim of
conversational univocity
Maxim of conversational
brevity – or maxim of conversationally unnecessary prolixity avoidance
Maxim of conversational order.
Maxim of conversational tailoring
conversational
point:
Grice distinguishes between ‘point’ and ‘conversational point.’ “What’s the
good of being quoted by another philosopher on the point of ‘point.’?” But that
is what Winch does. So, as a revenge, Grice elaborated on the point. P. London-born philosopher. He quotes Grice in a Royal Philosophy talk: “Grice’s
point is that we should distinguish the truth of one’s remark form the point of
one’s remarks – Grice’s example is: “Surely I have neither any doubt nor any
desire to deny that the pillar box in front of me is red, and yet I won’t
hesitate to say that it seems red to me” – Surely pointless, but an incredible
truth meant to refute G. A. Paul
conversational reason. With ‘reason,’ Grice is following Ariskant. There’s the
‘ratio’ and there’s the “Vernunft.” “To converse” can mean to have sex (cf.
know) so one has to be careful. Grice is using ‘conversational’ casually.
First, he was aware of the different qualifications for ‘implication’. There is
Nowell-Smith’s contextual implication and C. K. Grant’s ‘pragmatic
implication.’ So he chose ‘conversational implication’ himself. Later, when
narrowing down the notion, he distinguished between ‘conversational
implication’ and ‘non-conversational implication’: “Thank you. B: You’re welcome.”
If B is following the maxim, ‘be polite,’ the implication that he is pleased he
was able to assist his emissor is IMPLICATED but not conversationally so. It is
not a ‘conversational implication.’ Grice needs to restrict the notion for
philosophical purposes. Both for the framework of his theory (it is easier to
justify transcendentally conversational implication than it is
non-conversational implication). Note that ‘I am pleased I was able to assist’
is CANCELLABLE or defeatible, so that’s not the issue. In any case, both
‘conversational impication’ and these type of calculable ‘non-conversational’
implication still yielding from some ‘maxim’ (such as ‘be polite’) Grice covers
under the generic “non-conventional” precisely because they can be defeated. When
it comes to NON-DEFEASIBLE implicatura, Grice uses ‘conventional implication’
(as in “She was poor but she was honest.”). Grice did not find these fun. And
it shows. Strawson stuck with them, but his philosophising about them ain’t
precisely ‘fun.’ Used in Retrospective, p. 369. Also: conversational
rationality. Surely, “principle of conversational rationality” sounds otiose.
Expectation of mutual rationality sounds better. Critique of conversational
reason sounds best! Grice is careful here. When he provides a reductive
analysis of ‘reasoning,’ this goes as follows: the reasoner reasons from
premise to conclusion. That’s the analysandum. What’s the analysans? At least
it involves TWO clauses: If the reasoner reasons from premise to conclusion, it
is assumed that he BELIEVES that the premise obtains; and he believes that the
conclusion obtains. This has to be generalised to cover the desiderative, using
‘accept.’ He accepts that the premise obtains, and he accepts that the
conclusion obtains. But there is obviously a SECOND condition: that the
conclusion follows from the premise! He uses ‘demonstrably’ for that, or the
demonstratum.’ He is open as to what kind of yielding is involved because he
wants to allow for inductive reasoning and abductive reasoning, not just
deductive reasoning. AND THERE IS A TYPICALLY GRICEIAN third condition,
involving CAUSATION. He had used ‘cause’ in reductive analyses before – if not
so much in ‘meaning,’ due to Urmson’s counterexample involving ‘bribery,’ where
‘cause’ does not seem to do – but in his analysis of ‘intending’ for the
British Academy. So at Oxford he promotes this THIRD causal condition as
involving that, naturally enough, it is the rasoner’s BELIEF that demonstrably
q follows from p, which CAUSES the reasoner TO BELIEVE (or more generally,
accept) that the conclusion obtains. Grice is happy with that belief in the
validity of the demonstration ‘populates’ the world of alethic beliefs, and
does not concern with generalising that into a generic ‘acceptance.’ The word
‘rationalist’ is anathema at Oxford, because tutor after tutor has brainwashed
their tutees that the distinction is ‘empiricst-rationalist’ and that at Oxford
we are ‘empiricists.’ So Grice is really being ‘heretic’ here in the words of
G. P. Baker. demonstratum: The Eng. word “reason”
and the Fr. word “raison” are both
formed on the basis of Roman “reor,” to count or calculate, whence think,
believe. The Roman verb translates the Grecian “λέγειν,” two of whose principal
meanings it retains, but only two: count and think. The third principal meaning
of the Grecian term, speak, discourse, which designates a third type of putting
into relation and proportion, is rendered by other Roman series: “dicere”
(originally cognate with ‘deixis,’ and so not necessarily ‘verbal’), “loquor,” “orationem
habere” (the most ‘vocal’ one, as it relates to the ‘mouth,’ cf. ‘orality’) or
“sermonem habere,” so that ultimately the Grecian λόγος is approached by Roman
philosophers by means of a syntagm, “ratio et oratio,” reason and discourse.
Each vernacular fragments the meaning of logos into a greater or lesser. Cf.
‘principium reddendae rationis.’ Rationality functions as a principle of the
intelligibility of the world and history, particularly in Hegel. Then there’s
The Partitions of Reason and Semantic diffractions. Although there is no
language that retains under a single word all the meanings of logos except by
bringing logos into the language in question, the distribution of these
meanings is more or less close to Roman. For the classical Fr. word “raison,” which maintains almost all the
Roman meanings including the mathematical sense of proportion, as in “raison
d’une série,” or “raison inverse,” a contemporary Fr. -G. dictionary proposes the following terms:
Vernunft, Verstand rational faculty. This example shows that the whole of the
vocabulary is thus mobilized. Reason and faculties We can distinguish between
two interfering systems. The first designates reason, identified with thought
in general, in its relationship to a bodily and/or mental instance. The second
situates reason in a hierarchy of faculties whose organization it determines.
Regarding the first system, as it is expressed in various languages, where one
will find studies of the main distortions, especially around the expressions of
the Roman ‘anima.’ Philosophers especially emphasize the ways of designating
reason and mind that appear to be the most irreducible from one language to
another. Regarding the second system, and the partitions that do not coincide.
For Grice, ‘to understand’ presupposes ‘rationality – not for Kant, who sticks
with Verstand/Vernunft distinction. Ratio speculatum, praticatum. From
Aristotle to Kant, two great domains of rationality have been distinguished:
theory, or speculative reason, and practice. The lurality of meanings, each
represented by one or more specific words. The first question, from the point
of view of the difference of languages, is thus that of the breadth of the
meaning of “reason” or its equivalents, and of the systems diffracting the meanings
of logos and then of ratio. But another complex of problems immediately arises.
The Roman “ratio” absorbs the meanings of other Grecian terms, such as νοῦς and
διάνοια, which are also translated in other, more technical ways, such as
intellectus; so that reason, in the sense of rationality, is a comprehensive
term, whereas ‘reason’ in the sense of intellect or understanding is a singular
and differentiated faculty. However, none of the comprehensive terms or systems
of opposition coincides with those of another language, which are moreover
changing. Then there’s Reason and Rationality: man, animal, god. Since
Aristotle’s definition of man as an animal endowed with logos, which Roman
writers rendered by “animal rationale” — omitting the discursive dimension—reason,
or the logos, is a specific difference that defines man by his difference from
other living beings and/or his participation in a divine or cosmic nature.
Reason is opposed to madness understood as de-mentia. More broadly, reason is
conceived in terms of difference from what does not belong to its domain and
falls outside its immediate law, but which man may, in certain ways, share with
other animals, such as sensation, passion, imagination, and possibly memory.
Rationality and the principle of intelligibility. Rationality, defined by the
logos, is connected with logic as the art of speaking and thinking, and with
its founding principles. Les quodlibet cinq, six et sept. Ed. by M. de Wulf and J. Hoffmans. Louvain,
Belg.: Institut supérieur de Philosophie de l’Université, 191 Hegel, Georg
Wilhelm Friedrich. Elements of the Phil.
of Right. Tr. H. Nisbet and
ed. by Allen Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge
, . . Science of LogiTr. V. Miller.
London: Allen and Unwin, . . Werke. Ed.
by Eva Moldenhauer and Karl Markus Michel. 20 vols. FrankfuSuhrkamp, .
Heidegger, Martin. The Basic Problems of Phenomenology. Tr. Albert Hofstadter Bloomington: Indiana , . .
Phenomenological Interpretation of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Tr. Parvis Emad and Kenneth Maly. Bloomington:
Indiana , . Hume, D. . A Treatise of Human Nature. Ed. by D.
Fate Norton and Mary J. Norton. Oxford: Oxford , . Kant, Immanuel.
Critique of Practical Reason. Translated and ed. by Mary Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge , . .
Critique of Pure Reason. 2nd ed. Tr. N.
Kemp-Smith. : Macmillan, 193 Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm. Opuscules et fragments
inédits de Leibniz. Extraits des manuscrits. Ed. by Louis Couturat. : Presses Universitaires
de France, 190 Reprint. Hildesheim, Ger.: Olms, . . Philosophical Essays.
Translated and ed. by Roger Ariew and
Dan Garber. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, . . Philosophical Papers and Letters.
2nd ed. Ed. and Tr. Leroy E. Loemker. Dordrecht, Neth.: D.
Reidel, . . Die philosophischen Schriften. Ed.
by I. Gerhardt. 7 vols. Berlin, 187590. Reprint. Hildesheim, Ger.: Olms,
. . Leibnizens mathematische Schriften. Ed. by I. Gerhardt. 7 vols. Berlin, 18496 .
Textes inédits d’après les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque provinciale de Hanovre.
Ed. by Gaston Gru2 vols. : Presses Universitaires
de France, 194 Locke, J.. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Ed. by P. H. Nidditch. Oxford: Clarendon, .
Micraelius, J. . Lexicon philosophicum terminorum philosophis usitatorum. 2nd
ed. Stettin, 166 Paulus, J.. Henri de Gand: Essai sur les tendances de sa
métaphysique. : Vrin, 193 Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph.
Historisch-Kritische Ausgabe. Ed. by
Jörg Jantzen, T. Buchheim, Jochem
Hennigfeld, Wilhelm G. Jacobs, and Siegbert Peetz. 40 vols.
StuttgaFrommann-Holzboog, . . Of the I as the Principle of Phil. , or On the
Unconditional in Human Knowledge. In The Unconditional in Human Knowledge: Four
Early Essays 17949 Translated with commentary by F. Marti. Lewisburg, PA:
Bucknell , . Spinoza, Baruch. Complete Works. With tr.s by Samuel Shirley.
Ed. by Michael L. Morgan. Indianapolis,
IN: Hackett, . . Oper2nd ed. Ed. by
Gebhardt. 5 vols. Heidelberg: Carl Winters.
conversational
trustworthiness – or just trust. Principle of Conversational trustworthiness --
Conversational desideratum of maximal evidence, information bearing on the
truth or falsity of a proposition. In philosophical discussions, a person’s
evidence is generally taken to be all the information a person has, positive or
negative, relevant to a proposition. The notion of evidence used in philosophy
thus differs from the ordinary notion according to which physical objects, such
as a strand of hair or a drop of blood, counts as evidence. One’s information
about such objects could be evidence in the philosophical sense. The concept of
evidence plays a central role in our understanding of knowledge and
rationality. According to a traditional and widely held view, one has knowledge
only when one has a true belief based on very strong evidence. Rational belief
is belief based on adequate evidence, even if that evidence falls short of what
is needed for knowledge. Many traditional philosophical debates, such as those
about our knowledge of the external world, the rationality of religious belief,
and the rational basis for moral judgments, are largely about whether the
evidence we have in these areas is sufficient to yield knowledge or rational
belief. The senses are a primary source of evidence. Thus, for most, if not
all, of our beliefs, ultimately our evidence traces back to sensory experience.
Other sources of evidence include memory and the testimony of others. Of
course, both of these sources rely on the senses in one way or another.
According to rationalist views, we can also get evidence for some propositions
through mere reason or reflection, and so reason is an additional source of
evidence. The evidence one has for a belief may be conclusive or inconclusive.
Conclusive evidence is so strong as to rule out all possibility of error. The
discussions of skepticism show clearly that we lack conclusive evidence for our
beliefs about the external world, about the past, about other minds, and about
nearly any other topic. Thus, an individual’s perceptual experiences provide
only inconclusive evidence for beliefs about the external world since such
experiences can be deceptive or hallucinatory. Inconclusive, or prima facie,
evidence can always be defeated or overridden by subsequently acquired
evidence, as, e.g., when testimonial evidence in favor of a proposition is
overridden by the evidence provided by subsequent experiences. evidentialism, in the philosophy of religion,
the view that religious beliefs can be rationally accepted only if they are
supported by one’s “total evidence,” understood to mean all the other
propositions one knows or justifiably believes to be true. Evidentialists
typically add that, in order to be rational, one’s degree of belief should be
proportioned to the strength of the evidential support. Evidentialism was
formulated by Locke as a weapon against the sectarians of his day and has since
been used by Clifford among many others to attack religious belief in general.
A milder form of evidentialism is found in Aquinas, who, unlike Clifford,
thinks religion can meet the evidentialist challenge. A contrasting view is
fideism, best understood as the claim that one’s fundamental religious
convictions are not subject to independent rational assessment. A reason often
given for this is that devotion to God should be one’s “ultimate concern,” and
to subject faith to the judgment of reason is to place reason above God and
make of it an idol. Proponents of fideism include Tertullian, Kierkegaard, Karl
Barth, and some Vittersians. A third view, which as yet lacks a generally
accepted label, may be termed experientialism; it asserts that some religious
beliefs are directly justified by religious experience. Experientialism differs
from evidentialism in holding that religious beliefs can be rational without
being supported by inferences from other beliefs one holds; thus theistic
arguments are superfluous, whether or not there are any sound ones available.
But experientialism is not fideism; it holds that religious beliefs may be
directly grounded in religious experience wtihout the mediation of other
beliefs, and may be rationally warranted on that account, just as perceptual
beliefs are directly grounded in perceptual experience. Recent examples of
experientialism are found in Plantinga’s “Reformed Epistemology,” which asserts
that religious beliefs grounded in experience can be “properly basic,” and in
the contention of Alston that in religious experience the subject may be
“perceiving God.”
converse. 1 Narrowly, the
result of the immediate logical operation called conversion on any categorical
proposition, accomplished by interchanging the subject term and the predicate
term of that proposition. Thus, the converse of the categorical proposition
‘All cats are felines’ is ‘All felines are cats’. 2 More broadly, the
proposition obtained from a given ‘if . . . then . . .’ conditional proposition
by interchanging the antecedent and the consequent clauses, i.e., the
propositions following the ‘if’ and the ‘then’, respectively; also, the
argument obtained from an argument of the form ‘P; therefore Q’ by
interchanging the premise and the conclusion.
converse, outer and inner, respectively, the result of “converting” the
two “terms” or the relation verb of a relational sentence. The outer converse
of ‘Abe helps Ben’ is ‘Ben helps Abe’ and the inner converse is ‘Abe is helped
by Ben’. In simple, or atomic, sentences the outer and inner converses express
logically equivalent propositions, and thus in these cases no informational
ambiguity arises from the adjunction of ‘and conversely’ or ‘but not
conversely’, despite the fact that such adjunction does not indicate which, if
either, of the two converses intended is meant. However, in complex, or
quantified, relational sentences such as ‘Every integer precedes some integer’
genuine informational ambiguity is produced. Under normal interpretations of
the respective sentences, the outer converse expresses the false proposition
that some integer precedes every integer, the inner converse expresses the true
proposition that every integer is preceded by some integer. More complicated
considerations apply in cases of quantified doubly relational sentences such as
‘Every integer precedes every integer exceeding it’. The concept of scope
explains such structural ambiguity: in the sentence ‘Every integer precedes
some integer and conversely’, ‘conversely’ taken in the outer sense has wide
scope, whereas taken in the inner sense it has narrow scope.
convey—used in index to WoW. Etymology is
funny. From con-via – cum-via, go on the road with.
Conway: a., english
philosopher whose Principia philosophiae antiquissimae et recentissimae 1690;
English translation, The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy,
1692 proposes a monistic ontology in which all created things are modes of one
spiritual substance emanating from God. This substance is made up of an
infinite number of hierarchically arranged spirits, which she calls monads.
Matter is congealed spirit. Motion is conceived not dynamically but vitally.
Lady Conway’s scheme entails a moral explanation of pain and the possibility of
universal salvation. She repudiates the dualism of both Descartes and her
teacher, Henry More, as well as the materialism of Hobbes and Spinoza. The work
shows the influence of cabalism and affinities with the thought of the mentor
of her last years, Francis Mercurius van Helmont, through whom her philosophy
became known to Leibniz.
co-operatum: Grice previously used ‘help’ – which has a Graeco-Roman
counterpart -- Grice is very right in noting that ‘helpfulness’ does not
‘equate’ cooperation. Correspondingly he changed the principle of
conversational helpfulness into the principle of conversational co-operation.
He also points that one has to distinguish between the general theisis that
conversation is rational from the thesis that the particular form of rationality
that conversation takes is cooperative rationality, which most libertarians
take as ‘irrationality’ personified, almost! Grice is obsessed with this idea
that ‘co-operation’ need not just be ‘conversational.’ Indeed, his way to
justify a ‘rationalist’ approach is through analogy. If he can find
‘co-operative’ traits in behaviour other than ‘conversational,’ the greater the
chance to generalise, and thus justify. The co-operation would be
self-justifying. co-operation. The hyphen in Strawson and Wiggins (p. 520). Grice
found ‘co-operative’ too Marxist, and would prefer ‘help,’ as in ‘mutual help.’
This element of ‘mutuality’ is necessary. And it is marked grammatical, with
the FIRST person and the SECOND person. The third need NOT be a person – can be
a dog (as in “Fido is shaggy”). The mututality is necessary in that the
emissor’s intention involves the belief that his recipient is rational. You
cannot co-operate with a rock. You cannot co-operate with a vegetal. You cannot
cooperate with a non-rational animal. You can ONLY cooperate with a co-rational
agent. Animal co-operation poses a nice side to the Griceian idea. Surely the
stereotype is a member of species S cooperating with another specimen of the
same species. But then there are great examples of ‘sym-biosis’: the crane that
gets rid off the hippopotamus’s ticks. Is this cooperation? Is this
intentional? If Grice thinks that there is a ‘mechanistically derivable’
explanation,, it isn’t. He did not necessarily buy ‘bio-sociological’
approaches. Which was a problem, because we don’t have much philosophical
seriouis discourse on ‘cooperation’ at the general level Grice is aiming at.
Except in ethics, which is biased. So it is no wonder that Grice had to rely on
‘meta-ethics’ to even conceptualise the field of cooperation: the maximin
becomes a balance between a principle of conversational egoism and a principle
of conversational altruism. He later found the egoism-tag as ‘understood.’ And
his ‘altruism’ became ‘helpfulness,’ became ‘benevolence,’ and became
‘co-operation.’
copulatum: It was an Oxonian exercise to trace the ‘copula.’ “I’ve
been working like a dog, should be sleeping like a log.” Where is the copula:
Lennon is a dog-like worker – Lennon is a potential log-like sleeper.” Grice
uses ‘copula’ in PPQ. The term is
sometimes used ambiguously, for ‘conjunctum.’ A conjunctive is called a
copulative. But Grice obviously narrows down the use of copulatum to izz and
hazz. He is having in mind Strawson.The formula does not allow for differences
in tense and grammatical number; nor for the enormous class of * all
'-sentences which do not contain, as their main verb, the verb * to be '. We
might try to recast the sentences so that they at least fitted into one of the
two patterns * All x is y ' or ' All x are y ' ; but the results would be, as
English, often clumsy andt sometimes absurd. for Aristotle, 'Socrates is a man'
is true "in virtue of his being that thing which constitutes existing for
him (being which constitutes his mode of existence)," Hermann Weidemann,
"In Defense of Aristotle's Theory of Predication," p. 84— only so
long as that "being" be taken as an assertion of being per se. But
Weidemann wants to take it merely copulatively. In "Prädikation," p.
1196, he says that when 'is' is used as tertium adiacens it has no meaning by
itself, but merely signifies the connection of subject and predicate. Cf. his
"Aristoteles über das isolierte Aussagenwort," p. 154. H. P. Grice,
"Aristotle on the Multiplicity of Being," also rejects an existential
reading of tertium adiacens and pushes for a copulative one. Cf. Alan Code,
"Aristotle: Essence and Accident," pp. 414-7. Aristotle has connected the semantic multiplicity in the copula not
with variation between predicates of one subject, but with variation between
essential (per se)predications upon different (indeed categorially
different) subjects (such ...eads
me to wonder whether Aristotle may be maintaining not only that the copula exhibits
semantic ...An extended treatment of my views about izzing and hazzing can
be found in Alan. A crucial ... on occasion admit catégorial variation in
the sense of the copulative 'is', evidently is ... Aristotle has
connected the semantic multiplicity in the copula not with variation ...with
the copulative 'is';
so he rather strangely interprets the last remark. (1017a27-30) as alluding to
semantic multiplicity in
the copula as being.
(supposedly) a consequence of semantic multiplicity in the existential
'is'. This interpretation seems difficult to defend. When Aristotle says that
predicates sometimes say what a thing is, sometimes what is it like (its
quality), sometimes how much it is (its quantity) and so on, he seems to be
saying that if we consider the range of predicates which can be applied to
some item, for example to a substance like Socrates or a cow,
these predicates are categorically various, and so the uses of the copula in the ascription
of these predicates will undergo corresponding variation"H. P.
Grice brings the question he had considered with J. L. Austin and P. F.
Strawson at Oxford about Aristotle’s categories.In “Categoriae,” Aristotle
distinguishes two sorts of case of the application of word or phrase to a range
of situations. In one sort of case, both the word and a single definition
(account, “logos”) apply throughout that range. In the other sort of case, the
word but no single definition applies through the range.These two sorts of case
have a different nature. In the first case, the word is applied synonymously
(of better as “sunonuma” – literally “sun-onuma”, cognomen). In the second case
the word is applied homonymously (or better “homonuma”, or aequi-vocally,
literally “homo-numa.”)Grice notes that a homonymous application has some sort
of sub-division which Aristotle calls "paronymy" (“paronuma”),
literally ‘para onuma.’To put it roughly, homonyms have multiple meanings –
what Grice has as “semantic multiplicity.”Synonyms have one meaning or ONE
SENSE, but apply to different kinds of thing.A paronym, such as ‘be,’ derives
from other things of a different kind. Paronyms display a ‘UNIFIED semantic
multiplicity,’ if that’s not too oxymoronic: how can the multiplicity be
unified while remaining a multiplicity? Aristotle states, confusingly, that
"being is said in many ways". As Grice notes, ‘good’ (agathon) also
is a paronym that displays unified semantic multiplicity.In Nichomachean
Ethics, even more confusingly, Aristotle says that "good is said in as
many ways as being". He doesn’t number the ways.So the main goal for Grice
is to answer the question: If, as Aristotle suggests, at least some expressions
connected with the notion of "being" exhibit semantic multiplicity,
of which expressions is the suggestion true? Grice faces the question of
existential being and Semantic Multiplicity. Grice stresses that Semantic
Multiplicity of "be" is not
only the case of it interpretation. Other words he wants to know in what way of
interpretation of this word the philosophers can detect the SM. Generally speaking
there are four possible interpretations of "being": First,
"be" is taken to mean "exist.”Second, "be" is taken as
a copula in a predication statement.Third, "be" is taken for
expressing the identity.Fourth, "Being" is considered to be a noun
(equivalent to ‘object' or ‘entity') – subjectification, category shift:
“Smith’s being tall suggests he is an athlete.” (cfr. A. G. N. Flew on the
‘rubbish’ that adding ‘the’ to ‘self’ results in – contra J. R. Jones).
Philosophers have some problems for this kind of theory with separating
interpretations from each other. It is natural for thinkers to unite the first
and the fourth. The object or entity should be the things which already exist.
So the SM would attach to such a noun as "entity" if, and only if, it
also attaches to the word "exist". Furthermore, it seems to be a good
idea to unite the first and the third. In some ways theorist can paraphrase the
word "exist" in the terms of self-identity. Grice gives an example:
“Julius Caesar exists if and only if Julius Caesar is identical for Julius Caesar.”
Cf. Grice on ‘relative identity.’So the philosophers should investigate SM in
two possible interpretations – when "be" is understood as
"exist" and when "be" is understood as copula. From
Aristotle's point of view ‘being’ is predicated of everything. From this
statement, Grice draws the conclusion that "exist" can apply to every
thing, even a square circle.This word should signify a plurality of universals
and exhibits semantic multiplicity. But Grice continue his analyses and tries
to show, that "exist" has not merely SM, but UNIFIED semantic
multiplicity. God forbid that he breaks M. O. R., Modifed Occam’s Razor –
Semantic multiplicies are not to be multiplied unificatory necessity.”In
“Metaphysics,” Aristotle says that whatever things are signified by the "forms
of predication". Philosophers understood the forms of predication
(praedicabilium, praedicamentum) as a category. So in this way
"being" has as many significations as there are forms of predication.
"Be" in this case indicates what a thing is, what is like or how much
it is and ctr. And no reasons to make a difference between two utterances like
"man walks (flourishes)" and "the man is walking
(flourishing)" – cfr. Strawson on no need to have ‘be’ explicitly in the
surface form, which render some utterances absurd. Grice says that it is not a
problem with interpretation of verb-forms like ‘walks' and ‘flourishes' while
we can replace them by expression in a canonical form like ‘is walking' and ‘is
flourishing'. Aristotle names them as canonical in form within the multiplicity
of use of "be" because ‘is’ is not existential, but copulative.Cf.
Descartes, I think therefore I am – I am a res cogitans, ergo I am a res.
"When Aristotle says that predicates sometimes say what a thing is,
sometimes what is it like (its quality), sometimes how much it is (its
quantity) and so on, he seems to be saying that, if we consider the range of
predicates which can be applied to some item, for example to a substance like
Socrates or a cow, these predicates are categorically various, and so the uses
of the copula in the ascription of these predicates will undergo corresponding
variation" It means that, from Aristotle's point of view, "Socrates
is F" is not an essential predication, where "F" shows the item
in the category C. So the logical form of the proposition “Socrates is F” is
understood as "Socrates has something which is (C) F" where is (C)
represent essential connection to category C. In conclusion it can be said that
the copula is a matter of the logical nature of constant connection expressed
by "has" and a categorical variant relation expressed by essential
"is". So we have both types of interpretation: as existence and as a
copula. (Our gratitude to P. A. Sobolevsky).
ases of ''Unified Semantic Multiplicity'' (USM).
Prominent among examples of USM is the application of the word 'be'; according
to. Aristotle, “being is said in ... Aristotle and the alleged
multiplicity of being (or something). Grice is
all for focal unity. Or, to echo
Jones, if there is semantic multiplicity
(homonymy), it is in the end UNIFIED semantic multiplicity (paronymy).
Or something. Copula – H. P.
Grice on Aristotle on the copula (“Aristotle on the multiplicity of being”) --
copula, in logic, a form of the verb ‘to be’ that joins subject and predicate
in singular and categorical propositions. In ‘George is wealthy’ and ‘Swans are
beautiful’, e.g., ‘is’ and ‘are’, respectively, are copulas. Not all
occurrences of forms of ‘be’ count as copulas. In sentences such as ‘There are
51 states’, ‘are’ is not a copula, since it does not join a subject and a
predicate, but occurs simply as a part of the quantifier term ‘there are’.
corpus: Grice would not
have gone to Oxford had his talent not been in the classics, Greek and Latin.
As a Midlander, he was sent to Corpus. At the time, most of Oxford was oriented
towards the classics, or Lit. Hum. (Philosophia). At some point, each college
attained some stereotypical fame, which Grice detested (“Corpus is for
classicists”). By this time, Grice, after a short stay at Merton, accepted the
fellowship at St. John’s, which was “a different animal.” In them days, there
were only two tutorial fellows in philosophy, Scots Mabbott, and English Grice.
But Grice also was “University Lecturer in Philosophy,” which meant he
delivered seminars for tutees all over Oxford. St. John’s keeps a record of all
the tutees by Grice. They include, alphabetically, a few good names. Why is
Corpus so special? Find out! History of “Corpus Christi.” Cf. St. John’s. Cf.
Merton. Each should have an entry. Corpus is Grice’s alma mater – so crucial. Hardieian: you only have one tutor
in your life, and Grice’s was Hardie. So an exploration on Hardie may be in
order. Grice hastens to add that he only learned ‘form,’ not matter, from
Hardie, but the ethical and Aristotelian approach he also admitted.
Corpus -- Grice, “Personal identity” – soul and body -- disembodiment, the
immaterial state of existence of a person who previously had a body.
Disembodiment is thus to be distinguished from nonembodiment or immateriality.
God and angels, if they exist, are non-embodied, or immaterial. By contrast, if
human beings continue to exist after their bodies die, then they are
disembodied. As this example suggests, disembodiment is typically discussed in the
context of immortality or survival of death. It presupposes a view according to
which persons are souls or some sort of immaterial entity that is capable of
existing apart from a body. Whether it is possible for a person to become
disembodied is a matter of controversy. Most philosophers who believe that this
is possible assume that a disembodied person is conscious, but it is not
obvious that this should be the case. Corpus
-- Grice’s body -- embodiment, the bodily aspects of human subjectivity. Embodiment
is the central theme in European phenomenology, with its most extensive
treatment in the works of Maurice MerleauPonty. Merleau-Ponty’s account of
embodiment distinguishes between “the objective body,” which is the body
regarded as a physiological entity, and “the phenomenal body,” which is not
just some body, some particular physiological entity, but my or your body as I
or you experience it. Of course, it is possible to experience one’s own body as
a physiological entity. But this is not typically the case. Typically, I
experience my body tacitly as a unified potential or capacity for doing this
and that typing this sentence,
scratching that itch, etc. Moreover, this sense that I have of my own motor
capacities expressed, say, as a kind of bodily confidence does not depend on an
understanding of the physiological processes involved in performing the action
in question. The distinction between the objective and phenomenal body is
central to understanding the phenomenological treatment of embodiment. Embodiment
is not a concept that pertains to the body grasped as a physiological entity.
Rather it pertains to the phenomenal body and to the role it plays in our
object-directed experiences.
cosmologicum. Grice systematized metaphysics
quite carefully. He distinguished between eschatology (or the theory of
categories) and ontology proper. Within ontology, there is ‘ontologia
generalis’ and ‘ontologia specialis.’ There are at least two branches of
‘ontologia specialis’: ‘cosmologia’ and ‘anthropologia.’ Grice would often
refer to the ‘world’ in toto. For example, in “Meaning revisited,” when he
speaks of the ‘triangle’: world-denotatum; signum-emissor, and soul. Grice was
never a solipsist, and most of his theories are ‘causal’ in nature, including
that of meaning and perception. As such, he was constantly fighting against
acosmism. While not one of his twelve labours, he took a liking for the
coinage. ‘Acosmism’ is formed in analogy to ‘atheism,’ meaning
the denial of the ultimate reality of the world. Ernst Platner used it in 1776
to describe Spinoza’s philosophy, arguing that Spinoza did not intend to deny
“the existence of the Godhead, but the existence of the world.” Maimon, Fichte,
Hegel, and others make the same claim. By the time of Feuerbach it was also
used to characterize a basic feature of Christianity: the denial of the world
or worldliness. Cosmologicum --
emanationism, a doctrine about the origin and ontological structure of the
world, most frequently associated with Plotinus and other Neoplatonists,
according to which everything else that exists is an emanation from a
primordial unity, called by Plotinus “the One.” The first product of emanation
from the One is Intelligence noûs, a realm resembling Plato’s world of Forms.
From Intelligence emanates Soul psuche, conceived as an active principle that
imposes, insofar as that is possible, the rational structure of Intelligence on
the matter that emanates from Soul. The process of emanation is typically
conceived to be necessary and timeless: although Soul, for instance, proceeds
from Intelligence, the notion of procession is one of logical dependence rather
than temporal sequence. The One remains unaffected and undiminished by
emanation: Plotinus likens the One to the sun, which necessarily emits light
from its naturally infinite abundance without suffering change or loss of its
own substance. Although emanationism influenced some Jewish, Christian, and
Islamic thinkers, it was incompatible with those theistic doctrines of divine
activity that maintained that God’s creative choice and the world thus created
were contingent, and that God can, if he chooses, interact directly with
individual creatures.
cotton onto the implicaturum:
this is not cognate with the plant. It’s Welsh, rather.Strawson’s and Wiggins’s
example of the ‘suggestio falsi’ – or alternative to Grice’s tutee example.
Since Strawson and Wiggins are presenting the thing to the ultra-prestigious
British Academy, they thought a ‘tutee’ example would not be prestigious
enough. So they have two philosophers, Strawson and Grice, talking about a
third party, another philosopher, well known by his mood outbursts. They are
assessing the third party’s philosophical abilities at their London club.
Strawson volunteers: “And Smith?”. Grice responds: “If he had a more angelic
temperament…” Strawson, “like a fool, I rushed in – Strawson Wiggins p. 520. The
angelic temperament. To like someone or something; to view someone or something
favorably. ... After we explained our plan again, the rest of the group
seemed to cotton onto it.
2. To begin to understand something. Has nothing to do with cotton 1560s,
"to prosper, succeed;" of things, "to agree, suit, fit," a
word of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Welsh cytuno "consent,
agree;" but perhaps rather a metaphor from cloth-finishing and thus
from cotton (n.).
Hensleigh Wedgwood compares cot "a fleece of wool matted together."
Meaning "become closely or intimately associated (with)," is from
1805 via the sense of "to get along together" (of persons), attested
from c. 1600. Related: Cottoned; cottoning.
cournot:
H. P. Grice draws from Cournot for his idea of a scientific law. --
Antoine-Augustin, a critical realist in scientific and philosophical matters,
he was a conservative in religion and politics. His Researches into the
Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth 1838, though a fiasco at the
time, pioneered mathematical economics. Cournot upheld a position midway
between science and metaphysics. His philosophy rests on three basic
counteridenticals Cournot, Antoine-Augustin
concepts: order, chance, and probability. The Exposition of the Theory
of Chances and Probabilities 1843 focuses on the calculus of probability,
unfolds a theory of chance occurrences, and distinguishes among objective,
subjective, and philosophical probability. The Essay on the Foundations of
Knowledge 1861 defines science as logically organized knowledge. Cournot
developed a probabilist epistemology, showed the relevance of probabilism to
the scientific study of human acts, and further assumed the existence of a
providential and complex order undergirding the universe. Materialism,
Vitalism, Rationalism 1875 acknowledges transrationalism and makes room for
finality, purpose, and God.
craig:
Grice loved his interpolation theorem, a theorem for firstorder logic: if a
sentence y of first-order logic entails a sentence q there is an “interpolant,”
a sentence F in the vocabulary common to q and y that entails q and is entailed
by y. Originally, William Craig proved his theorem in 7 as a lemma, to give a
simpler proof of Beth’s definability theorem, but the result now stands on its
own. In abstract model theory, logics for which an interpolation theorem holds
are said to have the Craig interpolation property. Craig’s interpolation theorem
shows that first-order logic is closed under implicit definability, so that the
concepts embodied in first-order logic are all given explicitly. In the
philosophy of science literature ‘Craig’s theorem’ usually refers to another
result of Craig’s: that any recursively enumerable set of sentences of
first-order logic can be axiomatized. This has been used to argue that
theoretical terms are in principle eliminable from empirical theories. Assuming
that an empirical theory can be axiomatized in first-order logic, i.e., that
there is a recursive set of first-order sentences from which all theorems of
the theory can be proven, it follows that the set of consequences of the axioms
in an “observational” sublanguage is a recursively enumerable set. Thus, by Craig’s
theorem, there is a set of axioms for this subtheory, the Craig-reduct, that
contains only observation terms. Interestingly, the Craig-reduct theory may be
semantically weaker, in the sense that it may have models that cannot be
extended to a model of the full theory. The existence of such a model would
prove that the theoretical terms cannot all be defined on the basis of the
observational vocabulary only, a result related to Beth’s definability theorem.
crazy-bayesy: cited
by H. P. Grice, “Aspects of reason.” Bayesian rationality, minimally, a
property a system of beliefs or the believer has in virtue of the system’s
“conforming to the probability calculus.” “Bayesians” differ on what
“rationality” requires, but most agree that i beliefs come in degrees of
firmness; ii these “degrees of belief” are theoretically or ideally
quantifiable; iii such quantification can be understood in terms of
person-relative, time-indexed “credence functions” from appropriate sets of
objects of belief propositions or sentences
each set closed under at least finite truth-functional combinations into the set of real numbers; iv at any given
time t, a person’s credence function at t ought to be usually: “on pain of a
Dutch book argument” a probability function; that is, a mapping from the given
set into the real numbers in such a way that the “probability” the value
assigned to any given object A in the set is greater than or equal to zero, and
is equal to unity % 1 if A is a necessary truth, and, for any given objects A
and B in the set, if A and B are incompatible the negation of their conjunction
is a necessary truth then the probability assigned to their disjunction is
equal to the sum of the probabilities assigned to each; so that the usual
propositional probability axioms impose a sort of logic on degrees of belief.
If a credence function is a probability function, then it or the believer at
the given time is “coherent.” On these matters, on conditional degrees of
belief, and on the further constraint on rationality many Bayesians impose that
change of belief ought to accord with “conditionalization”, the reader should
consult John Earman, Bayes or Bust? A Critical Examination of Bayesian
Confirmation Theory 2; Colin Howson and Peter Urbach, Scientific Reasoning: The
Bayesian Approach 9; and Richard Jeffrey, The Logic of Decision 5. Bayes’s theorem, any of several relationships
between prior and posterior probabilities or odds, especially 13 below. All of
these depend upon the basic relationship 0 between contemporaneous conditional
and unconditional probabilities. Non-Bayesians think these useful only in
narrow ranges of cases, generally because of skepticism about accessibility or
significance of priors. According to 1, posterior probability is prior
probability times the “relevance quotient” Carnap’s term. According to 2,
posterior odds are Bayesian Bayes’s theorem 74
74 prior odds times the “likelihood ratio” R. A. Fisher’s term.
Relationship 3 comes from 1 by expanding P data via the law of total
probability. Bayes’s rule 4 for updating probabilities has you set your new
unconditional probabilities equal to your old conditional ones when fresh
certainty about data leaves probabilities conditionally upon the data
unchanged. The corresponding rule 5 has you do the same for odds. In decision
theory the term is used differently, for the rule “Choose so as to maximize
expectation of utility.”
credibility: While Grice uses ‘probability’ as the correlatum of
desirability, he suggests ‘credibility’ is a better choice. It relates to the
‘creditum.’ Now, what is the generic for ‘trust’ when it comes to the creditum
and the desideratum? An indicative utterance expresses a belief. The utterer is
candid if he holds that belief. “Candid” applies to imperative utterances which
express genuine desires and notably the emissor’s intention that his recipient
will form a ‘desideratum.’ Following
Jeffrey and Davidson, respectively, Grice uses ‘desirability’ and
‘probability,’ but sometimes ‘credibibility,’ realizing that ‘credibility’ is
more symmetrical with ‘desirability’ than ‘probability’ is. Urmson had explored
this in “Parenthetical verbs.” Urmson co-relates, ‘certaintly’ with ‘know’ and
‘probably’ with ‘believe.’ But Urmson adds four further adverbs: “knowingly,”
“unknowingly,” “believably,” and “unbelievably.” Urmson also includes three
more: “uncredibly,” in variation with “incredibly,” and ‘credibly.” The keyword
should be ‘credibility.’
creditum: The Romans were good at this. Notably in negative
contexts. They distinguished between an emissor being fallax and being mendax.
It all has to do with ‘creditum.’ “Creditum’ is vero, more or less along
correspondence-theoretical lines. Used by Grice for the doxastic equivalent of
the buletic or desideratum. A creditum is an implicaturum, as Grice defines the
implicaturum of the content that an addresse has to assume the utterer BELIEVES
to deem him rational. The ‘creditum’-condition is essential for Grice in his
‘exhibitive’ account to the communication. By uttering “Smoke!”, U means that
there is some if the utterer intends that his addressee BELIEVE that he, the
utterer, is in a state of soul which has the propositional complex there is
smoke. It is worth noting that BELIEF is not needed for the immediate state of
the utterer’s soul: this can always be either a desire or a belief. But a
belief is REQUIRED as the immediate (if not ultimate) response intended by the
utterer that his addressee adapt. It is curious that given the primacy that
Grice held of the desirability over the credibility that many of his
conversational maxims are formulated as imperatives aimed at matters of belief,
conditions and value of credibility, probability and adequate evidence. In the
cases where Grice emphasizes ‘information,’ which one would associate with
‘belief,’ this association may be dropped provided the exhibitive account: you
can always influence or be influenced by others in the institution of a common
decision provided you give and receive the optimal information, or rather,
provided the conversationalists assume that they are engaged in a MAXIMAL
exchange of information. That ‘information’ does not necessarily apply to
‘belief’ is obvious in how complicated an order can get, “Get me a bottle”. “Is
that all?” “No, get me a bottle and make sure that it is of French wine, and
add something to drink the wine with, and drive careful, and give my love to
Rosie.” No belief is explicitly transmitted, yet the order seems informative
enough. Grice sometimes does use ‘informative’ in a strict context involving
credibility. He divides the mode of credibility into informational (when
addressed to others) and indicative (when addressed to self), for in a
self-addressed utterance such as, “I am being silly,” one cannot intend to
inform oneself of something one already knows! The English have ‘credibility’
and belief,
which is cognate with ‘love.’ H. P. Grice, “Disposition and belief,” H. P.
Grice, “Knowledge and belief.” a dispositional psychological state in virtue of
which a person will assent to a proposition under certain conditions.
Propositional knowledge, traditionally understood, entails belief. A behavioral
view implies that beliefs are just dispositions to behave in certain ways. Your
believing that the stove is hot is just your being disposed to act in a manner
appropriate to its being hot. The problem is that our beliefs, including their
propositional content indicated by a “that”-clause, typically explain why we do
what we do. You avoid touching the stove because you believe that it’s
dangerously hot. Explaining action via beliefs refers indispensably to
propositional content, but the behavioral view does not accommodate this. A
state-object view implies that belief consists of a special relation between a
psychological state and an object of belief, what is believed. The objects of
belief, traditionally understood, are abstract propositions existing
independently of anyone’s thinking of them. The state of believing is a
propositional attitude involving some degree of confidence toward a
propositional object of belief. Such a view allows that two persons, even
separated by a long period of time, can believe the same thing. A state-object
view allows that beliefs be dispositional rather than episodic, since they can
exist while no action is occurring. Such a view grants, however, that one can
have a disposition to act owing to believing something. Regarding mental
action, a belief typically generates a disposition to assent, at least under
appropriate circumstances, to the proposition believed. Given the central role
of propositional content, however, a state-object view denies that beliefs are
just dispositions to act. In addition, such a view should distinguish between
dispositional believing and a mere disposition to believe. One can be merely
disposed to believe many things that one does not actually believe, owing to
one’s lacking the appropriate psychological attitude to relevant propositional
content. Beliefs are either occurrent or non-occurrent. Occurrent belief,
unlike non-occurrent belief, requires current assent to the proposition
believed. If the assent is self-conscious, the belief is an explicit occurrent
belief; if the assent is not self-conscious, the belief is an implicit
occurrent behaviorism, supervenient belief 78
78 belief. Non-occurrent beliefs permit that we do not cease to believe
that 2 ! 2 % 4, for instance, merely because we now happen to be thinking of
something else or nothing at all. . --
belief revision, the process by which cognitive states change in light of new
information. This topic looms large in discussions of Bayes’s Theorem and other
approaches in decision theory. The reasons prompting belief revision are
characteristically epistemic; they concern such notions as quality of evidence
and the tendency to yield truths. Many different rules have been proposed for
updating one’s belief set. In general, belief revision typically balances risk
of error against information increase. Belief revision is widely thought to
proceed either by expansion or by conceptual revision. Expansion occurs in
virtue of new observations; a belief is changed, or a new belief established,
when a hypothesis or provisional belief is supported by evidence whose
probability is high enough to meet a favored criterion of epistemic warrant.
The hypothesis then becomes part of the existing belief corpus, or is
sufficient to prompt revision. Conceptual revision occurs when appropriate
changes are made in theoretical assumptions
in accordance with such principles as simplicity and explanatory or
predictive power by which the corpus is
organized. In actual cases, we tend to revise beliefs with an eye toward
advancing the best comprehensive explanation in the relevant cognitive
domain.
crescas:
h., philosopher, theologian, and statesman. He was a well-known representative
of the Jewish community in both Barcelona and Saragossa. Following the death of
his son in the anti-Jewish riots of 1391, he wrote a chronicle of the massacres
published as an appendix to Ibn Verga, Shevet Yehudah, ed. M. Wiener, 1855. Crescas’s
devotion to protecting Jewry in a time
when conversion was encouraged is documented in one extant work, the Refutation
of Christian Dogmas 139798, found in the 1451 Hebrew translation of Joseph ibn
Shem Tov Bittul ’Iqqarey ha-Nofrim. His major philosophical work, Or Adonai The
Light of the Lord, was intended as the first of a two-part project that was to
include his own more extensive systematization of halakha Jewish law as well as
a critique of Maimonides’ work. But this second part, “Lamp of the Divine
Commandment,” was never written. Or Adonai is a philosophico-dogmatic response
to and attack on the Aristotelian doctrines that Crescas saw as a threat to the
Jewish faith, doctrines concerning the nature of God, space, time, place, free
will, and infinity. For theological reasons he attempts to refute basic tenets
in Aristotelian physics. He offers, e.g., a critique of Aristotle’s arguments
against the existence of a vacuum. The Aristotelian view of time is rejected as
well. Time, like space, is thought by Crescas to be infinite. Furthermore, it
is not an accident of motion, but rather exists only in the soul. In defending
the fundamental doctrines of the Torah, Crescas must address the question
discussed by his predecessors Maimonides and Gersonides, namely that of
reconciling divine foreknowledge with human freedom. Unlike these two thinkers,
Crescas adopts a form of determinism, arguing that God knows both the possible
and what will necessarily take place. An act is contingent with respect to
itself, and necessary with respect to its causes and God’s knowledge. To be
willed freely, then, is not for an act to be absolutely contingent, but rather
for it to be “willed internally” as opposed to “willed externally.” Reactions
to Crescas’s doctrines were mixed. Isaac Abrabanel, despite his respect for
Crescas’s piety, rejected his views as either “unintelligible” or
“simple-minded.” On the other hand, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola appeals to
Crescas’s critique of Aristotelian physics; Judah Abrabanel’s Dialogues of Love
may be seen as accommodating Crescas’s metaphysical views; and Spinoza’s
notions of necessity, freedom, and extension may well be influenced by the
doctrines of Or Adonai.
Grice’s criterion for the
implicaturum, -- cf. G. P. Baker, “Grice and criterial semantics” -- broadly, a
sufficient condition for the presence of a certain property or for the truth of
a certain proposition. Generally, a criterion need be sufficient merely in
normal circumstances rather than absolutely sufficient. Typically, a criterion
is salient in some way, often by virtue of being a necessary condition as well
as a sufficient one. The plural form, ‘criteria’, is commonly used for a set of
singly necessary and jointly sufficient conditions. A set of truth conditions
is said to be criterial for the truth of propositions of a certain form. A
conceptual analysis of a philosophically important concept may take the form of
a proposed set of truth conditions for paradigmatic propositions containing the
concept in question. Philosophers have proposed criteria for such notions as
meaningfulness, intentionality, creationism, theological criterion knowledge, justification, justice,
rightness, and identity including personal identity and event identity, among
many others. There is a special use of the term in connection with Vitters’s
well-known remark that “an ‘inner process’ stands in need of outward criteria,”
e.g., moans and groans for aches and pains. The suggestion is that a
criteriological connection is needed to forge a conceptual link between items
of a sort that are intelligible and knowable to items of a sort that, but for
the connection, would not be intelligible or knowable. A mere symptom cannot
provide such a connection, for establishing a correlation between a symptom and
that for which it is a symptom presupposes that the latter is intelligible and
knowable. One objection to a criteriological view, whether about aches or
quarks, is that it clashes with realism about entities of the sort in question
and lapses into, as the case may be, behaviorism or instrumentalism. For it
seems that to posit a criteriological connection is to suppose that the nature
and existence of entities of a given sort can depend on the conditions for
their intelligibility or knowability, and that is to put the epistemological
cart before the ontological horse.
critical legal studies:
explored by Grice in his analysis of legal vs. moral right -- a loose assemblage of legal writings and
thinkers in the United States and Great Britain since the mid-0s that aspire to
a jurisprudence and a political ideology. Like the legal realists of the 0s and 0s, the
jurisprudential program is largely negative, consisting in the discovery of
supposed contradictions within both the law as a whole and areas of law such as
contracts and criminal law. The jurisprudential implication derived from such
supposed contradictions within the law is that any decision in any case can be
defended as following logically from some authoritative propositions of law,
making the law completely without guidance in particular cases. Also like
the legal realists, the political
ideology of critical legal studies is vaguely leftist, embracing the
communitarian critique of liberalism. Communitarians fault liberalism for its
alleged overemphasis on individual rights and individual welfare at the expense
of the intrinsic value of certain collective goods. Given the cognitive
relativism of many of its practitioners, critical legal studies tends not to
aspire to have anything that could be called a theory of either law or of
politics.
Grice’s
critique of conversational reason – “What does Kant mean
by ‘critique’? Should he?” – Grice. Critical Realism, a philosophy that at the
highest level of generality purports to integrate the positive insights of both
New Realism and idealism. New Realism was the first wave of realistic reaction
to the dominant idealism of the nineteenth century. It was a version of
immediate and direct realism. In its attempt to avoid any representationalism
that would lead to idealism, this tradition identified the immediate data of
consciousness with objects in the physical world. There is no intermediary
between the knower and the known. This heroic tour de force foundered on the
phenomena of error, illusion, and perceptual variation, and gave rise to a
successor realism Critical Realism that acknowledged the mediation of “the
mental” in our cognitive grasp of the physical world. ’Critical Realism’ was
the title of a work in epistemology by Roy Wood Sellars 6, but its more general
use to designate the broader movement derives from the 0 cooperative volume,
Essays in Critical Realism: A Cooperative Study of the Problem of Knowledge,
containing position papers by Durant Drake, A. O. Lovejoy, J. B. Pratt, A. K.
Rogers, C. A. Strong, George Santayana, and Roy Wood Sellars. With New Realism,
Critical Realism maintains that the primary object of knowledge is the
independent physical world, and that what is immediately present to
consciousness is not the physical object as such, but some corresponding mental
state broadly construed. Whereas both New Realism and idealism grew out of the
conviction that any such mediated account of knowledge is untenable, the
Critical Realists felt that only if knowledge of the external world is
explained in terms of a process of mental mediation, can error, illusion, and
perceptual variation be accommodated. One could fashion an account of mental
mediation that did not involve the pitfalls of Lockean representationalism by
carefully distinguishing between the object known and the mental state through
which it is known. The Critical Realists differed among themselves both
epistemologically and metaphysically. The mediating elements in cognition were
variously construed as essences, ideas, or sensedata, and the precise role of
these items in cognicriterion, problem of the Critical Realism tion was again variously construed.
Metaphysically, some were dualists who saw knowledge as unexplainable in terms
of physical processes, whereas others principally Santayana and Sellars were
materialists who saw cognition as simply a function of conscious biological
systems. The position of most lasting influence was probably that of Sellars
because that torch was taken up by his son, Wilfrid, whose very sophisticated
development of it was quite influential.
-- critical theory, any social theory that is at the same time
explanatory, normative, practical, and self-reflexive. The term was first
developed by Horkheimer as a self-description of the Frankfurt School and its
revision of Marxism. It now has a wider significance to include any critical,
theoretical approach, including feminism and liberation philosophy. When they
make claims to be scientific, such approaches attempt to give rigorous
explanations of the causes of oppression, such as ideological beliefs or
economic dependence; these explanations must in turn be verified by empirical
evidence and employ the best available social and economic theories. Such
explanations are also normative and critical, since they imply negative
evaluations of current social practices. The explanations are also practical,
in that they provide a better self-understanding for agents who may want to
improve the social conditions that the theory negatively evaluates. Such change
generally aims at “emancipation,” and theoretical insight empowers agents to
remove limits to human freedom and the causes of human suffering. Finally,
these theories must also be self-reflexive: they must account for their own
conditions of possibility and for their potentially transformative effects.
These requirements contradict the standard account of scientific theories and
explanations, particularly positivism and its separation of fact and value. For
this reason, the methodological writings of critical theorists often attack
positivism and empiricism and attempt to construct alternative epistemologies.
Critical theorists also reject relativism, since the cultural relativity of
norms would undermine the basis of critical evaluation of social practices and
emancipatory change. The difference between critical and non-critical theories
can be illustrated by contrasting the Marxian and Mannheimian theories of
ideology. Whereas Mannheim’s theory merely describes relations between ideas of
social conditions, Marx’s theory tries to show how certain social practices
require false beliefs about them by their participants. Marx’s theory not only
explains why this is so, it also negatively evaluates those practices; it is
practical in that by disillusioning participants, it makes them capable of
transformative action. It is also self-reflexive, since it shows why some
practices require illusions and others do not, and also why social crises and
conflicts will lead agents to change their circumstances. It is scientific, in
that it appeals to historical evidence and can be revised in light of better
theories of social action, language, and rationality. Marx also claimed that
his theory was superior for its special “dialectical method,” but this is now
disputed by most critical theorists, who incorporate many different theories
and methods. This broader definition of critical theory, however, leaves a gap
between theory and practice and places an extra burden on critics to justify
their critical theories without appeal to such notions as inevitable historical
progress. This problem has made critical theories more philosophical and
concerned with questions of justification.
Grice’s
critters: one is never sure if Grice uses ‘creature’
seriously! creation ex nihilo, the act of bringing something into existence
from nothing. According to traditional Christian theology, God created the
world ex nihilo. To say that the world was created from nothing does not mean
that there was a prior non-existent substance out of which it was fashioned,
but rather that there was not anything out of which God brought it into being.
However, some of the patristics influenced by Plotinus, such as Gregory of
Nyssa, apparently understood creation ex nihilo to be an emanation from God
according to which what is created comes, not from nothing, but from God
himself. Not everything that God makes need be created ex nihilo; or if, as in
Genesis 2: 7, 19, God made a human being and animals from the ground, a
previously existing material, God did not create them from nothing. Regardless
of how bodies are made, orthodox theology holds that human souls are created ex
nihilo; the opposing view, traducianism, holds that souls are propagated along
with bodies. creationism, acceptance of
the early chapters of Genesis taken literally. Genesis claims that the universe
and all of its living creatures including humans were created by God in the
space of six days. The need to find some way of reconciling this story with the
claims of science intensified in the nineteenth century, with the publication
of Darwin’s Origin of Species 1859. In the Southern states of the United
States, the indigenous form of evangelical Protestant Christianity declared
total opposition to evolutionism, refusing any attempt at reconciliation, and
affirming total commitment to a literal “creationist” reading of the Bible.
Because of this, certain states passed laws banning the teaching of
evolutionism. More recently, literalists have argued that the Bible can be
given full scientific backing, and they have therefore argued that “Creation
science” may properly be taught in state-supported schools in the United States
without violation of the constitutional separation of church and state. This
claim was challenged in the state of Arkansas in 1, and ultimately rejected by
the U.S. Supreme Court. The creationism dispute has raised some issues of
philosophical interest and importance. Most obviously, there is the question of
what constitutes a genuine science. Is there an adequate criterion of demarcation
between science and nonscience, and will it put evolutionism on the one side
and creationism on the other? Some philosophers, arguing in the spirit of Karl
Popper, think that such a criterion can be found. Others are not so sure; and
yet others think that some such criterion can be found, but shows creationism
to be genuine science, albeit already proven false. Philosophers of education
have also taken an interest in creationism and what it represents. If one
grants that even the most orthodox science may contain a value component,
reflecting and influencing its practitioners’ culture, then teaching a subject
like biology almost certainly is not a normatively neutral enterprise. In that
case, without necessarily conceding to the creationist anything about the true
nature of science or values, perhaps one must agree that science with its
teaching is not something that can and should be set apart from the rest of
society, as an entirely distinct phenomenon.
Grice
as Croceian: expression and intention -- Croce, B., philosopher.
He was born at Pescasseroli, in the Abruzzi, and after 6 lived in Naples. He
briefly attended the of Rome and was led
to study Herbart’s philosophy. In 4 he founded the influential journal La
critica. In 0 he was made life member of the
senate. Early in his career he befriended Giovanni Gentile, but this
friendship was breached by Gentile’s Fascism. During the Fascist period and
World War II Croce lived in isolation as the chief anti-fascist thinker in
Italy. He later became a leader of the Liberal party and at the age of eighty
founded the Institute for Historical Studies. Croce was a literary and
historical scholar who joined his great interest in these fields to philosophy.
His best-known work in the Englishspeaking world is Aesthetic as Science of
Expression and General Linguistic 2. This was the first part of his “Philosophy
of Spirit”; the second was his Logic 5, the third his theory of the Practical
9, and the fourth his Historiography 7. Croce was influenced by Hegel and the
Hegelian aesthetician Francesco De Sanctis 181783 and by Vico’s conceptions of
knowledge, history, and society. He wrote The Philosophy of Giambattista Vico 1
and a famous commentary on Hegel, What Is Living and What Is critical theory
Croce, Benedetto Dead in the Philosophy of Hegel 7, in which
he advanced his conception of the “dialectic of distincts” as more fundamental
than the Hegelian dialectic of opposites. Croce held that philosophy always
springs from the occasion, a view perhaps rooted in his concrete studies of
history. He accepted the general Hegelian identification of philosophy with the
history of philosophy. His philosophy originates from his conception of
aesthetics. Central to his aesthetics is his view of intuition, which evolved
through various stages during his career. He regards aesthetic experience as a
primitive type of cognition. Intuition involves an awareness of a particular
image, which constitutes a non-conceptual form of knowledge. Art is the
expression of emotion but not simply for its own sake. The expression of
emotion can produce cognitive awareness in the sense that the particular
intuited as an image can have a cosmic aspect, so that in it the universal
human spirit is perceived. Such perception is present especially in the
masterpieces of world literature. Croce’s conception of aesthetic has
connections with Kant’s “intuition” Anschauung and to an extent with Vico’s
conception of a primordial form of thought based in imagination fantasia.
Croce’s philosophical idealism includes fully developed conceptions of logic,
science, law, history, politics, and ethics. His influence to date has been
largely in the field of aesthetics and in historicist conceptions of knowledge
and culture. His revival of Vico has inspired a whole school of Vico
scholarship. Croce’s conception of a “Philosophy of Spirit” showed it was
possible to develop a post-Hegelian philosophy that, with Hegel, takes “the
true to be the whole” but which does not simply imitate Hegel. Croce -- expression theory of art, a theory
that defines art as the expression of feelings or emotion sometimes called
expressionism in art. Such theories first acquired major importance in the
nineteenth century in connection with the rise of Romanticism. Expression
theories are as various as the different views about what counts as expressing
emotion. There are four main variants. 1 Expression as communication. This
requires that the artist actually have the feelings that are expressed, when
they are initially expressed. They are “embodied” in some external form, and
thereby transmitted to the perceiver. Leo Tolstoy 18280 held a view of this
sort. 2 Expression as intuition. An intuition is the apprehension of the unity
and individuality of something. An intuition is “in the mind,” and hence the
artwork is also. Croce held this view, and in his later work argued that the
unity of an intuition is established by feeling. 3 Expression as clarification.
An artist starts out with vague, undefined feelings, and expression is a
process of coming to clarify, articulate, and understand them. This view
retains Croce’s idea that expression is in the artist’s mind, as well as
explanation, covering law expression theory of art 299 299 his view that we are all artists to the
degree that we articulate, clarify, and come to understand our own feelings.
Collingwood held this view. 4 Expression as a property of the object. For an
artwork to be an expression of emotion is for it to have a given structure or
form. Suzanne K. Langer 55 argued that music and the other arts “presented” or
exhibited structures or forms of feeling in general.
Grice’s
crucial experiment: a means of deciding between rival
theories (or arguments) for this or that impicatum, that, providing parallel
explanations of large classes of phenomena, come to be placed at issue by a
single fact. For example, the Newtonian emission theory predicts that light
travels faster in water than in air; according to the wave theory, light
travels slower in water than in air. Dominique François Arago proposed a
crucial experiment comparing the respective velocities. Léon Foucault then
devised an apparatus to measure the speed of light in various media and found a
lower velocity in water than in air. Arago and Foucault concluded for the wave
theory, believing that the experiment refuted the emission theory. Other
examples include Galileo’s discovery of the phases of Venus Ptolemaic versus
Copernican astronomy, Pascal’s Puy-de-Dôme experiment with the barometer
vacuists versus plenists, Fresnel’s prediction of a spot of light in circular
shadows particle versus wave optics, and Eddington’s measurement of the
gravitational bending of light rays during a solar eclipse Newtonian versus
Einsteinian gravitation. At issue in crucial experiments is usually a novel
prediction. The notion seems to derive from Francis Bacon, whose New Organon
1620 discusses the “Instance of the Fingerpost Instantia later experimentum crucis,” a term borrowed from the post set up
at crossroads to indicate several directions. Crucial experiments were
emphasized in early nineteenth-century scientific methodology e.g., in John F. Herschel’s A Preliminary
Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy 1830. Duhem argued that crucial
experiments resemble false dilemmas: hypotheses in physics do not come in
pairs, so that crucial experiments cannot transform one of the two into a
demonstrated truth. Discussing Foucault’s experiment, Duhem asks whether we
dare assert that no other hypothesis is imaginable and suggests that instead of
light being either a simple particle or wave, light might be something else,
perhaps a disturbance propagated within a dielectric medium, as theorized by
Maxwell. In the twentieth century, crucial experiments and novel predictions
figured prominently in the work of Imre Lakatos 274. Agreeing that crucial
experiments are unable to overthrow theories, Lakatos accepted them as
retroactive indications of the fertility or progress of research programs.
crusius:
As C. of E., Grice was pretty protestant -- Christian August, philosopher,
theologian, and a devout Lutheran pastor who believed that religion was
endangered by the rationalist views especially of Wolff. He devoted his
considerable philosophical powers to working out acute and often deep
criticisms of Wolff and developing a comprehensive alternative to the Wolffian
system. His main philosophical works were published in the 1740s. In his
understanding of epistemology and logic Crusius broke with many of the
assumptions that allowed Wolff to argue from how we think of things to how
things are. For instance, Crusius tried to show that the necessity in causal
connection is not the same as logical necessity. He rejected the Leibnizian
view that this world is probably the best possible world, and he criticrucial
experiment Crusius, Christian August
cized the Wolffian view of freedom of the will as merely a concealed
spiritual mechanism. His ethics stressed our dependence on God and his
commands, as did the natural law theory of Pufendorf, but he developed the view
in some strikingly original ways. Rejecting voluntarism, Crusius held that
God’s commands take the form of innate principles of the will not the
understanding. Everyone alike can know what they are, so contra Wolff there is
no need for moral experts. And they carry their own motivational force with
them, so there is no need for external sanctions. We have obligations of
prudence to do what will forward our own ends; but true obligation, the
obligation of virtue, arises only when we act simply to comply with God’s law,
regardless of any ends of our own. In this distinction between two kinds of
obligation, as in many of his other views, Crusius plainly anticipated much
that Kant came to think. Kant when young read and admired his work, and it is
mainly for this reason that Crusius is now remembered.
cudworth:
d. Lady Masham, English philosopher and author of two treatises on religion, A
Discourse Concerning the Love of God 1690 and Occasional Thoughts in Reference
to a Virtuous Christian Life 1705. The first argues against the views of the
English Malebranchian, John Norris; the second, ostensibly about the importance
of education for women, argues for the need to establish natural religion on
rational principles and explores the place of revealed religion within a
rational framework. Cudworth’s reputation is founded on her long friendship
with John Locke. Her correspondence with him is almost entirely personal; she
also entered into a brief but philosophically interesting exchange of letters
with Leibniz.
cumberland
-- Law – Grice was obsessed with laws that would introduce psychological
concepts -- Cumberland, R. English philosopher and bishop. He wrote a Latin
Treatise of the Laws of Nature 1672, tr. twice into English and once into .
Admiring Grotius, Cumberland hoped to refute Hobbes in the interests of
defending Christian morality and religion. He refused to appeal to innate ideas
and a priori arguments because he thought Hobbes must be attacked on his own
ground. Hence he offered a reductive and naturalistic account of natural law.
The one basic moral law of nature is that the pursuit of the good of all
rational beings is the best path to the agent’s own good. This is true because
God made nature so that actions aiding others are followed by beneficial consequences
to the agent, while those harmful to others harm the agent. Since the natural
consequences of actions provide sanctions that, once we know them, will make us
act for the good of others, we can conclude that there is a divine law by which
we are obligated to act for the common good. And all the other laws of nature
follow from the basic law. Cumberland refused to discuss free will, thereby
suggesting a view of human action as fully determined by natural causes. If on
his theory it is a blessing that God made nature including humans to work as it
does, the religious reader must wonder if there is any role left for God
concerning morality. Cumberland is generally viewed as a major forerunner of
utilitarianism.
inductum –
Grice knew a lot about induction theory via Kneale and Keynes -- curve-fitting
problem, the problem of making predictions from past observations by fitting
curves to the data. Curve fitting has two steps: first, select a family of
curves; then, find the bestfitting curve by some statistical criterion such as
the method of least squares e.g., choose the curve that has the least sum of
squared deviations between the curve and data. The method was first proposed by
Adrian Marie Legendre 17521833 and Carl Friedrich Gauss 1777 1855 in the early
nineteenth century as a way of inferring planetary trajectories from noisy
data. More generally, curve fitting may be used to construct low-level
empirical generalizations. For example, suppose that the ideal gas law, P %
nkT, is chosen as the form of the law governing the dependence of the pressure
P on the equilibrium temperature T of a fixed volume of gas, where n is the
molecular number per unit volume and k is Boltzmann’s constant a universal
constant equal to 1.3804 $ 10†16 erg°C†1. When the parameter nk is adjustable,
the law specifies a family of curves one
for each numerCudworth, Damaris curve-fitting problem ical value of the parameter. Curve fitting
may be used to determine the best-fitting member of the family, thereby
effecting a measurement of the theoretical parameter, nk. The philosophically
vexing problem is how to justify the initial choice of the form of the law. On
the one hand, one might choose a very large, complex family of curves, which
would ensure excellent fit with any data set. The problem with this option is
that the best-fitting curve may overfit the data. If too much attention is paid
to the random elements of the data, then the predictively useful trends and
regularities will be missed. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
On the other hand, simpler families run a greater risk of making grossly false
assumptions about the true form of the law. Intuitively, the solution is to
choose a simplefamily of curves that maintains a reasonable degree of fit. The
simplicity of a family of curves is measured by the paucity of parameters. The
problem is to say how and why such a trade-off between simplicity and goodness
of fit should be made. When a theory can accommodate recalcitrant data only by
the ad hoc i.e., improperly
motivated addition of new terms and
parameters, students of science have long felt that the subsequent increase in
the degree of fit should not count in the theory’s favor, and such additions
are sometimes called ad hoc hypotheses. The best-known example of this sort of
ad hoc hypothesizing is the addition of epicycles upon epicycles in the
planetary astronomies of Ptolemy and Copernicus. This is an example in which a
gain in fit need not compensate for the loss of simplicity. Contemporary
philosophers sometimes formulate the curve-fitting problem differently. They
often assume that there is no noise in the data, and speak of the problem of
choosing among different curves that fit the data exactly. Then the problem is
to choose the simplest curve from among all those curves that pass through
every data point. The problem is that there is no universally accepted way of
defining the simplicity of single curves. No matter how the problem is
formulated, it is widely agreed that simplicity should play some role in theory
choice. Rationalists have championed the curve-fitting problem as exemplifying
the underdetermination of theory from data and the need to make a priori
assumptions about the simplicity of nature. Those philosophers who think that
we have no such a priori knowledge still need to account for the relevance of
simplicity to science. Whewell described curve fitting as the colligation of
facts in the quantitative sciences, and the agreement in the measured
parameters coefficients obtained by different colligations of facts as the
consilience of inductions. Different colligations of facts say on the same gas
at different volume or for other gases may yield good agreement among
independently measured values of parameters like the molecular density of the
gas and Boltzmann’s constant. By identifying different parameters found to
agree, we constrain the form of the law without appealing to a priori knowledge
good news for empiricism. But the accompanying increase in unification also
worsens the overall degree of fit. Thus, there is also the problem of how and
why we should trade off unification with total degree of fit. Statisticians
often refer to a family of hypotheses as a model. A rapidly growing literature
in statistics on model selection has not yet produced any universally accepted
formula for trading off simplicity with degree of fit. However, there is wide
agreement among statisticians that the paucity of parameters is the appropriate
way of measuring simplicity.
Grice’s
defense of modernist logic -- cut-elimination theorem, a
theorem stating that a certain type of inference rule including a rule that
corresponds to modus ponens is not needed in classical logic. The idea was
anticipated by J. Herbrand; the theorem was proved by G. Gentzen and generalized
by S. Kleene. Gentzen formulated a sequent calculus i.e., a deductive system with rules for
statements about derivability. It includes a rule that we here express as ‘From
C Y D,M and M,C Y D, infer C Y D’ or ‘Given that C yields D or M, and that C
plus M yields D, we may infer that C yields D’. Cusa cut-elimination
theorem This is called the cut rule
because it cuts out the middle formula M. Gentzen showed that his sequent
calculus is an adequate formalization of the predicate logic, and that the cut
rule can be eliminated; anything provable with it can be proved without it. One
important consequence of this is that, if a formula F is provable, then there
is a proof of F that consists solely of subformulas of F. This fact simplifies
the study of provability. Gentzen’s methodology applies directly to classical
logic but can be adapted to many nonclassical logics, including some
intuitionistic logics. It has led to some important theorems about consistency,
and has illuminated the role of auxiliary assumptions in the derivation of
consequences from a theory.
cybernetic
implicaturum – What Grice disliked about the
cybernetic implicaturum is that it is ‘mechanisitically derivable” and thus not
really ‘rational’ in the way an implicaturum is meant to be rational. A machine
cannot implicate. Grice “Method in philosophical psychology” -- cybernetics
coined by N. Wiener in 7 from Grecian kubernetes, ‘helmsman’, the study of the
communication and manipulation of information in service of the control and
guidance of biological, physical, or chemical energy systems. Historically,
cybernetics has been intertwined with mathematical theories of information
communication and computation. To describe the cybernetic properties of systems
or processes requires ways to describe and measure information reduce
uncertainty about events within the system and its environment. Feedback and
feedforward, the basic ingredients of cybernetic processes, involve
information as what is fed forward or
backward and are basic to processes such
as homeostasis in biological systems, automation in industry, and guidance
systems. Of course, their most comprehensive application is to the purposive
behavior thought of cognitively goal-directed systems such as ourselves.
Feedback occurs in closed-loop, as opposed to open-loop, systems. Actually,
‘open-loop’ is a misnomer involving no loop, but it has become entrenched. The
standard example of an openloop system is that of placing a heater with
constant output in a closed room and leaving it switched on. Room temperature
may accidentally reach, but may also dramatically exceed, the temperature
desired by the occupants. Such a heating system has no means of controlling
itself to adapt to required conditions. In contrast, the standard closed-loop
system incorporates a feedback component. At the heart of cybernetics is the
concept of control. A controlled process is one in which an end state that is
reached depends essentially on the behavior of the controlling system and not
merely on its external environment. That is, control involves partial
independence for the system. A control system may be pictured as having both an
inner and outer environment. The inner environment consists of the internal
events that make up the system; the outer environment consists of events that
causally impinge on the system, threatening disruption and loss of system
integrity and stability. For a system to maintain its independence and identity
in the face of fluctuations in its external environment, it must be able to
detect information about those changes in the external environment. Information
must pass through the interface between inner and outer environments, and the
system must be able to compensate for fluctuations of the outer environment by
adjusting its own inner environmental variables. Otherwise, disturbances in the
outer environment will overcome the system
bringing its inner states into equilibrium with the outer states,
thereby losing its identity as a distinct, independent system. This is nowhere more
certain than with the homeostatic systems of the body for temperature or blood
sugar levels. Control in the attainment of goals is accomplished by minimizing
error. Negative feedback, or information about error, is the difference between
activity a system actually performs output and that activity which is its goal
to perform input. The standard example of control incorporating negative
feedback is the thermostatically controlled heating system. The actual room
temperature system output carries information to the thermostat that can be
compared via goal-state comparator to the desired temperature for the room
input as embodied in the set-point on the thermostat; a correction can then be
made to minimize the difference error
the furnace turns on or off. Positive feedback tends to amplify the
value of the output of a system or of a system disturbance by adding the value
of the output to the system input quantity. Thus, the system accentuates
disturbances and, if unchecked, will eventually pass the brink of instability.
Suppose that as room temperature rises it causes the thermostatic set-point to
rise in direct proportion to the rise in temperature. This would cause the
furnace to continue to output heat possibly with disastrous consequences. Many
biological maladies have just this characteristic. For example, severe loss of
blood causes inability of the heart to pump effectively, which causes loss of
arterial pressure, which, in turn, causes reduced flow of blood to the heart,
reducing pumping efficiency. cybernetics cybernetics Cognitively goal-directed systems are also
cybernetic systems. Purposive attainment of a goal by a goal-directed system
must have at least: 1 an internal representation of the goal state of the
system a detector for whether the desired state is actual; 2 a feedback loop by
which information about the present state of the system can be compared with
the goal state as internally represented and by means of which an error
correction can be made to minimize any difference; and 3 a causal dependency of
system output upon the error-correction process of condition 2 to distinguish
goal success from fortuitous goal satisfaction.
cynical
implicaturum, Cynic -- a classical Grecian
philosophical school characterized by asceticism and emphasis on the
sufficiency of virtue for happiness eudaimonia, boldness in speech, and
shamelessness in action. The Cynics were strongly influenced by Socrates and
were themselves an important influence on Stoic ethics. An ancient tradition
links the Cynics to Antisthenes c.445c.360 B.C., an Athenian. He fought bravely
in the battle of Tanagra and claimed that he would not have been so courageous
if he had been born of two Athenians instead of an Athenian and a Thracian
slave. He studied with Gorgias, but later became a close companion of Socrates
and was present at Socrates’ death. Antisthenes was proudest of his wealth,
although he had no money, because he was satisfied with what he had and he
could live in whatever circumstances he found himself. Here he follows Socrates
in three respects. First, Socrates himself lived with a disregard for pleasure
and pain e.g., walking barefoot in snow.
Second, Socrates thinks that in every circumstance a virtuous person is better
off than a nonvirtuous one; Antisthenes anticipates the Stoic development of
this to the view that virtue is sufficient for happiness, because the virtuous
person uses properly whatever is present. Third, both Socrates and Antisthenes
stress that the soul is more important than the body, and neglect the body for
the soul. Unlike the later Cynics, however, both Socrates and Antisthenes do
accept pleasure when it is available. Antisthenes also does not focus
exclusively on ethics; he wrote on other topics, including logic. He supposedly
told Plato that he could see a horse but not horseness, to which Plato replied
that he had not acquired the means to see horseness. Diogenes of Sinope
c.400c.325 B.C. continued the emphasis on self-sufficiency and on the soul, but
took the disregard for pleasure to asceticism. According to one story, Plato
called Diogenes “Socrates gone mad.” He came to Athens after being exiled from
Sinope, perhaps because the coinage was defaced, either by himself or by
others, under his father’s direction. He took ‘deface the coinage!’ as a motto,
meaning that the current standards were corrupt and should be marked as corrupt
by being defaced; his refusal to live by them was his defacing them. For
example, he lived in a wine cask, ate whatever scraps he came across, and wrote
approvingly of cannibalism and incest. One story reports that he carried a
lighted lamp in broad daylight looking for an honest human, probably intending
to suggest that the people he did see were so corrupted that they were no
longer really people. He apparently wanted to replace the debased standards of
custom with the genuine standards of nature
but nature in the sense of what was minimally required for human life,
which an individual human could achieve, without society. Because of this, he
was called a Cynic, from the Grecian word kuon dog, because he was as shameless
as a dog. Diogenes’ most famous successor was Crates fl. c.328325 B.C.. He was
a Boeotian, from Thebes, and renounced his wealth to become a Cynic. He seems
to have been more pleasant than Diogenes; according to some reports, every
Athenian house was open to him, and he was even regarded by them as a household
god. Perhaps the most famous incident involving Crates is his marriage to
Hipparchia, who took up the Cynic way of life despite her family’s opposition
and insisted that educating herself was preferable to working a loom. Like
Diogenes, Crates emphasized that happiness is self-sufficiency, and claimed
that asceticism is required for self-sufficiency; e.g., he advises us not to
prefer oysters to lentils. He argues that no one is happy if happiness is
measured by the balance of pleasure and pain, since in each period of our lives
there is more pain than pleasure. Cynicism continued to be active through the
third century B.C., and returned to prominence in the second century A.D. after
an apparent decline.
cyrenaic implicaturum
-- Cyrenaics, a classical Grecian philosophical school that began shortly after
Socrates and lasted for several centuries, noted especially for hedonism.
Ancient writers trace the Cyrenaics back to ArisCynics Cyrenaics 200 200 tippus of Cyrene fifth-fourth century
B.C., an associate of Socrates. Aristippus came to Athens because of Socrates’
fame and later greatly enjoyed the luxury of court life in Sicily. Some people
ascribe the founding of the school to his grandchild Aristippus, because of an
ancient report that the elder Aristippus said nothing clear about the human
end. The Cyrenaics include Aristippus’s child Arete, her child Aristippus
taught by Arete, Hegesius, Anniceris, and Theodorus. The school seems to have
been superseded by the Epicureans. No Cyrenaic writings survive, and the
reports we do have are sketchy. The Cyrenaics avoid mathematics and natural
philosophy, preferring ethics because of its utility. According to them, not
only will studying nature not make us virtuous, it also won’t make us stronger
or richer. Some reports claim that they also avoid logic and epistemology. But
this is not true of all the Cyrenaics: according to other reports, they think logic
and epistemology are useful, consider arguments and also causes as topics to be
covered in ethics, and have an epistemology. Their epistemology is skeptical.
We can know only how we are affected; we can know, e.g., that we are whitening,
but not that whatever is causing this sensation is itself white. This differs
from Protagoras’s theory; unlike Protagoras the Cyrenaics draw no inferences
about the things that affect us, claiming only that external things have a
nature that we cannot know. But, like Protagoras, the Cyrenaics base their
theory on the problem of conflicting appearances. Given their epistemology, if
humans ought to aim at something that is not a way of being affected i.e.,
something that is immediately perceived according to them, we can never know
anything about it. Unsurprisingly, then, they claim that the end is a way of
being affected; in particular, they are hedonists. The end of good actions is
particular pleasures smooth changes, and the end of bad actions is particular
pains rough changes. There is also an intermediate class, which aims at neither
pleasure nor pain. Mere absence of pain is in this intermediate class, since
the absence of pain may be merely a static state. Pleasure for Aristippus seems
to be the sensation of pleasure, not including related psychic states. We
should aim at pleasure although not everyone does, as is clear from our
naturally seeking it as children, before we consciously choose to. Happiness,
which is the sum of the particular pleasures someone experiences, is
choiceworthy only for the particular pleasures that constitute it, while
particular pleasures are choiceworthy for themselves. Cyrenaics, then, are not
concerned with maximizing total pleasure over a lifetime, but only with
particular pleasures, and so they should not choose to give up particular
pleasures on the chance of increasing the total. Later Cyrenaics diverge in
important respects from the original Cyrenaic hedonism, perhaps in response to
the development of Epicurus’s views. Hegesias claims that happiness is
impossible because of the pains associated with the body, and so thinks of
happiness as total pleasure minus total pain. He emphasizes that wise people
act for themselves, and denies that people actually act for someone else.
Anniceris, on the other hand, claims that wise people are happy even if they
have few pleasures, and so seems to think of happiness as the sum of pleasures,
and not as the excess of pleasures over pains. Anniceris also begins
considering psychic pleasures: he insists that friends should be valued not
only for their utility, but also for our feelings toward them. We should even
accept losing pleasure because of a friend, even though pleasure is the end.
Theodorus goes a step beyond Anniceris. He claims that the end of good actions
is joy and that of bad actions is grief. Surprisingly, he denies that
friendship is reasonable, since fools have friends only for utility and wise
people need no friends. He even regards pleasure as intermediate between
practical wisdom and its opposite. This seems to involve regarding happiness as
the end, not particular pleasures, and may involve losing particular pleasures
for long-term happiness.
empiricism
-- Czolbe, H., philosopher. He was born in Danzig and trained in theology and
medicine. His main works are Neue Darstellung des Sensualismus “New Exposition
of Sensualism,” 1855, Entstehung des Selbstbewusstseins “Origin of
Self-Consciousness,” 1856, Die Grenzen und der Ursprung der menschlichen
Erkenntnis “The Limits and Origin of Human Knowledge,” 1865, and a posthumously
published study, Grundzüge der extensionalen Erkenntnistheorie 1875. Czolbe
proposed a sensualistic theory of knowledge: knowledge is a copy of the actual,
and spatial extension is ascribed even to ideas. Space is the support of all
attributes. His later work defended a non-reductive materialism. Czolbe made
the rejection of the supersensuous a central principle and defended a radical
“senCzolbe, Heinrich Czolbe, Heinrich 201
201 sationalism.” Despite this, he did not present a dogmatic
materialism, but cast his philosophy in hypothetical form. In his study of the
origin of self-consciousness Czolbe held that dissatisfaction with the actual
world generates supersensuous ideas and branded this attitude as “immoral.” He excluded
supernatural phenomena on the basis not of physiological or scientific studies
but of a “moral feeling of duty towards the natural world-order and contentment
with it.” The same valuation led him to postulate the eternality of terrestrial
life. Nietzsche was familiar with Czolbe’s works and incorporated some of his
themes into his philosophy.
englishry:
Grice was first an Englishman, and then an Oxonian – and then a philosopher –
and then a genius! Englishness – Englishry, -- St. George for England. A
critique of racism, hostility, contempt, condescension, or prejudice, on the
basis of social practices of racial classification, and the wider phenomena of
social, economic, and political mistreatment that often accompany such
classification. The most salient instances of racism include the Nazi ideology
of the “Aryan master race,” chattel
slavery, South African apartheid in the late twentieth century, and the “Jim
Crow” laws and traditions of segregation that subjugated African descendants in
the Southern United States during the century after the Civil War. Social theorists dispute whether,
in its essence, racism is a belief or an ideology of racial inferiority, a
system of social oppression on the basis of race, a form of discourse,
discriminatory conduct, or an attitude of contempt or heartlessness and its
expression in individual or collective behavior. The case for any of these as
the essence of racism has its drawbacks, and a proponent must show how the
others can also come to be racist in virtue of that essence. Some deny that
racism has any nature or essence, insisting it is nothing more than changing
historical realities. However, these thinkers must explain what makes each
reality an instance of racism. Theorists differ over who and what can be racist
and under what circumstances, some restricting racism to the powerful, others
finding it also in some reactions by the oppressed. Here, the former owe an
explanation of why power is necessary for racism, what sort economic or
political? general or contextual?, and in whom or what racist individuals?
their racial groups?. Although virtually everyone thinks racism objectionable,
people disagree over whether its central defect is cognitive irrationality,
prejudice, economic/prudential inefficiency, or moral unnecessary suffering,
unequal treatment. Finally, racism’s connection with the ambiguous and
controversial concept of race itself is complex. Plainly, racism presupposes
the legitimacy of racial classifications, and perhaps the metaphysical reality
of races. Nevertheless, some hold that racism is also prior to race, with
racial classifications invented chiefly to explain and help justify the
oppression of some peoples by others. The term originated to designate the
pseudoscientific theories of racial essence and inferiority that arose in
Europe in the nineteenth century and were endorsed by G.y’s Third Reich. Since
the civil rights movement in the United States after World War II, the term has
come to cover a much broader range of beliefs, attitudes, institutions, and
practices. Today one hears charges of unconscious, covert, institutional,
paternalistic, benign, anti-racist, liberal, and even reverse racism. Racism is
widely regarded as involving ignorance, irrationality, unreasonableness,
injustice, and other intellectual and moral vices, to such an extent that today
virtually no one is willing to accept the classification of oneself, one’s
beliefs, and so on, as racist, except in contexts of self-reproach. As a
result, classifying anything as racist, beyond the most egregious cases, is a
serious charge and is often hotly disputed.
rational
Griceian deconstruction of communication -- a demonstration of
the incompleteness or incoherence of a philosophical position using concepts
and principles of argument whose meaning and use is legitimated only by that
philosophical position. A deconstruction is thus a kind of internal conceptual
critique in which the critic implicitly and provisionally adheres to the
position criticized. The early work of Derrida is the source of the term and
provides paradigm cases of its referent. That deconstruction remains within the
position being discussed follows from a fundamental deconstructive argument
about the nature of language and thought. Derrida’s earliest deconstructions
argue against the possibility of an interior “language” of thought and
intention such that the senses and referents of terms are determined by their
very nature. Such terms are “meanings” or logoi. Derrida calls accounts that
presuppose such magical thought-terms “logocentric.” He claims, following
Heidegger, that the conception of such logoi is basic to the concepts of
Western metaphysics, and that Western metaphysics is fundamental to our
cultural practices and languages. Thus there is no “ordinary language”
uncontaminated by philosophy. Logoi ground all our accounts of intention,
meaning, truth, and logical connection. Versions of logoi in the history of
philosophy range from Plato’s Forms through the self-interpreting ideas of the
empiricists to Husserl’s intentional entities. Thus Derrida’s fullest
deconstructions are of texts that give explicit accounts of logoi, especially
his discussion of Husserl in Speech and Phenomena. There, Derrida argues that
meanings that are fully present to consciousness are in decision tree
deconstruction 209 209 principle
impossible. The idea of a meaning is the idea of a repeatable ideality. But
“repeatability” is not a feature that can be present. So meanings, as such,
cannot be fully before the mind. Selfinterpreting logoi are an incoherent
supposition. Without logoi, thought and intention are merely wordlike and have
no intrinsic connection to a sense or a referent. Thus “meaning” rests on
connections of all kinds among pieces of language and among our linguistic interactions
with the world. Without logoi, no special class of connections is specifically
“logical.” Roughly speaking, Derrida agrees with Quine both on the nature of
meaning and on the related view that “our theory” cannot be abandoned all at
once. Thus a philosopher must by and large think about a logocentric
philosophical theory that has shaped our language in the very logocentric terms
that that theory has shaped. Thus deconstruction is not an excision of
criticized doctrines, but a much more complicated, self-referential
relationship. Deconstructive arguments work out the consequences of there being
nothing helpfully better than words, i.e., of thoroughgoing nominalism.
According to Derrida, without logoi fundamental philosophical contrasts lose
their principled foundations, since such contrasts implicitly posit one term as
a logos relative to which the other side is defective. Without logos, many
contrasts cannot be made to function as principles of the sort of theory
philosophy has sought. Thus the contrasts between metaphorical and literal,
rhetoric and logic, and other central notions of philosophy are shown not to
have the foundation that their use presupposes.
deductum –
also demonstratum, argumentum -- deduction, a finite sequence of sentences whose
last sentence is a conclusion of the sequence the one said to be deduced and
which is such that each sentence in the sequence is an axiom or a premise or
follows from preceding sentences in the sequence by a rule of inference. A
synonym is ‘derivation’. Deduction is a system-relative concept. It makes sense
to say something is a deduction only relative to a particular system of axioms
and rules of inference. The very same sequence of sentences might be a
deduction relative to one such system but not relative to another. The concept
of deduction is a generalization of the concept of proof. A proof is a finite
sequence of sentences each of which is an axiom or follows from preceding
sentences in the sequence by a rule of inference. The last sentence in the
sequence is a theorem. Given that the system of axioms and rules of inference
are effectively specifiable, there is an effective procedure for determining,
whenever a finite sequence of sentences is given, whether it is a proof
relative to that system. The notion of theorem is not in general effective
decidable. For there may be no method by which we can always find a proof of a
given sentence or determine that none exists. The concepts of deduction and
consequence are distinct. The first is a syntactical; the second is semantical.
It was a discovery that, relative to the axioms and rules of inference of
classical logic, a sentence S is deducible from a set of sentences K provided
that S is a consequence of K. Compactness is an important consequence of this
discovery. It is trivial that sentence S is deducible from K just in case S is
deducible from Dedekind cut deductíon 211
211 some finite subset of K. It is not trivial that S is a consequence
of K just in case S is a consequence of some finite subset of K. This
compactness property had to be shown. A system of natural deduction is
axiomless. Proofs of theorems within a system are generally easier with natural
deduction. Proofs of theorems about a system, such as the results mentioned in
the previous paragraph, are generally easier if the system has axioms. In a
secondary sense, ‘deduction’ refers to an inference in which a speaker claims
the conclusion follows necessarily from the premises. -- deduction theorem, a
result about certain systems of formal logic relating derivability and the
conditional. It states that if a formula B is derivable from A and possibly
other assumptions, then the formula APB is derivable without the assumption of
A: in symbols, if G 4 {A} Y B then GYAPB. The thought is that, for example, if
Socrates is mortal is derivable from the assumptions All men are mortal and
Socrates is a man, then If Socrates is a man he is mortal is derivable from All
men are mortal. Likewise, If all men are mortal then Socrates is mortal is
derivable from Socrates is a man. In general, the deduction theorem is a
significant result only for axiomatic or Hilbert-style formulations of logic.
In most natural deduction formulations a rule of conditional proof explicitly
licenses derivations of APB from G4{A}, and so there is nothing to prove.
defeasibility. Strawson Wiggins ‘somehwere in the
kitchen,’ ‘in one of the dining-room cupboards’ unless some feature of the
context defeats the implication, there is an implicaturum to the effect that
the emissor cannot make a ‘stronger’ move by Grice’s principle of
conversational fortitude (“Be ‘a fortiori’”). Cf. G. P. Baker on H. L. A. Hart. All very
Oxonian. Cf. R. Hall, Oxonian, on ‘Excluders.’ For Strawson and Wiggins that a
principle holds ‘generally, ceteris paribus, is a condition for the existence
of conversation, or of a good conversation. Defeasibility is a sign of the
freedom of the will. The communicators can always opt out. Not a salivating
dog. Note that defeasibility does not apply just to the implicaturum. Since
probabilistic demonstrate are uncertain, there is an element of defeasibility
in the EXplicatum of a probabilistic utterance. Levinson’s quote, “Probability,
Defeasibility, and Mode Operators.” Defeasibility
-- Grice: “So far as generalizations of these kinds are concerned, it seems to
me that one needs to be able to mark five features: (1) conditionality; (2)
generality; (3) type of generality (absolute, ceteris paribus, etc., thereby,
ipso facto, discriminating with respect to defeasibility or indefeasibility).”
-- Baker, “Meaning and defeasibility” – defeater – in Aspects of reason --
defeasibility, a property that rules, principles, arguments, or bits of
reasoning have when they might be defeated by some competitor. For example, the
epistemic principle ‘Objects normally have the properties they appear to have’
or the normative principle ‘One should not lie’ are defeated, respectively,
when perception occurs under unusual circumstances e.g., under colored lights
or when there is some overriding moral consideration e.g., to prevent murder.
Apparently declarative sentences such as ‘Birds typically fly’ can be taken in
part as expressing defeasible rules: take something’s being a bird as evidence
that it flies. Defeasible arguments and reasoning inherit their defeasibility
from the use of defeasible rules or principles. Recent analyses of
defeasibility include circumscription and default logic, which belong to the
broader category of non-monotonic logic. The rules in several of these formal
systems contain special antecedent conditions and are not truly defeasible
since they apply whenever their conditions are satisfied. Rules and arguments
in other non-monotonic systems justify their conclusions only when they are not
defeated by some other fact, rule, or argument. John Pollock distinguishes
between rebutting and undercutting defeaters. ‘Snow is not normally red’ rebuts
in appropriate circumstances the principle ‘Things that look red normally are
red’, while ‘If the available light is red, do not use the principle that
things that look red normally are red’ only undercuts the embedded rule.
Pollock has influenced most other work on formal systems for defeasible
reasoning.
defensible
– H. P. Grice, “Conceptual analysis and the defensible province of philosophy.”
Grice uses the ‘territorial’ province, and the further implicaturum is that
conceptual analysis as the province of philosophy is a defensible one. Grice
thinks it is.
definitum: Grice lists ‘the’ in his list of communicative devices. He
was interested in the iota operator. After Sluga, he knew there were problems
here. He proposed a quantificational approach alla Whitehead and Russell,
indeed a Whitehead and Russellian expansion in three clauses, with identity,
involved. Why wasn’t Russell not involved with the ‘indefinite’. One would
think because that’s rendered already by (Ex), ‘some (at least one)’. Russell’s interest in definitum is not
philosophical. His background was mathematics, rather --. Grice was obsessed
with ‘aspects’ in verbs. There’s the ‘imperfect’ and the ‘perfect.’ These
translate Aristotle’s ‘teleos’ and ‘ateleos.’ But why the change from “factum”
to “fectum”? So it’s better to turn to ‘definitum,’ and ‘indefinitum, as better
paraphrases of Aristotle’s jargon – keeping in mind we are talking of his
‘teleos’ and ‘ateleos. Aristotle
and telos. In the Met. Y.1048b1835, Aristotle discusses the definition of an
action πϱᾶξις. He distinguishes two kinds of activities: kinêseis ϰινήσεις and
energeiai ἐνέϱγειαι: Only that movement in which the end is present is an
action. E.g., at the same time we are v.ing and have v.n ὁϱᾷ ἅμα, are
understanding and have understood φϱονεῖ, are thinking and have thought noei
kai nenoêken νοεῖ ϰαὶ νενόηϰεν when it is not true that at the same time we are
learning and have learnt ou manthanei kai memathêken οὐ μανθάνει ϰαὶ μεμάθηϰεν,
or are being cured and have been cured oud’ hugiazetai kai hugiastai οὐδ᾿ ὑγιάζεται
ϰαὶ ὑγίασται. At the same time we are living well and have lived well εὖ ζῇ ϰαὶ
εὖ ἔζηϰεν ἅμα, and are happy and have been happy εὐδαιμονεῖ ϰαὶ εὐδαιμόνηϰεν.
Of these processes, then, we must call the one set movements ϰινήσεις, and the
other actualities energeiai ἐνέϱγειαι. We v. that the distinctive properties of
these two categories of verbs are provided by relations of inference and
semantic compatibility between the form of the present and the form of the
perfect. In the case of energeiai, there is a relation of inference between the
present and the perfect, in the sense that when someone says I v. we can infer
I have v.n. There is also a relation of semantic compatibility since one can
very well say I have v.n and continue to v.. Thus the two forms—the present and
the perfect— are verifiable at the same time ἅμα, simultaneously. On the other
hand, in the case of kinêseis, the present and the perfect are not verifiable
at the same time. In fact, when someone says I am building a house, we cannot
infer I have built a house, at least in the sense in which the house is
finished. In addition, once the house is finished, one is no longer
constructing it, which means that there is a semantic incompatibility between
the present and the perfect. τέλος, which means both complete action, that is,
end, and limit in competition with πέϱας, plays a crucial role in this
opposition. In the category of energeiai, we have actions proper, that is,
activities that are complete τέλεια because they have an immanent finality ἐνυπάϱχει
τὸ τέλος. In the category of kinêseis, we have imperfect activities ἀτελείς
that do not carry their own end within themselves but are transitive and aim at
realizing something. Thus activities having an external goal that is at the
same time a limit peras do not carry their own goal telos within themselves;
they are directed toward a goal but this goal is not attained during the
activity, but is realized at the end of the activity. And history repeated itself, in the same
terms, regarding Slavic languages, with on the one hand the words perfective
and imperfective, modeled on the Roman opposition and imported to describe an
opposition in which lexicon and grammar are truly interwoven since it is a
question of categories of verbs, which determine the whole organization of
conjugation, and on the other hand the Russian words that are used to
characterize the same categories of verbs, and that signify the accomplished
and the unaccomplished. In the terminological imbroglio, we can once again v.
the effects of a confusion connected with the inability to acknowledge the
autonomy of lexical aspect, or, in the particular case of Slavic languages, the
difficulty of isoRomang the aspectual dimension in the general system of the
language. Nevertheless, the same questions, that of the telos and that of
accomplishment, are at the foundation of the two aspectual dimensions. They are
even so prominent that, alongside the heterogeneous inventory from which we
began, we also find, and almost simultaneously in the aspectual tradition, a
leveling of all differences in favor of two categories that are supposed to be
the categories par excellence of grammatical aspect: the perfective on the one
hand, and the imperfective on the other. However, there is also the continuing
competition of the perfect, another tr. of the same word, perfectum,
designating a category that is not exactly the same as that of the perfective,
and which is, for its part, always a grammatical category, never a lexical
category: one speaks of perfect to designate compound tenses in G. ic
languages, e. g. , of the type I have received
as opposed to I received, which corresponds to the idea that the telos
is not only achieved, but transcended in the constitution of a fixed state,
given as the result of the completion of the process. Two, or three,
grammatical categories that are the same and not the same as the two, three, or
four lexical categories. It is in the name of these categories, and literally
behind their name, that the aspectual descriptions succeeded in being
applicable to all languages, confRomang all the imperfects of all languages and
also the Eng. progressive and the Russian imperfective, all the aorists in all
languages, and aligning perfects, perfectives, the Eng. perfect, the G. Perfekt, the Roman perfectum and the Grecian
perfect. The facts are different, but the words, and the recurrence of a
problematics that v.ms invariable, are too strong. Although it is a matter of
conjugations, the lexicon and the relation to ontological questions are too
influential. The word imperfectum was invented, we
v. a hesitation that is precisely the one that causes a problem here, between
imperfectum and infectum a nonachieved finality, an absence of finality. The
important point is that the whole history of aspectual terminology is
constituted by such exchanges. The invention of the words perfectum and
imperfectum itself proceeds from an enterprise of tr., in which it is a
question of taking as a model, or rephrasing, the Grecian grammarians’
opposition between suntelikos συντελιϰός and non-suntelikos. However, the
difference between the two terminologies is noticeable. A supine past
participle, -fectum, has replaced telikos, and hence telos, thereby
reintroducing, if not tense was tense really involved in that past participle?,
at least the achievement of an act, and consequently merges with the question
of the accomplished. In this operation, the Stoics’ opposition between
suntelikos which would thus designate the choice of perfects or imperfects and
παϱατατιϰός the extensive, in which the question of the telos is not involved
was made symmetrical, introducing into aspectual terminology a binariness from
which we have never recovered. And this symmetricalization, which sought to
describe the organization of a conjugation, was then modeled on the distinction
introduced by Aristotle between tτέλειος and aἀτελής, which was not grammatical
but lexical. This resulted in a new confusion that is not without foundation
because it was already implicit in the montage constructed by the Grecian
philosophers, with on the one hand the telos used by Aristotle to differentiate
types of process, and on the other the same telos used by the Stoics to
structure conjugation. exist in G. , is said to be primarily a matter of
discursive construction with the imparfait forming the background of a
narration, and the past tenses forming the foreground of what develops and
occurs. More recently, this area has been dominated by theories that situate
aspect in a theory of discursive representations cf. Kamp’s discourse
representation theory, and try to reduce it to a matter of discursive
organization: thus the models currently most discussed make the imparfait an
anaphoric mark that repeats an element of the context instead of constructing
an independent referent. Once again the relations are inextricably confused:
the types of discourse clearly have particular aspectual properties we have
already v.n this in connection with aoristic utterances that structure both
aspect and tense differently, and yet all or almost all aspectual forms can
appear anywhere, in all or almost all types of discursive contexts. Thus we
have foregrounded imparfaits, which have been recorded and are sometimes called
narrative imparfaits— e. g. , in an utterance like Trois jours après, il
mourait Three days later, he was dying, where it is a question of narrating a
prominent event, and where the distinction between imparfait and passé simple
becomes more difficult to evaluate. We also find passé composés in narratives,
where they compete with the passé simple: that is why many analysts of the
language consider the passé simple an archaic form that is being abandoned in
favor of the passé composé. The difficulty is clear: it is hard to attach a
given formal procedure to a given enunciative structuration, not only because
enunciative structures are supposed to be compatible with several aspectual
values, but first of all because the formal procedures themselves are all, more
or less broadly, polysemous, their value depending precisely on the context and
thus on the enunciative structure in which they are situated. Here again, this
is commonplace: polysemy is everywhere in languages. But in this case it
affects aspect: it consists precisely in running through aspectual oppositions,
the very ones that are also supposed to be associated with some aspectual marker.
The case of narrative uses of the imparfait v.ms to indicate that the imparfait
can have different aspectual values, of which some are more or less apparently
perfective. The narrative passé composés for instance, Il s’est levé et il est
sorti He got up and went out describe the process in its advent and thus do not
have the same aspectual properties as those that appear in utterances
describing the state resulting from the process e.g., Désolé, en ce moment il
est sorti Sorry, he left just now. Not to mention the presents, which are
highly polysemous in many languages and which, depending on the language,
therefore occupy a more or less extensive aspectual terrain. We are obliged to
note that aspect is at least partially independent of formal procedures, that
it also plays a role elsewhere, in particular, in the enunciative
configuration. teleology: the objectivum. Grice
speaks of the objective as a maxim. This is very Latinate. So if the maxim is
an objective, the goal is the objective, or objectivum. Meaning
"goal, aim" (1881) is from military term objective point (1852),
reflecting a sense evolution in French. 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 implicatura) 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. Grice’s
“Definition” of Meaning – and Communicatum – Oddly, in “Utterer’s meaning and
intentions,” Grice keeps calling his analyses ‘definition,’ and
‘re-definition.’ He is well aware of the trick introduced by Robinson on this.
definiendum plural: definienda, the expression that is defined in a definition.
The expression that gives the definition is the definiens plural: definientia. In
the definition father, male parent, ‘father’ is the definiendum and ‘male
parent’ is the definiens. In the definition ‘A human being is a rational
animal’, ‘human being’ is the definiendum and ‘rational animal’ is the
definiens. Similar terms are used in the case of conceptual analyses, whether
they are meant to provide synonyms or not; ‘definiendum’ for ‘analysandum’ and
‘definiens’ for ‘analysans’. In ‘x knows that p if and only if it is true that
p, x believes that p, and x’s belief that p is properly justified’, ‘x knows
that p’ is the analysandum and ‘it is true that p, x believes that p, and x’s
belief that p is properly justified’ is the analysans. definist, someone who holds that moral terms,
such as ‘right’, and evaluative terms, such as ‘good’ in short, normative terms are definable in non-moral, non-evaluative
i.e., non-normative terms. William Frankena offers a broader account of a
definist as one who holds that ethical terms are definable in non-ethical
terms. This would allow that they are definable in nonethical but evaluative
terms say, ‘right’ in terms of what is
non-morally intrinsically good. Definists who are also naturalists hold that
moral terms can be defined by terms that denote natural properties, i.e.,
properties whose presence or absence can be determined by observational means.
They might define ‘good’ as ‘what conduces to pleasure’. Definists who are not
naturalists will hold that the terms that do the defining do not denote natural
properties, e.g., that ‘right’ means ‘what is commanded by God’. definition, specification of the meaning or,
alternatively, conceptual content, of an expression. For example, ‘period of
fourteen days’ is a definition of ‘fortnight’. Definitions have traditionally
been judged by rules like the following: 1 A definition should not be too
narrow. ‘Unmarried adult male psychiatrist’ is too narrow a definition for
‘bachelor’, for some bachelors are not psychiatrists. ‘Having vertebrae and a
liver’ is too narrow for ‘vertebrate’, for, even though all actual vertebrate
things have vertebrae and a liver, it is possible for a vertebrate thing to
lack a liver. 2 A definition should not be too broad. ‘Unmarried adult’ is too
broad a definition for ‘bachelor’, for not all unmarried adults are bachelors.
‘Featherless biped’ is too broad for ‘human being’, for even though all actual
featherless bipeds are human beings, it is possible for a featherless biped to
be non-human. 3 The defining expression in a definition should ideally exactly
match the degree of vagueness of the expression being defined except in a
precising definition. ‘Adult female’ for ‘woman’ does not violate this rule,
but ‘female at least eighteen years old’ for ‘woman’ does. 4 A definition
should not be circular. If ‘desirable’ defines ‘good’ and ‘good’ defines
‘desirable’, these definitions are circular. Definitions fall into at least the
following kinds: analytical definition: definition whose corresponding
biconditional is analytic or gives an analysis of the definiendum: e.g.,
‘female fox’ for ‘vixen’, where the corresponding biconditional ‘For any x, x
is a vixen if and only if x is a female fox’ is analytic; ‘true in all possible
worlds’ for ‘necessarily true’, where the corresponding biconditional ‘For any
P, P is necessarily true if and only if P is true in all possible worlds’ gives
an analysis of the definiendum. contextual definition: definition of an
expression as it occurs in a larger expression: e.g., ‘If it is not the case
that Q, then P’ contextually defines ‘unless’ as it occurs in ‘P unless Q’;
‘There is at least one entity that is F and is identical with any entity that
is F’ contextually defines ‘exactly one’ as it occurs in ‘There is exactly one
F’. Recursive definitions see below are an important variety of contextual
definition. Another important application of contextual definition is Russell’s
theory of descriptions, which defines ‘the’ as it occurs in contexts of the
form ‘The so-and-so is such-and-such’. coordinative definition: definition of a
theoretical term by non-theoretical terms: e.g., ‘the forty-millionth part of
the circumference of the earth’ for ‘meter’. definition by genus and species:
When an expression is said to be applicable to some but not all entities of a
certain type and inapplicable to all entities not of that type, the type in
question is the genus, and the subtype of all and only those entities to which
the expression is applicable is the species: e.g., in the definition ‘rational
animal’ for ‘human’, the type animal is the genus and the subtype human is the
species. Each species is distinguished from any other of the same genus by a
property called the differentia. definition in use: specification of how an
expression is used or what it is used to express: e.g., ‘uttered to express
astonishment’ for ‘my goodness’. Vitters emphasized the importance of
definition in use in his use theory of meaning. definition per genus et
differentiam: definition by genus and difference; same as definition by genus
and species. explicit definition: definition that makes it clear that it is a
definition and identifies the expression being defined as such: e.g., ‘Father’
means ‘male parent’; ‘For any x, x is a father by definition if and only if x
is a male parent’. implicit definition: definition that is not an explicit definition.
lexical definition: definition of the kind commonly thought appropriate for
dictionary definitions of natural language terms, namely, a specification of
their conventional meaning. nominal definition: definition of a noun usually a
common noun, giving its linguistic meaning. Typically it is in terms of
macrosensible characteristics: e.g., ‘yellow malleable metal’ for ‘gold’. Locke
spoke of nominal essence and contrasted it with real essence. ostensive
definition: definition by an example in which the referent is specified by
pointing or showing in some way: e.g., “ ‘Red’ is that color,” where the word
‘that’ is accompanied with a gesture pointing to a patch of colored cloth; “
‘Pain’ means this,” where ‘this’ is accompanied with an insertion of a pin
through the hearer’s skin; “ ‘Kangaroo’ applies to all and only animals like
that,” where ‘that’ is accompanied by pointing to a particular kangaroo.
persuasive definition: definition designed to affect or appeal to the
psychological states of the party to whom the definition is given, so that a
claim will appear more plausible to the party than it is: e.g., ‘self-serving
manipulator’ for ‘politician’, where the claim in question is that all
politicians are immoral. precising definition: definition of a vague expression
intended to reduce its vagueness: e.g., ‘snake longer than half a meter and
shorter than two meters’ for ‘snake of average length’; ‘having assets ten
thousand times the median figure’ for ‘wealthy’. prescriptive definition:
stipulative definition that, in a recommendatory way, gives a new meaning to an
expression with a previously established meaning: e.g., ‘male whose primary
sexual preference is for other males’ for ‘gay’. real definition: specification
of the metaphysically necessary and sufficient condition for being the kind of
thing a noun usually a common noun designates: e.g., ‘element with atomic
number 79’ for ‘gold’. Locke spoke of real essence and contrasted it with
nominal essence. recursive definition also called inductive definition and
definition by recursion: definition in three clauses in which 1 the expression
defined is applied to certain particular items the base clause; 2 a rule is
given for reaching further items to which the expression applies the recursive,
or inductive, clause; and 3 it is stated that the expression applies to nothing
else the closure clause. E.g., ‘John’s parents are John’s ancestors; any parent
of John’s ancestor is John’s ancestor; nothing else is John’s ancestor’. By the
base clause, John’s mother and father are John’s ancestors. Then by the
recursive clause, John’s mother’s parents and John’s father’s parents are
John’s ancestors; so are their parents, and so on. Finally, by the last closure
clause, these people exhaust John’s ancestors. The following defines
multiplication in terms of definition definition 214 214 addition: ‘0 $ n % 0. m ! 1 $ n % m $ n
! n. Nothing else is the result of multiplying integers’. The base clause tells
us, e.g., that 0 $ 4 % 0. The recursive clause tells us, e.g., that 0 ! 1 $ 4 %
0 $ 4 ! 4. We then know that 1 $ 4 % 0 ! 4 % 4. Likewise, e.g., 2 $ 4 % 1 ! 1 $
4 % 1 $ 4 ! 4 % 4 ! 4 % 8. stipulative definition: definition regardless of the
ordinary or usual conceptual content of the expression defined. It postulates a
content, rather than aiming to capture the content already associated with the
expression. Any explicit definition that introduces a new expression into the
language is a stipulative definition: e.g., “For the purpose of our discussion
‘existent’ means ‘perceivable’ “; “By ‘zoobeedoobah’ we shall mean ‘vain
millionaire who is addicted to alcohol’.” synonymous definition: definition of
a word or other linguistic expression by another word synonymous with it: e.g.,
‘buy’ for ‘purchase’; ‘madness’ for ‘insanity’.
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.
degree –
Grice on the flat/variable distinction -- Grice loved a degree – he uses “d” in
aspects of reason -- degree, also called arity, adicity, in formal languages, a
property of predicate and function expressions that determines the number of
terms with which the expression is correctly combined to yield a well-formed
expression. If an expression combines with a single term to form a wellformed
expression, it is of degree one monadic, singulary. Expressions that combine
with two terms are of degree two dyadic, binary, and so on. Expressions of
degree greater than or equal to two are polyadic. The formation rules of a
formalized language must effectively specify the degrees of its primitive
expressions as part of the effective determination of the class of wellformed formulas.
Degree is commonly indicated by an attached superscript consisting of an Arabic
numeral. Formalized languages have been studied that contain expressions having
variable degree or variable adicity and that can thus combine with any finite
number of terms. An abstract relation that would be appropriate as extension of
a predicate expression is subject to the same terminology, and likewise for
function expressions and their associated functions. -- degree of unsolvability, a maximal set of
equally complex sets of natural numbers, with comparative complexity of sets of
natural numbers construed as recursion-theoretic reducibility ordering.
Recursion theorists investigate various notions of reducibility between sets of
natural numbers, i.e., various ways of filling in the following schematic
definition. For sets A and B of natural numbers: A is reducible to B iff if and
only if there is an algorithm whereby each membership question about A e.g.,
‘17 1 A?’ could be answered allowing consultation of an definition, contextual
degree of unsolvability 215 215
“oracle” that would correctly answer each membership question about B. This
does not presuppose that there is a “real” oracle for B; the motivating idea is
counterfactual: A is reducible to B iff: if membership questions about B were
decidable then membership questions about A would also be decidable. On the
other hand, the mathematical definitions of notions of reducibility involve no
subjunctive conditionals or other intensional constructions. The notion of
reducibility is determined by constraints on how the algorithm could use the
oracle. Imposing no constraints yields T-reducibility ‘T’ for Turing, the most
important and most studied notion of reducibility. Fixing a notion r of
reducibility: A is r-equivalent to B iff A is r-reducible to B and B is
rreducible to A. If r-reducibility is transitive, r-equivalence is an
equivalence relation on the class of sets of natural numbers, one reflecting a
notion of equal complexity for sets of natural numbers. A degree of
unsolvability relative to r an r-degree is an equivalence class under that
equivalence relation, i.e., a maximal class of sets of natural numbers any two
members of which are r-equivalent, i.e., a maximal class of equally complex in
the sense of r-reducibility sets of natural numbers. The
r-reducibility-ordering of sets of natural numbers transfers to the rdegrees:
for d and dH r-degrees, let d m, dH iff for some A 1 d and B 1 dH A is
r-reducible to B. The study of r-degrees is the study of them under this
ordering. The degrees generated by T-reducibility are the Turing degrees.
Without qualification, ‘degree of unsolvability’ means ‘Turing degree’. The
least Tdegree is the set of all recursive i.e., using Church’s thesis, solvable
sets of natural numbers. So the phrase ‘degree of unsolvability’ is slightly
misleading: the least such degree is “solvability.” By effectively coding
functions from natural numbers to natural numbers as sets of natural numbers,
we may think of such a function as belonging to a degree: that of its coding
set. Recursion theorists have extended the notions of reducibility and degree
of unsolvability to other domains, e.g. transfinite ordinals and higher types
taken over the natural numbers.
No comments:
Post a Comment