Grice on "Like a Virgin", "Like a Monster"

Somewhere in the depths of this "Julie and Julia" (don't miss the paperback), deepened in the deepths of the depths, Kramer writes of Grice's choice of choice beasts:

to wit, (we have to consider when are why he called them in artless racism, 'betes noires' -- he says Austin was an artless sexist, so he shouldn't be too worried):

I am beset


not upset mind,

by a

[WARNING: Collective Noun here -- Scruples of Griceans -- cfr. Grice of Grouse --);


multitude of demons and perilous places,



-- for indeed when you read Bunyan, or better, when you browse the index to that impossible book (I only saw the musical when in a public school in England) you see that his vivid imagination was best in toponyms -- I'm sure someone should supply an index to that insufferable book (I treasure my lovely edition at the Swimming-Pool Library, though):


bearing names like


-- and here the "LIKE" IS _ V E R Y _

important, because it gives an annoyingly open-ended nature to my whole life! (I will never know if Grice is producing the antidote to them all -- them viscious betes noires):

And he drops their names for good measure


E as in Extensionalism,

N as in Nominalism,


P as in Positivism,

Na now as in Naturalism,

M as in Mechanism,

Ph as in Phenomenalism (Phi is just one letter in Greek)

R as in Reductionism,

Phu as in Physicalism,

Ma as in Materialism,

Em as in Empiricism,

S as in Scepticism,

and

-- the CONVENTIONAL implicature of 'and' is appropriate here -- for it gives a sort of finality to the previously irritating open-endness. Which would NOT have been the case had Pilgrim Grice add, "You name It".

F as in Functionalism.

The worst must be the F word: functionalism.

But what is the _logic_ behind this particular ordering? Kramer guesses:

"Well, I wouldn't say that Grice could
correctly _say_

"I chose in that order
them for no specific, or particular reason,""

This won't do, Kramer notes, because:

i. After all, that's the order he gives,
And surely he had to give them in SOME order.
which incidentally, is the one that he did
give them in.


"And that's a reason", Kramer concludes.

But more importantly,


(ii) Grice may have had a reason
for choosing those particular
betes noires in that particular order that he
gives them in:

First Bete Noire: Extensionalism

Second Bete Noire: Nominalism

Third Bete Noire: Positivism

Fourth Bete Noire: Naturalism

Fifth Bete Noire: Mechanism,

Sixth Bete Noire: Phenomenalism

Seventh Bete Noire: Reductionism

Eight Bete Noire: Physicalism

Ninth Bete Noire: Materialism,

Tenth Bete Noire: Empiricism,

Eleventh Bete Noire: Scepticism,

Twelfth Bete Noire: Functionalism.

"The magic of numbers"

-- Kramer adds,
"Perhaps he wasn't even conscious."

But Kramer adds, "Surely, under the circumstances" -- the thing is a dream -- :it would have been pedantic of Grice to add,


"in no particular order"


But it's not pedantic enough for Kramer:

"Not if what you are telling your
parent"

-- he doesn't mean it deictically. He means one's parent in the PTA -- parent teacher association as you drop your 'parents' (i.e. the set comprising the parents of your students as you open-house them)

NOT to read anything intentional
into the order given"

where one is supposed to bet one's sweet ass into the silly proceedings.

"whether or not he may read something unintentional into it."

Aha.

So I will. I WILL read something intentional. If there is a shadow of a doubt, trust I'll tread on it.


Extensionalism

is the FIRST bete noire, because it's the deeper, nastier, and most basic. It wants us to undermine our ability to TALK!

Then comes Nominalism, which sounds sweet, but she ain't. It's the name of the rose and the name of the name of the rose of the rose. "A fart of an expression", Occam commented, "flatus vocis". Roscelin went even further: ""F*ck you" cannot denote an _universalia_"

Third comes

Positivism

with all the appropriate Comptian rings to it. "Progress! Progress!" she screams, and the next thing you hear is that Germany invaded Prussia (Recall Grice was drafted to the Royal Navy just after he had published his study of Locke and Reid).

Fourth is Naturalism -- which came JUST after Compte (sic), with Darwin. The descent of the apes, etc. Gott is tot.

Then comes Mechanism.

Einstein (or his heirs) drop them in Hiroshima. This was the cause of Grice's return to Oxford, but it was a mechanist cause none the same.


The sixth is Phenomenalism

Just when you thought you could relax in Oxford comes G. A. Paul with his silly idea, "Is there a problem about sense-data?". Surely we thought there wasn't. But apparently, Paul wants us to think there is!


Seventh is Reductionism


For Grice had found that Sir Peter (as he then wasn't) Strawson had sneaked his copy of "Meaning", typed it, and sent it to The Philosophical Review. The next thing: everybody is calling Grice a reductionist

He adds in RE:WoW: "Surely I never was (I think) a reductionist". You gotta love a man who doubts it!

The eighth is

Physicalism

for -- you pass Trinity into Hertford, down to Magdalen, towards the Meadows of Corpus Christi, and you see the ugly head rearing of "The Ghost in the Machine". Ryle is wanting to say that we ARE Monists. Dualism is doomed to fail. All there _is_ is Physis, as the Greeks knew it.

The ninth is Materialism.

For you are casually reading a novel by Wodehouse, and Eddington says, "Table? No such thing! NO objects: Wavicles!" It all resolves to the nature of _matter_: the quanta, the sub-quanta, the photon, the disintigration of this and the disintigration of that. Epicurus with a vengeance.

The tenth, when you thought you would enjoy your Christmas pudding is

Empiricism

for Ayer, not contented with having almost RUINING Oxford philosophy is now publishing silly manifestos with the Penguin Press in London ("The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge") -- and what's worse, Lady Agatha is buying them -- for Xmas presents, no doubt. ("Whoa? No hardback edition?")

The eleventh is Scepticism

For while Lady Agatha has turned a neutral psychical-research functionalist, her husband raises his eyebrows, and continues reading his Popper book on the brain. "Surely there's still a long way to go till we understand the first thing about the mind. All this stuff is surely just hypothetical".

Finally, the twelfth day of Xmas, your true love sends you, as a strip-teaser Montecarlo:

Functionalism.

"If it works, it works". If it doesn't function, to the garbage!