Objection. Calls for an opinion

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Thanks to Kramer for his "Objection, calls for an opinion" -- commentary "Meiosis in the courtoom". This from online script at

http://www.airworthy.us/id10.html


UNITED STATES vs SABRETECH, ET. AL - 11-22-99
Ramos - Direct 160

BY MS. HECK MILLER:

Q.

"Item B says, if generator has not

been expended, install shipping cap on

firing pin. Caution, use caution

not to pull firing pin while disconnecting lanyards.

Has that item indicated as being completed on this work card?"

------

MS. MOSCOWITZ:

"Objection. Calls for an opinion."

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THE COURT:

"Can he see it?

Was it was signed off on by the mechanic that did the work.

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THE WITNESS:

"Yes, sir, it was signed."

----

THE COURT: Okay. Next question.

BY MS. HECK MILLER:

Q. Do you know what an inspection item is?

A. An inspection item can be meant as a couple different
things, ma'am.

Q. Are there work cards that are not inspection items?

A. Yes.

Q. Is work card 0069, as it appears in Government Exhibit 25 and 26, such a work card?

A. Yes, it is not an inspection item.

Q. What about the non-routine work card that was
associated with 0069 in Government Exhibit 25?

A. That is an inspection item.

Q. What is called for to be inspected?

A. The removal of O2 generators per card attached.

Q. Has that removal been executed?

----- etc.

Grice:

"Moreover we have to remember to take into account"

--- WHY? Qua philosophers? What is Grice suggsting, 'we have to remember'. Have we forgotten?

"a secondary range of cases like
cross-examination"

--- versus 'primary cases' who Grice knows what mean! (I like to think, discussions by Grice and his tuttee back in St. John's, Oxford).

-- No: Seriously. He knows what he means, and he explains what he means by 'primary':

It does NOT mean a monologue:

"Genuine monologues are free from speaker's implication"

---- Depends on your point of view!

"So, wince we are concerned as theorists only
with concerted talking," etc.

What is interesting is that he includes within this 'primary' range:

"voluntary exchanges ..." where "collaboration
in achieving exchange of information or the
instutition of decisions may coexist with
a high degree of reserve, HOSTILITY,"

--- T. Wharton's favourite in talking about this re: cross-examination as 'hostile', online source given elsewhere --

"and chicanery and with a high degree of
diversity in the motivations underlying
quite meagre common objectives."

----

"cases like cross-examination", then, fall within a 'secondary range of cases'.

And in these cases, as Grice rather controversially put it (vis a vis commentary on this club by yours truly and L. J. Kramer, and J),

"EVEN the common objectives are

SPURIOUS, apparent rather than

real; the joint enterprise"

--- he had use 'conversational enterprise' earlier on as the topic of what he is up to --

"is a SIMULATION, rather than

an instance, of even the most

minimal conversational

coperation."

---

"BUT such exchanges honour the

cooperative principle at least to

the extent of aping its application"

----

And we've discussed this.

In any case, "Objection. Calls for an opinion" is a charm, and it should be generalised to the, er, primary range.