Quinton's defense of Grice contra Gellner

by JLS
for the GC

--- THIS FROM USCHANOV's essay repr. in Croom Helm collection, available online -- which was discussed with him elsewhere:

Uschanov writes:

"Even philosophers who themselves thought that the

hegemony of [Ordinary Language Philosophy] needed challenging

were critical of Gellner’s abusiveness and unsubstantiated

allegations."

"In the New Statesman, Alasdair MacIntyre stated that although Words and Things was "a splendid piece of philosophical polemic which nobody interested in the subject ought to ignore," it is "too terse and schematic to be convincing"; it was also a pity that Gellner did not extend his sociological analysis to the ulterior motives of Russell and his other allies (1959: 597–598)."

"Anthony Quinton, writing in the British Journal

for the Philosophy of Science, shared this last regret, while

devoting most of his long review to providing textual

counterexamples to Gellner’s specific accusations (Quinton 1961)."

----

Grice was fascinated by the reactions to ordinary language philosophy and he dedicates a passage or two to Gellner in "Reply to Richards". He also treasured Bergmann's labelling of the Play Group as the English Futilitarians.