Betrand Russell, aged 97, at the time of Grice writing "Vacuous Names"

by J. L. Speranza
for the Grice Club.

Perhaps rather disrespectfully, Grice compares Lord Russell with Pegasus.

Grice is considering Meinong's views, only partially known in Oxford due to the lack of a good English translation. But Grice knew his Meinong alright, since he always found that Aristotle didn't (vide Grice, "Aristotle on the multiplicity of being", Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 1988).

Grice writes:

"To accept [my natural deduction system -- G_HP] is NOT

to accept a Meinongian viewpoint: it is NOT to subscribe

to the idea of a duality, or [worse] plurarity, of

'modes of being'."

"Acceptance of [G] as a model [FOR NATURAL DISCOURSE] might

be expected to lead one to hold that while

some sentences of the form (a)



----- (a) Betrand Russell ------.


will be interpretable in such a

way as

(i) to be true,

and

(ii) to ENTAIL not merely 'there is something which _______'

but also 'there EXISTS something which ________', sentences of the

form

------ (b) Pegasus _________. [(e.g. didn't fly)]


will be interpreted so as to be true,

entail only 'there is something which _______'."

---

BIG CAVEAT:

"But from this, it would be QUITE illegitimate

to conclude that

while Bertrand Russell both exists AND is (or has being),

Pegasus merely is (or has being)"


-----

(p. 129, in Davidson/Hintikka).


At the time of Grice writing, in 1967, Lord Russell was 97. He ceased, alas, to exist, a few years later -- in 1972.