Grice's Philosophical Papers

By J. L. Speranza
for the Grice Club.

I remember how happy I was that day in Paris when I purchased my copy of J. L. Austin's "Philosophical Papers"! I treasure it! Austin is an author for posthumous publication. The man never really cared to publish in his lifetime, and it's a sure sign of his geniality that his three books to date (someone should spend a week or two at the Bodleian, as Brigitte Nehrlich has, and come out with a third, a fourth, a fifth, ...) -- "Philosophical Papers", "How to do things with words", "Sense and sensibilia" -- make him by far the greatest philosopher of Grice's "Play Group" (perhaps not to mention Grice).

The situation obtains with Grice. Take a look at Grice's books to date:

"Ways of Words" -- published by himself in 1988, but out in 1989 (Grice died in 1988): but containing essays that date back from the 1940s. Not the typical editorial policy of your average Anglo-American philosopher!

"Conception of Value" -- edited posthumously by J. Baker from Grice 1983 Carus lectures.

"Aspects of Reason" -- edited poshumously by R. Warner from Grice 1977 Kant lectures.


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So one would propose:

"Grice's "Philosophical Papers"", to echo Austin's -- to include:

'Vacuous Names', in Davidson/Hintikka, 1969 -- presents a scheme of what he calls a "natural deduction system" -- and notes on definite descriptions. Only partially reprinted in Ostertag. The original paper appeared in the Synthese Library.

'Intention and uncertainty'. The important 1971 British Academy lecture. Very influential on Davidson. Published in the proceedings of the academy and as a separatum with the Clarendon Press. Grice at his 'intentionalist' best. He defines himself as a neo-Prichardian, as if someone would care to challenge that as a paleo-Prichardian.

'Aristotle on the multiplicity of being' -- Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. R. B. Jones has worked on the Alan Code version of the 'hazzing' and 'izzing' logic that is contained in this 'piece of work'. It's Grice at his 'history-of-philosophy' best. The final sections of the essay contain important points on 'pragmatic ambiguity' and 'contextualism'.

'Actions and events'. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. Unlike the "Aristotle" paper in PPQ which was published posthumously by Loar in 1988 (in September -- Grice died in August), "Actions and Events" was submtted by Grice himself in 1986, so the thing bore more importance to him than the Aristotle paper. It is a detailed critique of Davidson. But surely Grice's interest is in presenting his own alternate view.

'Metaphysics' (co-written with Strawson and Pears). This piece is seldom quoted. It is NOT listed in 'The publications of H. P. Grice', in the Grice festschrift, and I don't blame Grice for having forgotten to mention it to the editors (Grandy/Warner). I came across it in the entry "Metaphysics" in the influential P. Edwards, Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, and I was happy to obtain a copy of the volume from J. C. D'Alessio's personal library (D'Alessio had been a student of Pears at All Souls).

'Davidson on weakness of the will' (co-written with J. Baker), published in Vermazen/Hintikka. One doubts how much of this is Baker's and how much Grice's -- and Baker has so much on her agenda re: publishing Grice's and her own work co-written with Grice that one wonders. But it is an excellent piece. And it did influence authors such as Bratman and the 'new' philosophers of 'action'.

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If I were to include bits from the Grice Collection (at Bancroft) to add to the volume, I'd have:

"Desirability, Probability and Mood Operators". This was influential, in that it was delivered in 1973 at the Performadillo conference in Austin.

"Logic and Conversation" -- this should actually comprise a whole volume. I would have it as "Logic and Conversation" and would have it in Two parts:

Part I: "Logic and Conversation" as exactly from the "Way of Words" reprint -- This is then Grice, 1967, 1987. Note that Grice cared to keep the dates: 1967 being the date of deliverance of the William James lectures, and 1987 the date of his 'editing' them. At least 4 of the 7 lectures had been published before 1987: Grice II in Davidson/Harman 1975, Grice III in Cole 1981, Grice V in The Philosophical Review for 1968, Grice VI in Foundations of Language for 1969.

The Part II would comprise a fascimile or editing of "Logic and Conversation" being the Oxford lectures for 1965. They include important points that Grice cared to keep, such as his principles of benevolence, and self-love, and the desiderata of candour and clarity.

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Grice on Negation. Here one would include -- aside from his points on 'negation' scattered in his published work: two items by Grice: "Negation and Privation", where he attempts an epistemic-based view of "I know that A is not B" (or "I believe that A is not B") -- this is a very early paper. It should also include his Oxford lectures, dated 1961, on "Negation" where he mentions that the identity of ~ and 'not' can be held allowing for any divergence to spring from 'the pragmatic pressures' attending natural discourse.

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Judith Baker should be especially responsible for the publication of Grice's "Reflections on Morals". -- a lengthy manuscript. Baker was mainly responsible for a change in Grice's attitude to philosophy. Baker tried to show to Grice the relevance of moral thinking and -- via their joint seminars and classes at Berkeley -- they developed a bulky set of notes on Aristotle and mainly Kant (Baker's specialty).

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There are many other items one should include.

And if the Grice Club should serve a special purpose that would be to motivate the student of philosophy to get his or her hands there -- and help to disseminate Grice's ideas everywhere!