A matter of character: Grice versus Austin -- and the black swan

--- J is mentioning the fact that when we say (Ax)Fx we DO mean 'universal'. As per 'universe'. J finds that a bit presumptuous, and I agree. In Gentzen's symbol, of the (Ax), the idea is that "A" stands for "all" -- which is less universalistic. Similarly, I once used pleonetetic quantifiers -- multal and paucal. Multal for 'most', and 'paucal' for 'few'.

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I don't use the word 'all' much, but the Germans do. They called themselves "Allemanic" in the past. Strictly, this means 'all-the-men'. Surely they were being hyperbolic.

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The distinction of character between a genius (H. P. Grice) and a not so genius (J. L. Austin) can be evidenced by their lack of disrespect (Grice) and lack of respect (Austin) for the universal quantifier.

In "How to do things with words", Austin writes that when he says, "All swans are white" he "shouldn't be surely taken to mean anywhere", including Down Under. I found that remark rude.

Grice proceeds differently. I will copy and paste from his little tribute to Kaplan. Kaplan was working on demonstratives: this, that, and dthat.

Grice is working on something different, which he calls "quasi-demonstrative".

He wants to say,

"All swans are white" -- such that I see them. There is a 'quasi-demontrative' feature at play.

Grice is especially concerned with Russell's use of (Ax) and (Ay) in the use of 'the' (the iota operator).

Grice writes:

"Consider utterances of such a sentence as

'The book on the table is not open'.

Grice comments: "As there are, obviously, many books on tables in the world, if we are to treat such a sentence as being of the form, 'The F is not G' and as being, on that account, ripe for Russellian expansion, we might do well to treat it as exemplifying a more SPECIFIC form."

---- This paved the way for 'contextualism'.

Grice goes on to state the more specific form as being:

'The F' which is phi is not G'.

"where phi reprsents an epithet to be identified in

a particular context of utterance ('phi' being a

sort of quasi-demonstrative)"

Grice goes on:

"Standardly, to identify the reference of phi for
a particular utterance of 'The book on the table is (not)
open', a hearer would proceed via the identification
of A PARTICULAR BOOK", etc.


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The 'table' then, gets expanded to mean, 'the table IN THIS ROOM'.

So, I propose that if you stick to (Ax) you should really add, 'in THIS universe'. (As Grice uses 'in this room). There may be other rooms, other voices.

Etc.