If one trusts wiki (why would you), equus ferus caballus does not have wings.
"Besides the horse [equus ferus caballus], there are seven other species
of genus Equus in the Equidae family. These are the ass
or donkey, Equus asinus; the mountain zebra, Equus zebra; plains zebra, Equus burchelli; Grévy's zebra, Equus grevyi; the kiang, Equus kiang; and the onager, Equus hemionus.[124] Horses can crossbreed with other members of their genus."
"The most common hybrid is the mule, a cross between a "jack" (male donkey) and a mare. A related hybrid, a hinny, is a cross between a stallion and a jenny (female donkey).[125] Other hybrids include the zorse, a cross between a zebra and a horse.[126] With rare exceptions, most hybrids are sterile and cannot reproduce.[127]"
Surely a horse cannot breed with a bird to give a flying horse.
Like a centaur, or a unicorn, you have to admit it, Pegasus is mythological with a capital M!
There's nothing 'vacuous' about "Pegasus" qua name -- Hesiod thinks that 'Pegasus' means 'born on the coast'. So qua name it is meaningful as names go. What is unthinkable in zoological terms is the idea of a 'flying' horse.
Not for Meinong. If it is nonsensical to ask the size of the shoes of Sherlock Holmes's grandmother, M. R. notes in her entry on non-existent objects (Stanford), it is similarly ridiculous to ask how many hairs there are in Pegasus's tail.
Neo-Meinongians allow that 'Pegasus' is an "open" 'vacuous' name: it does not 'fix' the denotatum for 'number of hairs' in tail. What 'defines' Pegasus is that it is a horse, and that it flies! If you can conceive that!
I can't!
Painting is easy: there are MANY pictorial representations of "Pegasus". My favourite, in wiki, must be of Bellerophon spearing the Chimera on top of Pegasus. Surely ridiculous!
I mean: I CAN draw a 'horse' with 'wings'. But in terms of anatomy, that's a no-no!
Surely Grice knew that!
Perhaps it's best to concentrate on Grice's idea of a 'vacuous' name: "Marmaduke Bloggs". He offers two conversations about him. There's nothing 'mythological' about it.
Marmaduke Bloggs is a Merseyside stockbrocker who (journalists had it) climbed Mt. Everest on hands and knees and who was made a member of the Merseyside Geographical Society -- only to discover soon enough that the man never existed.
Grice wants to say,
"Marmaduke Bloggs was invented by the journalists"
"So, someone isn't at the party"
is true -- a true thing to say.
Similarly:
"Someone isn't at the party"
"Who?"
"Marmaduke Bloggs"
"Marmaduke Bloggs isn't at the party" is similarly true.
Grice notes that there is a 'slide' going on here. I will copy and paste and translate to Pegasus.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
OK, the name Pegasus does not refer to an object which ever existed in "real" world (or appear to refer)--does it still "mean" or perhaps connote something, sans reference? Doesn't even Frege grant a ...sense apart from the name/reference? You seem to be saying there's NO meaning to Peg. since it doesn't refer.
ReplyDeleteBut a better example of the problem of supposed non-existing entities might be ...theological terms, say a soul (Avoiding the G-word issue). Does a soul exist? It's not just meaningless to say so. Does the set of rational numbers "exist"?...subatomic particles?? The referential account of meaning and..denotation works OK with "normal" empiricism, but ...maybe not in all cases
Good points. Actually, if I had a flying horse called "Pegasus" I would call it "Peg" for short. So I liked your suggestion.
ReplyDelete