Central Meaning and the Cooperative Principle (rational/reasonable)

When I was writing my PhD dissertation on Grice it was all about the cooperative principle since it is Grice's 'avowed aim' to see language as rational. How avowed can be an aim? How can _that p_ be an aim. Instead of saying,

"It is my belief that language is rational"

Grice says it is a matter of his 'avowed aim'. Talk of philosophical faith!

In any case, reading that formulation of the strategical foundation of the cooperative principle (which I published elsewhere) -- Grice's 'fundamental question' --, it is clear that he has in mind TWO sorts of 'conversational moves':

---- 'informing' ones -- communication/language as transferring of info.
---- 'telling' ones -- moves by which one tells another TO do (stuff).

This latter sort of move Grice refers to, appropriately, by the verb, "influence".

To converse is to _influence_ others (and win enemies?).

Now, in my PhD dissertation -- where I had to IMPRESS -- I had of course to reduce one to the other. And of course the only way to go is by reducing 'informing' to 'telling' (although the other way is also possible).

So, I suggested that _to inform_ is a case of _influencing_ -- after all.

"It is raining"

Utterer ------- Intended Addressee/Recipient

belief
that it
is raining
------------------- "It is raining"
---------------------only as per the addressee's
---------------------recognising that this is what
---------------------U believes.


Now, in this schema it is very easy to find rationale for moves like:

"Smith, be tactful!"
"Let the cat sleep on the mat!"
"Close the door".

Recall that for Hare, "Close the door" has the logical form:

The door is closed, please.

----

So, what sort of influencing is here involved. Grice speaks of 'mutual influence' because he is interested in a Kantian justification of things like, "Be trustworthy". But we shouldn't be concerned with the 'mutual' bit about it. It's a matter of INFLUENCE in that you exhibit (or transmit the info that you hold) a certain psychological attitude.

In the case

"Close the door!"

your desire (that you assume -- even if you are a sargent just following the capitan's order) that the door be closed by the addressee.

-----

Now, when it comes to _central meaning_ then, we rather keep this justification of communication in mind. We'll see that while 'alethic' moves are crucial (in transmitting info about our beliefs about the world, which we judge _true_) there's a big range of non-alethic moves which are 'practical' in nature.

The form of this non-alethic moves Grice symbolises as:

!p

where ! is the operator which corresponds to the /- assertion sign. Perhaps ! is incomplete. I prefer to use

!-

After all, /- (Frege's assertion sign) is a complex sign that stands for

'assertion' proper (judgement)
and 'content'.

Ditto for !-. Where ! represents 'willing' rather than 'judging' and '-' is the content _stroke_.

Or something.

Next: Grice WoW:VI on central speech acts. Do they include 'ordering'?