H. P. Grice
St. John's, Oxford
H. P. Grice, M. A. Lit. Hum., F. B. A, Tutorial Fellow
in Philosophy, St. John's, Oxford.
1938. Negation and privation, negation, 1961, The H. P. Grice
Papers, Series II (Essays), Carton 4, Folders 10-11, BANC MSS 90/135c, The
Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: “not,”
negation, privation, verificationism, introspection, sense data, sense datum,
logical form, unary operator, knowledge. This is Grice's reflection, in a
verificationist vein, of two types of utterance: "I don't hear a
noise" and "That is not red." The strict actual ordering
should be the reverse: "That is not red" and "I
don't hear a noise" or, perhaps better, "I am not hearing a
noise" Surely, each is co-related to an affirmative
counterpart: "That is red" and "I hear a noise" or "I
am hearing a noise." But when it comes to the psychological state, attitude,
or stance, it is easier, Grice thinks, to co-relate "That is not red"
with, say, "That is green." Like "That is red," "That
is green" does NOT feature "not," and it is alleged by
Grice to be the source or reason for Utterer U to utter "That is NOT
red" on the basis of U's knowing that it is green. In the case of "I
don't hear a noise," or "I am not hearing a noise," the source
or reason, and indeed knowledge, is the absence, 'verified' by introspection,
of a psychological state, attitude or stance, co-related to the affirmative
counterpart, "I hear a noise,” or "I am hearing a
noise” -- which again, does NOT include the "not" operator, but
unlike the visual sense-datum example, it is not related to a different experience,
but to the absence of the experience, which is thereby negated. The first
utterance, featuring "not," is thus explained in terms of a mere
sense datum. The second utterance featuring "not" is explained with
the aid of an introspection, ultimately related to a sense datum ('noise'). Grice
could have used, "I don't *see* this as red" or "I am
not *seeing* the pillar box as blue” and unify his account (by the common use
of a different perceptual verb, "to see" and "to hear." The
keyword then would be the philosophy of perception, a long-standing interest of
Grice's. The important distinction is that, as Grice states it,
"That is not red," does not mention the first-person or a perceptual
verb (cf. 'sight unseen'). Thus, "I don't hear a noise" or
"I am not hearing a noise," which does, seems like an apt utterance
to receive an introspective analysis. In relying on introspection, Grice
is being very pre-war Oxonian, at that! 1938. Grice's attempt to
'eliminate' "not" along verificationist lines succeeds. "That is
not red" is based and uttered on the ground of "That
is green." "I am not hearing a noise" is based and uttered
on the *absence* of an introspection, or the absence of an experience arrived
by introspection to the effect that the utterer is hearing a noise. Grice
is involved in serious philosophical studies before the Second World War
under the tutelage of Hardie at Corpus. While his socialising was limited
("having been born on the wrong side of the tracks"), first at
Corpus, and then at Merton, and ending at St. John's, he is unable to attend
Austin's seminal Thursday-evening play-group meetings with the seven:
Ayer, Hampshire, Hart, MacDermott, MacNabb, Woozley, and Berlin. But Grice
learns all about the methodology when he returns to Oxford after the war. Grice
turns back to the topic of negation later at Oxford (vide Grice 1961) in
connection with Strawson's treatment in "Introduction to logical
theory." Grice later includes "not" as the first item in his
list of vernacular counterparts to this or that 'formal device' -- in this
case, "~." In the fourth William James lecture, Grice explores a role
for negation along the lines of Cook Wilson's Statement and Inference. Grice's
'Vacuous names' contains inferences for the introduction (+,~) and elimination
(-,~) for negation. In his commentary in P. G. R. I. C. E., Grice illustrates
the metaphysical construction routine of Humeian projection with the
pre-intuitive concept of negation, specifying the various stages the
intuitive concept undergoes until it becomes fully rationally recostructed
as "something like a Fregeian sense." Grice goes back to the topic of
negation in later lectures. Strawson had included a section on 'not' in
his "Introduction to Logical Theory." Grice addresses that
point. Unlike "and," "or," and "if,"
"not" is a truth-functor, or satisfactory-value-functor, of the unary
type. Grice is interested in applying Cook Wilson's "Statement and
inference" to explore what the role of 'not' might be. And he succeds
in finding one. It is explained in terms of the conversational implicatum.
"That's not red” now IMPLICATES that some utterer has, somewhere,
sometime, expressed the contrary opinion. Is there a strict conceptual
distinction, as Grice thinks, between ‘negation’ and ‘privation’? If
‘privation’ involves or presupposes negation, one might appeal to something
like Modified Occam’s Razor, do not multiply negations beyond necessity. In his
choice of examples, Grice seems to be implicating that an empirically
verifiable, observational utterance, such as “That is not red,” on the basis of
his knowing that it is green, is a ‘negation,’ while an utterance arrived via
introspection, such as “I am not hearing a noise,” on the basis of his knowing
that he is aware of the absence of an experience to that effect, is a ‘privation.’
Or not! Of course, Grice is ultimately looking for the rationale behind the
conversational implicatum in terms of a principle of conversational helpfulness
underlying his picture of conversation as rational co-operation. Pirot 1 says
“p,” Pirot 2 wants to negate that ("~p"). Surely a “rational
creature” should be capable to deny, as Grice puts it in "Indicative
Conditionals." Grice does not consider the other possible unitary functors
– just negation, which reverses the truth-value of the radix. In “Aspects of
reason,” he explores negation within the scope of an operator other than the
indicative mode operator ("Don't do it!" "Don't arrest the
intruder!"). In terms of systematics, it is best to see Grice’s view on
negation (and privation) as his outlook on the utterer's this or that basic
expressive power (in this case, his proficiency with "not") as
co-related with this or that ‘formal device’ in general. Many of his comments
addressed to this more general topic (satisfactoriness-preserving operators)
thus apply to negation, and raise the question about the EXPLICITUM or
explicatum of "not." A Griceian should not be confused. The fact that
Grice does not explicitly MENTION negation, but ‘formal device’ in general,
does not mean that what he says about formal device may not be particularised
to apply to negation. His big concession is that Whitehead and Russell are
right about the explicitum or explicatum of "not" being
"~." Any divergence is explained via the 'implicatum.' "Not"
utterances are horribly uninformative, and not all of them are of philosophical
interest. Grice joked with Searle's "He's not lighting the cigarette with
a twenty-dollar bill," 'he' being a Texas oilman in his club, and thus,
the implicatum is usually to the effect that someone thought otherwise. In
terms of Cook-Wilson, the role has more to do with the expressive power of a
rational creature to deny a molecular utterance such as "p.q." The
example, "That's not green" out of "That's red" (as opposed
to "I'm not hearing a noise" from the absence of the experience of
hearing it) depends on Kant's synthetic a priori that Grice tested with his
children's playmates, "Can a sweater be red and green all over? No stripes
allowed!" -- cf. Ryle on negation for the Aristotelian Society. As a
conversational implicatum, Grice’s examples can be re-phrased, “That’s unred”
and “I’m unhearing a noise”!
1941. Personal identity, Mind, vol. 50, pp. 330-50, repr. in J. R.
Perry, Personal identity, University of California Press, Berkeley, David Hume,
Hume's quandary about personal identity, Hume on personal identity,
Hume's account of personal identity, personal identity, revisited, the
logical-construction theory of personal identity, 1977, The H. P. Grice Papers,
Series II (Essays), Carton 4-Folder 12 and Series V (Topical), Carton 7-Folders
7-9, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: "I," personal identity, first person, first
personal pronoun, Locke, Hume. H. P. Grice’s quandary about personal identity: the
implicata. Grice is concerned with the implicatum involved in the use of the
first person singular ("I will be fighting soon") since his pre-war
days at Oxford! No wonder his choice of an example! The topic of 'personal
identity' (which label Austin found pretentious, and preferred to talk about
the illocutionary force of "I") had a special Oxonian pedigree that
Grice had occasion to study and explore for his M. A. Lit. Hum. Locke, a
philosopher with whom Oxford identifes most, famously defends a memory-based
account of "I" that received some alleged counter-example by some
Scots philosophers, notably Reid. And Hume! (Or "Home," if you must).
In fact, while he is not too specific about Hume in the "Mind" essay,
Grice will, due mainly to his joint investigations with J. C. Haugeland,
approach Hume's 'quandary,' too! In his own approach to "I," Grice
updates the time-honoured Lockeian analysis. Grice embraces a 'logical
construction' of "I" utterances, and relies on Gallie. In fact, Grice
is heterodoxical enough to use the taxonomy by Broad ('from the other place')
of "I" utterances, too. Grice deals with the Reid-type
counterexample, and comes up with a rather elaborate 'analysans' for a simple
"I" statement, such as "I am hearing a noise," the
affirmative counterpart of the focus of his earlier essay on negation ("I
am not hearing a noise"). In fact, Grice dismisses the 'indexical'
approach that will be made popular by J. R. Perry (who reprinted Grice's essay
in his influential collection for the University of California Presss). Grice
seems to be relying on 'reasoning which is too good': "I am hearing a
noise; therefore, someone is hearing a noise." Grice's attempt to reduce
"I" statements ("I am hearing a noise") in terms of a chain
of mnemonic states poses a few quandaries itself! While quoting from recent
philosophers such as Gallie and Broad, it is a good thing that Grice has
occasion to go back to, or 'revisit,' Locke and contest the infamous
counterexamples presented by Reid and Hume. Grice concludes on a methodological
note. The intricacy of one's analysis for an apparently simple utterance (cf.
his earlier essay on "I am not hearing a noise") should not be a
minus, but a plus. Much later, Grice later reconsiders, or revisits, indeed,
Broad's remark and re-titles his approach as "the" or "a"
"logical-construction theory of personal identity." It is indeed
Haugeland who has Grice re-consider Hume's vagaries with personal identity.
Unlike the more conservative Locke (that Grice favours), eliminationist Hume
sees "I" as a conceptual, indeed metaphysical chimaera. Hume presses
the point for an 'empiricist' verificationist account of "I." For, as
Russell would say, "what can be more direct that the experience of
myself?" The Hume Society should take notice of Grice's simplification of
Hume's implicatum on "I." As a matter of fact, Grice calls one of his
metaphysical construction routines "Humeian Projection," so it is not
too adventurous to think that Grice might have considered "I" as an
intuitive concept that needs to be 'metaphysically re-constructed' and be given
a legitimate Fregeian sense. Grice calls one of his metaphysical construction
routines "Humeian projection," since the 'mind,' as it were, 'spreads
over' its objects. But, by 'mind,' Hume does not necessarily mean the
"I." Cf. "The mind's I." Grice is especially concerned with
the poverty of Hume's criticism to Locke on personal identity. Grice opts to
revisit the Lockeian memory-based on "I" utterances that Hume rather
regards as 'vague,' and 'confusing.' Locke's approach to identity is NOT
eliminationist as Hume's is, and it is only natural that Grice would be
sympathetic to it. Grice explores these issues with J. C. Haugeland mainly at
seminars. One wonders why Grice spends so much time in a philosopher such as
Hume, with whom he agreed almost on nothing! One supposes Grice is trying to
save Hume at the implicatum level, at least! The phrase or term of art,
"logical construction" is Broad's, but Grice loved it. Rational
reconstruction is not too dissimilar, but Grice prefers Broad's more
conservative label. This is more than a terminological point. If Hume is right
and there is NO 'intuitive' concept of "I," one cannot strictly
re-construct it, only 'construct' it! Ultimately, Grice shows that, if only at
the implicatum level, we are able to provide an analysandum for an
"I" utterance WITHOUT using "I," by implicating only
'mnemonic' concepts, which belong, naturally, in a theory of philosophical
psychology. The topic of personal identity unites various interests of Grice.
The first is ‘identity,' simpliciter. Instead of talking of the meaning of “I,”
as, say, Anscombe would, Grice sticks to the traditional category, or keyword,
for this, i. e. the theory-laden, ‘PERSONAL identity.’ Personal identity is a
type of identity, but what does ‘person’ add? Consciousness? Grice plays with
the soul/body distinction ("I fell from the stairs"). Some
"I" utterances are purely 'bodily,' some are purely 'soully,' and
some are mixed! At the time of his "Mind" essay, he was unaware of
the complications that the concept of a ‘person’ (as attached in adjective form
to 'identity') may bring. Ayer did, and Strawson will, and Grice learns much
from Strawson (a person as a complex for a body-soul spatio-temporal continuant
substance. Ultimately, Grice finds a theoretical counterpart here. A pirot may
become a human, but that is not enough. A pirot must aspire, via metousiosis,
to become a PERSON. Thus, 'person' becomes a technical term in Grice’s grand
metaphysical scheme of things. "Someone heard a noise" is
analysed as "A past hearing of a noise is an element in a total
temporary state which is a member of a series of total
temporary states such that every member of the series would, given
certain conditions, contain as an element a memory of some experience
which is an element in some previous member, or contains as an
element some experience a memory of which would, given
certain conditions, occur as an element in some subsequent member;
there being no sub-set of members which is independent of the
rest." -- which Grice 'simplifies' as "A past hearing of a
noise is an element in a member of an interlocking series of memorative
and memorable total temporary states". Was his "Personal
identity" ever referred to? Indeeed, P. Edwards includes a reference to
Grice's Mind essay in the entry for "Personal identity," as a
reference to Grice et al on "Metaphysics," is referenced in Edwards's
encyclopaedia entry for 'metaphysics.'
1946. The sceptic’s
implicatum, common sense and scepticism, repr. in Studies in the
Way of Words, Part II, Explorations in semantics and metaphysics,
as Essay 8, and 'G. E. Moore and Philosopher's Paradoxes,' as Essay 9,
1953, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), Carton 4-Folder 13, BANC
MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: common sense, scepticism, implicatum, the sceptic's
implicature, philosopher's paradox, paradox, G. E. Moore, ordinary language,
'ordinary-language' philosophy, Norman Malcolm. The sceptic’s implicatum. While
it is, strictly, slightly odd to quote this as "(1946)" just because,
by a stroke of the pen, Grice writes that date in the Harvard volume, we
will follow the practice! This is vintage Grice! Grice always took the
sceptic's challenge seriously, as any serious philosopher should! In his
later reflections, Grice's took the sceptic's impicatum as a very affront to
our idea of rationality, conversational or other. Vide: "Conversations
with a sceptic: Can he be slightly more conversational helpful?" Hume's
sceptical attack is partial, and targeted only towards practical reason,
though. Yet, for Grice, reason is one; so you cannot really attack
'practical' reason without attacking 'theoretical' or doxastic reason, too! There
is something like a more general 'rational acceptance,' to use Grice's term,
that the sceptic is getting at! Grice liked to play with the idea that
ultimately all syllogism is 'practical.' If, say, a syllogism by Einstein looks
doxastic, that is because Einstein cares to 'omit the practical tail,' as Grice
puts it! And Einstein is not even a philosopher, they say! Grice is here
concerned with a Cantabrigian topic popularised by G. E. Moore. As
Grice recollects, "Some like Witters, but Moore's my man." Unlike
Cambridge analysts such as Moore, Grice sees himself as a 'linguistic-turn'
*Oxonian* analyst. So it is only natural that Grice would connect time-honoured
scepticism (yes, of the Stoa infame) and common sense with
'ordinary language', so mis-called, the elephant in Grice's room. If
scepticism attacks common sense and fails, Grice seems to be implicating,
‘ordinary-language’ philosophy is a good antidote to scepticism,
too! Since what language other than 'ordinary language' does common sense
speak? ("Well, strictly, common sense doesn't speak!"). In fact,
Grice re-addresses this topic in a strictly Mooreian way in a later essay, also
repr. in Studies: "G. E. Moore and Philosopher's paradoxes, repr. in Studies
in the Way of Words. As with his earlier 'Common sense and scepticism,'
Grice tackles Moore's and Malcolm's claim that 'ordinary language,' so-called,
solves a few of "Philosopher"'s
paradoxes. "Philosopher" is Moore's attempt at humour to
symbolise "any" philosopher, especially of the type he found
eccentric, the sceptic included. Grice finds problems in this overarching
Cantabrigian manoeuvre, as over-simplifying a pretty convoluted
terrain. While Grice treasured Austin's "Some like Witters, but
Moore's MY man!" perhaps he found Moore too Cantabrigian to his taste!
While an Oxonian thoroughbred, Grice was a bit like Austin, "Some
like Witters, but Moore's my man." While Grice would agree that Moore
goes 'above' Witters, if that's the expression ('even if some like him'), we
should find the Oxonian equivalent to Moore. Grice would NOT name Ryle, since
he saw him almost every day! "There is something apostolic about Moore
that I enjoy," Grice would say, referring to the fact that Moore was one
of the apostles. Grice spends some time exploring what Malcolm, a follower of
Witters, as it were, has to say about Moore in connection with that
particularly "Oxonian" turn of phrase, "ordinary
language." For Malcolm's Moore, a 'paradox' by a 'philosopher' arises
when 'Philosopher' fails to abide by the dictates of Ordinary Language. That
Moore was not too happy with Malcolm's criticism can be witnessed by just a
glimpse at Moore's "Reply to Norman Malcolm"! Grice is totally
against this view that Malcolm ascribes to Moore as being TOO BROAD to even
claim to be true! Perhaps Grice's implicature is that Malcolm is appealing to
Oxonian turns of phrase ('ordinary language') but not taking proper Oxonian
care (in clarifyng the nuances and stuff) in dealing with, admittedly, a
non-Oxonian philosopher such as Moore! When dealing with Moore, Grice is not
necessarily concerned with scepticism. “Time is unreal,” for example, is hardly
a sceptic utterance, yet Grice lists as one of philosopher's paradoxes. So,
there are various keywords to consider here. Grice would start with “common sense.”
In his “Preface” and “Retrospective Epilogue” to Studies in the Way of Words,
that’s how he organizes the themes and strands. “Common Sense” is one keyword
there. Scepticism is another. In his two essays opening Part II, “Explorations
in semantics and metaphysics” in Way of Words, it seems it’s MALCOLM who
interests Grice most. While Grice would provide exegeses of Moore’s dicta, and
indeed, Moore’s response to Malcolm, he seems to be more concerned with
applications of his own views. Notably in “Philosopher’s Paradoxes.” The
‘fatal’ objection Grice finds for the paradox-propounder (not necessarily a
sceptic, although a sceptic may be one of the paradox propounders) rests on
Grice's analysis of meaning. Grice elaborates on circumstances that he’ll later
take up in the “Retrospective Epilogue” (“I find myself not understanding what
I mean” – dubiously acceptable). If meaning, Grice is saying, is about an
utterer intending to get his addressee to believe something, the utterer must
think there is a good chance that the addressee will recognise what he is
supposed to believe, by being aware of the utterer’s practice or by a
supplementary explanation. In which case, the utterer CANNOT be meaning what
Malcolm claims he might mean, because no utterer would intend his addressee to
believe what is ‘conceptually impossible,’ or incoherent, or blatantly false
(“Charles I’s decapitation willed Charles I’s death.”). Grice edits the
“Philosopher’s Paradoxes” essay. It’s only the FINAL objection which is
reprinted in Studies, but he provides a good summary of the previous sections.
Grice will use Moore’s example on two later occasions, at least. In “Causal
Theory,” he lists, as a THIRD philosophical mistake, the opinion by Malcolm
that Moore did not know how to use ‘know.’ Grice brings up the same example
again in “Prolegomena.” The use of Moore may well be a misuse. While at
lecturing at that eccentrically-constructed hall at Madison, Wisconsin, -- with
indirect lighting simulating actual sun rays, the hall, not the state -- Moore
infamously said, “I know THERE is a window behind that curtain,” when there
wasn’t! In 1987, Grice uses “M” to abbreviate Moore’s fairy godmother – along
with G (Grice’s), A (Austin’s), R (Ryle’s) and Q (Quine’s)! One simple way to
approach Grice's quandary with Malcolm's quandary with Moore is to focus on
"know." How can Malcolm claim that Moore is guilty of misusing
"know"? The most extensive exploration is in Grice's third William
James lecture. "The examinee knows that the battle of Waterloo was fought
in 1815." Nothing odd about that, nor about Moore's use, "I know
these are my hands."
1948. Meaning, repr. in Studies in the Way of Words, Part II,
Explorations in semantics and metaphysics, as Essay 14, The Oxford
Philosophical Society, The Philosophical Review, vol. 66, pp.
377-88, C. S. Peirce's theory of signs, cf. meaning revisited, philosophical
psychology, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (The Essays of H. P. Grice),
Carton 1-Folder 16 and Carton 4-Folder 5, and Series V (Topical), Carton
8-Folder 29, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of
California, Berkeley. Keyword: sign, meaning, intention, Peirce, Stevenson. The
Peirce in Grice’s soul. Besides St. John The Baptist, and Salome, Grice cites
few names in "Meaning." But he makes a point about C. L. Stevenson!
For Stevenson, smoke 'means' fire. “Meaning" develops out of an interest
by Grice on the philosophy of C. S. Peirce. In his essays on Peirce, Grice
quotes from many other authors, including, besides Peirce himself (!), C. K.
Ogden, I. A. Richards, and A. C. Ewing, or "A. C. 'Virtue is not a
fire-shovel' Ewing," as Grice called him, and this or that cricketer!
Grice had no intention to submit "Meaning" to publication! Bennett,
however, guessed that Grice had decided to publish it in 1957, just a year
after his "Defence of a dogma." Bennett's argument is that
"Defence of a dogma" pre-supposes some notion of 'meaning.’ However,
a different story may be told, not necessarily contradicting Bennett's! It is
Strawson who submits the essay by Grice to "The Philosophical
Review." Strawson had attended Grice's talk on Meaning for The Oxford
Philosophical Society, and liked it! Since "In defence of a dogma"
WAS co-written with Strawson, the intention Bennett ascribes to Grice may well
have been Strawson's! Oddly, Strawson later provides a famous alleged
counter-example to Grice on meaning in "Intention and convention in speech
acts," which has Grice dedicating a full William James lecture (No. 5) to
it! An interesting fact, that confused a few, is that H. L. A. Hart quotes from
Grice's "Meaning” in his critical review of Holloway for The Philosophical
Quarterly. Hart quotes Grice pre-dating the publication of "Meaning.”
Hart's point is that Holloway should have gone to Oxford! In "Meaning,"
Grice may be seen as a practitioner of 'ordinary-language' philosophy: witness
his explorations of the factivity or lack thereof of various uses of "to
mean." The second part of the essay, for which he became philosophically
especially popular, takes up an intention-based approach to semantic notions.
The only authority Grice cites, in typical Oxonian fashion, is Stevenson, who,
from The New World (and via Yale, too!) had been defending an emotivist theory
of ethics, and making a few remarks on how "to mean" is used, with
scare quotes, in something like a 'causal' account ("Smoke 'means'
fire."). After its publication Grice's account received "almost as
many alleged counterexamples as rule-utilitarianism" (B. J. Harrison), but
mostly outside Oxford, and in The New World. New-World philosophers seem to
have seen Grice's attempt as reductionist and as oversimplifying. At Oxford,
the sort of counterexample Grice received, before Strawson, was of the
Urmson-type: refined, and subtle ("I think your account leaves bribery
behind!"). On the other hand, in the New World -- in what Grice calls the
"Latter-Day School of Nominalism," Quine is having troubles with
empiricism. “Meaning" was reprinted in various collections, notably in P.
F. Strawson's Philosophical Logic (and it should be remembered that it was
Strawson who had the thing typed and submitted for publication!). Why
"Meaning" should be reprinted in a collection on "Philosophical
Logic" only Strawson knows! But Grice does say that his account may help
clarify the meaning of '... entails...'! It may be Strawson's implicature that
Parkinson should have reprinted (and not merely credited) Grice's Meaning in
HIS series for Oxford on "The theory of meaning"! The preferred
quotation for Griceians is of course Grice 1948, seeing that Grice recalled the
exact year when he gave the talk for the Philosophical Society at Oxford! It is
however, the publication in The Philosophical Review, rather than the quieter
evening at the Oxford Philosophical Society, that occasioned a tirade of
alleged counter-examples by New-World philosophers. Granted, one or two
Oxonians -- Urmson and Strawson -- fell in! Urmson criticises the sufficiency
of Grice's account, by introducing an alleged counter-example involving
bribery. Grice will consider a way out of Urmson's alleged counter-example in
his fifth Wiliam James Lecture, rightly crediting and thanking Urmson for this!
Strawson's alleged counter-example was perhaps slightly more serious, if
regressive. It also involves the sufficiency of Grice's analysis. Strawson's
"rat-infested house" alleged counter-example started a chain which
required Grice to avoid, ultimately, any 'sneaky' intention by way of a
recursive clause to the effect that, for utterer U to have MEANT that p, all meaning-constitutive
intentions should be 'above board.' But why this obsession by Grice with
'mean'? He is being funny. Spots surely don't mean -- They don't have a mind!
Yet Grice opens with a SPECIFIC sample: THOSE spots mean, to the doctor, that
you, dear, have measles. “Mean"? Yes, dear, 'mean,' doctor's orders. Those
spots 'mean' measles. But how does the doctor KNOW? Can't he be in the wrong?
Not really, "mean" is factive, dear! Or so Peirce thought! Grice is
amazed that Peirce thought that some meaning is factive. “A bullet went through
this cloth," is one of Peirce's examples. “Surely," Grice notes,
"this is an unhappy example. The hole in the cloth may well have caused by
something else, or 'fabricated.'" Yet, Grice was having Oxonian students
aware that Peirce was krypto-technical! Grice chose for one of his
pre-"Meaning" seminars (i.e. 1947) on Peirce's theory of signs.
Peirce, rather than the Vienna circle, becomes, in vein with Grice's dissenting
irreverent rationalism, important as a source for Grice's attempt to 'English'
Peirce. Grice's implicature seems to be that Peirce, rather than Ayer, cared
for the subtleties of 'meaning' and 'sign', never mind a verificationist theory
about them! Peirce ultra-Latinate-cum-Greek taxonomies have Grice very nervous,
though. He knew that his students were proficient in the classics, but still!
Grice thus proposes to reduce all of Peirceian divisions and sub-divisions
("one sub-division too many") to 'mean.' In the proceedings, he
quotes from Ogden, Richards, and Ewing. In particular, Grice was fascinated by
Peirce's correspondence with Lady Viola Welby, as reprinted by Ogden/Richards
in, well, their study on the 'meaning' of meaning! Grice thought "the
science of symbolism" pretentious, but then he almost thought Lady Viola
Welby "slightly pretentious, too" -- "if you've seen her"
-- "Beautiful lady!" It is via Peirce that Grice explores examples
such as those spots 'meaning' measles. Peirce's obsession is with weathercocks
(almost as Ockham was). Old-World Grice's use of New-World Peirce is
illustrative, thus, of the Oxonian linguistic turn focused on 'ordinary
language.' While Peirce's background was not philosophical, Grice thought it
comical enough! He would say that Peirce is an 'amateur,' but then he said the
same thing about Mill, whom Grice had to study by heart to get his B. A. Lit.
Hum.! Plus, as Watson commented, "What's wrong with 'amateur'? Give me an
amateur philosopher ANY day, if I have to choose from 'professional'
Hegel!" In finding Peirce krypo-technical, Grice is ensuing that his
tutees, and indeed any Oxonian philosophy student (he was university lecturer)
be aware that 'to mean' should be more of a priority than this or that jargon
by this or that (New World?) philosopher!? Partly! Grice wanted his students to
think on their own, and draw their own conclusions! Grice cites A. C. Ewing,
Ogden/Richards, and many others. A. C. Ewing, while Oxford-educated, had ended
up at Cambridge (Scruton almost had him as his tutor!) and written some points on
"Meaninglessness"! “Those spots mean measles." Grice finds
Peirce 'krypto-technical' and proposes to "English" him into an
'ordinary-language' philosopher. Surely it is not 'important' whether we
consider a measles spot a 'sign,' a 'symbol,' or an 'icon.' “I may well find a
doctor in London who thinks those spots 'symbolic'!" If Grice feels like
Englishing Peirce, he does not altogether fail! 1957. Meaning,
reprints. H. P. Grice (1957). Reprints, of 'Meaning' and other essays, a
collection of reprints and offprints of Grice's essays. Meaning becomes a
central topic of at least two strands in “Retrospective epilogue.” The first
strand concerns the idea of the centrality of the utterer. What Grice there
calls “meaning BY” (versus meaning TO), i.e. as he also puts it, ‘active or
agent’s meaning.’ Surely he is right in defending an agent-based account to
‘meaning.’ Peirce need not, but Grice must, because he is working with an
English root, ‘mean,’ that is only figurative applicable to non-agentive items
(“Smoke ‘means’ rain”). On top, Grice wants to conclude that only RATIONAL
creatures (like persons) can meanNN properly. Non-human animals may have a
correlate. This is a truly important point for Grice since he surely is seen as
promoting a NON-convention-based approach to ‘meaning,’ and also defending from
the charge of circularity in the non-semantic account of propositional
attitudes. His final picture is a rationalist one. Pirot 1 wants to communicate
about a danger to Pirot 2. This presupposes there IS a danger (item of
reality). Then Pirot 1 *believes* there is a danger, and communicates to Pirot
2 that there is a danger. This simple view of conversation as rational
co-operation underlies Grice’s account of meaning too, now seen as an offshoot
of philosophical psychology, and indeed biology, as he puts it. Meaning as yet
another survival mechanism. While Grice would NEVER use cognates like
‘significance’ in his Oxford Philosophical Society talk, he eventually starts
to use such Latinate cognates at a later stage of his development. In
"Meaning," Grice does not explain his goal. By sticking with a root
that the Oxford curriculum did not necessarily recognised as 'philosophical'
(amateur Peirce did!), Grice is implicating that he is starting an 'ordinary-language'
botanising on his own repertoire! Grice was amused by A. C. Ewing's reliance on
very Oxonian examples CONTRA Freddie Ayer: "Surely "Virtue ain't a
fire-shovel" is perfectly meaningful, and if fact true, if, I'll admit,
somewhat misleading and practically purposeless at Cambridge."
1953. A pint of philosophy, Grice on Gordon, a pint of philosophy,
by Alfred Brook Gordon, includes notes by Grice, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series
V (Topical), Carton 8, Folder 27, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library,
The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: Gordon. A
pint of philosophy with Grice! Figurative! "I always loved Alfred Brook
Gordon!" -- H. P. Grice.
1954. Categories: Aristotle and beyond, categories, with J. L.
Austin and P. F. Strawson, Categoriae, Aristotle's Categoriae, 1955, 1956, The
H. P. Grice Papers, Series I (The Correspondence of H. P. Grice, IA --
Code), Carton 1-Folders 5-6, Series II (Esssays), Carton 4-Folders 6-7,
Series III (The Doctrines), Carton 5-Folder 22, and Series V (Topical),
Carton 6-Folders 15 and 23, Carton 7-Folder 10, and Carton 9-Folder 13, BANC
MSS 90/a35c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley.
Keywords: category, Aristotle, Strawson, Austin, category shift, Categoriae. H.
P. Grice’s category shift. Grice found Aristotle's use of a 'category,' κατηγορία, a bit of a geniality. Aristotle is using legalese (from
'kata,' against, on, and 'agoreuô' [ἀγορεύω], speak in public), and uses
it to designate both the prosecution in a trial and the attribution
in a logical proposition — that is, the questions that must be asked with
regard to a subject, and the answers that can be given. As a representative
of the 'linguistic turn' in philosophy, Grice is attracted to the idea that a
category can thus be understood variously, as applying to the realm of reality
(ontology), but also to the philosophy of language (category of expression) and
to philosophical psychology (category of representation). Grice kept his
explorations on categories under two very separate, shall we say, categories:
his explorations with J. L. Austin (very serious), and those with P. F.
Strawson (more congenial). Where is Smith's altruism? Nowhere to be seen.
Should we say it is idle (otiose) to speak of altruism? No, it is just an
ATTRIBUTE, which, via category shift, can be made the subject of your sentence,
Strawson. It's not spatio-temporal, though, right? Not really. -- I don't
particularly like your 'trouser words.' The essay is easy to date since Grice
notes that Strawson reproduced some of the details in his
"Individuals," dated 1959. Grice thought Aristotle was the best! Or
at any rate almost as good as Kantotle! Aristotle saw Categoriae, along with De
Interpretatione as part of his 'Organon.' However, philosophers of
language tend to explore these topics without a consideration of the later
parts of the Organon dealing with the syllogism, the tropes, and the topics --
"the boring bits!" The reason Grice is attracted to the Aristotelian
category (as Austin and Strawson equally were) is that 'category' allows for a
'linguistic-turn' reading. Plus, it's a nice, pretentious (in the Oxonian way)
piece of philosophical jargon! (Aristotle couldn't find 'category' in the
'koine,' so he had to coin it!). While meant by Aristotle in a primarily
ontological way, Oxonian philosophers hasten to add that a 'category of
expression,' as Grice puts it, is just as valid a topic for philosophical
exploration. His tutee Strawson will actually publish a book on subject and
predicate in grammar! ("Trivial, Strawson!"). Grice will later add an
intermediary category, which is the subject of his philosophical psychology. As
such, a category can be construed ontologically, or representationally: the
latter involving philosophical psychological concepts, and expressions
themselves. For Aristotle, as Grice and Austin, and Grice and Strawson, were
well aware as they educated some of the poor at Oxford ("Only the poor
learn at Oxford" -- Arnold), there are (at least -- at most?) ten
categories. Grice doesn't (really) care about the number. But the first are
important. Actually the VERY first: THERE's 'substantia prima,' such as Grice.
And then there's 'substantia secunda,' such as Grice's rationality. The
'essentia.' Then there are various types of 'attributes.' But, as Grice sharply
notes, even 'substantia secunda' may be regarded as an 'attribute.' Grice's
favourite game with Strawson was indeed "Category Shift," or "Subject-ification,"
as Strawson preferred. Essence may be introduced as a sub-type of an attribute.
We would have 'substantia prima' AND 'attribute,' which in turn gets divided
into 'essential' (the izzing) and 'non-essential' (the hazzing). While Austin was
not so fun to play with, Strawson is. "Banbury is a very altruist
person." Where is his altruism? Nowhere to be seen, really. Yet we may
sensically speak of Banbury's altruism. It's just a matter of a 'category
shift'! (Grice scores). Grice was slightly disappointed, but he perfectly
understood, that Strawson, who had footnoted Grice as 'the tutor from whom I
never ceased to learn about logic' in "Introduction to Logical
Theory," fails to acknowledge that MOST of the research in Strawson's "Individuals:
an essay in descriptive (not revisionary) metaphysics" derives from the
conclusions reached at his joint philosophical investigations with Grice. Grice
will later elaborate on this with A. D. Code -- who was keen on Grice's other
game, "The hazz and the hazz not, the izz." But then "the tutor
from whom I never ceased to learn about metaphysics" sounds slightlier
clumsier, as far as the implicature goes! Categories, 1973, The Grice-Myro
theory of identity, Relative identity, Grice on "=," The Grice-Myro
theory of identity, identity, notes, with G. Myro, metaphysics, philosophy,
1974, 1977, 1980, with A. D. Code, keywords: identity, relative identity, the
Grice-Myro theory of identity, metaphysics, Myro, Code. H. P. Grice izz H. P.
Grice – or izz he? The idea that "=" is unqualified requires
qualification. Whitehead and Russell ignored this. Grice and Myro didn't! Grice
wants to allow for “It is the case that a = b /t1” and “ It is not the case
that a = b /t2.” The idea is intuitive, but philosophers of a Leibnizian bent
are too accustomed to deal with "=" as an absolute. Grice applies
this to 'human' vs. 'person.' A human may be identical to a person, but cease
to be so. Grice makes Peano feel deeply Griceian, as Grice lists his “=”
postulates, here for consideration. Note the use of alethic modalities for
necessity and possibility, starting with (11). 1. ⊢ (α izz α) 2. ⊢ (α izz β ∧ β izz γ) ⊃ α izz γ 3. ⊢ α hazz β ⊃ ~(α izz β) 4. ⊢ α hazz β ⊃⊂ (∃x)(α hazz x ∧ x izz β) 5. ⊢ (∀β)(β is a universal ⊃ β is a form) 6. ⊢ (α hazz β ∧ α is a particular) ⊃ (∃γ)(γ≠α ∧ α izz β) 7. ⊢ α is predicable of β ⊃⊂ ((β izz α) ∨ (∃x)(β hazz x ∧ x izz α) 8. ⊢ α is essentially predicable of β ⊃⊂ β izz α 9. ⊢ α is accidentally predicable of β ⊃⊂ (∃x)(β hazz x ∧ x izz α) 10. ⊢ α = β ⊃⊂ α izz β ∧ β izz α 11. ⊢ α is an individual ⊃⊂ □(∀β)(β izz α ⊃ α izz β) 12. ⊢ α is a particular ⊃⊂ □(∀β)(α is predicable of β ⊃ (α izz β ∧ β izz α)) 13. ⊢ α is a universal ⊃⊂ ◊(∃β)(α is predicable of α ∧ ~(α izz β ∧ β izz α) 14. ⊢ α is some-thing ⊃ α is an individual 15. ⊢ α is a form ⊃ (α is some-thing ∧ α is a universal) 16. ⊢ α is predicable of β ⊃⊂ (β izz α) ∨ (∃x)(β hazz x ∧ x izz α) 17. ⊢ α is essentially predicable of α 18. ⊢ α is accidentally predicable of β ⊃ α ≠ β 19. ⊢ ~(α is accidentally predicable of β) ⊃ α ≠ β 20. ⊢ α is a particular ⊃ α is an individual 21. ⊢ α is a particular ⊃ ~(∃x)(x ≠ α ∧ x izz α) 22. ⊢~ (∃x)(x is a particular ∧ x is a form) 23. ⊢ α is a form ⊃ ~(∃x)(x ≠ α ∧ x izz α) 24. ⊢ x is a particular ⊃ ~(∃β)(α izz β) 25. ⊢ α is a form ⊃ ((α is predicable of β ∧ α ≠ β) ⊃ β hazz α) 26. ⊢ α is a form ∧ β is a particular ⊃ (α is predicable of β ⊃⊂ β hazz A) 27. ⊢ (α is a particular ∧ β is a universal ∧ β is predicable of α) ⊃ (∃γ)(α ≠ γ ∧ γ is essentially predicable of α)
28. ⊢ (∃x) (∃y)(x is a particular ∧ y is a universal ∧ y is predicable of x ⊃ ~(∀x)(x is a universal ∧ x is some-thing) 29. ⊢ (∀β)(β is a universal ⊃ β is some-thing) 30. ⊢ α is a particular) ⊃ ~∃β.(α ≠ β ∧ β is essentially predicable of α)
31. ⊢ (α is predicable
of β ∧ α ≠ β) ⊃ α is accidentally predicable of β. The use
of alethic modalities, necessity and possibility, starting with (11) above,
make this a good place to consider one philosophical mistake Grice mentions in
"Causal Theory": "What is actual is not also possible." He
is criticising a 'contemporary' (if 'dated') form of 'ordinary-language'
philosophy, where the philosopher detects a nuance, and embarks risking
colliding with the facts, rushing ahead to exploit it before he can clarify it!
Grice liked to see his explorations on "=" as belonging to
metaphysics, as the Series on his "Doctrines" at the Grice
Collecction testifies. While Grice presupposes the use of "=" in his
treatment of 'the' king of France, he also explores a relativisation of
"=." His motivation was an essay by Wiggins, almost Aristotelian in
spirit, against Strawson's criterion of space-time continuancy for the
identification of the 'substantia prima.' Grice wants to apply '=' to cases
were the time continuancy is made explicit. This yields that "a = b"
in scenario S, but that it may not be the case that "a = b" in a
second scenario S'. Myro had an occasion to expand on Grice's views in his
contribution on the topic for Philosophical Grounds of Rationality: Intentions,
Categories, Ends, or P. G. R. I. C. E. for short. Myro mentions his System Ghp,
a highly powerful/hopefully plausible version of Grice's System Q, "in
gratitude to H. P. Grice." Grice explored also the logic of izzing and
hazzing with A. D. Code. Grice and Myro developed a Geach-type of 'qualified
identity.' The formal aspects were developed by Myro, and also by Code. Grice
discussed Wiggins's "Sameness and substance," rather than Geach (cf.
Wiggins and Strawson on Grice for the British Academy). At Oxford, Grice was more
or less given free rein to teach what he wanted. He found the New World
slightly disconcerting at first. At Oxford, he expected his tutees to be
willing to 'read' the classics in the vernacular Greek. His approach to
teaching was diagogic, as Socrates's! Even in his details of 'izzing' and
'hazzing.' "Greek enough to me!," as a student recalled! 1980,
correspondence with A. D. Code, keywords: Grice, Code, izzing,
hazzing. Grice sees in Code an excellent Aristotelian. They
collaborated on an exploration of Aristotle's underlying logic of essential and
non-essential predication, for which they would freely use such verbal forms as
'izzing' and 'hazzing.' 1980, izzing and hazzing, The H. P. Grice Papers, A. D.
Code on the significance of the middle book in Aristotle's Metaphysics,
keywords: Aristotle, metaphysics, the middle book. Very middle. Grice
never knew what was middle for Aristotle, but admired Code too much to air
this! The organisation of Aristotle's metaphysics was a topic of much
concern for Grice. With Code, Grice coined 'izzing' and 'hazzing' to refer
to essential and non-essential attribution. Izzing and hazzing, Aristotle on
the multiplicity of being, Aristotle on multiplicity, The Pacific
Philosophical Quarterly, 1988, posthumously ed. by B. F. Loar, keywords:
Aristotle, multiplicity, izzing, hazzing, being, good, Code. Grice offers a
thorough discussion of Owen’s treatment of Aristotle as leading us to the
'snares' of ontology. Grice distinguishes between 'izzing' and 'hazzing,' which
he thinks help in clarifying, 'more axiomatico,' what Aristotle is getting at
with his remarks on 'essential' versus 'non-essential' predication. Surely, for
Grice, 'being,' nor indeed 'good,' should not be multiplied beyond
necessity, but izzing and hazzing *are* already multiplied. The Grice
Papers contains drafts of the essay eventually submitted for publication
by Loar 'In memoriam H. P. Grice.' Note that the Grice Papers contains a
typically Griceian 'un-publication,' entitled "Aristotle *and*
multiplicity," simpliciter. Rather than "Aristotle *on*,"
as the title for The Pacific Philosophical Quarterly piece goes. Note also
that, since it's 'multiplicity' simpliciter, it refers to Aristotle on two key
ideas: being and the good. As Code notes in his contribution to P. G. R.
I. C. E., Grice first presents his thoughts on izzing and hazzing publicly at
Vancouver. R. B. Jones has developed the axiomatic treatment favoured by
Grice. For Grice there is 'multiplicity' in both 'being' and 'good' (ton
agathon), both accountable in terms of conversational implicata, of course. If
in "Prolegomena," Grice was interested in criticising himself, in
essays of historical nature like these, Grice is seeing Aristotle's
"Athenian dialectic" as a foreshadow of the "Oxonian
dialectic," and treating him as an equal. Grice is yielding his razor:
"Senses are not to be multiplied beyond
necessity." But then Aristotle is talking about the 'multiplicity' of
'... is ...' and '... is good.' Surely, there are ways to turn Aristotle
into the monoguist he has to be! There is a further item in
the Grice collection that combines Aristotle on being with Aristotle on good,
which is relevant in connection with this. Aristotle on being and good
("ἀγαθός"), 1970, keywords: Aristotle, being, good (agathon), "ἀγαθός." As from this folder, the essays are ordered
alphabetically, starting with "Aristotle,” Grice will explore Aristotle on
'being' or "is" and "good" ("ἀγαθός") in explorations with A. D. Code. Grice comes up
with 'izzing' and 'hazzing' as the two counterparts to Aristotle's views on,
respectively, essential and non-essential predication. Grice's views on
Aristotle on 'the good' (strictly, there is no need to restrict Arisstotle's
use to the neuter form, since he employs "ἀγαθός") connect with Grice's Aristotelian idea of
'eudaimonia,' that he explores elsewhere. Strictly: Aristotle on being
and the good. If that had been Grice's case, he would have
used the definite article. Otherwise, 'good' may well translate as masculine,
"ἀγαθός" -- the agathetic implicatum. Grice at his
jocular best. If he is going to be a Kantian, he will. He uses Kantian jargon
to present his theory of conversation. This he does only at Harvard. The
implicature being that talking of vaguer assumptions of helpfulness would not
sound too convincing. So he has the maxim, the super-maxim, and the sub-maxim.
A principle and a maxim is Kantian enough. But when he actually ECHOES Kant, is
when he introduces what he later calls the CONVERSATIONAL CATEGORIES – the
keyword here is ‘conversational category,' as 'categoria' is used by Aristotle
and Kant -- or Kantotle. Grice surely knew that, say, his “Category of
Conversational Modality” had NOTHING to do with the Kantian Category of
Modality. Still, he stuck with the idea of FOUR categories (versus Aristotle's
'ten,' 'eight' or 'seven,' as the text you consult may tell you): category of
conversational quantity (which at Oxford he had formulated in much vaguer terms
like ‘strength’ and informativeness and entailment), the category of
conversational quality (keyword: principle of conversational TRUST), and the
category of conversational relation, where again Kant’s ‘relation’ has NOTHING
to do with the maxim Grice associates with this category. In any case, his
Kantian joke may be helpful when considering the centrality of the concept
‘category’ SIMPLICITER that Grice had to fight with with his pupils at Oxford –
he was lucky to have Austin and Strawson as co-lecturers! Grice was irritated
by Liddell and Scott defining 'kategoria' as "category," -- "I
guess I KNEW that." He agreed with their second shot,
"predicable."
1955. Pleasure, Aristotle on pleasure, Aristotle: pleasure,
hedonism, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), Carton 4, Folder 8, BANC
MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley.
Keywords: hedonism, pleasure, Aristotle, agreeableness, happiness, system of
ends, ends, end, desire, satisfaction, delight. Griceian pleasures! As a Lit.
Hum. Oxon., and especially as a tutee of Hardie at Corpus, Grice is almost too
well aware of the centrality of 'hedone' in Aristotle's system!
"Pleasure" is rendered "placitum" (as in "ad
placitum") in scholastic philosophy, but that's because scholastic
philosophy is not as Hellenic as it should be! Actually, Grice prefers
'agreeable.' One of Grice's requisites for an ascription of 'eudaimonia' ('to
have a fairy godmother') precisely has the system of ends an agent chooses to
realise to be an 'agreeable' one. One form, or 'mode,' of agreeableness, as Grice
notes, is, unless counteracted, automatically attached to the attainment of an
object of desire, such attainment being *routinely* a source of satisfaction.
The generation of such a satisfaction thus provides an independent ground for
preferring one system of ends to another. However, some *other* 'mode' of
agreeableness, such as being a source of *delight*, for example, which are
_not_ *routinely* associated with the fulfilment of this or that desire, could
discriminate, independently of other features relevant to such a preference,
between one system of ends and another. Further, a system of ends the operation
of which is *specially* agreeable is stable not only vis-à-vis a rival system,
but also against the somewhat weakening effect of incontinence, or 'akrasia,'
if you mustn’t! A disturbing influence, as Aristotle knew from experience, is
more surely met by a *principle* _in consort with a supporting attraction_ than
by the principle alone! Grice's favourite 'hedonistic' implicatum was
"Please!"
1955. Can I have a pain in my tail?, The H. P. Grice Papers,
BANC MSS 90/135c. Keywords: pain, tailbone pain. A discussion of a
category mistake. Cf. Grice: "I may be categorically mistaken but I'm not
categorically confused."
1955. Metaphysics, with P. F. Strawson and D. F. Pears, in D. F.
Pears, The nature of metaphysics, proceedings of the BBC Third programe
lectures, Macmillan, London, Metaphysics, in D. F. Pears, The Nature of
Metaphysics, London, Macmillan, Metaphysics, while the Macmillan came out in
1957, the broadcast was in 1955. The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical),
Carton 7-Folders 26-27 and Carton 8-Folder 2, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft
Library, University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: metaphysics, presupposition,
Aristotle, Kant, Hume, Collingwood. “Some like Hegel, but Collingwood's *my*
man!” -- H. P. Grice. Grice participated in two consecutive evenings of the
series of programmes on metaphysics organised by D. F. Pears. Actually,
charming Pears felt pretentious enough to label the meetings to be about 'the
NATURE of metaphysics'! Grice ends up discussing, as he should, Collingwood on
presupposition. Metaphysics remained a favourite topic for Grice's
philosophical explorations, as it is evident from his 1988 essay on
"Metaphysics, Philosophical Eschatology, and Plato's Republic,"
reprinted in his Studies in the Way of Words. Possibly Hardie is to blame,
since he hardly tutored Grice on metaphysics! Grice's two BBC lectures are
typically dated in tone. It was the ("good ole") days when
philosophers thought they could educate the non-elite by dropping names like
Collingwood and stuff! The Third Programme was extremely popular, especially
among the "uneducated ones at London," as Pears almost put it, as it
was a way for Londoners to get to know "what is going on" down at
Oxford, the only place an uneducated (or educated, for that matter) Londoner at
the time was interested in displaying some interest about! I mean, Johnson is
right: if a man is tired of the nature of metaphysics, he is tired of life!
Since the authorship is Grice/Strawson/Pears, "Metaphysics," in D. F.
Pears, The Nature of Metaphysics, The BBC Third Programme, it is somewhat
difficult to identify what paragraphs were actually read by Grice (and which
ones by Pears and which ones by Strawson). But trust the sharp Griceian to
detect the correct implicature! There are many ("too many") other
items covered by these two lectures: Kant, Aristotle, in no particular order.
*And* in The Grice Collection, for that matter, that cover the field of
metaphysics. In the New World, as a sort of tutor in the 'graduate' programme,
Grice was expected to cover the discipline at various seminars. "Only I
dislike 'discipline'!" Perhaps his clearest exposition is in the opening
section of his "Metaphysics, philosophical eschatology, and Plato's
Republic," reprinted in his Studies in the Way of Words, where he states,
bluntly: “All you need is -- metaphysics!" 1980, metaphysics,
Miscellaneous, metaphysics notes, Grice would possible see metaphysics as a
class – ‘category’ figuring large. He was concerned with the METHODOLOGICAL
aspects of the metaphysical enterprise, since he was enough of a relativist to
allow for one metaphysical scheme to apply to one area of discourse (one of
Eddington’s tables) and another metaphysical scheme to apply to another
(Eddington’s other table). In the third programme for the BBC Grice especially
enjoyed criticising John Wisdom's innovative look at metaphysics as a bunch of
'self-evident falsehoods' ("We're all alone"). Grice focuses on
Wisdom on the knowledge of other minds. He also discusses Collingwood's
presuppositions, and Bradley on the reality-appearance distinction. Grice's
reference to Wisdom was due to A. C. Ewing's treatment of Wisdom on
metaphysics.
1956. In defence of a 'dogma,' in Studies in the Way of Words (London: Harvard University Press, 1989), with P. F. Strawson, the analytic-synthetic distinction, in defence of a dogma, from The Philosophical Review, vol. 66, pp. 141-58, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 6-Folders 13-14, and 31, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: analytic-synthetic distinction. The locus classicus for the 'ordinary-language' philosophical response to Quine in "Two dogmas of empiricism." Grice and Strawson claim that '... is analytic" does have an 'ordinary-language' use, as attached two a type of behavioural conversational response. To an analytically false move (such as "My neighbour's three-year-old son is an adult") the addressee A is bound to utter, "I don't understand you! You are not being figurative, are you?." To a synthetically false move, on the other hand (such as "My neighbour's three-year-old understands Russell's Theory of Types"), the addressee A will jump with, "Can't believe it!" The topdogma of 'analyticity' is for Grice very important to defend. Philosophy depends on it! He knows that to many his claim to fame is his "In defence of a dogma," the topdogma of analyticity, no less. He eventually turns to a 'pragmatist' justification of the distinction. This pragmatist justification is still in accordance with what he sees as the use of 'analytic' in 'ordinary language'. His infamous examples: "My neighbour's three-year old understands Russell's Theory of Types." A: Hard to believe, but I will. "My neighbour's three-year old is an adult." Metaphorically? No. Then I don't understand you, and what you've just said is, in my scheme of things, analytically FALSE. Ultimately, there are 'conversational' criteria, based on this or that principle of conversational helfpulness. Grice is also circumstantially concerned with the 'synthetic a priori,' and he would ask his children's playmates: "Can a sweater be red and green all over? No stripes allowed!" The distinction is ultimately Kantian, but it had brought to the fore by the 'linguistic turn,' Oxonian and other! In defence of a dogma, In defence of a dogma, 'Two dogmas of empiricism,' Keywords: the analytic-synthetic distinction. For Quine, there are two. Grice is mainly interested in the first one: that there is a distinction between the analytic and the synthetic. Grice considers Empiricism as a monster on his way to the Rationalist City of Eternal Truth. Grice came back time and again to explore the analytic-synthetic distinction. But his philosophy remained constant. His sympathy is for the practicality of it, its rationale. He sees it as involving formal calculi, rather than his own theory of conversation as rational co-operation which does NOT presuppose the analytic-synthetic distinction, even if it explains it! Grice would press the issue here: if one wants to PROVE that such a theory of conversation as rational co-operation HAS TO BE seen as ‘philosophical,’ rather than some other way, some idea of ‘analyticity’ may be needed to justify the philosophical enterprise. Cfr. the SYNTHETIC A PRIORI, that fascinated Grice most than anything Kantian else! “Can a sweater be green and red all over? No stripes allowed.” With "In defence of a dogma," Grice and Strawson attack a New-World philosopher. Grice had previously collaborated with Strawson in an essay on 'Metaphysics' (actually a three-part piece, with D. F. Pears as the third author).
1958. Oxford philosophy and linguistic botanising, rev. 1970, post-war Oxford philosophy, in Studies in the Way of Words, Part II: Explorations in semantics and metaphysics, Essay, philosophy and ‘ordinary’ language, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), Carton 1-Folder 19, Carton 3-Folder 6, Carton 4-Folder 15, and Series V (Topical), Carton 8-Folder 3, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: Oxford philosophy, linguistic botanising, 'ordinary language' philosophy. Grice’s main Oxonian association is St. John's, Oxford. By "Oxford Philosophy," H. P. Grice notably refers to J. L. Austin's Play Group, of which he was a member. But Grice had Oxford associations pre-war, and after the demise of Austin. But back to the Play Group, this, to some, infamous, playgroup, met on Saturday mornings at different venues at Oxford, including Grice's own St. John's -- apparently, Austin's favourite venue. Austin regarded himself and his 'kindergarten' as 'linguistic' or 'language' *botanists*. The idea was to list various 'ordinary' uses of this or that 'philosophical notion." Austin: "They say philosophy is about language; well, then, let's botanise!" Grice's involvement with "Oxford philosophy" of course predated his associations with Austin's play group. He always said he was fortunate of having been a tutee to Hardie at Corpus. H. P. Grice, Corpus, Oxford. Grice would occasionally refer to the emblematic pelican, so prominently displayed at Corpus. Grice had an interim association with the venue one associates most directly with philosophy, Merton --: H. P. Grice, Merton, Oxford. While Grice loved to drop Oxonian names -- notably his 'rivals,' such as Dummett or Anscombe, he knew when not to. His "Post-war Oxford philosophy," as opposed to more specific items in The Grice Collection, remains 'general' in tone, and intended as a defense of the 'ordinary-language' approach to philosophy. Surprisingly, or perhaps not (for those who knew Grice), he takes a pretty idiosyncratic characterisation of conceptual analysis. Grice's philosophical problems emerge with Grice's idiosyncratic use of this or that expression. Conceptual analysis is meant to solve HIS problems, not others'! Repr. in Grice, Studies in the Way of Words. Grice found it important to reprint this since he had updated thoughts on the matter, which he displays in his "Conceptual analysis and the province of philosophy." The topic represents one of the strands he identifies behind the unity of his philosophy. By "post-war Oxford philosophy," Grice meant the period he was interested in. While he had been at Corpus, Merton, and St. John's in the pre-war days, for some reason, he felt that he had made history in the post-war period. The historical reason Grice gives is understandable enough. In the pre-war days, Grice was the good student and the new fellow of St. John's -- the other one was Mabbott. But he had not been able to engage in philosophical discussion much, other than with other tutees of Hardie. AFTER the war, Grice joins Austin's "Saturday mornings." Indeed, for Grice, 'post-war' means "all philosophy after the war," since he never abandoned the methods he developed under Austin, which were pretty congenial to the ones he had himself displayed in the pre-war days, in essays like "Negation" and "Personal Identity." Grice was an EXPERT on Oxonian philosophy. He saw himself as a member of the school of analytic philosophy, rather than the abused term 'ordinary-language' philosophy. This is evident by the fact that he contributed to such polemic -- but typically Oxonian -- volumes such as Butler, Analytic Philosophy, published by Blackwell (of all publishers). Grice led a very social life at Oxford, and held frequent philosophical discussions with philosophers such as J. L. Austin, P. L. Gardiner, S. N. Hampshire, H. L. A. Hart, P. H. Nowell-Smith, D. F. Pears, A. M. Quinton, P. F. Strawson, J. F. Thomson, J. O. Urmson, G. J. Warnock, and many others. Post-war Oxford philosophy, 1958, miscellaneous, Oxford philosophy, in Studies in the Way of Words, Part II, Semantics and Metaphysics, Essay. By Oxford philosophy, Grice meant his own! Grice went back to the topic of philosophy and ‘ordinary language,’ as one of his essays is precisely entitled, "Philosophy and ‘ordinary language,'" 1970, philosophy and 'ordinary' language,’ keywords: 'ordinary-language' philosophy, linguistic botanising. Grice is not really interested in 'ordinary' language as a philologist might. He SPOKE 'ordinary' language, he thought. The point had been brought to the fore by Austin. "If they think philosophy is a play on words, well then, let's play the game." Grice's interest is methodological. Malcolm had been claiming that 'ordinary language' is incorrigible. While Grice agreed that 'language can be clever,' he knew that Aristotle was possibly right when he explored 'ta legomena' in terms of the 'many' and the selected 'wise,' 1960, philosophy and 'ordinary language,' philosophy and 'ordinary language,' keywords: philosophy, 'ordinary language'. At the time of writing, "'ordinary-language' philosophy" had become, "even within Oxford," a bit of a term of abuse. Grice tries to defend Austin's approach to it, while suggesting ideas that Austin somewhat ignored, like what an utterer implies by the use of an 'ordinary-language' expression, rather than what the expression itself does. Grice is concerned, contra Austin, in explanation (or 'explanatory adequacy'), not taxonomy (or 'descriptive adequacy'). Grice disregards Austin's piecemeal approach to 'ordinary language,' as Grice searches for 'the big picture of it all.' Grice never used 'ordinary language' seriously. The phrase was used, as he explains, by those who HATED 'ordinary-language' philosophy. There's no such thing as 'ordinary language.' Surely you cannot fairly describe the idiosyncratic linguistic habits of an Old Cliftonian as even 'remotely' 'ordinary.' "Extra-ordinary" more likely! As far as the 'philosophy' bit goes, this is what Bergmann jocularly described as the 'linguistic turn.' But as Grice notes, the linguistic turn involves both the 'ideal language' and the 'ordinary language.' Grice defends Austin's choice of the 'ordinary' seeing that 'it was what he had to hand!' While Grice seems to be in agreement with the tone of his Wellesley talk, his idioms there in (“You’re crying for the moon! Philosophy need not be grand!”) seem to contrast with his more grandiose approach to philosophy. His struggle was to defend the minutiae of Linguistic Botanising, that had occupied most of his professional life, with a grander view of the discipline. He blamed Oxford for that: “Never in the history of philosophy had philosophers shown such an attachment to ordinary language as they did in post-war Oxford!” Having learned Greek and Latin at Clifton, Grice saw in Oxford a way to go back to English! He never felt the need to explore ‘Continental’ modern languages like German or French. Aristotle was of course cited in Greek, but Descartes is almost not cited, and Kant is cited in the translation available to Oxonians then. Grice is totally right that never has philosophy experienced such a fascination with 'ordinary' use except at Oxford. "The ruthless and unswerving association of philosophy with ordinary language has been peculiar to the Oxford scene."
1961. The causal theory of perception, in Studies in the Way of
Words, Part II, Explorations in semantics and metaphysics, Essay (without the
excursus on implication), 1989, repr. from The Aristotelian Society,
Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 35, no. 1, pp. 121-153.
repr. in G. J. Warnock, The philosophy of perception, 1968, Symposium with A.
R. White. Chair: R. Braithwaite, Cambridge, with R. O. Warner, 1975, knowledge
and belief, 1977, Causation colloquium, causality, cause, Stanford, 1980, The
H. P. Grice Papers, Series III (The Doctrines), Carton 5-Folder 18, Series IV
(Associations), Carton 6-Folder 7, and Series V (Topical), Carton 6-Folder 22
and Carton 8-Folders 21 and 25, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of
California, Berkeley. Keywords: seeming that, perceiving that, sensing that,
causal theory of perception, implicature, perception, pirotology, knowledge,
belief, doxastic, epistemic, Urmson, entailment. H. P. Grice: That pillar box
seems red to me. The locus classicus in the philosophical literature for
Grice's implicatum. Grice introduces a 'dout-or-denial' condition for an
utterance of a 'phenomenalist' report ("That pillar-box seems red to
me"). Grice attacks neo-Wittgensteinian approaches that regard the report
as _false_. In a long excursus on 'implication,' he compares the phenomenalist
report with utterances like “He has beautiful handwriting" (He is hopeless
at philosophy), a particularised conversational implicatum; “My wife is in the
kitchen or the garden" (I have non-truth-functional grounds to utter
this), a generalised conversational implicatum; “She was poor but she was
honest" (a Great-War witty (her poverty and her honesty contrast), a
'conventional' implicatum; and “Have you stopped beating your wife?" -- an
old Oxonian conundrum -- (You have been beating your wife), a presupposition.
More importantly, he considers different tests for each concoction! Those for
the conversational implicatum will become crucial: cancellability,
calculability, non-detachability, and indeterminacy. In the proceedings he
plays with something like the principle of conversational helpfulness, as
having a basis on a view of conversation as rational co-operation, and as
giving the rationale to the implicatum. Past the excursus, and back to the
issue of perception, he holds a conservative view as presented by Price at
Oxford. One interesting reprint of Grice's essay is in Davis's volume on
"Causal Theories," since this is where it belongs! White's response
is usually ignored, but shouldn't. White is an interesting Australian
philosopher at Oxford who is usually regarded as a practitioner of
'ordinary-language' philosophy. However, in his response, White hardly touches
the issue of the 'implicature' with which Grice is primarily concerned. Grice
found that a full reprint from the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society in a
compilation also containing the William James Harvard would be too repetitive.
Therefore, he omits the 'excursus' on 'implication.' However, the way Grice
re-formulates, in 1987, what that 'excursus' covers is very interesting. There
is the conversational implicatum, particularised ("Smith has beautiful
handwriting") and generalised ("My wife is in the kitchen or in the
garden"). Then there is the praesuppositum, or presupposition ("You
haven't stopped beating your wife"). Finally, there is the CONVENTIONAL
implicatum ("She was poor, but she was honest"). Even at Oxford,
Grice's implicature goes, philosophers -- even Oxonian philosophers -- use
'imply' for all those 'different animals'! Warnock had attended Austin's
"Sense and Sensibilia" (not to be confused with Austen's Sense and
Sensibility). But Warnock, for obvious reasons, preferred philosophical
investigations with Grice. Warnock: "Grice once told me, not on a Saturday
morning, either, 'How clever language is'” For they had found that 'ordinary
language' does NOT need the concept of a visum. Grice and Warnock spent lovely
occasions exploring what Oxford has as "the philosophy of
perception." While Grice later came to see philosophy of perception as a
bit or an offshoot of 'philosophical psychology,' 'the philosophy of
perception' is concerned with that treasured bit of the Oxonian philosopher's
lexicon, the sense-datum, always in the singular! The 'cause' involved is crucial.
Grice plays with an ‘evolutionary’ justification of the ‘material’ thing as the
denotatum of a perceptual judgement. If a material thing causes the sense-datum
of a nut, that is because the squarrel (or squirrel) will not be nourished by
the sense datum of the nut; only by the nut! There are many other items in the
Grice Collection that address the topic of perception – notably with Warnock
(on ‘vision,’ cf. ‘visa’ -- ‘taste’, and ‘perception,’ in general – And we
should not forget that Grice contributed a splendid essay on the distinction of
the senses to Butler’s “Analytic philosophy,” which in a way, redeemed a rather
old-fashioned discipline by shifting it to the idiom of the day. 1959. The
philosophy of perception: a retrospective, with G. J. Warnock, the philosophy
of perception, keywords: perception, the philosophy of perception,
visum. Warnock was possibly the only philosopher at Oxford Grice felt
congenial enough to engage in different explorations in the so-called
'philosophy of perception.' Their joint adventures involved the disimplicature
of a 'visum.' Grice later approached sense data in more 'evolutionary' terms: a
material thing is to be vindicated transcendentally, in the sense that it is a
material thing (and not a sense datum or collection thereof) that nourishes a
creature like a human. Grice was particularly grateful to Warnock. By
reprinting the full symposium on "The Causal Theory of Perception" in
his influential series of Oxford Readings in Philosophy, Warnock had spread Grice's
lore of implicature all over! In some parts of the draft he uses "more on
visa," 1959, vision, 1969, vision, with G. J. Warnock, Keywords:
vision. Of the five senses, Grice and Warnock are particularly interested
in 'seeing.' As Grice will put it later, 'see' is a factive. It presupposes the
existence of the event reported after the 'that'-clause. A 'visum,' however, as
an intermediary between the material thing and the perceiver does not seem
necessary in 'ordinary' discourse. Warnock will reconsider Grice's views too
("On what is seen," in Sibley). While Grice uses 'vision,' he knows
he is interested in Philosopher's paradox concerning 'seeing,' notably Witters
on 'seeing as.' 1959. vision, taste and the philosophy of perception, Series V
(Topical), Carton 8-Folders 21-22, keywords: vision, seeing. As an Oxonian
philosopher, Grice was of course more interested in 'seeing' than in 'vision.'
He said that Austin would criticise even the use of things like 'sensation' and
'volition'! 1959, taste, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton
8-Folders 21-22, keyword: taste, the objects of the five senses, the philosophy
of perception, perception, the philosophy of perception, Series V (Topical),
Carton 8-Folders 21 -22, keywords: philosophy of perception, vision, taste,
perception. Mainly with Warnock. Warnock reprinted Grice's
"Causal Theory of Perception" in his influential Reading in
Philosophy, "The philosophy of perception," 1959, perception, with G.
J. Warnock (folders 23-24), with R. O. Warner (folder 25), Series V
(Topical), Carton 8-Folders 23-24, keywords: perception. Warnock
learned about perception much more from Grice than from Austin! 1959, taste, in
Series V (Topical), Carton 8, 1960, The philosophy of perception, the
philosophy of perception, notes with G. J. Warnock on visum, keywords: visum,
Warnock, Grice, the philosophy of perception. Grice kept the lecture
notes to a view of publishing a retrospective. Warnock recalled Grice
saying, "How clever language is!" Grice took the offer by
Harvard University Press, and it was a good thing he reprinted part of “Causal
theory.” However, the relevant bits for his theory of conversation as rational
co-operation lie in the excursus which he omitted. What is Grice’s implicature:
that one SHOULD consider the TOPIC rather than the METHOD here. Keywords being
‘sense datum,’ and ‘causation,’ rather than conversational helpfulness. After
all, “That pillar box seems red to me,” does not SOUND very helpful. But the
TOPIC of ‘Causal Theory’ is CENTRAL for his view of conversation as rational
co-operation. Why? Pirot 1 gets an impression of DANGER as caused by the danger
out there. He communicates the danger to Pirot 1, CAUSING in Pirot 2 some
behaviour. Without ‘causation,’ or causal links, the very POINT of offering a
theory of conversation as rational co-operation seems minimized. On top, as a
metaphysician, he was also concerned with ‘cause’ simpliciter. He was
especially proud that Price’s ‘Casual Theory of Perception’ had been reprinted
along with his essay in the influential volume by Davis on “Causal Theories.”
In “Actions and events,” he further explores ‘cause’ now in connection with
Greek ‘aitia’. As Grice notes, the original usage of this very Grecian item is
the one we find in ‘rebel without a cause.’ CAUSE TO, rather than CAUSE
BECAUSE. The two-movement nature of ‘causing’ is reproduced in the
conversational exchange: a material thing CAUSES a sense datum which causes an
expression which gets communicated, thus CAUSING a psychological state which
will cause a behaviour. This ‘causation’ is almost ‘representational’. A
material thing or a situation CANNOT govern our actions and behaviours, but a
REPRAESENTATUM of it MIGHT. “Govern our actions and behaviour” is Grice’s
correlate of what a team of North-Oxfordshire cricketers can do for
North-Oxfordshire: what North Oxfordshire cannot do for herself, “namely,
engage in a game of cricket”! In Retrospective Epilogue he casts doubts on the
point of his causal approach. It is a short paragraph that merits much exploration.
Basically, Grice is saying his causalist approach is hardly an established
thesis. He also proposes a similar serious objection to his view in “Some
remarks about the senses,” the other essay in the philosophy of perception in
Studies. As he notes, both engage with “some fundamental questions in the
philosophy of perception,” which is hardly the same thing as saying that they
provide AN ANSWER to each question! Grice: The issue with which I have
been mainly concerned may be thought rather a fine point, but it is certainly
not an isolated one. There are several philosophical theses or dicta which
would I think need to be examined in order to see whether or not they are
sufficiently parallel to the thesis which I have been discussing to be amenable
to treatment of the same general kind. Examples which occur to me are the
following: (1) You cannot see a knife as a knife, though you may see what is
not a knife as a knife. (2) When Moore said he knew that the objects before him
were human hands, he was guilty of misusing the word "know". (3) For
an occurrence to be properly said to have a cause, it must be something
abnormal or unusual. (4) For an action to be properly described as one for
which the agent is responsible, it must be the sort of action for which people
are condemned. (5) What is actual is not also possible. (6) What is known by me
to be the case is not also believed by me to be the case. I have no doubt that
there will be other candidates besides the six which I have mentioned. I must
emphasize that I am not saying that all these examples are importantly similar
to the thesis which I have been criticizing, only that, for all I know, they
may be. To put the matter more generally, the position adopted by my objector
seems to me to involve a type of manoeuvre which is characteristic of more than
one contemporary mode of philosophizing. I am not condemning this kind of
manoeuvre; I am merely suggesting that to embark on it without due caution is
to risk collision with the facts. Before we rush ahead to exploit the
linguistic nuances which we have detectcd, we should make sure that we are
reasonably clear what sort of nuanccs they are.” The Causal Theory of
Perception, Knowledge and belief, 1977, Series III (Doctrines), Carton 5-Folder
18, keywords: knowledge, belief, philosophical psychology. H. P. Grice: the
doxastic implicatum. “I know” IMPLICATES “I don’t believe.” (Philosopher’s
mistake: “What is known by me to be the case is NOT also believed by me to be
the case.”) The topic had attracted the attention of some Oxonian philosophers
such as J. O. Urmson in "Parenthetical verbs." Urmson speaks of a
'scale': "I know" can be used parenthetically, as "I
believe" can. For Grice, to utter "I believe" is obviously to
make a weaker conversational move than you would if you utter “I know.”
And in this case, an approach to informativeness in terms of entailment *is* in
order, seeing that “I know” ENTAILS “I believe.” The addressee is thus allowed
to infer that the utterer is not in a position to make the stronger claim. The
mechanism is explained via his principle of conversational helpfulness.
Philosophers tend two over-use these two basic psychological states, attitudes,
or stances. Grice is concerned with Gettier-type cases, and also the
'factivity' of 'know' versus the non-factivity of 'believe.' Grice follows
Hintikka's lexicological innovations: the logic of belief is 'doxastic;' the
logic of knowledge is 'epistemic.' The last thesis that Grice lists in
"Causal Theory" that he thinks rests on a big mistake he formulates
as: “What is known by me to be the case is NOT also believed by me to be the
case." What are his attending remarks? Grice writes: “The issue with which
I have been mainly concerned may be thought rather a fine point, but it is
certainly not an isolated one." “There are several philosophical theses or
dicta which would I think need to be examined in order to see whether or not
they are sufficiently parallel to the thesis which I have been discussing to be
amenable to treatment of the same general kind." “An example which occurs
to me is the following: What is known by me to be the case is not also believed
by me to be the case.” “I must emphasise that I am not saying that this example
is importantly similar to the thesis which I have been criticising, only that,
for all I know, it may be." “To put the matter more generally, the
position adopted by my objector seems to me to involve a type of manoeuvre
which is characteristic of more than one contemporary mode of
philosophizing." “I am not condemning this kind of manoeuvre." “I am
merely suggesting that to embark on it without due caution is to risk collision
with the facts." “Before we rush ahead to exploit the linguistic NUANCES
which we have detected, we should make sure that we are reasonably clear what
SORT of nuances they are!” The ætiological implicatum. Grice. "For an
occurrence to be properly said to have a cause, it must be something abnormal
or unusual." This is an example Grice lists in "Causal theory"
but NOT in "Prolegomena." "For an occurrence to be properly said
to have a cause, it must be something abnormal or unusual." Similar
commentary to his example on 'responsible'/condemnable apply. The objector may
stick with the fact that he is only concerned with PROPER utterances. Surely Grice
wants to go to a pre-Humeian account of causation, possible Aristotelian.
KEYWORD: Aetiologia. Where EVERYTHING has a cause, except, for Aristotle, God!
What are his attending remarks? Grice writes: “The issue with which I have been
mainly concerned may be thought rather a fine point, but it is certainly not an
isolated one." “There are several philosophical theses or dicta which
would I think need to be examined in order to see whether or not they are
sufficiently parallel to the thesis which I have been discussing to be amenable
to treatment of the same general kind." “An example which occurs to me is
the following: What is known by me to be the case is not also believed by me to
be the case.” “I must emphasise that I am not saying that this example is
importantly similar to the thesis which I have been criticizing, only that, for
all I know, it may be." “To put the matter more generally, the position
adopted by my objector seems to me to involve a type of manoeuvre which is
characteristic of more than one contemporary mode of philosophising." “I
am not condemning this kind of manoeuvre." “I am merely suggesting that to
embark on it without due caution is to risk collision with the facts."
“Before we rush ahead to exploit the linguistic NUANCES which we have detected,
we should make sure that we are reasonably clear what SORT of nuances they
are!” Causal theory, cause, causality, causation, conference, colloquium,
Stanford, 1980, Series IV (Associations), Carton 6-Folder 7, keywords: cause,
metaphysics, the abnormal/unusual implicatum, aetiology, aetiological
implicatum. H. P. Grice: the ætiological implicatum. Grice's explorations on
'cause' are very rich. He is concerned with some alleged misuse of 'cause' in
ordinary language. If as Hume suggests, to cause is to will, one would say that
"The decapitation of Charles I willed his death," which sounds harsh,
“if not ungrammatical, too!” Grice later relates 'cause' to the Greek 'aitia,'
as he should. He notes collocations like 'rebel without a cause.' For the
Greeks, or Grecians, as he called them, and the Griceians, it's a CAUSE TO
which one should be involved in elucidating. A "cause to..."
connects with the idea of 'freedom.' Grice was constantly aware of the threat
of MECHANISM, and his idea was to provide philosophical room for the idea of
'finality,' which is NOT 'mechanistically derivable.' This leads him to
discussion of overlap and priority of, say, a physical-cum-physiological versus
a psychological theory explaining this or that piece of rational behaviour.
Grice can be Wittgensteinian when citing Anscombe's translation: No
psychological concept without the behaviour the concept is brought to
explain. It is best to place his later treatment of cause with his
earlier one in “Causal Theory.” It’s surprising Grice does not apply his
example of a philosopher’s mistake to the ‘causal’ bit of his ‘causal theory.’
Grice states the philosophical mistake as follows: "For an occurrence to
be properly said to have a cause, it must be something abnormal or unusual."
This is an example Grice lists in "Causal theory" but NOT in
"Prolegomena."“For an occurrence to be properly said to have a cause,
it must be something abnormal or unusual." A similar commentary to his
example on 'responsible'/condemnable applies: The objector may stick with the
fact that he is only concerned with PROPER utterances. Surely Grice wants to
embrace a pre-Humeian account of causation, possible Aristotelian -- KEYWORD:
Aitiologia. — where EVERYTHING has a cause, except, for Aristotle, God! What
are his attending remarks? Grice writes: “The issue with which I have been
mainly concerned may be thought rather a fine point, but it is certainly not an
isolated one." “There are several philosophical theses or dicta which
would I think need to be examined in order to see whether or not they are
sufficiently parallel to the thesis which I have been discussing to be amenable
to treatment of the same general kind." “One example which occurs to me is
the following.” “For an occurrence to be properly said to have a cause, it must
be something abnormal or unusual." “I must emphasise that I am not saying
that this example is importantly similar to the thesis which I have been
criticizing, only that, for all I know, it may be." “To put the matter
more generally, the position adopted by my objector seems to me to involve a
type of manoeuvre which is characteristic of more than one contemporary mode of
philosophizing." “I am not condemning this kind of manoeuvre." “I am
merely suggesting that to embark on it without due caution is to risk collision
with the facts." “Before we rush ahead to exploit the linguistic NUANCES
which we have detected, we should make sure that we are reasonably clear what
SORT of nuances they are!” Re: responsibility/condemnation – cfr. Mabbott,
“Flew on punishment,” Philosophy, 30, 1955. And also Hart. At Corpus, Grice
enjoyed his tutor Hardie’s resourcefulness in the defence of what may be a
difficult position, a characteristic illustrated by the an incident which
Hardie himself once told Grice about himself. “Hardie had parked his car and
gone to a cinema.”“Unfortunately, Hardie had parked his car on top of one of
the strips on the street by means of which traffic-lights were, at the time,
controlled by the passing traffic.” “As a result, the lights are jammed, and it
requires *four* policemen to lift Hardie’s car off the strip.” “The police
decides to prosecute.” Grice indicated to Hardie that this hardly surprised him
and asked him how he fared. “‘Oh,’ Hardie says, ‘I got off.’” Then Grice asks
Hardie how on earth he managed that! “Quite simply,” Hardie answered. “I just
invoked Mill’s method of difference.” “The police charged me with causing an
obstruction at 4 p.m.” “I told the police that, since my car was parked at 2
p.m., it could not have been *my* car which caused the obstruction at *4* p.m.”
This relates to an example in "Causal Theory" that he Grice does not
discuss in "Prolegomena," but which may relate to H. L. A. Hart, and
closer to Grice, to J. D. Mabbott's essay, "A. G. N. Flew on
punishment," in Philosophy, vol. 30. Grice states the philosophical
mistake as follows: "For an action to be properly described as one for
which the agent is responsible, it must be thc sort of action for which people
are condemned." As applied to Hardie. Hardie was IRRESPONSIBLE? In any
case, while condemnable, he was not! Grice writes: “The issue with which I have
been mainly concerned may be thought rather a fine point, but it is certainly
not an isolated one." “There are several philosophical theses or dicta
which would I think need to be examined in order to see whether or not they are
sufficiently parallel to the thesis which I have been discussing to be amenable
to treatment of the same general kind." “An example which occurs to me is
the following: For an action to be properly described as one for which the
agent is responsible, it must be the sort of action for which people are
condemned." “I must emphasise that I am not saying that this example is
importantly similar to the thesis which I have been criticizing, only that, for
all I know, it may be." “To put the matter more generally, the position
adopted by my objector seems to me to involve a type of manoeuvre which is
characteristic of more than one contemporary mode of philosophizing." “I
am not condemning this kind of manoeuvre." “I am merely suggesting that to
embark on it without due caution is to risk collision with the facts."
“Before we rush ahead to exploit the linguistic NUANCES which we have detected,
we should make sure that we are reasonably clear what SORT of nuances they
are!” The modal example (“What is actual is NOT also possible”) discussed under
“Indicative conditonals,” 1967. H. P. Grice on Macbeth’s
implicature: seeing a dagger as a dagger. Grice elaborates on this in
"Prolegomena," but the austerity of "Causal theory" is
charming, since he does not give a quote or source. OBVIOUSLY: Witters! Grice
writes: Witters might say "You can*not* see a knife *as a knife*, though
you may see what is *not* a knife as a knife." Grice writes: “The issue
with which I have been mainly concerned may be thought rather a fine point, but
it is certainly not an isolated one." “There are several philosophical
theses or dicta which would I think need to be examined in order to see whether
or not they are sufficiently parallel to the thesis which I have been
discussing to be amenable to treatment of the same general kind." “An
example which occurs to me is the following: "You can*not* see a knife *as
a knife*, though you may see what is *not* a knife as a knife."" “I
must emphasise that I am not saying that this example is importantly similar to
the thesis which I have been criticizing, only that, for all I know, it may
be." “To put the matter more generally, the position adopted by my
objector seems to me to involve a type of manoeuvre which is characteristic of
more than one contemporary mode of philosophizing." “I am not condemning
this kind of manoeuvre." “I am merely suggesting that to embark on it
without due caution is to risk collision with the facts." “Before we rush
ahead to exploit the linguistic NUANCES which we have detected, we should make
sure that we are reasonably clear what SORT of nuances they are!” Is this a
dagger which I see before me,/The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch
thee./I have thee not, and yet I see thee still./Art thou not, fatal vision,
sensible/To feeling as to sight? or art thou but/A dagger of the mind, a false
creation,/Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?/I see thee yet, in form as
palpable/As this which now I draw./Thou marshall'st me the way that I was
going;/And such an instrument I was to use./Mine eyes are made the fools o' the
other senses,/Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,/And on thy blade
and dudgeon gouts of blood,/Which was not so before. There's no such thing:/It
is the bloody business which informs/Thus to mine eyes./Now o'er the one
halfworld/Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse/The curtain'd sleep;
witchcraft celebrates/Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,/Alarum'd by
his sentinel, the wolf,/Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy
pace./With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design/Moves like a ghost.
Thou sure and firm-set earth,/Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for
fear/Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,/And take the present horror from
the time,/Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:/Words to the heat
of deeds too cold breath gives.[a bell rings] I
go, and it is done; the bell invites me./Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a
knell/That summons thee to heaven or to hell. The Moore example is used both in
"Causal Theory" and "Prolegomena." But the use in
"Causal Theory" is more austere: PHILOSOPHICAL MISTAKE: Malcolm:
"When Moore said he knew that the objects before him were human hands, he
was guilty of misusing the word "know"." Grice writes: “The
issue with which I have been mainly concerned may be thought rather a fine
point, but it is certainly not an isolated one." “There are several
philosophical theses or dicta which would I think need to be examined in order
to see whether or not they are sufficiently parallel to the thesis which I have
been discussing to be amenable to treatment of the same general kind." “An
example which occurs to me is the following: "When Moore said he knew that
the objects before him were human hands, he was guilty of misusing the word
"know"." "I must emphasise that I am not saying that this example
is importantly similar to the thesis which I have been criticizing, only that,
for all I know, it may be." “To put the matter more generally, the
position adopted by my objector seems to me to involve a type of manoeuvre
which is characteristic of more than one contemporary mode of
philosophizing." “I am not condemning this kind of manoeuvre." “I am
merely suggesting that to embark on it without due caution is to risk collision
with the facts." “Before we rush ahead to exploit the linguistic NUANCES
which we have detected, we should make sure that we are reasonably clear what
SORT of nuances they are!” So SURELY Grice is MEANING: "I know that the
objects before me are human hands" as uttered by Moore is possibly TRUE!
Grice was amused by the fact that while at Madison, Wisc., Moore gave the
example: "I KNOW that behind those curtains there is a window."
"ACTUALLY he was WRONG, as he soon realised when the educated Madisonians
corrected him with a roar of unanimous laughter!" “You see, the lecture
hall of the University of Wisconsin at Madison is a rather, shall we say,
striking space.” “The architect designed the lecture hall with a parapet
running around the wall just below the ceiling, cleverly rigged with *indirect*
lighting to create the illusion that sun light is pouring in through windows
from outside.” “So, G. E. Moore comes to give a lecture one sunny day.”
“Attracted as he was to this eccentric architectural detail, Moore gives an
illustration of certainty as attached to common sense.” “Pointing to the space
below the ceiling, Moore utters.” "We know more things than we think we
know.” “I *know*, for example, that the sunlight shining in from outside proves
..." “At which point he was somewhat startled (in his reserved
Irish-English sort of way) when his audience burst out laughing!” “Is that a
proof of anything?” Grice is especially concerned with "I seem..." He
needs a paradeigmatic sense-datum utterance, and intentionalist as he was, he
finds it in "I seem to see a red pillar box before me." He is relying
on G. A. Paul. Grice would generalise a sense datum by "phi." "I
seem to perceive that the alpha is phi." He agrees that while 'cause' may
be too much, any sentence using 'because' will do: At a circus: "You seem
to be seeing that an elephant is coming down the street because an elephant is
coming down the street."
1962. Some remarks
about the senses, in Studies in the Way of Words, in Part II,
Explorations in semantics and metaphysics, Essay, 1989, from R. J.
Butler, Analytic Philosophy, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 133-53,
The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft
Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: the objects of
the five senses. An interesting piece in that it was commissioned by
Butler, who knew Grice from his Oxford days. Grice cites O. P. Wood and R.
Albritton. Grice is concerned with a special topic in the philosophy of
perception, notably the identification of the traditional 'five' senses:
vision, audition, taste, smell, and tact. He introduces what is regarded
in the philosophical literature as the first 'thought-experiment,' in terms of
the senses that Martians may have. They have two pairs of eyes: are we going to
allow that they 'see' with both pairs? Grice introduces a sub-division of
seeing: a Martian x-s an object with his upper pair of eyes, but he y-s an
object with the lower pair of eyes. In his exploration, he takes a 'realist'
stance, which respects the 'ordinary' discursive ways to approach issues of
perception. A second interesting point is that in allowing this to be reprinted
in Butler's "Analytic philosophy," Grice is demonstrating that
'analytic philosophers' should NOT be obsessed with 'ordinary language.'
Butler's compilation, a rather dry one, is meant as a response to the more
linguistic oriented ones by A. G. N. Flew (Grice's first tutee at St. John's,
as it happens), also published by Blackwell, and containing pieces by Austin,
and company. One philosopher who took Grice very seriously on this was Coady,
in his "The senses of the Martians." Grice provides a serious
objection to his own essay in “Retrospective Epilogue” “We see with our eyes.”
I.e. ‘eye’ is teleologically defined. He notes that his way of DISTINGUISHING
the senses is hardly an established thesis. Grice actually advances this topic in
his earlier "Causal Theory": "I see nothing absurd in the idea
that a non-specialist concept should contain, so to speak, a blank space to be
filled in by the specialist; that this is so, e.g., in the case of the concept
of "seeing" is perhaps indicated by the consideration that if we were
in doubt about the correctness of speaking of a certain creature with peculiar
sense-organs as "seeing" objects, we might well wish to hear from a
specialist a comparative account of the human eye and the relevant sense-organs
of the creature in question." He returns to the point in
"Retrospective Epilogue" with a bit of 'doxastic humility."
"We see with our eyes" is analytic -- but philosophers should take
that more seriously. Grice tested the playmates of his children, aged
7 and 9, with "Nothing can be green and red all
over". Instead, Morley Bunker preferred
philosophy undergrads. Ain't that boring? To give examples,
"Summer follows Spring" was judged ANALYTIC by
Morley-Bunker's informants, as cited by Sampson, in "Making sense"
(Clarendon) by highly significant majorities in each group of subjects, while
"We see with our eyes" was given near-even split votes by each group.
Over all, the philosophers were somewhat more consistent with each other than the
non-philosophers. But that global finding conceals results for
individual sentences that sometimes manifested the opposed tendency. Thus,
"Thunderstorms are electrical disturbances in the atmosphere" was
judged ANALYTIC by a highly significant majority of the non-philosophers, while
a (non-significant)
majority of the
philosophers deemed it SYNTHETIC. In this case, it seems, philosophical
training (surely not brain-washing) induces the realisation that
well-established results of contemporary science are not necessary truths. In
other cases, conversely, cliches of current philosophical education impose
their own mental blinkers on those who undergo it: "Nothing can be
completely red and green all over” was
judged ANALYTIC by a significant majority of philosophers but only by a
non-significant majority of non-philosophers. All in all, Morley-Bunker's
results argue strongly against the notion that our inability to decide
consistently whether or
not some statement is a
necessary truth DERIVES FROM LACK OF SKILL IN "ARTICULATING" OUR
UNDERLYING KNOWLEDGE OF THE RULES OF OUR LANGUAGE. Rather, the inability comes
from the fact that the question as posed is UNREAL. We CHOOSE to treat a given
statement as open to question or as unchallengeable in the light of the overall
structure of beliefs which we have
INDIVIDUALLY EVOLVED in order to make sense of our INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE. Even
the cases which seem "clearly" analytic or synthetic are cases which
individuals judge alike because the relevant experiences are SHARED by the
whole community, but even for such cases one can invent hypothetical future
experiences which, if they should be realised, would cause us to revise our
judgements. Nota Bene. This is not intended to call into question the special
status of the "truths of logic", such as either "Either it
is raining or it is not." Unlike Katz, I am inclined to accept the
traditional view according to which "logical particles" such as
"not" and "or" are distinct from the bulk of the vocabulary
in that the former REALLY are governed by clear-cut inference rules. I
shall not expand on this point here. (Sampson, op. cit. p.70ff).
1962. Grice at Cornell, the Cornell Seminar, Grice's Seminar
at Cornell, 1966, The Grice Papers, Series III (Doctrines), Carton 5-Folder 1,
BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: philosophy of action. Historically important in
that they predate his Harvard William James lectures which made of him a
household name in New-World philosophy. Harman cites a seminar by Grice on
trying at Brandeis, 1962.
1964. Logic and conversation, Oxford, rev. 1967, conversational
implicature, 1965, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), Carton
1-Folders 21-23 and Carton 4-Folder 9, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft
Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: logic,
conversation, implicature, principle of conversational helpfulness, desideratum
of conversational clarity, desideratum of conversational candour, principle of
conversational self-interest, principle of conversational
benevolence. Reprinted in revised form as Part I of Studies in the
Way of Words. Variations on a theme by Grice: "Make your
contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the
accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are
engaged." Variations on a theme by Grice. "I wish to
represent a certain subclass of non-conventional implicaturcs, which I shall
call conversational implicaturcs, as being essentially
connected with certain general features of discourse; so my next step is to try
to say what these features are." "The following may provide a first
approximation to a general principle. Our talk exchanges do not normally
consist of a succession of disconnected remarks, and would not be rational if
they did. They are characteristically, to some degree at least, cooperative
efforts; and each participant recognizes in them, to some extent, a common
purpose or set of purposes, or at least a mutually accepted direction. This
purpose or direction may be fixed from the start (e.g., by an initial proposal
of a question for discussion), or it may evolve during the exchange; it may be
fairly definite, or it may be so indefinite as to leave very considerable
latitude to the participants (as in a casual conversation). But at each stage,
SOME possible conversational moves would be excluded as conversationally
unsuitable. We might then formulate a rough general principle which
participants will be expected (ceteris paribus) to observe, namely: Make your
conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it
occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you
are engaged. One might label this the Co-operative
Principle." "We might then formulate a rough general principle
which participants will be expected (ceteris paribus) to
observe, namely: "Make your contribution such as is required,
at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the
talk exchange in which you are engaged." One might label this the
Cooperative Principle." Strictly, the principle itself is not
co-operative: conversants are. Less literary variant: Make your move
such as is required by the accepted goal of the conversation in which you are
engaged. But why “LOGIC” and conversation? "Logica" had been
part of the 'trivium' for ages -- "Although they called it 'dialectica,'
then." Grice on the seven liberal arts. Moved by P. F.
Strawson's treatment of the 'formal' devices in "Introduction to Logical
Theory," Grice targets these, in their 'ordinary-discourse' counterparts.
Strawson indeed characterizes Grice as his ‘logic’ tutor – Strawson was
following a P. P. E., and his approach to logic was practical. His ‘philosophy’
tutor was Mabbott. For Grice, with a M. A. Lit. Hum. the situation was
different. He knew that the Categoria and De Interpretatione of his beloved
Aristotle were part of the Logical Organon which had been so influential in the
history of philosophy. Grice attempts to reconcile Strawson's observations
with the idea that the 'formal' devices reproduce some sort of 'explicatum,' or
'explicitum,' as identified by Whitehead and Russell in "Principia
Mathematica." In the proceedings, Grice has to rely on some general
features of discourse, or conversation as a rational co-operation. The
alleged divergence between the 'ordinary-language' operators and their 'formal'
counterparts is explained in terms of the conversational implicata,
then. I.e. the content of the psychological attitude that the addressee A has
to ascribe to the utterer U to account for any divergence between the formal
device and its alleged 'ordinary-language' counterpart, while still assuming
that U is engaged in a co-operative transaction. The utterer and his
addressee are seen as caring for the mutual goals of conversation -- the
exchange of information and the institution of decisions -- and judging that
conversation will only be profitable (and thus reasonable and rational) if
conducted under some form of principle of 'conversational helpfulness.' "The
observation of a principle of conversational helpfulness is
reasonable (rational) along the following lines: anyone who cares
about the goals that are central to conversation/communication (such as giving
and receiving information, influencing and being influenced by others) must be
expected to have an interest, given suitable circumstances, in participating in
a conversation that will be profitable ONLY on the assumption that it is
conducted in general accordance with a principle of conversational helpfulness." In
titling his seminar "Logic and Conversation," Grice is thinking
Strawson. After all, in the seminal "Introduction to Logical Theory,"
that every Oxonian student was reading, Strawson had the cheek to admit that he
never ceased to learn logic from his tutor, Grice. Yet he elaborates a totally
anti Griceian view of things. To be fair to Strawson, the only segment where he
acknwoledges Grice's difference of opinion is a brief footnote, concerning the
'strength' or lack thereof, of this or that quantified utterance. Strawson uses
an adjective that Grice will seldom do, 'pragmatic'. On top, Strawson
attributes the adjective to 'rule.' For Grice, in Strawson's wording, there is
this or that 'pragmatic rule' to the effect that one should make a stronger
rather than a weaker conversational move. Strawson's Introduction was published
BEFORE Grice aired his views for the Aristotelian Society. In this seminar then
Grice takes the opportunity to correct a few misunderstandings. Important
in that it is Grice's occasion to introduce the principle of conversational
helpfulness as generating implicata under the assumption of rationality. The
lecture makes it obvious that Grice's interest is methodological, and not
'philological.' He is not interest in conversation per se, but only as the
source for his principle of conversational helpfulness and the notion of the
conversational implicatum, which springs from the distinction between what an
utterer implies and what his expression does, a distinction 'apparently denied
by Witters and all too frequently ignored by Austin.' 'Logic and
conversation,' an Oxford seminar, 1964, keywords: implicatum, principle of
conversational helpfulness, eywords: conversational implicature, conversational
implicatum. "Conversational Implicature" Grice's main
invention, one which trades on the distinction between what an utterer IMPLIES
and what his expression does. "A distinction apparently denied by
Witters, and all too frequently ignored by, of all people,
Austin." Grice is implicating that Austin's sympathies were for the
'subjectification' of "Linguistic Nature." Grice remains an
obdurate individualist, and never loses sight of the distinction that gives
rise to the conversational implicatum, which can very well be hyper-contextualised,
idiosyncratic, and perfectly particularised! His Oxonian
example: "I can very well mean that my tutee is to bring me a
philosophical essay next week by uttering "It is raining."" As
Grice notes: “Since the object of the present exercise is to provide a bit of
theory which will explain, for a certain family of cases, why is
it that a particular implicature is present, I would suggest that
the final test of the adequacy and utility of this model
should be: – can it be used to construct [an] explanation[…]
of the presence of such [an] implicature[…], and
– is it more comprehensive and more economical than any rival? b)
[is] the no doubt pre-theoretical explanation[…] which one
would be prompted to give of such [an] implicature[…] consistent with,
or better still [a] favourable pointer[…] towards the requirements involved in
the model?” “Far otherwise: whoever disputes with you will find those
protagonists of heresy, the Stoics, Cynics, and Peripatetics, shattered with
their own arms and their own engines [emphasis mine]; for
their [heathen] followers, if they resist the doctrine and spirit of
Christianity, will, under your teaching, be caught in their own
familiar entanglements, and fall headlong into their own toils;
the barbed syllogism of your arguments will hook the glib
tongues of the casuists, and it is you who will tie up their slippery
questions in categorical clews, after the manner of [a] clever
physician[…], who, when compelled by reasoned thought, prepares antidotes for
poison even from a serpent.”“qvin potivs experietvr qvisqve conflixerit
stoicos cynicos peripateticos hæresiarchas propriis armis propriis qvoqve
concvti machinamentis nam sectatores eorum Christiano dogmati ac sensvi si
repvgnaverint mox te magistro ligati vernaculis implicaturis in
retia sua præcipites implagabvntur syllogismis tuæ propositionis vncatis
volvbilem tergiversantvm lingvam inhamantibvs dum spiris categoricis lubricas
qvæstiones tv potivs innodas acrivm more medicorvm qui remedivm contra venena
cum ratio compellit et de serpente conficivnt.” If Grice lectured on
“Logic and Conversation” on implicature he must have thought that Strawson’s
area was central. Yet, as he had done in “Causal theory” and as he will at
Harvard, Grice kept collecting philosophers’ mistakes. So it’s best to see
Grice as a methodologist, and as using “logic and conversation” as an
illustration of his favourite manoeuvre, indeed, central philosophical
manoeuver that gave him a place in the history of philosophy. Restricting this
manoeuvre to just an area minimises it. On the other hand, there has to be a
balance: surely ‘logic and conversation’ is a topic of intrinsic interest, and
we cannot expect all philosophers – unless they are Griceians! – to keep a
broad unitarian view of philosophy as avirtuous whole! (“Philosopher,
like virtue, is entire. – Destructive implicature to it: “Mr. Puddle is our man
in aesthetics” implicates He is not good at it). What is important to Grice is
that the mistakes of these philosophers (notably Strawson!) arise from some
“linguistic phenomena,”or, since we must use singular expressions this or that
“linguistic phenomenon.” Or as Grice puts it, it is this or that ‘linguistic
phenomenon’ which provides the MATERIAL for the philosopher to make his
mistake! So, to solve it, his theory of conversation as rational co-operation
is posited – technically, as a way to EXPLAIN (never merely describe, which
Grice found boring) these phenomena – his principle of conversational
helpfulness and the idea of a conversational implicatum. The latter is based
not so much on rationality per se, but on the implicit/explicit distinction
that he constantly plays with, since his earlier semiotic-oriented explorations
of Peirce. But back to this or that linguistic phenomenon, while he would make
fun of Searle for providing this or that “linguistic phenomenon” that “no
philosopher would ever feel excited about,” Grice himself was a bit of a master
in illustrating this a philosophical point with this or that “linguistic
phenomenon” that would not be necessarily connected with philosophy. He rarely
quotes authors, but surely the section in “Causal theory” where he lists
seven philosophical theses (which are ripe for an implicatum treatment) would
be familiar enough for anybody to be able to drop a name to attach to each! At
Harvard, MOST of his examples of this or that linguistic phenomenon are
UN-authored (and sometimes he expands on his OWN view of them, just to amuse
his audience – and show how committed to this or that thesis he was), but some
are not unauthored. And they all belong to ‘the linguistic turn’: He quotes
from Gilbert Ryle (who thought he knew about ‘ordinary language’), Ludwig
Wittgenstein, J. L. Austin (he quotes him in great detail, from “Pretending,”
“Plea of excuses,” and “No modification without aberration,”), P. F. Strawson
(in “Introduction to Logical theory” and on ‘Truth’ for Analysis), H. L. A.
Hart (as “I have heard him expand on this”), J. R. Searle, and B. S. Benjamin.
He implicates Hare (on ‘good’). Etc. When we mention the ‘explicit’/’implicit’
distinction as source for the implicatum, we are referring to Grice’s own
wording in “Retrospective Epilogue” where he mentions an utterer as conveying
in “some EXPLICIT fashion” this or that, as opposed to a ‘gentler’ way, via
implicature, or implIciture, if you mustn’t! It may be worth exploring how this
connects with RATIONALITY. His point would be that that an assumption that the
rational principle of ‘conversational helpfulness’ is in order allows Pirot 1
not just to convey “in a direct explicit fashion” that p, but “in an implicit
fashion” that q. Where “q” is the implicatum. The principle of conversational
helpfulness as GENERATOR of this or that ‘implicata,’ to use Grice’s word
(‘generate’). Surely, “He took off his boots and went to bed; I won’t say in
which order” sounds HARDLY in the vein of conversational helpfulness – but
provided Grice does not see it as ‘logically incoherent,’ it is still a
rational (if not reasonable) thing to say. The ‘point’ may be difficult to
discern, but you never know. The utterer may be conveying, “Viva Boole!”
Grice’s point about ‘rationality’ is mentioned in his later “Prolegomena,” on
at least two occasions. “Rational behaviour” is the phrase he uses (as applied
first to ‘communication’ and then to ‘discourse’) and in stark opposition with
a convention-based approach he rightly associates with Austin.
1966. Certainty, Descartes on clear and distinct
perception, in Studies in the Way of Words, Part II,
Explorations on semantics and metaphysics, Descartes on 'clear and distinct
perception,' in Studies in the Way of Words, Part II: Explorations
on Semantics and metaphysics, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays),
Carton 1, Folder 20, and Series V (Topical), BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft
Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: Descartes,
clear and distinct perception, certainty. Grice found Descartes very funny
-- in a French way! H. P. Grice is interested in contesting A. J. Ayer and
other Oxford philosophers, on the topic of a criterion for 'certainty.' In
so doing, Grice choses Descartes's time-honoured criterion of 'clarity' and
'distinction,' as applied to perception. Grice does NOT quote
Descartes in French! In the proceedings, Grice distinguishes between two
'kinds' of certainty apparently ignored by Descartes: (a) OBJECTIVE
CERTAINTY: Ordinary-language variant: "It is certain that
p," whatever "it" refers to. (b) SUBJECTIVE
CERTAINTY: Ordinary-language variant: "I am certain that
p." "I" being, of course, Grice, "in my bestest days,
of course!" There are further items on Descartes in the Grice
Collection, notably in the last series, of topics arranged
alphabetically. Grice never cared to publish his views on Descartes until
he found an opportunity to do so when compiling his Studies in the Way of
Words. Grice is NOT interested in an exegesis of Descartes's thought. He
doesn't care to give a reference to any edition of Descartes's oeuvre. But he
plays with 'certain'. "It is certain that p" is objective certainty,
apparently. "I am certain that p" is subjective certainty, rather.
Oddly, Grice will turn to UNcertainty as it connects with intention in his
British Academy lecture. Grice's interest in Descartes connects with
Descartes's search for a criterion of 'certainty' in terms of 'clarity' and
'distinction' of this or that perception. Having explored the philosophy
of perception with Warnock, it's only natural he wanted to give Descartes's
rambles a second and third look! 1966, Descartes on clear and distinct
perception, in Studies in the Way of Words, Part II, Semantics and Metaphysics,
Essay, "Descartes on clear and distinct perception and Malcom on
dreaming," The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 8, Folder
26, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keyword: perception, Descartes, clear and distinct perception,
Malcolm, dreaming. Descartes meets Malcolm, and vice versa.
Descartes on 'clear and distinct perception,' in Studies in the Way
of Words, Carton 6, Folders 27-28, "Descartes on clear and distinct
perception," 1966, Descartes on clear and distinct perception, in Studies
in the Way of Words, Part II, Semantics and Metaphysics, Essay, The H. P. Grice
Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 6, Folders 27 and 28, BANC MSS 90/135c, The
University of California, Berkeley. Grice gives a short overview of Cartesian
metaphysics for the BBC third programme. The best example, Grice
thinks, of a metaphysical snob is provided by Descartes, about whose
idea of certainty Grice had philosophised quite a bit, since it’s in total
contrast with Moore’s! Descartes
is a very scientifically-minded philosopher, with very clear ideas about the proper direction for science. Descartes,
whose middle name seems to have been “Euclid,” thinks that mathematics,
and in particular geometry, provides the model for a
scientific procedure, or method. And this determines
all of
Descartes’s thinking in two ways. First, Descartes
thinks that the fundamental method in science is
the axiomatic-deductive
method of geometry, and this Descartes
conceives (as Spinoza morality “more
geometrico”) of as rigorous reasoning from
a self-evident axiom (“Cogito, ergo
sum.”). Second, Descartes thinks that the subject-matter of physical science, from mechanics to medicine, must be fundamentally the same as the
subject
matter of geometry! The only characteristics that the
objects studied by geometry poses are spatial characteristics. So from the point of view of science in general, the only important features of things in the physical world were also their spatial characteristics,
what he called ‘extensio,’ ‘res extensa.’ Physical science in general is a kind
of
dynamic, or kinetic,
geometry. Here we have an exclusive preference for a certain type of scientific method, and a certain type of scientific explanation: the method is deductive, the type of explanation mechanical. These
beliefs about the right way to do science are exactly reflected in Descartes's
“ontology” – one of the two branches of metaphysics; the other is philosophical
eschatology, or the study of categories), and it is reflected
in his doctrine, that is, about what “really”
exists. Apart from God, the divine substance, Descartes
recognises just two kinds of substance, two types of real entity. First, there
is material substance, or matter; and the belief that
the only scientifically important
characteristics of things in the physical world are
their spatial characteristics goes over, in the
language of “metaphysics,”into the doctrine that
these are their only characteristics. Second, and
to Ryle’s horror, Descartes recognizes the
mind or soul, or the
mental substance, of which the essential
characteristic is
thinking; and thinking itself, in its pure form at
least, is conceived of as simply the intuitive grasping of
this or that self-evident axiom and this or that of
its deductive consequence. These restrictive
doctrines about reality and knowledge naturally
call for adjustments elsewhere in our
ordinary scheme of things. With the help of the
divine substance, these are duly provided.
It is not always obvious that the metaphysician's
scheme involves this kind of “ontological”
preference, or favoritism, or prejudice, or snobbery this tendency, that is, to
promote one or two categories of
entity to the rank of the real, or of the ultimately real, to the exclusion of others,
Descartes’s ‘entia realissima.’
1966. Eudaimonia, "a philosophy of life," happiness,
notes, some reflections about ends and happiness, in Aspects of reason,
Clarendon, Correspondence with R. O. Warner, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series I
(Correspondence), Carton 1-Folder 9, Series II (Essays), Carton 4-Folder 16,
Series V (Topical), Carton 7-Folder 6, and Carton 8, Folder 28, BANC MSS
90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley.
Keywords: ends, 'telos,' happiness, Kantotle, eudaimonia, philosophical
biology, philosophical psychology, eudaemon, fairy godmother, Warner. H. P.
Grice’s fairy godmother. Grice took 'life' seriously: philosophical biology!
"Philosophy of life" is dated 1966 in P. G. R. I. C. E. H. P. Grice’s
fairy godmother. “Much the most plausible conjecture regarding what Greek
eudaimonia means, is namely that ‘eudaimonia’ is to be understood as the name
for that state or condition which one’s good daemon would, if he could, ensure
for one.” “And my good daemon is a being motivated, with respect to me, solely
by concern for my well-being or happiness." "To change the idiom,
"eudaemonia" is the general characterization of what a full-time and
unhampered fairy godmother would secure for you." Grice is concerned with
the specific system of ends that 'eudaimonia' consists for for both Kant and
Aristotle (or Kantotle for short). Grice borrows, but never returns, some reflections
by his fomer tuttee at St. John's, J. L. Ackrill. Ackrill's point is about the
etymological basis for 'eudaimonia,' from 'eudaimon,' or good daemon, as Grice
prefers. Grice thinks the metaphor should be disimplicated, and taken quite
'literally.' Grice concludes with a set of ends that justify our ascription of
'eudaimonia' to the agent. For Grice, as for Aristotle, and indeed Kant
(Kantotle, in short), a 'telos' and 'eudaimonia' are related in subtle ways.
For 'eudaimonia' we cannot deal with just ONE end, but a system of ends
(Although such a system may be a singleton). Grice specifies a subtle way of
characterising 'end' so that a particular ascription of an 'end' may ENTAIL an
ascription of 'eudaimonia.' Grice follows the textual criticism of his former
tutee, J. L. Ackrill, in connection with the Socratic point that 'eudaimonia'
IS literally related to the 'eudaimon.' Warner has explored Grice's concept of
'happiness,' notably in P. G. R. I. C. E. Warner was especially helpful with
Grice's third difficult Carus lecture, a metaphysical defence of absolute
value. Warner also connected with Grice in such topics as the philosophy of
perception (seen in an evolutionary light) and the Kantotelian idea of
happiness. In response to Warner's overview of Grice's oeuvre for the
festschrift (that Warner co-authored with Grandy), Grice refers to the editors
by the collective name of "Richards." While Grice felt he had to use
'happiness,' he is always having Aristotle's 'eudaimonia' in mind! The implicata
of “Smith is happy" are more complex than Kantotle thought! Austen knew!
(“You decide if you’re happy!” — Emma). Ultimately, for Grice, the rational
life is the happy life! Grice took 'life' seriously: philosophical biology!
Grice is clear when reprinting the Descartes paper in Studies (where he does
quote from Descartes sources quite a bit, even if he implicates he is “no
Cartesian scholar” – what Oxonian would? --: it concerns ‘certainty.’ And
certainty was originally Cantabrigian (Moore), but also Oxonian, in parts. Ayer
was saying that ‘to know’ is to ‘assure’ that one is CERTAIN or sure. So he
could connect. Grice will at various stages of his development play and explore
this AUTHORITATIVE voice of introspection: incorrigibility and privileged
access. He surely wants to say that a declaration of an intention is
authoritative. And he plays with “meaning,” too when provoking Malcolm in a don
recollection: Grice: I want you to bring me a paper tomorrow. Strawson: You
mean a newspaper? Grice: No, a philosophical essay. Strawson: How do you KNOW?
Are you CERTAIN you mean that? Grice finds not being certain about what one
means Strawsonian and otiose! (“Tutees!”). Grice loved to place himself in the
role of the philosophical hack, dealing with his tutee’s inabilities, a whole
week long – until he could find refreshment in para-philosophy on the Saturday
morning! Now, the LOGICAL form of ‘certain’ is a trick. Grice would symbolize
it as numbering of operators. If Pirot Psis p, Pirot Psis Psis p, and Pirot
Psis Psis Psis p, and so ad infinitum. This is a bit like certainty. But not
quite! When he explores TRUST, he considers something like a backing for it.
But does conclusive evidence yield certainty? He doesn’t think so. Certainty,
for Grice should apply to any psychological attitude, state or stance. And it
is just clever of him that when he had to deliver that lecture at London he
chose “INTENTION and ***UNCERTAINTY*** as its topic, just to provoke! (Not
surprisingly, the “Intention and Uncertainty” piece opens with “the sceptic’s
challenge.” And he won’t conclude that the intender is CERTAIN. Only that
there’s some good chance (p greater than 0.5) that what he intends will get
through! "When there is a will, there is a way," “When there is a
neo-Prichardian WILLing, there is a palaeo-Griceian WAYing!" Perhaps by
‘know’ Moore means “CERTAIN.” Grice was amused by the fact that Moore THOUGHT
he knew that behind the curtains at the lecture hall at the University of
Wisconsin at Madison, there was a window, when there wasn’t. He uses Moore’s
misuse of ‘know’ – according to Malcolm – both in “Causal theory” and
“Prolegomena.” And of course this relates to the topic of the sceptic’s
implicature, 1946 above, with the two essays “Scepticism and Common sense” and
“Moore and Philosopher’s Paradoxes” reprinted (one partially) in Studies.
1966. Dreaming, The H.
P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 8-Folder 26, BANC MSS 90/135c, The
Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: Malcolm, dreaming,
Descartes, implicatum Grice dreaming. Malcolm argues in “Dreaming and
Skepticism” and in his Dreaming that the notion of a dream qua conscious
experience that occurs at a definite time and has definite duration during
sleep, is "unintelligible." This contradicts the views of
philosophers like Descartes (and indeed Moore!), who, Malcolm holds, assume
that a human being may have a conscious thought and a conscious experience
during sleep. Descartes claims that he had been deceived during sleep. Malcolm’s
point is that ordinary language contrasts consciousness and sleep. The claim
that one is conscious while one is sleep-walking is "stretching the use of
the term." Malcolm rejects the alleged counter-examples based on
sleepwalking or sleep-talking, e.g. dreaming that one is climbing stairs while
one is actually doing so is not a counter-example because, in such a case, the
individual is not sound asleep after all. "If a person is in any state of
consciousness, it logically follows that he is not sound asleep." The
concept of dreaming is based on our descriptions of dreams after we have
awakened in "telling a dream." Thus, to have dreamt that one has a
thought during sleep is not to have a thought any more than to have dreamt that
one has climbed Everest is to have climbed Everest. Since one cannot have an
experience during sleep, one cannot have a mistaken experience during sleep,
thereby undermining the sort of scepticism based on the idea that our
experience might be wrong because we might be dreaming. Malcolm further argues
that a report of a conscious state during sleep is unverifiable. If Grice
claims that he and Strawson saw a bigfoot in charge of the reserve desk at the
Bodleian library, one can verify that this took place by talking to Strawson and
gathering forensic evidence from the library. However, there is no way to
verify Grice’s claim that he dreamed that he and Strawson saw a bigfoot working
at the Bodleian library. Grice's only basis for his claim that he dreamt this
is that Grice says so after he wakes up. How does one distinguish the case
where Grice dreamed that he saw a bigfoot working at The Bodleian Library and
the case in which he dreamed that he saw a person in a bigfoot suit working at
the library but, after awakening, mis-remembered that person in a bigfoot suit
as a bigfoot proper? If Grice should admit that he had earlier mis-reported his
dream and that he had actually dreamed he saw a person in a bigfoot suit at The
Bodleian, there is no more independent verification for this new claim than
there was for the original one. Thus, there is, for Malcolm, no sense to the
idea of mis-remembering one’s dreams. Malcolm here applies one of Witter's
ideas from his “private language argument,": "One would like to say:
whatever is going to seem right to me is right. And that only means that here
we can’t talk about ‘right’." For a similar reason, Malcolm challenges the
idea that one can assign a definite duration or time of occurrence to a dream.
If Grice claims that he ran the mile in 3.4 minutes, one could verify this in
the usual ways. If, however, Grice says he dreamt that he ran the mile in 3.4
minutes, how is one to measure the duration of his dreamt run? If Grice says he
was wearing a stopwatch in the dream and clocked his run at 3.4 minutes, how
can one know that the dreamt stopwatch is not running at half speed (so that he
really dreamt that he ran the mile in 6.8 minutes)? Grice might argue that a
dream report does not carry such a conversational implicata. But Malcolm would
say that just admits the point. The ordinary criteria one uses for determining
temporal duration do not apply to dreamt events. The problem in both these
cases (Grice dreaming one saw a bigfoot working at The Bodleian library and
dreaming that he ran the mile in 3.4 minutes) is that there is no way to verify
the truth of these dreamt events — no direct way to access that dreamt inner
experience, that mysterious glow of consciousness inside the mind of Grice
lying comatose on the couch, in order to determine the facts of the matter.
This is because, for Malcolm, there are no facts of the matter apart from the
dreamer’s report of the dream upon awakening. Malcolm claims that the empirical
evidence does not enable one to decide between the view that a dream experience
occurs during sleep and the view that they are generated upon the moment of
waking up. Dennett agrees with Malcolm that nothing supports the received view
that a dream involves a conscious experience while one is asleep but holds that
such issues might be settled empirically. Malcolm also argues against the
attempt to provide a physiological mark of the duration of a dream, for
example, the view that the dream lasted as long as the rapid eye movements.
Malcolm replies that "there can only be as much precision in that common
concept of dreaming as is provided by the common criterion of dreaming."
These scientific researchers are misled by the assumption that the provision
for the duration of a dream "is already there, only somewhat obscured and
in need of being made more precise." However, Malcolm claims, it is not
already there (in the ordinary concept of dreaming). These scientific views are
making “radical conceptual changes” in the concept of dreaming, not further
explaining our ordinary concept of dreaming. Malcolm admits, however, that it
might be natural to adopt such scientific views about REM sleep as a
convention. Malcolm points out, however, that if REM sleep is adopted as a
criterion for the occurrence of a dream, "people would have to be
informed upon waking up that they had dreamed or not." Malcolm does not
mean to deny that people have dreams in favour of the view that they only have
waking dream-behaviour (Pears, 1961, 145). "Of course it is no misuse of
language to speak of ‘remembering a dream’." His point is that since the
concept of dreaming is so closely tied to our concept of waking report of a
dreams, one cannot form a coherent concept of this alleged inner (private)
something that occurs with a definite duration during sleep. Malcolm rejects a
certain philosophical conception of dreaming, not the ordinary concept of
dreaming, which, he holds, is neither a hidden private something nor mere
outward behaviour. Malcolm’s account of dreaming has come in for considerable
criticism. Some argue that Malcolm’s claim that occurrences in dreams cannot be
verified by others does not require the strict criteria that Malcolm proposes
but can be justified by appeal to the simplicity, plausibility, and predictive
adequacy of an explanatory system as a whole. Some argue that Malcolm’s account
of the sentence “I am awake” is inconsistent. A comprehensive programme in
considerable detail has been offered for an empirical scientific investigation
of dreaming of the sort that Malcolm rejects. Others have proposed various
counterexamples and counter arguments against Malcolm’s account of dreaming.
Grice's emphasis is in Malcolm's easy way out with statements to the effect
that 'implicata' do or do not operate in dream reports. "They do in
mine!" Grice considers, “I may be dreaming” in the two essays opening the
Part II: Explorations on semantics and metaphysics in Studies in the Way of
Words.
1967. Logic and conversation, repr. in Studies in the
Way of Words, Part I, in revised form (1987). The William James Memorial
Lectures on Logic and Conversation, Harvard. The William James Memorial
Lectures on Logic and Conversation, in Studies in the Way of Words, as Part I,
"Logic and Conversation." H. P. Grice (1967). The William
James lectures on logic and conversation, The H. P. Grice
Papers, Series II (Essays), Carton 1-Folders 24, 25, and 26, BANC MSS
90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: logic, conversation, implicature. A set of seven
lectures, entitled as follows. Lecture 1, 'Prolegomena;' Lecture 2: 'Logic and
Conversation;' Lecture 3: 'Further notes on logic and conversation;' Lecture 4:
'Indicative conditionals;' Lecture 5: 'Utterer's meaning and intentions;'
Lecture 6: 'Utterer's meaning, sentence-meaning, and word-meaning;' and Lecture
7: 'Some models for implicature.' "I hope they don't expect me to lecture
on James!" Grice admired James, but not vice versa. Grice
entitled the set as being "Logic and Conversation." That is the
title, also, of the second lecture. Grice keeps those titles seeing that it was
way the whole set of lectures were frequently cited, and that the second
lecture had been published under that title in Davidson and Harman, The
Logic of Grammar. The content of each lecture is indicated
below. In the first, Grice manages to quote from Witters. In the
last, he didn't! The original set consisted of seven lectures. To
wit: Prolegomena, Logic and conversation, Further notes on logic and
conversation, Indicative Conditionals, Utterer's meaning and intentions,
Utterer's meaning, sentence-meaning, and word meaning, and Some models for
implicature. They were pretty successful at Oxford. While the notion of an
'implicatum' had been introduced by Grice at Oxford, even in connection with a
principle of conversational helpfulness, he takes the occasion now to explore
the type of rationality involved. Observation of the principle of
conversational helpfulness is rational (reasonable) along the following lines:
anyone who cares about the two central goals to conversation (give/receive
information, influence/be influened) is expected to have an interest in
participating in a conversation that is only going to be profitable given that
it is conducted along the lines set by the principle of conversational
helpfulness. In "Prolegomena" he lists Austin, Strawson, Hare, Hart,
and himself, as victims of a disregard for the implicatum. In the third lecture
he introduces his razor, "Senses are not to be muliplied beyond
necessity." In "Indicative conditionals" he tackles Strawson on
'if' as not representing the horse-shoe of Whitehead and Russell. The next two
lectures, "Utterer's meaning and intentions" and "Utterer's
meaning, sentence-meaning, and word-meaning" refine his earlier, more
austere, account of this particularly Peirceian phenomenon. He concludes the
lectures with an exploration on the relevance of the implicatum to
philosophical psychology. Grice was well aware that many philosophers had
become enamoured with the series, and would love to give it a ‘continuous perusal.’
The set is indeed grandiose. It starts with a “Prolegomena” to set the scene:
He notably quotes himself in it, which helps, but also Strawson, which sort of
justifies the general title. In the second lecture, “Logic and Conversation,”
he expands on the principle of conversational helpfulness and the
explicitum/implicatum distinction – all very rationalist! The third lecture is
otiose in that he makes fun of Ockham: Senses are not to be multiplied beyond
necessity. The fourth lecture, on “Indicative conditionals,” is indeed on MOST
of the formal devices he had mentioned on Lecture II, notably the functors
(rather than the quantifiers and the iota operator, with which he deals in
“Presupposition and conversational implicature,” since, as he notes, they refer
to reference). THIS IS THE CENTRAL lecture of the set. In the fifth lecture, he
plays with ‘mean,’ and discovers that it is attached to the IMPLICATUM or the
IMPLICITUM. In the sixth lecture, he becomes a ‘nominalist,’ to use Bennett’s
phrase, as he deals with ‘dog’ and ‘shaggy’ in terms of this or that
‘resultant’ procedure – “don’t ask me what they are!” --. Finally, in “Some
models for implicature,” he attacks the charge of circularity, and refers to
“nineteenth-century explorations” on the idea of ‘thought without language’
alla Wundt. I don’t think a set of William James lectures had even been so
comprehensive!
1967. Prolegomena, in Studies in the Way of Words, Part I,
"Logic and Conversation," Essay 1, the first William James lecture,
ifs and cans, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays) and Series V
(Topical), Carton 7-Folders 11-12, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The
University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: meaning, use, implicatum,
Austin, Strawson. A discussion of Oxonian philosophers of Grice's
play group, notably J. L. Austin, P. F. Strawson, H. L. A. Hart, and R. M.
Hare. He adds himself for good measure ("A causal theory of
perception"). Philosophers, even at Oxford, have to be careful with the
attention that is due to 'general principles of discourse.' Grice quotes
philosophers of an earlier generation, such as Ryle, and some interpreters or
practitioners of Oxonian analysis, such as Benjamin and Searle. He even manages
to quote from Witters's "Philosophical investigations," on seeing a
banana as a banana. There are further items in the Grice collection that
address Austin’s manoeuvre, 1970, Austin on ifs and cans, Ifs and cans,
keywords: conditional, power. Two of Grice's favourites. He opposed
Strawson's view on 'if.' Grice thought that 'if' was the horseshoe of Whitehead
and Russell, provided we add an IMPLICATUM to an ENTAILMENT. The 'can' is
merely dispositional, if not alla Ryle, alla Grice! 1970. Ifs and cans,
keywords: Austin, intention, disposition. Austin had brought the topic to
the fore as an exploration of free will. D. F. Pears had noted that
'conversational' implicature may account for the conditional perfection ('if'
yields 'iff'). Cf. M. R. Ayers on Austin on 'if' and 'can.' If he calls it
“Prolegomena,” he is being jocular. “Philosophers’ Mistakes” would have been
too provocative. B. S. Benjamin erred, and so did Gilbert Ryle, and Ludwig
Witters, and ‘my friends’, J. L. Austin (the mater that wobbled), and in order
of seniority, H. L. A. Hart (“I heard him defend this about ‘carefully’ –
‘stopping at every door in case a dog comes out at breakned speed’), R. M. Hare
(To say “good” is to approve), and Strawson (Introduction to Logical theory:
“To utter “if p, q” is to implicate some inferrability”, To say “True!” is to
endorse – Analysis). If he ends with Searle, he is being jocular. He quotes
Searle from an essay in “British philosophy” in Lecture I, and from an essay in
“Philosophy in America” in Lecture V. He loved Searle, and expands on the Texas
oilmen’s club example! We may think of Grice as a linguistic botanizer or a
‘meta-linguistic’ botanizer: his hobby was to collect philosophers’ mistakes,
and he catalogued them. In “Causal theory” he produces his first list of seven:
1: the pillar box seems red to me; 2. You cannot see a dagger as a dagger; 3.
Moore didn’t know that the objects before him were his own hands; 4. What is
actual is not also possible. 5. For someone to be called ‘responsible,’ his
action should be condemnable; 6. A cause must be given only of something
abnormal or unusual (cf. aetiology). 7. If you know it, you don’t believe it.
In the Prolegomena, the taxonomy is more complicated. Examples A (the use of an
expression, by Ryle, Wittgenstein, Austin, Hart, and Benjamin), Examples B
(Strawson on ‘and,’ ‘or,’ and especially ‘if’), and Examples C (Strawson on
‘true’ and Hare on ‘good’ – the ‘performative theories’). But EVEN if his
taxonomy is more complicated, he makes it more SO by giving OTHER examples as
he goes on to DISCUSS how to assess the philosophical mistake (cf. his
elaboration on ‘trying,’ “I saw Mrs. Smith cashing a cheque.” “Trying to cash a
cheque, you mean.” – or cf. his remarks on ‘remember,’ and ‘There is an analogy
here with a case by Wittgenstein.” In summary, he wants to say. THE PHILOSOPHER
makes a big mistake. He has DETECTED, I think it’s the word he used, some
CONVERSATIONAL NUANCE. Now he wants to EXPLOIT it. But BEFORE RUSHING AHEAD TO
EXPLOIT the conversational nuance he has detected, or identified, or collected
in his exercise of linguistic botanising, the philosopher should let us know
with CLARITY what type of a nuance it is. For Grice wants to know that THE
NUANCE depends on a general principle (of goal-directed behaviour in general,
and MOST LIKELY rational) governing discourse – that participants in a
conversation should be aware of, and not on some minutiae that has been
identified by the philosopher making the mistake, unsystematically, and merely
descriptively, and taxonomically, but without ONE drop of explanatory adequacy.
The fact that he directs this to his junior Strawson is the sad thing. The rest
are all Grice’s seniors! The point is of PHILOSOPHICAL interest, rather than
other. And he keeps citing philosophers, Tarski or Ramsey, in Lecture III to
elaborate the point about ‘true’ in “Prolegomena.” He never seems interested in
ANYTHING but an item being “of philosophical interest,” even if that means HIS
and MINE! On top, he is being Oxonian: “Only at Oxford my colleagues were so
obsessed, as it has never been seen ANYWHERE else, about the nuances of
conversation. Only they were all making a BIG mistake in having no clue as to
what the underlying theory of conversation as rational co-operation would
SIMPLIFY things for them – and how! If I introduce the explicatum as a
concession, I shall hope I will be pardoned!”
1967. Logic and conversation, in Studies in the Way of
Words, Part I, "Logic and Conversation," Essay 2, from
Davidson/Harman, The Logic of Grammar, pp. 64-75, The H. P. Grice
Papers, Series II (Essays), BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The
University of California, Berkeley. An elaboration of his Oxonian seminar
on "Logic and conversation." There's a principle of conversational
helpfulness, which includes a desideratum of conversational candour and a
desideratum of conversational clarity, and the sub-principle of conversational
self-interest clashing with the sub-principle of conversational benevolence.
The whole point of the manoeuvre is to provide a rational basis for a
conversational 'implicatum,' as his term of art goes. Observation of the
principle of conversational helpfulness is rational/reasonable along the
following lines: anyone who is interested in the two goals conversation is
supposed to serve -- give/receive information, influence/be influenced --
should only care to enter a conversation that will be only profitable under the
assumption that it is conducted in accordance with the principle of
conversational helfpulness, and attending desiderata and sub-principles. Grice
takes special care in listing tests for the proof that an implicatum is
'conversational' in this rather technical usage: a conversational implicatum is
RATIONALLY calculable (it is the content of a psychological state, attitude or
stance that the addressee assigns to the utterer on condition that he is being
helpful), non-detachable, indeterminate, and VERY cancellable, thus never part
of the 'sense' and never an 'entailment' of this or that piece of philosophical
vocabulary. Logic and conversation, in Davidson and Harman, The Logic of
Grammar (1975), also in Cole and Morgan (1975), repr. in a revised form in
Grice (1989), 1967, Logic and conversation, the second William James
lecture, keywords: principle of conversational helpfulness, implicatum,
cancellability. While the essay was also reprinted by Cole and Morgan,
Grice always cited it from the Davidson's and Harman's two-column reprint in
The Logic of Grammar. Most people without a philosophical background first
encounter Grice through this essay. Philosophers usually get first
acquainted with his "In defence of a dogma," or "Meaning."
In "Logic and Conversation," Grice re-utilises the notion of an
implicatum and the principle of conversational helpfulness that he had
introduced at Oxford to a more select audience. Grice's idea is that
the observation of the principle of conversational helfpulness is rational
(reasonable) along the following lines: anyone who is concerned with the
two goals which are central to conversation (to give/receive information,
to influence/be influenced) should be interested in participating in a
conversation that is only going to be profitable on the assumption that it
is conducted along the lines of the principle of conversational
helfpulness. Grice's point is methodological. He is not at all interested
in conversational exchanges as such. Unfortunately, the essay starts
"in media res," and skips Grice's careful list of Oxonian
examples of 'disregard' for the key idea of what a conversant IMPLICATES
by the conversational move he makes. His concession is that there is an
EXPLICATUM or EXPLICITUM (roughly, the logical form) which is beyond
pragmatic constraints. This concession is easily explained in terms of his
overarching irreverent, conservative, dissenting rationalism. This lecture
alone had been read by a few philosophers leaving them confused. I don’t know
what Davidson and Harman were thinking when they reprinted JUST THIS in “The
logic of grammar.” I mean: it’s obviously ‘in media res.’ Grice starts with the
‘logical devices,’ and never again takes the topic up. Then he explores
metaphor, irony, and hyperbole, and surely the philosopher who bought “The
logic of grammar” must be left puzzled! He had to wait sometime to see the
thing in full completion. Oxonian philosophers WOULD, out of etiquette, HARDLY
quote from ‘unpublished’ material! Cohen had to rely on memory, and that’s why
he got all his Grice wrong! And so did Strawson in “If and the horseshoe.” Even
Walker responding to Cohen is relying on memory. FEW *philosophers* quoted from
The logic and grammar. At Oxford, everybody knew what Grice was up to. Hare was
talking ‘implicature’ in Mind in 1967, and Pears was talking ‘conversational
implicature’ in “Ifs and cans.” And Platts was dedicating a full chapter to
“Causal Theory of Perception.” It seems the Oxonian etiquette was to quote from
“Causal Theory.” It was obvious that Grice’s implication excursus had to read
‘implicature’! In a few dictionaries of philosophy, such as Hamlyn’s, under
‘implication,’ a reference to Grice’s locus classicus “Causal Theory” is made –
Passmore quotes from “Causal theory” in “Hundred years of philosophy.” Very few
Oxonians would care to buy a volume published in Encino!
1967. Further notes on logic and conversation, in Studies
in the Way of Words, published in Peter Cole, Pragmatics,
for Academic Press, London, in Part I, "Logic and Conversation,"
Essay 3, from P. Cole, Pragmatics, pp. 113-27, The H. P Grice
Papers, Series II (Essays), Carton 2-Folder 24, and Series V
(Topical), Carton 7-Folder 13, 'Irony, Stress, and Truth,' BANC MSS
90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: Modified Occam's razor, implicature. The
essay had circulated since the Harvard days, and it was also reprinted by Peter
Cole in his Pragmatics for Academic
Press. "Personally, I prefer 'dialectica.'" -- Grice. This
is the third William James lecture at Harvard. It is particularly useful
for Grice's introduction of his 'razor,' "M. O. R.," or "Modified
Occam's Razor," jocularly expressed by Grice as: "Senses are not
to be multiplied beyond necessity.” An Englishing of the Ockham's Latinate,
"Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem." But what do
we mean 'sense'. Surely Occam was right with his Entia non sunt multiplicanda
praeter necessitatem. We need to translate that alla 'linguistic turn.' Grice
jokes: "Senses are not be multiplied beyond necessity." He also
considers irony, stress, and truth, which the Grice Papers have under a special
folder in the Series V (Topical). Three topics where the IMPLICATUM
helps. "He is a scoundrel" may well be the IMPLICATUM of
"He is a fine friend." But cfr. the pretense theory of irony.
Grice, being a classicist, loved the etymological connection. With Stress,
he was concerned with anti-Gettier uses of emphatic 'know': "I KNOW."
(Implicatum: I do have conclusive evidence"). "Truth" (or
"... is true") sprang from Grice's attention to that infamous Bristol
symposium between Austin and Strawson. Grice wants to defend Austin's
correspondence theory against Strawson's 'performative' approach. If
"... is true" IMPLICATES "someone previously affirmed
this," that does not mean a 'ditto' IMPLICATUM is part of the ENTAILMENT
of an "... is true" utterance. 1967 -- 1978. Further notes
on logic and conversation, in Peter Cole (1978), repr. in a revised form in
Grice (1989), 1967, further notes on logic and conversation, keywords: Modified
Occam's Razor, irony, stress, truth. The preferred citation should be
Grice 1967:III. This is originally the third William James lecture,
in a revised form. In that lecture, Grice introduced the "M. O.
R.," or Modified Occam's Razor: "Senses are not be multiplied
beyond necessity." The point is that
"ENTAILMENT-CUM-IMPLICATUM" does the job that MULTIPLIED
SENSES should not do! The Grice Papers contains in a different folder the
concluding section for that lecture, on irony, stress, and truth. Grice
went back to the Modified Occam’s razor, but was never able to formalise it! It
is, as he concedes, almost a ‘vacuous’ methodological ‘thingy’!
1967. Indicative conditionals, the fourth William James
lecture, in Studies in the Way of Words. Indicative conditionals,
in Studies in the Way of Words, Part I ("Logic and Conversation"),
Essay IV, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton
6-Folder 29, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of
California, Berkeley. Keywords: unary functor, not, binary functor,
and, or, if, Cook Wilson. In "Prolegomena," Grice had quoted
verbatim from Strawson's infamous idea that there is a SENSE of inferrability
with 'if.' While the lecture covers much more than 'if' ("He only said
'if';" "Oh, no, he said a great deal more than that!," the title
was never meant to be original. Grice in fact provides a rational justification
for the three connectives ("and," "or," and "if")
and before that, the unary functor "not." Embedding, Indicative
conditionals: embedding, 1971, "Not" and "If," Michael
Sinton on "Grice on Denials of Indicative Conditionals," keywords:
"not," "if." Strawson had elaborated on what he felt
was a divergence between Whitehead's and Russell's 'horseshoe,' and 'if.' Grice
thought Strawson's observations could be understood in terms of ENTAILMENT +
IMPLICATUM ("Robbing Peter to Pay Paul"). But problems, as first noted
to Grice, by L. J. Cohen, of Oxford, remain, when it comes to the scope of the
implicatum within the operation of, say, 'negation.' Analogous problems arise
with implicata for the other earlier dyadic functors, "and" and
"or," and Grice looks for a single explanation of the
phenomenon. The qualification 'indicative' is modal. "Ordinary
language" allows for 'if' utterances to be in modes other than the
imperative. "Counter-factual," if you need to be philosophical
krypto-technical, 'subjective' is you are more of a classicist! Grice took a
cavalier to the problem: Surely it won’t do to say “You couldn’t have done
that, since you were in Seattle,” to someone who figuratively tells you he’s
spend the full summer cleaning the Aegean stables. THIS IS THE CENTRAL PIECE of
the lectures. Grice takes good care of “not,” “and,” “or,” and concludes with
the “if” of the ‘title.’ For each, he finds a métier, alla Cook Wilson in
“Statement and Inference.” And they all connect with RATIONALITY. So he is
using material from his Oxford seminars on the principle of conversational
helpfulness. Plus Cook Wilson makes more sense at Oxford than at Harvard! The
last bit, citing Kripke and Dummett, is meant as jocular. What is important is
the ‘teleological’ approach to the operators. AND A NOTE SHOULD BE MADE ABOUT
DYADICITY. In “Prolegomena,” when he introduces the topic, he OMITS “not”
(about which he was almost obsessed!). He just gives an example for “and” (He
went to bed and took off his dirty boots”), one for “or” (the garden becomes Oxford
and the kitchen becomes London, and the implicatum is in terms, oddly, of
‘ignorance’: “My wife is either in Town OR Country,”making fun of “Town AND
Country”), and “if”. His favourite illustration for “if” is Cock Robin:
"If the Sparrow did not kill him, the Lark did!” This is because Grice is
serious about the EROTETIC (i.e. question/answer) format Cook Wilson gives to
things, but he manages to bring Philonian and Megarian into the picture, just
to impress! MOST IMPORTANTLY, he introduces the SQUARE BRACKETS! He’ll use them
again in “Presupposition and Conversational Implicature” and turns them into
subscripts in “Vacuous Names.” This is CENTRAL. For he wants to impoverish the
idea of the implicatum. The explicitum is minimal, and any divergence is syntactic-cum-pragmatic
‘import’. The scope devices are syntactic and eliminable, and as he knows: what
the eye no longer sees, the heart no longer grieves for! The modal
implicatum. Since Grice uses ‘indicative,’ for the title of his third William
James lecture ("Indicative Conditionals") surely he implicates
'subjunctive' -- i.e. that someone might be thinking that he should give an
account of indicative*-cum-subjective* 'if.' This relates to an example Grice
gives in “Causal Theory,” that he does not reproduce in “Prolegomena."
Grice states the philosophical mistake as follows: “What is actual is *not*
also possible.” Grice seems to be suggesting that a subjective conditional
would involve “one or other of the modalities,” he is NOT interested in
exploring! On the other hand, J. L. Mackie has noted that Grice’s
conversationalist hypothesis (Mackie quotes verbatim from Grice’s “principle of
conversational helpfulness”) allows for an explanation of the subjective “if”
that does not involve Kripke-type paradoxes involving possible worlds, or
other. In “Causal Theory,” Grice writes: “The issue with which I have been
mainly concerned may be thought rather a fine point, but it is certainly not an
isolated one." “There are several philosophical theses or dicta which
would I think need to be examined in order to see whether or not they are
sufficiently parallel to the thesis which I have been discussing to be amenable
to treatment of the same general kind."“An examples which occurs to me is
the following.’ "What is actual is *not* also possible." “I must
emphasise that I am not saying that [this example is] importantly similar to
the thesis which I have been criticizing, only that, for all I know, [it] may
be." “To put the matter more generally, the position adopted by my
objector seems to me to involve a type of manoeuvre which is characteristic of
more than one contemporary mode of philosophizing." “I am not condemning
this kind of manoeuvre." “I am merely suggesting that to embark on it
without due caution is to risk collision with the facts." “Before we rush
ahead to exploit the linguistic NUANCES which we have detected, we should make
sure that we are reasonably clear what SORT of nuances they are!”
1967. Utterer's meaning
and intentions, repr. in Studies in the Way of Words. H. P.
Grice (1967). Utterer's meaning and intentions, the fifth William James
lecture, Part I, "Logic and conversation," Essay 5, The
Philosophical Review, vol. 72 (issue 2), pp. 147-77, The H. P. Grice
Papers, Series II (Essays) Carton 1-Folders 28-30, BANC MSS 90/135c, The
Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords:
utterer's meaning, intention. Grice is not an animist. While he allows for
natural phenomena to mean ("smoke means fire"), 'meaning' is best
ascribed to some utterer, where this 'meaning' is nothing but the intentions
behind his utterance. This is the fifth William James lecture. Grice was
careful enough to submit it to "The Philosophical Review," since it
is a strictly philosophical development of the views expressed in
"Meaning" which Strawson had submitted on Grice's behalf to the same
"Review" and which had had a series of responses by various
philosophers. Among these philosophers is Strawson himself in "Intention
and convention in the the theory of speech acts," also in "The
Philosophical Review." Grice quotes from very many other philosophers
in this essay, including: J. O. Urmson, D. W. Stampe, P. F.
Strawson, S. R. Schiffer, and J. R. Searle. P. F. Strawson is especially
relevant since he started a series of alleged counter-examples with his
infamous example of the 'rat-infested house.' Grice particularly treasured
Stampe's alleged counter-example involving his beloved bridge! Anita Avramides
wrote her Oxon D. Phil on that, under Strawson! This is Grice's occasion
to address some of the criticisms -- in the form of alleged counter-examples,
typically, as his later reflections on epagoge versus diagoge note -- by J. O.
Urmson, P. F. Strawson,and other philosophers associated with Oxford, such as
J. R. Searle, D. W. Stampe, and S. R. Schiffer. The final 'analysandum' is
pretty complex (of the type that he did find his analysis of "I am hearing
a sound" complex in "Personal identity" -- "hardly an
obstacle for adopting it!" --), it became yet another target of attack by
especially New-World philosophers in the pages of Mind, Nous, and other
journals. 1967. Utterer’s meaning and intentions, The
Philosophical Review, repr. in Grice (1989), 1967, utterer's meaning and
intentions, The Philosophical Review, keywords: utterer's meaning,
intention. This is officially the fifth William James lecture. Grice takes up
the analysis of 'meaning' he had presented back in 1948 at the Oxford
Philosophical Society. Motivated mainly by J. O. Urmson's and Strawson's attack
in "Intention and convention in speech acts," that offered an alleged
counter-example to the sufficiency of Grice's analysis, Grice ends up
introducing so many intention that he almost trembled. He ends up seeing
'meaning' as a 'value-paradeigmatic' concept, perhaps never realisable in a
sublunary way. But it is the analysis in this particular essay where he is at
his formal best. He distinguishes between protreptic and exhibitive utterances,
and also modes of correlation (iconic, conventional). He symbolises the utterer
and the addressee, and generalises over the type of psychological state,
attitude, or stance, "meaning" seems to range (notably indicative vs.
imperative). He formalises the 'reflexive' intention, and more importantly, the
'overtness' of communication in terms of a self-referential recursive intention
that disallows any 'sneaky' intention to be brought into the picture of
meaning-constitutive intentions. By uttering x the utterer U means that *psi p
iff (E.phi) (Ef) (Ec): I. The utterer U utters x intending x to be such that
anyone who has phi will think that (i) x has f (ii) f is correlated in
way c with psi-ing that p (iii) (E.phi'): U intends x to be such that
anyone who has phi' will think, via thinking (i) and (ii), that U psi-s that
p (iv) in view of (3), U psi-s that p; and II. (operative only
for certain substituends for "*psi") U utters x intending that,
should there actually be anyone who has phi, he will, via thinking (iv),
himself psi that p; and III. It is not the case that, for some
inference-element E, U intends x to be such that anyone who has phi will
both (i') rely on E in coming to psi (or think that U psi-s) that p
and (ii') think that (E. phi'): U intends x to be such that anyone who has
phi' will come to psi (or think that U psi-s) that p without relying on
E. Grice thought he had dealt with “Logic and Conversation” enough! So he
feels of revising his “Meaning.” After all, Strawson had had the cheek to
publish Grice’s Meaning and then go on to criticize it in “Intention and Convention
in Speech Acts.” So this is Grice’s revenge, and he wins! He ends with the most
elaborate theory of ‘mean’ that an Oxonian could ever hope for. And to provoke
the informalists such as Strawson (and his ‘disciples’ at Oxford – “led” by
Strawson) he pours existential quantifiers like the plague! He manages to quote
from J. O. Urmson, whom he loved! No word on Peirce, though, who had originated
all this! His implicature: “I’m not going to be reprimanted ‘in informal
discussion’ about my misreading Peirce at Harvard!” The concluding note is
about ‘artificial substitutes’ for iconic representation, and meaning as a
‘human institution.’ Very grand!
1967. Utterer's
meaning, sentence-meaning, and word-meaning, repr. in Studies in the
Way of Words, the sixth William James lecture, Part I, "Logic and
conversation," Essay 6, The Foundations of Language, pp.
225-42, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), Carton 1-Folder 27, BANC
MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords:
utterer's meaning, sentence-meaning, word-meaning. The phrase 'utterer' is
meant to provoke. Grice thinks that 'speaker' is too narrow. "Surely you
can mean by just UTTERING stuff!" This is the sixth William James
lecture, as published in "The Foundations of Language." As it
happens, it became a popular lecture, seeing that J. R. Searle selected this
from the whole set for his Oxford reading in philosophy, "The philosophy
of language.” It is also the essay cited by Chomsky in his influential John Locke
lectures. Chomsky takes Grice to be a 'behaviourist,' even along Skinner's
lines, which provoked a reply by Suppes, later reprinted in P. G. R. I. C. E.,
or Philosophical Grounds of Rationality: Intentions, Categories, Ends. (In
The New World, the "H. P." was often given in a more
"simplified" form.). Grice wants to keep on playing. In
"Meaning," he had said "x means that p" is surely reducible
to utterer U means that p. In this lecture, he lectures us as to how to
proceed. In so doing he invents this or that procedure: some basic, some
resultant. When Chomsky reads the reprint in Searle's Philosophy of Language,
he cries: "Behaviourist! Skinnerian!" It was Suppes who comes to
Grice's defence. "Surely the way Grice uses expressions like 'resultant'
procedure are never meant in the strict 'behaviourist' way." Suppes
concludes that it is much fairer to characterise Grice as an 'intentionalist.'
1967. Utterer's meaning, sentence-meaning, and word-meaning,' published in
The Foundations of Language, ed. by J. F. Staal, The H. P. Grice
Papers, Repr. in J. R. Searle, The Philosophy of Language, Oxford, 1967,
Utterer's meaning, sentence-meaning, and word-meaning, the sixth William James
Lecture, Foundations of Language, keywords: utterer's meaning, sentence-meaning,
word-meaning, resultant procedure, basic procedure. Staal asked Grice to
publish the sixth William James lecture for a newish periodical publication of
whose editorial board he was a member. The fun thing is Grice complied! This is
Grice’s shaggy-dog story. He does not seem too concerned about ‘resultant’
procedures. As he’ll later say, “Surely I can create Deutero-Esperanto and
become its master!” For Grice, the primacy is the idiosyncratic, particularized
utterer in THIS or THAT occasion. He KNOWS a philosopher CRAVES for generality,
so he provokes the generality-searcher with divisions and sub-divisions of
‘mean.’ But his heart does not seem to be there, and he is just being
overformalistic and technical for the sake of it. “I am glad that Putnam, of all
people, told me in an aside, “You’re being too formal, Grice”. I stopped with
symbolism since!”
1967. Some models for
implicature, in Studies in the Way of Words, the seventh William
James lecture, Part I, "Logic and Conversation," Essay VI, The
H. P. Grice Papers, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of
California, Berkeley. A rather obscure exploration on the connection of
semiotics and philosophical psychology. Grice is aware that there is an
allegation in the air about a possible 'vicious' circle in trying to define
'category of expression' in terms of a 'category of representation.' He does
not provide a solution to the problem which he'll take up in his "Method
in philosophical psychology," in his role of President of the American
Philosophical Association. It is THE IMPLICATURE behind the lecture that
matters, since Grice will go back to it, notably in the Retrospective Epilogue.
For Grice, it’s all rational enough. There’s a pirot, in a situation, say of
Danger – a bull --. He perceives the bull. The bull’s attack CAUSES this
perception. “Bull!,” the pirot screams, and causes in Pirot 2 a rearguard
movement. So where is the circularity? Some pedants would have it that “Bull”
cannot be understood in a belief about a BULL which is about a BULL. Not Grice!
It is nice that he brought back ‘implicature,’ which had become obliterated in
the lectures, back to ‘title’ position! But it is also noteworthy, that these
are not explicitly RATIONALIST models for implicature. He had played with a
‘model,’ and an explanatory one at that, for implicature, in his Oxford
seminar, in terms of a principle of conversational helpfulness, a desideratum
of conversational clarity, a desideratum of conversational candour, and two
sub-principles: a principle of conversational benevolence, and a principle of
conversational self-interest! Surely Harvard could be spared of the details!
1969. Vacuous names, in Davidson and Hintikka, Words
and objections: essays on the work of W. V. Quine, Dordrecht: Reidel,
pp. 118-45. The Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), Carton 1-Folder 31, and
Carton 2-Folders 1-4, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of
California, Berkeley. Keywords: vacuous name, identificatory,
non-identificatory, definite description. Grice's favourite vacuous name
is Bellerophon. This is an essay commissioned by Donald Davison and
Jaako Hintikka for "Words and objects: essays in the work of W. V.
Quine" for Reidel. "Words and objects" had appeared (without
Grice's contribution) as a special issue of "Synthese." Grice's
contribution, along with Quine's "Reply to H. P. Grice," appeared
only in the reprint of that special issue for Reidel in Dordrecht. Grice
cites from various philosophers (and logicians -- this was the time when logic
was starting to be taught OUTSIDE philosophy departments, or 'sub-faculties'),
such as G. Myro, B. Mates, K. S. Donnellan, P. F.
Strawson, Grice was particularly proud to be able to quote Mates "by
mouth or book." Grice takes the opportunity, in his tribute to Quine,
to introduce one of two of his syntactical devices to allow for conversational
implicata to be given maximal scope. The device in "Vacuous
Names" is a subscription device to indicate the ordering of introduction
of this or that operation. Grice wants to give room for utterances of a
special 'existential' kind be deemed rational/reasonable, provided the
principle of conversational helfpulness is thought of by the addressee to be
followed by the utterer. "Someone isn't attending the party organised
by the Merseyside Geographical Society." "That is Marmaduke
Bloggs, who climbed Mt. Everest on hands and knees." "But who,
as it happened, turned out to be an invention of the journalists at the
Merseyside Newsletter." 1969, in Donald Davidson and Jaako Hintikka, Words
and objections: essays on the work of W. V. Quine, Dordrecht, Reidel, 1969,
Vacuous names, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), BANC MSS 90/135c,
Berkeley, keywords: identificatory use, non-identificatory use, subscript
device. Davidson and Hintikka were well aware of the 'New-World' impact of the
'Old-World' ideas displayed by Grice and Strawson in their attack to
Quine. Quine had indeed addressed Grice's and Strawson's 'sophisticated'
version of the paradigm-case argument in "Word and Object."
Davidson and Hintikka arranged to publish a special issue for a periodical
publication, to which P. F. Strawson had already contributed. It was only
natural, when Davidson and Hintikka were informed by Reidel of their interest
in turning the special issue into a separate volume, that they would approach
the other infamous member of the dynamic duo! Commissioned by Donald
Davidson and J. Hintikka for Words and objections: essays on the work
of W. V. Quine. Grice introduces a subscript device to account for
'implicata' of utterances like "Marmaduke Bloggs won't be attending
the party; he was invented by the journalists." In the later section,
he explores identificatory and non identificatory uses of 'the' without
involving himself in the problems Donnellan did! Some philosophers,
notably Ostertag, have found the latter section the most intriguing bit, and
thus Ostertag cared to reprint the section on Descriptions for his edited MIT
volume on the topic. The essay is structured very systematically with an initial
section on a calculus alla Gentzen, followed by implicata of vacuous names such
as "Marmaduke Bloggs," to end with definite descriptions (repr. by
Ostertag) and psychological predicates. It’s best to focus on a few
things here. First his imaginary dialogues on MARMADUKE BLOGGS, brilliant!
Second, this as a preamble to his “Presupposition and conversational
implicature.” There is a quantifier phrase (‘the’) and two uses of it: one is
an IDENTIFICATORY use (“the haberdasher is clumsy,” or “THE haberdasher is
clumsy,” as Grice prefers) and then there’s a derived, NON-IDENTIFICATORY use:
‘the’ haberdasher (whoever she was!) shows her clumsiness. The use of the
numeric subscripts were complicated enough to delay the publication of this.
The whole thing was a special issue of a journal. Grice’s contribution came
when Reidel turned that into a volume. Grice later replaced his numeric
subscript device by square brackets. Perhaps the square brackets are not subtle
enough, though. Grice’s contribution, ‘Vacuous Names,’ (later reprinted in
part in Ostertag’s volume on Definite descriptions) concludes with
an exploration of “the” phrases, and further on, with some intriguing remarks
on the subtle issues surrounding the scope of an ascription of a predicate
standing for a psychological state or attitude. Grice’s choice of an
ascription now notably involves an ‘opaque’ (rather than ‘factive,’ like
‘know’) psychological state or attitude: ‘wanting,’ which he symbolizes as
“W.” Grice considers a quartet of utterances: Jack wants someone to
marry him; Jack wants someone or other to marry him; Jack
wants a particular person to marry him, and There is
someone whom Jack wants to marry him.
Grice notes that “there
are clearly at least *two* possible readings” of
an utterance like our (i): a first reading “in which,” as Grice puts it, (i)
might be paraphrased by (ii).” A second reading is one “in
which it might be paraphrased by (iii) or by (iv).” Grice goes
on to symbolize the phenomenon in his own version of a first-order predicate
calculus. ‘Ja wants that p’ becomes Wjap where ‘ja’ stands for the
individual constant “Jack” as a super-script attached to the predicate standing
for Jack’s psychological state or attitude. Grice writes: “Using the apparatus
of classical predicate logic, we might hope to represent,” respectively, the
external reading and the internal reading (involving an intentio
secunda or intentio obliqua) as (Ǝx)WjaFxja and Wja(Ǝx)Fxja. Grice then goes on to discuss a
slightly more complex, or oblique, scenario involving this second internal
reading, which is the one that interests us, as it involves an ‘intentio
seconda.’Grice notes: “But suppose that Jack wants a specific individual, Jill,
to marry him, and this because Jack has been “*deceived* into thinking that his
friend Joe has a highly delectable sister called Jill, though in fact Joe is an
only child.” The Jill Jack eventually goes up the hill with is,
coincidentally, another Jill, possibly existent. Let us recall
that Grice’s main focus of the whole essay is, as the title goes, ‘emptiness’!
“In these circumstances, one is inclined to say that (i) is true only on
reading (vii),” where the existential quantifier occurs within the
scope of the psychological-state or -attitude verb, “but we cannot now
represent (ii) or (iii), with ‘Jill’ being vacuous, by (vi),” where the
existential quantifier (Ǝx) occurs outside the
scope of the psychological-attitude verb, want, “since [well,] Jill
does not really exist,” except as a figment of Jack’s imagination. In a manoeuver
that I interpret as ‘purely intentionalist,’ and thus favouring by far Suppes’s
over Chomsky’s characterisation of Grice as a mere ‘behaviourist,’ Grice hopes
that “we should be provided with distinct representations
for two familiar readings” of, now: Jack wants Jill to marry
him and Jack wants ‘Jill’ to marry him. It is at this point that Grice applies
a syntactic scope notation involving sub-scripted numerals, (ix)
and (x), where the numeric values merely indicate the order of introduction of
the symbol to which it is attached in a deductive schema for the predicate
calculus in question. Only the first formulation represents the internal
reading (where ‘ji’ stands for ‘Jill’): W2ja4F1ji3ja4 and
W3ja4F2ji1ja4. Note
that in the second formulation, the individual constant for “Jill,”
‘ji,’ is introduced prior to ‘want,’ – ‘ji’’s sub-script is 1, while
‘W’’s sub-script is the higher numerical value 3. Grice notes: “Given that Jill
does not exist,” only the internal reading “can be true,” or
alethically satisfactory. Grice sums up his reflections on the representation
of the opaqueness of a verb standing for a psychological state or attitude like
that expressed by ‘wanting’ with one observation that further marks him as an
intentionalist, almost of a Meinongian type. He is willing to allow for
‘existential’ phrases in cases of ‘vacuous’ designata, provided they occur
within opaque psychological-state or attitude verbs, and he thinks that by
doing this, he is being faithful to the richness and exuberance of ‘ordinary’
discourse, while keeping Quine happy. As Grice puts it, “we should also have
available to us also three neutral, yet distinct, (Ǝx)-quantificational forms (together with their
isomorphs),” as a philosopher who thinks that Wittgenstein denies a
distinction, craves for a generality! “Jill” now becomes “x.” W4ja5Ǝx3F1x2ja5, Ǝx5W2ja5F1x4ja3, Ǝx5W3ja4F1x2ja4.
As Grice notes, since in (xii) the individual variable ‘x’ (ranging over
‘Jill’) “does not dominate the segment following the ‘(Ǝx)’ quantifier, the formulation does not display
any ‘existential’ or de re, ‘force,’ and is suitable therefore for
representing the internal readings (ii) or (iii), “if we have to allow, as we
do have, if we want to faithfully represent ‘ordinary’ discourse, for the
possibility of expressing the fact that a particular person, Jill, does not
actually exist.” At least Grice does not write, “really,” for he knew that
Austin detested a ‘trouser word’! Grice concludes that (xi) and (xiii) “will be
derivable” from each of (ix) and (x), while (xii) will be “derivable only” from
(ix). Grice had been Strawson’s logic tutor at St. John’s (Mabbott was teaching
the grand stuff!) and it shows!
1969. Logico-semantic paradoxes. H. P. Grice (1969).
Logico-semantic paradoxes, The Grice Papers, BANC MSS
90/135c. Keywords: logico-semantic paradox. Some of the
paradoxes of entailment, entailment and paradoxes.
1970. Presupposition
and conversational implicature, in Peter Cole, Radical pragmatics, Academic
Press, London, 1981, pp. 183-97, repr. in a revised form in Grice, Studies in
the Way of Words, in Part II, Explorations in semantics and metaphysics, Essay,
presupposition and implicature, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays),
Carton 2-Folder 25, and Series V (Topical), Carton 9-Folder 3, BANC MSS
90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley.
Keywords: presupposition, conversational implicature, implicature, Strawson. H.
P. Grice: “The loyalty examiner won’t summon you, don’t worry.” Grice's
cancellation could be pretty subtle! “Well, the loyalty examiner will not be
summoning you at any rate.” "If," Grice notes, "is is a matter
of dispute whether the government has a very undercover person who interrogates
those whose loyalty is suspect and who, if he existed, could be legitimately
referred to as the loyalty examiner; and if, further, I am known to be very
sceptical about the existence of such a person, I could perfectly well say to a
plainly loyal person,” “Well, the loyalty examiner will not be summoning you at
any rate," “without, I would think, being taken to imply that such a
person exists." "Further, if I am well known to disbelieve in the
existence of such a person, though others are inclined to believe in him, when
I find a man who is apprised of my position, but who is worried in case he is
summoned, I could try to reassure him by saying,” “The loyalty examiner won’t
summon you, don’t worry." "Then it would be clear that I said this
because I was sure there is no such person." The lecture given in 1970 was
variously reprinted, but 1970 should remain the preferred citation. There are
divergences in the various drafts, though. The original source of this
exploration was a seminar. Grice is interested in re-conceptualising Strawson's
manoeuvre regarding 'presupposition' as involving what Grice disregards as a
metaphysical concoction: the truth-value gap. In Grice's view, based on a
principle of conversational 'tailoring' that falls under his principle of
conversational helpfulness -- indeed under the desideratum of conversational
clarity ("be perspicuous [sic]") -- 'The king of France is bald'
ENTAILS there is a king of France; while 'The king of France ain't bald' merely
IMPLICATES it. Grice much preferred Collingwood's to Strawson's
presuppositions! Grice thought, and rightly, too, that if his notion of the
conversational implicatum was to gain Oxonian currency, it should supersede
Strawson's idea of the 'prae-suppositum.' Strawson, in his attack to
Russell, had been playing with Quine's idea of a 'truth-value gap.' Grice shows
that neither the metaphysical concoction of a truth-value gap nor the
philosophical tool of the 'prae-suppositum' is needed: "The king of France
is bald" ENTAILS 'There is a king of France." "The king of
France ain't bald” on the other hand, merely IMPLICATES it, as a perfectly
adequate cancellation, abiding with the principle of conversational
helpfulness" is in the offing: "The king of France ain't bald. What
made you think he is? For starters, he ain't real!" Grice credits Hans
Sluga for having pointed out to him the way to deal with "the"
formally. Grice opts for the Whiteheadian-Russellian standard rendition, in
terms of the iota operator. Grice's take on Strawson is a strong one. "The
king of France is bald" entails there is a king of France. “The king of
France ain't bald" does not; only implicates it. Grice knew he was not
exactly robbing Peter to pay Paul, or did he? It is worth placing the 1970
lecture in context. Soon after delivering in the New World his exploration on
the implicatum, Grice has no better idea than to promote Strawson's philosophy
in the New World. Strawson will later reflect on the colder shores of the Old
World, so we know what Grice had in mind! Strawson's main claim to fame in the
New World (and at least Oxford in the Old World) was his "On
referring," where he had had the cheek to say that by uttering, "The
king of France is not bald," the utterer IMPLIES that there is a king of
France. Strawson later changed that to "the utterer PRESUPPOSES." So
Grice knew what and who he was dealing with! Grice and Strawson had entertained
Quine at Oxford, and Strawson was particularly keen on that turn of phrase he
learned from Quine, 'the truth-value gap.' Grice, rather, found it pretty
repulsive: “Tertium exclusum!" So, Grice goes on to argue that by uttering
'The king of France is bald,' one of the ENTAILMENTS of the proposition
explicitly conveyed is indeed 'There is a king of France.' However, in its
negative co-relate, things change. By uttering 'The king of France ain't bald,'
the utterer merely IMPLICATES (in a pretty cancellable format) that he believes
there is a king of France. ("The king of France ain't bald: there's no
king of France!"). The loyalty examiner is like the King of France, in
ways! The piece is crucial for Grice’s re-introduction of the SQUARE BRACKET
device: [The king of France] is bald; [The King of France] ain’t bald. Whatever
falls within the scope of the square brackets is to be read as having attained “common-ground
status” and therefore, out of the question, to use Collingwood’s jargon! Grice
was VERY familiar with Collingwood on presupposition, meant as an attack on
Ayer. Collingwood’s reflections on presuppositions being either relative or
absolute may well lie behind Grice’s metaphysical construction of absolute
value! The earliest exploration by Grice on this is his infamous, "Smith
has not ceased from beating his wife," discussed by Ewing in
"Meaninglessness" for Mind in 1937! Grice goes back to the example in
the excursus on "implying that" in "Causal Theory," and it
is best to revisit this source. Note that in the reprint in "Studies"
Grice does NOT go, "one example of presupposition, which eventually is a
type of conversational implicature."
1970. The Urbana lectures, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II,
Carton 2-Folders 5-8, and Series V (Topical), Carton 8-Folder 20, BANC MSS
90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: semantics The Grice Collection also contains a
folder for "Odd ends: Urbana and non-Urbana." Grice continues
with the elaboration of a formal calculus. He originally baptised it
"System Q" in honour of Quine. At a later stage, Myro will
re-name it "System G," in a special version, "System GHP,"
a highly powerful/hopefully plausible version of System G," "in
gratitude to Grice." Odd Ends: Urbana and Not Urbana, 1970, Odds and
ends: Urbana and not Urbana, or not-Urbana, or Odds and ends: Urbana and non
Urbana, or Oddents, urbane and not urbane, keywords: semantics, Urbana
lectures. The Urbana lectures were on language and reality. Grice kept
revising them, as these items show.
1970. Language and reality, The University of Illinois at
Urbana, The Urbana Lectures, Language and reference, language and reality, The
Urbana lectures, University of Illinois at Urbana, The H. P. Grice Papers,
Series V (Topical), Carton 7-Folder 19, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library,
The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: language, reference,
reality Grice favours a transcendental approach to communication. Our
beliefs worth communicating have to be true. Our orders worth
communicating have to refer to our willings.
1970. The 'that'-clause, Davidson on saying that, 'Davidson's
"On saying that,"' The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton
6-Folder 26, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of
California, Berkeley. Keywords: 'that'-clause. Grice had explored
'that'-clauses with Staal. He was concerned about the viability of Davidson's
initially appealing etymological approach to the 'that'-clause in terms of
'demonstration.' Grice had presupposed the logic of 'that'-clauses from a much
earlier stage, "Those spots mean that he has measles." The folder
contains a copy of Davidson's essay, "On saying that," 1980, the
'that'-clause, 1970, the 'that'-clause, with J. F. Staal, The Grice Papers,
Series III (The Doctrines), Carton 6-Folder 3, BANC, MSS 90/135c, keywords:
'that'-clause. The 'that'-clause was brought to the fore by Davidson, who,
consulting the Oxford English Dictionary, reminds philosophers that the English
'that' is VERY cognate with the German idiom. More specifically, 'that' is
a DEMONSTRATIVE, even if the syntax, in English, hides this fact in ways which
German syntax doesn't. Grice NEEDS to rely on 'that'-clauses for his
analysis of 'mean,' 'intend,' and notably 'will.' He finds that Prichard's
genial discovery was the license to use 'willing' as pre-facing a
'that'-clause. This allows Grice to deals with 'willing' as applied to a
third person ("I will that he'll win the chess
match."). Philosophers who disregard this 'third-person' use may
indulge in introspection and subjectivism when they shouldn't!
1970. Intention and subjectivity, perspectivism, 'subjective'
conditions and intentions, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V
(Topical), Carton 9-Folder 15, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft
Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: intention,
subjective condition. Cf. his dispositional account to 'intending.' A
subjective condition takes into account the intender's, rather than the
ascriber's, point of view: Marmaduke Bloggs intends to climb Mt. Everest
on hands and knees. Bloggs might reason: Given my present state, I should
do what is fun. Given my present state, the best thing for me to do would
be to do what is fun. For me in my present state it would make for my
well-being, to have fun. Having fun is good (or, a good). Climbing a
mountain would be fun. Climbing the Everest would be/make for climbing fun. So,
I shall climb the Everest. Even if a critic insisted that a practical
syllogism is the way to represent Blogg's finding something to be appealing,
and that it should be regarded as a respectable evaluation, the assembled
propositions don't do the work of a standard argument. The premises do not
support or yield the conclusion as in a standard argument. The premises may be
said to yield the conclusion, or directive, for the particular agent whose
reasoning process it is, only on the basis of a subjective condition:
that the agent is in a certain subjective state, e.g. feels like going out for
dinner-fun. Rational beings (the agent at some other time, or other
individuals) who do not have that feeling, will not accept the conclusion. They
may well accept as true ‘It is fun to climb Everest’, but will not accept it as
a directive unless they feel like it now. Someone wondering what to do for the
summer might think that if he were to climb Everest he would find it fun or
pleasant, but right now she does not feel like it.That is in general the end of
the matter. The alleged argument lacks normativity. It is not authoritative or
directive unless there is a supportive argument that he needs/ought to do
something diverting/pleasant in the summer. A practical argument is different.
Even if an agent did not feel like going to the doctor, an agent would think ‘I
ought to have a medical check up yearly, now is the time, so I should see my
doctor’ to be a directive with some force. It articulates a practical
argument. Perhaps the strongest attempt to reconstruct an (acceptable or
rational) thought transition as a standard arguments is to
treat the subjective condition, ‘I feel like having climbing fun in
the summer’, as a premise, for then the premises would support the conclusion.
But the individual, whose thought transition we are examining, does not regard
a description of his psychological state as a consideration that supports the
conclusion. It will be useful to look more closely at a variant of the
example to note when it is appropriate to reconstruct thinking in the form of
argument. Bloggs, now hiking with a friend in the Everest, comes to a
difficult spot and says: ‘I don’t like the look of that, I am frightened. I am
going back’. That is usually enough for Bloggs to return, and for the
friend to turn back with him. Bloggs’s action of turning back, admittedly
motivated by fear, is, while not acting on reasons, nonetheless rational unless
we judge his fear to be irrational. Bloggs’s subjective condition can serve
as a premise, but only in a very different situation. Bloggs resorts to
reasons. Suppose that, while his friend does not think Bloggs’s fear
irrational, the friend still attempts to dissuade Bloggs from going back. After
listening and reflecting, Bloggs may say ‘I am so frightened it is not worth
it. I am not enjoying this climbing anymore’. Or ‘I am too frightened to be
able to safely go on’. Or ‘I often climb the Everest and don’t usually get
frightened. The fact that I am now is a good indication that this is a dangerous
trail and I should turn back’. These are reasons, considerations implicitly
backed by principles, and they could be the initial motivations of someone. But
in Bloggs’s case they emerged when he was challenged by his friend. They do not
express his initial practical reasoning. Bloggs was frightened by the trail
ahead, wanted to go back, and didn’t have any reason not to. Note that
there is no general rational requirement to always act on reasons, and no
general truth that a rational individual would be better off the more often he
acted on reasons. Faced with his friend’s objections, however, Bloggs
needed justification for acting on his fear. He reflected and found reason(s)
to act on his fear. Grice plays with ‘subjectivity’ already in “Prolegomena.”
Consider the use of ‘carefully.’ Surely we must include the agent’s own idea of
this. Or consider the use of phi and phi’ – surely we don’t want the addressee
to regard himself under the same guise with which the utterer regards him. Or
consider “Aspects of Reason”: Nixon must be appointed professor of theology at
Oxford. Does HE feel the need?
1970. Probability and life, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V
(Topical), Carton 9-Folder 4, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The
University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: life,
probability. Evolutionary account of the pirot's adaptability to its
changeable environs. Grice borrows the notion of probability from
Davidson, whose early claim to fame was to provide the logic of the
notion. Grice abbreviates probability by "Pr." and compares it
to a boulomaic operator, "De." for desirability. A rational
agent must calculate both the probability and the desirability of his
action. For both probability and desirability, the degree is crucial.
Grice symbolises this by 'd': probability in degree d; probability in degree
d'. The topic of life Grice relates to that of adaptation and surival, and
connects with his genitorial programme of creature construction
("pirotology."): life as continued operancy.
1970. Heterological, Russell and heterologicality, The H. P.
Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 9-Folder 8, BANC, MSS 90/135c, The
Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: Russell,
heterological, Grelling, Thomson. H. P. Grice and J. F. Thomson go
‘heterological.’ Grice was fascinated by Baron Russell's remarks on
'heterological.' And its implicata! Grice was particularly interested
in Russell's philosophy because of the usual Oxonian antipathy towards his type
of philosophising. Being an irreverent conservative rationalist, Grice
found in Russell a good point for dissent! If paradoxes were always sets
of propositions or arguments or conclusions, they would always be
meaningful. But some paradoxes are semantically flawed and some have answers
that are backed by a pseudo-argument employing a defective “lemma” that lacks a
truth-value. Grelling’s paradox, for instance, opens with a distinction
between autological and heterological words. An autological word describes
itself, e.g., ‘polysyllabic’ is polysllabic, ‘English’ is English, ‘noun’ is a
noun, etc. A heterological word does not describe itself, e.g.,
‘monosyllabic’ is not monosyllabic, ‘Chinese’ is not Chinese, ‘verb’ is not a
verb, etc. Now for the riddle: Is ‘heterological’ heterological or
autological? If ‘heterological’ is heterological, since it describes
itself, it is autological. But if ‘heterological’ is autological, since it
is a word that does not describe itself, it is heterological. The common
solution to this puzzle is that ‘heterological’, as defined by Grelling, is not
what Grice a genuine predicate -- ""Gricing" is!"In other
words, “Is ‘heterological’ heterological?” is without meaning. "That
does not mean that an utterer, such as Baron Russell, may implicate that he is
being very witty by uttering the Grelling paradox!" There can be no
predicate that applies to all and only those predicates it does not apply to
for the same reason that there can be no barber who shaves all and only those
people who do not shave themselves. Grice seems to be relying on his
friend at Christ Church, J. F. Thomson in “On Some Paradoxes”, in the same
volume where Grice published his “Remarks about the senses,” Analytical
Philosophy, R. J. Butler (ed.), Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 104–119. Grice
thought that Thomson was a “genius, if ever there is one!” Plus, Grice thought
that, after St. John's, Christ Church was the second most beautiful venue in
the 'city' of dreaming spires. "On top, it is what makes Oxford a city,
and not, as villagers call it, a 'town'!
1970. Grice's Frege, Frege: words and
sentences, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), BANC MSS
90/135c, Berkeley. Keywords: Frege, Fregean sense, Fregeian sense,
Farbung, aber, "She was poor but she was honest.” Freges Farbung, Grices
Implikatur. Frege was the topic of Dummett's explorations. A tutee of
Grice's once brought Dummett's "Frege" to a tutorial and told Grice
that he intended to explore this. "Have you read it?" "No I
haven't," Grice answered. And after a pause, he went on: "And I hope
I won't." "Hardly promising," the tutee thought. Some
authors, including Grice, but alas, not Frege, have noted some similarities
between Grice's notion of a 'conventional' implicature and Frege's schematic
and genial rambles on 'colouring.' "Aber Farbung," as Frege would
state! Grice was more interested in the idea of a "Fregeian" sense,
but he felt that if he had to play with Frege's 'aber' he should! One of
Grice's metaphysical construction-routines (Humeian projection) is aimed at the
generation of concepts, in most cases the 'rational reconstruction' of an
intuitive concept displayed in 'ordinary discourse.' "We arrive at
something like a Fregeian sense!" Grice exclaimed, with an intonation of
"Eureka!" almost. And then he went back to Frege. Grice's German
was good, so he could read Frege, "in the vernacular." For fun, he
read Frege to his children (Grice's, not Frege's): "In einem obliquen
Kontext," Frege says," Grice says, "kann ja z. B. die Ersetzung
eines „aber" durch ein „und", die in einem direkten Kontext keinen
Unterschied des Wahrheitswerts ergibt, einen solchen Unterschied
bewirken." "I'll make that easy for you, darlings: 'und' is 'and,'
and 'aber' is 'but.' "But surely, Papa, 'aber' is not cognate with
'but'!" "It's not. That's Anglo-Saxon, for you. 'But' is strictly
Anglo-Saxon short for 'by-out;' we lost 'aber' when we sailed the North
Sea." Grice went on: "Damit wird eine Abgrenzung von Sinn und Färbung
(oder Konnotationen) eines Satzes fragwürdig." "I. e. he is saying
that "She was poor but she was honest" only CONVENTIONALLY IMPLICATES
that there is a contrast between her poverty and her honesty." "I
guess he heard the ditty during the War?" Grice ignored that remark, and
went on: "Appell und Kundgabe wären ferner von Sinn und Färbung genauer zu
unterscheiden. Ich weiß so auf interessante Bedeutungs Komponenten
hin, bemüht sich aber nicht, sie genauer zu differenzieren, da er letztlich nur
betonen will, daß sie in der Sprache der Logik keine Rolle spielen."
"They play a role in the lingo," that is!" "What do?"
"Stuff like 'but'.” "But surely they are not RATIONAL conversational
implicata!?" "No, dear, just conventional tricks you can ignore on a
nice summer day!" Grice however was NEVER interested in the CONVENTIONAL
implicatum. He identifies it because he felt he must! Surely, the way English
speakers learn to use stuff like, “on the one hand,” and “on the other,” (or
how Grice learned how to use “men” and “de” in Greek), or “so,” or “therefore,”
or “but” versus “and,” is just to allow that he would STILL use the verb
‘imply’ in such cases – but surely he wants ‘conversational’ to stick with
‘rationality’: ‘conversational maxim’ and ‘converational implicatum’ ONLY apply
to things which can be justified transcendentally, and not idiosyncrasies of
usage!
1971. Intention and uncertainty, Proceedings of The
British Academy, vol. 57, pp. 263-79, also published separately as an
offprint, Intention and disposition, 1946, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series
II (Essays), Carton 2-Folders 9-10, and Series V (Topical), Carton 6-Folder
30,, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: intention, uncertainty, Prichard, willing, willing to
vs. willing that, D. F. Pears, Davidson, disimplicature, Hart, Hampshire,
certainty, decision, Ansombe, Kenny, disposition, Ryle. I shan’t but I’m not certain
I won’t – H. P. Grice. How *un*certain can Grice be? This is the Henriette Herz
British Academy lecture, and as such published in The Proceedings of the
British Academy. Grice calls himself a neo-Prichardian (after the Oxford
philosopher) and cares to quote from a few other philosophers -- some of whom
he was not necessarily associated with: such as Kenny and Anscombe, and some of
whom he was, notably D. F. Pears. Grice's motto: "Where there is a
neo-Prichardian willing, there is a palaeo-Griceian way!" Grice quotes
Pears, of Christ Church, as the philosopher he found especially congenial to
explore areas in what both called 'philosophical psychology,' notably the
tricky use of 'intending' as displayed by a few philosophers even in their own
circle, such as Hampshire and Hart in "Intention, decision, and
certainty." The title of Grice's lecture is meant to provoke that
pair of Oxonian philosophers Grice knew so well and who were too ready to bring
in 'certainty' in an area that requires deep philosophical exploration. This
is the Henriette Herz Trust annual lecture. It means it's
delivered annually by different philosophers, not always Grice! Grice had been
appointed a FBA in 1966, but he took his time to deliver his lecture. With
your lecture, you implicate, "Hi!" Grice, and indeed Pears, were
motivated by Hampshire's and Hart's essay on intention and certainty in
"Mind." Grice knew Hampshire well, and had actually enjoyed his
"Thought and Action." He preferred Hampshire's "Thought and
action" to Anscombe's "Intention." "Trust Oxford being what
it is that TWO volumes on intending are published in the same year! Which one
shall I read first?" Eventually, neither -- immediately. Rather, Grice
managed to unearth some sketchy notes by Prichard (he calls himself a neo-Prichardian)
that Urmson had made available for the Clarendon Press -- notably Prichard's
essay on 'willing THAT.' "Only a genius like Prichard will
distinguish 'will to' (almost unnecessary) from 'will that' (so crucial)."
For Grice, '... wills that ...', unlike '... wills to...', is properly generic,
in that "p," that follows the 'that'-clause, need NOT refer to the
subject of the sentence. "Surely I can will that Smith wins the
match!" But Grice also quotes Anscombe (whom otherwise would not count, although
they did share a discussion panel at the American Philosophical Association)
and Kenny, besides Pears. Of Anscombe, Grice borrows (but never returns)
the 'direction-of-fit' term of art (actually Austinian). From A. J. P. Kenny,
Grice borrows (AND returns) the concept of 'voliting.' His most congenial
approach was Pears's. Grice had of course occasion to explore
‘disposition’ and ‘intention’ on earlier occasions. Grice is especially
concerned with a 'dispositional' analysis to 'intending.' He will later
reject it in "Intention and uncertainty." But that was Grice for
you! Grice is especially interested in distinguishing his views from RYLE's
over-estimated dispositional account of intention, which Grice sees as
'reductionist,' and indeed 'eliminationist,' "if not boringly
'behaviourist,' even in analytic key!" The logic of 'dispositions' is
tricky, as Grice will later explore in connection with 'rationality' (rational
propension or propensity) and metaphysics (the 'as if' operator). While
Grice focuses on UNcertainty, he is being funny! He knew that Oxonians
like Hart and Hampshire were OBSESSED with ‘certainty’. “I was so
surprised that Hampshire and Hart were claiming decision and intention are
psychological states about which the agent is 'certain,' that I decided
on the spot that that could certainly be a nice topic for my British Academy
lecture!" Grice granted that in some cases, a declaration of an intention
can be authorative in a certain ‘certain’ way (“i.e. as implicating ‘certainty’”). But
Grice wants us to consider: “Marmaduke Bloggs intends to climb Mt.
Everest.” “Surely he can’t be certain he’ll succeed.” Grice used the
same example at the American Philosophical Association, of all places. To
amuse Grice, Davidson, who was present, said: “Surely that’s *just* an
implicature!” "*Just*?!' Grice was almost furious in his British
guarded sort of way. “Surely not *just*!” D. F. Pears, who was also
present, tried to reconcile: “If I may, Davidson, I think Grice would take
it that, if ‘certainty’ is implicated, the whole thing becomes too social to be
true.” They kept discussing implicature versus entailment. “Is
‘certainty’ ENTAILED then?,” Davidson asked. “No, DISIMPLICATED!” was
Grice’s curt reply. The next day, he explained to Davidson that he had
invented the concept of ‘disimplicature’ just to tease him, and just one night
before, while musing in the hotel room! Talk of ‘UNcertainty” was thus for
Grice intimately associated with his concern about the misuse of ‘know’ to mean
‘certain, especially in the exegeses that Malcolm made popular about, of all
people, G. E. Moore! (vide “Scepticism and common sense” and “Moore and
philosopher’s paradoxes” above, and “Causal Theory” and “Prolegomena” for a
summary of Malcom’s misunderstanding Moore!
1971. Entailment, The
American Philosophical Association, joint symposium held by the American
Philosophical Association and the Association for Symbolic Logic, symposium
with Dana Scott and Robert K. Meyer. Dec. 27, 1971, Sixty-Eighth Annual Meeting
of the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division, Statler Hilton
Hotel, New York. H. P. Grice and P. F. Strawson on G. E. Moore’s
entailment. Grice takes a look at Strawson's unpublication. 1971. Entailment,
Paradoxes of entailment, Entailment and paradoxes, Joint symposium held by The
Association for Symbolic Logic and the American Philosophical Association, The
Statler Hilton, New York, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series IV (Associations),
Carton 6-Folder 4, and Series V (Topical), Carton 6-Folder 33, BANC MSS
90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keyword:
entailment, paradoxes of entailment, paradox. The symposium was held in New
York with Dana Scott and R. K. Meyer. The notion had been
"mis-introduced" (according to Strawson) in the philosophical
literature by G. E. Moore. Grice is especially interested in the
"ENTAILMENT + IMPLICATUM" pair. A philosophical expression may be
said to be co-related to an ENTAILMENT (which is rendered in terms of a
reductive analysis). However, the use of the expression may co-relate to
this or that IMPLICATUM which is rendered 'reasonable' in the light of the
addressee's assumption that the utterer is ultimately abiding by a principle of
conversational helfpulness. Grice thinks many philosophers take an IMPLICATUM
as an ENTAILMENT when they surely shouldn't! Grice was more interested than
Strawson was in G. E. Moore's coinage of 'entailment' for logical consequence.
As an analyst, Grice knew that a true conceptual analysis needs to be reductive
(if not reductionist). The prongs the analyst lists are thus 'entailments' of
the concept in question. Philosophers, however, may misidentify what is an
entailment for an implicature, or vice versa. Initially, Grice was interested
in the second family of cases. With his coinage of 'disimplicature,' Grice
expands his interest to cover the first family of cases, too. Grice remains a
philosophical methodologist. He is not so much concerned with any area or
discipline or philosophical concept per se (unless it's rationality), but with
the misuses of some tools in the philosophy of language as committed by some of
his colleagues at Oxford. While 'entailment,' was, for Strawson
'mis-introduced' in the philosophical literature by Moore, 'entailment' seems
to be less involved in paradoxes than 'if' is. Grice connects the two, as
indeed his tutee Strawson did! As it happens, Strawson's "Necessary
propositions and entailment statements" is his very first published essay,
with "Mind," a re-write of an unpublication unwritten elsewhere, and
which Grice read. The relation of 'consequence' may be considered a
meta-conditional, where paradoxes arise. Grice's Bootstrap is a principle
designed to impoverish the metalanguage so that the philosopher can succeed in
the business of pulling himself up by his own! Grice then takes a look at
Strawson’s very first ‘publication’ (an unpublication he had written
elsewhere). Grice finds Strawson thought he could “provide a simple solution to
the so-called “paradoxes of entailment.” At the time, Grice and Strawson were
pretty sure that nobody then accepted, “if indeed anyone ever did and did
make," the identification of the relation symbolised by the horseshoe with
the relation which G. E. Moore calls "entailment". "p ⊃ q," i. e. "~ (p Λ ~q)," is
rejected as an analysis of “p entails q” because it involves this or that
allegedly paradoxical implicatum, as that any false proposition entails any
proposition and any true proposition is entailed by any proposition. It is a
commonplace that C. I. Lewis's amendment had consequences scarcely less
paradoxical in terms of the implicate! For if "p" is impossible (i.e.
self-contradictory), it is impossible that p and ~q. And if "q" is necessary,
"~q" is impossible and it is impossible that p and ~q; i. e., if “p
entails q” means “it is impossible that p and ~q” *any* necessary proposition
is entailed by any proposition and any self-contradictory proposition entails
any proposition. On the other hand, Lewis's definition of entailment (i.e. of
the relation which holds from p to q whenever q is deducible from p) obviously
commends itself in some respects. Now, it is clear that the emphasis laid on
the "expression-mentioning" character of the intensional contingent
statement by writing ‘p Λ ~q’ is impossible instead of ‘It is impossible that p
and ~q’ does not avoid the alleged paradoxes of entailment. But it is equally
clear that the addition of some provision does avoid them: Strawson
proposes that one should use "... entails ..." such that no necessary
statement and no negation of a necessary statement can significantly be said to
entail or be entailed by any statement; i. e. the function “p entails q” cannot
take necessary or self-contradictory statements as arguments. The expression “p
entails q” is to be used to mean “‘p ⊃ q’ is necessary, and neither ‘p’ nor ‘q’
is either necessary or self-contradictory,” or “‘p Λ ~q’ is impossible and
neither ‘p’ nor ‘q,’ nor either of their contradictories, is necessary.” Thus,
the paradoxes are avoided. For let us assume that "p1" expresses a
contingent, and "q1" a necessary, proposition. ‘p1 and ~q1’ is now
impossible because ‘~q1’ is impossible. But ‘q1’ is necessary. So, by that
provision, ‘p1’ does NOT entail ‘q1.’ We may avoid the paradoxical assertion
that p1 entails q2 as merely falling into the equally paradoxical assertion
that “‘p1’ entails ‘q1’ is necessary.” For: If q is necessary, “‘q’ is
necessary” is, though true, not necessary, but a *contingent* *intensional*
statement. Hence: “~(‘q’ is necessary)” is, though false, possible. Hence “p1 Λ
~ (‘q1’ is necessary)" is, though false, possible. Hence "p1"
does NOT entail "’q1’ is necessary.” Thus, by adopting the view that an
“entailment” statement (and other intensional statements) are non-necessary,
and that no necessary statement or its contradictory can entail or be entailed
by any statement, Strawson thinks he can avoid the paradox that a necessary
proposition is entailed by any proposition, and indeed all the other associated
paradoxes of entailment. Grice objected that Strawson’s cure was worse than
Moore’s disease! The denial that a necessary proposition can entail or be
entailed by any proposition (and, therefore, that necessary propositions can be
related to each other by the entailment-relation) is too high a price to pay
for the solution of the paradoxes. And here is where Grice’s implicature is
meant to do the trick! Or not!
1971. Formal semantics, Summer institute on philosophy of
language, UC/Irvine, formal semantics.
1972. Reply to G. E. M. Anscombe, The H. P. Grice Papers,
Series II (Essays), Carton 4-Folder 26, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library,
The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: intention,
Anscombe. Anscombe's views were often discussed by Oxonian philosophers.
She had brought Witters to the "Dreaming Spires," as it
were. Grice was especially connected with Anscombe's reflections on
'intention.' While Grice favoured an approach such as Hampshire, in
"Thought and Action," he borrows a few points from Anscombe, notably
that of 'direction of fit' (originally Austin's). Grice explicitly refers
to Anscombe in "Intention and uncertainty," and in his reminiscences
he hastens to add that Anscombe would never attend any of Austin's Saturday
mornings, as neither would Dummett.
1972. Potching and cotching obbles, Pirotese, The H. P. Grice
Papers, Series V (Topical), BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The
University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: Pirotese, creature
construction, philosophical psychology. Grice was fascinated by Carnap's
"pirots" which karulise elatically. Grice adds 'potching' for
something like 'perceiving' and 'cotching' for something like
'cognising.'
1973. Modality, probability, and desirability, probability,
desirability, and mode operators, conference on implicature, The Grice Papers,
Series II, Carton 2-Folder 11, and Series V (Topical), Carton 8-Folders 14-15,
BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: modality, probability, desirability. Grice had
been freely using the very English 'mood' until J. M. E Moravcsik, of all
people, corrected him: "What you mean ain't a
'mood.'" "I shall call it 'mode' just to please you, J. M.
E." A version of this essay was presented in a conference whose
proceedings were published, except for Grice's essay, due to 'technical
complications,' viz. his idiosyncratic use of idiosyncratic symbology! By
'mode' Grice means indicative or imperative. Following Davidson, Grice attaches
probability to the indicative, via the doxastic, and desirability to the
indicative, via the boulomaic. He also allows for mixed utterances.
Probability is qualified with a suboperator indicating a degree d; ditto for
desirability, degree d'. In some of the drafts, Grice kept using 'mode' until
Moravsik suggested to him that 'mode' was a better choice, seeing that Grice's
'modality' had little to do with what other authors were referring to as
'mood.' Probability, desirability, and modality,1977, modality, desirability,
and probability, keywords: modality, probability, desirability He would
use 'mode operator.' Modality is the more correct term, for things like
'should,' 'ought,' and 'must,' in that order. One sense. The doxastic
modals are correlated to probability. The boulomaic modals are correlated to
desirability. There is probability to a degree d. But there is also
desirability to a degree d. They both combine in Grice's attempt to
show how Kant's categorical imperative reduces to the
hypothetical. Kant uses 'modality' in a way that Grice disfavours,
preferring 'modus.' Grice is aware that Kant's use of 'modality' is qua
category (Kant's reduction to four of Aristotle's original ten
categories). “Probability, desirability, and mode operators" is Grice at his formal best. It predates
the Kant lectures and it got into so much detail that Grice had to leave it at
that. So abstract it hurts. Going further than Davidson, Grice argues that
structures expressing probability and desirability are not merely analogous.
They can both be replaced by more complex structures containing a common
element. Generalising over attitudes using the symbol 'ψ,' which he had used in
1967 -- repr. WoW:v, Grice proposes "X ψ (that) p." Further, Grice
uses 'i' as a dummy for sub-divisions of psychological attitudes. Grice uses ""Op supra i
sub α," read: "operation supra i sub alpha," as Grice was
fastidious enough to provide 'reading' versions for these, and where 'alpha'
is a dummy taking the place of either "A" or "B," i. e.
Davidson's "prima facie" and "probably". In all this, Grice
keeps using the 'primitive' "!," where a more detailed symbolism
would have it correspond exactly to Frege's turnstile that Grice of course
also uses, and for which it is proposed, then: !─p. There are generalising movements here but also merely specificatory ones. "α" is not
generalised. "α" is a dummy to serve as a blanket for this or that specifications. On the
other hand, "ψ" is indeed generalised. As for "i," is it
generalising or specificatory? "i" is a dummy for specifications, so it is not
really 'generalising'. But Grice generalises over specifications. Grice wants
to find 'boulomaic' or 'volitive' as he prefers (I prefer the Greek root) for
both his 'protreptic' and exhibitive versions (operator supra A and operator
supra B). Note that Grice (WoW:110) had used the asterisk (*) as a dummy for either 'assertoric,' i.e., Frege's turnstile, and 'non-assertoric, the "!─"
'imperative turnstile', if you wish. The operators A are *not* mode operators; they
are such that they represent some 'degree' (d) or measure of acceptability or justification.
I prefer 'acceptability' because it connects with "accepting that..." which IS a
psychological attitude (if a general one). Thus, Grice wants to have "It is desirable that p" and "It is believable that p" as understood, each, by the concatenation of three elements. The first element is the A-type
operator. The second element is the B-type operator. The third element is the phrastic, root, content, or proposition itself. "It is desirable that p" and "It is believable that p" share the A-type operator and the neustic or proposition. They only differ at the B-type
operator (volitive/boulomaic or judicative/doxastic). Grice uses "+" for concatenation", but it is best to use
"^", just to echo who knows who. Grice speaks in that mimeo (which he
delivers in Texas, and is known as Grice's "Performadillo" talk --
Armadillo + Performative) of various things. Grice speaks, transparently enough, of "acceptance": V-acceptance" and "J-acceptance. "V" not for "Victory" but
for 'volitional', and J for judicative. The fact that both end with
"-acceptance" would accept you to believe that both *are* forms of
'acceptance'. Grice irritatingly uses "1" to mean belief, and
"2" to mean 'desire'. But two years later, in 1975, "Method",
he defines '1' in terms of '2,' and CARES NOT to do otherwise -- i. e. define 2
in terms of 1. So whenever he wrote '1' in 1973, read 2, and vice versa. One
may omits this arithmetic when reporting on Grice's use. Grice uses two further
numerals, though: 3 and 4. These, one may decipher – one finds oneself as an
archeologist in Tutankamon's burial ground, as this or that 'relexive' attitude. Thus, "3" i. e. "ψ3," where we need the GENERAL operator,
"psi", not just specificatory dummy, but the idea that we ACCEPT
something simpliciter. "ψ3" is standards for the attitude of V-accepting which is iteself towards J-accepting
[p] or J-accepting [~p]. Why we should be concerned with "~p"
is something to consider. The pirot wants to decide whether to believe p (or
not). I find that very Gricean. Suppose I am told that there is a volcano
in Iceland. Why would I *not* want to believe it? It seems that one may want to
decide whether to believe p or not when p involves a tacit appeal
to value. But Grice notes that even when it does not involve value, Grice still needs trust and volition to reign supreme. On the other hand, there's
"4," as attached to an attitude, "ψ4." This stands for an
attitude of V-accepting towards either the pirot V-accepts [p] or the pirot V-accepts
[~p]", i. e. the pirot wants to decide whether to *will*, now that p or not. This indeed
IS CRUCIAL, for , for Grice, morality does cash in DESIRE. Grice smokes. He
wills to smoke. But does he will to will to smoke? Possibly yes. Does he will to
will to will to smoke? Regardless of what Grice wills, one may claim this holds for
serious imperatives (not "You shalt not smoke", but "Though
shalt not kill", say) or for any "p" if you must (because if you
KNOW that 'p' causes cancer ('p' stands for a proposition involving cigareete) you
should know you are killing yourself. But then Time also kills us, so what
gives? So I would submit that, for Kant, the categorial imperative is one
which allows for an indefinite chain, not of chain-smokers, but of good-willers. If,
for some p, we find that at some stage, the pirot does NOT will that he wills that he wills that he wills that...', 'p' can NOT be universalisable. This is proposed in an
essay referred to in "The Philosopher's Index" but Marlboro Cigarettes took no
notice. One may go on to note Grice's obsession on 'make believe'. If I say, I
utter expression "e" because the utterer wants his addressee to believe that the utterer believes that p, there is utterer and addresse, i. e. there are TWO people here -- or things -- for my cat means things to me
(he even implicates: the other day he miaowed to me while I was in bed -- He
utters 'miaow'. He means that he is hungry, he means (via implicatum) that
he wants food (as provided by me). On another occasion he miaowes explicating,
"The door is closed", and implicating "Open it, idiot". On
the other hand, today's Andy-Capp's cartoon read: "When budgies get
sarcastic". ("Wild-life programmes are repeating"). One may note
that that one can want some other person to hold an attitude. Grice uses U for utterer and A for addressee. These are merely ROLES. The important formalism is indeed x and y. x is one person; y is the
OTHER person. Grice dislikes a menages a trois, apparently, for he seldom symbolises a 'third' party, z. So, "X psi supra 3 sub A [p]" is true
just in case "X psi supra 2 [x psi supra 1 [p] or x psi supra 1 [~p]"
is true. And -- here 'y' features: "x ψ³ sub B [p]" is true just in case "x V-accepts (ψ²) [x V-accepts (ψ²) [x J-accept
(ψ1) [p] or x J-accept (ψ1) [~p]]]" is true. Grice seems to be happy with
having reached four sets of operators, corresponding to four sets of
propositional attitudes, and for which Grice provides the paraphrases. The first set is the [doxastic]
proper. It is what Grice calls 'judicative', and which is either
"indicative" or "informative," if addressed to 'y', or addressee A, which is
different from 'x,' for surely one cannot inform oneself. The second is the [boulomaic]
proper. What Grice dubs 'volitive,' but I prefer the Greek root. This are
either self-addressed and it is "intentional," or other-addressed, or addressee-addressed, or "imperative," for surely one cannot say to oneself,
"Don't smoke, idiot!” The third is the doxastic-interrogative (how we create
"?" here is minimal compared to the vagaries of what I called the
"!─" (non-assertoric or 'boulomaic' turnstile), and which may be
symbolised by "?─p", where "?─" stands for the 'erotetic
turnstile'. Geach's and Altham's "erotetic" somehow Grice ignores, as he seems to prefer
the Latinate "interrogative." Surely more people
know what 'interrogative' means what 'erotetic' means", he would not
say -- but he would. This attitude comes again in two varieties: self-addressed,
'reflective' ("Should I go?") or again, addresee-addressed 'imperative' ("Should
YOU go?" -- with a strong hint that the utterer is expecting is addressee to make up his mind
in the proceeding, not just inform the utterer). Last but not least, there is the fourth kind, the "volitive" or boulomaic cum erotetic. Here again, there is one varietiy which is reflective (or autophoric, as I prefer, utterer-addressed) or 'inquisitive' (for which I'll think
of a Greek pantomime), or 'addressee-addressed.' Grice regrets that Greek (and Latin, of which he had
"less" -- cfr. Shakespeare who had none) "fares better" in
this respect than Oxonian. But then you can't have everything. Where would you
put it? H. P. Grice: The modal implicatum. Grice sees two different, though connected questions about mode. First, there is the obvious demand for a characterisation, or partial characterisation, of this or that mode as it emerges in this or that conversational move (which is plausible to regard as mode's primary habitat). both at the level of the explicatum or the implicatum (for surely an 'indicative' conversational move may be the vehicle of an 'imperatival' implicatum. A second, question is how, and to what extent, the representation of mode (Hare's 'neustic') which is suitable for application to this or that conversational move may be legitimately exported into philosophical psychology, or rather, may be GROUNDED on questions of philosophical psychology, matters of this or that psychological state, stance, or attitude (notably desire and belief, and their sub-specifications). We need to consider the second question, the 'philosophico- psychological' question, since, if the general 'rationality' operator is to read as something like "acceptability" (as in Utterer ACCEPTS, or Addressee ACCEPTS), the appearance of this or that mode within its scope of "accepting" is proper only if it may properly occur within the scope of a generic psychological verb "I accept that...". The easiest way Grice finds to expound his ideas on the first question is by reference to a schematic table or diagram ("Some have complained that I seldom use a board, but I will today." Grice at this point reiterates his temporary contempt for the use/mention distinction, which which Strawson is obsessed (Perhaps my contempt is due to his obsession!). Grice's exposition would make the hair stand on end in the soul of a person specially sensitive in this area. "And I'm talking to YOU, Sir Peter!" (He is on the second row). But Grice's guess is that the only historical philosophical mistake properly attributable to use/mention confusion is Russell's argument AGAINST Frege in "On Denoting", and that there is virtually always an acceptable way of eliminating disregard of the use-mention distinction in a particular case, though the substitutes are usually lengthy, obscure, and tedious. Grice makes three initial assumptions. He avails himself of two SPECIES of acceptance, namely, volitive acceptance and judicative acceptance, which he, on occasion, calls respectively "willing that p" and "willing that p." These are to be thought of as technical or semi-technical, theoretical or semi-theoretical, though each is a state which approximates to what we vulgarly call "thinking that p" and "wanting that p", especially in the way in which we can speak of a beast such as a little squarrel as thinking or wanting something -- a nut, poor darling little thing. Grice here treats each 'will' and 'judge' (and 'accept') as a primitive. The proper interpretation would be determined by the role of each in a folk-psychological theory (or sequence of folk-psychological theories), of the type the Wilde Reader in Mental Philosophy favours at Oxford, designed to account for the behaviours of members of the animal kingdom, at different levels of psychological complexity (some classes of creatures being more complex than others, of course). As Grice suggests in "Utterer's meaning, sentence-meaning, and word-meaning," at least at the point at which (Schema Of Procedure-Specifiers For Mood-Operators) in one's syntactico-semantical theory of Pirotese, one is introducing this or that mode (and possibly earlier), the proper form to use is a specifier for this or that "resultant" procedure. Such a specifier would be of the general form, "For the utterer U to utter "x" if ...," where the blank is replaced by the appropriate condition. Since in the preceding scheme 'x' represents an utterance (or expression), and not a sentence or open sentence, there is no guarantee that this or that actual sentence in Pirotese will contain a perspicuous and unambiguous modal representation. A sentence may correspond to more than one modal structure. The sentence will then be structurally ambiguous ("multiplex" in meaning -- under the proviso that senses are not to be multiplied beyond necessity) and will have more than one reading, or parsing, as every schoolboy at Clifton knows when translating viva voce from Greek or Latin, as the case might be! The general form of a procedure-specifier for a modal operator involves a main clause and an "antecedent" clause, which follows "if". In the schematic representation of the main clause, "U" represents an utterer, "A" his addressee, "p" the radix or neustic; and "Op-i " represents that operator whose number is i (1, 2, 3, or 4). E. g., "Op-3A" represents Operator 3A, which, since '? ⊢' appears in the Operator column for 3A) would be "? A ⊢ p" (This reminds one of Grandy's quessertions, for he did think they were iterable ("possibly")). The antecedent clause consists of a sequence whose elements are a preamble, as it were, or preface, or prefix, a supplement to a differential (which is present only in a B-type, or addressee-oriented case), a differential, and a radix. The preamble, which is always present, is invariant, and reads: "The Utterer U wills (that) Addressee A judges (that) U ..." (For surely "meaning" is a species of "intending" is a species of "willing that," alla Prichard). The supplement, if present, is also invariant. And the idea behind its varying presence or absence is connected, in the first instance, with the volitive mode. The difference between an ordinary expression of intention -- such as "I shall not fail," or "They shall not pass" -- and an ordinary imperative (Like "Be a little kinder to him") is accommodated by treating each as a sub-mode of the volitive mode, relates to "willing that p") In the 'intentional' case ("I shall not fail"), the utterer U is concerned to reveal to his addressee A that he (the utterer U) wills that p. In the imperative case ("They shall not pass"), the utterer U is concerned to reveal to his addressee A that the utterer U wills that the addresee A will that p. In each case, of course, it is to be presumed that willing that p will have its standard outcome, viz., the actualization, or realisation, or direction of fit, of the radix (from expression to world, downwards). There is a corresponding distinction between two "uses" of an indicative. The utterer U may be declaring or affirming that p, in an exhibitive way, with the primary intention to get his addressee A to judge that the utterer judges that p. Or the Utterer is telling (in a protreptic way) one's addressee that p, that is to say, hoping to get his addressee to judge that p. In the case of an indicative, unlike that of a volitive, there is no explicit pair of devices which would ordinarily be thought of as "sub-mode" marker. The recognition of the sub-mode is IMPLICATED, and comes from context, from the vocative use of the name of the addressee, from the presence of a speech-act verb, or from a sentence-adverbial phrase (like "for your information," "so that you know," etc.). But Grice has already, in his initial assumptions, allowed for such a situation. The exhibitive-protreptic distinction seems to Grice to be also discernible in the interrogative mode ("?"). Each differentials is associated with, and serve to distinguish, each of the two basic modes (volitive or judicative) and, apart from one detail in the case of the interrogative mode, is invariant between 'A' (exhibitive) and 'B' (protreptic) sub-modes of any of the two basic modes. They are merely unsupplemented or supplemented, the former for an 'A' or exhibitive sub-mode and the latter for a 'B' or protreptic sub-mode. The radix needs (one hopes) no further explanation, except that it might be useful to bear in mind that Grice does not stipulated that the radix for an 'intentional' (Volitive exhibitive utterer-based) incorporate a reference to the utterer, or be in the first person, nor that the radix for an 'imperative' (Volitive protreptic addressee-based) incorporate a reference of the addresee, and be in the second person. "They shall not pass" is a legitimate 'intentional,' as is "You shall not get away with it"; and "The sergeant is to muster the men at dawn," as uttered said by the captain to the lieutenant) is a perfectly good imperative. Grice gives in full specifiers derived from the schema. (1) Utterer U to utter to Addressee A "exhibitive "⊢ p" if U wills that A judges that U judges p. (2) U to utter to Addressee A "! protreptic p" if U wills that Addressee A judges that U wills that Addressee A wills that p. Since, of the states denoted by each differential, only willing that p and judging that p are strictly cases of accepting that p, and Grice's ultimate purpose of his introducing this characterization of mode is to reach a general account of expressions which are to be conjoined, according to his proposal, with an 'acceptability' operator, the first two numbered rows of the figure are (at most) what he has a direct use for. But since it is of some importance to Grice that his treatment of mode should be (and should be thought to be) on the right lines, he adds a partial account of the interrogative mode. There are two varieties of interrogatives, a 'yes/no' interrogatives (for example, "Is his face clean?" "Is the king of France bald?" "Is virtue a fire-shovel?") and 'W' interrogatives ("Who killed Cock Robin?", "Where has my beloved gone?", "How did he fix it?"). The specifiers derivable from the schema provide only for 'Yes/No' interrogatives, though the figure could be quite easily amended so as to yield a restricted but very large class of 'W' interrogatives. Grice indicates how this could be done. The distinction between a volitive and a judicative interrogative corresponds with the difference between a case in which the utterer indicates that he is, in one way or another, concerned to obtain information ("Is he at home?"), and a case in which the utterer indicates that he is concerned to settle a problem about what he is to do ("Am I to leave the door open?", "Is the prisoner to be released?", "Shall I go on reading?"). This difference is fairly well represented in grammar, and much better represented in the grammars of some other languages. The protreptic-exhibitive difference may not marked at all in this or that grammar, but it should be marked in Pirotese. The submodes are, however, often quite easily detectable. There is usually a recognizable difference between a case in which the utterer says, musingly or reflectively, "Is he to be trusted?" (a case in which the utterer might say that he is just wondering), and a case in which he utters the same sentence as an enquiry. Similarly, we can usually tell whether an utterer who utters "Shall I accept the invitation?" is just trying to make up his mind, or is trying to get advice or instruction from his addressee. The employment of the variable 'α' needs to be explained. Grice borrows a little from an obscure branch of logic, once (but maybe no longer) practised, called (Grice thinks) "proto-thetic" (why?), the main rite in which was to quantify over (or through) connectives. 'α' is to have as its two substituents "positively" and "negatively", which may modify either 'will' or 'judge,' negatively willing or negatively judging that p is judging or willing that ~p. The quantifier (∃1 α) . . . has to be treated substitutionally. If, for example, I ask someone whether John killed Cock Robin (protreptic case), I do not want the addressee merely to will that I have a particular "Logical Quality" in mind which I believe to apply. I want the addressee to have one of the "Qualities" in mind which he wants me to believe to apply. To meet this demand, supplementation must 'drag back' the quantifier. To extend the schema so as to provide specifiers for a 'single' W-interrogative (i. e., a question like "What did the butler see?" rather than a question like "Who went where with whom at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon?"), we need just a little extra apparatus. We need to be able to superscribe a 'W' in each interrogative operator (e.g.), together with the proviso that a radix which follows a superscribed operator must be an 'open' radix, which contains one or more occurrences of just one free variable. And we need a 'chameleon' variable 'λ', to occur only in this or that quantifier, so that "(∃λ)Fx" is to be regarded as a way of writing "(∃x)Fx", while "(∃λ)Fy" is a way of writing "(∃y)Fy." To provide a specifier for a W-superscribed operator, we simply delete the appearances of 'α' in the specifier for the corresponding un-superscribed operator, inserting instead the quantifier (∃1 λ) (. . .) at the position previously occupied by (∃1 α) (. . .). E.g. the specifiers for "Who killed Cock Robin?" (used as an enquiry) would be: "U to utter to A ' killed Cock Robin' if U wills A to judge U to will that (∃1 λ) (A should will that U judges (x killed Cock Robin))"; in which '(∃1 λ)' will "take on" the shape '(∃1 x)' since 'x' is the free variable within its scope.
1973. The power structure of the soul, with Judith Baker, The H. P. Grice Papers. Keywords: soul, power structure. Grice preferred 'soul' to 'mind,' since it was truer to his 'philosophical PSYCHO-logy!
1974. Yet more misunderstanding, towards an analysis of
'intending,' Davidson on intending, reply to Donald Davidson on 'Intending,'
The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), Carton 2-Folders
17-18, BANC MSS 92/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of
California at Berkeley. Keywords: intention, intending, believing,
implicature, disimplicature, Davidson. Grice's response to Davidson's
pretty unfair use of Grice's notion of conversational implicature in Davidson's
analysis of intention caught a lot of interest. D. F. Pears loved Grice's
reply. Implicatum here is out of the question -- disimplicatum may not. Grice
just saw that his theory of conversation is TOO SOCIAL to be true when applied
to 'intending.' The doxastic condition is one of the ENTAILMENTS in an
ascription of an intending. It cannot be cancelled as an implicatum can. If it
CAN be cancelled, it is best seen as a DISIMPLICATUM, or a loose use by an
utterer meaning less than what he says or explicitly conveys to more careful
conversants. Grice and Davidson were members of "The Grice and
Davidson Mutual Admiration Society." Davidson, not being Oxonian, was
perhaps not acquainted with Grice's polemics at Oxford with Hart and Hampshire
(where Grice sided with Pears, rather). Grice and Pears hold a
'minimalist' approach to 'intending.' On the other hand, Davidson makes
what Grice sees as 'the same mistake' again of BUILDING 'certainty' into the
concept. Grice finds that to apply the idea of a conversational IMPLICATUM
at this point is 'too social to be true.' Rather, Grice prefers to coin
the conversational DISIMPLICATUM: Marmaduke Bloggs intends to climb Mt
Everest on hands and knees. The utterance above, if merely reporting what
Bloggs thinks, may involve a 'loose' use of "intends." The
certainty on the agent's part on the success of his enterprise is thus cast
with doubt. Davidson was claiming that the agent's belief in the
probability of the object of the agent's intention was a mere conversational
IMPLICATUM on the utterer's part. Grice responds that the ascription of
such a belief is an ENTAILMENT of a strict use of 'intend,' even if, in cases
where the utterer aims at a conversational DISIMPLICATUM, it can be
'dropped.' The addressee will still regard the utterer as abiding by
the principle of conversational helpfulness. D. F. Pears was especially
interested in the Davidson-Grice polemic on intending.
1974. Disimplicature. H. P. Grice (1974). Disimplicature, keywords:
disimplicature. Strictly, a section of his reply to Davidson. If Grice's claim
to fame is 'implicature,' he finds 'disimplicature' an intriguing notion to
capture those occasions when an utterer means LESS than he says. His examples
include: a loose use of 'intending' (without the entailment of the doxastic
condition), the uses of 'see' in Shakespeareian contexts ("Macbeth saw
Banquo," "Hamlet saw his father on the ramparts of Elsinore")
and the use of "is" to mean "seems" ("That tie is blue
under this light, but green otherwise," when both conversants know that a
change of colour is out of the question. He plays with "You're the cream
in my coffee" being an utterance where the disimplicature (i.e. entailment
dropping) is total. "Disimplicature" does not appeal to a new
principle of conversational rationality. It is perfectly accountable by the
principle of conversational helpfulness, in particular, the desideratum of
conversational candour. In everyday
explanation we exploit, as Grice notes, “an immense richness in the family of
expressions that might be thought of as the ‘wanting family.’ This ‘wanting’
family includes expressions like "want,” "desire,” "would like
to,” "is eager to,” "is anxious to,” "would mind not…,” “the
idea of ... appeals to me,” is thinking of,” etc.' As Grice remarks, “The likeness
and differences within this “wanting” family demand careful attention.” In
commenting on Davidson's treatment of wanting in 'Intending', Grice notes: “It
seems to me that the picture of the soul suggested by Davidson's treatment of
wanting is remarkably tranquil and, one might almost say, computerized. It is
the picture of an ideally decorous board meeting, at which the various heads of
sections advance, from the standpoint of their particular provinces, the case
for or against some proposed course of action. In the end the chairman passes
judgement, effective for action; normally judiciously, though sometimes he is
for one reason or another over-impressed with the presentation made by some
particular member. My soul doesn't seem to me, a lot of the time, to be like
that at all. It is more like a particularly unpleasant department meeting, in
which some members shout, won't listen, and suborn other members to lie on
their behalf; while the chairman, who is often himself under suspicion of
cheating, endeavours to impose some kind of order; frequently to no effect,
since sometimes the meeting breaks up in disorder, sometimes, though it appears
to end comfortably, in reality all sorts of enduring lesions are set up, and
sometimes, whatever the outcome of the meeting, individual members go off and
do things unilaterally.” Could it be that Davidson, of the New World, and
Grice, of the Old World, have different ‘idiolects’ regarding ‘intend’? Could
well be! It is said that the New World is prone to hyperbole, so perhaps in
Grice’s more cautious use, ‘intend’ is RESTRICTED to the conditions HE wants it
to restrict it too! Odd that for all the generosity he displays in “Post-war
Oxford philosophy” (“Surely I can help you analyse YOUR concept of this or
that, even if my use of the corresponding expression does not agree with
yours”), he goes to attack Davidson, and just for trying to be nice and apply
the ‘conversational implicatum’ to ‘intend’! Genial Grice!
1975. Super-relation, super-relatives, The H. P. Grice
Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 9-Folder 16, BANC MSS 90/135c. The Bancroft
Library, University of California, Berkeley. Keywords:
super-relative. Very Super.
1975. Method in philosophical psychology: from the banal to the
bizarre, in The Conception of Value, Clarendon, Presidential
address to the American Philosophical Association (Pacific Division), Proceedings
and addresses of the American Philosophical Association, pp. 23-53, The H.
P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), Carton 2-Folders 19-21, BANC MSS
90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: philosophical psychology, pirotology,
immanuel. Grice's "Method" is reprinted in The
Conception of Value. Grice was forever grateful to Carnap for
having coined 'pirot.' "Or having thought to have coined.
Apparently, someone had used the expression before him to mean some sort of
exotic fish." Grice wasn't sure what his presidential address to the
American Philosophical Association will be about. He chose "the
banal" (i.e. the 'ordinary-language' counterpart of something like a
'need' we ascribe to a squirrel to gobble nuts) and the 'bizarre': the
philosopher's construction of 'need' and other 'psychological,' now theoretical
terms. In the proceedings, Grice creates the discipline of 'pirotology.' He
cares to mention very many philosophers: Aristotle, D. K. Lewis, G. Myro, L.
Witters, F. R. Ramsey, G. Ryle, and a few others! The essay became popular
when, of all people, Ned Block, cited it as a programme in
'functionalism,' which it is! Grice's method in functionalist
philosophical psychology. Introduces pirotology as a creature-construction
discipline. Repr. in The Conception of Value, it reached a wider audience.
The essay is highly subdivided, and covers a lot of ground. Grice starts by noting
that, contra Ryle, he wants to see psychological predicates as theoretical
concepts. The kind of theory he is having in mind is 'folksy.' The first
creature he introduces to apply his method is Toby, a squarrel, that is a
reconstructed squirrel. Grice gives some principles of pirotology. Maxims of
rational behaviour compound to form what he calls an immanuel, of which The
Conversational Immanuel is a part. Grice concludes with a warning against the
Devil of Scientism, but acknowledges perhaps he was giving much too credit to
Myro's influence on this! 1975. Method in philosophical psychology: from
the banal to the bizarre, in The Conception of Value, Clarendon,
repr. from The Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical
Association. H. P. Grice (1975). Method in philosophical psychology:
from the banal to the bizarre, Proceedings and Addresses of the American
Philosophical Association, keywords: philosophical psychology, pirotology. The
IMMANUEL section is perhaps the most important from the point of view of
conversation as rational co-operation. For he identifies THREE types of
generality: formal, applicational, and content-based. Also, he ALLOWS for there
being different types of ‘imannuels.’ Surely one should be the conversational
immanuel. Ryle would say that one can have a manual, yet now know how to use
it! And there’s also the Wittgenstein-type problem: how do we say that the
conversationalist is FOLLOWING the immanuel? Perhaps the statement is too
strong – cfr. ‘following a rule’ – and Grice’s problems with resultant and
basic procedures, and how the former derive from the latter! This connects with
Chomsky, and in general with Grice’s antipathy towards ‘constitutive’ rules!
1975. The criteria of intelligence, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series
III (The Doctrines), Carton 5-Folder 29, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft
Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords:
intelligence, criteria. In "Aspects of reason," he mentions
'flat' rationality, and certain other 'talents' that are more difficult for the
philosopher to conceptualise, such as 'nose' (i.e. intuitiveness), acumen,
tenacity, and such. Grice's approach is 'pirotological.' If Locke had used
'intelligent' to refer to Prince Maurice's parrot, Grice wants to find criteria
for 'intelligent' as applied to his favourite type of 'pirot,' rather
("intelligent, indeed rational.")
1976. Meaning, revisited, in Studies in the Way of Words, Part II:
Explorations in semantics and metaphysics, Essay, from N. V. Smith,
Mutual knowledge, Croom Helm, London, pp. 223-43, Remnants of meaning, Meaning
revisited, revisited, notes on Schiffer, philosophical psychology and meaning,
meaning and philosophical psychology, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II
(Essays), Carton 1-Folders 17-18, and Series V (Topical), Carton 9-Folder 9
BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley.
Keywords: philosophical psychology, meaning. This is a bit like H. P. Grice:
implicatum, revisited. An axiological approach to meaning. Strictly a reprint of
Grice (1976), which should be the preferred citation. The date 1976 is given by
Grice himself, and he knew! Grice also composed some notes on Remnants on
meaning, by Schiffer. This is a bit like Grice's meaning re-revisited. S. R.
Schiffer had been Strawson's tutee at Oxford as a Rhode Scholar in the
completion of his D. Phil. on 'Meaning' (later published by Clarendon).
Eventually, Schiffer grew sceptic, and let Grice know about it! Grice did not
find Schiffer's arguments totally destructive, but saw the positive side to
them. Schiffer's arguments should remind any philosopher that the issues he is
dealing are profound and bound to involve much elucidation before they are
solved. This is a bit like H. P. Grice: implicatum, revisited. "Meaning
revisited" (an ovious nod to Evelyn Waugh's Yorkshire-set novel) is the
title H. P. Grice chose for a contribution to a symposium at Brighton organised
by N. V. Smith. "Meaning revisited" (although Grice has earlier
drafts entitled "Meaning and philosophical psychology") comprises
three sections. In the first section, Grice is concerned with the application
of his "M. O. R.," or "Modified Occam's Razor" now to the
very lexeme, "mean." Cf. How many 'senses' does 'sense' have? Cohen:
The "Senses" of Senses. In the second part, Grice explores an
'evolutionary' model of creature construction reaching a stage of non-iconic
representation. Finally, in the third section, motivated to solve what he calls
a 'major' problem -- versus the 'minor' problem concerning the transition
from 'utterer's meaning' to 'expression meaning' -- Grice attempts to
construct 'meaning' as a 'value-paradeigmatic' notion. A version was indeed
published in the proceedings of the Brighton symposium, by Croom Helm, London.
Grice has a couple of other drafts with variants on this title: philosophical
psychology and meaning, psychology and meaning. He kept, meaningfully, changing
the order! It is not arbitrary that Grice's fascinating exploration is in three
parts. In the first, where he applies his Modified Occam's razor to
"mean," he is revisiting Stevenson. "Smoke means fire" and
"I mean love," don't need different 'senses' of 'mean.' And Stevenson
was right when using 'scare' quotes for the "Smoke 'means' fire"
utterance. Grice was very much aware that that, the rather obtuse terminology
of 'senses', was exactly the terminology he had adopted in both
"Meaning" and the relevant William James lectures (V and VI) at
Harvard! Now, it's time to revisit and to echo Graves, say, 'goodbye to all that'!
In the second part he applies pirotology. While he knows his audience is not
philosophical -- it's not Oxford -- he thinks they still may get some
entertainment! We have a pirot feeling pain, simulating it, and finally
uttering, "I am in pain." In the concluding section, Grice becomes
Plato. He sees 'meaning' as an 'optimum,' i.e. a value-paradeigmatic notion
introducing 'value' in its guise of 'optimality.' Much like Plato thought
'circle' works in his idiolect. Grice played with various titles, in the Grice
Collection. There's 'philosophical psychology and meaning.' The reason is
obvious. The lecture is strictly divided in sections, and it's only natural
that Grice kept drafts of this or that section in his collection. In Studies in
the Way of Words, Grice notes that he re-visited his "Meaning
re-visited" in 1980, too! And he meant it! Surely, there is no way to
understand at least the FOUR stages of Grice’s development of his ideas about
meaning (1948, 1967, 1976 and 1987) without Peirce!
1976. The categorical imperative, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V
(Topical), Carton 6-Folder 24, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The
University of California, Berkeley. Keyword: categorical
imperative. An exploration of the logical form of Kant's concoction. Grice
is interested in its conceptual connection with the 'hypothetical' imperative,
in terms of the type of connection between the protasis and the
apodosis. Grice spends the full second Paul Carus lecture on the
conception of value on this. Grice is aware that the topic is central for
Oxonian philosophers such as R. M. Hare (a member of Austin's Play Group, too),
who will regard the UNIVERSABILITY of an imperative as a mark of its
categorial, indeed, moral status. He would refer to conversational maxims
as contributing to a CONVERSATIONAL IMMANUEL, if it can be shown that, qua
items under an overarching principle of conversational helpfulness, each
displays qualities associated with conceptual, formal, and applicational
generality.
1976. Philosophical psychology, philosophical psychology and
meaning, meaning and philosophical psychology, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V
(Topical), Carton 7-Folders 24-25, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The
University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: philosophical
psychology, meaning. Meaning is perhaps the psychological state, attitude,
or stance, per excellence. Grice coins "M-intention" for the
bunch of intentions a rational 'meaner' must mean before he even EXPLICATES
something! While not explicitly, Grice wants to supersede Peirce's merely
taxonomic approaches to the thing, more in the vein of Ogden and Richards.
1977. Practical reason,
The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 9-Folder 1, BANC MSS
90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley.
"Practical Reason." Keyword: reason, practical
reason. Grice prefers the idiom of 'soul.' There's the ratiocinative soul.
Within the ratiocinative, there's the executive soul and the merely
administrative soul. Cicero had to translate Aristotle into 'prudentia,' every
time Aristotle talked of 'phronesis.' Grice was aware that Kant's
terminology can be confusing. Kant had used "pure" reason for reason
in the doxastic realm. Kant's critique of practical reason is HARDLY
symmetrical to his critique of 'doxastic' reason. Grice, with his
'aequi-vocality' thesis of 'must' ("must" crosses the
doxastic-boulomaic divide), Grice is being more of a symmetricalist.
1977. Epagoge, epagogic, Mill's induction, The H. P. Grice
Papers, Series V (Topical) Carton 7-Folder 31, BANC MSS
90/135c, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: Mill, induction. Grice loved to
reminisce an anecdote concerning his tutor Hardie at Corpus when Hardie
invoked Mill's principles to prove that Hardie was not responsible for a
traffic jam. In drafts on word play, Grice would speak of not bringing
"more Grice to your Mill." Mill's System of Logic was part of
the reading material for his degree in Lit. Hum. at Oxford, so he was very
familiar with it. Mill represents the best of the English empiricist
tradition. Grice kept an interest on inductive methodology. In
his "Life and opinions" he mentions some obscure essays by
Kneale and Keynes on the topic. Grice was interested in Kneale's 'secondary
induction,' since Grice saw this as an application of a
construction routine. He was also interested in Keynes's notion of a
'generator property,' which he found metaphysically intriguing.
Induction. Induction -- Mill's Induction, keywords: induction, deduction,
abduction, Mill. More Grice to the Mill. Grice loved Hardie's playing with
Mill's Method of Difference with an Oxford copper. He also quotes Kneale and
Keynes on induction. Note that his seven-step derivation of 'akrasia' relies on
an 'inductive' step!
1977. The Immanuel Kant Memorial Lectures, Aspects of
reason, Clarendon, Stanford, redelivered as The John Locke
lectures, repr. in Aspects of Reason, Oxford, The Clarendon
Press, The Grice Collection contains previous drafts of this. H.
P. Grice (1977). Aspects of Reason, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays)
Carton 2-Folders 29-30, and Series IV (Associations), Carton 6-Folders 5-6, and
Series V (Topical), Carton 7-Folders 21-22, and Carton 9-Folder 6, BANC MSS
90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keyword:
reasoning. While each of the four lectures credits their own entry below,
it may do to reflect on Grice's overall aim. Grice structures the lectures in
the form of a philosophical dialogue with his audience. The first lecture
is intended to provide a bit of 'linguistic botanising' for 'reasonable,' and
'rational.' In later lectures, Grice tackles 'reason' qua noun. The
remaining lectures are meant to explore what he calls the "Aequi-vocality"
thesis: "must" has only ONE SENSE that crosses what he calls the
'doxastic' 'boulomaic' divide. He is especially concerned -- this being
the Kant lectures -- with Kant's attempt to reduce the categorical
imperative to a 'counsel of prudence.' Kant re-introduces the Aristotelian
idea of 'eudaimonia.' While a further lecture on 'happiness' as the
pursuit of a system of ends is NOT strictly part of the either the Kant or
the Locke lectures, it relates, since eudaimonia may be regarded as the
goal involved in the relevant imperative. Aspects of reason, Clarendon.
Carton 6, Folders 5-6, Stanford - "Some Aspects of Reason.” The
Immanuel Kant Memorial Lectures. H. P. Grice (1977). Aspects of
reason, Clarendon, "Some aspects of reason," The Immanuel Kant
Memorial Lectures, Stanford, keywords: reason, reasoning, reasons. The
lectures were also delivered as the John Locke lectures. Grice is
concerned with the reduction of the categorical imperative to the hypothetical
imperative. His main thesis he calls the "AEQUI-vocality" thesis: "must"
has only ONE sense, that crossed the 'boulomaic/doxastic' divide. Aspects of
reason, Clarendon. H. P. Grice (1977). Aspects of reason,
Clarendon, -- John Locke lecture notes, keywords: reason. On aspects of
reason. Including extensive language botany on 'rational', 'reasonable,' and
indeed 'reason' (justificatory, explanatory, and mixed). At this point,
Grice notes that linguistic botany is INDISPENSABLE towards the construction of
a more systematic explanatory theory. It is an exploration of a range of
uses of 'reason' that leads him to his "Aequi-vocality" thesis that
'must' has only one sense! 1977. Aspects of reason, Stanford. Carton
5, Folders 10-13, The Kant Lectures, Stanford. 1977. Aspects of reason and
reasoning, in Grice, Aspects of Reason, Clarendon. The John
Locke Lectures "Aspects of Reason.” H. P. Grice (1977). Aspects
of reason, The Kant Lectures, Stanford, Clarendon. The H. P. Grice Papers,
keywords: reason, happiness. While Locke hardly mentions 'reason,' his
friend Burthogge does, and profusely! It was slightly ironic that Grice
had delivered these lectures as the Rationalist Kant lectures at
Stanford. He was honoured to be invited to Oxford. Officially, to be a
John Locke lecture you have to be *visiting* Oxford. While Grice was a
fellow of St. John's, he was still most welcome to give his set of lectures on
reasoning at the Sub-Faculty of Philosophy. He quotes very many authors,
including Locke! In his "proemium," Grice notes that while he was
rejected the Locke scholarship back in the day, he was extremely happy to be
under Locke's aegis now! When preparing for his second lecture, he had occasion
to revise some earlier drafts dated 1966. 1966. Reasons. H. P. Grice
(1966). Aspects of reason, Clarendon, Reasons, The H. P. Grice Papers,
keywords: reason, reasons. Linguistic analysis on 'justificatory,'
'explanatory' and 'mixed' uses of 'reason.' While Grice knows that the
basic use of 'reason' is qua verb (reasoner reasons from premise P to
conclusion C), he spends some time in exploring 'reason' as noun. Grice
found it a bit of a roundabout way to approach rationality. However, his
distinction between 'justificatory' and 'explanatory' 'reason' is built upon
his linguistic botany on the use of 'reason' qua noun. Explanatory reason
seems more basic for Grice than 'justificatory' reason. Explanatory reason
EXPLAINS the rational agent's behaviour. Grice is aware of Freud and his
'rationalizations.' An agent may invoke some 'reason' for his acting which
is not 'legitimate.' An agent may convince himself that he wants to move
to Bournemouth because of the weather; when in fact, his reason to move to
Bournemouth is to be closer to Cowes and join the yacht club there.
1977. Reason and
reasoning, the first Kant lecture, Stanford, The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC MSS
90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley.
Keywords: reason, reasoning. H. P. Grice’s enthymeme. Grice, the implicit
reasoner! As the title of the lecture implies, Grice takes the verb, "to
reason," as conceptually prior. A reasoner reasons, briefly, from a
premise to a conclusion. There are types of reason: flat reason and gradual
reason. He famously reports Shropshire, another tutee with Hardie, and his
proof on the immortality of the human soul. Grice makes some remarks on
'akrasia' as key, too. The first lecture is then dedicated to an elucidation,
and indeed attempt at a 'conceptual' analysis in terms of intentions and
doxastic conditions reasoner R intends that premise P yields conclusion C and
believes his intention will cause his entertaining of the conclusion from his
entertaining the premise. One example of particular interest for a study of the
use of 'conversational reason' in Grice is that of the connection between
IMPLICATUM AND REASONING. Grice entitles the sub-section of the lecture as
"Too Good to Be Reasoning" which is of course a joke. Cf. "too
much love will kill you,” and “There's no such thing as too much of a good
thing” (Shakespeare, As you like it). Grice notes: "I have so far been considering
difficulties which may arise from the attempt to find, for all cases of actual
reasoning, reconstructions of sequences of utterances or explicit thoughts
which the reasoner might plausibly be supposed to think of as conforming to
some set of canonical patterns of inference." "I turn now to a
DIFFERENT class of examples, with regard to which the problem is not that it is
difficult to know how to connect them with canonical patterns, but rather that
IT IS ONLY TOO EASY (or shall I say 'trivial') to make the connection."
"Like some children (not many), some cases of reasoning are too well
behaved for their own good." "Suppose someone says to me." It is
VERY INTERESTING that Grice gives 'conversational examples.' A: Jack has
arrived. "I reply: FIRST EXAMPLE: B: "I conclude from that that Jack
has arrived." "Or he says (iii).” (iii) A: Jack has arrived AND Jill
has *also* arrived. “And I reply (iv).” iv. SECOND EXAMPLE: "I conclude
that Jill has arrived."(via Gentzen's conjunction-elimination). "Or
he says (v).” v. My wife is at home. "And I reply (vi).” vi. THIRD
EXAMPLE: "B: I reason from that that SOMEONE (viz. your wife) is at
home." Grice: "Is there not something very strange about the presence
in my three replies of the verb "conclude" (in example I and II) and
the verb "reason" (in example III)?" MISLEADING, BUT ALETHICALLY
FINE, professor! "It is true, of course, that if instead of my first reply
I had said (vii) vii. So Jack has arrived, has he? "the strangeness would
have been removed." "But here “so" serves not to indicate that
an inference is being made, but rather as part of a not that otiose way of
expressing surprise." “One might just as well have said (viii).” viii.
Well, fancy that! "Now, having spent a sizeable part of my life EXPLOITING
it, I am NOT UNaware of the truly fine DISTINCTION between a statement's being
false (or axiologically satisfactory), and its being true (or axiologically
satisfactory) but otherwise CONVERSATIONALLY or pragmatically misleading or
inappropriate or pointless, and, on that account and by such a fine
distinction, a statement, or an utterance, or conversational move which it
would be improper (in terms of the reasonable/rational principle of
conversational helfpulness) in one way or another, to make." GRICE'S REACTION
TO HIS OWN DISTINCTION: entailment is in sight! "But I do NOT find myself
lured by the idea of using that distinction here!" Because ENTAILMENT,
rather than IMPLICATUM is entailed. Or because EXPLICATUM, rather than
IMPLICATUM is involved. "Suppose, again, that I were to break off the
chapter at this point, and switch suddenly to this argument." ix. I have
two hands (here is one hand and here is another). If had three more hands, I
would have five. If I were to have double that number I would have ten, and if
four of them were removed six would remain. So I would have four more hands
than I have now. "Is one happy to describe this performance as
reasoning?" Depends who's one and what's happy!? "There is, however,
little doubt that I have produced a canonically acceptable chain of
statements." So surely that's reasoning, if only conversationally
misleadingly called so! "Or suppose that, instead of writing in my
customary free and easy style, I had framed my remarks (or at least the
argumentative portions of my remarks) as a verbal realization, so to speak, of
sequences of steps in strict conformity with the rules of a natural-deduction
system of first-order predicate logic." "I give, that is to say, an
updated analogue of a medieval disputation." Implicature: Gentzen is
Ockham! "Would those brave souls who continued to read be likely to think
of my performance as the production of reasoning, or would they rather think of
it as a CRAZY FORMALISATION of reasoning conducted at some previous time?"
Depends on 'crazy' or 'formalisation.' One is reminded of GRICE: If you cannot
formalise, don't say it; STRAWSON: Oh, no! If I can formalise it, I shan't say
it! Grice: "The points suggested by this stream of rhetorical questions
may be summarized as follows." (1) "Whether the samples presented
FAIL to achieve the title of "reasoning", and thus be DEEMED
'reasoning,' or whether the samples achieve the title, as we may figuratively
put it, by the skin of their teeth, perhaps does not very greatly matter."
"For whichever way it is, the samples seem to OFFEND against something
(different things in different cases, I'm sure) very central to our conception
of reasoning." "So central that Moore would call it entailment!"
(2) "A mechanical application of a ground rule of inference, or a a
concatenation thereof, is reluctantly (if at all) called reasoning."
"Such a mechanical application may perhaps legitimately enter into (i.e.
form individual steps in) authentic reasonings, but they are not themselves
reasonings, nor is a string of them." (3) "There is a demand that a
reasoner should be, to a greater or lesser degree, the author of his
reasonings." "Parroted sequences are not reasonings when parroted,
though the very same sequences might be reasoning if not parroted."
*Piroted* sequences are another matter! (4) "Some of the examples I gave
are deficient because they are aimless or pointless." "Reasoning is
*characteristically* addressed to this or that problem: a small problem, a
large problem, a problem within a problem, a clear problem, a hazy problem, a
practical problem, an intellectual problem; but a problem!" (5) "A
mere flow of ideas minimally qualifies (or can be deemed) as reasoning, even if
it happens to be logically respectable." "But if it is directed, or
even monitored (with intervention should it go astray, not only into fallacy or
mistake, but also into such things as conversational irrelevance or otiosity!),
that is another matter!" (6) "Finicky over-elaboration of intervening
steps is frowned upon, and in extreme cases runs the risk of forfeiting the
title of reasoning." "In conversation, such over-elaboration will
offend against this or that conversational maxim, against (presumably) some
suitably formulated maxim conjoining informativeness." As Grice noted with
regard to ix. That pillar box seems red to me. That would be 'baffling' if the
addressee fails to detect the 'communication-point.' An utterance is supposed
to INFORM, and what is (IX) meant to inform its addressee? "In thought, it
will be branded as pedantry or neurotic caution!" If a distinction between
brooding and conversing is to be made! "At first sight, perhaps, one would
have been inclined to say that greater rather than lesser EXPLICITness is a
merit. "Not that INexplicitness -- or IMPLICATUM-status, as it were -- is
bad, but that, other things being equal, the more explicitness the
better." "But now it looks as if proper explicitness (or
EXPLICATUM-status) is an Aristotelian *mean*, or mesotes, and it would be good
some time to enquire what determines where that mean lies." "The
burden of the foregoing observations seems to me to be that the provisional
account of reasoning, which has been before us, leaves out something which is
crucially important." "What it leaves out is the conception of
reasoning, as I like to see conversation, as an purposive activity, as
something with goals and purposes." "The account or picture leaves
out, in short, the connection of reasoning with the will!" "Moreover,
once we avail ourselves of the great family of additional ideas which the
importation of this conception would give us, we shall be able to deal with the
quandary which I laid before you a few minutes ago." "For we could
say (for example) that R reasons (informally) from p to c just in case R thinks
that p and intends that, in thinking c, he should be thinking something which
would be the conclusion of a formally valid argument the premisses of which are
a supplementation of p." "This will differ from merely thinking that
there exists some formally valid supplementation of a transition from p to c,
which I felt inclined NOT to count as (or deem) reasoning." "I have
some hopes that this appeal to the purposiveness or goal-oriented character of
authentic reasoning or good reasoning might be sufficient to dispose of the
quandary on which I have directed it." "But I am by no means entirely
confident that this is the case, and so I offer a second possible method of
handling the quandary, one to which I shall return later when I shall attempt
to place it in a larger context." "We have available to us (let us
suppose) what I might call a 'hard way' of making inferential moves."
"We in fact employ this laborious, step-by-step procedure at least when we
are in difficulties, when the course is not clear, when we have an awkward (or
philosophical) audience, and so forth." "An inferential judgement,
however, is a normally desirable undertaking for us only because of its actual
or hoped for destinations, and is therefore not desirable for its own sake (a
respect in which, possibly, it may differ from an inferential capacity)."
"Following the hard way consumes time and energy." "These are in
limited supply and it would, therefore, be desirable if occasions for employing
the hard way were minimized." "A substitute for the hard way, the
quick way, which is made possible by habituation and intention, is available to
us, and the capacity for it (which is sometimes called intelligence, and is
known to be variable in degree) is a desirable quality." "The
possibility of making a good inferential step (there being one to be made),
together with such items as a particular inferer's reputation for inferential
ability, may determine whether on a particular occasion we suppose a particular
transition to be inferential (and so to be a case of reasoning) or not."
"On this account, it is not essential that there should be a single
supplementation of an informal reasoning which is supposed to be what is
overtly in the inferer's mind, though quite often there may be special reasons
for supposing this to be the case." "So Botvinnik is properly
credited with a case of reasoning, while Shropshire is not!"
1977. Reason and reasons, Aspects of reason,
Clarendon, the second Kant lecture, The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC MSS 90/135c,
The Bancroft Library, The University of California. Keywords: reason,
reasons, justificatory reason, explanatory reason,
justificatory-cum-explanatory reason. Drawing from his recollections of an
earlier linguistic botany on 'reason' (Grice, 1966), Grice distinguishes between
'justificatory' reason and 'explanatory' reason. There is a special case of
'mixed' reason, 'explanatory-cum-justificatory.' The lecture can be seen as the
way an exercise that Austin took as 'taxonomic' can lead to explanatory
adequacy, too!
1977. Practical and alethic reasons, Aspects of reason,
Clarendon, the third Kant lecture, The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC MSS 90/135c,
The Bancroft Library. Keywords: practical reason, alethic reason,
protrepic, exhibitive. The boulomaic (or volitive) is a part of the soul;
so is the doxatic (or judicative). Grice plays with co-relative operators:
desirability versus probability. Grice invokes the 'exhibitive'/'protreptic'
distinction he had introduced in the fifth William James lecture, now applied
to psychological attitudes themselves.
1977. Further remarks on practical and alethic reasons, Aspects of reason, Clarendon, the fourth Kant lecture, The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: practical reason, alethic reason, counsel of prudence, categorical imperative, happiness, probability, desirability, modality. Grice's attempt is to tackle the Kantian problem in the Grundlegung: how to derive the categorical imperative from a counsel of prudence. Under the assumption that the protasis is "Let the agent be happy," Grice does not find it obtuse at all to construct a universalisable imperative out of a mere 'motive'-based counsel of prudence. Grice has an earlier paper on 'pleasure' which relates.
1977. The type-token distinction, form, type, and implication, The
H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 7-Folder 1, BANC MSS 90/135c,
The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keyword:
type-token distinction. Grice was not enamoured with the 'type'/'token' or
'token'/'type' distinction. His thoughts on 'logical form' were
provocative: "If you can't put it in logical form, it's not worth
saying." Strawson infamously reacted, but with a smile: "Oh, no!
If you CAN put it in logical form, it's not worth saying." Grice refers to
the type-token distinction when he uses “x” for ‘token’ and “X” for type. Since
J. F. Bennett cared to call Grice a “meaning-nominalist” we shouldn’t CARE
about “Xs” anyway! He expands on this in "Retrospective Epilogue."
1977. Philosophy, Carton 5, Folders
14-15, Philosophy, miscellaneous, with J. Baker, The H. P. Grice
Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 8, Folder 1, BANC MSS 90/135c, The
Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords:
philosophy, Baker. Grice would give joint seminars on philosophy with J.
Baker. Oddly, Grice gives a nice example of ‘philosopher’ in 1967, “Addicted to
general reflections about life.” In the context where it occurs, Grice’s
implicature is Stevensonian. If Stevenson had said that an athlete is usually
tall, a philosopher WILL occasionally be inclined to reflect about life in
general – a birrelist -! His other definition: “Engaged in philosophical
studies” seems circular. At least the previous one defines philosophy by other
than itself! Cfr. Quixote to Sancho: “You are quite a philosopher” meaning
‘stoic,’ actually!
1977. Freedom, teleology, and ethics, Kantian, Kant's ethics,
Aristotle's ethics, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series III (The Doctrines), Carton
5-Folders 16-17, and Series V (Topical), Carton 8-Folders 16-17, BANC MSS
90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. P. G. R. I. C. E. cites “Kant’s ethics,” and it is under
this that most of Grice’s material on Kant should be placed -- with a caveat to
the occasional reference to Kant’s epistemology, elsewhere.
1980. Aristotle's ethics. H. P. Grice (1980). Aristotle's Nicomachean
Ethics" and "Aristotle's Ethics," keywords: Aristotle,
ethics. From Hardie. 1980. Freedom in Kant's Grundlegung, freedom
and morality in Kant's Grundlegung, 'Freedom and Morality in Kant's
Foundations,' Series II (Essays), Carton 2, Folders 26, 27, and 28.
Keywords: Grundlegung, freedom, autonomy. Grice
would refer to this, as Kantians do, as the Grundlegung. Grice was never
happy with 'eleutheria,' qua Greek philosophical notion. "To literal to be
true? By "Foundations," Grice obviously means Kant's essay.Grice
preferred to quote Kant in English. The reason being that Grice was practising
"ordinary-language" philosophy; and you cannot expect much
'linguistic botany' in a language other than your own! Kant was not too
'ordinary' in his use of German, either! The English translations that
Grice used captured, in a way, all that Grice thought was worth capturing in
Kant's philosophy. Kant was not your 'standard' philosopher in the
programme Grice was familiar with: Lit. Hum. Oxon. However, Kant was
popular in The New World, where Grice lectured profusely. 1980. Kant's
ethics, Carton 5, Folders 5-6, Kant's Ethical Theory. An exploration
of the categorial imperative and its reduction to the hypothetical
one. 1980. KANT’S ETHICS. Carton 5, Folder
8, Philosophy, Kant, With J. Baker. Notably the
categorical imperative. Cf. Carton 5, Folder
9, "Kant's Ethics.” The crucial belief about a thing in itself that
Kant thinks only practical reason can justify concerns FREEDOM. Freedom is
crucial because, on Kant’s view, any moral appraisal presupposes that a human
is free in that he has the ability to do otherwise. To see why, consider
Kant’s example of a man who commits a theft (5:95ff.). Kant holds that
for this man’s action to be morally wrong (condemnable), it must have been
within his voluntary control (he is deemed responsible) in a way that it was
within his power at the time NOT to have committed the theft. If it is
NOT within his control at the time, while it may be useful to punish him in
order to shape his behaviour or to influence others, it nevertheless would be
incorrect to say that his action is morally wrong. Moral rightness and
wrongness apply only to a free agent who controls his action and has it in his
power, at the time of his action, either to act rightly or not. According
to Kant and Grice, this is just common sense. On these grounds, Kant rejects a type
of compatibilism, which he calls the “comparative concept of freedom” and
associates with Leibniz. Kant has a specific type of compatibilism in mind.
There may be types of compatibilism that do not fit Kant’s characterization of
that view. On the compatibilist view, as Kant understands it, an agent is free
whenever the cause of his action is within him. So an agent is not free only
when something external to him pushes or moves him, but he is free whenever the
proximate cause of his body’s movement is internal to him as an “acting being”
(5:96). If we distinguish between an involuntary convulsion and a
voluntary bodily movement, a free action is just a voluntary bodily
movement. Kant and Grice ridicule this view as a “wretched subterfuge” that
tries to solve an ancient philosophical problem "with a little quibbling
about words." This view, Kant and Grice say, assimilates freedom to
“the freedom of a turnspit,” or a projectile in flight, or the motion of a
clock’s hands (5:96–97). Grice's favourite phrase was the otiose English
'free fall.' And he knew all the Grecian he needed to recognise the figurative
concept of 'eleutheria' as applied to 'ill' as "VERY FIGURATIVE, almost
implicatural!" The proximate cause of this movement is internal to the
turnspit, the projectile, and the clock at the time of the movement. This
cannot be sufficient for moral, rational responsibility. Why not? The
reason, Kant and Grice say, is ultimately that the cause of this movement
occurs in time. Return to the theft example. A compatibilist would say
that the thief’s action is free because its proximate cause is inside him, and
because the theft is not an involuntary convulsion but a voluntary
action. The thief decides to commit the theft, and his action flows from
this decision. According to Kant, however, if the thief’s DECISION is a
NATURAL phenomenon that occurs in time, it must be the effect of some cause
that occurred in a previous time. This is an essential part of Kant’s (if not
Grice's -- Grice quotes Eddington) Newtonian worldview and is grounded in the a
priori laws (specifically, the category of cause and effect) in accordance with
which our understanding constructs experience. Every event has a cause that
begins in an earlier time. If that cause too is an event occurring in
time, it must also have a cause beginning in a still earlier time, etc.
Every natural event occurs in time and is thoroughly determined by a causal
chain that stretches backwards into the distant past. So there is no room
for freedom in nature, which is deterministic in a strong way. The root of the
problem, for Kant, if not Grice, is time. For Grice it's SPACE and time!
Again, if the thief’s choice to commit the theft is a natural event in time, it
is the effect of a causal chain extending into the distant past. But the
past is out of his control now, in the present. Once the past is past, he
cannot change it. On Kant’s view, that is why his action would not be in
his control in the present if it is determined by events in the past.
Even if he could control those past events in the past, he cannot control them
now. But in fact past events were not in his control in the past either if they
too were determined by events in the more distant past, because eventually the
causal antecedents of his action stretch back before his birth, and obviously
events that occurred before his birth are not in his control. So if the
thief’s choice to commit the theft is a natural event in time, it is not now
and never was in his control, and he could not have done otherwise than to
commit the theft. In that case, it would be a mistake to hold him morally
responsible for it. Compatibilism, as Kant and Grice understand it, therefore
locates the issue in the wrong place. Even if the cause of the action is
internal to the agent, if it is in the past – e. g., if the action today is
determined by a decision the agent made yesterday, or from the character I
developed in childhood, it is not within the agent's control now. The real
issue is not whether the cause of the action is internal or external to the
agent, but whether it is in the agent's control now. For Kant, however, the
cause of action can be within the agent's control now only if it is not in
time. This is why Kant and Grice think that transcendental idealism is the
only way to make sense of the kind of freedom that morality requires. For
transcendental idealism allows that the cause of a action may be a "thing
in itself" outside of time: namely, the agetn's noumenal self, which is
free because it is not part of nature. No matter what kind of character the
agent have developed or what external influences act on him, on Kant’s view
every intentional, voluntary action is an immediate effect of the agent's
noumenal self, which is causally undetermined (5:97–98). The agent's
noumenal self is an uncaused cause outside of time, which therefore is not
subject to the deterministic laws of nature in accordance with which
understanding and pure reason constructs experience. Many puzzles arise on this
picture that Kant does not resolve, and Grice tries. E.g. if
understanding constructs every appearance in the experience of nature, not only
an appearance of an action, why is the agent responsible only for his action
but not for everything that happens in the natural world? Moreover, if I
am not alone in the world but there is another noumenal self acting freely and
incorporating his free action into the experience he constructs, how do two
transcendentally free agents interact? How do you integrate one's free
action into the experience that the other's understanding constructs? In spite
of these unsolved puzzles, Kant holds that we can make sense of moral appraisal
and responsibility only by thinking about human freedom in this way, because it
is the only way to prevent natural necessity from undermining both. Since Kant
invokes transcendental idealism to make sense of freedom, interpreting his
thinking about freedom leads us back to disputes between the two-objects and
two-aspects interpretations of transcendental idealism. On the face of
it, the two-*objects* interpretation seems to make better sense of Kant’s view
of transcendental freedom than the two-aspects interpretation. If morality
requires that the agent be transcendentally free, it seems that his true self,
and not just an aspect of his self, must be outside of time, according to
Kant’s argument. But applying the two-*objects* interpretation to freedom
raises problems of its own, since it involves making a distinction between the
noumenal self and the phenomenal self that does not arise on the two-aspects
view. If only one noumenal self is free, and freedom is required for moral
responsibility, one's *phenomenal* self is not morally responsible. But how are
the noumenal self and the phenomenal self related, and why is punishment
inflicted on the phenomenal self? It is unclear whether and to what extent
appealing to Kant’s theory of freedom can help to settle disputes about the
proper interpretation of transcendental idealism, since there are serious
questions about the coherence of Kant’s theory on either interpretation!
"Which is good," Grice would end his lecture with!
1978. Ethics of virtue, arête, virtus, vitium, Aristotle, virtue,
Philippa Foot on virtues and vices, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical),
Carton 9-Folder 29. Keywords: Philippa Foot, virtue, vice, virtue ethics,
virtus, vitium, arete, kakon, flourishing. Grice admired Foot's ability to
make the right conceptual distinction. Foot is following a very Oxonian
tradition best represented by the work of G. J. Warnock. Of course, Grice
was over-familiar with the 'virtue' vs. 'vice' distinction, since Hardie had
instilled it on him at Corpus! For Grice, 'virtue' and 'vice' (and the
mesotes), display an interesting 'logical' grammar, though. Grice would say
that 'rationality' is a virtue; fallacious reasoning is a vice. Some
things Grice takes more of a moral standpoint about. To cheat is neither
irrational nor unreasonble: just plain 'repulsive.' As such, it
would be a 'vice' -- mind not getting caught in its grip! Grice is concerned
with 'vice' in his account of 'akrasia' or 'incontinentia.' If agent A KNOWS
that doing x is 'virtuous,' yet decides to do ~x, which is 'vicious,' A is
being 'akratic.' For Grice, akratic behaviour applies both in the doxastic
and the boulomaic realm. And it is part of the philosopher's job to
elucidate the conceptual intricacies attached to it. 1. pf(A,!p) V
pr(A,p). 2. pf(A and B,!p) V pr(A and B,p). 3. pf(A and B and C, !p)
V pr(A and B and C, p). 4. pf(all things before pirot,!p) V pr(all things
before pirot,p). 5. pf(ATC,!p) V pb(ATC,p). 6. !p V |- p. 7.
Reasoning pirot wills !p V Reasoning pirot judges p.
1978. Onto-genesis, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V
(Topical), Carton 9-Folder 10, "Semantics of Children's
Language," BANC MSS 90/135c, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: semantics, children's language, ontogenesis, ontology,
phylogeny, developmental pragmatics, learning,
acquisition. Interesting in that he was always enquiring his
children's playmates: "Can a sweater be red and green all over? No stripes
allowed!"
1979. Proem to the John Locke Lectures, aspects of reason,
Clarendon, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), BANC MSS 90/135c, The
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: Locke,
Locke scholarship, Locke lecture, Oxford, town and gown. H. P. Grice’s Town and
Gown. A special note, or rather, a very moving proem, on Grice's occasion of
delivering his lectures on 'Aspects of reason and reasoning' at Oxford as the
John Locke Memorial Lectures at Merton. Particularly apt in mentioning, with
humility, his having failed, *thrice* [sic] to obtain the John Locke
lectureship (Strawson did, at once!), but feeling safe under the aegis of
"that great English philosopher" (viz. Locke! always implicated,
never explicited) now. Grice starts the proem in a very moving, shall we say,
emotional, way: “I find it difficult to convey to you just how happy I am, and
how honoured I feel, in being invited to give these lectures.” Difficult, but
not impossible. “I think of this university and this city [it has a cathedral],
which were my home for thirty-six years, as my spiritual and intellectual
parents." The almost majestic plural is Grice's implicature to the 'town
and gown'! "[W]hatever I am was originally fashioned here;" I never
left Oxford, Oxford made me, "and I find it a moving experience to be,
within these splendid and none too ancient walls, once more engaged in my old
occupation of rendering what is clear obscure," by flouting the
desideratum of conversational clarity and the conversational maxim, 'avoid
obscurity of expression,' under 'be perspicuous [sic]!'. Grice's implicature on
"none too ancient" seems to be addressed to the TRULY ancient walls
that saw "Athenian dialectic"! On the other hand, Grice's funny
variant on the 'obscurum per obscurius' -- what G. P. Baker found as Grice’s
skill in rendering an orthodoxy into an heterodoxy! Almost! By 'clear' Grice
implicates Lewis and his 'clarity is not enough!'. “I am, at the same time,
proud of my mid-Atlantic [two-world] status, and am, therefore, delighted that
the Old World should have called me in, or rather recalled me, to redress, for
once, the balance of my having left her for the New.” His implicature seems to
be: “Strictly, I never left?” Grice concludes his proem: “I am, finally,
greatly heartened by my consciousness of the fact that that great English
philosopher, under whose aegis I am now speaking, has in the late afternoon of
my days extended to me his Lectureship as a gracious consolation for a record
threefold denied to me, in my early morning, of his Prize. I pray that my
present offerings may find greater favour in his sight than did those of long
ago.” They did! Even if Locke surely might have found favour to Grice’s former
offerings, too, I'm sure!
1980. Correspondence with R. Wyatt, The H. P. Grice
Papers, Series I (The Correspondence of H. P. Grice), Carton 1-Folders
10-12, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: Grice, Wyatt.
1980. Mentalism, modest mentalism, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series
III (Doctrines), Carton 5-Folder 30, BANC, MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: mentalism, philosophical
psychology. Grice would seldom use 'mind' (Grecian 'nous') or 'mental'
(Grecian 'noetikos' vs. 'aesthetikos'). His sympathies go for more over-arching
Grecian terms like the very Aristotelian 'soul,' (anima), i. e. the psyche and
the psychological.
1980. From Zeno to Socrates, topics for pursuit, Zeno, Socrates, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series III (The Doctrines), Carton 5, Folder 31, MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: Zeno, Socrates. Grice's review of the history of philosophy ("Philosophy is but footnotes to Zeno.")
1980. Semantics, phonetics, syntax, and semantics, with J. F. Staal, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series III (The Doctrines), Carton 6-Folders 1-2, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: semantics. Staal is particularly good at this type of 'formalistic' philosophy, which was still adequate to reflect the subtleties of 'ordinary language.
1980. Pirots, basic Pirotese, sentence semantics and syntax, pirots and obbles, methodology, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 8-Folders 30-33, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: pirot, pirotese, pirotology, semantics, syntax, obble, creature construction, the genitorial programme. It all started when Carnap claimed to know that pirots karulise elatically. Grice as engineer. Pirotese is the philosopher's engaging in pirotology. Actually, pirotese is the lingo the pirots parrot. "Pirots karulise elatically." But not all of them. Grice finds that the pirotological talk allows to start from zero. He is constructing a language, "(basic) Pirotese," and the philosophical psychology and world that that language is supposed to represent or denote. An obble is a pirot's object. Grice introduces potching and cotching. To potch, in Pirotese, is what a pirot does with an obble: he perceives it. To cotch is Pirotese for what a pirot can further do with an obble: know or cognise it. Cotching, unlike potching, is factive.
1980. Semantics, language semantics, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 7-Folder 20, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: semantics, Tarski. Language semantics, alla Tarski.
1980. A philosopher's prospectus, The H. P. Grice Papers,
Series II (Essays), Carton 4-Folder 14, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library,
The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: prospectus.
1980. A seminar with Grice, seminar, Grice seminar, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series IV (Doctrines), Carton 5-Folders 2 and 8, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley.
1980. A philosophical talk, Philosophy, with J. Baker, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series IV (Associations), Carton 5-Folders 3-4, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley.
1980. Kantotle, friendship, Aristotle, Aristotle's Ethica Nichomachaea, Aristotle's ethics, Aristotle on friendship, aporia, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 5- Folder 7, and Carton 6-Folder 16-18, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: Aristotle, ethics. Grice was 'very fortunate' to have Hardie as his tutor. He overused Hardie's lectures on Aristotle, too, and instilled them on his own tutees! Keywords: Aristotle, friendship. Grice is concerned with Aristotle's rather cryptic view of the friend (philos, amicus) as the 'alter ego.' In Grice's cooperative, concerted, view of things, a friend in need is a friend indeed! Grice is interested in Aristotle finding himself in an aporia. In Nicomachean Ethics IX.ix, Aristotle poses the question whether the happy man will need friends or not. Kosman correctly identifies this question as asking not whether friends are necessary in order to achieve eudaemonia, but "why we require friends even when we are happy." The question is not why we need friends to become happy, but why we need friends when we are happy, since the eudaemon must be self-sufficient. Philia is required for the flourishing of the life of practical virtue. Aristotle’s solution to the aporia here, however, points to the requirement of friendships even for the philosopher, in his life of theoretical virtue. Aristotle’s solution to the aporia in Nicomachean Ethics IX.ix is opaque, and the corresponding passage in Eudeiman Ethics VII.xii is scarcely better. Aristotle thinks he has found the solution to this aporia. "We must take two things into consideration, that life is desirable and also that the good is, and thence that it is desirable that such a nature should belong to oneself as it belongs to them. If then, of such a pair of corresponding series there is always one series of the desirable, and the known and the perceived are in general constituted by their participation in the nature of the determined, so that to wish to perceive one’s self is to wish oneself to be of a certain definite character,—since, then we are not in ourselves possessed of each such characters, but only in participation in these qualities in perceiving and knowing—for the perceiver becomes perceived in that way in respect in which he first perceives, and according to the way in which and the object which he perceives; and the knower becomes known in the same way— therefore it is for this reason that one always desires to live, because one always desires to know; and this is because he himself wishes to be the object known."
1967. Trust and rationality, rationality and trust, trust, trust, metaphysics, and value, with J. Baker, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 9-Folders 5 and 20, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: trust, rationality. Trust and rationality are pre-requisites of conversation. Cf. Grice's desideratum of conversational candour, subsumed under the over-arching principle of conversational helpfulness (formerly 'conversational benevolence-cum-self-interest'). Grice thinks that the principle of conversational benevolence has to be weighed against the principle of conversational self-interest. The result is the overarching principle of conversational helpfulness. Clarity gets in the picture. The desideratum of conversational clarity is a reasonable requirement for conversants to abide by. Grice follows some of Warnock's observations. The logical grammar of 'trust' (and indeed 'candour') is subtle, especially when we are considering the two sub-goals of conversation: giving and receiving information/influencing and being influenced by others. In both sub-goals, trust is paramount. The explorations of trust had become an Oxonian hobby, with authors not such like Warnock, but B. A. O. Williams, and others. Keywords: trust, metaphysics, value. Trust as a corollary of the principle of conversational helpfulness. The logical grammar of 'trust' is an interesting one. Grice used to speak of 'candour.' In a given conversational setting, assuming the principle of conversational helpfulness is operating, the utterer U is assumed by the addressee A to be 'trustworthy.' There are two dimensions for trust, which relate to the TWO goals which Grice assumes the principle of conversational helpfulness captures: -- giving and receiving information, and influencing and being influenced by others. In both sub-goals, trust is key. In the doxastic realm, trust has to do, not so much with 'truth' (with which the expression is cognate) but 'evidence.' In the boulomaic realm, 'evidence' becomes less crucial. Grice mentions attitudes of the boulomaic type that are not usually judged in terms of evidential support. However, in the 'boulomaic' realm, utterer will be assumed as 'trustworthy' if the conative attitudes he displays are 'sincere.' Cf. 'decency.' A cheater for Grice is not 'irrational,' just repugnant!
1980. Philosophical psychology, needing, wanting, willing,
intending, wants and needs, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton
9-Folders 30-31, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of
California, Berkeley. Keywords: want, need, wanting, needing,
philosophical psychology, soul. "Want" etymologically
means "absence;" "need" should be preferred. The squarrel
(squirrel) Toby NEEDS intake of nuts, and you'll soon see gobbling them! There
is not much philosophical bibliography on these two 'psychological states'
Grice is analysing. Their logic is interesting: (i) Smith wants to play cricket. (ii)
Smith NEEDS to play cricket. Grice is concerned with the
propositional content attached to the 'want' and 'need'
predicate. "Wants that" sounds harsh; so does "need
that." Still, there are propositional attached to (i) and (ii):
"Smith plays cricket." Grice took a very cavalier attitude to
what linguists spend their lives analysing. He thought it was surely NOT
the job of the philosopher, especially from a prestigious university such as
Oxford, to deal with the arbitrariness of grammatical knots attached to this or
that English verb. He rarely used "English," but stuck with 'ordinary
language.' Surely, he saw himself in the tradition of Kantotle, and so,
aiming at grand philosophical truths: not conventions of usage, even his own! 1.
Squarrel Toby has a nut, N, in front of him. 2. Toby is short on squarrel food
(observed or assumed), so, 3. Toby wills squarrel food (by postulate of Folk
Pyschological Theory θ connecting willing with intake of N). 4.
Toby prehends a nut as in front (from (1) by Postulate of Folk Psychological
Theory θ , if it is assumed that "nut" and "in
front" are familiar to Toby). 5. Toby joins squarrel food with gobbling,
nut, and in front (i.e. Toby judges gobbling, on nut in front, for squarrel
food (by Postulate of Folk Psychological Theory θ with the aid of
prior observation. So, from 3, 4 and 5, 6. Tobby gobbles; and since a nut *is*
in front of him, gobbles the nut in front of him.
1980. Diagoge/epagoge, Grice's audio-files, the audio-files,
audio-files of various lectures and conferences, some seminars with R. O.
Warner and J. Baker, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series IV (Associations), Audio
files of various lectures and conferences, Carton 10 -- No Folders -- BANC MSS
90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley.
Keywords: epagoge, diagoge. A previous folder in the collection contains
the transcripts. These are the audio-tapes themselves, obviously not in
folders. “The kind of metaphysical argument which I have in mind might be
said, perhaps, to exemplify a ‘dia-gogic’ as opposed to ‘epa-gogic’ or
inductive approach to philosophical argumentation.” “Now, the more
emphasis is placed on justification by elimination of the rival, the greater is
the impetus given to refutation, whether of theses or of people.” “And
perhaps a greater emphasis on a ‘dia-gogic’ procedure, if it could be shown to
be justifiable, would have an eirenic effect.”
1980. Semantics, sentence semantics, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 9-Folder 11, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Truth-conditional, constructivist. While Grice is NOT concerned about the 'semantics' of utterer's meaning (how could he, when he analyses '... means ...' in terms of '... intends ...', he *is* about the semantics of SENTENCE meaning. Grice's second stage ('expression' meaing) of his programme about meaning begins with specifications of 'means' as applied to 'x,' a token of 'X.' He is having Tarski's and Davidson's elaborations of schemata like “"p" means that p.” "Snow is white" means that snow is white, and stuff! Grice was especially concerned with combinatories, for both unary and dyadic operators, and with multiple quantifications within a first-order predicate calculus with identity.
1980. Propositions as classes of propositional complexes, Proposition and propositional complex, sentence semantics and propositional complexes, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 9-Folder 12, BANC MSS 90/135c, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: propositional complex. H. P. Grice's propositional complex. Grice was keen on the concept of a 'propositional complex,' which allowed him NOT to commit to the abstract entity of a 'proposition,' if the latter is regarded as an extensional family of 'propositional complexes' (Paul saw Peter; Peter was seen by Paul). The topic of a propositional complex was one that Grice regarded as Oxonian in nature. C. A. B. Peacocke had struggled with the same type of problems, in his various essays on the theory of content. Only a perception-based account of content in terms of 'qualia' gets the philosopher out of the vicious circle of introducing linguistic entities to clarify psychological entities and vice versa. One way to discharge the obligation to give an account of a proposition is would involve, as its central idea, focusing on a primitive range of ‘simple’ statements, the formulation of which would involve no connective or quantifier, and treating each of these as ‘expressing’ a ‘propositional complex,’ which in such cases would consist of a sequence whose elements would be, first, a general item (a set or an attribute, according to preference) and, second, an ordered sequence of objects which might, or might not, instantiate or belong to the first item.”“The propositional complex associated with the sentence, ‘Grice is wise,’ might be thought of consisting of a sequence whose first ('general') member would be the set of wise persons, or (alternatively) the attribute wisdom, and whose second ('instantial' or 'particular') member would be Grice or the singleton of Grice; and the sentence, 'Strawson loves Grice', could be represented as expressing a propositional complex which is a sequence whose first element is love (considered either extensionally as a set or non-extensionally as an attribute) and whose second element is a sequence composed of Strawson and Grice, in that order.”“We can define a property of ‘factivity’ or ‘alethic satisfactoriness’ which will be closely allied to the notion of truth.”“A (simple) propositional complex will be factive or alethically satisfactory just in case its two elements (the general and instantial elements) are related by the appopriate predication relation, just in case (for example) the second element is a member of the set (possesses the attribute) in which the first element consists.”“A proposition may now, alla Chomsky, be represented as each consisting of a family of propositional complexes.”“The conditions for family unity may be thought of either as fixed or as variable in accordance with the context.”
1980. Rationality and akrasia, emotion and akrasia, emotions and
incontinence, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 6-Folder 32,
BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley.
Keywords: akrasia, emotion. The concept of 'emotion' needs a philosophical
elucidation. Grice was curious about a linguistic botany for that! Akrasia for
Grice covers both boulomaic and doxastic versions. The boulomaic version may be
closer to the concept of an emotion. Grice quotes from A. J. P. Kenny's essay
on "emotion." But Grice is looking for more of a linguistic botany.
As it happens, Kenny's essay has Griceian implicata. Kenny was a Fellow of St.
Benet's, and completed his essay on emotion under A. M. Quinton (who would
occasionally give seminars with Grice), and examined by two members of Grice's
Play Group: D. F. Pears and P. L. Gardiner. Kenny connects an emotion to a
'feeling,' which brings us to Grice on 'feeling boringly byzantine'!
1980. Trust, decency, and rationality, Rationality, trust, and
decency, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 6-Folder 18, BANC,
MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library. Keywords: trust, decency,
rationality. Grice's idea of 'decency' is connected to his explorations on
'rational' and 'reasonable'. To cheat may be neither unreasonable nor
rational. It's just repulsive! Indecent, in other words. In all
this, Grice is concerned with 'ordinary language,' and treasures Austin's
question to Warnock (when Warnock was looking for a fellowship at Austin's
college): "Warnock: what would you say the difference is between (i)
and (ii)?" i. Smith plays cricket rather properly. ii. Smith
plays cricket rather incorrectly. "They spent the whole dinner over
such subtleties!" "And Warnock fell in love with Austin." Grice's
explorations on 'trust' are Warnockian in character too. For Warnock, in
"Object of morality," trust is key, indeed, the very object of
morality. Grice started to focus on trust in his Oxford seminars on the
implicatum. There is a desideratum of conversational candour. And a subgoal of
the principle of conversational helpfulness is that of giving and receiving
'information.' "False 'information' is just no information." Grice
loved that Latin dictum, "tuus candor."
1980. In the tradition of Kantotle, Kantotle, Immanuel Kant, Kant,
Kant's ethics, Kant, mid-sentences, freedom, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series III
(The Doctrines), Carton 5-Folders 14-18, and Series V (Topical), Carton
7-Folders 14-18, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of
California, Berkeley. Keywords: Kant, freedom, ethics. Grice was
especially concerned with Kant's having brought back the old Greek idea of
'eleutheria' for philosophical discussion.
1980. Philosophy, lectures, Berkeley group, team notes, The H.
P. Grice Papers, Series III (The doctrines), Carton 5-Folder 26, and Series V
(Topical), Carton 6-Folder 21, MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: philosophy
1980. Kant's ethics, Kant, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series III
(The Doctrines), Carton 5-Folders 19-21, and Folder 23, BANC MSS 90/135c, The
Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: Kant,
ethics. Grice knew how to teach ethics. He taught Kant as if he were
teaching Aristotle, and vice versa. His students would say, "Here come
[sic] Kantotle!". Grice was obsessed with Kantotle. He would teach one or
the other as an ethics requirement. Back at Oxford, the emphasis was of course
Aristotle, but he was aware of some trends to introduce Kant in the Lit.Hum.
curriculum, not with much success! Strawson had done his share with Kant's
"pure" reason in "The bounds of sense," but White
professors of moral philosophy were usually not too keen on Kant's
"pratical" reason!
1980. Metaphysics and the language of philosophy, The H. P.
Grice Papers, Series III (Doctrines), Carton 5-Folder 24, BANC MSS 90/135c, The
Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords:
metaphysics, philosophical method. Grice had been interested in the methodology
of 'metaphysics' since his Oxford days. He counts as one memorable
experience in the area his participation in two episodes for the BBC Third
Programme on "The nature of metaphysics" with the organiser, D. F.
Pears, and his former tutee, P. F. Strawson on the panel. Grice was
particularly keen on Collingwood's views on metaphysical presuppositions,
"both absolute and relative!"
1980. Freedom, implicature-free, The H. P. Grice Papers,
Series III (The Doctrines), Carton 5-Folder 25, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft
Library. Keywords: freedom, Kant, implicature'free. The topic of 'freedom'
fascinated Grice, because it merged the practical with the theoretical.
Grice sees the conception of freedom as crucial in his elucidation of a
rational being. "Conditions of freedom" are necessary for the very
idea, as Kant was well aware. "A thief who is FORCED to steal is just a
'thief'." Grice would engage in a bit of language botany, when exploring
the ways the adjective 'free' is used, 'freely,' in 'ordinary language': 'free
fall,' 'alcohol-free,' 'sugar-free,' and his favourite: 'implicature-free.'
Grice's more systematic reflections deal with 'pirotology, or 'creature
construction'. A vegetals, for example is less free than an animal, but more
free than a stone! And Humans are more free than non-human. Grice wants to deal
with some of the paradoxes identified by Kant about freedom, and he succeeds in
solving some of them. There is a section on freedom in "Action and
events" for The Pacific Philosophical Quarterly where he expands on
'eleutheria' and notes the idiocy of a phrase like 'free fall.'
1980. Grice's Frege, Frege, Words, and Sentences, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 7-Folder 2, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: Frege, Farbung, aber. Frege was one of Grice's obsessions. A Fregeian sense is an explicatum, or implicitum, a concession to get his principle of conversational helpfulness working in the generation of conversational implicata, that can only mean progress for philosophy! "Fregeian senses are not to be multiplied beyond necessity." The employment of the routine of Humeian projection may be expected to deliver for us, as its result, a concept – the concept(ion) of value, say, in something like a Fregeian ‘sense,’ rather than an object. There is also a strong affinity between Frege's treatment of 'colouring' (of the German particle "aber," say) and Grice's idea of a convetional implicatum ("She was poor, BUT she was honest,/and her parents were the same,/till she met a city feller,/and she lost her honest name," as the vulgar Great War ditty went). Grice does not seem interested in providing a philosophical exploration of conventional implicata, and there is a reason for this. Conventional implicata are NOT essentially connected, as conversational implicata are, with RATIONALITY. Conventional implicata CANNOT be 'calculable.' They have less of a philosophical interest, too, in that they are NOT cancellable. Grice sees cancellability as a way to prove some (contemporary to him, if dated) "ordinary-language" philosophers who analyse an expression in terms of 'sense' and 'entailment,' where a cancellable conversational implicatum is all there is (to it). He mentions B. S. Benjamin in "Prolegomena" (and is very careful in noting how Benjamin misuses a Fregeian sense. In his "Causal Theory," Grice lists another mistake: "What is known to be the case is not believed to be the case." Grice gives pretty few example of a conventional implicatum: 'therefore,' as in Jill's utterance: "Jack is an Englishman; he is, therefore, brave." This is interesting because "therefore" compares to "so" which P. F. Strawson, in P. G. R. I. C. E., claims is the ASSERTED counterpart to "if." But Strawson was never associated with the type of linguistic botany that Grice was. Grice also mentions the idiom, "on the one hand/on the other hand," in some detail in "Retrospective Epilogue": "My aunt was a nurse in the Great War; my sister, on the other hand, lives on a peak at Darien."
1980. Kant's Grundlegung, Kant's Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Ethics, Kant's foundation of the metaphysics of morals, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 7, Folders 3-4, MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keyword: Grundlegung. While Grice can't read Kant in German, he uses the English vernacular. Note the archaic 'metaphysic' sic in singular. More Kant.
1980. Semantics, grammar and semantics, with R. O. Warner, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 7-Folder 5, BANC MSS 90/135c The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Truth-conditional semantics and implicata.
1980. Teleology and unified science, teleology, the unity of science and teleology, unity of science and teleology, Hands Across the Bay and Beanfest, value, metaphysics, and teleology, finality, final cause (telos-aitia), with A. D. Code, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series IV (Associations), Carton 6-Folder 9, and Series V (Topical), Carton 6-Folder 38 and Carton 9-Folder 23, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: unity of science, teleology, unified science, value, metaphysics, telos, finality, mechanism, final cause (telos-aitia), Code. H. P. Grice’s métier. "Unity of science" was a very "New-World" expression that Grice did not quite buy. Grice was brought up in a world, the "Old World," indeed, as he calls it in his "Proem" to the John Locke lectures, of C. P. Snow's 'two cultures.' At the time of Grice's philosophising, philosophers such as Peter Winch (who indeed quotes fro Grice) were contesting the idea that science is unitary, when it comes to the explanation of rational behaviour. Since a philosophical approach to the explanation of rational behaviour, including conversational behaviour (to account for the conversational implicata) is his priority, Grice needs to distinguish himself from those who propose a 'unified' science, which Grice regards as eliminationist and reductionist. Grice is ambivalent about 'science' and also playful ("philosophia regina scientiarum"). Grice seems to presuppose, or implicate, that, since there is the devil of scientism, science cannot get at teleology The devil is in the physiological details, which are irrelevant. The language Grice uses to describe his pirots as goal-oriented, aimed at survival and reproduction, seems 'teleological' and somewhat 'scientific,' though. But he means that ironically! As the scholastics use it, 'teleology' is a science, the science of 'telos,' or finality (cf. Aristotle on 'telos aitia,' causa finalis. The unity of science is threatened by teleology, and vice versa. Unified science seeks for a 'mechanistically derivable' teleology. But Grice's sympathies lie for 'detached' finality. Grice is obsessed with the Greek idea of a 'telos,' as "slightly overused" by Aristotle. Grice thinks that some actions are 'for their own sake.' "What is the telos of Oscar Wilde?" "Can we speak of Oscar Wilde's métier?" If a tiger is to tigerise, a human is to humanise, and a person is to personise. Grice thought that teleology is a key philosophical way to contest mechanism, so popular in The New World. Strictly, and Grice knew this, 'teleology' is constituted as a 'discipline.' "One term that Cicero was unable to translate!" For the philosopher, 'teleology' is that part of philosophy that studies the realm of the 'telos.' Informally, 'teleological' is opposed to 'mechanistic'. Grice is interested in the mechanism/teleology debate, indeed jumps into it, with a goal in mind! Grice finds some New-World philosophers too mechanistic-oriented, in contrast with the more 'two-culture' atmosphere he was familiar with at Oxford! Code is the Aristotelian, and he and Grice are especially concerned in the idea of 'causa finalis.' For Grice only detached finality poses a threat to Mechanism, as it should!
1980. Benevolentia, metaphysics and ill-will, malevolentia,
The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 7-Folder 28. Keyword:
Ill-will, goodwilll. A conceptual elucidation. Interesting from a historical
point of view seeing that Grice had introduced a principle of conversational
benevolence (i.e. conversational goodwill) as early as 1964! Malevolentia was
over-used by Cicero, translating the Grecian.
1980. Myth, method and myth, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V
(Topical), Carton 7-Folder 30, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The
University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: myth, method. A
philosopher should be allowed, as Plato was, to use a myth, if he thinks his
tutee will thank him for that! Grice loved to compare his "Oxonian
dialectic" with Plato's "Athenian" (strictly,
"Academic") "dialectic." Indeed, there is some resemblance
between Plato's and Grice's use of 'myth' for philosophical methodological
purposes. Grice especially enjoyed a 'myth' in his programme in philosophical
psychology. In this, he was very much being a philosopher. Non-philosophers
usually criticise this methodological use of a 'myth,' but they would, wouldn't
they?
1980. Kant's ethics, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series III (The
Doctrines), Carton 5-Folders 27-28, MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The
University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: Kant, ethics. Why was
Grice attracted to Kant's theory? First, the logical analysis of the
imperatives. Second, as he explored the Grundlegung, the metaphysical
foundation of freedom, and finality. While teleology is usually NOT associated
with Kant, Grice did!
1980. Philosophy, conferences, discussion, The American Philosophical
Association, transcripts by Randall Parker, from the audio-tapes contained in
Carton 10 within the same series IV (Associations), miscellaneous, Beanfest,
transcripts and audio-cassettes, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series IV
(Associations), Carton 6-Folder 8, and Folder 10, and Series V (Topical),
Carton 8-Folders 4-8, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of
California, Berkeley. Unfortunately, Parker typed ‘carulise’ for
‘karulise.’ Or not.
1980. Theory-theory, metaphysics and theorising, The H. P. Grice
Papers, Series II (The Essays), Carton 4-Folders 3-4, Series III (The
Doctrines), Carton 5-Folder 31, and Series V (Topical), Carton 7-Folder 29, and
Carton 9-Folder 14, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The
University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: metaphysics,
theorising, theory-theory, eschatology, Plato, Socrates,
Thrasymachus. Grice was keen to theorise on theorising. He thought
that Aristotle's 'first philosophy' (prote philosophia) is best rendered as
"Theory-theory"! Grice kept using Oxonian English spelling,
'theorising,' except when he did not! Grice calls himself 'folksy': his
theories, even if subject to various types of Ramseyfication, are 'popular' in
kind! And ceteris paribus! Metaphysical construction is disciplined
and the best theorising the philosopher can hope for! The way Grice
conceives of his “Theory-theory” is interesting to revisit. A route by which
Grice hopes to show the centrality of metaphysics (as 'prote philosophia')
involves taking seriously a few ideas. First, that, if any region of
enquiry is to be successful as a rational enterprise, its
deliverance must be expressable in the shape of one or another of the possibly
different types of theory. Second, a characterisation of the nature and
range of a possible kind of theory θ is needed. Third, such a
body of characterisation must itself be the outcome of rational enquiry,
and so must itself exemplify whatever requirement it lays down for any
theory θ in general. Fourth, the characterisation must itself be
expressible as a theory θ, to be called ("if you
like," Grice politely puts it!) “theory-theory,” or
meta-theory, θ2.. Now, the specification and justification of the
ideas and material presupposed by any theory θ, whether
such account falls within the bounds of Theory-theory, θ2 would be
properly called 'prote philosophia' ('first philosophy') and may turn out to
relate to what is generally accepted as belonging to the subject matter of
metaphysics. It might, for example, turn out to be establishable that any
theory θ has to relate to a certain range of this or that subject
item, has to attribute to each item this or that predicate or attribute, which
in turn has to fall within one or another of the range of types or categories. In
this way, the enquiry might lead to recognised metaphysical topics, such as the
nature of being, its range of application, the nature of predication and a
systematic account of categories. 1980. Metaphysics, philosophical
eschatology, and Plato's Republic, Thrasymachus, social justice, Socrates,
along with notes on Zeno, and topics for pursuit, repr. in Part II,
Explorations in semantics and metaphysics to Studies in the Way of Words.
Keywords: metaphysics, philosophical eschatology, Plato's Republic, Socrates, Thrasymachus,
justice, moral right, legal right, Athenian dialectic. Philosophical
eschatology is a sub-discipline of metaphysics concerned with what Grice calls
a 'category shift.' Grice, having applied such a technique to Aristotle's
aporia on 'philos' ('friend') as alter ego, uses it now to tackle Socrates's
view, against Thrasymachus, that 'right' applies primarily to 'morality,' and
secondarily to 'legality.' Grice has a specific reason to include this in his
“Studies in the Way of Words.” Grice’s exegesis of Plato on justice displays
Grice's take on the fact that metaphysics needs to be subdivided into ontology
proper and what he calls 'philosophical eschatology,' for the study of things
like 'category shift’ and other construction routines. The exploration of
Plato’s “Politeia” thus becomes an application of Grice’s philosophically
eschatological approach to the item 'just,' as used by Socrates ('morally
just') and Thrasymachus ('legally just'). Grice has one specific essay on
Aristotle (published in The Pacific Philosophical Quarterly). So he thought
Plato merited his own essay, too! Grice's focus is on Plato's exploration of
'dike.' Grice is concerned with a neo-Socratic (versus neo-Thrasymachean)
account of 'moral' justice as conceptually (or axiologically) prior to 'legal'
justice. In the proceeding, he creates 'philosophical eschatology' as the OTHER
branch to metaphysics, along with good ol' ontology. To say that 'just'
crosses a categorial barrier (from the moral to the legal) is to make a metaphysical,
strictly eschatological, pronouncement. The H. P. Grice Papers locate the Plato
essay in Series II, the Socrates essay in Series III, and the Thrasymachus
essay, under 'social justice,' in Series V. Grice is well aware that in his
account of 'fairness,' Rawls makes use of his ideas on 'personal identity.' The
philosophical elucidation of 'fairness' is of great concern for Grice. He had
been in touch with such explorations as Nozick’s and Nagel’s along
anti-Rawlsian lines. Grice's ideas on rationality guide his exploration of
'social justice.' Grice keeps revising the 'Socrates' notes. The Plato essay he
actually dates 1988. As it happens, Grice's most extensive published account of
Socrates is in this commentary on Plato's Republic: a 'eschatological'
commentary, as he puts it. In an entertaining fashion, Grice has Socrates, and
neo-Socrates, exploring the logic and grammar of 'just' against the attack by
Thrasymachus and neo-Thrasymachus. Grice's point is that, while the legal
'just' may be conceptually PRIOR to the moral 'just,' the moral 'just' is
evaluationally or axiologically prior.
1980. Value systems, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V
(Topical), Carton 9-Folders 25-27, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library,
The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: value system. The idea
of a system of values (cf. 'system of ends') is meant to unify the goals of the
agent in terms of the pursuit of 'eudaemonia.'
1980. Semantic theory, semantics, syntax and semantics, The
H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 9-Folders 17-18, BANC MSS
90/135c, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: syntax, semantics. Especially the former.
Grice loved two devices of the syntactic kind: subscripts and square brackets
(for the assignment of 'common-ground status'). Grice is a
conservative (dissenting rationalist) when it comes to syntax and semantics. He
hardly uses 'pragmatics' albeit in a loose way ('pragmatic import,' 'pragmatic
inference'), but was aware of Morris's triangle. Syntax is presented along
the lines of Gentzen, i.e. a system of 'natural deduction' in terms of
inference rules of introduction and elimination for each formal
device. Semantics pertains rather to Witters's truth-values, i.e. the
assignment of a satisfactory-valuation: the true and the good.
1980. Philosophical explanation, the why, the 'that' and the
'why,' metaphysics, description/taxonomy vs. theoretical explanation, The H. P.
Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 9-Folder 19, BANC MSS 90/135c, The
Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords:
explanation, description, 'why,' 'what'. Taxonomy, is worse than
explanation, always. Grice is exploring the 'taxonomy-description' vs.
explanation dichotomy. He would often criticise 'ordinary-language' philosopher
Austin for spending too much valuable time on linguistic botany, 'without an
aim in his head.' Instead, his inclination, a dissenting one, is to look
for the 'big picture of it all,' and disregard a piece-meal analysis. Conversation
is a good example. While Austin would subjectify 'Language' (Linguistic
Nature), Grice rather places rationality squarely on the behaviour displayed by
utterers as they make conversational moves that their addressees will judge as
'rational' along specific lines. Observation of the principle of
conversational helpfulness is RATIONAL (reasonable) along the following lines:
anyone who cares about the two goals which are central to conversation, viz.
giving and receiving information, and influencing and being influenced by
others, is expected to have an interest in taking part in a conversation which
will only be profitable (if not possible) under the assumption that it is
conducted along the lines of the principle of conversational helpfulness. Grice
is not interested in conversation per se, but as a basis for a THEORY that
explains the MISTAKES 'ordinary-language' philosophers are making. The case of
"What is known to be the case is not believed to be the case."
1981. Philosophy, miscellaneous, topics, The H. P. Grice Papers,
Series V (Topical), Carton 8-Folders 9-13, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft
Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: philosophy.
Grice was a 'meta-linguistic botanist.' His point was to criticise
'ordinary-language' philosophers criticising philosophers. Say: Plato and Ayer
say that 'episteme' is a kind of 'doxa.' The 'contemporary,' if 'dated,'
ordinary-language philosopher detects a nuance, and embarks risking collision
with the conversational 'facts' or data: rushes ahead to EXPLOIT the nuance
without clarifying it, with wrong dicta like: "What I known to be the case
I don't believe to be the case." Surely, a cancellable implicatum
generated by the rational principle of conversational helpfulness is all there
is to the nuance. Grice knew that unlike the 'ordinary-language' philosopher,
he was not providing a taxonomy or description, but a theoretical EXPLANATION!
1982. Reflections on morals, meta-ethics, ethics, with J.
Baker, ethics, North Carolina notes, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II
(Essays), Carton 4-Folders 17-25, and Series V (Topical), Carton 6-Folders
34-36, and Carton 9-Folder 7, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft library, The
University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: morals, meta-ethics.
Grice's explorations on morals are language based. With a substantial knowledge
of the classical languages ("that are so good at verb systems and modes
like the optative, that English lacks"), Grice explores modals
like "should," (Hampshire) "ought to" (Hare)
and, "must" (Grice -- 'necessity'. Grice is well aware of R. M.
Hare's reflections on the 'neustic' qualifications on the 'phrastic.' The
"imperative" has usually been one source for the philosopher's
concern with the language of morals. Grice attempts to balance this with a
similar exploration on 'good,' now regarded as the 'value-paradeigmatic' notion
par excellence. We cannot understand, to echo Strawson, 'the concept of a
person' unless we understand the concept of a GOOD person, i.e. the
philosopher's conceptION of a good person. Morals is very Oxonian.
There were in Grice's time only *three* chairs of philosophy at Oxford: the
three W: The Waynflete chair of metaphysical philosophy, The Wykeham chair
of logic (not philosophy, really), and The White chair of moral philosophy. Later,
the Wilde chair of philosophical psychology was created. Grice was
familiar with Austin's cavalier attitude to morals as White's professor of
moral philosophy, succeeding Kneale. When R. M. Hare succeeds Austin,
Grice knows that it is time to play with the neustic implicatum! Grice's
approach to morals is very 'meta-ethical' and starts with a fastidious (to use
Blackburn's characterisation, not mine!) exploration of 'modes' related to
propositional phrases involving 'should,' 'ought to,' and 'must.' For
Hampshire, 'should' is the moral word par excellence. For Hare, it is
'ought.' For Grice, it is only "MUST" that preserves that sort
of necessity that, as a Kantian rationalist, he is looking for. However, Grice
hastens to add that whatever he'll say about the 'practical' or boulomaic
"MUST" must also apply to the 'doxastic' "must," as in
"What goes up must come down." That he did not hesitate to use
'necessity' operators is clear from his axiomatic treatment, undertaken with A.
D. Code, on Aristotelian categories (izzing and hazzing).
1982. Correspondence with J. Baker, The Grice Papers, Series
I (The Correspondence of H. P. Grice, IA), Carton 1-Folder 2, BANC MSS
90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: Grice, Baker. Grice collaborated with Baker
mainly on work on ethics seen as an offspring, alla Kant, of philosophical
psychology. Akrasia was one such topic. Baker contributes to P. G. R. I. C. E.
("Philosophical Grounds of Rationality: Intentions, Categories,
Ends"), a festschrift for Grice, with an essay on the purity, and alleged
lack thereof, of morally evaluable motives. Do one's motives have to
be pure? For Grice morality cashes out in 'interest,' or desire. Baker also
contributes to a volume on Grice's honour published by Palgrave, Meaning
and analysis: essays on H. P. Grice. Baker is the organiser of a
symposium on the thought of H. P. Grice for the American Philosophical
Association, the proceedings of which are published in The Journal of Philosophy,
with J. F. Bennett as chair, and contributions by Baker, R. Grandy, and
comments by R. Stalnaker and R. Warner.
1982. The alethic-pratical divide, The Kantian problem,
miscellaneous, value sub-systems, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V
(Topical), Carton 9-Folders 25-27, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library,
The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: Kant's problem. More
than a value may co-ordinate in a system. One such is 'eudaemonia' (cf. 'system
of ends'). Kant's problem is the reduction of the categorical imperative to the
hypothetical imperative. For Kant, a value tends towards the
subjective. Grice, rather, wants to offer a 'metaphysical' defence of
'objective' value. Grice called the manual of conversational maxims the
Conversational Immanuel.
1982. Axiology, value and rationalism, values and rationalism, The
H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 9-Folder 28, BANC MSS 90/135c,
The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: value, rationalism, axiology. As opposed to
'relativism,' which denies the rational basis to attitude
ascriptions. Grice is concerned with the absence of a thorough discussion
of 'value' by English philosophers. Continental philosophers, by
comparison, have a special discipline, 'axiology,' for it! Similarly, a
continental-oriented tradition Grice finds in The New World in philosophers of
a pragmatist bent, such as Carus. Grice wants to say that 'rationality' is
a value, because it is a faculty that a creature (human) displays to adapt and
survive to his changing environments. The implicature of the title is that
values have been considered in the English philosophical tradition, almost alla
Nietzsche, to belong to the realm 'irrational.' Grice grants that axiological
implicatum rests on a PRE-rational propension.
1982. Rationality and akrasia, in M. Hintikka and B.
Vermazen, Actions and events: essays on the work of Donald Davidson,
Clarendon, with a reply by Davidson, 1985, Davidson on weakness of the will,
akrasia, incontinence, the paradox of akrasia, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series
II (Essays), Carton 2-Folders 22-23, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library,
The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: akrasia, incontinence,
incontinentia, philosophical psychology, rationality. "We shouldn't
be saying this, but we are saying it!" Grice prefers 'akrasia,' but
he is happy to use Cicero's translation, also negative, of this:
'incontinentia,' "as if 'continentia' were a virtue!". For Grice, the
alleged paradox of 'akrasia,' both alethic and practical, has to be accounted
for by a theory of rationality from the start, and not be deemed a 'stumbling
block.' Grice is interested in both the common-or-garden 'boulomaic' version of
akrasia, involving the volitive 'soul'' -- in term of desirability -- and
'alethic' or doxastic 'akrasia,' involing the judicative soul proper -- in
terms of probability.
1982. Axiology, objective value, the conception of value,
Clarendon, objectivity and value, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Topical),
Carton 8-Folder 18, BANC MSS 1990/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of
California, Berkeley. Keywords: relative value, objective value.
Some background for his third Carus lecture. He tries to find out what J. L.
Mackie means when he says that a value is ultimately 'subjective'. What about
inter-subjective, and constructively 'objective'?
1982. Axiology, The rational motivation for objective value, The
conception of value, Clarendon, objective value, rational motivation, The H. P.
Grice Papers, Series V (Topical), Carton 8-Folder 19, BANC MSS 90/135c, The
Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: value,
axiology, rationality, objective value. Many notions are
value-paradeigmatic. The most important of all philosophical notions, that
of 'rationality,' presupposes objective value as one of its
motivations. For Grice, 'ratio' can be understood 'cognoscendi' but also
'essendi.' "Rational motivation" involves both types of 'ratio.'
1983. Axiology, The conception of value, Clarendon,
The Paul Carus Lectures. H. P. Grice (1983), Clarendon, Oxford, The
H. P. Grice Papers, Series II, Carton 2-Folders 12-16, BANC MSS 90/135c, The
Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords:
objectivity, value, relative value, absolute value, metaphysics, relative and
absolute value, categorical imperative. H. P. Grice: the axiological
implicatum. While Grice rarely used 'axiology,' he should! A set of three
lectures, which are individually identified below. "I love Carus!”
Grice was undecided as to what his Paul Carus lectures were be on. He
explores 'meaning' under its 'value' "optimality" guise in
"Meaning revisited." Grice thinks that a 'value-paradeigmatic'
notion allows him to respond in a more apt way to what some critics were
raising as a possible 'vicious circle' in his approach to 'semantic' and
'psychological' notions. The Carus lectures are then dedicated to the
'construction,' alla Hume, of a 'value-paradeigmatic' notion in general, and
value itself. Grice starts by quoting Austin and J. L. Mackie, of
Oxford. The lectures are intended to a general audience, provided it is a
*philosophical* general audience! Most of the second lecture is Grice's
subtle exploration of Kant's categorical imperative, with which he had
struggled in the last John Locke lecture on aspects of reasoning, notably the
'reduction' of the categorical imperative to this or that 'counsel of prudence'
with an implicated protasis to the effect that the agent is aiming at
'eudaemonia.' The three Paul Carus Lectures, Objectivity and value,
Relative and absolute value, and Metaphysics and value. There were three
Paul Carus lectures. The first lecture, "Objectivity and value," is
a review of J. L. Mackie's Inventing right and wrong; the
second lecture, "Relative and absolute value," is an exploration on
the categorical imperative, and its connection with a prior hypothetical
imperative; the third lecture, "Metaphysics and value," is a
metaphysical defence of absolute value. The collective citation should be
identified by each lecture separately, and this is done below.
1983. Objectivity and value, the first Paul Carus lecture, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: objectivity, value, Axiology -- Value and objectivity, the first Paul Carus lecture, in The Conception of Value, Clarendon, H. P. Grice (1983). Value and objectivity, the first Paul Carus Lecture, keywords: value, objectivity, J. L. Mackie. A discussion of J. L. Mackie's Inventing right and wrong. In the proceedings, Grice quotes the 'artless sexism' of J. L. Austin in talking about the 'trouser words' in Sense and Sensibilia. Grice tackles all the distinctions Mackie had played with: objective/subjective, absolute/relative, categorical/hypothetical.
1983. Axiology, Relative and absolute value, the second Paul Carus
lecture, in The Conception of Value, Clarendon, The H. P. Grice
Papers, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: relative value, absolute value. An
exploration on Paton on the categorical imperative. Grice had previously
explored the logical form of hypothetical imperatives in the Kant (and
later Locke) lectures, notably in Lecture IV, "Further remarks on
practical and alethic reasons." Here he considers topics related to Hare's
tropic-clistic neustic-phrastic quartet. What does it mean to say that
a command is conditional? The two successors of Grice's post as Tutorial
Fellow at St. John's, G. P. Baker and P. M. S. Hacker, will tackle the same
issue with humour, in "Sense and nonsense," published by Blackwell
(too irreverent to be published by the Clarendon). Is the logical form of
a maxim, p horseshoe !q, or !(p horseshoe q), etc.
1983. Axiology, Metaphysics and value, the third and last
Paul Carus lecture, in The Conception of Value, Clarendon, The H.
P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library,
The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: metaphysics, value. A
metaphysical defence of absolute value. The topic fascinated Grice, and he
invented a few routines to cope with it. Humeian projection rationally
reconstructs the intuitive concept 'being of value.' Category shift allows
to put a value such as Banbury's disinterestedness in grammatical subject
position. But the most important routine is that of Trans-Substantion (or
Metousiosis): a human reconstructs as a rational personal being, and alla
Kantotle, whatever he judges is therefore 'of absolute value.' The
issue involves for Grice the introduction of a final cause: 'the final
cause of a tiger is 'to tigerise,' the final cause of a reasoner is to
reason! And this entails absolute value, now metaphysically defended.
1983. Relative and absolute value, Absolute value, Values, Morals,
Absolutes, and the Metapysical, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V
(Topical), Carton 9-Folder 24, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The
University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: relative and absolute
value, metaphysics, axiology. The absolute, versus the relative, is constructed
OUT of the relative, thought. There is hardly a realm of UNconstructed
reality. Grice is especially concerned with J. L. Mackie's rather cavalier
attitude towards the relative and the absolute. Surely the 'absolute' IS a
construction out of the 'relative.' Grice takes a Kantotelian attitude. We
designate a proper judge, the ratiocinative part of the soul of a personal
being. Whatever is 'relative' to this particular creature attains, ipso facto,
'absolute value.' Grice proposes a reduction of 'what is
valuable-ABSOLUTE' to 'what is valuable-RELATIVE,' and succeeds!
1984. Reply to Richards, in Philosophical Grounds of Rationality:
Intentions, Categories, Ends, Clarendon, ed. R. E. Grandy and R. Warner, pp.
45-108, Prejudices and predilections; which become, the life and opinions of H.
P. Grice, Festschrift and Warner Notes, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II
(Essays), Carton 4-Folders 27-30, and Series V (Topical), Carton 6-Folder 37,
BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley.
Keywords: autobiography. “The life and opinions of H. P. Grice,” by H. P.
Grice! P. G. R. I. C. E. had been in the works for awhile. Knowing this, Grice
is able to start his auto-biography, to which he later adds a specific 'reply'
to a few objections by the editors. The 'Reply' is divided in neat sections.
After a preamble displaying his gratitude for the volume in his honour,
he turns to his 'prejudices and predilections; which become, the life and
opinions of H. P. Grice. The third section is a reply to the editors's overview
of his work. This reply itself is itselfsubdivided into questions of meaning
and rationality, and questions of "Metaphysics, philosophical psychology,
and value." As the latter reprinted in "The conception of
value," Clarendon, it is possible to cite this sub-section from the
'Reply' as a separate piece. Grice originally entitles his essay in a
brilliant manner, echoing the style of an English non-conformist, almost:
"Prejudices and predilections; which become, the life and opinions of H.
P. Grice." With his "Richards," a nice Welsh surname, Grice is
playing with the first name of both Grandy and Warner. Grice is especially
concerned with what 'Richards' see as a commitment on Grice's part to the
abstract entity of a 'proposition.' Grice also deals with the alleged
insufficiency in his conceptual analysis of 'reasoning.' He brings for good
measure a point about a potential 'regressus ad infinitum' in his account of a
chain of intentions involved in meaning and communicating in general. While one
of the drafts is titled 'Festschrift,' not by himself, strictly, it is not a
festschrift in that the name is hidden behind the acronym: P(hilosophical)
G(rounds of) R (ationality:) I(ntentions,) C(ategories,) E(nds). Notably on the
philosophy of perception. Also on the conception of value, especially that
tricky third lecture on a metaphysical foundation for objective
value. Grice was supposed to reply to the individual contributors, but
does not. “I cancelled the implicatum!” However, we may identify in his oeuvre
points of contacts of his own views with the philosophers who contributed. Most
of this material is reproduced verbatim, indeed, as the second part of his
"Reply to Richards," and it was a philosophical memoir of which Grice
was rightly proud! The life and opinions are, almost in a joke on Witters,
distinctly separated. Under 'Life,' Grice convers his conservative, irreverent
rationalism making his early initial appearance under the influence of his
non-conformist father, and fermented at his tutorials with Hardie at Corpus,
and his associations with J. L. Austin's Play Group on Saturday mornings. Under
'Opinions,' Grice mainly expands on 'ordinary-language' philosophy and his way
to the City of Eternal Truth. "Metaphysics, Philosophical Psychology,
and Value, in The Conception of Value, is thus part of his
"Prejudices and predilections." The authors Grice quotes are many and
various. Grice spends some delightful time criticising the critics of
'ordinary-language' philosophy such as Bergmann and Gellner. He also quotes
from Jespersen! And Grice includes a reminiscence of the bombshells brought
from Vienna by Freddie Ayer, the enfant terrible of Oxford philosophy. He recalls
an air marshal at a dinner with Strawson recalling Cook Wilson's adage, 'What
we know we know.' And more besides!
1983. Universalia, Universals, with M. Friedman, Group, Partial Working, Copy, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series V (Associations), Carton 6-Folder 11-12, and Series V (Topical), Carton 9-Folder 21-22, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: universalia, universalium, universalium ante re, universalium in re. Universalia as abstrata. Grice's concern with 'universalia' can be traced back to his reading of Aristotle's "Categoriae." Other than the 'substantia prima,' it may be said that anything else -- attribute, etc. -- belongs in the realm of 'universalia.’ As such, univeralia are not spatio-temporal continuants. However, Grice's category shift allows a 'universalium' as a subject of discourse. The topic is approached formally by means of the notion of 'order.' First-order predicate calculus' ranges over individuals, in Strawson's use of the term. A higher-order predicate calculus ranges over 'predicates' and beyond -- as such, a 'universaliu' can only be formalised in higher-order calculi. This is Grice's attempt to approach the Aristotelian and mediaeval problem in pragmatic key. Higher categories as Universalia. This is Grice doing history of philosophy. His main concern is with a 'universalium in re' as an abstract entity. He proposes an exploration of 'universalium in re' as a response to Extensionalism, so fashionable, he thinks, in the New World, within what he calls "The School of Latter-Day Nominalists."
1985. Correspondence with P. Suppes, The H. P. Grice
Papers, Series I (The Correspondence of H. P. Grice, Sub-Series A), Carton
1-Folders 7-8, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of
California, Berkeley. Keywords: Grice, Suppes, utterer's meaning. Suppes
was involved in the P. G. R. I. C. E., and contributes an excellent "The
Primacy of Utterer's Meaning," where he addresses what he rightly sees as
an unfair characterisations of Grice as a behaviourist by three philosophers:
Yu, Biro, and Chomsky. Biro was able to reply to Suppes's commentary on Grice
as proposing a reductive but not reductionist analysis of meaning. Suppes
rightly characterises Grice as an 'intentionalist,' rather, and using such
jargon as 'basic procedure in one's repertoire' as 'informal' and
'colloquial.'
1980. The Philosophy of Bealer, Bealer, Correspondence with G. P. Bealer, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series I (The Correspondence of H. P. Grice, 1A), Carton 1-Folder 4, and Series V (Topical), Carton 6-Folder 20, MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: Grice, Bealer, content. G. P. Bealer is one of Grice's most brilliant tutees! The Grice collection contains a full folder of correspondence with Bealer. Bealer refers to Grice in his influential Clarendon essay on content. Bealer is concerned with how 'pragmatic inference' may intrude in the ascription of a psychological state, attitude, or stance. Bealer loves to quote from Grice on definite descriptions "in Russell and in the vernacular," the implicature being that Russell is impenetrable!
1986. Actions and events, The Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), Carton 3-Folders 1-5 and Series V (Topical), Carton 7-Folders 23 and 32, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: action, event, Davidson, logical form, freedom, cause. How do we define a Griceian action? How do we define a Griceian event? – H. P. Grice. This is Grice's examination and criticism of Davidson, as a 'scientific' realist, followed by a Kantian approach to freedom and causation. Grice is especially interested in 'the logical form,' or explicitum, so that he can play with the implicatum! One of his favourite examples: "He fell on his sword," having tripped as he crossed the Galliae. Grice manages to quote from many and varied authors (some of which you would not expect him to quote) such as Reichenbach, but also Robinson (of Oxford), von Wright and Eddington! Grice offers a 'linguistic botanic' survey of 'free' ("sugar-free," "free fall", "implicature-free") which some have found inspirational. His favourite is Finnegan's “alcohol-free." “His obvious implicature is that everything is alcohol-laden.” Grice kept a copy of Davidson's 'The logical form of action sentences,' since surely Davidson, Grice thought, is making a primary philosophical point. Horses run fast; therefore, horses run. A Davidsonian problem, and there are more to come! Smith went fishing. Grice's category shift invites us to see Smith's fishing as the grammatical subject of an 'action sentence.' Cf. indeed the way to cope with entailment in 'The horse runs fast; therefore, the horse runs.' Grice's "Actions and events" is Davidsonian in motivation, but Kantian in method, one of those actions by Grice to promote a Griceian event! Davidson had published, Grice thought, some pretty influential (and provocative, anti-Quineian) stuff on 'actions' and 'events,' or 'events and actions,' actually, and, worse, he was being discussed at Oxford, too, over which Grice always keeping an eye on! Davidson's point, tersely put, is that while “p.q” (e.g. “It is raining, and it is pouring”) denotes a concatenation of *events*, "Smith went fishing" denotes an 'action,' which is a kind of 'event,' if you are following him (Davidson, not Smith). However, Davidson is fighting against the intuition, if you are a follower of Whitehead and Russell, to symbolise the "Smith is fishing" as “Fs” — where 's' stands for Smith and F for 'fishing.' The logical form of a report of an 'event' or an 'action' seems to be slightly more complicated. Davidson's point specifically involves 'adverbs,' or adverbial modifiers, and how to play with them in terms of entailment. “The horse runs fast; therefore, the horse runs.” "Symbolise that!," as Davidson told Benson Mates! But Mates had gone to the restroom. Grice explores all these and other topics and submits the thing to "The Pacific Philosophical Quarterly." Grice quotes, as isn't his wont, from many and various philosophers, not just Davidson, whom he saw every Wednesday, but others he didn't, like Reichenbach, Robinson, Kant, and, again even a physicist like Eddington. Grice concludes that Davidson is into 'hypothesis,' or 'suppositio,' while he is, as he should, into 'hypostasis,' or 'substantia'!
1987. Conceptual
analysis and the province of philosophy, Studies in the Way of Words, Part II:
Explorations in semantics and metaphysics, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II
(Essays), BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: conceptual analysis, philosophy. How many angels can dance
on a needle’s point? A needless point? This is Grice's update to his "Post
war Oxford Philosophy." More generally concerned with the province of
philosophy in general and conceptual analysis beyond 'ordinary language.' It
can become pretty technical. Note the Roman overtone of 'province'! Grice is
implicating that the *other* province is perhaps science. Grice likes to play
with the idea that a conceptual enquiry need not be philosophical. Witness the
very opening to "Logic and Conversation," 'Prolegomena': “Surely not
all inquiries need be philosophical!" In fact, a "claim to
infame" of Grice at the Play Group is having once raised the infamous,
most subtle, question, what is it that makes a conceptual enquiry
philosophically interesting or importance? As a result, Austin and his
'kindergarten' spent three weeks analysing the distinct inappropriate implicata
of things like "highly depressed" to no avail! Grice's moralising
implicature in retelling the story is that since then he realised (as he hoped
Austin knew) that there is *no way* he or any philosopher can *dictate* to
others, or himself, what is it that makes a conceptual enquiry philosophically
interesting or important!
1987. Retrospective epilogue, to Studies in the Way of Words, Harvard University Press, London, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), Carton 3-Folders 22-26 and Carton 4-Folders 1-2, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: latitudinal unity, meaning, conversational implicata, conversation as rational co-operation. Grice takes the opportunity of the compilation by Harvard of his 'studies in the way of words' to review the idea of philosophical progress in terms of eight different 'strands' which display, however, a consistent and distinctive unity. Grice keeps playing with 'valediction,' 'valeditory', 'prospective' and 'retrospective,' and the different drafts are all kept in The Grice Papers. In the 'Retrospective Epilogue' he provides input for his eight strands, and concludes with a fairy tale about his fairy godmother, G*! As he notes, Grice had dropped a few words in the 'preface' explaining the ordering of essays in the compilation. He mentions that he hesitated to follow Bennett's suggestion that the ordering of the essays be thematic and chronological. Rather, Grice chooses to publish the whole set of seven William James lectures as Part I. Part II is organised more or less thematically, though. In the "Retrospective Epilogue," Grice takes up the idea in the "Preface" that two ideas (Theme A and Theme B) underlie his Studies: that of meaning, and that of assertion. The "Retrospective Epilogue" is thus an exploration on these eight 'strands' he identifies in his own philosophy. Grice’s choice of ‘strand' should not mislead. For Grice, philosophy, like virtue, is entire. All the strands therefore show some 'latitudinal,' and, he hopes, 'longitudinal' unity. By these two types of 'unity,' Grice means the obvious idea that all sub-disciplines of philosophy (philosophy of language, philosophy of perception, philosophical psychology, etc.) interact or overlap, and that a historical regard for one's philosophical predecessors is a must.
1987. 'Preface' to Studies in the Way of Words, foreword,
preliminary valediction, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), Carton
9-Folder 2, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of
California, Berkeley. Grice quotes from J. F. Bennett. More importantly,
Grice focuses on the 'assertion'/'non-assertion' distinction. He overlooks the
fact that for his beloved 'imperative utterances,' asserting is out of the
question. He needs a dummy to stand for both psychological attitudes, as in
'conveying explicitly.' The explicatum or explicitum sometimes does the trick;
sometimes it doesn't! He subdivides his Theme A into 'assertion' vs.
'implication,' or explicitly conveying vs. 'By uttering x (thereby explicitly
conveying that p), the utterer U conversationally implies that q" -- and
meaning.
1988. Studies in the way of words, Harvard University Press, London, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series II (Essays), Carton 3-Folders 7-21, BANC, MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: implicature, rationality. The title Grice eventually chooses for his compilation of essays is a tribute to Locke. The 'studies' are organised in two parts: "Logic and conversation" and "Explorations in semantics and metaphysics." It also includes a Foreword and a very rich "Retrospective Epilogue." From Part I, The William James lectures, only three had not been previously published: "Prolegomena," "Indicative Conditionals," and "Some models for implicature." From Part II, a few essays had not been published before, but Grice, nodding to the longitudinal unity of philosophy, is careful to date them.
1988. Linguistic behaviour, correspondence with J. F.
Bennett, of Oxford, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series I (The Correspondence of H.
P. Grice -- IA), Carton 1-Folder 1, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The
University of California, Berkeley. Keywords: Grice, Bennett, "Linguistic
Behaviour." Bennett quotes Grice in his "Linguistic
Behaviour." Grice quotes Bennett in the "Foreword" to
Studies in the Way of Words. Bennett has an earlier essay on Rationality,
which evidences that the topic is key in Grice's Oxford.
1988. General correspondence, The H. P. Grice Papers, Series
I (The Correspondence of H. P. Grice, IB: General), Carton 1-Folders 10-14,
BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The University of California,
Berkeley. Keywords: philosophical correspondence Grice was not
precisely a good, or reliable, as The British Academy puts it, correspondent.
In the Oxford manner, he preferred face-to-face interaction. He treasured his
Saturday mornings under Austin's guidance, and he himself led the Play Group
after Austin's demise.
1988. Grice on Grice, essays on Grice, Griceana, Griceiana,
The H. P. Grice Papers, Series I (The Correspondence of H. P. Grice, IB:
General), Carton 1-Folder 15, BANC MSS 90/135c, The Bancroft Library, The
University of California, Berkeley. Keyword: secondary literature.
As one (even on the cold shores of Oxford, as one of Grice's tutees put it)
might expect, Grice is cited by various Oxford philosophers! Perhaps the first
to cite Grice in print is his tutee, P. F. Strawson, in Introduction to Logical
Theory. Early on, H. L. A. Hart quotes Grice on meaning in his review of
Holloway's essay on Language and Intelligence for The Philosophical Quarterly,
before Grice's "Meaning" had been published. Obviously, once Grice's
and Strawson's "In defense of a dogma" and Grice's "Meaning"
are published by The Philosophical Review, Grice is discussed profusely.
References to his 'implicature' start to appear in the literature at Oxford in
the mid-1960s. It is particularly intriguing to explore those philosophers
Grice picks up for dialogue, too, and perhaps arrange them alphabetically, from
Austin to Warncok, say. And Griceian references, as they should, keep counting!
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