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Friday, April 3, 2020

H. P. Grice reminisces on the Oxonian generous requirement for ontological respectability: Richard Robinson's "You name it."



Grice:

It is obvious that VERY MANY WIDELY
different answers have at one time or another
been put forward as to what things exist.

Some of these answers have been
WILDLY GENEROUS like, at Oxford, Richard Robinson's
'You name it.'

Robinson's rationale was Oxonian to the backbone.

By playing with the implicatum of a cliché, and changing the mood marker, from quasi-imperative to doxastic, Robinson argues that
for any x, if you CAN name x, x wins its share of the prize.

Other answers have been REMARKABLY NIGGARDLY, like what C. D. Broad once reported to be Hegel's solitary selection, viz. the kingdom of Prussia. 

 

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