H. P. Grice, "Pascal"

Consider two conversations -- one of which begins by someone (X) making the claim: (i) "My neighbor's three-year-old child understands Russell's Theory of Types," and the other of which begins by someone (Y) making the claim: (I') "My neighbor's three-year-old child is an adult." It would not be inappropriate to reply to X, taking the remark as a hyperbole: (2) "You mean the child is a particularly bright lad." If X were to say: (3) "No, I mean what I say-he really does understand it," one might be inclined to reply: (4) "I don't believe you-the thing's impossible." But if the child were then produced, and did (as one knows he would not) expound the theory correctly, answer questions on it, criticize it, and so on, one would in the end be forced to acknowledge that the claim was literally true and that the child was a prodigy. Now consider one's reaction to Y's claim. To begin with, it might be somewhat similar to the previous case. One might say: (2') "You mean he's uncommonly sensible or very advanced for his age." If Y replies: (3') "No, I mean what I say," we might reply: (4') "Perhaps you mean that he won't grow any more, or that he's a sort of freak, that he's already fully developed." Y replies: (5') "No, he's not a freak, he's just an adult." I50  IN DEFENSE OF A DOGMA At this stage-or possibly if we are patient, a little later-we shall be inclined to say that we just don't understand what Y is saying, and to suspect that he just does not know the meaning of some of the words he is using. For unless he is prepared to admit that he is using words in a figurative or unusual sense, we shall say, not that we don't believe him, but that his words have no sense. And whatever kind of creature is ultimately produced for our inspection, it will not lead us to say that what Y said was literally true, but at most to say that we now see what he meant. As a summary of the difference between the two imaginary conversations, we might say that in both cases we would tend to begin by supposing that the other speaker was using words in a figurative or unusual or restricted way; but in the face of his repeated claim to be speaking literally, it would be appropriate in the first case to say that we did not believe him and in the second case to say that we did not understand him. If, like Pascal, we thought it prudent to prepare against very long chances, we should in the first case know what to prepare for; in the second, we should have no idea.