[lit-ideas] Re: A Fine Distinction

A brief ps, and I'm glad it snowed in Portland.
 
-------
 
I referred to 'a fine distinction'.
 
As we recall, the phrase occurs (slightly modified) in the OED for  'fine' -- 
i.e. not "a fine distinction" but "fine distinction" (slight  distinctions 
like that are important when one is googling):
 


1580 BARET Alv. F544 
       A subtile and  fine distinction, distinctio tenuis & acuta. 

 
 
 
Then I mention "nice distinction". The quote here perhaps does not  have 
philosophical pedigree, but it may interest anthropologist McCreery. It's  from 
 
         1974 Current Anthropol.  15 134 
        "There is  a nice distinction between suicide, self-sacrifice, and  
martyrdom."
 
--- I would need  credentials as to origin of author to see what she means!
 
---- Incidentally,  the other quotes under 'fine' include this rather nice 
(if not too refined) one  that may appeal to McEvoy and his bar-friends:

       1885 Law Times LXXIX. 171/2 
       "The distinction  between motive and intention is perhaps a little 
fine."
 
Which should make us wonder about collocations of 'fine' in predicative  
position, and adverbial modifications like "too" ("perhaps a little TOO fine"). 
 
More on this below. For surely, when I wrote of
 
                 valid/true
 
as being a 'fine' distinction, I hear Geary say:
 
       "Fine?! That's gross!
 
(or "That's a gross one")
 
But surely, there is a scalar implicature here:
 
Distinctions are:
 
         fine (acute)    on one end of the spectrum
 
         .
         . 
         .
 
         gross             on  the other end of the spectrum.
 
At present, I'm concerned if the distinction _is_ there, whether 'acute' or  
other.
 
This reminds me of the other example I gave relating to Grice's  
"underdog-ma":
 
                     analytic-synthetic
 
(Note that philosophers, for googling purposes, use the "-" to mark a  
distinction, rather than the "/").
 
That's surely another _gross_ one, rather than subtle or refined, or nescia  
(nice).
 
But Quine's point was that it was _illegitimate_ (He was a Puritan of  
Isle-of-Man stock, and had to keep within the ivory towers of Emerson Hall --  
hey 
not so tall or ivoryish, if you ask me; and he was given pretty rough  handling 
when visiting Grice at St. John's). 

In any case, I searched then for the collocation of 'legitimate  distinction' 
and came out with one quote by this PAP fellow, who's possibly not  a native 
speaker and thus (I'm being 'winkish' towrards Chomsky and his  illegitimate 
obsession with the 'incorrigibility of judgement of native speaker  intuition") 
to be taken with a pinch of mineral:
 
1949 A. PAP Elem. Analyt. Philos. vii. 128 
 
      "The only legitimate  distinction between ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ 
qualities is that between  measurable qualities..and non-measurable qualities."
 
 
---- Perhaps Quine's  position is best understood as claiming that a 
distinction is not fine, refined,  subtle, gross, legitimate, too fine, etc. 
_per se_ 
but in terms of what later  Davidson, following Quine, called 'conceptual 
scheme'. Within _empiricism_,  there's no need for the analytic-synthetic 
distinction, Quine thought. And he  should know, because there he was dancing 
the 
roundeley in the Wiener Kriese  with Ayer.
 
However, when Grice  and Strawson, having taken Ayer's _Language, Truth and 
Logic_ with more  seriousness than Quine ever cared, read about Quine's 
prejudices they seemed to  have thought, "That's _too_ much. We shouldn't 
tolerate 
that!"
 
And came out with  some brilliant examples of the 'oligoi' and 'polloi' 
uttering things that we can  _legitimately_ distinguish as being either 
analytic or 
synthetic.
 
Quaestio subtilissima: can a chimera eat infinite intentions? How many  
angels can sit on the point of a needle? Can you have a pain in your tail.  
Perhaps 
we should have a Quaestio Subtilissima Contestio for the New Year. 
 
Cheers,
 
J. L.  Speranza
     Buenos Aires, Argentina.

 



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