[lit-ideas] Lecture on Grice by Geary -- at the Grice Club
- From: jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 09 May 2010 22:12:56 -0400
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Geary <jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sat, May 8, 2010 6:21 pm
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Insults Which Are Humourous (Maybe)
I can't quote from ... Grice, ... , but I know what I mean when I say:
"I'm guessing that..." It means "I'm not positive, but it appears to
me that..." at the same time I'm admitting I'm aware that the I might
be wrong.
-----
Exactly.
One problem with Grice was the unjustified passage from what *I* mean
(what he calls "utterer´s meaning") to what *words*, or as Geary
prefers, *it* (what is it? _means_-
Geary states the paradox thus.
Expression, or utterance (strictly, utteratum):
"I am guessing"
What Geary knows he means: x.
What Geary states "it" means: "I´m not positive, and I may be wrong".
------
Strictly,
"I am guessing" means that the utterer is guessing (Disquotational or
Disapperance Theory of Meaning, according to Grice). The
English-English disquotation (you UNQUOTE the expression in the
that-clause following "... means ..." makes it opaque that the thing
makes a lot of sense, in, say, French:
"Il pleut" means that it is raining.
Now, what an UTTERER (e.g. Geary) _means_ by the _uttering_ of "I am
guessing" is an altogether different business. I guess? No, I know!
JL Speranza
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