In a message dated 8/4/2015 11:10:24 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
rpaul@xxxxxxxx writes:
Wittgenstein himself, in the Investigations, answers an unnamed
interlocutor, who says (§107), 'Aren't you nevertheless a behaviourist in
disguise?
Aren't you nevertheless basically saying that everything except human
behaviour is a fiction?' —LW: 'If I speak of a fiction here, then it is of a
grammatical fiction.'
Thanks, that was a great quote.
I suppose it relates to Oxford and Blackwell's* -- the most popular
bookshop there, to some --. You enter Blackwell's and you are greeted by the
bookseller. Then he asks you (B: Blackwell's bookseller, Y: You -- in what
Donato calls its "impersonal" usage).
B: May I help you.
Y: I'm looking for a book.
B: Fiction or non-fiction.
Y (Thinking of Arnold's "Dover Beach"): Fiction.
B: Grammatical fiction?
Y: Sorry?
B: Grammatical fiction?
Y: I can't see what you're talking about.
B: That's just logical. If you could see what I am talking about you'd
have sharper eyes than most!
Y: Are you 'kidding' me?
B: No, just quoting Witters: In "Philosophical Investigations" he does
refer to 'grammatical fiction'.
Y: "Grammatical fiction"? Did he really.
B: Aha. And in German too. The tr. is by G. E. M. Anscombe, who lived not
far from here. Back in the day.
Y: So, what _is_ grammatical fiction? You have a whole section for that?
B: No. Just one book. Now in paperback: Witters's "Philosophical
Investigations", tr. by G. E. M. Anscombe, who lived not far from here.
Y: I think I rather look for non-grammatical non-fiction, then, if you
mind. Do you have a thorough analysis of "Dover Beach"? I want to know if what
Arnold says there is true or not.
Cheers,
Speranza
* Blackwell's has followed a determined policy since the 1990s to spread
out from its traditional Oxford base and take on a much broader UK presence.
In 1995, Blackwell's became the first bookshop in the UK to allow its
customers to purchase online from a catalogue of over 150,000 titles, and
opened
a flagship shop in London the same year, at 100 Charing Cross Road, which
is now one of the company's six most prominent shops. Blackwell's took over
the Heffers bookshops in Cambridge in 1999, and in 2002 acquired the
academic bookshops of James Thin in Scotland. Blackwell's now has over 60
retail
outlets across the UK, including a number of medical and other specialist
bookshops, and even a shop in Aberdeen specialising in the oil industry.
Both the Oxford and London flagship shops have won Bookseller of the Year at
the British Book Awards. The company is still in the hands of the Blackwell
family. Support for its activities, including Blackwell's Online, is based
at Beaver House in Oxford. The company was to be partially funded by Toby
Blackwell Limited in 2012.
