[lit-ideas] A Practising Griceian
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2010 14:52:58 EDT
Quentin Crisp was once accused of being a 'practising homosexual'. "I
didn't know you had to practice for it" -- was his reply.
Grice considers 'praxis' at various points. In general, he prefers the term
"procedure".
A procedure, Ritchie has it right, is "something people do". Animals, too,
for Grice.
Procedures are not just random or unconnected. One has a 'repertoire'. A
repertoire of procedures.
-----
There are two basic types of procedures for Grice. One is, strictly, a
'basic procedure'. The OTHER type of 'procedure' is the 'resultant' procedure.
E.g. to go to the cinema, I have to put my hat on -- suppose. So we have a
resultant procedure (to go to the cinema) which involves a basic procedure
(put your hat on).
Grice considers procedures in "WoW" -- Ways of Words -- lecture 6 -- and
yes, Ritchie had it right, Grice is interested in ONE type of 'procedure'.
Procedures to MEAN.
Today, the Bailey cartoon (army cartoon) showed the following:
--- sargent teaching officer to swear:
OFFICER: $%(@*!!
--- How did it go?
SARGEANT: Pathetic. You would need to say it like you mean it!
OFFICER: But then, you would have to tell me what _it_ means!
----
So, the point. Consider any 'vehicle' for meaning. E.g. to utter "Geez" to
mean, "I'm surprised". This is a sort of resultant procedure.
The idea is that when people say, "Geez!" they mean, "This is Jesus
Christ", and only, as part of an implicature, do they mean, "I am surprised".
For Grice, people can have procedures in one's repertoire which can be
IDIOSYNCRATIC -- i.e. a practice need not be social. Also, a procedure is
'dispositional'.
Grice consider his prim and proper Aunt Matilda who KNOWS what 'runt' is
("He is a runt") but yet has no willingness to display a procedure of
uttering 'runt' to MEAN 'undersized person'.
In the case of the Bailey cartoon, the paradox results in that whatever a
vehicle of meaning MEANS it means what it means because of the procedures in
terms of 'communicative' intentions on the part of utterers. Expression
meaning is ALWAYS derivative of utterer's meaning.
Bourdieu, while he plays with 'language' and symbolic systems, never got
as far as Grice did!
Speranza---Bordighera
In a message dated 9/3/2010 10:39:03 A.M. Argentina Standard Time,
wokshevs@xxxxxx writes:
notion of "practice." What caught my eye, is the idea
> that Medieval aristocrats had "practices," which may have influenced
> "conservationist practices." This to me sounds anachronistic, silly
> even, but I wonder if I'm missing something useful.
>
> Here's the wikipedia definition of the term, "Practice is a concept
> widely used in social sciences such as sociology, anthropology, and
> archaeology, referring broadly to anything people do[1]. It overlaps
> with the Weberian notion of social action and theMarxist concept of
> praxis. Notably, Pierre Bourdieu emphasized the role of practice in
> his theoretical framework[2] ."
>
> Here's the entry on Bourdieu.
>
> His work emphasized the role of practice and embodiment or forms in
> social dynamics and worldview construction, often in opposition to
> universalized Western philosophical traditions. [snip] Bourdieu has
> been listed as the second most-cited author in the humanities by The
> Times Higher Education Guide, behind Michel Foucault and ahead
> ofJacques Derrida.[4]
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