In a message dated 1/13/2016 9:11:57 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx quotes in "On Emersonian influence" from Bloom:
"Henry
James [was] linked to Emerson by family traditions."
By which Bloom seems to be suggesting that a 'family tradition' (does he
mean 'blood link' -- since 'tradition' can be a vague word) should count as
an 'influence', even a genetic one!
I enjoyed Helm's thoughts on 'influenced' and 'being influenced'. Wiki
entries for a number of philosophers usually lists: 'influenced by',
'influenced'. I.e. while knowing that Geary hates algebra, we have here what
Russell
calls a 'strange relation'. "To influence" is a dyadic relation
I(a, b)
reads
a influences b
and
b is influenced by a.
Helm is wondering if all this is conscious, and he makes a good point that
philosophers (or perhaps poets) dislike hearing they have been influenced.
So back to Grice.
He was influenced by Emerson!
Grice was influenced, genetically, by his father, a non-conformist. At
Oxford, Grice was NOT influenced by Walter Pater (that Helm's post mentions)
but by Cook Wilson. Notably, because Wilson said, "What we know we know,"
which Grice thought was a philosophical gem.
Grice HAD to be influenced by his tutor (Oxford being what it is -- as
McEvoy is well aware -- the tutorial system IS Oxford and Oxford _is_ the
tutorial system, clumsily imitated at Cambridge): Hardie. Grice recalls however
Hardie's exchanges with OTHER tutees. To one of them, Hardie, after a
ten-minute silence, uttered, "And what do you mean by "but"?" (No, Geary, he
did
not mean 'butt').
Emerson like James was a Brahmin, as Bostonians calls them, unless of
course he wasn't.
I tend to like Brahma, especially when I learned that Giorgio Bizet, in "I
pescatori di perle", based his "Inno a Brahma" on his "Te Deum" that he had
composed in Rome.
I like Eliot's use of 'incumbrance' as quoted by Helm quoting Bloom.
Eliot:
i. The "Essays" of Emerson are already an encumbrance.
I wonder what the implicature of 'already' is.
Geary prefers:
ii. The "Essays" by Emerson are all-ready an encumbrance.
But then
iii. An encumbrance is already an encumbrance.
The Possum (as his enemies called Eliot) surely must mean Latin
"incombrare", from in- "in-" + "-combrus", a barricade or obstacle -- The
Romans were
good at that, as was Attila -- probably (but probably not, as Geary adds)
from Latin "cumulus" "heap" (see cumulus). Meaning "hinder, hamper" is
attested in English from late 14c., but I'm sure the Anglo-Saxons encountered
a
few encumbrances before Eliot could ever think of Emerson's Essays.
Cheers,
Speranza
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