[lit-ideas] Grice Now
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2013 09:51:12 -0500 (EST)
In a message dated 1/16/2013 2:09:53 P.M. UTC-02,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes in "Aristotle..."
"That people can present this Kripke point without acute intellectual
embarrassment explains why they are also the kind of people unembarrassed that
Popper is nowhere on their list"
Perhaps we can take a closer look at what R. Paul's links is all about. The
categories are A, B, C, and D, as I recall, and there's an intro.
Cheers,
Speranza
In the intro, the editors write that "to mark "Philosophy Now’"s 21st
Birthday, we posted a questionnaire on various e-mail lists read by academic
philosophers" where the reference to "Hekademos" is at most indirect "asking
which thinkers" or philosophers (such as Grice), say, "trends", such as
"palaeo-Griceanism", say, "and books" (such as Grice's WoW, Way of Words"
"they regarded as the most interesting or important" -- or both -- but not
necessarily the most expensive, or just because their bear a judgemental cover
(Lord Ashton: "I never judge a book by its cover").
"This isn’t", the editors go on, "because we’ve suddenly decided that
only the opinions of professional", as opposed to amateur, or gentlemanly,
"philosophers matter." But for some other reason left unexplained!
"We just thought all our readers might be interested in the results"---
where "all" is to be read, alla early Kripke, _substitutionally_. Cfr.
"Some of our readers would be at least interested in many of the results."
Provide alternate formalisations using pleonetetics.
The 75 respondents were self-selecting.
57 were academics
12 graduate students and
6 ‘others’.
-- In Latin, 'alteri'.
Just under a third (24) were female.
"Most respondents were from the British English-speaking countries" and
regions (including, but not excluding England) "though there were a few each
from Germany and Brazil" where her English is not spoke, as the idiom goes.
****************************************************************************
**
CATEGORY A)
Please name the five historical (i.e. dead) philosophers you consider the
most interesting or important.
PHILOSOPHER TOTAL VOTES
Aristotle -- Greek philosopher -- wrote in GREEK -- 44
Immanuel Kant -- German philosopher -- wrote in GERMAN originally 37 --
Grice would have voted Ariskant/Kantotle
Plato -- Greek philosopher -- wrote in Greek 31
David Hume -- Scots philosopher -- originally spelt "Home" -- wrote in
Scots -- cfr. Reid below -- 26
Ludwig Wittgenstein -- Austrian philosopher of Jewish descent -- wrote in
German, originally although some of his later publications were produced
directly in English. 25
René Descartes Renatus Cartesius -- European philosopher -- wrote in
French and Latin -- 15
G.W.F. Hegel -- German philosopher -- wrote in German -- 12
Friedrich Nietzsche -- German philsopher, friend of opera composer Richard
Wagner -- wrote in German -- 11
Bertrand Russell -- Welsh philosopher and aristocrat -- wrote in English
and Russellian. 10 -- cfr. Grice, "Definite descriptions in Russell and in
the vernacular" ("The meaning of English "the" is not necessarily the meaning
of Russell's iota descriptor" -- it lacks a few implicatures").
Michel Foucault -- French philosopher -- wrote in French -- described by
McEvoy as a liberator -- 8
Gottlob Frege -- German philosopher -- wrote in German -- "On sense and
reference" 8
Willard van Orman Quine -- American philosopher of Manx descent -- wrote
in English, not Manx 8
Martin Heidegger -- German philosopher -- wrote in German -- Ryle reviewed
his "Time and Being" 7
Simone de Beauvoir -- French philosopheress -- wrote in Parisian -- 6
Baruch Spinoza -- Jewish European philosopher -- wrote not in his native
dialect, but in a Spinozian version of Latin 6
David Kellogg Lewis -- American philosopher of Scots descent -- wrote
about possible worlds 5
Thomas Hobbes -- my favourite English philosopher EVER -- Also spelt (or
spelled) "Hobbs" -- wrote a fictionary short story about a monster he called
"Leviathan", after the Biblical reference -- THE FIRST ENGLISH PHILOSOPHER
MENTIONED IN THE LIST ("It can be argued that Russell was English, too, in
spite of having been born in what was then part of Wales") -- Hobbes wrote
in Latin, "Computatio sive Logic" -- Oxford did not yet speak English -- 5
Edmund Husserl -- German philosopher -- wrote in German 5
John Rawls -- American philosopher of Irish descent -- wrote on "Freedom"
and quotes Grice 1941 5
Socrates -- teacher of Aristotle's teacher -- 5 -- wrote ... no, didn't
write, but SPOKE in GREEK, reported by Plato.
John Locke -- my favourite English philosopher ever -- mostly influential
in Oxford: The John Locke Lectures 4 -- wrote the Essay concerning humane
(sic) understanding. Wore a big wig (most of the time).
Karl Marx -- German philosopher -- wrote on "The capital", in German. 4
Elizabeth Anscombe -- English philosopheress, married to Prof. Geach --
wrote in German when editing Witters -- and English -- selected by R. Paul
for original header of his post. 3
Thomas Aquinas -- my favourite Italian philosopher -- 3 -- wrote in a
primitive version of Italian called "Latin". He wrote extensively -- see, if
not read, the 78 volumes of his "Summary of Theology" (a pun).
John Stuart Mill -- English philosopher almost, his father was a Scot. 3
wrote in English, "On Liberty", but mostly influential for his "System of
Logic" -- "grice to the mill" Grice would pun.
G.W. Leibniz -- German philsopher -- wrote in Latin 3
Wilfrid Sellars -- American philosopher -- wrote in American -- 3 --
Sellars, not to be confused with Sellers, not a philosopher
Bernard Williams -- London-born philosopher of Welsh descent -- Oxford
educated. 3 Wrote in English and "Truthfulness".
Confucius non-Western "philosopher" 3
Chrysippus -- Greek philosopher -- 2 wrote in Greek.
Cicero -- my favourite Roman philosopher EVER -- he was murdered -- 2 --
wrote in Classical Latin -- also called "Ciceronian Latin". He was an
ecclectic best described as an academic sceptic of the "second Academy". His
son
was also a philosopher, but a minor one, in age terms.
George Berkeley-- my favourite Irish philosopher and name of Grice's uni
in California -- 2 Wrote in Latin: "Esse est percipi" (where 'percipi' is
passive).
Michael Dummett -- London-born philosopher, critical of Grice's Play Group
2 wrote in a very convoluted sort of prose called "intuitionistic".
Epicurus -- Greek philosopher -- cfr. Walter Pater, "Marius The Epicurean"
2 wrote in Greek, but was read in Latin.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty -- French philosopher of perception" 2 wrote in
Parisian
Thomas Reid -- Scots philosopher -- 2 -- like Home (Hume). Wrote on
Personal Identity, as cited by Grice 1941
Jean-Paul Sartre -- French philosopher -- 2 -- wrote big volumes in
"existentialist" French (overuse of 'being' and its cognates).
Schopenhauer -- German philosopher -- whose first name was thought
redudant by the editors 2 wrote on the world as will (and representation), and
was
slightly pessimistic about things.
Xunzi (Hsun Tzu) -- non-Western "philosopher" 2
Zhuangzi -- non-Western "philosopher" 2
Iris Marion Young 2 -- perhaps McEvoy should say something about her.
******************************************
CAVEAT:
"In addition to those listed, 34 other historical philosophers received
one vote each", which we presume included:
H. P. Grice
Paul Grice
Herbert Paul Grice
Grice
---
(Note that if Grice were alive he would not be a historical philosopher)
(And reciprocally, that living philosophers are never historical, but
something different) -- "Cfr. Abbagnano, A sketch towards a study of future
philosophy").
Notes:
"Aristotle came top," even if we are still not in the Middle Ages, as
someone said, -- his works have been published bilingually by Loeb, "with Kant
dramatically beating Plato to second place (though if Socrates’s votes are
added to those for Plato, it would be a close thing)."
The Socrates+Plato summatory is a witty thing. Cfr. Also:
Ariskant -- Kantotle
Plathegel
Most scholars do distinguish between the mostly "idiotic" (in classical
Greek, "particular") generalisations brought by Socrates and their
deconstructions by the aristocratic genius that Plato was (also an "idiot", in
classical Greek parlance: "a one of his kind").
The note continues:
"David Hume" (also spelt/spelled Home) "whose reputation has fallen and
risen dramatically since his death, came 4th." Also-ran. Note that the point
about fall and rise of reputation applies to ALL philosophers, perhaps
excluding Iris Marion Young (deceased).
"The subject of this issue, Friedrich Nietzsche, came 8th." Hidden
promotional cue to what the mag is about.
"Fifty years ago [the author of Zarathustra] was often seen as a
proto-Nazi, and twenty one years ago he was still dismissed by many
philosophers as
"more a poet than a philosopher" -- and as "more of a philosopher than a
poet" by many poets, which is sadder.
****************************************************************************
***
CATEGORY B)
"Please name the five living (i.e. non-dead) philosophers you consider the
most interesting or important", and not just because they gave you a good
grade in the course you took with them, or because they look "elegant", as
Grice did.
"An astonishingly high total of [the astonishing high number] 178
different living philosophers were named altogether, 45 of them women."
No transsexual.
"The philosophers mentioned most often were."
PHILOSOPHER TOTAL VOTES
Saul Kripke -- American philosopher of Jewish descent -- writes in
"Principia Mathematica" 14
David Chalmers -- Australian philosopher -- writes on Consciousness 11
Timothy Williamson -- British philosopher, Stockholm-born, Wykeham prof.
logic, Oxford -- write on pejoratives 10
Daniel C. Dennett -- American philosopher, Oxford educated at All Souls --
writes on brainstorms 8
Hilary Putnam -- American philosopher of Puritan pedigree -- writes on
stuff -- 8
Judith Butler -- American philosopheress -- writes "badly" -- she proudly
received the "Bad Writing Contest" some time ago -- after H. Babba 8
Jürgen Habermas -- German philosopher -- writes in German about non-German
authors such as Grice -- vide Speranza: Reading Habermas Reading Grice 8
Derek Parfit -- Oxford philosopher -- and English, like Hobbs, or Hobbes,
or Locke (or Lock, also spelt), or J. S. Mill -- 7 quotes from Grice,
"Personal Identity"
Graham Priest -- Scottish philosopher -- 6 -- write in English
Martha Nussbaum -- American philosopheress -- 6 -- write in English about
Greek.
Alvin Plantinga -- American philosopher 5 -- writes in English and uses
symbolism
Ian Hacking -- Canadian philosopher, married to Grice's collaborator,
Judith Baker -- 5 writes in readable English.
John McDowell -- English philosopher, Oxford educated -- 5 -- writes in
English and loves Grice and Strawson.
John Searle -- American philosopher, Oxford-educated (tutor: Strawson) 5
wrote extensively on Grice -- and Grice quoted him extensively in "Logic and
Conversation" lectures. Grice was abhorred (sic) by Searle's "Aberrations"
Linda Martin Alcoff 5 -- she writes in English and her reputation has
never fallen
Thomas Nagel -- a student of Grice's at St. John's, Oxford -- 5 writes in
English. Delivered a seminar at Harvard on "The best things in life" (are
free). Grice quotes his "Altruism" in "Aspects of Reason".
****************************************************************************
*******
CATEOGORY
C)
"Please name the rising star among younger philosophers (under 40) who you
consider the most worth watching" (without being watched).
"A small number of philosophers were OUTRAGED (if that's the word) by us
even asking this question, fearing that it would feed into a tendency towards
‘ranking’ young academics.", where 'rank' is held to be a bad word.
"However, although 52 philosophers were mentioned in the responses to this
question, nearly all of them were named only once each, which would make
any kind of ranking entirely meaningless anyway.
They included thirteen women philosophers."
And no transsexual.
"Only two philosophers were mentioned even FOUR times each.
They were the logician Dr Rachael Briggs and Prof. Mark Schroeder, who
works mainly in meta-ethics.
Interestingly, both have published papers in recent years which have later
been collected in
"The Philosopher’ Annual"
(This is a publication a bit like The Beano Annual, except that it
contains what its editors judge to have been the ten best philosophy papers of
the
year just past.)"
Again, the reputations of Rachael Briggs and Mark Schroeder (relation to
the other Schroeder) have never fallen -- and they are not historical.
**************************************************************************
CATEGORY D) Other than palaeo-Griceanism, "[W]hat current philosophical
movement, tendency or approach do you consider to be the most interesting?"
"There was an extremely wide scattering of answers, with none being
mentioned by more than two or three respondents."
But will fill the forthcoming, "Dictionary of Philosophy" -- availble from
"Philosophy" (or "Grice") "NOW".
"One or two people said they expected the answers to this question to be
dominated by experimental philosophy, as being the most visible current
trend."
"However, this was not the case."
"The results suggested instead an astonishing variety of approaches in
current philosophy.
Answers included, in alphabetical list." with some additions.
analytical philosophy -- after a misreading of Aristotle's "Analytics"
anti-realism
anti-theory in ethics -- no main written source available
applied epistemology -- to the making of bridges -- cfr. applied
engineering
applied ontology
attempts to move beyond the analytic/continental divide -- followed by
their failures.
Australian realism -- summer destination.
Buddhist ethics
causal modelling approach
Chinese philosophy, as available in illustrated English editions
communism as misdefined by Badiou
Confucian virtue ethics -- with a list of his sins.
Constitutivism (in the theory of reasons and agency)
contemporary continental political philosophy -- especially from VERY
continental (inland) places with a strong neo-liberal government -- cfr.
Bruxelles.
contemporary naturalism
debate about practical reasoning and rationality
definite description approach -- versus indefinite description: "SOME
survey".
dialethism and more generally paraconsistency in logic
disability studies
disjunctivism (or the paraconsistent use of Grice's "or").
dispositional essentialism
distributed cognition and extended mind -- as Popper's World 3
dynamic strict conditional approach -- for the analysis of "if it rains we
go to the cinema"
----
E
----
enactivism
experimental philosophy
---
F
----
feminist epistemology -- as per Jennifer Hornsby
feminist philosophy -- as per Jennifer Hornsby and Jennifer Saul.
formal epistemology
Frankfurt School, the -- of Philosophy: "The Apel of my eye"
---
G
---
genetic epistemology
Grice studies
Grice implicature
Gricean Studies
Griceian implicature
Griceian conversational disimplicature
Griceian Studies
-- after H. P. Grice, not G. R. Grice -- author of "Foundations of Moral
Judgement".
grounding/fundamentality in metaphysics
Hegelian idealism
hermeneutic philosophy of science -- NOT as in Popper.
indirect realist theories of perception
intersectionality
intentionalism -- as in Grice, "Meaning and intention"
knowledge-first epistemology
liberal naturalism in the philosophy of mind (i.e. panpsychism)
modal rationalism -- as in Kant's DATUM.
moral psychology
narrative identity -- as in Grice, "Personal identity"
naturalism
new materialisms
new realism
non-ideal ethical theory
non-Western philosophy (including non-Oxford philosophy)
normative dimensions of epistemology
phenomenology in relation to democracy
philosophers interacting with cognitive scientists
philosophy of management where it relates to continental philosophy
philosophy of music -- especially OPERA
philosophy of social and science policy
philosophy of technology
postcolonial (decolonizing) theory;
post-Lacanian readings of contingency and fate
pragmatism
promiscuous realism in philosophy of science -- of the type Popper abhorred
(sic).
non-positivist analytic philosophy (cfr. Roger Bishop Jones, positivist
analytic philosophy).
social epistemology and feminist epistemology
studying and naming philosophical methodology
the (revived) attempt to ground normative judgments in emotional responses
-- alla Stevenson (cited by Grice, in "Meaning" -- "Language and Ethics").
the combination of ecological approaches and phenomenology in the
philosophy of mind
the new dualism in philosophy of mind
the various critical replies to experimental philosophy
virtue ethics.
**********************************************************************
CATEGORY E)
"Which two areas of philosophy (i.e. ‘Philosophy of X’) do you consider to
be the most active at the present time?"
cfr. Ryle/Urmson discussion on "The philosophy of X" -- "Such nonsense; no
such things in OUR salad days at Oxford!"
AREA OF PHILOSOPHY TOTAL VOTES
Philosophy of Mind -- or "Philosophical Psychology", as Grice corrected it
-- 20
Epistemology 10
Metaphysics -- including Eschatology, alla Grice 8
Ethics -- or Moralia 7
Metaethics -- alla R. M. Hare 6
Philosophy of Cognitive Science 6
Philosophy of Science -- alla Popper but also Lakatos and Kuhn 5
Experimental Philosophy 4
Philosophies of Gender and Race 4
Applied Ethics 3
Marxism (Eastern and Western) 3 -- cfr. Grice's "Ontological marxism": if
an entity works, it exists.
Philosophy of Perception -- alla Grice, "Causal Theory of Perception" 3
Philosophy of Psychology 3
Ecological Philosophy 3
There were many other areas of philosophy which received just one or two
votes.
*****************************************************************
CATEGORY F)
"What is the most interesting" yet not necessarily the most expensive
"philosophy book published in the last five years in a language that you
understand?
*****************************************************************
"Sixty one books were recommended, but no book was recommended more than
once except for Derek Parfit’s recent blockbuster
"On What Matters", which was named four times."
Cfr. Mind:
What's the matter?
Never mind.
"Parfit’s masterly synthesis of leading ethical theories circulated in
photocopied form for several years before finally being published, with
commentaries by four other moral philosophers, in 2011. (It was reviewed in
Philosophy Now Issue 87.)"
"Many thanks to everyone who took part in the survey"
You're welcome!
Cheers
"David Chalmers is an Australian philosopher of mind perhaps most famous
for formulating the ‘hard problem of consciousness’. The problem is not in
explaining how we can detect and respond to the world (mindless robots can
do that), but explaining how what might generally be called our experiences
(or ‘phenomena’), can be produced through the activity of the brain.
Chalmers has argued that since zombies (i.e., mindless but animate human
bodies
and brains) are conceivable, there must be a conceptual distinction between
brains and experienced phenomena, meaning that experiences are not just
physical things."
"Saul Kripke is an American philosopher from Princeton who is known for
focusing on an analysis of language and on modal logic, which is concerned
with how to talk about possible worlds. For instance, his 1980 book Naming and
Necessity argued that names are ‘rigid designators’ and refer to the same
thing in all possible worlds, e.g. ‘Richard Nixon’ would refer to the
same man whether or not he had become President. Kripke also makes the point
that different names for the same thing can highlight how the way we refer
to something can affect the truth of propositions about that thing, e.g. it’
s true that Mary Jane knows that Peter Parker is Peter Parker, and that
Spiderman is Spiderman, but it’s not true that she knows that Peter Parker is
Spiderman."
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