[lit-ideas] Re: Grice: The Unwritten Doctrines
- From: jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:39:30 -0500
The last few times Grice was here he coughed A LOT. Deep, lung wringing
wheezes that left him bent down over the table in front of him, scalp to
audience. Like dead air time, his wheezes and the ensuing gasps for air,
as from an asthmatic or one with emphysema, seemed to last forever. His
audience of students and faculty sat in silent empathy until he
recovered. This happened two or three times per fifty-minute talk.?
?
May he breathe easy.?
----
Indeed. One of the most moving passages in S. R. Chapman's book recounts an
anecdote by that delight of a woman,
Mrs. Grice.
"The allocation of time and the completion of projects became a pressing
concern for Grice as the 1980s wore on because his health was failing."
"He had been a heavy smoker throughout his adult life..."
[Indeed, it is my understanding that Mabel Fenton Grice, Grice's mother, is to
blame. She apparently said, in a perhaps influence by Sir Noel Coward, that H.
P. looked 'sophisticated' with his cigar-thing ('boquilla' we say in Spanish)].
"and tape recordings from the 1970s onwards demonstrate that his speech was
frequently interrupted by paroxysms of coughing."
------> AND HERE IS WHERE THE SO MOVING ANECDOTE BY MRS. GRICE COMES IN, God
bless her too:
"In response, [Grice] gave up cigarettes suddenly and completely in 1980."
"He insisted to Kathleen [his wife] that his last, unfinished, packet of one
hundred Player's Navy Cut stayed in the house, but he never touched it."
[marginal note on my book, "He did stop smoking -- cfr. Habermas -- Grice"]
"THis drastic action was taken, as he himself was in the habit of commenting,
too late".
"In December 1983 he gave a farewell lecture at the end of his time at the
University of Washington, in which he referred to 'my recent disagreement with
the doctors'"
"Even before this had taken place, he explains, he had decided to offer this
talk as a thank you on his and Judith
Baker's behalf, 'for making the time spent by us here such _fun_" [note 25]."
"Whether or not the doctors in question were insisting that Grice finish his
demanding shuttle between Berkeley
and Seattle ..."
[with glorious stops at Reed, due to the courtesy of great R. Paul who would
drive them around. JLS]
"they [the doctors] certainly seem to have been recommending that he slow down.
It was around this time that he was
first diagnoses with emphysema, the lung condition that was presenting him with
breathing difficulties and was to cause increasing ill health over the
following years" (Chapman, p. 168).
In any case,
I am reminded of Grice's colleague, G. J. Warnock (Vice-Chancellor of Oxford).
The Grice collection contains some important joint work. Warnock died of cancer
to the throat and Dame Mary recalls the episodes with great suffering.
As with Grice, death may have been a relief in that front. And as R. Paul says,
may he and Warnock now breathe easy.
I'm also reminded of Plato: The Unwritten Doctrines (is it?). I never read it,
and I'm not sure how serious we have to be as something being 'unwritten'.
Surely I don't need a _carve_ on a material surface for something said to have
been
_out there_. Tapes do, and I do believe in telepathy too.
Grice wrote more than his share. We should be grateful for that, and not stick,
as I accidentally did on the subject line of this thread, on what he did not
write, but may have written. Not all philosophy is out there to be written for
posterity. Indeed, I would sometimes ask a student to turn OFF the
tape-recorder.
This reminds me of Orpheo.
ORPHEUS. I am going to teach you a doctrine.
PLATO. Orphism?
ORPHEUS. Yes, but you must promise. This must be kept a secret between you, my
disciples, and me.
----
Or cfr. Jesus.
JESUS: Are you recording this, Timothy?
TIMOTHY. Sure, "J. C."
JESUS. And you?
PETER. No
JESUS. What?
PETER. No.
JESUS: What?
PETER: No.
--- Yet it was Peter who founded it, not Paul. Can you believe it that when I
was researching for L. Horn on the history of negation, I found this book,
cited by the OED, called "Not Paul". I thought it was on Grice and negation,
but it is on
Peter and denial. Anyway.
Cheers,
J. L.
J. L. Speranza, Esq.
The Grice Club, etc.
Calle 58, No. 611
La Plata B1900BPY
Buenos Aires, Argentina
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sat, 9 Feb 2008 10:12 pm
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Grice: The Unwritten Doctrines
JL wrote?
?
> Anyway, I was thinking. S. R. Chapman who wrote this book on _Grice_
> went to Bancroft (UC/Berkeley) and found some _tapes_ -- these were
> recordings of Grice's talks.?
>
> She noticed that the audience _laughed_ a lot, Grice _coughed_ a bit,
> and everybody seemed to be having a 'jolly good time'.?
?
The last few times Grice was here he coughed A LOT. Deep, lung wringing
wheezes that left him bent down over the table in front of him, scalp to
audience. Like dead air time, his wheezes and the ensuing gasps for air,
as from an asthmatic or one with emphysema, seemed to last forever. His
audience of students and faculty sat in silent empathy until he
recovered. This happened two or three times per fifty-minute talk.?
?
May he breathe easy.?
?
Robert Paul?
Reed College?
?
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