We are considering the controversial death of Charles II.
David Ritchie asks: "Controversial?" and quotes from a history book.
The king "suffered a sudden apoplectic fit on the morning of 2 February 1685,
and died at 11:45 am four days later. The suddenness of his illness and death
led to suspicion of poison in the minds of many, including one of the royal
doctors; however, a more modern medical analysis has held that the symptoms of
his final illness are similar to those of uraemia (a clinical syndrome due to
kidney dysfunction). In the days between his collapse and his death, Charles
endured a variety of torturous treatments including bloodletting, purging and
cupping in hopes of effecting a recovery.
In her "Memoirs of a King," Barbara Cartland notices that one of the doctors'
surnames was, "oddly, Grice." She adds:
"It was possibly Grice who administered to the King a concoction of cowslips
and extract of ammonia to promote sneezing" and adds, "however, it is not
known" (what is? as Pyrhro would ask) "if this promotion of sneezing, by Grice,
was done to hasten his death (as a "coup de grice" as we may have it), or as an
ultimate attempt at treatment."
The answer surely rests on what Grice calls an m-intention.
Consider:
i. The controversial monarch sneezed.
ii. It is Grice's intention that the controversial monarch sneeze.
What's the intention behind the intention, as Geary would put it? If (ii) gets
expanded as:
iii. So that Charles II would die.
surely it was part of Grice's m-intention that sneezing would be a contribution
to the fatality. However, if (ii) gets expanded as
iv. So that long live Charles II.
it was NOT part of Grice's m-intention. In those days, medical science had not
been refudiated as it has today (For Popper, progress is via conjectures and
refudiations). The proposition
v. Charles II died.
is no proof that it was Grice's m-intention that he did. It may be argued that
ANY promotion of sneezing is what Grice would have it as "non-natural," but
this is not Grice the physician, but Grice the philosopher, so one has to be
careful here.
Cheers,
Speranza
