the bud of a start, not yet mature
palma, apgs
On Tue, Dec 5, 2017 at 4:18 PM, Redacted sender jlsperanza for DMARC <
dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The conceptual analysis of ‘capacity’ and the conceptual analysis of
‘alteration of capacity’.
So, is this about conceptual analysis? Once, Grice was advised by J. L.
Austin to check with ‘the dictionary.’ “I care a hoot what the dictionary
says.” “And that’s where you make your big mistake.” Austin is implicating
that perhaps ‘hoot’ is too strong a word to expect from a junior colleague.
Lord Walker was referring to ‘the concept of capacity,’ which reminded me
of Grunebaum. It seems the analysandum is ‘to alter a capacity,’ and we are
not dealing with _any_ capacity but with the ‘altering’ of capacity C1 to
capacity C2. As H. L. A. Hart would say, it’s all about rules and
meta-rules so one has to be careful, because, to use a redundancy favoured
by Searle, rules ‘tend to be regulative’ – as opposed to ‘constitutive.’
(Grunebaum never understood the distinction).
So what does the dictionary say? The concept of ‘capacity’ is possibly not
too crucial legally, since it the TERM ‘capacity’ was introduced only in
the 15th century – and surely the Anglo-Saxons had law before that – from
the French capacité , itself from the accusative Latin “capacitatem,”
itself from “capax,” “capaci-,” very abstractly definable as “able.” We
see that for the Ancient Romans, ‘capax’ had only ONE sense, as it should.
When it comes to English, it is found to be used as early as 1481,
implicating an “ability to receive or contain; holding power”:
1481. Caxton, “Mirror of World”: “The capacity and greatness of heaven.”
Heaven has a capacity – a capacity and a greatness. 1555. R. Eden, Peter
Martyr of Angleria, “Decades of New World”: “Havens, of capacity to harbour
great navies.” Now it’s a haven that has a capacity to harbour a great
navy. A pot of no bigger capacity than to hold them only.”
1616 Shakespeare, “Antony & Cleopatra”: “Had our great palace
the capacity to camp this host, we all would sup together, and drink
carowses to the next day’s fate.” 1702. Theophrastus: “There is a certain
degree of capacity in the greatest vessel, and when it is full, if you pour
in still, it must run out.”
There is also, incidentally, an early figurative usage – i.e. NOT as
applied to the ‘physical’ dimension: 1578. “Bk. Christian
Prayers in Private Prayers,” “That I may so drink of thee, according to
my capacity, as I may live forever.” 1631. Bishop J. Hall, “Occasional
Meditations”: “All favourable promises presuppose a capacity in the
receiver.” 1846. T. De Quincey, “Notes on Gilfillan’s Gallery of Literary
Portraits”: “Men of genius have a larger capacity of happiness.”
“Capacity” can be used, still as applied to the ‘physical’ (Popper’s W1)
dimension, more narrowly, for a “capacity for heat, capacity for moisture,”
etc.: “the power of absorbing heat, etc. capacity of a conductor”
(Electr.): 1793. T. Beddoes, “Observ. Nature & Cure Calculus”: “The
great capacity of the arterial blood for heat.”
1863. R. Culley, “Handbk. Pract. Telegr.”: “By the capacity of a condenser
or cable is meant its power to receive a charge.” 1878. T. Huxley,
“Physiography”: “The hotter the air the greater its capacity for moisture.”
1885. H. Watson, “Math. Theory Electr. & Magn.”: “The capacity of a
conductor in presence of any other conductors is the charge upon it
required to raise it to unit potential, when all the other conductors have
potential zero.”
“Capacity” can also be used to mean, more specifically, “the power of an
apparatus to store static electricity;” but some pedants prefer
“capacitance” here. Also attributively, denoting an apparatus which gives
additional capacity, as capacity cage, capacity earth. 1777. T. Cavallo,
“Compl. Treat. Electr.”: “The celebrated Father Beccaria supposes that the
action of rubbing increases the capacity of the electric, i.e. renders that
part of the electric, which is actually under the rubber capable of
containing a greater quantity of electric fluid.” 1903. Westminster
Gazette: “The oscillatory circuit consists of a light wire cage, or
‘capacity’.” 1906. A. Collins, “Man. Wireless Telegr.”: “Capacity cage, a
cylindrical cage made of wire and placed at the top of the aerial wire to
give it additional capacity.” 1923. “Daily Mail”: “If you are particularly
bothered by the proximity of wires it is worthwhile to try the effect of
substituting a ‘capacity earth’ for the ordinary earth connection. The
capacity is a wire or wires stretched out below and parallel to the aerial
above but insulated from the earth.” 1932. C. Smith, “Intermediate
Physics”: “The capacity of a sphere expressed in E.S.U. is numerically
equal to its radius in centimetres.” 1948. C. Coulson, “Electr.”: “If the
potential difference between the plates is V, we define the capacity C by
the formula C = Q/V.” 1959. “Chambers's Encycl.”: “The capacity of the
charged conductor is increased, i.e. it can hold a bigger charge for a
given potential.”
“Capacity” can also be used to mean, still as applied to this ‘physical’
dimension, the “ability to provide accommodation (for the discharge,
transport, etc.) of a certain amount or volume; also specially in Physical
Geography, the ability to carry away detritus, measured by the quantity
which passes a given point in a given time.” 1885. Eng. Illustr. Mag.: “The
Nene does not discharge its waters so rapidly as it ought. Cut off the
bends if you want a more efficient discharging capacity.”
1892. “Jrnl. Soc. Arts”: “The capacity of the present tunnel is sufficient
to provide 100,000 horse-power applied to the turbines.” 1900. Jrnl. Soc.
Arts: “The capacity of the larger canal would be over 20,000,000 tons a
year.”
Also, the largest audience that a place of entertainment can hold; a
situation in which a theatre, cinema, or the room when H. P. Grice
delivered his John Locke lectures at Oxford, etc., is full; spec. in
phr. to capacity: with all available room occupied; hence in general use,
full; to the limit. 1908. L. Merrick, “The Man who understood Women”:
“On the second Saturday night they played to ‘the capacity of the house’.”
1919. Honey Pot: “Why there is hardly a theatre in the West End playing to
capacity, week in week out.” 1929. J. Priestley, “Good Companions”: “We’ve
got going in the town. Another week and it would be capacity every night.”
“Turning money away, my dear; capacity to the roof.”
1937. D. Marlowe, “Coming, Sir!”: “The other stows were filled to
capacity.” 1949. P. Wodehouse, “Mating Season”: “I took my place among the
standees at the back, noting dully that I should be playing to
absolute capacity.” 1958. Spectator:: “The bank-note paper mills worked to
capacity throughout the year.”
Also, in industry, rather figuratively, the ability to produce;
equivalent to ‘full capacity.’ 1931. “Times Trade & Engin.”: “The
production of bituminous coal in U.S. by ‘mechanical mining’ increased to
37·8 million tons in 1929, and this does not represent capacity, for short
time and experimental work reduced the total below the maximum.” 1940.
“Economist:: “The existing capacity must not only be worked to the limit,
it must be expanded.” 1959. “Listener”: “The British economy, so far from
being inflationary, was suffering from a marked amount of excess capacity.”
Also used, still in the ‘physical’ dimension, to mean ‘content.’ –
‘superficial, Area.’ But also cubic, Volume, solid content. The ‘measure of
capacity’ is the measure applied to the content of a vessel, and to
liquids, grain, or the like, which take the shape of that which holds them.
1560. L. Digges, “Geom. Pract.: Pantometria”: “You may readily measure all
equiangle figures, what capacity whatsoever they be of.” 1571. T.
Digges in L. Digges's Geom. Pract.: Pantometria: “Rules for the invention
of his capacity superficial and solid.”
1658. Sir T. Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus,” in Hydriotaphia: Urne-burial:
“The present urns were not of one capacity, the largest containing above a
gallon.”
1699. L. Wafer, “New Voy. & Descr. Isthmus Amer.”: “Of
the capacity usually of a gallon or more.” 1818. M. Faraday, “Exper. Res.”:
“A glass globe of the capacity of about 140 cubic inches.” 1866. J.
Herschel, “Familiar Lect. Sci. Subj.”: “Our ordinary measures of length,
weight and capacity.” Also, the total cylinder volume that is swept by
the pistons in an internal-combustion engine. 1903 Motor: “Assuming
that cylinder volume were taken as the standard..there would be no
possibility of definitely ascertaining whether the two or four-stroke motor
gave the better system, because the two-stroke would, on cylinder capacity,
receive an enormous advantage.” 1936 Motor: “The clever way in which
eight cylinders, affording a total capacity of 4½ litres, have been
arranged in so compact a space.” 1946 Autocar Handbk: “On January 1,
1947..the H.P. tax will be superseded, for cars first registered after that
date, by a tax on the cylinder capacity of the engine; that is, the volume
swept by the pistons.” 1966 Motor Cars: “A six-cylinder engine..need be
no more uneconomic in petrol consumption than a four-cylinder engine, if
the cylinder capacity is suitably adjusted.” 1977. E. Crispin, “Glimpses of
Moon”: “There were Hondas and Suzukis and Yamahas and even a few Norton
Commandos, ranging in capacity from 400 to 750 c.c.” 1984. Economist: “The
figures on..the fuel consumption of cars were calculated assuming
that..lower transmission ratios or larger engine capacities would be used
to compensate for performance losses as octane numbers..were reduced.” Also
a containing space, area, or volume. 1649. W. Blith, “Eng. Improver”:
“Into a square or an oval capacity; or else into a circular plot.”
1757 E. Burke Philos. Enq. Sublime & Beautiful: “The whole capacity of
the eye, vibrating in all its parts.” Especially, a space of three
dimensions; a hollow space, a cavity. 1541 R. Copland, “Galen's Fourth
Bk. Terapeutyke,” in Guy de Chauliac's “Questionary Cyrurgyens”: “In
dividing the trunk between the neck and the legs, is two great capacities.”
1594. T. Bowes, P. de la Primaudaye French Acad.: “There are
two capacities or holow places in the heart.” 1662 J. Glanvill Lux
Orientalis: “Not..a meer void capacity, for there are no such chasms in
nature.” 1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum: “Carcass, is an Iron Case, or
hollow Capacity, about the bigness of a Bomb.” It is in this usage that it
is meta-figuratively used: 1587. Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding, P. de
Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig.: “Influence that floweth into
the capacitie of our vnderstanding.” 1752 Johnson Rambler: “I will fill
the whole capacity of my soul with enjoyment.”
Cheers,
Speranza
