[lit-ideas] Re: Inflewenza
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:31:28 EDT
Why are you setting in for the night. It is so early -- or late. As
Wittgenstein argues, "time is relative".
---
Anyway, I forgot to add in my quote from Flew's "Philosophical essays". "my
own tutors at St. John's college" he goes. Or "in" St. John's college, I
forget. In any case, I think it's low class to add -- "college". Surely it's
not a church. Plus, it's bad manners to call H. P. "Paul", as if he were a
butcher or a greengrocer. He was "H. P." I mention this because both
Mabbott and Grice were the ONLY tutors at St. John's. Mabbott was born in
Scotland. (In his "Oxford Memories" he recalls how he thinks Grice is
"excellent", etc)
Talking of Stuart Brown's dictionary who mentions the personal influences
of Flew as being: Grice, Mabbott and Ryle"
"Well, yes, that is the right alphabetical order, something dear to the
hearts of editors."
I hadn't thought about it. You are a genius. I thought it was strict order
of inflewenza. Ryle Flew got to know once a graduate --. He supervised him.
To do what I can't say. Because Flew's doctorate was NOT from Oxford, I
would think.
Mabbott actually Flew refers in "The justification of punishment".
----
Brown can have an errata or two. In the same online source he has Grice as
teaching at Seattle till 1990. Seeing he died in 1988 that is scary. And
especially since on his way to Seattle he WOULD always stop at Reed, but we
Kant think he taught for two more years. Incidentally Flew like Grice
disbelieved in life after death. For different reasons.
R. Paul goes on:
"Whether it is an indication of who influenced the young Flew the most, is
another question."
THERE IS NO QUESTION THAT GRICE inflewenced Flew the most. It's like Paul
or Speranza. We are Griceians. Imagine: Flew stayed in Oxford till 1950, and
he never 'left' Oxford really. And his style is totally in accordance with
Austin's and Grice's methods (the Playgroup), NOT with Ryle's. Dummett
polemised with Flew on this (Dummett, "Oxford philosophy") but Flew never
cared to read Dummett, he confides in "Philosophical Essays". Flew also
polemised with this author that Grice also quotes in "Life of Grice": Gellner.
Flew calls Gellner "vulgar". And he was.
-----
R. Paul goes on:
"The Guardian's obituary says. 'Flew's work was partly influenced by his
early teachers, in particular Gilbert Ryle.' But what would the Guardian
know?"
Exactly. It is obscene that Grice is not mentioned in obituaries of Flew.
The man would not have become a philosopher without or 'sans' if you
mustn't, Grice. Grice led him through Lit. Hum., which is a very HARD thing if
you're from Ealing, and your Greek is not top. ---
Of The Guardian, R. Paul writes:
"They probably don't even know that the person who most stimulated
Wittgenstein's later thought was the economist Piero Sraffa."
Right. Any newspaper that is called "The Guardian" (such as the Guardian --
implicating "of the Moral Conscience of Little England") is bound to be a
rag.
But then, perhaps, 'The Times', as a name of a newspaper, is ambiguous.
(The Sun isn't).
JLS
---- Arguments by Flew for the non-existence of God.
-- GARDEN AT ST. JOHN'S.
Anyone who's been to St. John's knows that the garden at St. John's is the
BEST garden in Oxford. Flew argues:
A: What a beautiful garden! Who designed it?
B: Jones.
A: Who IS Jones?
B: An invisible gardener.
-----
MUTATIS MUTANDIS:
A: What a beautiful place the cosmos is. Who designed it?
B: God.
A: Who is God?
B: Our invisible creator.
---- Both replies by B in (i) and (ii) above, Flew argues, are 'ridiculous'
but for different reasons. This is known in the literature as the
"invisible-gardener" argument for the non-existence of God. Dawkins liked the
argument. When Flew turned a deist, Dawkins who had written, "The invisible
clockmaker" called Flew 'demented'.
-----
The Bird and Baby (aka as "The Fowl and Foetus") was the place where, in
the Rabbit Room, C. S. Lewis met with the Inklings. Flew never attended. It
was JUST ACROSS the 'railway', Flew notes, from St. John's -- across St.
Giles --. So, his atheism was never so "Socratic". Etc.
Cheers,
JL Speranza
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