Geary writes:
"I once had an idea."
This poses a conundrum ("as most things do," Geary adds -- "the plural, in
Tennessee, is conundra, incidentally.") that is best explained alla Popper (a
European philosopher if ever there was one).
i. I once had an idea.
presupposes that the Griceian utterer of (i) still has an idea.
This, for Popper, is unrefudiable.
It may be that
ii. I once had an idea; but today I don't have an idea of what an idea is.
That is why Grice would say this is an implicature ("a major advance in
twentieth-century Oxonian philosophy -- if not European philosophy as a whole")
and not an implication. It is cancellable.
Geary's implicature concerns the idea as to whether Grice is a European
philosopher, as per subject line.
For Plato, idea area paradeigmata. For Popper, they belong in W3. In W3, the
content of the proposition:
iii. Grice is a European philosopher.
co-exists with its contrary,
iv. Grice ain't a European philosopher.
Since a referendum is not, as Grice or Popper would say, "the last thing on
stuff," and given that the younger English generations do want Oxford to be
part of Europe, the truth-value of (iii) may vary with time. This irritated
Quine, for whom propositions were context-free as regards their truth-values.
Plato once said,
i. I once had an idea.
But he was so discreet, that he had Socrates, a fictional character in Plato's
plays, say it:
v. I once had an idea -- or rather the idea had me.
Socrates would go, barefoot, to Athens's agora (then part of Europe) and
confront people. A famous conversation went:
vi. Socrates's friend: I do see a horse. But I don't see an idea of a horse.
Socrates: Then you are, as far as I'm concerned, myopic.
Aristotle, and later Occam (a non-European Oxonian philosopher who made his
career in the Sorbonne, in Paris) would reject Socrates's view -- the argument
of the 'third man' --. Ideas exist only in the _mind_. When Geary expresses,
i. I once had an idea.
Descartes's cogito is being appealed to. It's the 'ego' or "I" in Geary's
proposition. There is a further implicature that the ego or "I" or as Grice
would have, 'personal identity', extends BEYOND one's ideas -- not for Hume.
For Hume, ideas are secondary; what counts are impressions. But I admit that
vii. I once had an impression.
sounds otiose.
If you are in an otiose frame of mind, that is.
It might be argued that since "Grice" comes from "gris", Anglo-Norman for
'grey', Grice's background was French, and thus, by blood, European. But now, a
movement in France following UK's decision is arguing that France, while part
of Europe, should ALSO leave the "EU" (short for European Union). I wouldn't be
surprised if, should this happen, a separatist movement of langue d'hoc vs.
langue d'oïl might arise as a consequence. Or not, of course. "Gris" is 'grey'
in Languedoc, too -- so there!
When Grice was invited by Oxford to deliver the John Locke lectures, one
conundrum arose. The lectures are meant for non-Oxonian philosophers, and Grice
was one. "But the matter was easily resolved;" Grice reminisced, "I was deemed
to be, under the circumstances, a European philosopher _of sorts_."
Cheers,
Speranza
