[lit-ideas] Re: It's A Griceian World
- From: Phil Enns <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:29:05 -0400
J.L. Speranza wrote:
"Enns similarly made the remark that truth is a precondition of
language. I disagree: TRUST is a precondition of appropriate
conversational moves. The category Grice calls, ironically, QUALITY."
I am not sure how to understand trust without some reference to truth,
but my comments were directed at the relationship between meaning and
truth. That is, to understand what a sentence means, one has to
understand the conditions under which it would satisfy the relevant
truth conditions. For the request, 'Pick up the red apple', to be
meaningful to me, I need to understand the conditions under which the
sentence, 'This is a red apple', is true. Conversely, I know what a
red apple is when I use sentences about red apples in meaningful ways,
for example, when I say, 'I brought you a red apple', and I show you a
red apple.
Meaning and truth are not identical but it seems to me that it is not
possible to have one without the other. One cannot have meaningful
language use without an awareness of what is true of the world, and
one cannot have knowledge of the world without meaningful language
use.
Sincerely,
Phil Enns
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