[lit-ideas] It's I
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 27 May 2010 10:59:24 EDT
In a message dated 5/27/2010 4:28:17 A.M., jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx
writes:
"I am me." It doesn't mean I'm the person standing in from of you, it
could mean many things depending on the circumstances in which it was uttered
-- I'm me! I'm not.....(whatever, whoever) you think I am or should be or
need me to be.
----
The problem here is A. G. N. Flew's objection to H. P. Grice's analysis.
Flew objected to Flew ("Philosophy and Language", Philosophical Quarterly,
1955) that "I" and "me" do not mean the same thing. Grice had used "I" and
"me" as interchangeable in his earlier "Personal identity" (Mind, 1941).
"Surely, an analysis of "I" should provide us with an analysis of "me", too".
----
Oddly, I miss all of Geary's implicatures.
He knocks at the door:
"It's I".
That's perfectly correct and grammatical and yields no implicature. The
"it" is Geary", or "I", strictly. I am supposed to recover 'what is
EXplicated' by the tone of voice. Surely everybody who utters "It's I" is HIM.
But
the implicature is trivial to the point of almost not being 'one': "It's I"
thus says that "I is it".
(The similar, "It's me", on the other hand, is ungrammatical).
----
JLS
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