[lit-ideas] Leavis's offensive generalization
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 09:49:12 -0400 (EDT)
In his own words!
Excerpted from:
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Meeting+in+meaning%3A+philosophy+and+theory+in
+the+work+of+F.R.+Leavis.-a0139587027
Leavis refers to the nature of a language (Living Principle, 37) and of
words themselves--"what is a word?" (Op. cit., 57). 32. The Living Principle,
58. 33. Op. cit., 37. 34. Op. cit., 34. 35. Ibid. 36. Op. cit., 35 and
229. 37.
"In creating language human beings create the world they live in." (285)
Some aspects of Wittgenstein's Investigations, including his perception of
the 'bewitching' nature of language, seem to resemble Leavis's own
thinking.
Leavis was much absorbed in his later years with Wittgenstein and those
interpreters whom he referred to as "the Wittgensteinians."
This significant interest remains largely unexplored.
"I am not a philosopher, and I have found most philosophers, in the
pejorative sense, academic."
"Wittgenstein, who was my friend forty years ago, wasn't to be dismissed
as that."
"Though I had a basic antipathy to what he stood for."
"I am faced with having to state and justify -- marginally to a work
centred in literary-critical thought -- that antipathy."
"I must do it, dauntingly to philosophers, without the impossible
expenditure of time and energy that would be incurred in attempting to do it
in a
'philosophical' way."
"I must do it 'finally' but not thoroughly."
"[T]he Wittgensteinians call the philosophy they are interested in
'linguistic'."
"Actually they are naively fatuous about language: no exceptions to my
offensive generalization, 'philosophers are always weak on language.'"
(Letter to Eugenio Montale quoted in G. Singh, F.R. Leavis: A Literary
Biography [London, 1995], 212.)
Actually, Eugenio Montale was a genius -- if only for attempting to bring
Walton's "Troilus and Cressida" to Milan's La Scala:
Troilo e Cressida opera in tre atti. by William Walton · Troilo e Cressida
opera in tre atti. by William Walton; Christopher Hassall; Eugenio Montale.
"Rhythmic translation," too.
What Leavis means by "Wittgensteinians" should NOT apply to Grice, who
found himself anti-Wittgensteinian. And while he (Grice) _might_ have been
'academic' he was so NOT in what Leavis calls "a pejorative sense'. For one, he
would combine philosophy with cricket, et al. to the extent that his
obituary in "The Times" came out as "Professional philosopher and amateur
cricketer" (or "Amateur cricketer and professional philosopher", I forget). He
also played bridge, and sang to his own piano accompaniment. A Renaissance
Man, Oxonian style!
O. T. O. H., Witters was Witters.
Re: Leavis on what a 'word' is, I would refer to J. L. Austin, "The meaning
of a word" in his Philosophical Papers, with special emphasis on the word
'rat'.
The online source referred to above makes a citation of P. M. S. Hacker,
who, as things happened, succeeded Gordon P. Baker, who succeeded H. P. Grice
as "Tutorial Fellow" at St. John's, Oxford. It is an irony of history that
rather than a Griceian, Hacker would turn up a Wittgensteinian. The root
for this in Baker's contribution to PGRICE (the Grice festschrift, ed.
Grandy/Warner "Alternative mind styles" -- Frege vs. Witters, from a Griceian
perspective).
Cheers,
Speranza
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