[lit-ideas] Logic Matters to Grice and Geach
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2014 09:33:53 -0500 (EST)
In a message dated 1/8/2014 5:24:06 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
rpaul@xxxxxxxx speaks of
>how Grice in a dream influenced Geach
Interesting. A good source for this is the googlebooks.com edition of
Geach's Logic Matters. It shows that Geach was pretty concerned with Strawson.
Geach read and re-read Strawson's Introduction to Logical Theory (which came
out in 1954). Geach had studied at Oxford, and was possibly interested in
Oxonian developments of philosophy.
Geach focuses on Strawson's thesis (also a favourite with Grice) that 'if'
and the logician's horseshoe don't quite 'correspond' to each other. It is
Strawson's misconceived view of 'if' that prompted Grice's whole set of
"William James lectures" in 1967.
But the interesting thing is that Strawson was quoting from Grice already
in "Introduction to Logical Theory", so Geach KNEW of Grice, or would have
heard of him.
Grice was born in 1913, Geach in 1914. The first went to Corpus Christi,
Merton, and St. John's (as Fellow). The second just to Balliol. They may have
interacted in forms other than oneiric. Or not.
Oddly, Grice refers to Mrs Geach (or "Miss Anscombe" as Geach preferred) in
"Intention and Uncertainty" -- but I think she never attended Austin's
Play Group meetings (neither would Iris Murdoch).
Both Grice and Geach then oppose Strawson's criticism of formal logic as
being unfair to the subtleties of natural or ordinary language. Grice, armed
with the notion of implicature; Geach elsewise [sic].
Grice and Geach collaborated in Davidson/Hintikka, "Words and objections"
(Reidel), a book of essays on the work of Quine.
Cheers
Speranza
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