[lit-ideas] Lord Quinton died
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:17:02 EDT
Last week. His important "The Problem of Philosophy" was reprinted along
with Grice's "Causal Theory of Perception" in Swartz's book on "Perceiving".
His important "The Soul" was reprinted along with Grice's "Personal
Identity" in Perry's influential book, "Personal identity". The Guardian
obituary
mentions his connection with Grice, and Quinton goes on to consider Grice
on meaning in his celebrated materialist treatise "The nature of things" --
while A. R. White claims a comparison between Grice and Quinton in his
reply to Grice's "Causal Theory of Perception" -- for the Aristotelian Society.
He will be missed. His associations with Oxford were various: Student at
Christ Church, 1943 -- he later joined the R. A. F. for a while, graduated
from the Philosophy (and Politics and Economics) programme, and became Fellow
of the graduate college of All Souls. Elected Fellow of New College, which
would be the capacity as which Grice knew him. Quinton later became the
president of the college next to Grice's -- Trinity. He died in Oxford, and
was made Baron of Holywell, Oxfordshire.
He wrote extensively on things, such as "Linguistic Analysis" for a survey
of philosophy in the mid-century, and also contributed the brilliant
chapter on "British contemporary philosophy" to O'Connor's acclaimed Critical
History of Western Philosophy. He also contributed to an essay on "Ryle on
perception" for Woods and Pitcher's collection and on "The Foundations of
Knowledge" for "British Analytic Philosophy". He did not like Continentals
much, but then they did not like him, much either. His review to Ernest
Gellner's 'pamphlet', "Words and things", an attack on linguistic philosophy,
--
published for the British Journal of the Philosophy of Science, was well
received.
Vintage Quinton includes pieces on "Seeming", "Believing that" and
"Punishment" -- In the latter he presents the ingenious view that if we say,
"He
punished him", the implicature is that he-ii deserved it. Otherwise we
wouldn't use THAT verb.
He lived in Albany, having lived previously in Piccadilly. He also owned a
country cottage, an apartment on Fifth Avenue, and a retreat on Long Island
Sound (His American connection was via his wife, Marcelle, an expert on
Frege -- they translated, jointly, Frege's "Thought: A logical inquiry"). He
was also a peer of the realm.
May he rest in peace.
J. L. Speranza
Bordighera --, Villa Speranza, etc.
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] Lord Quinton died - Jlsperanza
