[lit-ideas] Popper and Grice: The Vulgar and the Learned

  • From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2013 08:33:07 -0500 (EST)


In a message dated 1/11/2013 9:11:21  A.M. UTC-02, 
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Popper is certainly an  advocate of science but an opponent of "scientism" 
[which arises from a mistaken  philosophy of science].
But Popper is also an opponent of that "Devil" that  puts forward a false 
and uncritical worship of common sense knowledge, or that  seeks to defend 
such knowledge from criticism by deeming it "the very system of  ideas require 
to make intelligible the idea of calling in question anything at  all". 
Where common sense is dogmatic it may come into conflict with science  and, 
if the tests fail it, common sense should be rejected: but where common  
sense is essentially self-critical it is part of common sense to recognise  
mistakes, and so common sense tells us to reject our common sense notions if  
well-tested science shows those notions to be mistaken.
The reification of  common sense is as bad, and uncritical, as the 
reification of science that leads  to "scientism".  

----
 
Among the papers left by Grice in "The Grice Papers", UC/Berkeley,  
California -- Bancroft Library -- there is one entitled "The vulgar and the  
learned". In his later years, he dedicated a lot of his attention to this  
distinction and became a strong defender of the common man, the man of the  
street, 
and the lay man, the every man, So McEvoy's comments above -- his  
commentary on Grice's "devil of scientism" passage -- are very apt. We may need 
 to 
elaborate on all that. Meanwhile, I'll re-read McEvoy's post to explore the  
issue of 'observation' and so on. 
 
I think, in the long run, Grice's influence there was Moore. As Austin was  
heard saying, "Some like Witters but Moore's MY man". He was certainly 
Grice's  man, too, and a few papers in the Way of Words volume by Grice are 
dedicated to  Moore's defense of the common sense (so miscalled by Aristotle).
 
If Scientism was a Devil for Grice, perhaps Common Sense was the Deep Blue  
Sea (as per my previous post). After all, he was a Royal Marine, almost, 
and  there was no dilemma for him THERE. 
 
Cheers,
 
Speranza
 
 
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  • » [lit-ideas] Popper and Grice: The Vulgar and the Learned - Jlsperanza