[lit-ideas] Robbing Paul to Pay Peter
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 27 May 2010 11:08:49 EDT
Grice's tutee becomes tutor
In a message dated 5/27/2010 7:31:22 A.M., donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx
writes:
it bored him -"bores me to tears".
-----
That Magee said of Witters's "Philosophical Investigations". Oddly, I never
was bored to tears. I mean, I have been bored. And I have been to tears.
But the combination never happened with me. I suppose tears are interesting
per se, so I suppose that if you shed them, you cannot longer be said to be
'bored'. The idea is that you are bored, you start to cry, and at that
time, you are no longer bored.
The fact is well known to mothers. Mine used to take me and my brother to
the opera. My brother would be bored, and aparently, to tears. This had the
effect that he had to be taken out of the box and kept in the corridor.
Tears, when silent, would not have had that effect. But I assume that in
general, when people say that something bores them to tears are not explicit
as to what sort of behaviour the boredom elicits.
JLS
----- I'm glad Magee enjoyed the tutorials with Strawson. Unlike Grice,
Strawson lacked a sense of humour. In Poland he was once challenged, "You are
just a petite bourgeoise". He replied, "And is THAT meant as a criticism?"
------- (Since we have in this list someone who is obsessed as to correct
quotes, I am relying on memory. It may have been Hungary rather than Poland.
It's in his "Intellectual Autobiography", in the "Library of Living
Philosophers". Grice had accepted to participate in the series. Unfortunately,
he died before the volume was out of print. His son suggested, "The Library
of Dead Philosphers", but the folks at the press objected that, 'by the same
token, we'd rather publish Plato'. Philosophical writing and publishing is
not what it used to be.
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