[lit-ideas] The Great Go

From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 15:22:19 -0500 (EST)
In a message dated 3/2/2012 5:27:57 A.M. UTC-02, donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx  
writes:
"appeal to students of language: dogmas that language is  'fundamental', or 
'primary' or that language is 'central' or the 'royal road' to  
understanding - so that, for example, the view that thought is  
'language-dependent' is 
liable to be accepted by such people on the nod and  without much thought 
(language-dependent or not).
That students and theorists  of language should hold to views that suggest 
reality is somehow linguistic, or  even that (almost) everything we know or 
everything that is the case is somehow  linguistic, bears comparison with 
prevalent dogmas ...It may be speculated that  the 'linguistic turn' in 
so-called analytical philosophy may not have been so  sharp and readily made 
had 
philosophers been typically drawn from students of  mathematics and physics, 
rather than 'Greats'/'Classics' (to which, for example,  philosophy was long 
appended at Oxford) which centres intellectually on the  close linguistic 
analysis of texts for their variant meanings. Almost certainly  the putting 
on a pedestal of 'Classics' led to the debacle of Oxford at first  putting 
its people with a First in Greats [regarded then as its greatest minds]  on 
the task of breaking the Nazi communication codes ..."

"...is called "Greats," and its final series of examinations is the "great  
go"."
 
---- 
 
Grice indeed underwent the great go.
 
---
 
Grice wrote on this in his "Life and Opinions of Paul Grice" (or  
"Prejudices and Predilections, which become the life and opinions of Paul  
Grice", by 
Paul Grice:
 
"It is possible that some of the animosity 
directed against so-called 'ordinary language
philosophy' [from Popper, &c -- Speranza] may
have come from people who saw this 
'movement' as a sinister attempt on the part of
a decaying intellectual establishment
whose home lay within the ancient walls of
Oxford and Cambridge (walls of stone, not of
red brick) and whose upbringing was founded
on a classical education, to preserve control
of philosophy by gearing philosophical practice
to the deployment of a proficiency specially
accessible to the establishment, namely
a highly developed sensitivity to the richness
of linguistic usage." (PGRICE, p. 51).

And so on.
 
Cheers,
 
Speranza
 
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[lit-ideas] The Great Go

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