This is my first post after many years. A grief ago I was one of the
active members here. Anyway, I do not feel that Grice actually made a
joke when he said that Heidegger is the greatest living philosopher. If
based on Speranza's own 'analitically' based appreciation of philosophy,
then it just might seem so. However, if based on one's own feeling
about the chiaroscuro of life, of the fuzzy essence of language and the
entropy we try to harness in practical day-to-day life (and death), then
the 'Sorge' and 'Dasein' make a contribution that could possibly be
greater than anything else in philosophy. Although I read about
property dualism and study David Chalmers nowadays, I find myself going
back to Heidegger's examination of life often.
One thing that I wished to add wholeheartedly: Lawrence, I honestly
think that your poetry you gifted us on this list is wonderful. Thanks.
Djordje
On 16.10.2015. 19:24, Lawrence Helm wrote:
Speranza,
If I understand your note, then I disagree. Had Bloom used "greatest," that would permit the implication that Whitman edged out T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Emily Dickinson, and Ezra Pound and all the others. There is no edging out for Whitman. He is America's [one] great poet in the same sense that Shakespeare is England's [one] great poet. No other poets qualify to be measured against them. No other poets qualify to be grouped with them. That was how I took Bloom's use of the word.
Lawrence
On 10/16/2015 8:03 AM, (Redacted sender Jlsperanza for DMARC) wrote:
In a message dated 10/16/2015 9:55:28 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Whitman is America’s great poet, Bloom argues.
I'll re-read Helm's interesting post on Bloom's self-disclosure, but this
use of 'great' interests me as it triggers the right implicature.
In his William James Lectures, in 1967, as a joke (I hope) Grice uttered:
Heidegger is the greatest living philosopher.
I wonder about the different implicatures of 'great' and 'greatest'.
I suppose Heidegger would wonder too and in the vernacular*!
Surely there's the extra implicature in 'living' as used by Grice that
Bloom can not possibly apply to Whitman -- unless figuratively? (cfr. "The
influence of T. S. Eliot on the poetry of William Shakespeare")
While Bloom may 'argue' about 'great' and 'greatest', I think it was
Toulmin who said (in "The uses of argument") that an explicitly evaluative
conclusion featuring 'greatest' needs an equally evaluative premiss -- and it
might be good to expand on Bloom's enthymeme!?
Cheers,
Speranza
* 'gross' versus 'groessten'
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