To get to the other side.
D
On Wednesday, 28 October 2015, 12:42, Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Paradoxically, the Jews that did not convert and were expelled from Spain in
1492. often fared better than those who converted and remained under the sway
of the Inquisition. In the Ottoman empire, they were not only tolerated but
they were often able to engage in lucrative pursuits such as overseas trade,
banking and even diplomacy. (The Muslims could not engage in banking for
religious reasons and as traders they were usually not accepted in Christian
Europe, hence the Ottoman Jewish and Christian subjects substituted.)
O.K.
On Tue, Oct 27, 2015 at 12:53 PM, Redacted sender Jlsperanza for DMARC
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In a message dated 10/27/2015 5:54:21 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes that he "prefer[s]", when it comes to Griceian
implicatural analysis, "the Spanish Inquisition."
Grice was obsessed with conversations, and indeed, to 'inquire' (from which
'inquisition' derives*) is to start one -- "if not to finish it," Geary
warns us.
What the Spaniards pretentiously (typically) call "The Tribunal of the Holy
Office of the Inquisition" ("El Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la
Inquisición") was perhaps a Griceian mechanism, in current parlance, to
'retrieve
implicature'.
The office -- Griceian at heart, in that it provokes a 'conversational
topic' was established in 1478 by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of
Castile.
And why do we say it's Griceian?
Well, it was intended (in the Griceian sense of 'intend' -- which is the
only sense, anyway -- vide 'Utterer's meaning and intentions') to maintain
Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms.
While people may be confused about why it it was called "Spanish" (since it
included the Canary Islands -- but canaries were never inquired), our
focus is as to what 'inquire' had to do with it.
The Inquisition was originally intended in large part to ensure the
orthodoxy of those who converted from Judaism and Islam.
This original intention changed and developed over time ("I won't say
'progress,'" Geary warns us -- "for all Popper talks of scientific progress,"
because theology is NOT a science.").
This regulation of the faith of the newly converted was intensified after
the royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1501 ordering Jews and Muslims to
convert or leave Spain.
"This was an inclusive disjunction, obviously" Geary notes.
The body was under the direct control of the Spanish monarchy -- not the
Pope who at this time lived in Rome, far away -- and could hardly inquire
anything -- many Popes were also hard of hearing.
The office was not definitively abolished until 1834, during the reign of
Isabella II -- who got bored with it. (Had she been Victoria she would have
said that 'we were no longer amused').
As for the Griceian kernel of the Inquisition, one requisite was that the
inquisitee should know Spanish, since simultaneous translation was not yet
invented.
The inquisitorial process consisted of a series of hearings, in which both
the denouncers and the defendant gave "Griceian" testimony.
A defense counsel was assigned to the defendant, a member of the tribunal
itself, whose role was to advise the defendant and to encourage them "to
speak the truth."
Years later, Grice includes this as one of his maxims of conversation in a
weakened form, "Do not say what you believe to be false."
The prosecution was directed by the fiscal.
This Griceian interrogation of the defendant was done in the presence of
the Notary of the Secreto, who meticulously wrote down the words of the
accused.
"He couldn't write down the implicatures," Geary notes, "because, well,
they were implicated."
The archives of the Inquisition, in comparison to those of other judicial
systems of the era, are striking in the completeness of their documentation.
As Griceian, the archives are noted for sticking to linguistic botany and
nuances that may trigger this or that implicature.
In order to defend themselves, the accused had two possibilities:
(a) abonos (to find favourable witnesses, akin to "substantive"
evidence/testimony in English law) or
(b) tachas (to demonstrate that the witnesses of accusers were not
trustworthy, akin to English law "impeachment" evidence/testimony).
In order to interrogate the accused, the Inquisition made use of torture,
but not in a systematic way. It was applied mainly against those suspected
of Judaism and Protestantism, beginning in the 16th century.
Most of the other times, the conversation was what Grice would call
'free-flowing'.
Between 1575 and 1610 the court of Toledo tortured approximately a third of
those processed for heresy. In the other two third cases, conversation was
always free-flowing, with implicatures 'running galore'.
Geary has numerous records of these 'conversations': "Some of their
conversational implicatures are Griceian, but some are, naturally, pre-Griceian,
in nature."
Cheers,
Speranza
* The ultimate root is "quaere" "a question," from Latin quaere "ask,"
imperative of quaerere "to seek, look for; strive, endeavour, strive to gain;
ask, require, demand;" figuratively "seek mentally, seek to learn, make
inquiry," ultimately from the Indo-European *kwo- root forming the stem of
relative and interrogative pronouns (see "who").
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