RT list: Scots Grice

Grice to the Mill; or the Paleo-Gricean Strikes Back.
 
Okay -- this should go directly to Horn, but since the typo connects with
relevance-l -- and incidentally, has anyone seen the

Change or Die: Scholarly E-Mail Lists, Once Vibrant, Fight for Relevance -
 Chronicle.com

? -- I'll share it here:

Horn writes, untypically typying, as if quoting Grice as if Grice had said
or written,

"do not say that for which you lack RELEVANT evidence"

(I. J. P., p. 10).

Grice's nightmare (concerning his being severed by Wilson/Sperber come
true!)

I have discussed 'relevance' (rilevanza, pertinenza) with a number of
lawyer friends (no, not _all_ lawyers are sharks). In fact, I'm indoctrinating
one into being an avowed Gricean one.

I looked and looked in the philosophy literature -- and it's good Horn
quotes Aristotle Topica 109a3 -- that way we can do _without_ quoting in the
reference section Aristotle, or the OED for that matter, that he also
quotes, and amn't I pleased that it was my _noting_ -- as ADS-L files testify --
the gap in the OED ('implicature') that we were the following weak looking
for earliest quotes -- and I provided the good Pears one.

Anyway, back to 'evidentia'. Was this a _philosophical_ notion. In the
times of the Ancient Greeks, there were no real lawyers so it must have been a
philosophical notion. I for one don't get it. "videre" is Latin for 'see',
but surely evidence concerns more than what your (lying) eyes can see. My
lawyer friend, Larry J. Kramer, of Bedford, NY, reminds me of the lawyers'
quote, "Are you going to believe _me_ or your little lying eyes?" -- and
Grice was _obsessed_ with 'see' (was it a factive? does it disimplicate?,
etc.).

So I don't need no stinkin' evidence. We need something, er, more
philosophical. But I fail to remember if I was taught what the Greek for Cicero's
'evidentia' was.

When Grice (1967) uses 'evidence' he seems to be having Gettier in mind.
Not so much in the formulation of 'Cat. of Quant.' but when in WoW iii he
goes on to analyse 'know' (qua 'factive') proper and appeals to a 'causal
link' (cfr. 'causal theories', he adds). Gettier had shown (when looking for
tenure in 1963) that 'adequate evidence' can be a _trick_ ("Is knowledge
justified true belief?"). In the case of Plato, that Gettier uses, it's
'episteme' versus 'doxa'.

But perhaps there is an older, Herodotian connection, with 'meaning-n'. It
always struck me that 'mean' (we don't have that verb in the Romance
languages, so openly factive -- cfr. 'mentare'/'mentire' -- opposite meanings
almost) looks rather 'otiose' on the face of it:

those spots mean measles.

Surely if they measles is a no-no, then those spots do not mean _anything_
at all. The spots are _evidence_ -- genuine, adequate -- for measles or
they should self-destruct.

Some people have come to recognise this. L. Fioridi, of Oxford -- and he
has quoted me for that -- was looking for references on the 'casual' theory
of 'information' alla Grice-Stampe. Surely, Grice wrote in "Retrospective
Epilogue" -- the quote I shared with Fioridi --, 'false information is no
information at all'.

So we seem to be looking for 'adequate' -- but which turns out to be
pretty vacuous and otiose -- and turn into _relevant_ evidence, rather!

The severing should be left for a longer day.

(Horn is careful here in quoting Grice _1967_. Anyone who has seen the
mimeo should be delighted, as I was, that in the 'avoid prolixity' the 'sic'
is inded not typed, but handwritten! -- so imagine if someone crossed out in
the WJ-40 'adequate' for 'relevant'!)

Horn acknowledges S. Chapman and the good he does in doing that. I loved
her reading, or I loved reading her (and have reviewed her elsewhere --
'scatological' should read 'eschatological', &c). What someone with a good
fellowship should do is go to UC/B and examine IN GOOD DETAIL the content of
those 13 big cardboard boxes. We're bound to find lots of beautiful Gricean
imagery which will be what I entitle, "The Paleo-Gricean Strikes Back"

Oops, and why this ref. to the Scots Grice? Well, if you are into
Scots/English heraldry (as I am) and worry about English surnames (e.g. Grice --
cfr. Grice for the Mill) you are faced with two theories:

* "Grice" is a respectable (noble) Anglo-Norman surname meaning 'grey'
(French 'gris').
* "Grice" is a respectable (noble) Anglo-Scottish surname meaning 'pig'.

If the latter, there's this connection with 'relevance' which is _also_
ultimately a Scottish, I claim, notion (* -- all looks scots to me today, as
I'm listening while I type this, Handel's DVD, Ariodante of Fife): [ad
*relevantia]

Law, esp. Sc. Law: (or "Sc. Law" simpliciter: "_pertinent_ or sufficient,"
i.e. adequate?).

1561 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 173 Of the law it is requirit to the
relevancie thairof that ather of the partis..be relevant in the self, utherwyise
 the haill to be nocht relevant. 1575-6 Ibid. II. 487 The relivancy of the
said allegeance.
 1644 MAXWELL Prerog. Kings 107 If they can make no relevant
endictment..against them.
1723 in Maclaurin Argt. & Decis. Cases (1774) 70 [They] find the libel
relevant to infer the pains of law.
1733 INNES View Laws Scot. 11 The Relevance being determined,..the
Probation proceeds in the next Place.
 1753 Stewart's Trial 149 [They] remit the pannel, with the libel as found
relevant, to the knowledge of an assize.
1818 SCOTT Hrt. Midl. xxii, The defence, that the panel had communicated
her situation to her sister, was a relevant defence.
1838 W. BELL Dict. Law Scot. 273 The exception of fraud, or force and fear,
 is not relevant against all actions. Idem. 844 The relevancy of the libel
is the justice and sufficiency of the matters therein stated to warrant a
decree in the terms asked.
 
Cheers,

J. L. Speranza
The Grice Club, etc.
The Swimming-Pool Library.
 
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Received on Thu Jul 2 22:10:54 2009