Re: RT list: review of Carruthers

In a message dated 7/17/2009 6:23:48 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
alessandro.capone@istruzione.it writes:
it does not fully explore theories of communication [such as]
the theory of Dascal (2003) [where] ample space is devoted
to rationality and its influence on language. (It is true, however,
that the book discusses ideas by authors like Chomsky,
Pinker, Dennett, and Vygotsky).
 
 
--- Congratulations for the review, Alessandro.
 
 
For the record, it could be pointed out that
 
(*) D. C. Dennett has quoted extensively Grice from earliest writings.
Dennett was a Fellow at All Souls -- and was familiar with discussions around
Grice on 'meaning' -- and the 'intentional stance'. I don't have to hand
Dennett's _earliest_ citing Grice, but it always warmed me to appreciate the
skill of his analytic observations (-- and the warmth of his persona when I
met him in the flesh!)
 
(*) Dascal, who was born in Sao Paolo but lives now in Tel Aviv, has
been influential and paradigmatic in the development of Gricean
theories the world over. From his early "Conversational Relevance"
(Journal of Pragmatics, 1977) to his more recent work in
'cognitive pragmatics', he has shaped the ideas of many. (I, for one,
treasure
his publishing in his own-edited _Manuscrito_ an essay by a
German scholar providing a sort of Kantian argumentation -- in
a very strict term of the notion -- of why the 'conversational
categories' had to be _four_!)
 
(*) I've been revising what Chapman (in her [now in paperback!] _Grice_
writes
about Chomsky's ""_misinterpretation_"" (as some call it -- but in academia
you have to be so careful that I'll now use double double scare quotes!) of
Grice as 'behaviourist'. The polemic always fascinated me and have
published it
elsewhere -- in a paper for a seminar by E. A. Rabossi, (and which I
entitled,
"Getting at the Aunt Matilda's conversational knack").
 
(*) I have followed Chomsky's labelling of Grice as 'behaviourist'
(Reflections
on language) and its reaction among Griceans. The first must have been
P. Suppes in his contribution to PGRICE (Grandy/Warner). Brilliant man,
Suppes, notes -- without being totally absorbed in Griceanism _per se_ --
that it's so _evident_ that Grice is an 'intentionalist', rather! Chapman
rightly
stresses Grice's discomforts with Ryle's 'behaviourism' and other
'philosophies of mind' popular in his day in Oxford.
 
(*) Consider the example of "Aunt Matilda", which always amused me. She
_can_ say, "He is a runt" (thereby conversationally implicating -- via
metaphor) that he is an undersized person -- rather than applied literally
to the smallest animal "of the litter".
     The whole point of introducing that example is to allow Grice to play
with _willingness_ to 'utter' this or that thereby 'meaning' that p or q.
 
(*) When Searle repr. WoW 5 -- and cfr. ch. vii of my PhD dissertation --
in his _Philosophy of Language_ he at least (and I love Searle!) granted
that
there was some good in Grice's 'behaviouristic' (again!) analysis -- for
why reprint it otherwise!?
 
Etc.
 
Cheers,
 
J. L. Speranza
   
 
 
 
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Received on Sat Jul 18 00:08:50 2009