Antecedents of RT: Grice, Hart, _and Leonard_

From: J L Speranza (jls@netverk.com.ar)
Date: Tue Oct 30 2001 - 10:36:42 GMT

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    Some time ago I mentioned on this FORUM the work of Facione. Only today, I
    received this note offlist:

    "Subject: Oneself as authority". "Dear JL, Some time ago you wrote, "Peter
    Facione has studied pre-Gricean thought in American philosophy". So I tried
    "Facione Grice" on Google, and the only good hit I got was a post to the
    Relevance archives by one JL Speranza. This reminds me of something you
    might be able to help
    me with. Years ago I heard a funny story about Thomas Hardy, but I don't
    remember the details. In conversation Hardy once used a common word in a
    very peculiar way - as I recall, it was a verbalised
    noun, something like 'The train longs through the valley.' When challenged,
    Hardy insisted, sure this
    usage is OK, let's look in the OED. And the relevant example turned out to
    be a quotation from - Thomas
    Hardy! I think this is a good story but it doesn't work very well if you
    don't remember the exact word. Does it ring a bell for you?"

    I replied offlist that the only quotes about Hardy I seem to treasure are
    "Kiss me, Hardy", uttered by Horatio Nelson (disambiguating it as _not_
    Thomas) and Hardy's last will ("Be my heart forever in Dorset" and the way
    _this_ was semantically narrowed down by British government, who took the
    heart away from Hardy's corpse before taking it (the corpse) to
    Westminster's Abbey). As for Facione, and for the record, the "American
    philosophy" I meant was East Lansing philosopher H. S. Leonard. The
    relevant analysis -- cited by Facione -- being:

           By uttering x, Utterer U means Goal G iff
           there is some addressee A such that U brings
           about x intending that

           1. U's bringing about x could be
              read by A as a sign of G and

           2. A think, by virtue of U's bringing
              x about, that U intends (1).

    In 'Interrogatives, truth, falsity & lies', and 'Authorship & purpose'
    (both in _Philosophy of Science_, vol. 26) -- The Facione references being:
    'The logic of intending & believing' (Notre Dame Journal Formal Logic 16),
    'Meaning & intending' (American Philos. Quart. 10), 'Meaning &
    communication (N. Scholasticism 49), 'The problem of defining utterer's
    meaning' & 'Counterexamples & where they lead' (Southwestern JPhilosophy 3).

    Best,

                            J L Speranza, Esq
    Country Town
    St Michael's Hall Suite 5/8
    Calle 58, No 611 Calle Arenales 2021
    La Plata CP 1900 Recoleta CP 1124
    Tel 541148241050 Tel 542214257817
                            BUENOS AIRES, Argentina
                    http://www.netverk.com.ar/~jls.htm
                            jls@netverk.com.ar



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