RT list: Aunt Matilda´s Conversational Knack -- & How To Get It

A. Capone:

"I found the paper by Alison Hall entitled 'Free enrichment or hidden
indexicals' intriguing and I want to quote it in my paper (in
preparation) on the modularity of the mind.
Glad to receive materials on the modularity of the mind."

Seeing that you have a PhD defended sotto voce vis a vis no less than
Sir Peter (Strawson) I am hoping that, from philosopher to philosopher,
you´ll get a critical view of what we mean when we say ´mental module´.
I have tons to say on that expression provided I once find it relevant!
My Gricean approach has been minimalist an attempted as an attack of a
Chomskyan dogma! (Recall his cursory views on the Gricean pragmatic
component as a mental module). Since D. Wilson has especialised in both
the Gricean programme _and_ the Chomskyan revolution I too hope you´ll
get feedback from her, that she may share with this list.

Since my most complete observations on this I entitled Aunt Matilda´s
Conversational Knack -- and how to get it, I´m entitling this thus
rather than the rather pompous (but always well meant!) ´mental
module´-- Are you familiar with Cummins´ rather naive views on
neo-Gricean stands on representation in his "Meaning and Mental
Representation" -- he makes Grice feel like yet another neo-Cartesian
compleat with homunculi!

Good luck in your search, and keep us posted,

J. L. Speranza,
   The Grice Club, &c.
Received on Fri Jul 31 19:28:47 2009