RT list: Grice in a Balloon

From a recent report:

"The Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden says they now have evidence that
the balloon incident was just a “hoax” and a “publicity stunt” to promote
a reality show. Now Richard and Mayumi Heene are expected to be charged
with delinquency of a minor, and possibly conspiracy, false reporting, and
the attempt to influence a police officer."
 
It strikes me that the American code of penal law is so anti-Gricean.
Recall that Grice is a Scots surname, and that relevance, as used in Scots law,
is not something known in the USA, let alone the Denver area.
 
UTILITARIAN GRICE.
 
Grice is clear: in "Logic and Conversation" (in Cole/Morgan) he writes of
the goal of conversation being that of 'mutually influencing' each other (of
the co-conversants). I always took that, *pace* how to win friends and
influence others, a (in the Sellars & Yeatman idiom) 'good thing'.
 
But this balloon hoax makes you wonder if Grice was not indeed KANTIAN.
 
KANTIAN Grice.
 
In "Symposium on the thought of H. P. Grice" (Journal of Philosophy, 1991),
 Stalnaker presented an utilitarian (strategy-based only) approach to
implicature. Grandy and Warner objected: "Surely a model based on purely
utilitarian grounds is bound to leave Grice cold".
 
So, 'mutually influence'. What kind of 'mutually influence' are we talking
about.
 
Let's revise the reported facts:
 
"The Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden says they now have evidence that
the balloon incident was just a “hoax” and a “publicity stunt” to promote
a reality show. Now Richard and Mayumi Heene are expected to be charged
with delinquency of a minor, and possibly conspiracy, false reporting, and
 
          the attempt to influence a police officer."
 
This canNOT be read alla Grice, for surely in a sans-implicature world,
that's all we may attempt: to influence. The hateful implicature here, which
we should learn to disimplicate on context, is,
 
                 "via the transmission of a non-factive doxastico-boulemaic
component"
 
i.e. a lie.

Grice thought that trustworthiness was the obvious thing to do "for an
honest chap like me" (Chapman reports). But if so, why is it that in America
they have to GIVE an OATH with the palm of the right hand on a book? Is the
implicature that while moral, that's not yet legal?
 
A police officer can be influenced in two ways:
 
   -- by reporting him true facts:
              "the balloon was empty, cop"
 
   -- by reporting him false facts (provided you find them):
               "my kid was in the balloon -- and he might have jumped and
found inevitable death"
 
This is 'doxastic'. The 'boulemaic' component comes in the form of the
transmission of 'insincere desires'. For one can report a 'sincere desire':
 
      -- never mind getting the balloon: my kid never flew it.
 
or 'otherwise', i.e. insincere desires:
 
      -- "Please find the balloon. My kid's in there"
 
Now, if Grice was clear that INFLUENCE can only have one civilised meaning
in western societies, why is it that legalese and journalese are, er, so
... anti-Gricean?

Cheers,
 
J. L. Speranza, Bordighera
Received on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:02:32 EDT