Paul Grice

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Herbert Paul Grice (born March 15, 1913 in Birmingham , England, † August 28, 1988 in Berkeley , USA) was an English philosopher. He is best known for his work in the philosophy of language , especially for his analysis of the meaning of the speaker and the development of the concepts of conversational implicature . His conversation maxims and the principle of cooperation became more popular . Along with Austin , Ryle and Strawson, Grice is one of the most important representatives of the so-called philosophy of ordinary language ( ordinary language philosophy ).

Life

Grice was the first son of Herbert and Mabel Grice, who came from the upper middle class. He grew up in Harborne, an affluent suburb of Birmingham. At the age of 13 he went to Clifton College in Bristol . In 1931 he left school on a scholarship to Corpus Christi College , Oxford. Grice studied classical literature and philosophy there. In 1935 he completed his undergraduate studies and went to a public school in Rossall, Lancashire as a teacher for a year . He then returned to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and completed his studies with a master's degree in 1939. In the same year he got a job as a lecturer at St John's College in Oxford, where he taught until 1967. His teaching work was interrupted by World War II, during which he served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy . After the war, Grice quickly became well known in England and the United States. In 1966 he was elected a member of the British Academy . In 1967 he held the well-known William James Lectures at Harvard University and moved to the University of California, Berkeley that same year . In 1975 he became a full professor there; He retired in 1979, but continued to teach until 1986. Grice was President of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association from 1974 to 1975 . Visiting professorships have taken him to Harvard University, Brandeis University , Stanford University , Cornell University and the University of Washington . In 1983 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

plant

Grice has published only a few works, most of them are part of the philosophy of language. The collection of essays Studies in the Way of Words , his only book publication, contains the most important works on the theory of meaning, including in particular the William James lectures from 1967.

Analysis of the meaning of the speaker

Grice's approach is an intention-based theory of the meaning of language. It explains linguistic meaning - contrary to a widespread view among linguists - without recourse to any code or conventions .

As a result of these ideas, among others, the focus of the philosophical debate about the nature of meaning in the 1970s and 1980s shifted from a linguistic representation to a mental representation .

Implicature theory

For linguistics , especially for linguistic pragmatics , Grice was groundbreaking. His distinction between implicature and literal meaning was taken up by pragmatics. Grice's work and in particular the concept of speaker meaning became the basis for a separation of semantics and pragmatics.

After his death, his contributions to the theory of meaning were published collectively in Studies in the Way of Words (1989), and in some cases previously published articles were also included in the collection.

Works

Central essays

  • with Peter Strawson : In Defense of a Dogma , in: Philosophical Review 1956
  • "Meaning" , in: The Philosophical Review 66, 1957, pp. 377–388 (PDF file; 0.22 MB).
  • Utterer's Meaning, Sentence-Meaning and Word-Meaning. In: Foundations of Language 4, 1968, pp. 225-242.
  • Utterer's Meaning and Intentions. In: Philosophical Review 78, 1969, pp. 147-177.
  • Vacuous Names. In: D. Davidson and J. Hintikka (eds.), Words and Objections, 1969, pp. 118-145.
  • Logic and Conversation. In: P. Cole and J. Morgan (eds.), Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 3, 1975, pp. 41-58.
  • Meaning Revisited. In: NV Smith (Ed.), Mutual Knowledge, 1982, pp. 223-243.
  • "The Causal Theory of Perception" , in: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 1961 (PDF file; 2.02 MB)

Anthology

  • Studies in the Way of Words, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989.

Monographs

  • The Conception of Value (1991)
  • Aspects of Reason (2001)

expenditure

  • Georg Meggle (ed.): Action, communication, meaning . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1993. (Grice's most important essays in German translation together with essays by other philosophers)

literature

  • Siobhan Chapman: Paul Grice, Philosopher and Linguist . Palgrave Macmillian, London 2007
  • Andreas Kemmerling : H. Paul Grice . In: Julian Nida-Rümelin , Elif Özmen (Ed.): Philosophy of the Present in Individual Representations (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 423). 3rd, revised and updated edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-520-42303-0 , pp. 234-240.
  • Stephen Neale : "Paul Grice and the Philosophy of Language". In: Linguistics and Philosophy . 15, 1992, pp. 509-559. (Summary of Grice's contribution to the philosophy of language)
  • Eckard Rolf: Saying and thinking. Paul Grice's Theory of Conversational Implicatures . West German publishing house, Opladen 1994.
  • Robert J. Stainton: Article GRICE, Herbert Paul (1913-88). In: John R. Shook: The Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers . Thoemmes Continuum, Bristol 2005, ISBN 1-84371-037-4 , pp. 983-988
  • Peter Strawson, David Wiggins: Herbert Paul Grice . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . tape 111 , 2001, p. 515-528 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Snježana Kordić : implikature Konverzacijske . In: Suvremena lingvistika . tape 17 , no. 31-32 , 1991, ISSN  0586-0296 , HEBIS 173731031 , p. 87 ( PDF file; 857 kB [accessed November 15, 2019]). PDF file; 857 kB ( Memento from September 2, 2012 on WebCite )
personal data
SURNAME Grice, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grice, Herbert Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Birmingham , England
DATE OF DEATH August 28, 1988
Place of death Berkeley , USA