Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Grice [Raphael Nunziata]

I agree with Grice that meaning can induce a belief from the speakers intentions and can be communicated non verbally as well. For example, if one declares that he or she is going to use the bathroom then the listener would be of the belief that he or she is going to using the bathroom. As for the non verbal utterance, take the example of a policeman telling you to stop, with the sign of his hand pointed in front of your car.

I disagree with Grice that natural meaning exists and see that there is only non natural meanings in the physical realm. If we use Grice understanding of natural meaning (smoke means fire), there will always exist a substitute of that meaning (smoke means smoke blower), therefore all meaning is of the non natural kind in the physical realm, because for meaning to be natural--x must always mean y (smoke must always mean fire). However, I believe natural meaning exists in areas where meaning cannot change, such as mathematics—one plus one equals two will always equal two.

Is there any case of natural meaning, that doesn’t commit itself to another secondary meaning in the physical realm?

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