Philosophy of language Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Philosophy of language - Essay Example Traditionally, opponents of the CTP have held that the statement â€Å"that appears/seems red† is reserved for situations in which there is reasonable doubt in an individual’s mind regarding whether something is truly red or otherwise. In that sense, part of the meaning inherent in â€Å"that appears/seems red† is attributable to the doubt in the speaker’s mind concerning whether something is red. Consequently, it would be inappropriate, and quite rightly so, to suggest that there is any ounce of doubt regarding whether something is red and it is false that anything â€Å"appears/looks/seems red† when one sees something red. For that reason, critics of the CTP have argued that seeing red cannot be analysed in causal terms, that is, in terms of it being caused to be in a manner in which an entity â€Å"looks/appears/seems† red. In 1961, Herbert Paul Grice, notable for his pioneering work in the philosophy of language, came to the defense of CT P; this paper explains the manner in which Grice employed his notion of implicature in defense of the Causal Theory of Perception. Grice published an article in which he distinguished between what is meant (what is said) and what is implied (implicated) (Bardzokas 2010, p.114); basically, Grice argues that in saying â€Å"that appears/seems/looks red†, one may implicate that something is not really red but does not out rightly refute that something is red or mean it is not really red. According to Grice, it is actually possible that one who says â€Å"that looks/seems/appears red† sees something red and it could also be that they see something that seems red to them (even if otherwise). If to say â€Å"that appears red† implicates that something may not necessarily be red, it is contradictory to say â€Å"that appears red, and it is red†; Grice posits that the implication that a thing is not really red can be explicitly cancelled out. Consequently, if the implicatum of what a speaker says