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THE CONCEPTION OF VALUE TheC onceptoifoV na lue PAUL GRICE With an Introduction by JUDITH BAKER CLARENDON PRESS OXFORD · 1991 Oxford University Press, Wa /ton Street, Oxford ox2 6oP Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Petaling ]aya Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dares Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland and associated companies in Berlin I badan Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press Published in the United States by Oxford University Press, New York © Kathleen Grice 1991 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Grice, H. P. (H. Paul) The conception of value/Paul Grice: with an introduction by Judith Baker. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Values. I. Title. B1641.G481 1991 121'.8-dc20 90-26891 ISBN 0-19-824495-9 Typeset by Cambrian Typesetters Frimley, Camberley, Surrey Printed in Great Britain by Biddies Ltd. Guildford & King's Lynn Foreword Paul Grice wrote and delivered his Carus lectures on the conception of value in 1983. He returned to the topic of those lectures, and in particular to the construction of value, in the course of responding to essays written in his honour. Shortly before he died, he asked me to publish the lectures, but with the argument for value sketched in his 'Reply' replacing the one presented in the third and final lecture. He regarded his later attempt as a clarification, better representing his thought. Unfortunately no straight forward substitution is possible. It seemed better to allow the reader direct access to the work of Paul Grice, and so his Carus lectures are published below in their entirety, followed by the relevant section of the 'Reply'. Since he and I had discussed the problems over the preceding decade, my Introduction describes one way to understand the most difficult of Grice's new ideas about value, and the relationship between the third lecture and the 'Reply'. The lectures themselves were edited by comparing the manuscript (to be deposited in the Paul Grice Archives, University of California at Berkeley) and a rough type script version he had made in 1983. Aside from minor typographical emendations, the two previously published essays-the Reply and an address to the American Philosophical Association-are unaltered. In the footnotes, editorial notes and insertions are indicated by enclosure in square brackets. J. B. Contents Introducbty i]uodnith Baker 1 The CarLuesc turoents heC onceptoifoV na lue 1. Value and Objectivity 23 2. Relative and Absolute Value 47 3. Metaphysics and Value 69 Repltyo R icharFdisn,a Sle ction: MetaphysPihcisl,o sopPhsiyccahlo loagnydV, a lue 93 Methoid nP hilosophPiscyaclh ol(oFgryo tmh e Banatlo t heB izarre) 121 Index 163 Introduction Judith Baker ' H. P. GRICE S CONSTRUCTION OF VALUE The three works of Paul Grice collected in this volume were selected in order to present his metaphysical defence of value. The Cams lectures and the selection from the 'Reply to Richards' take value as their topic. The APA address, 'Method in Philosophical Psychology (from the Banal to the Bizarre)', an essay in philosophical psychology, is included for its exposition of Humean Projection, a metaphysical 'routine' Grice made the basis for the construction of value. This introduction will attempt to clarify some of the basic elements of Grice's constructivist theory and the relationship between the third Cams lecture and the 'Reply'. In 1983 Paul Grice gave the Cams lectures, the Concep tion of Value. The lectures, particularly the third and last, on the metaphysical construction of value, were difficult to understand. He returned to the topic in his reply to essays written in his honour. Although the later account was meant to clarify and improve the earlier argument, the lectures remain difficult. The one on the construction of value is an essay in metaphysics and not on or within ethics or theory of value. It is indeed not clear how those theories get attached to the work. One difficulty is that both the Cams lecture and the 'Reply' call on a number of philosophical themes which interested Grice for a long time, but which were not among the more widely publicized aspects of his work. What is referred to in the