Abstract
My main goal in this paper is to argue that the concept of rationality is central in Grice’s philosophy. Grice does not affirm this explicitly, but on several occasions throughout his work he indicates that rationality is a key concept, which enables both conversational practice and the development of philosophical theses. In order to show the importance of rationality to Grice, I will analyze his work according to three aspects: (i) logical and teleological; (ii) ethical and metaethical; and (iii) linguistic and pragmatic. In my view, in all three rationality is fundamental. Actually, a proper characterization of some of his philosophical discussions is only possible through this concept. Furthermore, I intend to show the relationships between rationality and other basic concepts in Grice. Keywords: Grice, rationality, values, pragmatics, constructivism.
Highlights
Herbert Paul Grice is best known in the history of philosophy for his classical works on philosophy of lan uage and philosophical pragmatics
The analysis of lin uistic behavior shows, for example, that people are rational creatures and that rationality is fundamental for the communicative process of transference and understanding of meanings
Most of his philosophical contributions, e ecia ly his theory of conversational implicatures, played a central role in discussions on semantics and pragmatics for a long time
Summary
Herbert Paul Grice is best known in the history of philosophy for his classical works on philosophy of lan uage and philosophical pragmatics. In order not to extend the discussion, I wi l not treat these points, but it is important to note that after formalizing how mood differences occur in eech and thought, Grice builds different kinds of theoretical and pra ical acceptabilities (including prudential acceptabilities, which, in the last two chapters of A ects of Reason, give rise to an elegant ap roach to the philosophical conception of eudaimonia). These acceptabilities are the way in which rationality operates in the construction of reasoning. An ap roach to eudaimonia and ends is only possi le if we can clarify adequately the concept of reason and its cognates
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