ABSTRACT

This chapter contains a very brief introduction to Grice and an intentional theory of meaning, perhaps just framing an issue, followed by an example. It is followed by a short discussion and then a series of questions. The example is an exercise in thought which explains the Gricean analysis. One way in which people might try to rescue the analysis is to avail themselves of the distinction between illocutionary and perlocutionary intentions. The example presents a cases of illocutionary intentions include warning and promising. The questions are intended to get the philosophy students thinking about the problems. They have used these kinds of questions in seminars as the questions set for seminars, so they also think that they can be used to spark conversation and discussion. The chapter also gives a cursory sketch of some of the ways in which philosophers have responded to the thought experiment.