[hist-analytic] Not Cricket

[jlsperanza at aol.com]

Thanks to S. Bayne for his recent note with the two refs. in Linguistic  
Inquiry. Will do.
 
And please, do focus on your 'fair', or 'justice'. No just to keep you  
revising things you read twenty years ago! In any case, just checked that 
'fair'  with which Rawls seems to have been obsessed, is Anglo-Saxon. Below the 
etym.,  online. Interesting for some development along Gricean lines. Indeed 
Mayfair  Lady became, "My fair Lady" in the musical...
 
In any case, Grice has a couple of things to say about 'justice' in WoW.  
Basically his exegesis on Plato. It's odd how these linguistic philosophers 
took  Aristotle and Plato so seriously. I was delighted when Urmson and 
Warnock added  to Austin's Philosophical Papers Austin's unpublished essay on 
Plato's Line.  Similarly, Grice's work on "Justice" in Plato's Republic is 
another taste one  gets of the way these philosophers liked to shine amongst 
themselves with  exegetical material of the classics. Brilliant!
 
It's not cricket, is used, idiomatically, as "no fair!", so it may relate.  
Grice, recall, had his obit. titled: "professional philosopher and amateur  
cricketer", so there!
 
Cheers,
 
J. L. Speranza
 
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O.E. fæger "beautiful, pleasant," from P.Gmc. *fagraz (cf. O.N. fagr,  
O.H.G. fagar "beautiful," Goth. fagrs "fit"), from PIE *fag-. The meaning in  
ref. to weather (c.1200) preserves the original sense (opposed to foul). Sense 
 of "light complexioned" (1550s) reflects tastes in beauty; sense of "free 
from  bias" (mid-14c.) evolved from another early meaning, "morally pure, 
unblemished"  (late 12c.). The sporting senses (fair ball, fair catch etc.) 
began in 1856.  Fair play is from 1590s; fair and square is from c.1600. 
Fair-haired in the fig.  sense of "darling, favorite" is from 1909. Fairly in the 
sense of "somewhat" is  from 1805; it earlier meant "totally." Fairway 
(1584) originally meant  "navigational channel of a river;" golfing sense is 
from 1910. First record of  fair-weather friends is from 1736. 
 
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