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.