Abstract

All too rarely an anthology is put together that reflects imagination, command, and comprehensiveness. Rorty's collection is just such a book. Although primarily concerned with the metaphilosophical issues of precisely what is new and distinctive about the linguistic turn, excellent selections are included from a great variety of orientations. Both the more formalistic approaches of Carnap and Bergmann as well as the more informal perspectives of Ryle, Hampshire, and Austin are well represented. The whole is constructed so that the reader participates in a continuous dialectic of positions bringing us right up to recent discussions of transformational linguistics. There is a masterful introduction which takes a comprehensive look at the entire range of positions, revealing basic similarities and differences as well as locating the chief unresolved problems. A comprehensive bibliography enables the reader to locate almost any important discussion of the issues explored. This book is an ideal supplement for any course dealing with the varieties of analytic and linguistic philosophy. Unfortunately there is no index.—R. J. B.