Abstract

This short monograph laudably presents itself as a lucid introduction for the plain man and schoolboy to the problems of language, with which contemporary British philosophers from Moore to Wittgenstein’s disciples have been preoccupied. Mr. Wilson, an experienced teacher of semantics, holds that the solution of human problems and disputes other than through force must be based upon that science of linguistic communication. If we are to be saved from excessive propaganda and demagogy, we must first understand the meaning and precise verification of words. Hence he offers this introduction to the current method and findings of linguistic analysis. His survey in the pattern of function, types and mistakes moves from the analysis of words to statements and their special relation to truth through verification. This poses the question of meaning, in the familiar Humean and dogmatic disjunction of factual or purely formal statement, and leads inevitably to the crucial meaning of value and metaphysical statements.