320
PARTISAN REVIEW
and his character, complicated beyond the point of ambiguity, come out
almost in spite of Gorman's elementary charting of the career. Gorman
does not indulge in any literary criticism. And it is apparent that the deep
reflection of Joyce, the man and artist, is not managed. That reflection,
perhaps, has already been supplied us in the dark glass of
Finnegaru
Wake,
and will become clear when the final exegesis of that work (as
extraordinary an example of sheer "cunning" as was ever devised by man),
has been given its imprimatur by Joyce himself. For in this way were
the Doctors of the Church explained and glossed.
The book contains a series of interesting photographs.
LoUISE BocAN
A PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE
LANGUAGE AND REALITY.
By
Wilbur Mars/w,ll Urban. Macmillan.
$5.50.
Language as an instrument of thought and communication has been
the concern of students since antiquity, and it is not a recent discovery
that its uncritical use generates unintelligent problems and profound
confusions. Nevertheless, contemporary students of the subject are for·
tunately situated for carrying on their work: they have at their disposal
a critical comparative philology, a culturally oriented psychology and
anthropology, a mature examination of scientific methods, and, not least,
a supple and comprehensive logical apparatus. As a consequenc:<e, a body
of reliable knowledge is now available concerning the development, the
functions, the limitations, and the conditions for the operation of various
kinds of languages-a body of knowledge which far exceeds in scope and
adequacy the best that traditional speculations on language can offer.
But this body of knowledge is still incomplete and unsystematized.
There are many gaps in our information and analyses, and the bearings
upon each other of different approaches to the study of language are still
far from clear. Moreover, the techniques of analysis for resolving con·
fusions arising from the misuse of language have still not been completely
mastered and organized even by outstanding students in the field-to say
nothing of popularizers such as Arnold, Chase, and Korzybski, whose
qualification to write upon such matters consists chiefly in an unbounded
enthusiasm and the crudest kind of empiricism. A generalized and sys·
tematic theory of language and symbolism, worked out with attention to
details of application, is a genuine contemporary need.
Professor Urban's book does not fill this need, although it is an
attempt to do so. But it must be acknowledged that he views the subject
in a broad perspective and examines not only the central issues of a
theory of language-e.g., its origin and development, the conditions of
