THE LIMITS OF LANGUAGE

There's an then in the nexus of this little book, but it doesn't quite materialise get together some eminent exponents of the scientific and literary scene and let them expound on the difficulties of direct communication in an age when statements of truth have tended to become increasingly ambiguous. To this end, the editor has assembled published writings, ranging from philosopher William James to poet Wallace Stevens. The result is a measure of intellectual treat, with examples, generally short, at their best when the in present day physics and its attendant. turvy implications for Whitehend, Bridgman and H.J. Muller speak for the the of experimental sense-data, the inadequacies of linguistic the maladjustment of a ""system dealing with itself"", the Ames- Cantril demonstrations stimulating movement in space perceptions, the moment-to-moment continuum principle and Kenneth ""perspective by incongruity"". And after that, in shifting to the literary scene, he tends toward the hothouse variety:- Sartre's too-famous Existentialism essay. William Barrett on rubism, Miss Stein on grammar a la Gertrude, a bit of Virginia Woolf's and three verses by Stevens. One could wish that he had looked farther afield. However, this is a useful compendium for the college mart or the bull session in bringing together samplings that may lead the ambitious deeper.