Logic and Nature by Marie Collins Swabey, and: Conceptual Thinking by Stephen Körner, and: Essays in Conceptual Analysis ed. by Anthony Flew, and: Nature and Judgment by Justus Buchler, and: An Introduction to Deductive Logic by Hugues Leblanc (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 217 courageous pioneers in showing this absence of conflict in the practical order. The purpose, the end of man's spiritual life " each and every human being is destined to be a friend of God " the author accomplishes, and well. Trinity CoUege, Washington, D. C. LEWIS A. SPRINGMANN, 0. P. Logic and Nature. By MARIE CoLLINS SwABEY. New York: New York University Press. 1955. Pp. £11, with index. $3.75. Conceptual Thinking. By STEPHEN KoRNER. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hl55. Pp. 308 with index. $5.50. Essays in Conceptual Analysis. Edited by ANTHONY FLEW. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1956. Pp. £74. $4.£5. Nature and Judgment. By JusTus BucHLER. New York: Columbia University Press. 1955. Pp. 217 with index. $3.75. An Introduction to Deductive Logic. By HuGUEs LEBLANC. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 1955. Pp. 256 with index. $4.75. All of the above listed books were written teachers of philosophy and three, it will be noted, were published by university presses. AU are more or less in the field of logic, or at least of logic as conceived by the modern mind. This new appraisal of logic does bring aU the books also into the areas of psychology and metaphysics. Finally, each book wrestles with the problem of semantics. Of the five authors involved, Stephan Korner emerges as a superb philo~ sophical craftsman; Marie Collins Swabey would seem to possess the most penetrating mind; Justus Buchler is the obscure member of the group; Anthony Flew is a judicious editor; and Hugues Leblanc knows how to write a textbook on symbolic logic. Korner tells the reader exactly what he intends to do and then does it. He obviously has worked on his book for years, has thought out every detail, and has the good sense to know that a summary at the end of a section can be a great help to the reader, and references to previous statements can make present claims sound more feasible. Professor Swabey is like Korner both in her clarity of expression and in the fact that both have a courtesy in their writing which makes one more sympathetic towards them than had they simply blasted their philosophical opponents without mercy. ActuaHy, Marie Collins Swabey can be positively devastating in her criticism but she is always the lady, sensitive to the opinions of others and willing to hear opposite views. fi, past master of the art, has collected another fine series 218 BOOK REVIEWS of essays, the majority of which were written in a polemic vein. For this publication the authors have softened their vocabulary but not to the point where the sharpness of their wit has been dulled. Of the five books, this one prepared by Flew is the most relaxing and entertaining. Each page, let alone chapter, has an air of expectancy about it. Unfortunately, like Buchler's Nature and Judgment, some of the problems discussed seem rather trivial. Unlike Buchler, however, these essays do not hide their meanings behind coined words or obscure language. Probably the quickest, if not the most just, way to describe Buchler is to call him a Whiteheadian Deweyite. Last, and also least philosophically, is Hugues Leblanc. When he is writing prose and not running off his. code of symbols, he reads something like the barker for a sideshow at the county fair sounds. However, we can take more note of that later. None of these books are by Aristotelians or even by out-and-out realists. Buchler and Leblanc have already been identified. Korner, Flew with his friends are conceptualists, and Marie Collins Swabey is a rationalist. The volumes produced by this latter group contain many realistic theses. In fact, Professor Swabey's book begins like the opening chapter of Aristotle 's Physics. Her constant attempt is to read logical principles into reality instead of realizing, as in fact she must, that she discovered real principles in nature and that the logical and even metaphysical statement of those principles certainly is not reality itself. Conceptual thinking is also infected with the temptation to attribute more to the concept (which, of course, does not mean "concept" in the Aristotelian versions, but rather, as Korner...