Language and Reality by Wilbur Marshall Urban (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Language and Reality. :ay WILBUR lVIARsHALL URBAN. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1939. Pp. 755, with indices. $5.50. The sub-title of this volume frtrther indicates its nature: it treats of " the philosophy of language and the principles of symbolism." It is the author's contribution to the solution of what he holds to be the basic problem of both science and philosophy: " Language is the last and deepest problem of the philosophic mind " (p. 22) . In its effort to advance a solution of this problem Prof. Urban's book g1ves many and varied rewards to its reader. These come from the author's own thinking upon the general question and its countless aspects, and from his wide range of reading, as exhibited in countless quotations. Language and Reality consists of two parts. In Part I-on the pl1ilosophy of language-eight chapters discuss the following general subjects: the theme of a philosophy of language; the origin, development and science of language; language as the bearer of meaning; the primary functions of language; linguistic validity; the nature and conditions of intelligible communication ; language and logic; language and cognition. In Part li-the principles of symbolism-six chapters discuss the general theory of symbolism ; the language of poetry and its symbolic form; symbolism as a scientific principle; religious symbols and the problem of religious knowledge; symbolism as a metaphysical principle; philosophia perennis: the "natural metaphysic of the human mind." Four appendices discuss in turn the development of language; the problem of translation in general logistics; neo-nominalistic philosophies of language; and symb~lism as a theological principle in St. Thomas. Prof. Urban cannot emphasize too much his conviction that the last and deepest problem of the philosophic mind is found in language. He holds that this is true whether reality be approached through life or through science. " Life as it is merely lived is senseless. It is perhaps conceivable that we may have a direct apprehension or intuition of life, but the meaning of life can neither be apprehended nor expressed except in language of some kind. . . . In a very real sense the limits of my language are the limits of my world. Science, in the last analysis, is language well made " (p. 21) . Again: "All life comes back to the question of speech, the medium through which we communicate" (p. 50). This being held, " ... the deepest problem of the philosophy of language is to be found. It is the critical problem of the relation of linguistic forms, and of symbolic forms in general, to the immediately given reality.... The only real problem is whether our creations have taken us 'to reality or away from it, whether 164 BOOK REVIEWS 165 they have become a veil to be torn away, or are, after all, when properly understood, the only road we have to reality" (p. 50). In his long consideration of this problem the author comes to an expected conclusion: " There are in general only two ways of solving the problem of language and cognition. The first of these ... assumes a ' reality ' known independently of language and its categories, a hypothetical ' pure experience ' to be discovered by stripping off language. This way is closed to us, for the assumptions on which it is based are pure myth. The second way proposes an exactly opposite method and proceeds upon opposite assumptions. Instead, as in the first way, attempting to get back of the forms of thought and language to a hypothetical ' pure experience,' it assumes that experience is never ' pure ' in this sense, and that intuition and expression are inseparable. It therefore proposes not to deny, but to complete and perfect the principles of expression and symbolism. It proceeds upon the assumption that the more richly and energetically the human spirit builds its languages and symbolisms, the nearer it comes, if not to the original source of its being, certainly to its ultimate meaning and reality. 1f the entire process of human culture consists in the creation of certain spiritual constructions, symbolie forms of various types; the way to truth and reality lies, not in negating these forms, but rather in seeking to understand them and in becoming more...