Companions to Ancient Thought 3: Language ed. by Stephen Everson (review)

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 435 his apparently blissful ignorance of competing views. PETER RICHARDSON CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF REUGION UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO TORONTO, ONTARIO M5S 2E8 STEPHEN EvERSON, ed. Companions to Ancient Thought 3: Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. vii + 280. ISBN 0-521-35538-9. This is the third volume in a series edited by Stephen Everson. Each is a collection of ten or eleven essays by different hands focussed on a particular topic in ancient philosophy. In 1990 Epistemology appeared and in 1991 Psychology. Like its highly successful predecessors, Language aims to serve an audience devoted to the analytically inclined study of ancient philosophy which is now dominant in the English-speaking world. The publisher captures this aim succinctly: "This new series of Companions is intended particularly for students of ancient thought who will be reading the texts in translation but approaching them with the analytical skills of modern philosophy and with an eye to their contemporary as well as their historical significance."1 An important feature of the series is its historical inclusiveness. Care is taken to ensure balanced representation of Presocratic and post-Aristotelian philosophy as well as Plato and Aristotle. The contributions on Stoicism, Epicureanism, Sextus Empiricus, and Galen all have a freshness and power appropriate to the recent emergence of exciting work in these areas. The series has, however, also been marked by a relative neglect of later Platonism, with the only contribution being in the form of Eyj6lfur Emilsson's essay "Plotinus and soul-body dualism" in Psychology; the present volume contains an essay on Augustine but nothing on later Platonism as such. This neglect of the Platonic revival which so dominated philosophy under the Roman Empire is peculiar from an historical point of view, but is readily explained by reference to the aims of the series. Those topics which have provided a forum for fruitful interaction between the history of philosophy and I Volumes in the series feature a thematically organized bibliography, extensive and up-to-date, and indices of names, passages discussed and subjects. The Greek is transliterated. 436 BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS contemporary Anglo-American analytic interests have been singled out for particular attention. This singleness of purpose makes for a rewarding synergy and focus, but it also means that these volumes contain that much less for readers who might approach the ancient world from other philosophical perspectives.2 Language contains eleven chapters. Everson's "Introduction" surveys the volume in the light of contemporary analytic philosophy of language, particularly the work of Donald Davidson and Michael Dummett. Emphasis falls heavily on issues of semantics and the problem of language acquisition, a focus reflected in the essays which follow. The relevance of problems about language for metaphysical questions is, of course, a major feature of contemporary philosophy, and Everson gives an admirably clear exposition of the various ways this is so, both in the ancient world and today. As an instance of the metaphysical importance of linguistic enquiry, David Bostock ("Plato on understanding language") rightly focusses on the central place of the theory of forms in Plato's thought, bringing out the interplay between his views on language and reality. Bernard Williams' discussion of the Cratylus ("Cratylus' theory of names and its refutation") deals less with the metaphysical implications of thought about language; he focusses on the central issue of correctness in naming and joins other recent authors in making a case for the philosophical interest of this baffling dialogue. If nothing else, the Cratylus shows by its irony that language cannot be understood on the assumption that it is an imitation of reality. Whatever the source of their communicative power, and however natural they might be, words do not have meaning because they are similar to the things they designate. In "Aristotle on names and their signification," David Charles tackles central problems in Aristotelian semantics; he argues (against a number of recent commentators) that his theory is strongly realist and markedly different from some current theories-but philosophically rewarding nevertheless. Aristotle's commitment to metaphysical realism is supported by this fresh and convincing account of his semantics. Like Aristotle, the philosophical doctor Galen is strongly 2 Even...