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Rating: 
Summary: A good introduction to a very broad topic
Review: Nye gives us good introductory essays to the study of the philosophy of language: a topic that dominated philosophy for the past 100 years. While I don't think she gave enough space to postmodern theorists (she only included one passage from Foucault and nothing from Derrida), I do think that the ideas presented within give a more or less comprehensive look at the strands of thought associated with language. I especially enjoyed the fact that this anthology was not dominated by the analytics, something that most philosophy of language books occasionally slip into. One might argue that the passages selected were too short. Many times Nye only selects four or five pages from an entire work to include in her anthology. I would agree that in some cases, more "meat" would have been necessary. However, in others (Russell, Frege, and Ayer in particular) more of a selection would have simply confused an introductory reader. Nye gives us a very good introductory look at the contemporary questions involving philosophy of language; she allows readers to become enthralled with the discipline just enough that they might decide to explore the topic further.
Rating:
Summary: A good introduction to a very broad topic
Review: Nye gives us good introductory essays to the study of the philosophy of language: a topic that dominated philosophy for the past 100 years. While I don't think she gave enough space to postmodern theorists (she only included one passage from Foucault and nothing from Derrida), I do think that the ideas presented within give a more or less comprehensive look at the strands of thought associated with language. I especially enjoyed the fact that this anthology was not dominated by the analytics, something that most philosophy of language books occasionally slip into. One might argue that the passages selected were too short. Many times Nye only selects four or five pages from an entire work to include in her anthology. I would agree that in some cases, more "meat" would have been necessary. However, in others (Russell, Frege, and Ayer in particular) more of a selection would have simply confused an introductory reader. Nye gives us a very good introductory look at the contemporary questions involving philosophy of language; she allows readers to become enthralled with the discipline just enough that they might decide to explore the topic further.
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