AN ANALYSIS OF THOUGHT

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 147, 16 March 1940, Page 15

AN ANALYSIS OF THOUGHT

“The Nature of Thought,” two volumes, by Brand Blanshard (London: Allen and Unwin). Professor Blanshard’s object in this work is to supply “an analysis of thought that will neither be instantlyrepudiated by the psychologist nor indignantly disowned by the metaphysician.” He points out that between the account of ideas and inference supplied by the psychologists and that of tlie epistemologist and logician there has apepared an almost impassable chasm. This he sets himself to bridge by showing that for any adequate theory of ideas and the thought process psychology and philosophy must supplement each other and by’ working out tlie connexion between “philosophical accounts of universals, abstract and concrete, of pure necessities in inference, of coherent systems of ‘thought’ ” and anything that seems to occur in one’s own mind. In the first volume Professor Blanshard studies the nature, structure and functions of perceptual meaning, and proceeds to an examination of tlie idea and its relations.to its object with reference to the views of Russell, Dewey, Moore, Alexander, the critical realists, Bradley, and others. In the second volume he studies the movement of reflection, examining the working of tlie mind in invention and discussing the coherence theory and other tests of truth. He concludes with an explanation of the goal of thought as the grasp of necessity, championing concrete necessity and infernal relations against the views of the empiricists, mathematical logicians and logical positivists. BOOKS IN DEMAND The Wellington City Librarian lias furnished the following list of books in demand: — GENERAL. “There's Rosemary—There’s Rue," by Lady W. Forescue. “King’s Nurse —Beggar's Nurse,” by C. Black. “A Single Flame,” by M. Boyd. FICTION. “Full Meridan,” by N. Jacob. “Happy Christmas," by J. Butler. “Demon Daughter,” by H. M. W. Morrow.