Customer Reviews

Definite Descriptions: A Reader

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Gary Ostertag's "Definite Descriptions: A Reader" offers a great selection of paper relating to definite descriptions; as a matter of fact, all of the papers deal directly with definite descriptions. There are, of course, the standard fare: Russell's, Strawson's, and Donnellan's classic papers. Ostertag includes, also, excerpts of Grice, Wettstein, and Schiffer. The organization is chronological and, as such, traces the development and significance of definite descriptions in the philosophy of language in the last 100 years, or so.
I'm puzzled, however, as to how it is that Ostertag believed that this would be an introduction to the philosophy of language. The pieces, of course, deal with a number of issues related to definite descriptions--indexicals, pragmatics, etc.--however, there is very little in the way of introduction to these issues supplied by Ostertag or even by the articles themselves--only those coming to the anthology with a background knowledge of pragmatics, for example, would be able to make sense of some readings. I believe that Ostertag would have done well to include more about these issues in his introduction, rather than griding the (strange) axe that Ramsey's "that paradigm of philosophy" remark is misapplied today, strictly speaking. Though interesting in its own right, he devotes so much of his introduction to this interesting but unimportant point that it just seems strange.
One pleasing aspect of his introduction, however, is that Ostertag talks about the ways in which the included articles interact with articles outside of the anthology. Given the length of this anthology relative to some others in philosophy, I am somewhat upset, however, that he couldn't include some of these referenced articles, but who knows how the publishers felt about all this...
The selections are, on the whole, well-chosen, but I'm somewhat puzzled by why Ostertag felt it necessary to include Neale's selection from "Descriptions"--anyone doing serious research in definite descriptions probably owns the book already or has access to it from his library, and it is quite lengthy--Ostertag could have left it out and instead put two, maybe even three more articles in its place. But, this seems over-critical on my part, I suppose.
Ostertag's bibliography is quite well-done, and I appreciate the topical division--it makes further research that much easier. It would have been helpful, also, (in keeping with his contention that this is an introduction to the philosophy of langauge via definite descriptions) if Ostertag had offered some recommended reading after each individual essay.
Having these readings so assembled in one place is quite convenient, although I'm not sure how it is that this could be used in a class--unless it were a seminar on definite descriptions--without the assistance of another anthology devoted to wider-ranging issues.
All-in-all, I recommend this book to anyone who is doing research in definite descriptions, from the undergraduate to early-postgraduate level; professionals may find it convenient to have these essays all in one volume.
Ostertag's "Definite Descriptions: A Reader" scores high marks on convenience, middle marks on breadth, and high marks on organization and bibliography. In its stated purpose, however, I feel that the book falls short--while it shows the centrality of definite descriptions to contemporary philosophy of language, it is by no means an introduction to the philosophy of language, but, then again, philosophy has no shallow end.
The book, qua book, is well-assembled. The binding is quite sturdy, the pages are crisp, and the print is just the right size.

It appears that this book is out of print, which is a shame, as I know of no other anthology that fulfills the purpose for which I bought this book.