Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part one : ways of placement -- Container and thing contained -- Antinomies of definition -- Scope and reduction -- Part two : the philosophic schools -- Scene -- Agent in general -- Act -- Agency and purpose -- Part three : on dialect -- The dialectic of constitutions -- Dialectic in general -- Appendix.

About this book Mr. Burke contributes an introductory and summarizing remark, "What is involved, when we say what people are doing and why they are doing it?" An answer to that question is the subject of this book. The book is concerned with the basic forms of thought which, in accordance with the nature of the world as all men necessarily experience it, are exemplified in the attributing of motives. These forms of thought can be embodied profoundly or trivially, truthfully or falsely. They are equally present in systematically elaborated metaphysical structures, in legal judgments, in poetry and fiction, in political and scientific works, in news and in bits of gossip offered at random.