Like his earlier Language and Philosophy (1949). and Problems of Analysis (1954), Models and Metaphors is a collection of Black's papers unified by the belief that linguistic considerations can play an important part in framing and solving philosophical problems. Broadly speaking, the linguistic approach takes two forms: (1) examining the uses of a word, or of a set of related words, frequently occurring in philosophical inquiries, either for the general purposes of clarification (e.g., of ‘model’, ‘rule’) or as a useful aid to the solution, or dissolution, of a specific philosophical problem (e.g., of ‘implies’ in connection with ‘What is the relationship between an assertion and its presuppositions ?’); (2) considering questions about language, meaning, and related subjects (e.g., ‘Can one draw valid inferences from premises about grammar to ontological conclusions?’, ‘Do the accusatives of meaning-formulae designate anything?’, or ‘Are necessary statements validated by appealing to linguistic rules?’). Obviously, given that the concepts involved are of language or meaning, the former approach can be readily incorporated in the latter.