Ethics: History, Theory, and Contemporary Issues

Rating:
Summary: Great Collection of Writings
Review: This is an excellent text for historical readings in ethical theories. The writings begin with Plato (Euthyphro, Defence of Socrates, Crito, etc.) and carries the reader into the Contemporary period (i.e. James Rachels, Joel Feinberg, Michael Tooley, etc.).

Every important historical figure and their ethical theories is covered. The group includes, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Epictetus, Augustine, Aquinas, Hobbes, Butler, Hume, Kant, Bentham, Mill, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, James, Dewey, Camus, and Sartre. As you can see the historical writers/philosophers are a great mix.

From the modern period the text includes, Moore, Ross, Ayer, Anscombe, Rawls, MacIntyre, Held, Nagel, and many more. Keep in mind that this text is a very comprehensive primary readings source book and nothing more. If you are looking for commentary on the various ethical theories this text will not provide that for you. It is simply, but quite exhaustively, a readings text. This text would be great for teachers who are teaching a type of intro class to ethics (which is fact what I will be doing next semester and using this very text). The only downfall to the text is the fact that it has no glossary or index for easy and quick reference. However, I highly recommend this text as a great compilation of primary sources.