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Title: A Companion to Ethics (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy) by Peter Singer ISBN: 0-631-18785-5 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: April, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Great introduction, some defects
Comment: I found this book to be a great introduction to all aspects of ethics. It leaves no area untouched: everything from Buddhist ethics to deontology, consequentialism, virtue theory, the nature of morality, and much much more is covered here. Indeed, I would say that anyone who wants a survey of this area of philosophy need look no further.
But the book has several glaring flaws. Notably, it appears that some of the choices of essays were slightly biased. A case in point: the two essays on comtemporary deontology and consequentialism. The essay on deontology appears to not be written by an actual deontologist, and the author spent most of the essay bringing up silly objections that even I, as a first year undergraduate philosophy major, could answer. This is in stark contrast to the essay on consequentialism, written in a tone that barely escapes arrogance by its end.
There is nothing wrong with having a die-hard supporter of consequentialism write an essay introducing people to the topic. If this book were better, all of the essays would've been written with just that goal in mind. To pick essays not written by people who actually subscribe to the ethical theory in question is simply poor editing, because often the writer reveals her ignorance. This reduces the quality of the book, instead of giving each ethical theory the best possible promulgation. Indeed, it's not as if deontology is so unpopular that Singer couldn't have found one to write about it.
If anything, a better choice of essays would've made this book more useful than it actually is. Indeed, one of the interesting things about the essay on "universal perscriptivism" by R.M. Hare, was that the table of contents actually claims that the article is written by the theory's originator and best spokesman. If all the essays were written by their respective theory's "best spokesman," than this book would have 5 stars.
Apart from these glaring flaws, the book remains a well edited companion to ethics. There is coverage (even if sometimes poor) given to almost every possible ethical theory, the history of ethics, applied ethics (just war, business ethics, etc.), and various ethical views (i.e., realism, naturalism, relativism, etc.). Anyone interested in a breif overview of the entire field of morality should start here.
Rating: 5
Summary: My review is a single-sentence one.
Comment: The selection of the articles in this book is excellent: not too deep in any of the subjects and gives a wide range overlook on the field of ethics, I read it with eas and joy.
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Title: A Companion to Epistemology (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy) by Jonathan Dancy, Ernest Sosa ISBN: 0631192581 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: January, 1994 List Price(USD): $36.95 |
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Title: A Companion to Metaphysics (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy Series) by Jaegwon Kim, Kim Jaegwon, Ernest Sosa ISBN: 0631199993 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: August, 1996 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: A Companion to Bioethics by Helga Kuhse, Peter Singer ISBN: 063123019X Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: August, 2001 List Price(USD): $36.95 |
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Title: A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy Series) by Samuel Guttenplan ISBN: 0631199969 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: Ethics by Peter Singer ISBN: 0192892452 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: March, 1994 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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