Customer Reviews

Ethics: History, Theory, and Contemporary Issues

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book has absolutely atrocious translations of some of the older texts. Here's an example from Epicurus' Letters to Menoeceus

This text reads
"For it is then that we have need of pleasure, when we feel pain owing to the absence of pleasure; (but when we do not feel pain), we no longer need pleasure."

Every other translation reads something like
"When we are pained because of the absence of pleasure, then, and then only, do we feel the need of pleasure. "

That completely reverses the meaning of the text. I have never seen a book filled with so many ham fisted translations. I can't recommend this book to any professor who hopes to teach their students well, or any reader who hopes to understand these texts properly.

This is about as comprehensive as it gets at this price. I know of no other book that presents the most common readings in meta-ethics, the history of ethics, moral language, normative ethical theories, and applied ethics. This gives the book a great deal of versatility for various focuses in introductory ethics courses.

Unlike many books of its kind, this book contains few things that are available in the public domain. Even for writings that are several hundred years old (or older) this collection tends to consist of scholarly editions of the text, which are not themselves in the public domain. Considering the relatively low cost of this book, that is a noteworthy fact. After all, it's irritating as a student to buy an expensive anthology which is 30-50% available for free online.

Another reviewer expressed dissatisfaction with the translations selected. All translators must wrestle with balancing accessibility with accuracy, and the results are not likely to be satisfactory to everyone. I can't say anything specifically about the Epicurus translations, but the works I'm more familiar with select (to my mind) acceptable translations. For example, the Aristotle is the Ross translation as revised by Ackrill and Urmson, which is not as good as the Irwin translation, but is better than the public domain Ross translation. The Kant readings are the Gregor translation, which is not public domain, and is generally considered the scholarly standard for that work. The Plato seems all to be Gallop translations, which are reasonably well-thought of and use more modern language than the Jowett. In general, for reasons that make economic sense, since this is an Oxford book the editions of these texts are mostly taken from editions published by Oxford. While they certainly don't have a monopoly on the best editions of these works, they're generally among the best available.

In general this is a very good collection that ought to contain most or all of what the majority of ethics instructors typically assign in their courses, and at a price which is reasonably competitive.

The book came on time and at a good price! I will buy from them again if they have the books I need.

I paid 25 bucks for a book that was supposed to be in acceptable condition, but in my opinion I got much better! There is no writing in it, just a few pencil marks on the edges you can see when closed. It said water damage but you can hardly tell. The first 3-4 pages have bent corners but that's basically it!! I'm extremely impressed I would definitely use them again for books!!!

i did appreciate the book alot, but it's pretty hard reading for someone like me, who uses English as a second language.

I ordered this book to save money for college and it worked!! My book arrived in excellent condition, just in time for me to head off to school. There was some pencil writing on the first page, but it definitely didn't bother me at all. I'm definitely doing this again next semester. :)

Book arrived in good condition as listed. Fast shipping, will buy from this seller again.

Thanks so much for the prompt delivery. My son was able to start his class in time with his book.