Your complimentary articles

You’ve read all of your complimentary articles for this month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please

If you are a subscriber please sign in to your account.

To buy or renew a subscription please visit the Shop.

If you are a print subscriber you can contact us to create an online account.

Books

Encyclopedia of Ethics

Kenneth Shouler praises Lawrence and Charlotte Becker for producing an encyclopedia of ethics which is truly encyclopedic.

When it comes to good encyclopedias, size matters. A publisher once said that the purpose of creating these book behemoths is to fashion works of “mind-numbing thoroughness.” Aside from satisfying people’s urge for completeness, such comprehensiveness has the marketing effect of making competition unthinkable. This is certainly the case with the Encyclopedia of Ethics, (2nd edition, Routledge, 2001), unless someone out there – in a spirit of great ambition and considerable masochism – dares to spend his time trying to exceed its 1,977 pages.

For this three-volume tour de force two people were responsible for the lion’s share of the work.

…