Ethics: The Essential Writings (Modern Library Classics)

I was tempted to assign this to Intro Ethics students, having been impressed that it includes 75% what I wish to teach (cobbled together until now without a unifying "textbook"), and it would be convenient to refer students to some of the additional selections that don't fit into my schedule of readings.But for university use, classic texts (Plato, Aristotle, Kant) need to track standard academic pagination; good anthologies include these numbers in the margin (or more cheaply, bracketed inline within the text). Without such numbers, students can't really make connections to secondary articles or alternate translations.Also missing in this volume is due recognition of translation details (translators are not listed in table of contents, nor generally listed in the text itself; they're discoverable only in the "permission credits" end matter), and the translations chosen are indeed not consistently the best. These two compromises may help the anthology feel uncluttered for casual readers, but they make it inappropriate for deeper inquiry.

Interesting book to read even for a class tbh with ya guys. I highly recommend you go and purchase it yourself!

I've been using this in my Ethics classes because it has about half of what I want to teach and isn't too expensive, but it is entirely Western-focused. Like the other reviewer said, it needs to make the translation details more explicit as well. I keep looking for a reader that has more of what I teach and failing to find it.

It is, I think, worth noting the irony that textbooks for ethics classes are a scam. This is by far the most useful and best priced primary text reader I've used. What possible reason could there be to format philosophy textbooks (accepting perhaps history of, or logic) into the multi-year, visual-driven format of a large and insanely expensive science text book? Profit and hubris can be the only explanation.I'd note that these selections are of limited usefulness without some source of further explanation. But this is of course the point. It's obvious limitations are similar to those had by a somewhat arbitrary or themeless smattering of the published articles of some of the greatest physical scientists.It can, and should, replace most introductory ethics texts, and would be super useful to anyone interested in a cheap source of compelling and world-historic essays on the question of how to live.

These works are truly the essentials of philosophy. However, I doubt unless you’re an Einstein you’ll be able to truly comprehend what they’re saying. At the minimum, a full understanding of the intro to each author as given in the book is necessary. Also, linguistic niches and cultural parallax needs to be accounted for. I’d suggest many hours apart from the book in research as a more practical approach.This book is an excellent companion to the formal instruction I receive at college. Other than that, dont expect anything earth shattering without a lot of extra work...

I used this book for an introductory ethics course I was teaching, and on the whole found it good. The range of philosophers is excellent, the texts selected are good, and the excerpts from the texts are well-chosen.You get a solid grounding in the history of ethical literature from Plato through Kierkegaard and Sartre, as well as plenty of contemporary philosophical writing on ethics in the second half of this large volume.My major gripe is that the book badly needs a revision. The latest edition is 2010. It needs to be reissued for this reason: there are a LOT of typos. Misspellings abound throughout the translations, and stray punctuation marks pop up often. It degrades student respect for the text when I constantly have to apologize on behalf of Mr. Marino for misspellings in the text.

This book is exactly what it says it includes, the basic (and essential) writings of moral philosophy. It offers the most central and important articles/books/arguments for ethical theories such as Utilitarianism, Deontological Ethics, Cultural Relativism, etc. It ranges from Plato to Peter Singer and beyond. Normally, you'd have to buy numerous books to get all this philosophy, but it's all compiled together for a very low price. This book could easily be used for an introductory ethics class since it offers so much, and even more advance classes since many works can be exhaustively studied in their own courses. Once I saw this in my campus bookstore I knew I had to purchase it.

I use this book in my ethics classes but limit the number of readings because students often say it is too difficult. The readings which cover both theory and practice are well chosen, but I wish the author had given a little more introduction to each section; It is a good introductory book provided you are in an ethics class where you can discuss the schools and writers. Not easy on your own.