Ethics : Selections from Classical and Contemporary Writers

Rating:
Summary: The Ethics of Boredom
Review: Johnson's "Ethics: Selections from. . ." is a text book.

This book takes some otherwise interesting philosophers and chops up sections of their work, spitting it all out on the page in a roughly chronological order of Western thought.

The choices Johnson made for philosophers to be represented in his book were good, but some of the ways that the information is presented leaves much to be desired.

For an introductory course in Ethics, this makes a passable book in that it covers all of the basics. The duel tables of context, one in chronological order and the other seperating the writers topically was a useful tool.

This book only skims the surface of ethics and is limited in its scope; making it useful only for an introduction course. The problem this leaves is that the reading sections tend to be thick and will not capture the attention of a reader unless they must read in order to pass a class.

The study questions at the end of each section are very basic, some times simple enough to be answered by high school students, but open enough that they work within the context of a college class room.

A slow read. This book should only be purchased by college students that are taking a course that requires them to buy it. Otherwise, the level of interest that this book has to offer is rather limited.