Abstract

This book is one of the Macmillan ‘Sources in Philosophy’ series, under the general editorship of Lewis White Beck. According to the publisher’s blurb, each volume ‘contains a substantial original essay and selected readings in a major segment of philosophy. The introductory essay for each volume provides an original point of view from which the coherence and unity of the diverse selections can be appreciated’. Now the preparation of such collections involves major difficulties, especially when, as in this series, the total space available is so small. It is hard to avoid the over-simplification of issues, except at the expense of clarity; it is impossible to do justice to different sides in a controversy without trivialising the issues; lack of space in which to state particular points of view in full may lead to their presentation in an unbalanced and half-argued form, sacrificing both interest and cogency; and little can be made of the intricate network of interconnections relating the major issues, so that their relevance to one another and their general importance in the field may remain obscure.