Review by Booklist Review
Unlike a number of recently published dictionaries that cover both philosophical terms and philosophers, these two titles cover one or the other. Even within their chosen areas of coverage, they are far more selective than The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy edited by Robert Audi, A Dictionary of Philosophy edited by Thomas Mautner [both RBB F 1 96], or The Oxford Companion to Philosophy edited by Ted Honderich [RBB O 1 95], each of which covers many times the number of philosophers as Fifty Major Philosophers and many times the number of terms as Adler's Philosophical Dictionary. Nevertheless, the latter two have much to recommend them. Collinson's Fifty Major Philosophers is not new, having first been published in 1987; there have been five reprintings, but there is no indication in the book that this is a new edition. Lucid essays designed to be accessible to those with little or no previous philosophical background are arranged chronologically from Thales to Sartre (no living philosophers are included). Their length ranges from about 1\xba pages (Anaximenes, Parmenides, Zeno) to five or more pages (Hobbes, Hume, Kant, Wittgenstein). Each essay is followed by cross-references and bibliographies of the philosopher's major writings and of further reading. Concluding the book is a glossary of technical philosophical terms with references to the relevant essays. Mortimer Adler, author of more than three dozen books and long associated with the Great Books of the Western World and the Paideia program, has devoted the majority of his 93 years to making the public more philosophically aware. Adler's Philosophical Dictionary is both a continuation of this process and a summary of Adler's thought. Brief essays on 60 terms (e.g., belief, happiness, immortality) or pairs of terms (e.g., absolute and relative, pleasure and pain, virtue and vice) offer nontechnical introductions to many of the central ideas of philosophy. The essays are lucid, thought-provoking, and opinionated. Preceding the index are appendixes with references to other books by Adler for each of the terms covered and a bibliography of works by Adler. Due to the limited scope of these two books, they would be far more valuable in circulating than in reference collections. Both are enticing introductions to philosophical thought for the layperson.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
