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RR 2006/297 Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2nd edition) Editor-in-chief Donald M. Borchert Macmillan Reference Farmington Hills, MI 2006 10 vols ISBN 0 02 865780 2 $995 Also published simultaneously as an e-book (ISBN 0 02 866072 2), for pricing and other information contact Thomson Gale
Keywords Encyclopedias, Philosophy
Review DOI 10.1108/09504120610687056
Working with this large reference work over several weeks has been an education and a delight. The first edition dates from 1967 and rightly moved away from the habit of earlier works to concentrate on personalities and to be merely brief about philosophical concepts and processes. At that stage, too, many entries came from contributors who were themselves substantial commentators in their chosen field, care was taken not to overlap the entries (and to cross-reference them consistently), and, where appropriate, to reflect important historiographic and intellectual shifts in philosophy and related areas.
This new and second edition follows in the footsteps of the first, with general editor Donald Borchert (Ohio University and editor of the 1996 supplement to the original edition), substantive articles from recognized scholars, broad but not exhaustive coverage of topics, many new entries and many updates of original entries (done by adding addenda rather than by changing original entries, many of which are classics), and wider coverage than before of Buddhist and Chinese, Islamic and other philosophies. What strikes you immediately about the new edition is robust and elegant binding, clean and careful editing on good paper, clear content, ideas easy to locate, complex philosophers and philosophical issues understandable, and a coherent decision about scope and boundaries.
Volume 10 contains a comprehensive index, which complements the alphabetical sequence throughout and classifies and indexes entries and ideas. This is clearly for readers who already know their philosophy and for the many others who will go confidently to this work, looking for information about topics like the history of science, language and meaning, motion, religion, Freud, syllogisms, politics and mathematics. For those identifying and buying resources to support such study and research, in school and college, academic and specialist libraries, the bibliographies (also in volume 10) are of particular value (English-language and non-English-language). A thematic index there will help readers too.
Any encyclopedia and dictionary of philosophy worth its salt will include - and...