The first edition of MacIntyre's A Short History of Ethics was widely read and translated into several languages. Since its publication in 1966, MacIntyre has continued to investigate philosophical and ethical issues, and comes to the second edition with thirty more years of questions and answers, and a slightly different viewpoint. His additions and corrections to the first edition, appear in this, the second edition, and the reader will likely approve of the changes.
Four chapters in particular received MacIntyre's attention in the second edition. They are the chapters on Christianity, the British Eighteenth-Century Argument, Kant, and modern moral philosophy. The changes and additions (described in the preface) show MacIntyre's maturation as a philosopher and ethicist, and his growing understanding of ethics in a universal sense. And like the first edition, the second edition of A Short History of Ethics provides one of the best introductions to the study of ethics from the time of Homer through the twentieth century. With a broad scope of vision and understanding, and a willingness to ask the questions which moral philosophy must be able to answer, A Short History of Ethics, second edition, onces again proves to be ideal for anyone interested in ethics and morality.
