BOOK NOTE

Patrick Murray (Ed.),Reflections on Commercial Life: An Anthology ofClassic Texts from Plato to the Present, Routledge, New York and London,3/29/97, 486 pages, $24.95.

Highly recommended for students, scholars, and citizens to examinethe commercial determinants of societal development.

Accuracy of information: excellent; Scope: good (this reviewer wouldlike even more “present” writer cover); Clarity: good (A summary or look-ing back could have tied it together for the reader). Quality of illustration:not applicable; Value of book: excellent.

A commercial society where wealth takes the commodity form andwhere a commodity’s sale will return a suitable profit to its producer, andin which the capitalist form of production is integral is the subject. Moneymaking may be an end in itself, craft is corrupted, and hyped commoditiesare bedfellows of the unexamined life. Murray’s selections bring togetheran anthology of writings from ancient Greeks to contemporary thinkersto cause the reader to explore the meaning and development of moderncommercial forms. Who really determines the kind of society we have?The role of commerce is the focus. Can human kind rise above the evolu-tionary drive of commerce to design a human society or is it destined torespond to the commercial/capitalistic call?

Seattle University HARRIET STEPHENSON

Teaching Business Ethics1: 453, 1998.