ABSTRACT
The newest publication of the International Encyclopedia of Unified Sciencerepresents in the author's judgment a landmark in the development of a scientific study of moral behavior. The basis of this contention is Professor Abraham Edel's singular capacity to move beyond oracular controversies of the good and the right in favor of a comparative, analytic, and functional account of how ethical perspectives and practices effect the content of moral discourse. Edel's study is divided into four chapters; the first introduces people to the complex nature of the relation of science to ethics. As it stands, ethical relativism can too easily become hostage to an ethical rationalism that can more readily be discussed in the classroom than acted upon in everyday social life. The very asking of these kinds of questions presupposes an empirical attitude to ethics. And in compelling the reader to direct his energies along scientific channels, Edel has succeeded admirably.
