The last and, in fact, the only previous major philosophical reference work in the English language, J. M. Baldwin's Dictionary of Psychology and Philosophy, appeared in 1901. While it was in many ways an admirable work (it numbered among its contributors men of such caliber as Charles Peirce and G. E. Moore), the scope of Baldwin's Dictionary was quite limited. The great majority of articles were exceedingly brief, providing concise definitions of technical terms sometimes accompanied by additional information of a historical nature. There were articles about individual philosophers, but these usually amounted to no more than a few lines. Baldwin himself insisted that his work was primarily a dictionary and not an encyclopedia, but he did feature several articles of "encyclopedic character" dealing with important movements in the history of philosophy and the general divisions of philosophy. Some of these...