When the original edition was first published in 1963, Machlip observed ' I hope that the availibility of this collection will dispel semantic and concpetual; fog and allow greather visibility...'. The work is divided into five sections with a new essay in this edition on 'Are the Social Sciences Really Inferior?' There is also a new introduction by Mark Perlman, University Professor of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh.

Fifteen essays, written over the past dozen years, explore contemporary philosophical debates on egalitarianism, using the tools of modern economic theory, general equilibrium theory, game theory, and the theory of mechanism design.