Hume brilliantly characterised the relation between cause and effect as ‘the cement of the universe’. A priori speculation about truthfulness has inclined some of us at times to talk as though it were the cement of human society, but Dr Bok’s discussion may incline one rather to give that title to deception. Just in directing our attention towards such a fascinating and important subject she has put us in her debt. Her book does, moreover, contain a great deal of valuable material (not least a selection of excerpts from classical discussions of lying from St Augustine on); praise for its execution as a whole must, however, unfortunately be qualified.

She is most successful in discussing the kinds of issue one would expect to exercise a member of the Ethics Advisory Board to the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. She does produce a mine of useful information, some of which will surely be unfamiliar to everyone and of which it will in any case hurt no one to be reminded, about the deceptions practised in government – the ghost of Watergate hangs heavily over many sections – business, medicine, the academic world, professional life, social science research, different corners