• Getting Started
• Finding Books
• Finding Articles
• Web Sites

Getting Started: Selected Reference Works

Begin your research with reference works to find background information, locate statistics and facts, and build a bibliography.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Though still in progress, this encyclopedia of Western philosophy has entries that are peer-reviewed and comprehensive.

The Oxford Companion to Philosophy
Ref B51 .O94 1995
Contains almost 2,000 entries written by 249 scholarly contributors. Entries cover philosophical concepts, theories, problems, schools of thought, and philosophers, from antiquity to the present day and from all parts of the world.

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (REP)
Also Ref B51 .R68 1998
This encyclopedia contains over 2,000 articles written by more than 1,300 international experts in all areas of philosophy. The online version is continually updated.

Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Philosophers
Ref B104 .B56 1996
Brief but detailed biographies of over 1,000 20th century philosophers comprise this dictionary. Entries include the nationality, interests, influences, educational and professional backgrounds, and main publications of each philosopher, as well as a bibliography of secondary literature about the philosopher.

Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy
Ref B163 .E53 1997
This one-volume encyclopedia contains 269 articles about ancient Greek and Roman philosophers and philosophical thought, from Ionic philosophy in the 6th century BCE until the fall of the Academy in Athens in the 6th century CE.

The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy
Ref B775 .C25 1988
Covers the history of philosophy from the middle of the 14th century to the beginnings of modern philosophy in the 17th century. Chapters focus on branches of philosophy rather than individual philosophers or schools of thought.

A Companion to Metaphysics
Ref BD111 .C626 1995
Approximately 260 signed entries cover the main concepts, movements, arguments, and distinctions in metaphysics as well as historical and contemporary metaphysicians. Entries are accompanied by bibliographies are thoroughly cross-referenced.

A Companion to Epistemology
Ref BD161 .C637 1992
Scholarly authors discuss and analyze the major concepts and philosophers of epistemology in over 250 articles. Entries are cross-referenced and have bibliographies.

Encyclopedia of Ethics
Ref BJ63 .E45 1992 (2 vol.)
Contains scholarly articles on applied ethics, normative ethics, ethical theory, and the history and important philosophers of ethics. Each entry includes a bibliography.

World Philosophy : Essay-Reviews of 225 Major Works
Ref B29 .W68 1982
Multi-volume set includes critical summaries and analysis of major philosophical works from the 6th century BCE to 1971. Essays contain bibliographies and are arranged chronologically.

Finding Books

• Books can be found in a number of ways:

  
  
  • Check the bibliographies and notes of books you already have to find other important works on your topic. Once you've identified those titles, check BRIDGE, the shared catalog of Carleton and St. Olaf, to determine if we own it.
  • Do keyword searches in BRIDGE by entering words that describe your topic (names, places, events, etc.).
• When you find a book on your topic, examine its subject headings for relevance to your topic. Click on a hyperlinked subject heading to perform subject heading search and retrieve related books.

• Perform a subject heading search in BRIDGE only if you know a valid Library of Congress subject heading.
  • Search "Philosophy" to browse a list of relevant subject headings, such as:
  • Note that many Library of Congress subject headings relevant to Philosophy do not begin with "Philosophy."
• Because works are classified so that similar items will be shelved together, browsing the stacks near books you've already found useful. The following call number ranges contain works relevant to philosophy:

B1-99 - Philosophy (general works)
B108-708 - Ancient philosophy
B720-765 - Medieval philosophy
B770-785 - Renaissance philosophy
B790-5802 - Modern philosophy
BC1-199 - Logic
BD10-701 - Speculative philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, methodology, ontology, cosmology)
BJ1-1725 Ethics

• Search WorldCat, an online catalog for libraries throughout the world, to take your search beyond Gould Library.
  

Finding Articles

Use databases and indexes to locate articles and book chapters on your topic. Gould Library does not subscribe to all of the titles listed in these resources. If we don't have what you're looking for, take advantage of our InterLibrary Loan Services.

Periodical Databases & Indexes

Philosopher's Index (1940-present); Main Reference (1967-1994): Ref B1 .P51
Covers published scholarly research in fifteen areas of philosophy. Cited articles come from over 480 journals printed in 38 countries.

Women Philosophers: A Bibliography of Books through 1990
Ref B105 .W6 B37 1992
This is a bibliography of more than 2,800 titles written or edited by women, covering women's contributions to all branches of philosophy. Entries are organized by subject and there is an author index of more than 1,900 names.

Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) (1975- present)
A&HCI indexes 1,144 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals, many of which focus on philosophy. It features current and retrospective bibliographic information, author abstracts, and cited references.

Journals

Ethics
In Print and Online

The Journal of Philosophy
In Print and Online

The Philosophical Quarterly
In Print and Online

Philosophy East & West: A Quarterly of Comparative Philosophy
In Print and Online

The Review of Metaphysics
In Print and Online

APA Web Resources: Journals
The American Philosophical Association maintains this list of philosophy-related electronic journals.

Web Sites

The American Philosophical Association (APA Online)
The American Philosophical Association's official web site contains information and resources for professional philosophers as well as links to electronic journals, web sites, and academic philosophy departments.

Episteme Links
This comprehensive and well-organized gateway provides access to over 15,000 philosophy related sites. Resources are browsable by topic or philosopher and include several other categories of interest, including Encyclopedia Entries, Bibliographies, Discussion, Organizations, and Images.

Ethics Updates
This portal is maintained by Prof. Lawrence M. Hinman at the University of San Diego. It includes discussion forums, links to the full text of major philosophical works, articles and multimedia resources on a variety of ethics topics, and more.