Library Guides: Philosophy: Background Information

Overview of Philosophy

Philosophy (from the Greek philosophia, "love of wisdom") is the study of fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Subfields include:

Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the principles of beauty and artistic taste.
Epistemology refers to the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope.
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with moral principles.
Logic is the study of reasoning, or the study of the principles and criteria of valid inference and demonstration.
Metaphysics deals with the first principles of things, including concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space.

Philosophy is an interdisciplinary endeavor. Related subjects include: Catholic Studies.

Dictionaries

Dictionaries are most often collections of words in one or more specific languages, usually arranged in alphabetical order, providing information like word meanings, usage, etymology, and, when they contain more than one language, translations. Some dictionaries include information more commonly found in encyclopedias.

Dictionary of Media and Communication
The Dictionary of Media and Communication is an authoritative and wide-ranging A-Z providing over 2,200 entries on terms used in media and communication, from concepts and theories to technical terms, across subject areas that include advertising, digital culture, journalism, new media, radio studies, and telecommunications. It also covers relevant terminology from related disciplines such as literary theory, semiotics, cultural studies, and philosophy.
Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy
This best-selling dictionary covers all areas of philosophy and contains terms from the related fields of religion, science, and logic. Clear and authoritative definitions and make it an essential resource for students and teachers and an ideal introduction for anyone with an interest in philosophy.

Encyclopedias

Encyclopedias are collections of information on terms, figures, eras, locations also arranged alphabetically, and, alongside definitions of terms, they also include more in-depth general information on a topic. Encyclopedias can be general or subject-specific.

Encycolopedia of Philosophy
English-language reference source for philosophy," has been the cornerstone of the philosophy reference shelf. Lauded for its clear and accessible presentation of wide-ranging philosophical subjects, the Encyclopedia has earned its place as a first-stop resource for general readers, students and educators.

Routledge encyclopedia of philosophy This link opens in a new window
Online version of the 10-volume Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, with browsing by philosophical themes, philosophies, historical periods, and religions. Usage info: Licensed for 4 simultaneous users.
Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy This link opens in a new window
Includes articles on concepts, people, books, and other topics in philosophy. Each entry maintained and kept up to date by an expert or group of experts in the field.
Encyclopedia of Bioethics This link opens in a new window
International encyclopaedia for the Middle Ages This link opens in a new window
IEMA Online is intended as a complement to Lexikon des Mittelalters online, providing original articles that cover the time period 300-1500 CE, in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.Usage info: Licensed for 3 simultaneous users.
Lexikon des Mittelalters This link opens in a new window
An electronic version of the Lexikon des Mittelalters, a fundamental medieval studies encyclopedia covering the period from 300 to 1500 AD/CE for the whole of Europe and parts of the Middle East and North Africa. Usage info: Licensed for 3 simultaneous users.

Oxford Companion to Philosophy
The Oxford Companion to the Mind (2 ed.)
First published in 1987, to huge acclaim, The Oxford Companion to the Mind immediately took its place as the indispensable guide to the mysteries — and idiosyncracies — of the human mind. The second edition includes new entries on attachment theory, caffeine, extra-terrestrial intelligence, and imagination; it also includes three ‘mini symposia’ — on consciousness, brain scanning, and artificial intelligence — with contributions from a range of specialists.

Directories, Guides and Handbooks

Reference resources like directories, guides, and handbooks provide subject-specific, sometimes technical information to aid in understanding important aspects of the discipline or subject that they treat. Finding aids are useful for finding information within libraries, archives, or specific collections.

Directories

International directory of medievalists This link opens in a new window
Information on scholars from over 70 countries working in fields relating to the Middle Ages. This directory is included in the datatabase Brepolis Medieval & Early Modern Bibliographies.
International directory of philosophy This link opens in a new window
Online database containing information on university philosophy departments and programs, philosophical societies, associations, research centers and institutes, journals, and philosophy publishers around the world. Usage info: Licensed for 5 simultaneous users.
Labyrinth resources for medieval studies This link opens in a new window
Provides free, searchable access to electronic resources in medieval studies with connections to databases, services, texts, and images.
PhilPapers This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive directory of online philosophical articles and books by academic philosophers.

Guides

In Principio This link opens in a new window
A collection of approximately 1,000,000 incipits covering all known Latin texts, in manuscript form, from the start of Latin literature to around 1500 A.D. This includes ancient, patristic, medieval, and humanist literature and covers all genres: theology and liberal arts, history and poetry, medicine and liturgy, civil and canon law, exact and occult sciences, summons and sermons, glossaries and correspondences, cooking recipes and cursing formulas, large and small treatises, even isolated sentences. Updated semi-annually.

Handbooks

Oxford handbooks online. Philosophy This link opens in a new window
Oxford Handbooks in Philosophy bring together the world's leading scholars to discuss the latest thinking in a range of major topics in philosophy and aim to review the various questions epistemologists have asked regarding testimonial belief and knowledge.

Biographies

Biographies provide a description of a person's life, detailing the basic facts like birth and death, education, family background, etc., and frequently portraying the individual subject's experience of those life events.

Early English books online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
Contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. Access info: Content presented as images online, or can be downloaded in PDF format for viewing off-line. No plugins required to view images online.
Eighteenth Century collections online: ECCO This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive searchable digital edition of The Eighteenth Century microfilm set, which has aimed to include every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas, between 1701 and 1800. Consists of books, pamphlets, broadsides, ephemera. Subject categories include history and geography; fine arts and social sciences; medicine, science, and technology; literature and language; religion and philosophy; law; general reference. Also included are significant collections of women writers of the eighteenth century, collections on the French Revolution, and numerous eighteenth-century editions of the works of Shakespeare. Where they add scholarly value or contain important differences, multiple editions of each individual work are offered.

Philosophy

Theology and Philosophy Librarian