Philosophy

The following resources have been compiled by the librarians with specific regard to the field of Philosophy.

Reference Books

• Masterpieces of World Philosophy in Summary Form. 1961. Reference 108.2 M27

• Encyclopedia of philosophy. 2006. 10 volumes. Ref 103 En19B
  Containing material from hundreds of highly distinguished contributors representing the world's top universities and institutions, the second edition has a truly global perspective. It contains more than 2,100 entries -- including more than 450 new articles. Among the many topics covered are African, Islamic, Jewish, Russian, Chinese, and Buddhist philosophies; bioethics and biomedical ethics; art and aesthetics; epistemology; metaphysics; peace and war; social and political philosophy; the Holocaust; feminist thought; and much more. Additionally, the second edition also features 1,000 biographical entries on major figures in philosophical thought throughout history.

• Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 11 volumes. 1998. Reference 170 R76

• The Oxford companion to philosophy. 2005. Ref 103 Ox22P
  Gives reliable guidance to all areas of philosophy and to the ideas of all notable philosophers from antiquity to the present day. The scope of the volume is not limited to English-language philosophy: it surveys the foremost philosophy from all parts of the world. A distinguished international assembly of more than two hundred contributors provide almost 2,000 alphabetically arranged informative entries.

• Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy. 1997. Reference 180 E56e

• The handbook of Western philosophy. 1988. Ref 190 H19P
  A comprehensive guide to the major currents of contemporary Western philosophy in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. It surveys concepts, theories, themes and controversies in a wide range of topics. It includes an annotated reading list, a glossary of key terms, a chronological table of the history of philosophy since 1600, and a name and subject index.

• Biographical dictionary of Twentieth-Century philosophers. 1996. Reference 109.2 B61b

• A Companion to African-American philosophy. 2003. Ref 191 C738
  A wide-ranging, multidisciplinary collection of articles that brings together distinguished voices in the field of Africana philosophy and African-American social and political thought. Main sections include philosophic traditions; moral and political legacy of slavery; Africa and Diaspora thoughts; gender, race, and racism; legal and social philosophy; aesthetic and cultural values.

• A Concise dictionary of Indian philosophy. 1989. Reference 181.4 G86c

• The Cambridge companion to Arabic philosophy. 2005. Main Collection 181.92 C14A
  This collection of essays, by some of the leading scholars in Arabic philosophy, provides an introduction to the field by way of chapters devoted to individual thinkers (such as al-Farabi, Avicenna and Averroes) or groups, especially during the ‘classical' period from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. It also includes chapters on areas of philosophical inquiry across the tradition, such as ethics and metaphysics. Finally, it includes chapters on later Islamic thought, and on the connections between Arabic philosophy and Greek, Jewish, and Latin philosophy.

• A Companion to Metaphysics. 1995. Reference 110 C73c

• The Oxford companion to the mind. 2004. Ref 128.2 Ox22G
  Explore over 1,000 aspects of the human mind, including memory, language, imagination, mental illness and handicap, consciousness, sensory and extrasensory perception, and a wide array of theories, symptoms, and syndromes. Contributors come from such diverse fields as experimental psychology, linguistics, psychiatry, neuroscience, philosophy, and physics.

• Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. 1998. Reference 111 E56e

• Encyclopedia of Ethics. 3 volumes. 2001. Reference 170.3 En19

• Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics. 4 volumes. 1998. Reference 170.3 E56en

• The Blackwell dictionary of modern social thought. 2003. Ref 300 B632
  Provides an authoritative and comprehensive overview of the main themes of social thought, principal schools and movements of thought, and those institutions that have been the subject of social analysis or engendered significant doctrines and ideas.

• Dictionary of atheism, skepticism and humanism. 2006. 211.8 C77d

• Dictionary of gnosis and Western esotericism. 2006. Reference 135.403 D56H

• Encyclopedia of environmental ethics and philosophy. 2 volumes. 2009. Ref 179.1 En19E

• Handbook of research on technoethics. 2009. Reference 174 H19T

• The Concise encyclopedia of the ethics of new technologies. 2001. Reference 174.9 C74C

• The Routledge companion to philosophy and film. 2009. Reference 791.43 R86L

Finding Books

• Online Catalog
  • Find books, as well as a variety of other materials in the TU Libraries.
  • Use the Advanced search option to specify material format, campus, language, and date range.
• WorldCat
  • Listed under Essential Tools.
  • Find books, among other things, to request via Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Finding Articles

• Philosopher's Index
  Philosopher's Index is a current and comprehensive bibliographic database covering scholarly research in all major fields of philosophy. Considered the most thorough index of journal literature on the subject, it features author-written abstracts covering scholarly research published in journals and books, including contributions to anthologies and book reviews. It contains research published since 1940, including nearly 570 journals from 43 countries with content representing a variety of languages.

• JSTOR
  JSTOR (Journal STORage) presents the searchable full text of the complete back files for over 100 important scholarly journals. Coverage generally includes the first volume through issues published prior to the most recent 3-5 years (current issues are not available in JSTOR). Includes journals for the following disciplines: African-American studies, anthropology, Asian studies, ecology, economics, education, finance, history, literature, mathematics, philosophy, political science, population studies, sociology, and statistics. Also search JSTOR via Google Scholar by including "+JSTOR" in the search.


• Project MUSE
  This collection of 400 journals represent the publications of 100 not-for-profit organizations. Every article available in Project MUSE is in full-text, meaning you will immediately be able to view, print, or save the article for later use.


• Christian Periodical Index
  Indexes about 100 articles and review essays in English from an evangelical perspective or of interest to the evangelical community.

Finding Journals

• List of Journals, Magazines and Newspapers
  Search by journal title keyword for online full-text journals, and to see what we have in print in the library.


• Click here for a Philosophy Subject Search in the Periodical List to find out what journals (and how many) we have available both in print and online. Click on the blue links to enter the actual list of titles. The numbers in parentheses beside the subject indicate how many journal titles are included in that subject area. This search includes Philosophy, as well as Religion and Psychology, because of the way the company has grouped them. So be sure to look at the subdiscipline divisions under Philosophy for more specific topic information.

Internet Resources

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  From its inception, the SEP was designed so that each entry is maintained and kept up to date by an expert or group of experts in the field. All entries and substantive updates are refereed by the members of a distinguished Editorial Board before they are made public. Consequently, our dynamic reference work maintains academic standards while evolving and adapting in response to new research. You can cite fixed editions that are created on a quarterly basis and stored in our Archives.


• Philosophy Pages
  A simple collection of reference works in philosophy, this site provides easy access to a dictionary of philosophical terms and names, a history of Western philosophy, timeline for historical figures, explanation of the principles of Logic, a general study guide of philosophy, and links to other web sites.


• Ethics Updates
  Founded in 1994 by Lawrence M. Hinman, a professor of philosophy at the University of San Diego, this site provides an on-line library of classic texts in ethics provides the basis of the Reference Library. The Ethics Calendar provides information about ethics-related conferences around the world, and now thypically lists over thirty upcoming conferences. The Ethics Forums provide a place for students to discuss the ethical issues covered in the site. Ethics Case Studies presents numerous case studies in applied ethics, and each case study has an accompanying discussion folder. The site also contains guides to writing ethics papers, a glossary of key ethical terms, and most recently a section on "Philosophers Speak Out on Issues of War, Peace, and Terrorism."


• John Locke Bibliography
  Provides a comprehensive listing of works by and about English philosopher John Locke. Has name and subject indexes as well as a full contents listing.

Other Research Tools

• Credo Reference
  A conglomeration of specialized dictionaries and encyclopedias that allows you to search for definitions and encyclopedia articles, as well as develop ideas for expanding or refining a research strategy.

• Oxford Reference Premium Online  
  Oxford University Press produces a number of extremely useful reference materials, many of which they have made available here. You can search by keyword, but you can also choose particular subjects and from there, particular books within which to search. This willl provide you with all sorts of background and broad spectrum information on a particular topic.

• Biography Resource Center  
  Find background information about people, authors, famous personalities, and others. Search by first or last name. 

Citation Help

One of the least favorite aspects of research papers are the citations, documenting the sources where you gleaned your information. To make that a little easier, the Library offers a few resources.

• Concise rules of APA style. 2005.
  Ref 808.06615 C748 (also in Main collection, same call number)


• Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. 2001.
  Ref 808.042 Am35 2001 (also in Main Collection)


• MLA handbook for writers of research papers. 2003.
  Ref 808.027 G35M

• The Citation Style Guide is a place where you can find call numbers for print Style Manuals and Handbooks, as well as online help from several different universities around the States. Check it out and see if it helps!

• RefWorks
  is a Citation Management program. Fully available online, and linked from the Library's home page, it allows you to keep it all ELECTRONIC. Download your citations from the various databases you're using into RefWorks. This program will create the Works Cited page for you with little effort. In a database, look for the option to EXPORT - that is where you'll find this gem of a program.

• Automatically Generated Citations can be found in our Library Catalog (to the right of the item on the Results page), as well as in most EBSCO databases (like Academic Search Premier, PsycINFO, Communications and Mass Media Complete, etc.). Most databases either provide an instant citation in a couple of different styles, or they allow Exporting to RefWorks (see above). Ask a Librarian for more help in managing your citations and creating your bibliographies and works cited pages faster.

• WorldCat.org
  "Cite this item" within individual item record lists the citation in APA, MLA, Chicago and more.

• The Writing Center is also a solid resource. Available in the Library, this is run by the English department. If you'd like face-to-face help individually with citing or any aspect of writing and editing your paper, the Writing Center is the place to go. For more information, see their page on the Portal, or you can contact them at writingctr@taylor.edu.

Product descriptions on this page are incorporated from book reviews and product descriptions from various sources.

Ask-A-Librarian for more information.