Philosophy

This is a general research guide for the undergraduate and graduate courses in OSU's Philosophy program. For further help, contact: Jane Nichols at ph: 541.737.7269 or jane.nichols@oregonstate.edu

 
Quicklinks
 Off-Campus Access | ILL Forms | Academic Search Premier | Dissertation Abstracts | Philosphers Index | Religion and Philosophy Collection |


  
Table of Contents
Finding books in online catalogs       Reference sources
Finding dissertations and theses Other useful internet sites
Finding articles in journals

Dictionaries& thesauri
Encyclopedias
Biographical information
Bibliographies

 

Finding books in online catalogs

OSU Libraries Online Catalog: Start here for finding books and other materials. For journal articles go to the Finding Articles in Journals section.

Summit (Orbis): Borrow materials OSU doesn't have or that is checked out using, Summit, a collective catalog of academic libraries in Oregon and Washington.

Occasionally, browsing through the stacks can yield useful material. Here are the primary call numbers for philosophy materials. Check the OSU Libraries Online Catalog to find books related to philosophy that appear in other classifications (e.g., classical literature).

B1-68 General works B69-B5739 History of philosophy
BC1-199 Logic BD10-701 Speculative philosophy
BD95-131 Metaphysics BD143-236 Epistemology
BD493-701 Cosmology. Teleology BH1-301 Aesthetics
BJ1-1697 Ethics BL1-627 Religion in general
BR1-1725 Christianity BM1-990 Judaism
BP1-299 Islam BQ1-9800 Buddhism
BL1100-1295 Hinduism BL1900 Taoism
E98 Native American religions GE42 Environmental ethics
QH332 Bioethics R724 Medical ethics

 

Finding dissertations and theses

Dissertation Abstracts, 1861 - present Index to doctoral dissertations and masters theses in all academic disciplines completed at U.S. institutions. Abstracts only since 1980. If neither OSU, nor Summit has a thesis or dissertation, you can can make an InterLibrary Loan request from within Dissertation Abstracts.

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Finding articles in journals

To find articles in journals, magazines, newspapers, etc., use an article database that covers your topic.

Academic Search Premier, 1975-present General magazines and scholarly journals, primarily in the social sciences and humanities. Includes full-text.

Arts & Humanities Citation Index, 1980-present Index to over 1.4 million records from 1300 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals. Unique feature is citation search, which allows you to see who has cited a particular author and/or article. Direct link to InterLibrary Loan for requesting articles not at OSU.

Philosopher's Index, 1940-present Index to books and journals of philsophy and related fields. It covers the areas of ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology, and metaphysic logic as well as material on the philosophy of law, religion, science, history, education, and language.

Religion and Philosophy Collection, 1975-present This database provides extensive coverage of such topics as world religions, major denominations, biblical studies, religious history, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of language, moral philosophy and the history of philosophy. Religion & Philosophy Collection offers more than 300 full text journals, including more than 250 peer-reviewed titles, making it an essential tool for researchers and students of theology and philosophical studies. This database is updated daily via EBSCOhost.

Electronic journals

OSU Libraries online journals related to philosophy

These must be searched one journal title at a time, so this is not a very efficient way to search.

Unless you are interested in searching one specific electronic journal, it is recommended that you use a periodical index/database to do your searching. One advantage of electronic journals is that they are full-text online. This list is subject to change, and years of coverage will vary by journal.

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Reference sources

Dictionaries & thesauri

  • Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, ed. by Robert Audi. Ref B41 .C35 1999.
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, by Simon Blackburn. Ref B41 .B53 2000. This is an E-book-after locating it in the library catalog you can read entries online by selecting "View this ebook". Includes entries for terminology and philosophers.
  • The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, ed. by John Bowker Ref BL31 .O84 1997
  • World Philosophy: Essay-Reviews of 225 Major Works, ed. by Frank Magill. Ref B29 .W68 1982. Critical examinations and reviews of key works in philosophy.

Encyclopedias

  • Encyclopedia of Ethics Ref BJ63 .E45 1992.
  • Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics Ref BJ63 .E44 1998.
  • Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Ref B51 .R68 1998.
  • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/
    A dynamic reference work in which ach entry is maintained and kept up to date by an expert or group of experts in the field. All entries and updates are refereed by the members of a distinguished Editorial Board before they are made public. Responsive to new research.

Biographical information

  • Information about philosophers may be found in some of the encyclopedias and dictionaries mentioned above. For additional information, use Oasis, the online catalog, to locate biographies of philosophers. For biographies of individual philosophers, look under their names as subjects. Also do a subject keyword search under such words as "philosophers biography".

Bibliographies

  • To find bibliographies, use Oasis, the online catalog. Check the Library of Congress Subject Headings to find the correct terms for a subject search, and add the word "Bibliography" to the subject for your search.
    Examples:
    Philosophy, Chinese - Bibliography
    Kant, Immanuel, 1724 - 1804 - Bibliography

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Other useful Internet sites

  • American Philosophical Association. http://www.udel.edu/apa
    The APA is the main professional organization for philosophers in the U.S. Its Web site, apaONLINE, contains information about the association and its publications, and links to resources for philosophers. These include links to societies and centers, philosophy courses on the Web, electronic texts and bibliographies, and sites dedicated to specific philosophers.
  • Ethics Updates. http://ethics.acusd.edu/
    "Designed primarily to be used by ethics instructors and their students. It is intended to provide updates on current literature, both popular and professional, that relate to ethics." Includes links to related Internet sources, discussion questions, and bibliographies of books and articles on ethical theory and applied ethics topics such as abortion, poverty & welfare, environmental ethics, and euthanasia.

    ReligionFacts.com. http://www.religionfacts.com/index.html
    As the site says, "Just the facts on the world's religions."
  • Virtual Library: Philosophy. http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Philosophy/VL/
    The Virtual Library provides an overview of Internet resources related to philosophy.
  • Voice of the Shuttle: Philosophy. http://vos.ucsb.edu/shuttle/philo.html
    Very comprehensive listing of Internet sites covering all aspects of philosophy.

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Return to the Alphabetical or Subject index of the Subject Research Guides.