Reference Databases
- Oxford Art OnlineThe premier art and art history reference database, Oxford Art Online will be of interest to philosophy students investigating aesthetics, perception, and semiotics, among other topics.
- Oxford Reference Online (Premium)Access Oxford Companion to Consciousness (2009), Oxford Companion to Philosophy (2005), Oxford Companion to the Mind (2004), and Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (2008).
RefWorks
Manage your citations with RefWorks, a library database for easily importing, exporting, searching, and creating bibliographies in hundreds of styles including MLA, Chicago, Turabian, and APA. Citations to articles found in library databases can be imported directly into RefWorks. No manual entry required!
Why Reference?
Question: What value has a reference book or e-book? Why both, for example, to consult a scholarly encyclopedia?
Answer: Encyclopedias are two steps removed from the primary works of philosophy, and from philosophers' memoirs, letters, and other correspondence. For this reason encyclopedias belong to a class of information called tertiary sources by librarians.
Encyclopedias help researchers to contextualize their topics, and in turn to begin asking the right questions. After all, researchers cannot elicit relevant search results from library databases such as Philosopher's Index if they do not know which keywords (or search terms) to employ. Articles in scholarly encyclopedias often contain bibliographies that lead researchers to important primary and secondary sources about their topics. (Catalogs, bibliographies, and indexes, also tertiary sources, serve the same purpose.) Browsing an encyclopedia can even help students choose and/or refine their research topics.
In sum, reference works bring researchers up to speed on disciplinary terminology, debates, method and theory. Making use of disciplinary reference material is a great way to begin your research.
The Routledge Guidebook to Moore's Principia Ethica by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9780429275975Publication Date: 2021-11-16
Selected Reference Works and Introductions by Source Type and Subject
Online Bibliography:
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy by Call Number: open access E-BOOKISBN: 9781158377770The bibliographies that accompany entries are extensive and often annotated.
Printed Bibliography:
Philosophy: A Guide to the Reference Literature by Call Number: B72 .B97 2006ISBN: 1563089548Publication Date: 2005-06-01
The Philosophy of Cynicism: An Annotated Bibliography by Call Number: B508 .N38 1995ISBN: 0313292493Publication Date: 1995-07-30dated but potentially still useful bibliography on cynics (Greek philosophy)
Online Biography:
The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Philosophers in America: From 1600 to the Present by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9781472570543Publication Date: 2016-02-11
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 019861411XPublication Date: 2004-09-23The ODNB is the standard reference work for British biography. Extensive bibliographic essays accompany many of the biographical entries. Also available in print, Reference Collection, 1st floor of TCNJ Library (call # DA28 .O95 2004).
Printed Biography:
Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Philosophers by Call Number: B104 .B52 1996ISBN: 0415286050Publication Date: 2002-10-11
Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy by Call Number: B741 .B56 2006ISBN: 9781843711483Publication Date: 2006-08-15
Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers by Call Number: B851 .D53 2005ISBN: 1843710374Publication Date: 2005-06-20
Medieval Philosophers by Call Number: PS129 .D47 v.115ISBN: 9780810375925Publication Date: 1992-05-22
Women Philosophers: A Bio-Critical Source Book by Call Number: B105.W6 K47 1989ISBN: 0313257205Publication Date: 1989-09-12
Online Companions:
Oxford Companion to Consciousness by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9780198569510Publication Date: 2009-08-03
The Oxford Companion to Philosophy by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9780191532658Publication Date: 2005-03-01
The Oxford Companion to the Mind by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 0198662246Publication Date: 2004-12-03
Printed Companions:
Important monographic series:
The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy by Call Number: B790 .O94 2005ISBN: 019924295XPublication Date: 2005-12-29
Online Dictionaries:
The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9780198735304Publication Date: 2016-05-01
Printed Dictionaries:
The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy by Call Number: B41 .C35 2015ISBN: 9781107015050Publication Date: 2015-04-27
New Dictionary of the History of IdeasCall Number: CB9 .N49 2005ISBN: 0684313774Publication Date: 2004-12-03trace the history of philosophical concepts
Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon by Call Number: B51 .V6313 2014ISBN: 9780691138701Publication Date: 2014-02-09Outstanding Reference Sources Winner for 2015, Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), American Library Association
Metaphysics: The Key Concepts by Call Number: BD111 .B33 2011ISBN: 9780415559270Publication Date: 2011-01-21
Routledge Dictionary of Philosophy by Call Number: B41 .L32 2010ISBN: 9780415356442Publication Date: 2009-12-03
Online Encyclopedias:
American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9780203492796Publication Date: 2008-01-01
Animal Studies: The Key Concepts by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9780429019326Publication Date: 2020-09-29- The Edinburgh Encyclopedia of Continental Philosophy by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9780585123097Publication Date: 1999-01-01
Encyclopedia of Aesthetics by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9780199747108Publication Date: 2014-07-02- The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy by Call Number: open access E-BOOKbegun in 1995; continuously updated
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy by Call Number: open access E-BOOKISBN: 9781158377770The bibliographies that accompany entries are extensive and often annotated.
Printed Encyclopedias:
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy by Call Number: B51 .R68 1998ISBN: 0415073103Publication Date: 1998-05-26This massive, 10-volume work is among the most important in the discipline.
Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy by Call Number: B163 .E53 1997ISBN: 0313287759Publication Date: 1997-06-30
Historical Dictionary of Ancient Greek Philosophy by Call Number: B111 .P74 2015ISBN: 9781442246386Publication Date: 2015-02-12
The Philosophers of the Ancient World: An A to Z Guide by Call Number: B111 .C87 2011ISBN: 0715634976Publication Date: 2006-06-22
Africa:
The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought by Call Number: DT14 .I74 2010ISBN: 9780195334739Publication Date: 2010-04-27
The Palgrave Handbook of African Philosophy by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9781137592910Publication Date: 2017
East Asia:
Chinese Philosophy A-Z by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9780748629701Publication Date: 2022, ©2009
Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy by Call Number: B121 .C66 1997ISBN: 041503535XPublication Date: 1997-02-11
Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy by Call Number: B126 .E496 2003ISBN: 0415939135Publication Date: 2002-12-30
An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy by ISBN: 9781107103986Publication Date: 2017-03-30
The Native Americas and Latin America:
Aztec Philosophy: Understanding a World in Motion by Call Number: F1219.76.P55 M35 2015ISBN: 9781607324614Publication Date: 2015-09-01- Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind by Call Number: F1219.3.P5 L43 1971Publication Date: 1971Translated into English from Filosofía Náhuatl (c. 1963), Miguel Leon Portilla's (1926-2019) classic study of Mexica (Aztec) philosophy provides insight into one of the ancient world's great intellectual traditions. Leon Portilla laid out a case for Nahuatl (and by extension Mesoamerican) philosophy: "In the Nahuatl hymns and songs... we can detect questions and ideas that profoundly concern man.... Among the Nahuas, then, as among the Greeks, it was the lyric poets who first became aware of and enunciated the great problems of human existence" (xxiii, 1963 ed.). Books such as Maffie's Aztec Philosophy, above, and others now emerging would not have been possible without Leon-Portilla's work. See too Dag Herbjørnsrud's blog entry titled The Mesoamerican Philosophy Renaissance (1/9/2020), Blog of the American Philosophical Society.
An Introduction to Latin American Philosophy by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9781107067646Publication Date: 2020-11-05
An Introduction to Mesoamerican Philosophy by ISBN: 9781009218733Publication Date: 2023-08-03
Philosophy of the Ancient Maya: Lords of Time by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 1498531393Publication Date: 2018
South Asia:
A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy by Call Number: B162 .C66 2013ISBN: 9780470658772Publication Date: 2013-04-01
Indian Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction by Call Number: B131 .H285 2001ISBN: 0192853740Publication Date: 2001-06-07
An Introduction to Indian Philosophy by Call Number: B131 .P367 2016ISBN: 9780521853569Publication Date: 2016-02-04
Southwest Asia:
- Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy by Call Number: B741 .B56 2006ISBN: 9781843711483Publication Date: 2006-08-15
The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy by Call Number: B741 .O94 2017ISBN: 9780199917389Publication Date: 2016-11-01
World:
The Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy by Call Number: BD21 .O97 2013ISBN: 9780199351954Publication Date: 2014-02-01This handbook contains entries on the philosophies of Africa; East, Southeast, and Central Asia; and the indigenous cultures of the Americas.
