The following is a selected list of resources for starting research in Philosophy. For further assistance, contact Judith Downie, Humanities Librarian.

Books

To search for books, you need to use the library catalog for either keyword or subject searches. Depending on how much time you have, there are additional options beyond our holdings within Kellogg Library.

Books at Cal State San Marcos

Library Catalog
Search our local collection of about 250,000 books. Some possible subject headings and subdivisions are listed here. Note Philosophy can be both main subject and a subdivision of another topic.

• Philosophy (general subject area which can include historical thought, general overviews, and much more)
• Philosophy, African (subdivision by a large geographic area)
• Philosophy, Ancient (subdivision by time period)
• Philosophy And Religion (focused on a specific application of philosophy)
• Civilization, Western--Philosophy (philosophy as subdivision of a larger topic)
• Crow Indians--Philosophy
• Education, Higher--Philosophy
• Philosophy--Dictionaries (particular type of reference work)
• Philosophy In Literature
• Philosophy, Marxist
• Philosophy Of Mind
• Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831 (note lastname, firstname format for either an author in philosophy or individual philosopher as a subject)
• Philosophy--Blake, William, 1757-1827 (philosophical thinking of a particular person including someone not known as a philosopher)

Other Options

Some examples of related areas of study are ethics, applied ethics, aesthetics, religion, theology, logic, and metaphysics. The following are titles found in our Reference Collection which can help you get started:

Encyclopedia of Philosophy REF B41 .E5 1972
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy REF B 51 .R68 1998
Encyclopedia of Aesthetics REF BH56 .E53 1998
Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics REF BJ63 .E44 1998
Encyclopedia of Ethics REF BJ63 .E45 2001
Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen REF BL1005 .L4813 1989
Encyclopedia of Bioethics REF QH332 .E52 1995 (note the QH location as it deals with bioscience)
 

Browse the Book Stacks
Sometimes, just looking through the shelves can turn up works you would not have considered otherwise. Using the Library of Congress subject system, Philosophy is generally shelved in the B call number area with other related fields in BC-BJ. The Library of Congress provides a detailed online list of the subclasses in these areas so you can see how this is organized. Traditional philosophy and related topics can be found primarily in the following call number areas:

B -- General Philosophy, including history
BC--Logic, formal and informal
BD--Metaphysics and epistemology
BF--Philosophy of mind (known as psychology)
BH--Aesthetics
BJ--Ethics

Circuit (1-3 day delivery)
Search the collections of other San Diego area libraries -- about 3,000,000 books. Find and request books directly online; pick them up at our Library in 1-3 days.

WorldCat (5-10 day delivery)
Search the collections of libraries world-wide -- about 52,000,000 books. Find a book in this database, and fill-out an Interlibrary Loan delivery request. Book will be delivered to Library for pickup.

Special Collections in Other Libraries

You may find a catalog entry or finding list online that tells you that an item or collection exists, but it may not have been digitized and if rare or fragile will be held 'Special Collections'. This means you might not be able to borrow the materials, but have to visit the collection for access. To locate archive and manuscript collections, use NUCMC (National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections.)

Journal Articles

To look for articles in journals, you will need to start with a research database. The following databases provide abstracts of articles from thousands of journals and other sources, often providing full-text. You can also browse a list of electronic journals for philosophy available through our catalog.

Some databases do not offer full text of the articles. Use the button to check our other resources for full text.

Listservs and Forums

• H-Net Discussion List on Philosophy of History
• Society for Women in Philosophy Information and Discussion List
• PHILOSOPHY@LISTSERV.UC.EDU
• Philosophy in the Third Millenium
• Sophia (Ancient Philosophy)
• Others are available at L-Soft Listserv list, just search on the word 'Philosophy'

Professional Organizations

• American Philosophical Association
• Hegel Society of America
• Philosophy Organizations Finder (offers brief annotations about each organization)

Internet

One-stop shopping for quality resources on the web.

• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Individual Philosophers (personal site maintained at Oxford University, the links lead to material about and by individuals)
• Guide to Philosophy on the Internet (mega list by Peter Suber, Earlham College, no longer updated)
• Philosophy of Cyberworld (extensive link lists, well sub-divided)
• Voice of the Shuttle: Philosophy (individuals, movements, sub-areas and much more)
• DOAJ: Philosophy and Religion (open-access scholarly journals, not all materials are available in full-text)
   
• Mission: Critical (Critical Thinking Web Page)
• Critical Thinking Community
• Bruce Thompson's Fallacy Page
• EpistemeLinks.com

• Jobs in Philosophy (covers employment world-wide)
• Philosophy Now (British online journal, some text is members-only)

Tutorials and Help

Self-Guided Tutorial in Philosophy (Purdue University)
Good overview although the site refers to sources available at Purdue and not necessarily CSUSM.

Logic Tutorial
Learn about logical thinking

Philosophy Research Tutorial (Antelope Valley College)

Style Guides
Examples of how to cite common sources from CSUSM.

Diana Hacker's Research and Documentation Online
Comprehensive and easy to navigate for APA, MLA, Chicago and CSA citation formats

Is it Scholarly?
A guide to the features of scholarly publication.