LibGuides: Philosophy: Find Reference Sources

Using Background Readings

Reference sources such as specialized encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks are good places to begin research on a topic. Articles and entries in these publications often are written by scholars in the field. Encyclopedia articles can provide:

background information
topic overviews
basic facts about a topic
definitions of related terms
lists of additional sources and recommended readings.

Best Databases

Academic OneFile Select
Gale Academic OneFile Select covers everything from art and literature to economics and the sciences. This resource for academic research integrates the full text of publications from across the disciplines and includes vocational/technical titles used by community college students, filling a specific need for curriculum-oriented collections. The combination of full-text scholarly journals and select general interest titles, for smaller academic libraries, is ideal. Gale
eBook Collection (EBSCO)
Dates vary. Multi-disciplinary. This database contains over 140,000 complete e-books, covering a wide range of academic subjects, that can be read online or downloaded to a tablet, reader, or smart phone.
Humanities Source
1984 - Present. Full text articles from over 1,400 journals, with citations to over 3.5 million articles, including book reviews, related to literary, scholarly, and creative thought. Full text. EBSCO
JSTOR Arts & Sciences I, II, III & IV
Dates vary. Articles from scholarly journals in the arts, history, social sciences, multi-cultural studies, economics, education, and general science disciplines. Journal content is unique to this database. ARTStor images are now discoverable here as well.

Locating Print Sources

The Library owns specialized encyclopedias and other types of reference sources in many academic disciplines, or fields of study.

Titles in the reference collection can be searched in PRIMO, the online catalog, using a general subject area as a search term. For example:

education AND encyclopedias

anthropology AND dictionaries

The reference shelves can also be browsed by general subject area, using the Library of Congress system of call numbers.

Always ask a reference librarian for additional help.

Selected Print Reference Sources

The Cambridge dictionary of philosophy/Fulton Ref. B41 .C35 1999

The Routledge dictionary of philosophy/ Auburn Ref. B41 .L32 2010

The Oxford companion to philosophy/ Auburn Ref. B51 .O94 2005

The Oxford companion to the mind/ Auburn and Fulton Ref. BF31 .O94 2004

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy/ Auburn Ref B41 .E5 1996

The Rider encyclopaedia of Eastern philosophy and religion/ Auburn and Fulton Ref BL1005 .L4813 1989