Recommended Resources - Philosophy - Canisius University - Andrew L. Bouwhuis, S.J. Library at Canisius University

Philosophy Resources

ENCYCLOPEDIAS:

These online encyclopedias are excellent places to begin your research because they give an overview of the state of the philosophical literature on a number of topics. You should use these as starting places in your research in order, first, to get an overview of your topic and, second, to get a sense of what scholars have been saying about your topic, including the important sources (articles or books) that you will need to consult. Rarely will you cite encyclopedia entries themselves as a source in a college-level paper.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
This freely available, collaborative encyclopedia is available anywhere you can access the internet. Each entry is periodically updated by an expert or group of experts in the field.
MacMillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy
This is the online version of the 10 volume printed encyclopedia. This is an excellent general source on a wide range of philosophical subjects. The first edition of this encyclopedia was printed in 1967. Many (but not all) of the entries were updated when the second edition was released in 2006. All of the bibliographies were updated in 2006. Unlike the Stanford Encyclopedia, this one is not being regularly updated.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
An open-access online encyclopedia with over 30 editors and 300 scholar authors. While these entries are sometimes easier to understand than the entries in Stanford, their quality is not always reliable from a scholarly perspective.

BEST BETS:
for scholarly journal articles related to Philosophy, listed in order of importance

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
An excellent database for philosophy, JSTOR also contains articles related to anthropology, psychology, art, literature, religion, and more. Provides a historical perspective because coverage starts as early as the 1900s and extends up to 3-5 years prior to the current year.

Philosophy Documentation Center
serving scholars on a non-profit basis since 1966, earning a reputation for excellence with the publication of essential reference materials, scholarly journals, book series, conference proceedings, and other materials

Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Scholarly humanities and social science content such as articles and peer-reviewed books.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Great for all disciplines - Google Scholar is a free search that enables specific searches of scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts, patents and technical reports. Content includes a range of publishers and aggregators with whom Google already has standing arrangements. You can find many full text articles by adding Canisius as a library link, found under Google Scholar’s settings. Great for articles in French/Spanish.

RELATED RESOURCES
The study of philosophy is frequently interdisciplinary. Therefore, you may have to look in several databases to find appropriate articles. Does your topic lend itself to Psychology? History? Literature? Medicine? Science?

Health Reference Center Academic This link opens in a new window
Contains both consumer and professional publications in the field of health and medicine.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Database for legal research.
ProQuest This link opens in a new window
Searches many different collections at once and covers a wide range of subjects. Includes newspapers, magazines, journals, trade publications, reports and blogs.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Search for articles in the life and physical sciences. Also includes psychology collection, medical information, technical articles and social sciences coverage.

Journals of Interest:

Ancient Philosophy
Apeiron
A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science

Library databases are easier to use for research than Google.

The Library has paid for you to have access - many articles found online charge for access.
Resources have been evaluated by journal editors, peer-reviewers, database companies and librarians before becoming part of our collection.
Much easier to cite - all the citation information is easily identifiable and often the citations are already created for you.

* When using Google Scholar, set your preferences to search the Canisius Library collection. If you have access to a source through the library, it will link directly from your Google Scholar result list.

Books can be a good place to find other sources by using the bibliographies at the end of a book. Since books are sometimes collections of individual essays or articles compiled into a book source, you might not need to read the whole book in order to use it as a source.

The best way to search the library catalog is through Primo.

WorldCat This link opens in a new window
Citations and book holding information only. Search for books in libraries all over the world. No full text, request books using the request item button.

What is a Monograph?
A monograph is a fancy way of saying a scholarly book. More formally, it is a very detailed scholarly book on a specialized subject. Monographs are often written by scholars in a field for other scholars in a field to read (i.e. they have an intended academic audience). Usually one volume in length, a monograph will include a very long bibliography or reference list.

Lack of Character by John M. Doris
Call Number: Book Shelves BJ45 .D67 2002
ISBN: 0521608902
Publication Date: 2005-03-07
Gender Trouble by Judith P. Butler
Call Number: Book Shelves E756 .G62 1991
ISBN: 0415389550
Publication Date: 2006-05-12