Philosophy & Philosophy Sources
LIS413 Brendan Rapple
Simmons College 30 June, 2009
What is Philosophy?
• It‟s a study that seeks to understand the mysteries of existence and
reality.
• It tries to discover the nature of truth and knowledge and to find what is
of basic value and importance in life.
• Philosophy is thus a form of inquiry: a process of analysis, criticism,
interpretation, and speculation.
What Do Philosophers Study?
• Biology deals with living beings.
• Philosophy asks what being means.
• Political science examines societies and political systems.
• Philosophy asks what is justice.
• Artists create art.
• Philosophy asks what is beauty.
• Thus philosophy examines more fundamental beliefs and assumptions.
Origin of Term
• Ancient Greeks were the first known western philosophers -- about
500 BC.
• They sought answers about the nature of the world and “reality”.
• Formerly, people had largely relied on magic, superstition,
religion, tradition, or authority.
• The term philosophy itself comes from the Greek philosophia,
which means love of wisdom.
• Non-Western Philosophy: long history in China and India.
• Western philosophy generally developed independently of Eastern
philosophy.
Philosophy in Everyday Lives
• Every institution of society is based on philosophic ideas:
» the law
» government
» religion
» the family
» marriage
» industry
» business
» education.
Branches of Philosophy
Logic
• Logic is the study of the principles and methods of reasoning.
• Studies what rules a person must follow in order to think correctly.
Metaphysics
• The study of the fundamental nature of reality and existence and of
the essences of things.
• Often divided into two areas: ontology and cosmology.
– Ontology: the study of being.
– Cosmology: the study of the physical universe, or the
cosmos, taken as a whole.
Metaphysics Deals With Such Questions As
• What is reality?
• What is the distinction between appearance and reality?
• What are the most general principles and concepts by which our
experiences can be interpreted and understood?
• Do we possess free will or are our actions determined by causes over
which we have no control?
Epistemology
• Epistemology aims to determine the nature, basis, and extent
of knowledge.
• Epistemology asks such questions as:
– What are the features of genuine knowledge as distinct from
what appears to be knowledge?
– What is truth, and how can we know what is true and what is
false?
– Are there different kinds of knowledge, with different
grounds and characteristics?
Philosophical Theology
• Is there a God?
• If there is, what is He/She/It like?
• Is man immortal?
• Is God‟s goodness a factor in the direction of nature and of human life?
• If God does direct man‟s life, in what sense is man free?
• Why is there evil in the world?
Philosophical Psychology
• What exactly is man‟s mind?
• Is mind basically a soul or spirit?
• Or is mind a process that depends on the body?
• How are mind and body related?
• Philosophical Psychology also addresses the many concepts having
an essential mental element:
– belief, desire, emotion, feeling, sensation, passion, will,
personality, and others.
Ethics
• What makes right actions right and wrong actions wrong?
• What is good and what is bad?
• What are the proper values of life?
Three Views of Ethics
– Relativism
– Objectivism
– Subjectivism
Some Subfields of Ethics
Political Philosophy
Examines the nature and possible arguments for various competing forms of political
organization, such as:
– laissez-faire capitalism,
– welfare democracy (capitalistic and socialistic),
– anarchism,
– communism,
– fascism, etc.
Business Ethics
Explores such questions as
– how moral obligations may conflict with the profit motive and how these conflicts may
be resolved.
– the nature and scope of the social responsibilities of corporations, their rights in a free
society, and their relations to other institutions.
Social Philosophy
Treats such moral problems with large-scale social
dimensions as
– the basis of compulsory education,
– the possible grounds for preferential treatment of
minorities,
– the justice of taxation,
– the appropriate limits, if any, on free expression in the arts.
Philosophy of Law
Explores such topics as
• what law is
• what kinds of laws there are
• how law is or should be related to morality
• what sorts of principles should govern punishment and criminal
justice in general.
Medical Ethics
Examines such question as
• standards applying to physician-patient relationships;
• moral questions raised by special procedures, such as abortion and ceasing
of life-support for terminal patients;
• ethical standards for medical research, for instance genetic engineering
and experimentation using human subjects.
Aesthetics
• Aesthetics deals with the creation and principles of art and beauty.
• It‟s wider than Philosophy of Art as it involves both works of art created
by human beings and the beauty found in nature.
Philosophy of Language
• The nature of language
• The nature of meaning
• The relations between words and things
• The various theories of language learning
Philosophy and Science
Science studies natural phenomena and the phenomena of society.
It does not study itself. When science does reflect on itself, it
becomes the philosophy of science and examines a number of
philosophic questions, e.g.:
– What is science?
– What is scientific method?
– Does scientific truth provide us with the truth about the universe and
reality?
– What is the value of science?
Terminology
• Until the 1700s, no distinction was made between science and
philosophy. For example, physics was called natural philosophy.
• Psychology was part of what was called moral philosophy.
• Logic has always been considered a branch of philosophy. However,
logic has now developed to the point where it is also a branch of
mathematics.
Other Subfields of Philosophy
• Philosophy of History
• Philosophy of Mathematics
• Philosophy of Education
• Philosophy of Feminism
• Philosophy of Linguistics
• Philosophy of Criticism
• Philosophy of Culture
• Philosophy of Film
Non Western Philosophies
• Especially eastern and southern Asia
• Also the Middle East
• Africa -- indigenous philosophies
• Perhaps unfortunately, "non-Western philosophy" has often been used
interchangeably with Eastern philosophy.
• Some major movements include:
– Buddhism, Jainism, Hindu philosophies, Confucianism and Neo-
Confucianism, Taoism, the Chinese Yin-Yang School, Islamic philosophy
Islamic Philosophy
• Most non-western philosophies have up till recently had little
connection with that of the west.
• However, Islamic philosophy played a crucial role in the
transmission of Greek thought and Greek philosophical texts to
Medieval Christendom.
Western and non-Western Philosophy
• The line between the two is less clear now than it once was. Western
philosophies have penetrated deeply into the non-Western world.
• Marxism may have been for a time the most significant.
• Though great interest in non-Western thought (often in association with
religious interests), very few philosophers in the West have come to "do
philosophy" in a non-Western mode.
The Study of Philosophy at
College/University
» Historical Model
» Field Model
» Problems Model
» Activity Model
Historical Model
• Emphasizes the history of philosophy -- often with attention
to the wider cultural setting.
Field Model
• Stresses coverage of central fields and various subfields of
philosophical inquiry.
Problems Model
• Its emphasis is on understanding major philosophical issues.
Activity Model
• Here, "doing philosophy" is primary.
• The process of inquiry is considered more important than the results or
particular conclusions reached.
Typical Introductory Courses in College
• Perhaps a general introduction to the field
• Maybe an intro. to a subfield, e.g. ethics, logic, philosophy of religion.
• Many courses are built around important philosophical problems.
• Such courses are often concerned with such topics as:
– the theory of knowledge, with emphasis on the nature and sources of knowledge;
– the mind-body problem, with a focus on the nature of our mental life in relation to
the brain;
– the nature of moral obligation, with stress on alternative ways of determining what
one ought to do;
– the philosophy of religion, with emphasis on how belief in God might be
understood and justified.
• General introductions to philosophy may also be built around major texts, especially
writings by great philosophers.
American Philosophical Association http://philosophy.fullcoll.edu/resources/other/undergrad.pdf
History of Philosophy
• Major figures and periods
Philosophy and Libraries
A Caveat: Interdisciplinary Nature of Philosophy
A cohesive body of literature exists that may be classified as
„philosophy." However, philosophy attached to other subject areas may
be spread throughout the library, thereby complicating access since all
works will not be together physically.
The Literature of Philosophy
• Primary Sources (also Translations)
– Most studied: Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hume,
Descartes, Hegel, Marx, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Kant,
Husserl, Russell, and Dewey.
– The next most studied are: Augustine, Leibniz, Locke,
Spinoza, Hobbes, Mill, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, James,
Freud, Whitehead, Sartre, Popper, Quine, Peirce, Moore,
Frege, Carnap.
Philosophy a Living Field
• Philosophers continue to offer new philosophical perspectives.
• These works are also primary sources and should be represented in
the library collection.
Secondary Sources
» Histories
» Biographies
» Textbooks
» Critical works
Bibliographic Guides
For example:
Hans E. Bynagle. Philosophy: A Guide to the Reference
Literature. 2nd ed. (1997)
A good first step for beginners and advanced researchers.
Textbook 37
Bibliographic Guides
Richard T. De George. The Philosopher's Guide to Sources,
Research Tools, Professional Life and Related Fields (1980)
For the more advanced researcher.
Textbook p. 30
Ruben, Douglas H. Philosophy Journals and Serials: An
Analytical Guide (1985)
Annotated, with geographic and subject indexes.
Textbook 38
Bibliographies
• GENERAL: for example:
:
Benjamin Rand. Bibliography of Philosophy, Psychology,
and Cognate Subjects. 2 vols. (1925).
Attempts comprehensive coverage of major works up to about
1900.
Textbook 40
Bibliographies: Specialized by Topic, Region, or
Period
• For example:
Albert A. Bell and James B. Allis. Resources in Ancient Philosophy:
An Annotated Bibliography of Scholarship In English 1965-1989
(1991).
Books and articles covering philosophy from Thales to Augustine.
Textbook 52
Luis E. Navia. The Presocratic Philosophers: An Annotated
Bibliography (1993)
Describes 2,700 books and articles
Textbook 52 note
Online Bibliography
Contemporary Philosophy of Mind: An Annotated Bibliography
• This is a bibliography of work in the philosophy of mind, the
philosophy of cognitive science, and the science of consciousness.
• It consists of 18460 entries (07/02/2009), and is divided into 8 parts,
each of which is further divided by topic and subtopic.
• Both online and offline material is included, with links wherever
possible.
Hans Daiber. Bibliography of Islamic Philosophy. Brill, 1999.
Covers more than 9500 primary and secondary sources for the study of Islamic
Philosophy.
Hans Daiber. Bibliography of Islamic Philosophy. Supplement. Brill,
2006.
Addition of more than 3000 new books and articles in the field of Islamic
philosophy, its Greek sources and its aftermath in European philosophy.
Meissner, Werner. Western Philosophy in China 1993-
1997: A Bibliography. Lang, 2001.
This attempts to compile all Chinese publications, books as well as
articles, on Western philosophy in the People's Republic of China
published 1993-1997.
The number of titles amounts to approximately 6000.
The figures look even more impressive if one bears in mind that titles
on Marxism-Leninism have not been included.
Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Handbooks
• The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. Ed. By Robert Audi. 2nd
Ed. (1999)
381 mostly American contributors and some 4,000 entries and cross-
references. Includes both Eastern and Western philosophies, but without
bibliographies. There are no entries for living philosophers.
Textbook 59
• A Dictionary of Philosophy. 2d ed. Anthony Flew and Jennifer
Speake (1984)
A standard one volume resource.
Textbook 60
Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and
Handbooks
• The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Paul Edwards, (1967; repr.
1996) 8v. in 4.
Textbook 66
• Dictionary of Marxist Thought. 2nd ed. (1991)
Textbook 77
• Bell, Albert A., Jr., and Allis, James B. Resources in Ancient
Philosophy: An Annotated Bibliography of Scholarship in English,
1965-1989. (1991)
Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, And
Handbooks
• Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber et al. The Encyclopedia of Eastern
Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen (1989)
4,000 definitions and biographical sketches.
Textbook 80
• Vere Chappel. Essays on Early Modern Philosophers: From Descartes
and Hobbes to Newton and Leibniz. 1992. 12v.
300 essays on 17th cent. philosophers
Textbook 85 note
Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Handbooks
• Historical Dictionary of Medieval Philosophy and Theology.
Stephen F. Brown and Juan Carlos Flores. Scarecrow, 2007.
Presents the philosophy of the Christian West from the 9th to the early 17th
century.
This is accomplished through a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, a
bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on the
philosophers, concepts, issues, institutions, and events.
• Historical Dictionary of Ancient Greek Philosophy. Anthony Preus.
Scarecrow, 2007.
Presents the history of Greek philosophy. This is accomplished through a
chronology, an introduction, a glossary, a bibliography, and hundreds of
cross-referenced dictionary entries on important philosophers, concepts,
issues, and events.
Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and
Handbooks
• Handbook of World Philosophy: Contemporary
Developments since 1945. John R. Burr, ed. (1980)
Short essays, organized by country. With short bibliographies.
Textbook 84
• Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected
Pivotal Ideas. 5 vols. Philip P. Wiener, ed. (1973-74)
Interdisciplinary, great variety of subjects.
Textbook 64
Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy
• Entries cover the entire span of philosophy, from the Vedas to the most recent
technical terminology, with ample coverage of important themes from
Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and Jewish philosophy.
• The dictionary also includes biographies of nearly 500 individuals.
• Also covers relevant terms from disciplines such as mathematics, physics,
biology, artificial intelligence, and linguistics.
Selected More Recent Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and
Handbooks
• Bretzke, James T. Bibliography on East Asian religion and philosophy. Mellen, 2001.
• Wittgenstein & religion: A bibliography of articles, books, and theses in the twentieth
century that relate the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein to the study of religion and
theology. Ateneo de Manila University, c2001.
• Bunnin, Nicholas. The Blackwell dictionary of Western philosophy. Blackwell Pub.,
2004.
• Richter, Duncan. Historical dictionary of Wittgenstein's philosophy. Duncan Richter.
Scarecrow, 2004.
• Historical dictionary of Descartes and Cartesian philosophy. Scarecrow, 2003.
• Burbidge, John W. Historical dictionary of Hegelian philosophy. Scarecrow Press, 2001
• Iannone, A. Pablo. Dictionary of world philosophy. Routledge, 2001.
• Denker, Alfred. Historical dictionary of Heidegger's philosophy. Scarecrow Press, 2000.
Selected More Recent Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and
Handbooks
• Ellis, B. D. The philosophy of nature: A guide to the new essentialism. Brian Ellis.
McGill-Queen's U P, c2002.
• Kupperman, Joel. Classic Asian philosophy: A guide to the essential texts. Oxford U P,
2001.
• Mansfield, Harvey Claflin. A student's guide to political philosophy. ISI, c2001.
• The Blackwell guide to continental philosophy. ed. by Robert C. Solomon and David
Sherman. Blackwell, 2003.
• The Blackwell guide to philosophy of mind. ed. by Stephen P. Stich and Ted A.
Warfield. Blackwell, 2003.
• The Blackwell guide to social and political philosophy. ed. by Robert L. Simon.
Blackwell, 2002.
Selected More Recent Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and
Handbooks
• The Blackwell guide to the philosophy of religion. ed. by William E. Mann. Blackwell,
2005.
• The Blackwell guide to American philosophy. ed. by Armen T. Marsoobian and John
Ryder. Blackwell, 2004.
• Western philosophy: an illustrated guide. Ed. by David Papineau. Oxford U P, 2004.
• The Oxford handbook of philosophy of biology. Ed. by Michael Ruse. Oxford U P, 2008.
• The Oxford handbook of the philosophy of language. Ed. by Ernest Lepore and Barry C.
Smith. Oxford U P, 2006.
• The Oxford handbook of philosophy of religion. Ed. by William J. Wainwright. Oxford
U P, 2005.
• Phenomenological approaches to moral philosophy: A handbook. John J. Drummond
and Lester Embree. Kluwer, c2002.
• Handbook of phenomenology and medicine. Ed. by S. Kay Toombs. Kluwer, c2001.
Blackwell Reference Online
• This web resource comprises over 350 full-text reference titles in the
disciplines of Business & Economics, History, Language & Linguistics,
Literature & Cultural Studies, Philosophy & Religion, and Sociology and
Psychology.
• Titles include the Blackwell companions, handbooks, guides, dictionaries,
encyclopedias and concise companions.
• Some examples of companions and guides in philosophy are The Blackwell
Guide to Continental Philosophy, A Companion to Kant, and A Companion to
Philosophy in the Middle Ages.
Directories/Biographical Sources
Directory of American Philosophers 24th ed.(2008/2009) Bowling
Green, Ohio: Philosophy Documentation Center, Bowling Green
State University.
• Includes geographic section of philosophy departments and department
members by state (and Canada by province), and lists of assistantships, centers,
institutes, and societies.
• Journal and publisher lists helpful for identifying potential publishers of
manuscripts.
• Largest section: alphabetic listing of philosophers by name /address.
Textbook 88
Directories/Biographical Sources
International Directory of Philosophy and Philosophers 15th ed.
(2007/2008)
Coverage is world-wide except for the U.S. and Canada. Included are lists
of universities, centers, institutes, societies, and journal and publisher
information with manuscript submission requirements. Largest section:
alphabetic listing of philosophers by name / address. All but the
individual philosopher listing are organized alphabetically by country.
Textbook 92
Directories/Biographical Sources
Great Thinkers of the Eastern World: The Major Thinkers and the
Philosophical and Religious Classics of China, India, Japan, Korea, and
the World of Islam. Ian P. McGreal, ed. (1995)
Furnishes biography, major ideas, major works, and bibliography.
Excellent undergraduate resource.
Textbook 90
Histories
• W. K. C. Guthrie. A History of Greek Philosophy (1962-1981).
repr. 1986. 6 vols.
Pre-Socratics to Aristotle.
Textbook 95
• Frederick Charles Copleston. A History of Philosophy (1945--)
Multi-volume
Textbook 96
Histories
• Bertrand Russell. A History of Western Philosophy. 2d ed.
1961; repr. 1995.
A very readable, idiosyncratic, and important one-volume history
of philosophy.
Textbook 97 note
Indexes, Abstracts
• Philosopher's Index (1940--):
http://proxy.bc.edu/login?url=http://www.csa.com/htbin/dbrng.cgi?username=boston&access=boston23&db=philosopher-set-c&adv=1
• Coverage includes journal articles, books, contributions to anthologies, and book
reviews.
• Over 480 journals are cited, from 38 countries.
• Subjects indexed include aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics,
as well as the philosophical aspects of related disciplines like education, political
science, history, theology, and law.
• Coverage: 1940-present
Textbook 57
Indexes, Abstracts
International Philosophical Bibliography (1991-) quarterly.
Continues Repertoire Bibliographique de la Philosophie (1949-
1990).
Useful for finding non-English language books not included in the
Philosopher's Index. Focuses on publications in Catalan, Dutch,
English, German, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, and Spanish. Each year,
issue numbers 1-3 cover articles and books; number 4 covers book
reviews and includes an index of names and an index of anonymous
publications.
Textbook 56
Indexes, Abstracts
FRANCIS (1984--)
http://proxy.bc.edu/login?url=http://www.csa.com/htbin/dbrng.cgi?username=boston&access=boston23&db=francis-set-c&adv=1
FRANCIS covers a wide range of multilingual, multidisciplinary
information in the humanities (67%), social sciences (30%), and
economics (3%). FRANCIS is strong in religion, the history of art,
and literature, with particular emphasis on current trends in
European and world literature. Updated monthly.
Textbook 55
Online Companions
• Cambridge Collections Online
http://proxy.bc.edu/login?url=http://cco.cambridge.org/login2?dest=%2F
• Intended to serve as reference works for an inter-disciplinary audience of
students and non-specialists.
• Addressing topics and figures ranging from Plato through Kant to Habermas,
and philosophical movements such as the Scottish Enlightenment and German
Idealism.
• Contains over 1100 downloadable essays (more than 120 volumes related to
Philosophy, Religion and Culture).
Full Text Databases
Augustine
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/augustine.html
• Primary texts in Latin and English along with secondary material. An
excellent resource which also includes images.
Full Text Databases
Past Masters
http://proxy.bc.edu/login?url=http://library.nlx.com/
A developing collection of electronic texts in philosophy (and
other disciplines) taken from scholarly editions and
translations.
Encyclopedias Full Text
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online)
http://proxy.bc.edu/login?url=http://www.rep.routledge.com/index.html
• The basis for REP Online is the ten volume Routledge Encyclopedia of
Philosophy.
• Including over 2000 original articles from over 1300 experts across the
discipline of philosophy, this web version is regularly updated.
• Over 25,000 hot-linked cross-references between articles and new links to
other editorially reviewed websites
Textbook 70
Encyclopedias Full Text
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Each entry is maintained and kept up to date by an expert or group
of experts in the field.
L‘Année Philologique
• An index to 1500 periodicals, essay collections, book reviews, and
conference proceedings in Classical Studies. Subjects covered include
ancient Greek and Latin language and linguistics, Greek and Roman
history, literature, philosophy, art, archaeology, religion, mythology,
music, science, early Christian texts, numismatics, papyrology, and
epigraphy.
Numerous Good WWW Sites
• See, for example:
http://www2.bc.edu/~rappleb/philosophysites.html