Encyclopedias

Encyclopedia articles, written by subject authorities, provide information useful for gaining a basic understanding of a topic and getting started with a research project. Typically, a bibliography, or list, of "classic" books and articles for further research follows each article. Students will find also these encyclopedias useful for brushing up on topics related to their central area of investigation.

Dictionary of the history of ideas; studies of selected pivotal ideas. Philip P. Wiener, editor in chief. New York: Scribner, 1973-74.  Now available in digitized format as DHI Online via the Electronic Text Center.

CALL NUMBER: Ref CB5 .D52 v.1-5

Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics. Editor-in-chief, Ruth Chadwick. San Diego: Academic Press, c1998.

CALL NUMBER: Ref BJ63 .E44 1998 -v. 1-4

Encyclopedia of Bioethics. Steven G. Post, editor in chief. Macmillan Reference USA : Thomson/Gale, c2004

A five-volume set containing articles on meta-ethics; theory; moral problems; political, social, and legal theory; trends; principles and theoretical problems; and ethicists. Bibliographies.

CALL NUMBER: Ref QH 332 .E52 2004 v.1-5

Encyclopedia of Ethics. Lawrence C. Becker, editor, Charlotte B. Becker, associate editor. New York: Routledge, 2001.

A three-volume set which summarizes and analyzes the historical and current state of research in the field of bioethics. Subjects covered include: Concrete Ethical and Legal Problems; Basic Concepts and Principles; Ethical Theories; Religious Traditions; Historical Perspectives; and Disciplines Bearing on Bioethics. A bibliography follows each article.

CALL NUMBER: Ref BJ 63 .E45 2001 v.1-3

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy.  New York: Macmillan, 1972.

A comprehensive, authoritative encyclopedia which covers virtually every important Eastern and Western philosophical concept or theory and 900 individual thinkers from ancient times to the present. A bibliography follows each lengthy article.

CALL NUMBER: Ref B41.E5 1972 – v. 1-8

Hester, Joseph P.
Encyclopedia of Values and Ethics. Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, c1996.

CALL NUMBER: Ref BJ 63 .H47 1996

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy [ Online ] Available: http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/ (Accessed 6 January 2004).

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a non-profit organization and includes from three sources (1) original contributions by specialized philosophers around the internet, (2) adaptations of material written by the editors for classroom purposes, and (3) adaptations from public domain sources (typically from two or more sources for per article).

The Oxford Companion to Philosophy.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

CALL NUMBER: Ref Ref B51.O94 1995

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. New York: Routledge, 1998. Now also available via REP Online (Restricted to Union College)

CALL NUMBER: Ref Ref B51.R68 1998 – v. 1-10

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. [ Online ] Available: http://plato.stanford.edu/ (Accessed 6 January 2004).

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a dynamic reference work and is a publishing project of the Metaphysics Research Lab at the Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI) at Stanford University. Each entry is maintained and kept up to date by an expert or group of experts in the field. All entries and updates are refereed by the members of the Editorial Board before they are made public.

Subject Dictionaries

These specialized subject dictionaries define the terminology in the discipline.

The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

CALL NUMBER: Ref B41.c35 1999

Flew, Antony.
A Dictionary of philosophy. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980.

CALL NUMBER: Ref B 41 .F63

Lacey, A.R.
A Dictionary of philosophy. London: Routledge, 1996.

CALL NUMBER: Ref B 41 .L32 1996

Kemerling, Garth.
A Dictionary of Philosophical Terms and Names. [ Online ] Available: http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/index.htm (Accessed 6 January 2004).

According to Kemerling of the Newbury College Dept. of Philosophy and Religion, this online resource is a "concise guide to technical terms and personal names often encountered in the study of philosophy."

The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. [ Online ] New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Available: http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/BOOK_SEARCH.html?book=t98&subject=s22 (Accessed 6 January 2004). Restricted to Union College

Biographical

 American National Biography Online (ANB) [ Online ] Oxford University Press, 2004. Available: http://www.anb.org/articles/index.html (Accessed 6 January 2004).

Search by Name, in full-text, Birthplace or by occupation and "Realms of Renown." Restricted to Union College.

Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Philosophers. Edited by Stuart Brown, Diané Collinson, Robert Wilkinson. London; New York: Routledge, 1996.

CALL NUMBER: Ref B 104 .B50 1996

The Dictionary of eighteenth-century British philosophers. General editors, John W. Yolton, John Valdimir Price and John Stephens. Bristol : Thoemmes Press, 1999.

CALL NUMBER: B1301 .D5270 1999 v.1-2

Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen [et al.]London, Smith, Elder, & co., 1885-1901.

CALL NUMBER: Ref DA28 .D4 

See Also Reference Room: Biography section for additional resources.

Style manuals and citations guides illustrate how to cite book, journal, and other research sources, including materials found in online databases and on the Web according to the conventional format of a particular discipline. Subject-specific citation guides are listed below, and a complete listing appears at Reference Sites: Citation Guides and Style Manuals.

Online! A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources. [ Online ] Andrew Harnack and Eugene Kleppinger. http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/

Books in Schaffer Library are arranged by Library of Congress Class number. Class numbers are searchable in the Web Catalog and browsable in the Stacks and Reference Collection.

B1 - 5739	Philosophy (General)
B69 - 5739	History and systems. Including individual philosophers and schools of philosophy.  By period.
B108 - 708	Ancient
B720 - 765	Medieval
B770 - 785	Renaissance
B790 - 5739	Modern
BJ1 - 2195	Ethics

The New Acquisitions List  (residing on the Library Catalogs page) is generated on the 10th of each month and includes items added to the library's collections for the previous calendar month.

Microfiche copies of Senior honors theses are maintained in the Library. For details on the Library's theses holdings, formats, access, photocopying restrictions, and searching for a thesis in the online catalog, see How to Find a Union College Thesis.

Research Guides supplement the broader Research by Subject pages by focusing on the print and electronic resources that are most useful for a course specific research assignment. For faculty, the Research Guides provide structured access to the Library and Internet resources relevant to their own work or in advising students on their research projects. For students working independently, it serves as a reminder of services and materials offered within the library while at the same time providing a gateway for information available from remote sites.

Faculty using Blackboard are encouraged to incorporate links to Library resources (specifically the Research by Subject pages and the appropriate course-related Research Guides) into the Blackboard course pages. Your Departmental Liaison or Bibliographic Instruction Contacts can assist you.

Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery Follow this link to place an Interlibrary Loan request. There is also a fuller description of the Interlibrary Loan service available.

PLEASE NOTE: You are reminded that it is required to check the Online Catalog (for books) or the two lists of Periodicals Titles  (for journals with articles you need) before ordering on Interlibrary Loan. It will save you considerable time for every reference that you find available here on the shelves or in electronic format.

Direct Access (CDLC) Card
Follow this link (through the Schaffer Library home page) to get further details. The card is obtained at the Circulation Desk.
 

Hours, Directions, and Maps to Local Libraries 
From the above site through the Library's home page, one can conveniently learn the way to travel to nearby libraries, if necessary.

Schaffer Library's hours, procedures, and services 
(and anything else about the Library you need to know...)

Off-campus access
Access to the paid-subscription sources listed is limited to workstations with Union College IP addresses. Therefore, a student wishing to use all the links on this page from off-campus will need to apply at Information Technology Services for an account on the Virtual Private Network.  Such an account enables off-campus users to have full access, even to the paid subscriptions.

Schaffer Library provides a range of general and subject specific electronic databases for access to secondary material. These databases offer full-text access to articles or library holdings information.  The following databases sometimes lead to full-text articles and sometimes are designed to tell you which journals are held here in Schaffer Library. But, some do neither. Therefore, to check whether (and where) a title is to be found in the Library's collections, it is necessary to check both of the Periodical Titles lists on our Web Catalog page. Important: If you are searching from off-campus, see the Note on Off Campus Access about Virtual Private Network accounts.

In addition to the links above to subject related databases that will lead to article citations and full-text article access, you can also browse the library's comprehensive listing of Electronic Journals and/or Periodical Titles available through Aggregated Databases. Both offer basic search options including and, or, not and Title begins with, Title contains, etc. Try entering single terms such as philosophy, philosophical, ethics, or bioethics.  Ask at the Reference Desk for assistance with local holdings.

Two services included in the Databases & Indexes section, JSTOR and Project Muse, offer full-text access to journals by discipline. Users can search or browse by category/subject. JSTOR - Philosophy. Project Muse includes Philosophy and Philosophy and Science.

American Philosophical Association
http://www.apa.udel.edu/apa/index.html

Hippia: Limited Area Search of Philosophy on the Internet
http://hippias.evansville.edu/about.htm
Hippias is a peer-reviewed search engine that provides access to philosophy-related resources on the World-Wide Web. Quality is controlled by a system of hyperlinked internet sites which are managed by qualified professionals who serve as the associate editors of the project. The same procedures that govern quality also serve to limit the scope of Hippias to resources of interest to philosophers.

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://plato.stanford.edu/

Philosophy in Cyberspace
http://www-personal.monash.edu.au/~dey/phil/
Edited by Dey Alexander (Monash University), Philosophy in Cyberspace is an extensive, annotated index of philosophy resources organized into over 50 topical categories and updated regularly.

The International Association for Computing and Philosophy
http://iacap.org/about.htm
The IACP is a consolidated site, still in development, of several of the most comprehensive Internet guides to philosophy and philosophical research.

Philosophy Sites on the Internet
http://www.tau.ac.il/humanities/philos/links.htm
Comprehensive list of resources created and maintained by Tel-Aviv University Philosophy Department.

The WWW Virtual Library: Philosophy
http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Philosophy/VL/index.html
A massive source of worldwide information on philosophy, including tutorials and other instructional programs.

Voice of the Shuttle: Philosophy
http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2724
This site, part of the highly-respected VoS the series, provides information about philosophical topics and periods, individual philosophers, and philosophy departments and programs. A generous selection of links to other sites is also included.

Philosophy of Religion.info
http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/
Maintained by Tim Holt, a doctoral student at the University of Sheffield, this site intends to "demystify the philosophy of religion, the focus being on Western monotheism.

Tools for tracking recently published articles.

The New York Times: College Philosophy. [ Online ] The New York Times. Available: http://college.nytimes.com/guests/directory/Arts_&_Humanities/Philosophy/ (Accessed 6 January 2004)
Provides full text access to Philosophy articles from The New York Times "Arts & Humanities" section.

Philosophy in the News - A collection of links from the APA Online to news articles and radio programs featuring philosophy, philosophers, and philosophical issues, broadly defined.

Departmental Liaison (Thomas McFadden )
For information on resources, services, collections, and book ordering for your department

Bibliographic Instruction Contact
For information on scheduling course related instruction session or faculty training session

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