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 PhilosophyExamines 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 EthicsExplores 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 articlesTextbook 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 Onlinehttp://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 websitesTextbook 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