All of the links mentioned below - and the ones you need to find your philosophical text - are also listed under the "Philosophy" tab above.
The step of finding which philosopher you want to work with can be a challenge. However, once you learn to use the resources I've placed here, things should move along much more efficiently.
- Step 1 - Find your philosopher(s)
- Use the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy or the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy to read about what different philosopher have said about your subject.
- The key to making this a success is using the right "key words." You may find something right away with your original search terms. If not, read the articles and keep track of the words they are using to discuss the issue. Words like "metaphysics" or "epistemology" might not be the first ones you tried, but they may yield significantly better results!
- This will take some time - lots of reading is involved. Your goal is to find the philosopher who wrote about your question or some aspect of it.
- The first person you find may not be the best. Read the summaries of their ideas and make a smart choice.
- Here's a helpful tip - use cntrl+F to find the key words on the page so you just read the relevant sections!
- Note: the entries on the Stanford and Internet Encyclopedias of Philosophy are not philosophical texts - they are just summaries of them. Read them and look for the names of the actual texts (books, articles) and then move to step two.
- Step 2 - Find the actual text, including which section of it is relevant to your question.
- It is not enough just to read the summary of what your philosopher had to say. You need to find an essay / section of a larger text and read it carefully. This is usually around 10-20 pages long.
- Your goal with section 3 is to bring the voice of your chosen philosopher(s) into your project. You are explaining and clarifying their ideas - summarizing the key points, showing the different parts of their argument, and highlighting key quotations. Later, in section 5, you will think and write about how it links to your project overall.
- Under the "Philosophy" tab, I added a list of links to the philosophical texts I think will be used most often for this project. Also here are links to the Liberty Fund's Online Library and Project Gutenberg's OnLine Philosophy Library - there are links there to just about any text you need.
- Once you find the text, read it carefully - spend time with it - listen to what it has to say and how it makes its argument. Maybe it is totally different from the way you thought about these issues and opens up new possibilities for you. Maybe you completely disagree with it. There are many possibilities.
Happy reading, writing, and thinking!
