Phil 100: Knowledge & Reality (Spring 2023)

Start with your topic question or statement.
Identify key terms.
Databases are not good at "natural language," and rely on keywords connected with AND OR NOT.

Examples
Criticism of Locke's theory of personal identity.
Key terms: Locke, Criticism, Personal Identity.
Try a search for: Locke AND criticism* AND "personal identity."
Doesn't work? Try: Locke AND critique* AND "personal identity."

Moral Luck as a philosophical problem.
Key terms: Moral Luck, philosophical problem..
You mighty try a search for "moral luck" AND "philosophical problem"
Or "moral luck" AND "philosophy problem"
Too few results? Try "moral luck" AND problem*

As noted above, you're going to need special characters and functions to run your searches. These include:
AND OR NOT
*
()
""

AND connects two terms. Kant AND "moral luck" will only return results with both Kant AND "moral luck"
OR will return one or the other. Kant OR Mill will return materials about either Kant or Mill.
NOT will exclude results containing that term. "personal identity" NOT Locke will exclude materials related to Locke.
* covers all endings of a term. Locke* will cover Locke, Locke's, Lockean. Caution: it will also return results for lockers, locked, and lockets
" "  forces the system to search for the terms as a phrase. A search for moral luck will return any article with moral OR luck. A search for "moral luck" will only return results with the full phrase "moral luck"
() Isolates these terms within a search, like in a Maths equation. Works best with OR commands. A search for "Moral Luck" AND (Locke OR Mill) will return all articles about Locke and Moral Luck, or about Mill and Moral Luck.

AND, * , and "" are going to be vitally important!