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PHIL 150: Mind, Meaning, and Morality (Fall 2024)

Reference Materials

What is a Reference Book?

Reference materials are sources that provide a broad overview on a topic. They are typically "scholarly" and written by experts in a field, HOWEVER they aren't always considered "peer reviewed" are should not usually be cited directly in a paper. They are excellent starting points and will direct you toward useful peer-reviewed materials.  You typically won't want to use a reference work as a cited source in your works, however they are excellent if you need a quick overview on a topic, or if you need to quickly identify seminal works (which you can cite!) on your topic.

Finding Reference Materials

There are several ways to find Philosophy reference materials

  1. Use the "reference Entries" tab in the main library catalog. <- EXAMPLE
  2. Use one of our reference databases, which contain thousands of full-text encyclopedias
  3. Use the catalog to find a specialized encyclopedia by skimming subjects.

A Few Philosophy Reference Materials of Particular Note: