COLLECTIONS:

Special Collections

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Collection Preservation

Research Collections:
Philosophy Collection

Collection Overview
Development of the philosophy collection follows the research and teaching emphases of the Philosophy Department. The collection has focused on Western philosophy including the history of philosophy, speculative philosophy, ethics, and logic. The collection also includes works which examine the philosophical dimensions of religion, science, politics, the arts, social thought, and law. In some areas (e.g., speculative philosophy and ethics), works by established philosophers are preferred. Material by and about certain philosophers is collected intensively, particularly the major ancient and medieval thinkers, and significant modern and contemporary continental philosophers. Among modern and post-modern philosophers, Bernard Lonergan continues to have special importance to the department and hence to the philosophy collection's development, but other figures of interest to department faculty include Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Blondel, Husserl, Gadamer, and Blumenberg. Philosophy outside the Western tradition is also collected but more selectively. This includes material acquired in support of the China Project which involves contacts and exchanges between the Philosophy Department and philosophers of the People's Republic of China.

Rapid advances in computer and networking technology have resulted in the acquisition of significant electronic resources, including electronic versions of familiar philosophy indexes and digitized full-text editions of primary sources. The next area of major collection growth in electronic formats will be in electronic journals. The philosophy collection program has emphasized acquisition of digitized information and texts when possible because they vastly improve a researcher's ability to identify and access research resources.

Jonas Barciauskas
Philosophy Bibliographer
1-617-552-4447
E-Mail: barciaus@bc.edu

Selected Resources

In the O'Neill Library:

• Collected works and critical editions of major Western philosophers: Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, René Descartes, Immanuel Kant, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Edmund Husserl, Ludwig Wittgenstein, among others.

• Important sets: The Cambridge Companions to Philosophy, Routledge Critical Assessments.

• Extensive holdings in philosophical journal literature, many from the first volume through the current issue.

• Reference works: Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, among others.

• Indexes on CD-ROM: Database of Classical Bibliography (L'année philologique), International Medieval Bibliography.

• Full text databases on CD-ROM: CETEDOC Library of Christian Latin Texts; Thesaurus Linguae Graecae; Thomae Aquinatis Opera Omnia..

On the Web (Restricted to the BC Community):

• Subject index to the literature:  Philosopher's Index.

• General indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science), Expanded Academic Index ASAP (InfoTrac), FRANCIS Bulletin Signalétique.

• Full text databases: Patrologia Latina Database, Past Masters.

• Full text electronic journals: Journal of the History of Ideas, Philosophy and Literature, Journal of Philosophy, Mind, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, among others.  Other electronic journals in philosophy may be found at the following e-journal gateways: JSTOR and Project Muse.

• Other databases in the humanities: Subject Indexes to Online Databases: Humanities.  This web page also has links to databases outside the humanities.

Research Guides
More information about available resources can be found in the following resource guides: Research Guide: Philosophy, Philosophy: A Guide to Print Resources and Philosophy: A Guide to Electronic Resources.

Interdisciplinary Elements of Subject Area
Philosophy has historically been an important intellectual discipline in the Catholic tradition, and therefore has many points of contact with other subjects taught at B.C. including theology, history, psychology, political science, sociology, economics, the physical sciences, the arts, and literature. On a more organized level, the Institute of Medieval Philosophy and Theology draws on the interests of faculty from both Philosophy and Theology Departments to explore the relationship between the two disciplines in the medieval period, and between the disciplines' medieval and modern phases.

Formats and Types of Materials
Formats collected include print, electronic, microform, and audiovisual. Types of materials include monographs, serials, and reference works including major indexes, abstracts, catalogs, bibliographies, yearbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias, research guides, and directories.

Languages
Philosophy materials published in Western languages are emphasized, particularly English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Significant texts in Greek and Latin are also collected. Other languages are selectively collected.

Geographic Areas (Subject Approach)
The major emphases are on Europe and North America. Significant works from Asia, the Middle East, and Africa are also collected. Materials in support of the China Project are collected only selectively at this point.

Time Periods (Subject Approach)
The selection of materials reflects an interest in the Western philosophical tradition from its origins in presocratic Greece to the present day. Most eras are covered including the ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary periods. Selection of materials from philosophical traditions outside of the West also reflects an interest in their historical development.

Date of Publication
Current imprints are emphasized. Modern editions of classics as well as reprints of significant works are also emphasized. Significant works in modern philosophical thought and scholarship are collected retrospectively.

Subject Areas Collected by Library of Congress Classification Number
BCAT, the online catalog, can be searched by LC classification number to get a better idea of what specific titles the philosophy collection contains.  For example, the command c=B720 will produce the beginning of a list of works on medieval philosophy.  This list can be browsed by pressing the F8 key or typing f and pressing the Enter/Return key.