Contents:
Why use reference books?
General
Philosophers
World philosophies
History of ideas
Ethics
Feminist theory
Philosophy of religion
World religions
Philosophy of science
Databases
Jennifer Graham
Level 1
General Library
University of Auckland
Department of Philosophy
Why use reference books? 
Reference books are a good place to start researching a topic. Reference books are easy to read and written by experts. Use reference books for concise introductions, facts, or definitions.
The reference books listed below are a selection of philosophy reference sources available at the University of Auckland Library. Ttitles are cited according to the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed.
Philosophy
Pence, Gregory. A Dictionary of Common Philosophical Terms. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
Audi, Robert, ed. The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Baergen, Ralph. Historical Dictionary of Epistemology. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2006.
Blaauw, Martijn, and Duncan Pritchard. Epistemology A-Z. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, c2005.
Blackburn, Simon. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005.
Borchert, Donald M. Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2nd ed. Detroit, Mich.: Macmillan Reference USA, 2006.
Craig, Edward, ed. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge, 1998.
Flew, Antony, and Stephen Priest, eds. A Dictionary of Philosophy. Aylesbury: Market House Books, 2002.
Gregory, Richard L., ed. Oxford Companion to the Mind. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Honderich, Ted, ed. Oxford Companion to Philosophy. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Kelly, Michael, ed. Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Garrett, Don, and Edward Barbanell, eds. Encyclopedia of Empiricism. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997.
Zelazo, Philip David, Morris Moscovitch, Evan Thompson, eds. Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Nelson, Robert S., and Richard Shiff, eds. Critical Terms for Art History. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Philosophers
Arrington, Robert L., ed. A Companion to the Philosophers. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
Baggini, Julian, and Jeremy Stangroom, eds. Great Thinkers A-Z. London: Continuum, 2004.
Brown, Stuart, Diané Collinson, Robert Wilkinson, eds. Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Philosophers. London: Routledge, 1996.
Brown, Stuart, ed. Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Philosophers. Bristol: Thoemmes Continuum, 2005.
Brown, Stuart, Diané Collinson, Robert Wilkinson, eds. One Hundred Twentieth-Century Philosophers. London: Routledge, 1998.
Bunge, Wiep van, ed. The Dictionary of Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Dutch Philosophers. Bristol: Thoemmes, 2003.
Cartwright, David E. Historical Dictionary of Schopenhauer's Philosophy. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2005.
Caygill, Howard. A Kant Dictionary. Oxford: Blackwell Reference, 1995.
Chapman, Siobhan, and Christopher Routledge, eds. Key Thinkers in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2005.
Directory of American Philosophers. Bowling Green, Ohio: Philosophy Documentation Center.
Hackett, Jeremiah. Medieval Philosophers. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992.
Inwood, Michael J. A Hegel Dictionary. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.
---. A Heidegger Dictionary. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
International Directory of Philosophy and Philosophers. Bowling Green, Ohio: Philosophy Documentation Center, Bowling Green University.
Lapointe, François H., comp. Søren Kierkegaard and His Critics: an International Bibliography of Criticism. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980.
Martinich, Aloysius. A Hobbes Dictionary. Oxford: Blackwell, 1995.
Parker, Noel, and Stuart Sim. The A-Z Guide to Modern Social and Political Theorists. London : Prentice Hall/Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1997.
Pyle, Andrew, ed. The Dictionary of Seventeenth-Century British Philosophers. Bristol: Thoemmes, 2000.
Roth, John K., ed. World Philosophers and Their Works. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, 2000.
Shook, John, ed. Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers, 1860-1960. Bristol: Thoemmes, 2004.
Stockhammer, Morris. Plato Dictionary. London: Vision, 1963.
Watkin, Julia. Historical Dictionary of Kierkegaard's Philosophy. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2001.
Yolton, John W., John Valdimir Price and John Stephens, eds. The Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century British Philosophers. Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1999.
World philosophies
Brown, Stephen F., and Juan Carlos Flores. Historical Dictionary of Medieval Philosophy and Theology. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2007.
Bunnin, Nicholas, and Jiyuan Yu. The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004.
Carr, Brian, and Indira Mahalingam, eds. Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy. London: Routledge, 1997.
Critchley, Simon, and William R. Schroeder, eds. A Companion to Continental Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
Deutsch, Eliot, and Ronald Bontekoe. A Companion to World Philosophies. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
Harvey, Steven. The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000.
Leaman, Oliver, ed. Biographical Encyclopaedia of Islamic Philosophy. Bristol: Thoemmes Continuum, 2006.
---. Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy. New York: Routledge , 2001.
---. Key Concepts in Eastern Philosophy. London: Routledge, 1999.
Murray, Christopher John, ed. Encyclopedia of Modern French Thought. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004.
Taylor, Victor E., and Charles E. Winquist, eds. Encyclopedia of Postmodernism. London: Routledge, 2000.
Zeyl, Donald J., ed. Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997.
History of ideas
Chapman, Siobhan, and Christopher Routledge, eds. Key Ideas in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005.
Delon, Michel, ed. Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001.
Gerard, Francois. Liberalism Versus Conservatism: A Bibliography with Indexes. Huntington, NY: Nova Science Publishers, 2000.
Grendler, Paul F., ed. Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. New York: Scribner's, 1999.
---. The Renaissance: An Encyclopedia for Students. Farmington Hills, MI : Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2003.
Hillerbrand, Hans J., ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Hoffman. John. A Glossary of Political Theory. Stanford: Stanford Law and Politics, 2007.
Horowitz, Maryanne Cline, ed. New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2005.
Kors, Alan Charles, ed. Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
McLeish, Kenneth, ed. Bloomsbury Guide to Human Thought. London: Bloomsbury Publications, 1993.
Miller, David, ed. The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought. Oxford: Blackwell, 1987.
Miskelly, Matthew, and Jaime Noce, eds. Political Theories for Students. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Group, c2002.
Nauert, Charles G. Historical Dictionary of the Renaissance. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2004.
Pike, Jon. Political Philosophy A-Z. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
Rohmann, Chris. A World of Ideas: A Dictionary of Important Theories, Concepts, Beliefs and Thinkers. New York: Ballantine, 1999.
Sheldon, Garrett Ward, ed. Encyclopedia of Political Thought. New York: Facts on File, 2001.
Yolton, John W. The Blackwell Companion to the Enlightenment. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.
Campbell, Gordon. The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2003.
Ethics
Becker, Lawrence C., and Charlotte B. Becker, eds. Encyclopedia of Ethics. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2001.
Dauvergne, Peter. Handbook of Global Environmental Politics. Northampton, MA: E. Elgar 2005.
Duval, R. Shannon, ed. Encyclopedia of Ethics. New York: Facts On File, 1999.
Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics. San Diego: Academic Press, 1998.
Frey, R. G., and Christopher Heath Wellman, eds. A Companion to Applied Ethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003.
Jacobs, Jonathan A. Ethics A-Z. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005.
Macdonald, Barrie I., and Michel Petheram. Keyguide to Information Sources in Media Ethics. Washington, D.C.: Mansell, 1998.
Murray, Thomas H., and Maxwell J. Mehlman. Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal, and Policy Issues in Biotechnology. New York: John Wiley, 2000
Post, Stephen G., ed. Encyclopedia of Bioethics. 3rd ed. Farmington Hills, MI : Macmillan Reference USA, 2003.
Singer, Peter, ed. A Companion to Ethics. Oxford: Blackwell Reference, 1991.
Feminist theory
Braidotti, Rosi, comp. Women's Studies and Philosophy: An International Bibliography on Feminist Sources With an Accent on Sexual Differences and Theories of the Subject. Utrecht: Interfaculty Dept. of Women's Studies, University of Utrecht, 1990.
Code, Lorraine, ed. Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories. London: Routledge, 2000.
Gardner, Catherine Villanueva. Historical Dictionary of Feminist Philosophy. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2006.
Hughes, Christina. Key Concepts in Feminist Theory and Research. London: SAGE, 2002.
Humm, Maggie. The Dictionary of Feminist Theory. 2nd ed. New York: Prentice Hall/Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1995.
McHugh, Nancy Arden. Feminist Philosophies A-Z. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
Pilcher, Jane, and Imelda Whelehan. 50 Key Concepts in Gender Studies. London: SAGE, 2004.
Sartori, Eva Martin, ed. The Feminist Encyclopedia of French Literature. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Philosophy of Religion
Quinn, Philip, and Charles Taliaferro, eds. A Companion to the Philosophy of Religion. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997.
Thiselton, Anthony C. A Concise Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Religion. Oxford: Oneworld, 2002.
Whitney, Barry L. Theodicy: An Annotated Bibliography on the Problem of Evil, 1960-1990. New York : Garland, 1993.
World religions
Lopez, Donald S. Critical Terms for the Study of Buddhism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2005.
Bowker, John, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Buswell, Robert E., ed. Encyclopedia of Buddhism. New York: Macmillan, USA, 2004.
Dallapiccola, Anna L. Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002.
Esposito, John L., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. New York: Oxford UP, 2003.
Hastings, Adrian, Alistair Mason and Hugh Pyper, eds. The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Jones, Lindsay, ed. Encyclopedia of Religion. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005.
Keown, Damien. A Dictionary of Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003.
Klostermaier, Klaus. A Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Oxford: Oneworld, 1998.
New Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.
Schumacher, Stephan, and Gert Woerner, eds. The Rider Encyclopaedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Taoism, Zen, Hinduism. London: Rider, 1999.
Philosophy of science
Psillos, Stathis. Philosophy of Science A-Z. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
Regal, Brian. Human Evolution: A Guide to the Debates. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2004.
Databases
Credo Reference cContains dictionaries and encyclopedias in philosophy.
Gale Virtual Reference Library is a collection of online reference books containing several titles relevant to philosophy.
Oxford Reference Online has some philosophy dictionaries and guides.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography gives biographical information on philosophers who lived in the British Isles. Does not cover living people.
Reference Universe indexes reference books.
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy is an online encyclopedia of philosophy and political theory.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is an online encyclopedia of philosophy. This encyclopedia is a work in progress.
Further reference pages
General Reference | Philosophy internet reference sites