LibGuides: Arts & Humanities: Philosophy

Library Search and Databases A-Z

Library Search
If you want to check a specific book or article and find out whether it is held in the King's library collections then Library Search is a good place to start.

While you can search in Library Search with keywords to discover material you didn't know about, it will never give you the full flexibility and searching capacity that a specialist database can.

Where electronic versions of a book, article, or other material type are available, Library Search will give you a link to access it. You may then be prompted to login before being able to actually the thing you were interested in.
Databases A-Z list

Philosophy Information

Welcome to the Collections Guide for Philosophy at King's College London.

Key classmarks for this area of study are:

B1-5739- Philosophy (General)
BC1-199 - Logic
BC200- Language and Philosophy
BD10-701- Speculative Psychology
BF1-990- Psychology
BH1-301- Aesthetics
BJ1-1725 - Ethics

Once you know the call number (or classmark) you are looking for, you can use a floor plan to help you find the area of the library to visit. Most books that are relevant to Arts & Humanities are held in the Maughan Library.

Books are organised on the shelves using call numbers (or classmarks). We use the Library of Congress Classification Scheme which creates call numbers (or classmarks) using a series of letters and numbers - eg DD237 PEU.

The initial letters denote the general subject area (eg DD denotes the history of Germany)
The numbers denote a more specific subject area (eg DD237 denotes general works on the history of Germany post 1918)
The final combination of letters and numbers denote the author

Journals for Philosophy

JSTOR ebooks and journals King’s username and password for access off campus

Library Services gives you access to a wide range of journals to support your studies and research.

One of the best known collections of journal articles relevant to the Arts & Humanities is JSTOR, which focuses on older journal articles. There are many other collections which offer more recent articles of a similar academic standard.

You can use Library Search to access an extensive selection of ejournals and print journals. Titles include:

Mind
Philosophy Compass
The Philosophical Review
Philosophy.

Arts & Humanities print journals are held on the ground floor of the Maughan Library. These are reference only and cannot be taken out of the library.

Databases & Ebook Collections

19th Century British Pamphlets (JSTOR) This link opens in a new window King's username and password for access off campus
Throughout the 19th century, pamphlets were an important means of public debate, covering the key political, social, technological, and environmental issues of their day. 19th Century British Pamphlets, created by Research Libraries UK (RLUK), contains the most significant British pamphlets from the 19th century held in research libraries in the United Kingdom.

The digitization of more than 26,000 pamphlets from collections in seven universities in the UK spanning more than one million pages brings together a corpus of primary sources for the study of sociopolitical and economic factors impacting 19th-century Britain. The collection was created with funding from the JISC Digitisation Programme.

The nine collections of pamphlets are:

• Cowen Tracts (1603-1898)
• Earl Grey Pamphlets Collection (1800-1900)
• Foreign and Commonwealth Office Collection (1545-1900)
• Hume Tracts (1769-1890)
• Knowsley Pamphlet Collection (1792-1868)
• Selections – University of Manchester British Political Pamphlets Collection (1799-1900)
• Selections – London School of Economics and Political Science (1800-1899)
• Selections – University of Bristol (1800-1899)
• Wilson Anti-Slavery Collection (1761-1900)
Année philologique (Brepols) This link opens in a new window King’s username and password for access off campus
L’Année philologique, published by the Société Internationale de Bibliographie Classique, is a specialized bibliographic database of scholarly works relating to all aspects of ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. It contains over 810,000 records with citations to journal articles and books, as well as abstracts. Subjects include Greek and Latin literature, linguistics, history, art, archeology, papyrology, philosophy and religion, music, science and early Christian texts and patristics.
Past Masters: Philosophy & Religion collections This link opens in a new window King's username and password for access off campus.
Searchable scholarly, full-text editions in English and/or Latin, of the writings of philosophers and theologians from antiquity into the 20th century. Writers in these collections include: Aristotle, Austin, Locke, Hegel and Wittgenstein among others.
Patrologia Latina Database This link opens in a new window King's username and password for access off campus
An electronic version of the first edition of Jacques-Paul Migne's Patrologia Latina, published between 1844 and 1855, and the four volumes of indexes published between 1862 and 1865. The Patrologia Latina comprises the works of the Church Fathers from Tertullian in 200 AD to the death of Pope Innocent III in 1216. The Patrologia Latina Database contains the complete Patrologia Latina, including all prefatory material, original texts, critical apparatus and indexes. Migne's column numbers, essential references for scholars, are also included.
Philosopher's Index with full text This link opens in a new window Senate House Library membership required - click on more for full details
The Philosopher's Index Covers all major fields of philosophy such as aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic, metaphysics, etc., and philosophy of related interdisciplinary fields such as education, history, law and religion.

Pre-Register at Senate House Library then visit Senate House Library in person to complete your registration.
PhilPapers This link opens in a new window Senate House Library membership required - click on more for full details
PhilPapers is a comprehensive index and bibliography of philosophy maintained by the community of philosophers. We monitor all sources of research content in philosophy, including journals, books, open access archives, and personal pages maintained by academics. We also host the largest open access archive in philosophy.

Full access on site only at Senate House.

For access,Pre-Register at Senate House Library then visit Senate House Library in person to complete your registration.
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy This link opens in a new window Senate House Library membership required - click on more for full details
Features over 2000 original articles from over 1300 leading international experts across the discipline of philosophy. The articles cover a wide breadth of subject matter, including Anglo-American, ethical and political, cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, continental and contemporary philosophy. With a summary providing a rapid orientation at the beginning of every in-depth article, the Encyclopedia is specially designed to meet the needs of all levels of users.

Pre-Register at Senate House Library then visit Senate House Library in person to complete your registration.
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae This link opens in a new window King's username and password for access on and off campus. Registration required
Please note: TLG does not permit downloading, printing or making copies of TLG material.

The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) is a research center at the University of California, Irvine. Founded in 1972 the TLG has already collected and digitized most literary texts written in Greek from Homer to the fall of Byzantium in AD 1453. Its goal is to create a comprehensive digital library of Greek literature from antiquity to the present era. Information about the authors and works included in the TLG Library is stored in a database, known as the Canon of Greek Authors and Works.
See: TLG website | Canon of Greek Authors and Works

Note:
Campus Desktop users will not be able to download any of the extra Greek Fonts offered by this service.
For both on and off-campus access, please register for an account.
When accessing off-campus, a King's username and password are required before registering for an account with Thesaurus Linguae Graecae.

Library Services and the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies gratefully acknowledge the help of the King's Development Trust in the funding of this resource.
Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window Senate House Library membership required - click on more for full details
The Victorian Popular Culture portal is an essential resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This innovative portal is comprised of four separate sections, available to purchase individually and fully cross-searchable:
Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic;
Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks;
Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment;
Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema.

Pre-Register at Senate House Library then visit Senate House Library in person to complete your registration.

Archives and Special Collections

The Foyle Special Collections Library holds rare and historical material on Western philosophy.

Here is just one example of an item held in Special Collections on this subject:
John Locke. An essay concerning human understanding. London, 1715-16. Foyle Special Collections Library