Subject Guides: Philosophy: Primary Sources

What are Primary Sources?

In Philosophy, primary sources can include:

Philosophical texts, treatises, meditations
Personal narratives, diaries, memoirs, correspondence, letters
Speeches

Find Primary Sources in the Library Catalogue

Search in the Library Catalogue and enter the philosopher you want to read as an author, or the work you want to read as a title.

Examples:

Author: Beauvoir, Simone de
Title: Diary of a Philosophy Student

For prolific philosophers, try using an Advanced Search to specify both title and author.

Author: Plato Title: Republic
Author: Confucius Title: Analects

If you are looking for works in translation, limit by language, eg:

Author: Aristotle Language: English
Author: Spinoza, Benedictus de
Language: English

If you are looking for a short treatise by a specific philosopher, look for the collected works of that philosopher, eg:

Author: Wittgenstein Title: Works
- using the title word "Works" will give you English translations

Search the Library to find Primary Sources

Search the Library to find books and ebooks by your Philosopher.
⇒ Use limits to narrow down by language, author, format, etc. Examples:

Republic
- Location: Rutherford; UAlberta Internet
- Language: Ancient Greek
A search for Simone de Beauvoir will find items by and about her. Limit by Author to focus on works by her.
If you're looking for a short treatise by a specific philosopher, search for the collected works of that philosopher. Limit to "Catalog only", eg:
Author: Wittgenstein Title: Works (using the title word "Works" helps to focus on English translations, if that is what you need)
- If you're looking for English translations, you can limit by language, eg:
Author: Wittgenstein Title: Works Language: English

Find Primary Sources in Selected Digital Collections

Intelex Past Masters This link opens in a new window
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- Primary Sources by language, including English Translations
Includes published and unpublished works, articles and essays, and correspondence ranging from ancient Greece to the late 19th century.

Project Gutenberg
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- Search by title or author. Also, try the Philosophy Bookshelf
European Cultural Heritage Online (ECHO)
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Search for a specific philosopher or work or go to Source Texts on Philosophy
History of Women Philosophers
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Classical Texts

Loeb Classical Library This link opens in a new window Online version of Greek and Latin texts from the LOEB Classical Library.
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Aristoteles Latinus This link opens in a new window
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Complete corpus of medieval translations of Aristotle
Library of Latin Texts Series A This link opens in a new window
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Provides Latin texts from Antiquity to the twentieth century.
Library of Latin Texts Series B This link opens in a new window
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Provides Latin texts taken directly from existing editions.
Library of Latin Texts Cross Database Searchtool This link opens in a new window
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Provides simultaneous searching of three databases: Library of Latin Texts Series A & B and Aristoteles Latinus Database.

Diotima: Materials for the Study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World
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Internet Classics Archive
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(MIT): English translations of Classical works.
Papyri Info The Papyrological Navigator (PN) supports searching, browsing, and aggregation of ancient papyrological documents and related materials; the Papyrological Editor (PE) enables multi-author, version controlled, peer reviewed scholarly curation of papyrological texts, translations, commentary, scholarly metadata, institutional catalog records, bibliography, and images.
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Perseus Digital Library (Tufts University)
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Greek and Roman Materials collection includes primary sources and commentary for the study of ancient Greece and Rome. Includes some English translations.
- The Perseus Catalogue

Medieval and Renaissance

Aristoteles Latinus This link opens in a new window This database includes the complete corpus of medieval translations of the works of Aristotle. The Latin versions of these texts constituted the main tools for the study of science and philosophy in the Middle Ages. This database provides the various forms in which Aristotle?s texts came to be read in the West. They were considered to be the canonized littera to which all the commentaries on Aristotle?s works referred.
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Bibliothèque virtuelle des manuscrits médiévaux (BVMM) This site allows you to view the reproduction of a wide selection of manuscripts from the Middle Ages to the early Renaissance, preserved in heritage collections scattered throughout the French territory, except those of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Catalogue of Digitized Medieval Manuscripts (UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies)
Corups Thomisticum The Corpus Thomisticum project aims to provide scholars with a set of instruments of research on Thomas Aquinas, freely available via Internet. It has five parts: A full edition of the complete works of St. Thomas according, where possible, to the best critical texts. A bibliography covering all the studies on Aquinas and his doctrine, from the 13th century through our days. An index of the main tools of Thomistic research, and the edition of the most important among them. A database management system, implemented to search, compare, and sort words, phrases, quotations, similitudes, correlations, and statistical information. A digital edition of the main manuscripts of Aquinas' works. We choose Latin as the main language of the Corpus Thomisticum, for every student of Thomas can read his original texts, which are in Latin indeed. Corpus Thomisticum aims to be a common project: every help is appretiated. We welcome the submission or correction of bibliographical references, of improved editions of texts, and of research tools, classic or modern: bonum enim est diffusivum sui. © 2013 Fundación Tomás de Aquino
Digital Vatican Library The digitization project at the Vatican Library aims to digitize the Library's entire collection of manuscripts (80,000 codices), mostly from the Middle Age and Humanistic periods.

Digitale Bibliothek deutscher Klassiker im WWW This link opens in a new window Authoritative editions of over thirty authors, including early German texts such as Lancelot and Ginover and Wolfram von Eschenbach, editions of important authors such as Herder, Kleist, and Büchner, and the works of philosophers such as Kant, Schleiermacher, and Fichte.
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Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window Also known as: |EEBO| Contains both plain text and digital facsimile page images of titles ranging from the first book published in English to the works of Shakespeare. Materials cover research interests in English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, theology, music, fine arts, education, mathematics, and science.
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Library of Latin Texts Cross Database Searchtool This link opens in a new window Provides simultaneous searching of three databases: Library of Latin Texts Series A & B and Aristoteles Latinus Database.
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Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at Penn Libraries
- Includes 195 texts of Indic Philosophy.

Patrologia Latina This link opens in a new window
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Contains 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.

"Some questions are more important than answers." - Nancy Willard. Sculpture by Jean-Michel Folon Photo credit: Bellucci

Philosophy Librarian

Lucinda Johnston

Email Me

Contact:
lucinda.johnston@ualberta.ca

Archival Collections

Archives of Scientific Philosophy (U Pittsburgh)

American Philosophical Society Archives

Vlastos Archive: Philosophical Inquiry, 40 (2016), 113-125
- UT Austen finding aid

17th-19th Centuries

Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window Also known as: | Gale 18th Century Collections Online| Eighteenth Century Collections Online allows searching and display of the digital images of books, pamphlets, and broadsides published during the 18th Century.
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Electronic Enlightenment This link opens in a new window Electronic Enlightenment offers access to the web of correspondence between the greatest thinkers and writers of the 18th century and their families and friends, bankers and booksellers, patrons and publishers.
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Library of Latin Texts Cross Database Searchtool This link opens in a new window Provides simultaneous searching of three databases: Library of Latin Texts Series A & B and Aristoteles Latinus Database.
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Digitale Bibliothek deutscher Klassiker im WWW This link opens in a new window Authoritative editions of over thirty authors, including early German texts such as Lancelot and Ginover and Wolfram von Eschenbach, editions of important authors such as Herder, Kleist, and Büchner, and the works of philosophers such as Kant, Schleiermacher, and Fichte.
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European Cultural Heritage Online (ECHO) Collection of Historical Sources on Philosophy
Project Vox (Duke)
- Women Philosophers of the Early Modern Era
Women Intellectuals of 18th Century Germany While much of German intellectual life in the 18th century was driven by the university (and the men who held academic positions there), women contributed in a number of crucial ways to the contemporary intellectual culture. While some exercised an indirect influence through the organization of the popular literary salons, a number were able to establish themselves as important scholars, translators, and popularizers, some through drawing on their connections to prominent male relations, and still others actively sought to break down the barriers facing women in academia. Though they are largely excluded from the Enlightenment canon, and suffer from a lack of attention even in comparison with their French and British counterparts (with few of their works translated into English), the works catalogued in this database are certainly deserving of wider philosophical consideration, as indeed the history of 18th century Germany thought cannot be told without acknowledging the key roles that these women played.

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