Philosophy

Policy Last Updated: December 1, 2018

Purpose

The Collection Development policy serves as a guide to shape relevant collections and to ensure consistency in collection development. Decisions to purchase library materials is primarily the responsibility of the Collections Librarian in consultation with faculty in the Department.

Focus

To support teaching, study and research up to the Master‟s level. Secondary critical studies will be selected in relation to specific research and teaching needs of the faculty in the department.

Scope

Language: the collection will contain all works of important philosophers, at least in English translation. Major philosophers will be represented in the best critical standard editions; and, in the case of non-English writers, in the language of origin, as well as in English translation. The exception to this guideline would be for languages not written in the Roman alphabet. Secondary critical studies will be preferably in English. Such non-English works, if unavailable in translation, will be collected in the language of origin, if their importance is commonly acknowledged (e.g., as indicated in book reviews,standard bibliographies, etc).
Chronological Period: all periods
Geographical Areas: all areas
Publishers: emphasis on academic publishers

Types, formats, and readership of material collected

Materials aimed at academic-level readership are selected
Web-based formats for reference sources, journals and indexing sources are preferred. Print and microform are considered for reasons of cost, availability,expected use or long-term access.
Single copies of books in print formats are generally selected. Web-based formats are selected on a title-by-title basis, especially if the title is of interest to users at multiple Laurier campuses. Duplication of print across Laurier campuses is generally avoided.
Excluded types generally include textbooks, abridgements, study aids, limited editions, works by vanity presses, juvenile literature, audio-visual materials,reprints and partial contents (e.g., single issues of journals, electronic versions of single chapters of books).

Subjects collected and collecting priorities

Collecting priorities are categorized into 3 levels:

A - highest emphasis

The collection includes major published materials required to support the core teaching and research at the highest degree level offered by the Department.

B - secondary emphasis

The collection includes a selection of materials to complement the discipline as a whole, although it may not be a primary focus for courses.

C - selective emphasis

Materials, including reference materials and basic journals and indexes are collected to introduce and define an area.

Subjects collected	Classification	Collecting priority
General Areas
Buddhist philosophy	B162	A
Ethics, theoretical and applied	BJ1-BJ1725	A
Existentialism	B819	A
Greek philosophy	B165 - B491.W6	A
Indian philosophy	B130 - B133	A
Language, philosophy of	B840; P101 - P120	A
Logic	BC1 - BC199	C
Medieval philosophy	B720-B785	B
Metaphysics and epistemology	BD95 - BD131; BD143 - BD237	A
Modern philosophy	B790 - B5802	A
Modern philosophy, Early (17th - 19th)	B790 - B5802	A
Science, philosophy of	Q174 - Q175.3	A
Social, political and legal philosophy	B63; B65; H61 - H61.15; HM479.2 - HM499; JM1 - JA84; JC11 -JC273; K230 - K264	A
Special Ares of Concentration
Action, philosophy of	BD450	A
Advaita vedanta	B132.V3	A
Autonomy	B808.67	A
Communities	B105.C46	B
Consciousness	B105.C477; B808.9	A
Critical race theory	KF4755	B
Critical theory	B809.2; B3183.5	B
Death	BD443.8 - BD445	A
Dialogue (language and logic)	BC57	A
Duty, obligation, responsibility	BJ1450 - BJ1458	A
Emotions	B105.E46	A
Epicureanism	B512	B
Freedom and determinism	BJ1461	A
Friendship	B105.F75; BJ1533.F8	A
Gender, feminist theory	HQ1190	A
Identity (Philosophical Concept)	BC199.I4; BD236	A
Informal logic	BC60 - BC78	A
Intercultural political philosophy	JA71; JA76	B
Literature, philosophy of	PN49	B
Love	BD436	A
Mind, philosophy of	BD418 - BD418.8	A
Mind-body problem	B105.M55; BD418.3; BF161	A
Modal Logic	BC199.M6	B
Multiculturalism	BD175.5.M84; HM1271	A
Personal / self / narrative / identity	BD331; BD438.5; BF697	A
Materialism / physicalism	B825	A
Phenomenology	B829.5	A
Pragmatism	B832	A
Pre-socratics (in particular, Democritus, Parmenides, Heraclitus)	B187.5 - B305	A
Pyrrhonism (see also skepticism)	B525	A
Qualia	BD418.3	A
Realism	B835	B
Relativism	BH301.R43	B
Self, philosophy of; self-knowledge	BD450	A
Sex, philosophy of; sexual ethics	BD436; HQ12	A
Skepticism	B1499.S4	A
Stoicism	B538	A
Truth	BH301.T77	A
The will	BF608 - BF635; BJ1460 - BJ1468	A
Philosophers	Note: Main call number is given, although it is recognised that individual works may be classified under specific subjects.
Aristotle	B400-B491	A
Berkeley, George	B1347-B1349	A
Carnap, Rudolph	B945.C16	B
Davidson, Donald	B945.D384	A
Descartes, Rene	B1830-B1848	A
Dewey, John	B945.D4	A
Epicurus	B570-B573; PA3970.E2	A
Foucault, Michel	B2430.F722	B
Frege, Gottlob	B3245.F2	A
Habermas, Jurgen	B3258.H32	A
Hegel, G.W.F	B2900 - B2949	A
Hobbes, Thomas	B1203 - B1248	A
Hume, David	B1450 - B1499.5	A
James, William	B945.J2	A
Kant, Immanuel	B2750-B2799	A
Leibniz, Gottfried	B2550-B2599	A
Locke, John	B1250-B1298	A
Nietzche, Friedrich	B3310 - B3318	A
Ockham, William of	B765.O3	B
Parfit, Derek	B1649.P37	A
Rawls, John	B945.R28	A
Russell, Bertrand	B1649.R9	B
Sartre, Jean Paul	B2430.S3	A
Schmitt, Carl	JC263.S34	A
Socrates / Plato	B310 - B318; B350 - B398	A
Spinoza, Baruch	B3950-B3999	A
Taylor, Charles	B995.T3	A
Wittgenstein, Ludwig	B3376.W56	A

Addendum

Faculty in the Department of Philosophy have indicated that the works of the following authors should also be acquired.

Alcoff, Linda Martin	Frankfurt, Harry	Nussbaum, Martha
Appiah, Anthony	Fraser, Nancy	Putnam, Hilary
Bordo, Susan	Friedman, Marilyn	Quine, W. V.
Beauvoir, Simone de	Goldie, Peter	Ramsay, Frank
Butler, Judith	Hempel, Carl	Rosenthal, David
Chalmers, David	Horgan Terence	Seager, William
Christman, John	Huxley, Thomas Henry	Searle, John
Churchland, Paul & Patricia	Irigaray, Luce	Shankara, Adi
Dennett, Daniel	Jackson, Frank	Shelby, Tommie
De Sousa, Philip	Kim, Jaegwon
Dretske, Fred	Levine, Joseph
Dworkin, Gerald	Melnyk, Andrew
Dworkin, Ronald	Meyers, Diana T.
Flanagan, Owen	Mills, Charles
Fodor, Jerry

Consortial purchases with the TriUniversity Group of Libraries (Guelph, Waterloo, Laurier university libraries), with the Ontario Council of University Libraries, and on a national level, are pursued.

Attachment(s)

Philosophy collection policy 2018 (pdf)

Page Owner: Joanne Oud

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Last Updated: Thursday, August 22, 2024 12:08 pm