Primary Source Archives
Gale Primary Sources contains full-text philosophy primary sources that provide researchers with primary source content, including historical documents, printed works, and news articles.
Philosophy
Study the depths of the discipline of philosophy, which is the critical, normally systematic study of an unlimited range of ideas and issues using rational arguments. Philosophy tackles weighty issues such as the nature of existence, knowledge, language, mind, reason, and values. Philosophy is traditionally broken down into five categories: epistemology, ethics, logic, metaphysics, and the history of philosophy.
Epistemology concerns the nature and scope of knowledge and justification.
Ethics is the philosophical study of morality, particularly conceived as a set of standards of right and wrong conduct.
Logic focuses on providing sound methods for distinguishing valid from invalid arguments. Logic helps us to assess how well our premises support our conclusions, to discover assumptions we didn’t know we were making, to formulate the minimum claims we must establish if we are to prove our point, and to avoid adopting positions for which we lack supporting reasons.
Metaphysics seeks basic criteria for determining what sorts of things are real. Central to metaphysics is ontology, a branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being. Metaphysics traditionally also includes cosmology, which is concerned with the nature of the universe, tackling such issues as whether the universe is infinite and the nature of time.
The history of philosophy examines the major philosophers, including their influence on each other, and major periods in the development of philosophy. The history of philosophy in a single nation (e.g., American philosophy), major movements within a nation (e.g., German idealism), and international movements with a substantial history (e.g., existentialism, logical positivism, phenomenology) are also included in this branch.
