"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."

Aristotle

Ease and skill in using Philosopher's Index will come with practice, but here are three tips to accelerate this process.

1. Choosing a Search Field

Note that you can search by Author and Title - though remember these refer to the authors and titles of scholarship, not The Republic by Plato.
Also note that you can target a particular journal by entering a "Journal Name."

Most of the time you'll be searching for resources on a particular subject, and since the searchable text in this database is limited, your best option is "Anywhere," which includes the Title, Desciptor, and Abstract fields containing all the subject vocabulary.

2. Using Descriptors as Search Terms

Sometimes you may wish to take full advantage of the standardized Descriptors that Philosopher's Index assigns to each article. You can consult this vocabulary in advance by clicking on "Indexes" under "Search Tools" at the bottom of the search screen.
Note: Although a "Thesaurus" option is also listed, there is no thesaurus for this database.

From the "Indexes" select the "Descriptors Index" and check to see if the term or phrase you use for your topic matches the Descriptor that Philsospher's Index assigns. For example, you may wish to research what you call "physician assisted suicide."

This way you discover in advance that Philosopher's Index uses only the broader term "assisted suicide" as a Descriptor.

3. Using Truncation in Search Terms

Philosopher's Index uses an asterix -- * -- as its truncation symbol. Adding it to the end of a word retrieves all extensions. For example, if you search on existential* with an asterix at the end, you'll retrieve existential, existentially, and existentialism.

Philosopher's Index also uses a question mark -- ? -- to replace individual letters in words to allow for variant spellings. For example, the word "scepticism" is frequently spelled "skepticism" with a "k." Searching for "s?epticism" allows you to retrieve articles using either spelling.

Return to Search Guide home page.