Skip to Main Content

Philosophy: Home

For students and researchers studying philosophy at the University of Oxford

Purpose of this guide

This guide is intended for students and researchers studying philosophy at the University of Oxford, although students and researchers from any field may find it useful.

Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for philosophy, including ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases.

Finding books for philosophy

Oxford has a wide range of ebooks and printed books for philosophy, including the main reference collection in the Bodleian Library and lending collections at the Philosophy and Theology Faculties Library. For more detailed information about our book collections visit the books page of this guide.

Key journals

A lot of journals, as well as being available in print, are available online and can be searched via SOLO or eJournals A-Z. Below are a few of the top journals for philosophy. For more information about our journal collections, visit the journals page of this guide.

Key databases

Oxford subscribes to many bibliographic databases. They can be used to locate journal articles, conference proceedings, books, patents, images, data and more. You can find some of the key databases for philosophy below, but take a look at the databases page of this guide for more titles.

Online resources

There are many alternative sources of information online for the study of philosophy. These include magazines, pre-prints, open access repositories, websites and podcasts, among others. Take a look at the free online resources page of this guide for an overview.

Training

The Bodleian Libraries host free workshops and classes to help you effectively search for and access scholarly materials. More information is available on the training page of this guide.

Subject Specialist

Photo of Doctor Hilla Wait, subject specialist for philosophy

Dr Hilla Wait

Faculty of philosophy

Reading lists for philosophy

Key libraries

The Radcliffe Humanities Building viewed from Woodstock Road.


A number of other libraries may be relevant to your area of study. Visit the books page of this guide, or click the link below for a full list of Bodleian Libraries: