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Philosophy: Books and e-books

Search, find and properly use credible information for philosophy papers and presentations

Why use books in your research?

open book iconWhy Use Books?

The Library owns many print books and has access to electronic books (e-books) on your topic. Books are good for providing more in-depth information or putting the issue in context but be sure to check how current the information is.

Research Tip With Books:

Don't read the ENTIRE book, just the chapters and pages that are relevant to your topic. Use the table of contents or the index at the back of the book to help you find relevant chapters or pages.


Image source: Books icons created by Freepik - Flaticon

Search for books and e-books in the TCC Library catalog (it's OK to copy this box and change examples/wording)

Once you've found general, background information on your topic, it's time to find more in-depth information. One way is to find books that you can check out at the TCC Library or e-books that you can read online.

 The TCC Library has many titles about philosophy. In the search box, as seen below, you can type in:

  • The names of individual philosophers
    • Confucius
    • Rene Descartes
    • Simone de Beauvoir, etc.
  • Key words describing philosophical concepts
    • free will
    • theory of mind
    • pragmatism, etc.
  • Philosophies/philosophers for specific groups:
    • African-American philosophy
    • Feminist philosophy
    • Educational philosophy, etc.

Click the link below to search for books in the library catalog:

Search tips:

  1. SEARCH BOX: Type in your keywords in the search box and click the "Search" button
  2. FORMAT FILTER: Take note of the format of the results. You can narrow down to print books or e-books by clicking one of the boxes.
  3. PUBLICATION DATE FILTER: Take note of the publication date range. You can narrow down results to a specific data range.
  4. TITLE: Click the title of the book for more detailed info
  5. FORMAT ICON: Take note of the format of the book. An e-book will have an "E" icon; a print book will have a book icon.
  6. E-BOOK LINK: If it's an e-book, then you can click the "Electronic access" link to read the book online.
  7. TEXT BOOK RECORDS: You can also text any book record to yourself.

sample search for Confucius books and ebooks in the library catalog

Sample book/e-book titles about philosophy

Here are a few examples to give you an idea of the wide variety of titles available online.  Click on the title link for access to the full text of the book.

CC BY SA license

Except where otherwise noted, the content in these guides by Tacoma Community College Library is licensed under CC BY SA 4.0.
This openly licensed content allows others to cite, share, or modify this content, with credit to TCC Library. When reusing or adapting this content, include this statement in the new document: This content was originally created by Tacoma Community College Library and shared with a CC BY SA 4.0 license.

Tacoma Community College Library - Building 7, 6501 South 19th Street, Tacoma, WA 98466 - P. 253.566.5087

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