Here you'll find guides and encyclopedias on philosophy in Europe and North America from the 19th century to the present. The titles are arranged in rough chronological order.
NOTE: If you're interested in finding a guide or introduction to a particular person or subject, such as Peirce or logical empiricism, also look at Guides to Philosophies/Philosophers.
Blackwell guide to the modern philosophers. Ed. Steven M. Emmanuel. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.
SML (Philosophy Study Room), Divinity Library (Stack Reference), B791 B53X 2001
Offers in-depth essays on eighteen philosophers from the 17th to 19th centuries, including Rousseau, Kant, Bentham, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Mill, Marx, and Nietzsche. The book focuses on ideas and key arguments rather than on biography.
Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century thought. Ed. Gregory Claeys. New York: Routledge, 2005.
SML (Starr), CB415 .E53X 2005
The Cambridge history of philosophy, 1870-1945. Ed. Thomas Baldwin. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
LSF, B72 .C35X 2003
Biographical dictionary of twentieth-century philosophers. Ed. Stuart Brown et. al. London; New York: Routledge, 1996.
SML (Starr), B804 A1 B56 1996; Divinity Library (Trowbridge), B104 B56 1996
Columbia companion to twentieth-century philosophies. Ed. Constantin V. Boundas. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
SML (Philosophy Study Room), B804 .C558 2007.
Not just Western, but I'm including it because important areas of 20th and 21st century philosophy discusses, incorporates, or in other ways concerns itself with philosophy in diverse cultures and societies.
A companion to African-American philosophy. Ed.Tommy L. Lott and John P. Pittman. Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub., 2003.
Bass & SML (Philosophy Study Room), B944.A37 C66 2003
A companion to analytic philosophy. Ed. A.P. Martinich and David Sosa. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005.
Older edition: SML (Philosophy Study Room), B808.5 C555X 2001
A companion to pragmatism. John R. Shook. Malden, Mass.; Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 2006.
Dictionary of modern American philosophers. Ed. John R. Shook et. al. Bristol, England: Thoemmes, 2005.
SML (Starr), Divinity Library (Trowbridge), B935 .D53 2005
The dictionary of nineteenth-century British philosophers. Ed. W.J. Mander et al. Bristol: Thoemmes, 2002.
SML (Philosophy Study Room), B1561 .D53 2002
The dictionary of twentieth-century British philosophers. Ed. Stuart Brown et al. Bristol: Thoemmes Continuum, 2005.
SML (Starr), B104 .D538 2005
A History of Philosophy in America: 1720-2000. Bruce Kuklick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
LSF, B851 K85X 2001
The Oxford Handbook of American Philosophy. Ed. Cheryl Misak. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Bass (Stacks), B851 .O94X 2008
See also The Continuum encyclopedia of British philosophy (2006), which covers all periods: SML (Starr), Divinity Library (Trowbridge), B1111 C66 2006
Blackwell guide to continental philosophy. Ed. Robert C. Solomon et al. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003.
LSF, SML (Philosophy Study Room), Divinity Library (Stacks), B803 .B57X 2003
Fourteen essays from Hegel to French Feminism.
Companion to continental philosophy. Ed. Simon Critchley and William R. Schroeder. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1998.
SML (Philosophy Study Room), Divinity Library (Stacks), B803 C66 1998
58 short essays on well- and lesser-known contributors to Continental philosophy, beginning with Kant and the German idealists and ending with the poststructuralists. Each philosopher's ideas are placed in the context of predecessors, contemporaries, and successors. An excellent source of background for relatively minor figures; each entry features an extensive references section.
Continental philosophy: a contemporary introduction. Andrew Cutrofello. London; New York: Routledge, 2005.
Bass (Stacks), BD418.3 .H47X 2004
A thematic rather than historical introduction to issues of concern to today's continental philosophers.
Dictionary of continental philosophy. Ed. John Protevi. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
LSF & SML (Philosophy Study Room), B41 D46 2006
The Edinburgh encyclopedia of Continental philosophy. Ed. Simon Glendinning. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999.
SML (Starr) and Divinity Library (Trowbridge) Reference, B831.2 E59 1999
Oxford handbook of continental philosophy. Ed. Brian Leiter and Michael Rosen. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
SML (Stacks) & Divinity Library (Stacks), B803 O94X 2007.
Cambridge companion to critical theory. Ed. Fred Rush. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
SML (Stacks and Philosophy Study Room), B809.2 C34 2004
A dictionary of cultural and critical theory. Ed. Michael Payne et al. Oxford, UK; Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.
SML (Starr) and Divinity Library (Reference), HM101 D53 1996
Handbook of critical theory. Ed. David M. Rasmussen. Oxford, UK ; Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.
SML (Starr), Divinity Library (Stacks), B809.3 H36X 1996
The Penguin dictionary of critical theory. David Macey. London; New York: Penguin, 2000.
SML (Starr), B809.3 M325 2000
The Routledge companion to historical studies. Alun Munslow. 2nd ed. London; New York: Routledge, 2006.
SML (Starr), D13 M47X 2006
Older edition (2000) is available online
Roughly 100 concise entries providing a poststucturalist/critical theory perspective on topics in the philosophy of history, from the Enlightenment to the present.
Cambridge companion to postmodernism. Ed. Steven Connor. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
SML (Stacks), B831.2 .C36X 2004
Encyclopedia of postmodernism. Ed. Charles E. Winquist and Victor E. Taylor. London; New York: Routledge, 2001.
SML (Starr), B831.2 E63X 2001
Postmodernism: a very short introduction. Christopher Butler. Oxford; New York : Oxford University Press, 2002.
Bass (Stacks), NX456.5.P66 B88 2002
The Routledge companion to postmodernism. Ed. Stuart Sim. Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2011.
SML (Stacks), B831.2 .R6795X 2011
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