Exotic Journeys: A Tourist's Guide to Philosophy
brought to you by Ron Yezzi
Emeritus Professor of Philosophy
Minnesota State University, Mankato
© Copyright 2015, 2020 by Ron Yezzi
In teaching the history of philosophy, I focused strongly on the writings of major philosophers themselves rather than on commentaries about their work. I tended to supply students with numerous study guides and outline-summaries of the writings--a technique I gratefully learned, as a graduate student at Southern Illinois University, from my main mentor, Professor George Kimball Plochmann. This focus, I think, adds more depth to the study of the philosophers, although it also can involve more selectivity and a lesser range.
My treatment of Ancient Western Philosophy on this website best fits the model I initially planned. But I've settled for something less in order to finally get more done for the website. So a lot of the material presented represents a cobbling together of lecture notes combined with various writings from my other works. I only taught Medieval Western Philosophy once and Twentieth Century Philosophy twice. So you should expect more limited coverage.--RY
Aside from the readings themselves, I usually had the following as general background:
William H. Harris and Judith S. Levey, eds., The New Columbia Encyclopedia (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975).
Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1954 - 1975) 11 vols.
Dagobert D. Runes, ed., Dictionary of Philosophy (Totowa: Littlefield, Adams & Co., 1962).
Paul Edwards, ed., The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1967), 8 vols.
Ted Honderich, ed., The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995),
Robert Audi, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999) 2d ed.
Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy (Garden City: Image Books, 1962 - 1967), 8 vols.
Now, of course, we have the internet available for background resources. The standout general source is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, with entries by outstanding scholars in their fields. It goes well beyond a tourist's guide. Also, check out the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Wikipedia entries generally provide good information about almost anything very quickly, although the anonymity of authorship and its editing methods are not going to meet scholarly standards. I find Wikipedia to be useful as a quick source of information where I am reasonably sure it will not be controversial.