I used the SEP when reading about Epistemology, and I must say that it is both a comprehensive and comprehensible resource. Although it was (for me, at least) a bit dense at times, it was perhaps the best introduction to the subject that I found.<p>If anyone is interested in some philosophical concept, I would recommend starting here, and branching out to books and linked papers only after using the SEP.<p>And if anyone has any other good resources they would like to point me towards, I would greatly appreciate it.
Also:
<a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/" rel="nofollow">http://www.iep.utm.edu/</a><p>> The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) (ISSN 2161-0002) was founded in 1995 as a non-profit organization to provide open access to detailed, scholarly information on key topics and philosophers in all areas of philosophy. The Encyclopedia receives no funding, and operates through the volunteer work of the editors, authors, volunteers, and technical advisers. At present the IEP is visited over 950,000 times per month. The Encyclopedia is free of charge and available to all users of the Internet world-wide. The staff of 30 editors and approximately 300 authors hold doctorate degrees and are professors at colleges and universities around the world, most notably from English-speaking countries.<p>The SEP is unusually in-depth about certain subjects, though. (Right now, I have "Dutch book arguments" and "Dialetheism" open).
SEP is easily the best online resource for philosophy, especially in the analytic tradition. It can be a bit dense sometimes, but I've always used it as an introduction or overview of a philosophy text before diving in during college.
An interesting aspect of this project is how it's funded.<p>Per a presentation I saw a while back, when the site sees visits from Universities that have an associated degree-granting program, or visits from traditional related libraries, it nags the users that their institution should join (if it hasn't already). It's a bit like Shareware/Nagware/Guiltware, applied to a live service, and only targeted at specific related learning institutions with existing acquisition budgets.<p>Here's the schedule of suggested dues:<p><a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/support/SEPIA-dues-schedule.html" rel="nofollow">http://plato.stanford.edu/support/SEPIA-dues-schedule.html</a><p>..and benefits once joined...<p><a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/support/sepia.html" rel="nofollow">http://plato.stanford.edu/support/sepia.html</a>
SEP is one of the best sites on the net for learning philosophy. The biogrhphies of the personalities are comprehensive and I find the articles to provide nuance other resources sometimes lack. It is a great site for some casual reading on the subject.
This is cool! But there's a lot in there, so I don't even know where to start. Does anyone know of a good introduction to philosophy? My work is in the hard sciences, and I know next to nothing about philosophy, but am very interested in learning. Something that kind of gives an overview of the whole field I think would be best.
I'm subscribed to their RSS feed[1], which is a wonderful way to be regularly introduced to new interesting articles and subjects whenever one is updated. Alas, it results in a large backlog...<p>[1] <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/rss/sep.xml" rel="nofollow">http://plato.stanford.edu/rss/sep.xml</a>
It's possible to find a few weak articles on the SEP, but by and large the quality is very high even with lots and lots of topics. If you want to learn about an unfamiliar philosophical concept, briefly scan the Wikipedia page and then head to the SEP.
My philosophy of science teacher turned me onto this site last semester and it was really quite invaluable. The amount of thought and work that is put into each article is amazing, and it certainly helped me understand topics I would not have otherwise.
Thanks for bringing this back to the surface. I see that SEPs design has greatly improved since I last visited it. The new looks make for a much more pleasant reading experience, right on par with the excellent content.