Why use these links? Because any idiot can create a web site, and millions of idiots already have. I have three sites myself. So going to Google or some other big search engine will give you a high percentage of baloney. Assignments based on baloney research get lousy grades. This page has links to sites set up by and/or for philosophers or other relevant specialists.

The links are divided into three categories:

Ordinary sites, which generally just have one sort of information, like a philosophical encyclopedia or dictionary, or an archive of texts on a relatively narrow topic. It includes resources for

Avoiding plagiarism
Searching the library
Online philosophy dictionaries and encyclopedias, and
Learning about law, as well as
Miscellaneous philosophical and related sites.

 
Supersites, which are massive archives or collections of links to other sites. Many of the supersites link to a lot of the same sites, and some of the links may no longer be maintained or even functional. But there are still many, many sources of information about philosophical topics that can easily be found by clicking your mouse.

Military Matters, which are sites large and small relevant to war and terrorism.

Avoiding Plagiarism. In writing for philosophy courses, you generally don't just dream up your papers out of your head. Even the greatest philosophers' writings react to, and build upon, others' work. So you are often expected to do research--that is, look carefully at what others have said on your topic--and present it as part of your papers or presentations. But it must be clear which parts of your paper are yours and which are taken from others. Presenting others' words or even just their ideas as if they were your own is plagiarism. Avoiding it in your work is extremely important. The minimum penalty is worse than turning in no work at all, and you can be flunked and even expelled for it.

It goes without saying that you should be familiar with Charles Lipson's book Doing Honest Work in College, which gives simple rules and provides brief guides to the major citation formats. (The simplest rules are these: (1) if you got it -- an idea, word(s), technique, etc. -- from someone else, cite it; (2) if you use another's words, put them in quotation marks and cite it; (3) when in doubt about whether to cite something, cite it.) But just in case, here are some sites that discuss what plagiarism is and how to avoid it:

DePauw's Academic Integrity Policy.

The policy states (among other things), "Students are responsible for knowing the academic integrity policy and may not use ignorance of the policy as an excuse for dishonesty." So you should read it carefully.

DePauw Writing Center.

The W-Center has a number of helpful pages including various handouts, including a plagiarism handout with examples.

DePauw Library's links to citation guides.

These will help you cite your sources in the correct format. I happen to like Turabian and Chicago (info at Purdue's OWL). Adapted by Ruth Szpunar. 

Brandeis University's Academic Honesty Page.

This includes links to discussions of what plagiarism is and gives helpful examples so you can learn what to avoid.

Purdue's OWL on Avoiding Plagiarism.

This has a nice discussion of what plagiarism is and suggestions for how to avoid it as you work. It's part of a larger tutorial on how to use your research.  

DePauw Library resources:

Philosophy Subject guide.

This page includes links to the main philosophy research databases (extremely useful!) and Bruce Sanders' A Guide to Philosophy Resources.

Library Home Page.

Many searches can be started here on the home page. The old school search page is still up if you prefer.

Online Databases:

Several of the databases you may access through the Library contain tons of high-quality philosophical content and leads to more content, including Academic Search Premier, JSTOR, Project Muse, and especially The Philosopher's Index. It may be very useful to check the online databases not only in Philosophy but also for Classical Studies, Conflict Studies, Newspapers, Political Science, Law, or Religious Studies, depending on your interests.
Alphabetical list of databases.

You can narrow the list by subject; click on "All Subjects" and either type in a subject or select from the menu that appears.

Philosophy databases.

Online philosophy dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Encyclopedias are a good place to start your research, but they had better not be where it ends. They may give you an overview of the topic(s) you are interested in plus leads to other helpful sources. But to write a really good paper or create a really good presentation you will need to rely on more and better sources such as books and peer-reviewed articles by relevant professionals. I won't stop you from using Wikipedia, but I can caution you that some of its articles are just abysmal and its overall quality is unreliable, no matter what they say.

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

I know of two very useful freely-available peer-reviewed philosophy encyclopedias in English on the internet: this one and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (just below). They each have their advantages and disadvantages. Both of them are incomplete because they depend on contributors to add and improve their entries, so maybe neither will have what you're looking for. But both are worth a look. Their articles are generally reasonably well-researched and written by competent people, and some are excellent. (NOTE that this does not mean that anything should be automatically taken as "true." In philosophy, you must exercise your judgment and take these sources with a grain of salt--though not with the whole shaker you need with Wikipedia!) In my opinion the IEP's disadvantage is that the bibliographies for its articles are often shorter, thereby giving you fewer leads to more information. The IEP's advantage is that its articles tend to be more accessible to beginners than those in the SEP, though you may still find them challenging.

Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (accessible via DePauw's subscription).
Oxford Companion to Philosophy (accessible via DePauw's subscription).
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (accessible via DePauw's subscription).

Terse and up to date. The REP is also available in print form in the reference section of Roy O. Another Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Paul Edwards in the 1960's, is also there; although it is older it is still a valuable resource.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

See above notes re the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Like the IEP, the SEP is incomplete, but it has a lot of entries and what's there tends to be very good. The SEP's articles are often more challenging to read than the IEP's, but their bibliographies tend to be longer, providing you with more leads for your research.

Directory of Online Philosophy Encyclopedias and Dictionaries.

From SWIF (Sito Web Italiano per Filosofia). Although it is based in Italy many of its resources are in English.

Law resources (see also Military matters):

Answers.com's Legal Reference.

Contains a law dictionary and encyclopedia, biographies of important people, legal documents, and cases.

The Avalon Project at Yale Law School.

This is a large collection of documents related to law, history, and diplomacy. Its Documents Collections section includes goodies like the Federalist Papers, documents related to the Nuremberg war crimes trials, the laws of war, and all sorts of historical documents related to the US Constitution.

The Constitution Society.

The site contains some rather partisan material, but also has an impressive collection of classic political, philosophical, and legal documents available in its Liberty Library.

Cornell University's Legal Information Institute.

This site provides access to many (though not all) decisions by the US Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal (Circuit Courts), state supreme courts, and others. One especially nice feature is its indexes of US Supreme Court decisions by topic, by party, and by author. It also has a free online legal dictionary and encyclopedia.

Famous Trials.

This site at the University of Missouri-Kansas City provides documentary materials related to famous trials from 399 BC (Socrates) through 2006 (Zacarias Moussaoui), and includes the sensational (e.g., Richard Hauptmann, Charles Manson, OJ Simpson) and trials of great historical and legal importance (e.g., the Amistad, Nuremburg).

Findlaw.com's Cases & Codes page.
Freedom of Speech in the United States.

This page at Boston College provides links to various resources specifically regarding free speech.

Law.com.

This commercial site caters to lawyers, offering legal news and a dictionary of legal terms.

Nolo's Encyclopedia of Everyday Law (accessible through DePauw's subscription).
Open Jurist.

"OpenJurist's mission is to provide access to published court opinions without charge. We currently have over 600,000 opinions from the United States Supreme Court and United States Courts of Appeals from the First, Second and Third edition of The Federal Reports."

The Supreme Court of the United States.
The White House.

News and information from the executive branch of government. Since President Obama took office, the old Bush Administration site has been moved here; its well-organized news archive has been moved here.

Miscellaneous philosophical and related sites:

 

Access to Insight: Readings in Theravada Buddhism.

Includes a glossary of Pali and Buddhist terms.

The Bentham Project.

University College, London, has a web site devoted to the life and works of the eccentric but important Utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham. (No, I'm not named after him.) It is interesting that UCL's discussion of Bentham's life and post-life mentions a number of the macabre stories told about him and his remains (such as those found here and here), describing some of the stories as "legends" but not specifically denying them. Hmmmmmm.

BSchool's Famous Philosophers.

My hat's off to a directory for business schools which has a page devoted to philosophers. The directory is not exhaustive by any means, but it does have info about a number of very influential philosophers and, by extension, to source material about their work. (Thanks to Ms. Clark's class at Monument Charter School.)

Classical Utilitarianism.
Frontline.

Frontline is a PBS documentary series with an accompanying web page containing lots of interesting material on a variety of topics. For example, The Execution has articles on the history of the death penalty and some excellent philosophical discussion of the subject. They have lots of documentaries regarding the War on Terror, War in Iraq, the NSA program that monitors all of your phone calls and e-mails, and related subjects, many of which may be viewed online.

Hinman's Ethics Updates.

"Ethics Updates is designed primarily to be used by ethics instructors and their students. It is intended to provide resources and updates on current literature, both popular and professional, that relates to ethics." This page is no longer maintained, but is available at the Internet Archive.

History of Economic Thought (McMaster University).

This archive focuses not just on economics but on thinkers relevant to economics, so it includes a good many philosophical writings.

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Online Library of Liberty.

The Liberty Fund has created an online archive of texts, many with philosophical interest--for example, the complete works of Plato and political and ethical works by Aristotle.

The Philosophers' Magazine.

In your copious free time, try one of their philosophical games.

Philosophy News Service.
Philosophy Now: a Magazine of Ideas.
Philosophy Talk.

This web page for a philosophy radio show has an archive of past programs you can listen to, which sometimes deal with timely issues like freedom of speech.

Pictures of some famous philosophers.
Snopes.com.

Long ago, David Hume pointed out how tempting it may be to believe in extraordinary happenings. Today, we are enticed to believe amazing, scary or gross stories that circulate by word of mouth, the internet, etc. Snopes is dedicated to investigating, and sometimes debunking, odd or sensational claims, such as the rumor that a tooth will dissolve overnight if left in Coca-Cola. Valuable for checking peculiar "facts."

The Stoic Place.
Web Page Evaluation Guide.

This page quickly lays out five important criteria for discerning whether the web pages you find might be useful. The criteria are not a sure-fire way to tell the good stuff from the sewage, but they're helpful. They're part of a larger set of articles on internet research which are linked from here at the American Library Association.

Academic Info's Philosophy Resources.

AI's site includes this page with general resources, a link to a Philosophy Digital Library, and a page devoted to Existentialism.

Stephen Darwall's Not-Yet-Cool Home Page.

Darwall's course pages contain lots of interesting resources.

Episteme links.

19,000+ links, plus t-shirts!

Erratic Impact's Philosophy Research Base.
Dr. Jan Garrett's Ethics Links.

Be sure to read Garrett's helpful note, "On Using the Material You Do Find."

Guide to Philosophy on the Internet.

This page (no longer maintained by its author) is enormous. Click here for a version of the same page that loads more quickly, but is harder to browse.

The Internet History Sourcebooks Project.

Paul Halsall at Fordham University is compiling a trove of historical information regarding, and texts from, various periods and places, such as the Internet Ancient History Sourcebook, the Internet Medieval Sourcebook, and the Internet Modern History Sourcebook, which include many important philosophical texts, plus lots of other Sourcebooks on women, Africa, Jews, GLBTs, etc.

The Marxists.org Internet Archive.

This archive includes lots of writings by people relevant to Marxism whether or not they were Marxists themselves, including the Jean-Paul Sartre Internet Archive.

New Advent

The links on the upper right of the home page will take you to large troves of information about Christianity from a Catholic perspective, including the Catholic Encyclopedia, an archive of works by Church Fathers, including Aquinas' monumental Summa Theologica, etc.

The Online Books Page.

Free online books on many subjects. Here's their list of Philosophy books.

Philosophy Around the Web.
Philosophy Pages by Garth Kemerling.
Voice of the Shuttle's Philosophy Page.
Wise Old Sayings' Philosophy Resource Guide.

This page has links to philosophy resources for beginners, online philosophy texts, various philosophy reference sources, and links related to philosophy for kids.