Philosophy & Religion Research Guide

Pre-research is the process of exploring and learning about your topic before diving into in-depth research or searching databases. It involves getting background information, understanding the basics, and refining your topic or research question. This step is essential for any research project—whether for a Philosophy or Ethics course or any other subject—because it lays the foundation for effective, focused research.

Why is Pre-Research Useful?

• Builds Background Knowledge: Pre-research helps you understand the key facts, context, and main issues related to your topic, answering basic questions like who, what, when, and where.
• Refines Your Topic: By learning more, you can narrow or adjust your topic, making it more manageable and relevant to your assignment.
  • For example,
    • Philosophy is a broad discipline investigating fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, reality, and values. For your research, you might choose to focus on the nature of consciousness, the possibility of free will, or the justification of knowledge in epistemology.
    • Ethics explores questions about what is right and wrong, just and unjust, and the reasons behind moral judgments. You could narrow your topic to the ethics of artificial intelligence, environmental responsibility, or contemporary debates in applied ethics, such as medical decision-making and bioethics.
    • Feminist philosophy critically examines traditional philosophical concepts from perspectives centered on gender, equality, and social justice. You might start by exploring the historical development of feminist thought, and then refine your focus to topics like intersectionality, critiques of traditional approaches to ethics, or the philosophy of care and feminist epistemology.
• Saves Time: Early exploration ensures your topic is viable and enough sources are available, helping you avoid last-minute changes.
• Guides Your Research: Pre-research helps you develop a focused research question, which is crucial for finding relevant sources later.

How to Do Pre-Research: 

• Choose a Topic: Start with a general area of interest.
• Check for Sources: Ensure that enough academic sources are available on your topic.
• Gather Background Information: To learn the basics, use encyclopedias, Wikipedia (for an overview, not as a final source), or introductory books and articles.
• Ask Questions: What are the main issues? Who are the key people or groups? What events or debates are important?
• Refine Your Focus: Narrow your topic and create a research question based on what you learn. 

Online reference books (eBooks) are helpful for finding background information because they contain a lot of information about your topic all in one place. eBooks can be found in our library databases and are available at any time without a library card. Here are just a few of our eBook databases to get you started.

For more eBooks, please visit our A to Z Databases and sort the database Types by eBooks.