[open-philosophy] Help needed finding electronic editions of public domain philosophy texts

Sat Feb 4 13:28:02 UTC 2012

Thanks for the suggestions Dave! Lots of good ideas. More detailed
replies inline below.

On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 4:48 PM, David Clark <david.dave.clark at gmail.com> wrote:
> Here are a few ideas. I've only ever read translations of the following.
> Since I can't read the original languages, I'm sure somebody else can better
> hunt down original language editions of these texts. (While I'm on the
> topic, I'd like to throw in a vote for including public domain translations
> when possible.) Most of these ideas are brushing the surface of significant
> traditions -- many more authors could be added to each of those (especially
> Christian and Chinese philosophy).

I think you're right that it would be good to include some
translations. Even where these are inaccurate, idiosyncratic and/or
outdated, these can often be valuable to understand the reception
history of a text in a given language.

> Diogenes Laertius' Lives of Philosophers

Added to the spreadsheet - including links to the original text on
Wikisource, a 1925 translation by Robert Drew Hicks, and a 1853
translation by Charles Duke Yonge.

> Some pre-Socratics: Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Heraclitus

Added names to spreadsheet.

I understand Diels and Kranz's Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (The
Fragments of the Presocratics) is still a useful edition of some of
the primary fragments. There are links to several digital copies of
this on this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Alexander_Diels

> Stoics: Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca

Added names to spreadsheet.

> Epicureans: Epicurus and Lucretius

Added names to spreadsheet.

> A few significant Christian philosophers: Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa,
> William of Ockham, Martin Luther

Added names to spreadsheet.

As an aside, I wonder if we should filter for 'philosophical' works or
not. My feeling is that we may want to include non-philosophical
sources from thinkers who have made an important contribution to
philosophy. For example, I'm immensely interested in getting
correspondence, drafts, unpublished works, and other written material
up for some thinkers. I'm doubtful whether we can make any hard and
fast rules, but we may wish to establish rough guidelines.

> Ancient Chinese philosophers: Confucius, Mencius, Mozi, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xun
> Zi
> Sigmund Freud

Added names to spreadsheet.

> David
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 8:29 AM, Sam Leon <sam.leon at okfn.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi David,
>>
>> If you have limited time and it would be easier to send me ideas, then do
>> that.
>>
>> If you've got time, then just add direct to the spreadsheet. Look forward
>> to seeing your preferred thinkers in there!
>>
>> S
>>
>> On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 10:32 PM, David Clark <david.dave.clark at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Would you like us to add directly to the Google Doc? Or to send ideas to
>>> you (or someone else), who will the add to the spreadsheet what you consider
>>> most appropriate to the project?
>>>
>>> David
>>>
>>> On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 12:08 AM, Sam Leon <sam.leon at okfn.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Dear all,
>>>>
>>>> I'm currently putting together a list of digital plain text editions of
>>>> well-know philosophical texts that will be the initial material to be
>>>> featured on Open Philosophy [1], the first instance of TEXTUS [2] a platform
>>>> that will enable users to work with, share and collaboratively annotate
>>>> collections of public domain texts.
>>>>
>>>> It would be a great help if I could have other people's input on this.
>>>> Currently we're working on a Google spreadsheet that can be found here [3].
>>>>
>>>> If you have a moment and you're interested in helping, we need people
>>>> to:
>>>>
>>>> (a) Add new (public domain) philosophy texts they think should be
>>>> featured there with links to digital editions (eg from Wikisource or Project
>>>> Gutenberg);
>>>> (b) Unpack the URLs for the Wikisource entries for the authors into the
>>>> texts themselves.
>>>>
>>>> At the moment, we're focussing on texts in their original language and
>>>> trying to get plain text versions from Project Gutenberg or Wikisource
>>>> rather than page scans found on the Internet Archive.
>>>>
>>>> If any of this is unclear to anyone who wants to get involved just give
>>>> me a shout and we can chat on Skype or clarify things via email.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> Sam
>>>>
>>>> [1] http://jonathangray.org/2011/11/04/ideas-for-openphilosophy-org/
>>>> [2] TEXTUS project webpage: http://textusproject.org TEXTUS project
>>>> Wiki: http://wiki.okfn.org/Projects/Textus
>>>>
>>>> [3] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ams8fpz2_77XdHNMeVB4SGsxMi1nQUFneHFKX2l4T2c&pli=1#gid=0
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Sam Leon
>>>> Community Coordinator
>>>> Open Knowledge Foundation
>>>> http://okfn.org/
>>>> Skype: samedleon
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> open-humanities mailing list
>>>> open-humanities at lists.okfn.org
>>>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-humanities
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> open-humanities mailing list
>>> open-humanities at lists.okfn.org
>>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-humanities
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Sam Leon
>> Community Coordinator
>> Open Knowledge Foundation
>> http://okfn.org/
>> Skype: samedleon
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> open-humanities mailing list
>> open-humanities at lists.okfn.org
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-humanities
>>
>
>
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-- 
Jonathan Gray
http://jonathangray.org