university

Library

Jakobi 2, 3rd floor
51005, Tartu, Tartumaa, Estonia
Phone: 737 5413

Library: room 329
Thomas A. Sebeok Memorial Library: room 333

[email protected]

The library, located on the third floor of the Jakobi 2 building, brings together the collections of the Departments of Philosophy, Semiotics, and the Thomas A. Sebeok Memorial Library. It houses over 7,000 books, journals, and other materials.

In addition to the semiotics books, the collection primarily focuses on areas such as moral and political philosophy, applied ethics (including bioethics, medical ethics, environmental ethics, and public ethics), philosophy of law, and aesthetics. It also represents a wide range of philosophical disciplines, including the history of philosophy, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of science. While most of the materials are in English, the library also holds works in Estonian, German, and several other languages.

The books are listed in the ESTER electronic catalogue (common catalogue of the Estonian research libraries). Anyone with a University of Tartu Library card can loan books.

01. Encyclopaedias and manuals
02. Dictionaries
03. General works on philosophy, anthologies and text-books

03.01. Classical philosophy
03.02. Philosophy of the Middle Ages
03.03. Modern Philosophy

03.03.01. French and Netherlands (early modern)
03.03.02. British Modern Philosophy
03.03.03. Enlightenment Philosophy
03.03.04. German Philosophy

03.04. Contemporary philosophy

03.04.01. Continental Philosophy
03.04.02. Anglo-American (analytic) Philosophy

04. Philosophy of Science (general)

04.01. Philosophy and Methodology of the (Natural) Sciences
04.02. Philosophy and Methodology of the Social Sciences

05. Philosophy of Language
06. Philosophy of Mind
07. Metaphysics and Epistemology
08. Logics
09. Ethics. Text-books, introductions, general works, anthologies

09.01. Theoretical and Normative Ethics
09.99. Miscellaneous

10. Applied Ethics. General works, anthologies

10.01. Public Ethics
10.02. Bioethics and Medical Ethics

10.02.01. Medicine and Law
10.02.02. The Ethical Implications of Gene Technology

10.03. Environmental Ethics
10.04. Business Ethics
10.05. Ethics of Science
10.06. Media Ethics
10.99. Miscellaneous

11. Subjects related to Ethics

11.01. Anthropological, psychological and biological bases of morality
11.02. Free will
11.03. Theory of Action

11.03.01 Practical Reasoning

11.99. Miscellaneous

12. Political Philosophy (general works, anthologies, text-books)

12.01. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
12.02. State
12.03. International Relations and Politics
12.04. Democracy
12.05. Nationalism
12.06. Political Theories and Philosophy
12.07. Justice
12.08. Marxism and anarchism

13. Philosophy of Law
14. Socialia

14.01. Frankfurt school
14.02. Economic theory and politics
14.03. Feminism
14.04. Social Psychology
14.05. Cultural Studies

15. Philosophy of Religion
16. Aesthetics and literary theory, rhetoric
17. History and Philosophy of History
18. Philosophy of Education and Pedagogy
19. Journals

19.01. Akadeemia
19.02. Bioethics
19.03. Proceedings of Aristotelian Society [PAS]
19.04. Trames
19.05. Environmental Ethics (EE)
19.06. Niin et näin
19.07. The Hastings Centre Report (HCR)
19.08. Acta Philosophica Fennica (APF)
19.09. Journal of Mass Media Ethics (MME)
19.10. Jahrbuch für Wissenschaft und Ethik
19.11. European Review
19.99. Separates

20. Publications of the Department of Philosophy

20.01. Studia Philosophica
20.02. Collections and compilations
20.03. PhD theses

21. Series in Estonian

21.01. "Avatud Eesti Raamat"
21.02. "Eesti mõttelugu"
21.03. Estonian society and culture

22. Rara

The collection of nearly five thousand volumes on general and biosemiotics by the world‑renowned semiotician Thomas A. Sebeok, now held at the University of Tartu, further strengthens Tartu’s standing as one of the world’s key centres of semiotics.

Thomas A. Sebeok (1920–2001) was the leading figure in global semiotics for more than 30 years. He served as the editor‑in‑chief of the major semiotics journal Semiotica from its founding in 1969 until his death. He became one of the pioneers of zoosemiotics and later worked across many branches of semiotics, while also being an active editor. Among other things, he edited the book series Approaches to Semiotics (more than one hundred volumes).

The cataloguing of this collection is still in progress. In the ESTER catalogue, it can be found under location codes SEB and SEB2. The catalogued portion of the books can be borrowed for 24 hours.

Laura Lilles-Heinsar
Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics
Centre for Ethics
Personal Assistant, 0.8 p
+372 737 5413
Jakobi 2–329
Philosophy books
Eva Lepik
Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics
Department of Semiotics
Librarian, 0.75 p
+372 737 5413
Jakobi 2–333
Semiotics books
Kertu Rajando
MA (filosoofiaõpetaja)
Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics
Centre for Ethics
Project Manager, 0.6 p
Jakobi 2–329
Philosophy books