Yale University Library

Past Masters on CD-ROM

Past Masters contains a large database of classic texts in philosophy, literature and the sciences. Its search engine allows the user to search a large body of text for specific terms or people of interest, making this CD-ROM a valuable tool for anyone doing research in philosophy.

The Collected Dialogues of Plato
The Complete Works of Aristotle
The Collected Works of Thomas Aquinas
The Continental Rationalists
British Philosophy: 1600-1900
Political Philosophy: Machiavelli to Mill
Kierkegaard: Samlede Vårker
The Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce
The Published Works of Ludwig Wittgenstein

Using the Database

Navigation
Start the program -- the opening screen will appear. This is a table of contents which contains links (triangles pointing downward v.) Every folio (paragraph) will also contain one folio marker (a triangle pointing rightward >.) This folio marker marks the beginning of a folio.

Using your arrow keys, place the cursor on top of any link. Press ENTER. A new window will open containing information associated with a link. You may use the arrow keys or PgUp and PgDn keys to move within a window. If you want to switch between the windows press the + key. Press ESC to close the current window.

Search
Press Spacebar to begin a search. Three windows open:

Words window display all words which appear in all texts of the database.
Results window display the results of your search
Query window into which you type your search request

Type your search word into a query window and press Enter. Note: If youíre within a particular text the code appears in the query window, do not delete it and start typing the search word right after the code.

Retrieve your hits
After you press Enter a new window will open containing all paragraphs in the database which contain the searched word. The number on the top right should read 1/x where x=the number of folios containing the searched word. Again, you can move about in this window using the arrow keys or PgDn and PgUp.

Concordance
Press Ctrl-F, the focus or concordance key. Now only a few words of context appear surrounding the searched word. Open the Options menu by pressing Alt-O, high-light References, then press Enter. The references lines are inserted directly into the text. If you press Ctrl-F again the display will return to normal.

Printing
Select Print from the File Menu or press (Ctrl + Print Scrn). Select the scope that matches the information you need. Select all other options desired. Make sure that the path ìsave settings toî defaults to C:\. Press <Enter> to print the information specified.

Saving
Select Save Asîfrom the File menu or press (Ctrl + S). Type a filename and indicate the scope that matches your selection. Select all other options desired. Press <Enter> to save the information specified.

For More Information:
Consult the user manual. There is also online help available in the web version.