Citation and Documentation
Chicago Formats
Chicago A (notes-and-bibliography style)
- Frequently used in philosophy (if you are thinking of going on to further study or to a career in philosophy, history, classics, or political science, it would be a good idea to be familiar with this format)
- Presents bibliographic information in notes (footnotes or endnotes) and often also in a bibliography or Works Cited list
- Instead of in-text citation, Chicago A identifies sources of quotations and paraphrases by using footnotes or endnotes. For example:
1. Plato, Five Dialogues, trans. G.M.A. Grube (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co. Inc., 2002), 94. - Example of entry in Works Cited list:
Plato. Five Dialogues. Translated by G.M.A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co. Inc., 2002.
Further Examples of Chicago "Notes and Bibliography" style, also known as "Chicago A"
A. Quoting a source (excerpt from R. Cherubin, "Is There Paradox in the Fragments of Parmenides," paper presented at the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy conference, October 2007):
Are there paradoxes in the fragments of Parmenides? In Carl Kalwaitis' compact formulation, a paradox is a "sustained contradiction" in which "[t]hat which contradicts and that which is contradicted are equally convincing, and there are no readily available means of determining that one or the other is the case" (italics in original). There is in a paradox "a certain tension between an 'is' and an 'is not.'"1 On the surface there do appear to be contradictions in the fragments of Parmenides, contradictions both verbal (declarations that seem to contradict one another) and pragmatic (injunctions that seem to be violated). More than a tension between an 'is' and an 'is not,' there seem in Parmenides to be tensions between 'is' and 'is not' in general.
(Footnote or endnote): 1. Carl Kalwaitis, "The Origin of Paradox and its Relation to Philosophical Reflection," 362.
B. Summarizing, or otherwise referring to, information gathered from a source (from R. Cherubin, "Aletheia from Poetry into Philosophy: Homer to Parmenides," forthcoming in W. Wians, ed., Mythos and Logos, SUNY Press):
The problem is that dike seems to enforce accounts of what is that are incompatible with one another. Inquiry, especially if it is understood to be oriented toward aletheia, seems to require the same things. As Cole and Constantineau have argued, to give the aletheia concerning something is to say what is the case, as it is, without distortion, omission, or embellishment.2 To do this, one must present the thing in its proper context. At least in Parmenides' contemporaries Pindar and Bacchylides, that involves tracing it to its origins, showing how and why it is as it is.
(Footnote or endnote): 2. Thomas Cole, "Archaic Truth,"; Philippe Constantineau, "La Question de la vérité chez Parménide."
C. Bibliography (this would be on a separate page):
Cole, Thomas. "Archaic Truth." Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 42 (1983): 7-28.
Constantineau, Philippe. "La Question de la vérité chez Parménide." Phoenix 41 (1987): 217-240.
Kalwaitis, Carl. "The Origin of Paradox and its Relation to Philosophical Reflection." Philosophy Today 42 (1998): 361-374.
Chicago B (author-date style)
- More concise than Chicago A; used increasingly in philosophy
- Sources are briefly cited in the text, usually in parenthesis, by author's last name and date of publication
- Short citations are amplified in a list of references, where full bibliographic info is provided
- EXAMPLE OF IN-TEXT CITATION: (Plato 2002, 94)
- Then, in your WORKS CITED list, you would include: Plato. 2002. Five Dialogues. Trans. G.M.A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co. Inc.
Further Examples of Chicago "Author-Date" style, also known as Chicago B
A. Quoting a source (excerpt from R. Cherubin, "Is There Paradox in the Fragments of Parmenides," paper presented at the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy conference, October 2007):
Are there paradoxes in the fragments of Parmenides? In Carl Kalwaitis' compact formulation, a paradox is a "sustained contradiction" in which "[t]hat which contradicts and that which is contradicted are equally convincing, and there are no readily available means of determining that one or the other is the case" (italics in original). There is in a paradox "a certain tension between an 'is' and an 'is not'" (Kalwaitis 1998, 362). On the surface there do appear to be contradictions in the fragments of Parmenides, contradictions both verbal (declarations that seem to contradict one another) and pragmatic (injunctions that seem to be violated). More than a tension between an 'is' and an 'is not,' there seem in Parmenides to be tensions between 'is' and 'is not' in general.
B. Summarizing, or otherwise referring to, information gathered from a source (from R. Cherubin, "Aletheia from Poetry into Philosophy: Homer to Parmenides," forthcoming in W. Wians, ed., Mythos and Logos, SUNY Press):
The problem is that dike seems to enforce accounts of what is that are incompatible with one another. Inquiry, especially if it is understood to be oriented toward aletheia, seems to require the same things. As Cole (1983) and Constantineau (1987) have argued, to give the aletheia concerning something is to say what is the case, as it is, without distortion, omission, or embellishment. To do this, one must present the thing in its proper context. At least in Parmenides' contemporaries Pindar and Bacchylides, that involves tracing it to its origins, showing how and why it is as it is.
(Page numbers are not included because the paragraph is summarizing work from the whole of a short article. If you are referring to a specific section of a book or article, you need to indicate the pages involved.)
C. Works Cited (this would be on a separate page)
Cole, T. 1983. Archaic truth. Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 42: 7-28.
Constantineau, P. 1987. La question de la vérité chez Parménide. Phoenix 41: 217-240.
Kalwaitis, C. 1998. The origin of paradox and its relation to philosophical reflection. Philosophy Today 42: 361-374.