| name | philosophy-research |
| description | Search philosophy literature across SEP, IEP, PhilPapers, Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, CORE, arXiv, and NDPR. Supports paper discovery, citation traversal, content enrichment, and recommendations. Verifies citations via CrossRef. |
| allowed-tools | Bash, Read, Write, Grep, WebFetch |
Philosophy Research Skill
Search and retrieve academic philosophy literature using structured APIs instead of WebSearch.
When to Use This Skill
Use this skill when:
- Searching for philosophy papers, articles, or concepts
- Accessing SEP (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) content
- Finding citations and references for papers
- Verifying that a paper exists with correct metadata
- Building bibliographies for literature reviews
Search Workflow
Phase 1: SEP & IEP (Most Authoritative)
$PYTHON scripts/search_sep.py "free will"
$PYTHON scripts/fetch_sep.py freewill --sections "preamble,1,2,bibliography"
$PYTHON scripts/fetch_sep.py freewill --bibliography-only
$PYTHON scripts/search_iep.py "free will"
$PYTHON scripts/fetch_iep.py freewill --sections "1,2,3,bibliography"
$PYTHON scripts/fetch_iep.py freewill --bibliography-only
Parse the bibliographies for foundational works, then search for those papers.
Phase 2: PhilPapers
$PYTHON scripts/search_philpapers.py "epistemic injustice"
$PYTHON scripts/search_philpapers.py "virtue epistemology" --recent
Phase 3: Extended Academic Search
$PYTHON scripts/s2_search.py "moral responsibility" --field Philosophy --year 2015-2025
$PYTHON scripts/search_openalex.py "consciousness" --year 2020-2024 --min-citations 10
$PYTHON scripts/search_core.py "epistemic injustice" --year 2020-2024
$PYTHON scripts/search_core.py --doi "10.1111/nous.12191"
$PYTHON scripts/search_core.py --title "Freedom of the Will" --author "Frankfurt"
$PYTHON scripts/search_arxiv.py "AI alignment ethics" --category cs.AI --recent
Note: CORE API is rate-limited to 5 requests per 10 seconds (free tier, no API key required).
Phase 4: Citation Traversal
$PYTHON scripts/s2_citations.py PAPER_ID --both --influential-only
$PYTHON scripts/s2_recommend.py --positive "PAPER_ID1,PAPER_ID2"
Phase 5: Batch Details
$PYTHON scripts/s2_batch.py --ids "PAPER_ID1,PAPER_ID2,DOI:10.xxx/yyy"
Phase 6: Content Enrichment
Enrich entries that lack abstracts. Two sub-steps:
6a. Abstract Resolution — Resolve abstracts from academic APIs (S2 → OpenAlex → CORE fallback):
$PYTHON scripts/get_abstract.py --doi "10.1111/nous.12191"
$PYTHON scripts/get_abstract.py --title "Freedom of the Will" --author "Frankfurt" --year 1971
$PYTHON scripts/get_abstract.py --s2-id "abc123def"
For batch processing, use enrich_bibliography.py (in literature-review scripts):
$PYTHON .claude/skills/literature-review/scripts/enrich_bibliography.py input.bib
6b. NDPR Enrichment — For @book entries that still lack an abstract after step 6a and have High or Medium importance (as noted in the keywords field), use NDPR (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews) to extract opening summary paragraphs from book reviews:
$PYTHON scripts/search_ndpr.py "book title or author"
$PYTHON scripts/fetch_ndpr.py REVIEW_URL
NDPR extracts are tagged with abstract_source = {ndpr} in BibTeX entries. Note: NDPR content is primarily descriptive of the book's arguments but may include reviewer evaluation.
The batch enrich_bibliography.py script handles both 6a and 6b automatically.
Phase 7: Encyclopedia Context Extraction (Optional)
For important papers, extract how they're discussed in authoritative philosophy encyclopedias:
$PYTHON scripts/get_sep_context.py freewill --author "Frankfurt" --year 1971
$PYTHON scripts/get_sep_context.py freewill --author "Fischer" --year 1998 --coauthor "Ravizza"
$PYTHON scripts/get_iep_context.py freewill --author "Frankfurt" --year 1971
Phase 8: Verification
$PYTHON scripts/verify_paper.py --title "The Title" --author "Smith" --year 2020
$PYTHON scripts/verify_paper.py --doi "10.1093/mind/fzv123"
SEP Content Access
Use fetch_sep.py instead of WebFetch for SEP articles.
fetch_sep.py provides structured extraction:
- Preamble (abstract/introduction)
- Individual sections by number
- Bibliography with parsed author/year/title
- Author and publication dates
$PYTHON scripts/fetch_sep.py compatibilism --sections "preamble,1,2"
$PYTHON scripts/fetch_sep.py freewill --bibliography-only
IEP Content Access
Use fetch_iep.py for Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy articles.
fetch_iep.py provides structured extraction similar to SEP:
- Preamble, individual sections, bibliography, author information
$PYTHON scripts/fetch_iep.py compatibilism --sections "1,2,3"
$PYTHON scripts/fetch_iep.py freewill --bibliography-only
Note: IEP has different coverage than SEP. Use both for comprehensive encyclopedia coverage.
Available Scripts
| Script | Purpose | Key Options |
|---|
s2_search.py | Paper discovery | --bulk, --year, --field, --min-citations |
s2_citations.py | Citation traversal | --references, --citations, --influential-only |
s2_batch.py | Batch paper details | --ids, --file |
s2_recommend.py | Find similar papers | --positive, --negative, --for-paper |
search_openalex.py | Broad academic search | --year, --doi, --id, --cites, --oa-only |
search_arxiv.py | arXiv preprints | --category, --author, --recent, --id |
search_sep.py | SEP discovery | --limit, --all-pages |
fetch_sep.py | SEP content extraction | --sections, --bibliography-only, --related-only |
search_iep.py | IEP discovery | --limit, --all-pages |
fetch_iep.py | IEP content extraction | --sections, --bibliography-only |
search_philpapers.py | PhilPapers search | --limit, --recent |
verify_paper.py | DOI verification | --title, --author, --year, --doi |
search_core.py | CORE API (431M papers) | --doi, --title, --author, --year |
get_abstract.py | Multi-source abstract resolution | --doi, --s2-id, --title, --author |
get_sep_context.py | SEP citation context extraction | --author, --year, --coauthor |
get_iep_context.py | IEP citation context extraction | --author, --year, --coauthor |
search_ndpr.py | NDPR book review discovery | --limit |
fetch_ndpr.py | NDPR content extraction | --sections |
check_setup.py | Environment check | (no options) |
Output Format
All scripts output JSON with consistent structure:
{
"status": "success|partial|error",
"source": "script_name",
"query": "search query",
"results": [...],
"count": 5,
"errors": []
}
Exit codes: 0=success, 1=not found, 2=config error, 3=API error
WebFetch Usage
Use WebFetch only when scripts don't provide the needed content:
- PhilPapers entry pages for additional metadata
- Publisher pages for paper details not in S2
- DOI resolution verification (
https://doi.org/{doi})
Do NOT use WebFetch for:
- SEP articles: use
fetch_sep.py (structured output)
- Paper abstracts: use
s2_search.py or s2_batch.py
Verification Requirements
- Never fabricate citations - only include papers found via scripts
- Verify DOIs via
verify_paper.py when S2 lacks DOI
- Omit DOI field if verification fails (never invent DOIs)
- Report gaps if expected papers are not found
Environment
Required environment variables (set in .env at the project root — takes priority over shell environment):
BRAVE_API_KEY
CROSSREF_MAILTO
S2_API_KEY
OPENALEX_EMAIL
Check setup with:
$PYTHON scripts/check_setup.py