The Problems of Philosophy as a Discipline in Bibliographic Classification: The Example BC1
Friday, March 16th, 2007
I haven’t really had time to write in a while, spending most of my time preparing to look for a a summer job as well as gearing up for the final push to the end of the year. However, I do get to post a bit of research.
If you remember from before I was discussing Philosophy as a discipline and its problems in classification theory. Here is the fruits of that discussion.
The paper in good even as an introduction to the theoretical foundations of Bliss’ classification, as well as a discussion of education warrant or consensus in general classification schemes.
Warning, this is long. Get the PDF to print if you wish.
Bibliographic Classification: The Example BC1
Abstract
The following paper examines the problems of Philosophy as a discipline in general bibliographic classifications based on educational consensus. Through an examination of the first edition of Bliss’ Bibliographic Classification (BC1) and its basis in a theory of a pedagogical order, the following problems are addressed: philosophy and its relation to other disciplines, the distinction between literature and science in philosophy, and the distinction between primary and secondary works in philosophy. Concludes that Bliss’ extensive use of alternative locations, particularly in the main class of Philosophy, represents Bliss’ inability to successfully deal with these issues.
