Template:Dewey decimal system: Difference between revisions
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The [[Dewey decimal system]] divides the universe, known and unknown<ref>[[001.9]], as any fule kno.</ref> into a subdivisions of 1,000. In its way, it offers infinite particularity, but only by subdivision of ten major categories: General reference, Philosophy, Religion, Social Sciences, Language, Natural Science, Applied Science, Arts & Recreation, Literature and History. | The [[Dewey decimal system]] divides the universe, known and unknown<ref>[[001.9]], [[as any fule kno]].</ref> into a subdivisions of 1,000. In its way, it offers infinite particularity, but only by subdivision of ten major categories: General reference, Philosophy, Religion, Social Sciences, Language, Natural Science, Applied Science, Arts & Recreation, Literature and History. | ||
As with all [[Taxonomy|taxonomies]], these major categories carve nature in an idiosyncratic way — not to get all post-structuralist on you, but a way that is inevitably rooted in the western intellectual tradition in which Dewey, universities and their libraries operate. They produce arbitrary ''dis''-juxtapositions: Why is Logic (part of {{tag|Philosophy}}) nowhere near Mathematics (a part of Natural Science) or even Language? And so on. But we have to physically arrange our libraries ''somehow'', and that forced an intellectual commitment to ''some'' kind of order. | As with all [[Taxonomy|taxonomies]], these major categories carve nature in an idiosyncratic way — not to get all post-structuralist on you, but a way that is inevitably rooted in the western intellectual tradition in which Dewey, universities and their libraries operate. They produce arbitrary ''dis''-juxtapositions: Why is Logic (part of {{tag|Philosophy}}) nowhere near Mathematics (a part of Natural Science) or even Language? And so on. But we have to physically arrange our libraries ''somehow'', and that forced an intellectual commitment to ''some'' kind of order. | ||
Revision as of 16:10, 17 June 2020
The Dewey decimal system divides the universe, known and unknown[1] into a subdivisions of 1,000. In its way, it offers infinite particularity, but only by subdivision of ten major categories: General reference, Philosophy, Religion, Social Sciences, Language, Natural Science, Applied Science, Arts & Recreation, Literature and History.
As with all taxonomies, these major categories carve nature in an idiosyncratic way — not to get all post-structuralist on you, but a way that is inevitably rooted in the western intellectual tradition in which Dewey, universities and their libraries operate. They produce arbitrary dis-juxtapositions: Why is Logic (part of Philosophy) nowhere near Mathematics (a part of Natural Science) or even Language? And so on. But we have to physically arrange our libraries somehow, and that forced an intellectual commitment to some kind of order.
This has a consequent effect on how one thinks about the world: if you want to find the book you're looking for, you must accept the prevailing taxonomy (what good is using another taxonomy, however suitable, if it means never being able to find the book you are after?)
But we are in the information age now. Since the need for physical book storage has changed — we can now enforce a Cartesian split between the book as intellectual concept and as physical artifact, and the physical artifact isn’t the interesting bit — the Dewey decimal system has more or less disappeared from use. Boolean search means you can search on any keyword you fancy.
A Boolean methodology does not require any such juxtaposition. It is open-ended and infinite, and agnostic to rules where in the same way that a full-blown taxonomy is closed-ended and finite.