It is still harder to organize the scientific field of
"Philosophy" using a classification system. In fact,
libraries that own literature in philosophical domain
often avoid indexing and classifying it realizing semantic
access points for document retrieval and, on
the contrary, enable the researchers to retrieve
needed books consulting specialized bibliographies
and then authors or titles searching.
Difficulties arise from the fact that literature concerning
interdisciplinary connections among branches
of Philosophy is particularly frequent. Furthermore,
philosophical knowledge elaborated inside different
cultures, in many cases not compatible one another, is
hard to accommodate in a classification system created
by a particular culture. A classification system, of
course, depends on the specific cultural approach, and
with great difficulty makes it possible to accommodate
concepts and intellectual patterns typical of other
different cultures.
This paper concerns fundamental problems of
knowledge organization in the philosophical field using
classification systems, considers classification
from a theoretical pomt of view, and is not involved
in problems of classification as tool for arranging
books in library shelves. Before discussing the organization
of philosophical domain elaborated in
two different library classification systems, Dewey
Decimal Classification (DDC) and Bliss Bibliographie
Classification 2"'' edition {BC2), there is a
need to present principles on which library classification
is founded.