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dc.contributor.authorDousa, Thomas M.
dc.contributor.editorJacob, Elin K.en_US
dc.contributor.editorKwasnik, Barbaraen_US
dc.date.accessioned2009-07-22T00:00:01Z
dc.date.available2010-06-18T23:31:20Z
dc.date.issued2009en_US
dc.date.submitted2009-07-22en_US
dc.identifier.citationEvolutionary Order in the Classification Theories of C. A. Cutter & E. C. Richardson: Its Nature and Limits 2009, Vol 2:76-90en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10150/105654
dc.description.abstractIn recent years, evolutionary order has been used as the favored mode of determining class sequence by classificationists using integrative levels as a theoretical framework for classification design. Although current advocates of evolutionary order are based in Europe, use of the concept in library and information science (LIS) can be traced back to two North American pioneers in classification theory, C. A. Cutter (1837â 1903) and E. C. Richardson (1860â 1939). Working in the heyday of evolutionism and influenced by the developmental classifications of the sciences of Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer, Cutter and Richardson introduced evolutionary order as an explicit principle into LIS classification theory, defining it as encompassing a conceptual progression from the general to the specific, the simple to the complex, and the past to the present. This idea proved influential, being appropriated by later theoreticians like H. E. Bliss; it also reinforced the realist tendency of early LIS classification theory. However, for Cutter and Richardson, application of evolutionary order to bibliothecal classifications proved problematic. Cutter applied the concept inconsistently; Richardson viewed it as theoretically ideal, but subject to so many exceptions for pragmatic reasons that it could not be attained in practice. Cutterâ s and Richardsonâ s use of evolutionary order reveals the tension between enunciating a principle of classificatory ordering in theory and applying it in practice.
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subjectPhilosophyen_US
dc.subjectClassificationen_US
dc.subjectEvaluationen_US
dc.subject.otherorder in classification systemsen_US
dc.titleEvolutionary Order in the Classification Theories of C. A. Cutter & E. C. Richardson: Its Nature and Limitsen_US
dc.typeConference Paperen_US
refterms.dateFOA2018-08-14T02:46:58Z
html.description.abstractIn recent years, evolutionary order has been used as the favored mode of determining class sequence by classificationists using integrative levels as a theoretical framework for classification design. Although current advocates of evolutionary order are based in Europe, use of the concept in library and information science (LIS) can be traced back to two North American pioneers in classification theory, C. A. Cutter (1837â 1903) and E. C. Richardson (1860â 1939). Working in the heyday of evolutionism and influenced by the developmental classifications of the sciences of Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer, Cutter and Richardson introduced evolutionary order as an explicit principle into LIS classification theory, defining it as encompassing a conceptual progression from the general to the specific, the simple to the complex, and the past to the present. This idea proved influential, being appropriated by later theoreticians like H. E. Bliss; it also reinforced the realist tendency of early LIS classification theory. However, for Cutter and Richardson, application of evolutionary order to bibliothecal classifications proved problematic. Cutter applied the concept inconsistently; Richardson viewed it as theoretically ideal, but subject to so many exceptions for pragmatic reasons that it could not be attained in practice. Cutterâ s and Richardsonâ s use of evolutionary order reveals the tension between enunciating a principle of classificatory ordering in theory and applying it in practice.


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