Philosophy in Bibliographic Classification Systems

The article aims to provide an examination of some different arrangements of the Philosophy domain in bibliographic classification systems. It is difficult to organize the scientific field of Human Sciences, because of the richness of perspectives, and of the different cultural orientations that this broad field of science presents. Furthermore, it is really arduous to organize the scientific field of Philosophy using a traditional classification system. It is hard to accommodate philosophical knowledge—elaborated inside different cultures, in many cases not compatible with each other—in a classification system created by a particular cultural system, because it depends on that specific cultural approach. General principles of bibliographic classification and also differences noticed when these are compared with the principles and laws of logical classification, are discussed. In contrast, the fact that library classifications are influenced by ideologies and political orientations,and that they are substantially arbitrary, is pointed out. In the second part of the study, the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) and the Bliss Bibliographic Classification second edition (BC2) are analysed, and at last the suggestion of BC2 to consider philosophical problems and topics in connection with cultural tradition, ethical and religious principles, and also political and social structures, is evaluated. L'articolo affronta il problema della organizzazione del campo disciplinare della Filosofia nei diversi sistemi di classificazione biblioteconomica. Vengono messe in evidenza le difficoltà che si incontrano nel sistemare i contenuti filosofici, elaborati all'interno di culture differenti e spesso incompatibili l'una rispetto all'altra, all'interno di sistemi di classificazione che seguono uno specifico orientamento. Si considerano le differenze tra i principi della classificazione biblioteconomica e della classificazione logica e si mettono in evidenza le possibili influenze ideologiche sulle classificazioni. Nella seconda parte, si analizzano DDC e BC 2, e si presentano alcuni esempi di applicazione della BC 2 al campo filosofico.