Towards A General Theory Of Classifications

This book is an essay on the epistemology of classifications. Its main purpose is not to provide an exposition of an actual mathematical theory of classifications, that is, a general theory which would be available to any kind of them: hierarchical or non-hierarchical, ordinary or fuzzy, overlapping or non-overlapping, finite or infinite, and so on, establishing a basis for all possible divisions of the real world. For the moment, such a theory remains nothing but a dream. Instead, the authors essentially put forward a number of key questions. Their aim is rather to reveal the “state of art” of this dynamic field and the philosophy one may eventually adopt to go further. To this end they present some advances made in the course of the last century, discuss a few tricky problems that remain to be solved, and show the avenues open to those who no longer wish to stay on the wrong track. Researchers and professionals interested in the epistemology and philosophy of science, library science, logic and set theory, order theory or cluster analysis will find this book a comprehensive, original and progressive introduction to the main questions in this field.

This book provides a coherent account of the Theory of Classification. It discusses the contribution made by theoreticians like E.C. Richardson, J.D. Brown, W. Hulum, W.C. Berwick Sayers, H.E. Bliss and S.R. Ranganathan. However, the theory put forward by S.R. Ranganathan predominates the whole book because his contribution is far more than anybody else’s. Five major schemes of Classification, Library of Congress Classification, Colon Classification and Bliss Biblio-Graphic Classification have also been discussed.

This book covers all of the major library classification schemes in use in Europe, UK and US; it includes practical exercises to demonstrate their application. Importantly, classifying electronic resources is also discussed. The aim of the book is to demystify a very complex subject, and to provide a sound theoretical underpinning, together with practical advice and development of practical skills. The book fills the gap between more complex theoretical texts and those books with a purely practical approach. Chapters concentrate purely on classification rather than cataloguing and indexing, ensuring a more in-depth coverage of the topic. Covers the latest Dewey Decimal Classification, 22nd edition Provides practical advice on which schemes will be most suitable for different types of library collection Covers classification of electronic resources and taxonomy construction

This is the first English translation of the seminal book by Katharina Reiß and Hans Vermeer, Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Translationstheorie, first published in 1984. The first part of the book was written by Vermeer and explains the theoretical foundations and basic principles of skopos theory as a general theory of translation and interpreting or ‘translational action’, whereas the second part, penned by Katharina Reiß, seeks to integrate her text-typological approach, first presented in 1971, as a ‘specific theory’ that focuses on those cases in which the skopos requires equivalence of functions between the source and target texts. Almost 30 years after it first appeared, this key publication is now finally accessible to the next generations of translation scholars. In her translation, Christiane Nord attempts to put skopos theory and her own concept of ‘function plus loyalty’ to the test, by producing a comprehensible, acceptable text for a rather heterogeneous audience of English-speaking students and scholars all over the world, at the same time as acting as a loyal intermediary for the authors, to whom she feels deeply indebted as a former student and colleague.

Other approaches are based on considering (1) periodic changes in structure as for processes of self-organisation; (2) non-periodic but coherent changes in structure, as for processes of emergence; (3) the quantum level of description. Papers in the book study the problem considering its transdisciplinary nature, i.e., systemic properties studied per se and not within specific disciplinary contexts. The aim of these studies is to outline a transdisciplinary theory of change in systemic properties. Such a theory should have simultaneous, corresponding and eventually hierarchical disciplinary aspects as expected for a general theory of emergence.

In this original and powerful work, John Roemer proposes a general theory of exploitation that provides a game-theoretic framework for expressing any conception of exploitation--feudal, capitalist, or socialist--in a standardized and explicit way, thus permitting a clear comparison of different ethical conceptions.