The Organization of Knowledge and the System of the Sciences

Abstract

DR. BLISS'S book makes a twofold appeal. It is written by a librarian as a guide for librarians, and it also has a philosophical purpose. It criticises, in the latter part of the volume, all the better-known systems of classification of knowledge, and Dr. Bliss maintains that it is necessary for a librarian, as for anyone else dealing with the instruments of knowledge, to have a correct idea of its natural articulations in order to serve and co-operate to the best advantage with others working in various parts of the field. We are therefore inclined to turn first to the later chapters, although the earlier contain an impressive account of the increasing complexity of functional organisation of all kinds in practical life. The need of right organisation of thought to secure right organisation of action is the keynote of the book. It is a serious and very suggestive compendium. The Organization of Knowledge and the System of the Sciences. Henry Evelyn Bliss. Pp. xx + 433. (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1929.) 5 dollars.