This is the first volume in a series about creating and maintaining taxonomies and their
practical applications especially in search functions. In Book 1 (The Taxobook: History
Theories and Concepts of Knowledge Organization) the author introduces the very foundations
of classification starting with the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle as well as
Theophrastus and the Roman Pliny the Elder. They were first in a line of distinguished thinkers
and philosophers to ponder the organization of the world around them and attempt to apply a
structure or framework to that world. The author continues by discussing the works and theories
of several other philosophers from Medieval and Renaissance times including Saints Aquinas and
Augustine William of Occam Andrea Cesalpino Carl Linnaeus and René Descartes. In the 17th
18th and 19th centuries John Locke Immanuel Kant James Frederick Ferrier Charles Ammi
Cutter and Melvil Dewey contributed greatly to the theories of classification systems and
knowledge organization. Cutter and Dewey especially created systems that are still in use
today. Chapter 8 covers the contributions of Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan who is considered
by many to be the father of modern library science. He created the concept of faceted
vocabularies which are widely used-even if they are not well understood-on many e-commerce
websites. Following the discussions and historical review the author has included a glossary
that covers all three books of this series so that it can be referenced as you work your way
through the second and third volumes. The author believes that it is important to understand
the history of knowledge organization and the differing viewpoints of various philosophers-even
if that understanding is only that the differing viewpoints simply exist. Knowing the differing
viewpoints will help answer the fundamental questions: Why do we want to build taxonomies? How
do we build them to serve multiple pointsof view? Table of Contents: List of Figures Preface
Acknowledgments Origins of Knowledge Organization Theory: Early Philosophy of Knowledge
Saints and Traits: Realism and Nominalism Arranging the glowers... and the Birds and the
Insects and Everything Else: Early Naturalists and Taxonomies The Age of Enlightenment
Impacts Knowledge Theory 18th-Century Developments: Knowledge Theory Coming to the Foreground
High Resolution: Classification Sharpens in the 19th and 20th Centuries Outlining the World
and Its Parts Facets: An Indian Mathematician and Children's Toys at Selfridge's Points of
Knowledge Glossary End Notes Author Biography
