Propædia

"Outline of Knowledge" redirects here. For an outline about knowledge, see Outline of knowledge.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition

The one-volume Propædia is the first of three parts of the 15th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica, intended as a compendium and topical organization of the 12-volume Micropædia and the 17-volume Macropædia, which are organized alphabetically. Introduced in 1974 with the 15th edition, the Propædia and Micropædia were intended to replace the Index of the 14th edition; however, after widespread criticism, the Britannica restored the Index as a two-volume set in 1985. The core of the Propædia is its Outline of Knowledge, which seeks to provide a logical framework for all human knowledge. However, the Propædia also has several appendices listing the staff members, advisors and contributors to all three parts of the Britannica.

The last edition of the print Britannica was published in 2010.

Outline of Knowledge

Like the Britannica as a whole, the Outline has three types of goals:

According to Mortimer J. Adler, the designer of the Propædia, all articles in the full Britannica were designed to fit into the Outline of Knowledge.

The Outline has 167 sections, which are categorized into 41 divisions and then into 10 parts. Each part has an introductory essay written by the same individual responsible for developing the outline for that part, which was done in consultation and collaboration with a handful of other scholars. In all, 86 men and one woman were involved in developing the Outline of Knowledge.

The Outline was an eight-year project of Mortimer J. Adler, published 22 years after he published a similar effort (the Syntopicon) that attempts to provide an overview of the relationships among the "Great Ideas" in Adler's Great Books of the Western World series. (The Great Books were also published by the Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.) Adler stresses in his book, A Guidebook to Learning: For a Lifelong Pursuit of Wisdom, that the ten categories should not be taken as hierarchical but as circular.

Contents

1. Matter and Energy

The lead author was Nigel Calder, who wrote the introduction "The Universe of the Physicist, the Chemist, and the Astronomer".

  • 1.1 Atoms
    • 1.1.1 Structure and Properties of Atoms
    • 1.1.2 Atomic Nuclei and Elementary Particles
  • 1.2 Energy, Radiation, and States of Matter
    • 1.2.1 Chemical Elements: Periodic Variation in Their Properties
    • 1.2.2 Chemical Compounds: Molecular Structure and Chemical Bonding
    • 1.2.3 Chemical Reactions
    • 1.2.4 Heat, Thermodynamics, Liquids, Gases, Plasmas
    • 1.2.5 The Solid State of Matter
    • 1.2.6 Mechanics of Particles, Rigid and Deformable Bodies: Elasticity, Vibration, and Flow
    • 1.2.7 Electricity and Magnetism
    • 1.2.8 Waves and Wave Motion
  • 1.3 The Universe
    • 1.3.1 The Cosmos
    • 1.3.2 Galaxies and Stars
    • 1.3.3 The Solar System

2. The Earth

The lead author was Peter John Wyllie, who wrote the introduction "The Great Globe Itself".

3. Life

The lead author was René Dubos, who wrote the introduction "The Mysteries of Life".

4. Human Life

The lead author was Loren Eiseley, who wrote the introduction "The Cosmic Orphan".

  • 4.1 The Development of Human Life
  • 4.2 The Human Body: Health and Disease
    • 4.2.1 The Structures and Functions of the Human Body
    • 4.2.2 Human Health
    • 4.2.3 Human Diseases
    • 4.2.4 The Practice of Medicine and Care of Health
  • 4.3 Human Behavior and Experience
    • 4.3.1 General theories of human nature and behavior
    • 4.3.2 Antecedent conditions and developmental processes affecting a person's behavior and conscious experience
    • 4.3.3 Influence of the current environment on a person's behavior and conscious experience: attention, sensation, and perception
    • 4.3.4 Current Internal states affecting a person' behavior and conscious experience
    • 4.3.5 Development of Learning and Thinking
    • 4.3.6 Personality and the Self: Integration and Disintegration

5. Society

The lead author was Harold D. Lasswell, who wrote the introduction "Man the Social Animal".

  • 5.1 Social Groups: Ethnic groups and Cultures
    • 5.1.1 Peoples and Cultures of the World
    • 5.1.2 The Development of Human Culture
    • 5.1.3 Major Cultural Components and Institutions of Societies
    • 5.1.4 Language and Communication
  • 5.2 Social Organization and Social Change
    • 5.2.1 Social Structure and Change
    • 5.2.2 The Group Structure of Society
    • 5.2.3 Social Status
    • 5.2.4 Human Populations: Urban and Rural Communities
  • 5.3 The Production, Distribution, and Utilization of Wealth
    • 5.3.1 Economic Concepts, Issues, and Systems
    • 5.3.2 Consumer and Market: Pricing and Mechanisms for Distributing Goods
    • 5.3.3 The Organization of Production and Distribution
    • 5.3.4 The Distribution of Income and Wealth
    • 5.3.5 Macroeconomics
    • 5.3.6 Economic Growth and Planning
  • 5.4 Politics and Government
    • 5.4.1 Political Theory
    • 5.4.2 Political Institutions: the Structure, Branches, & Offices of Government
    • 5.4.3 Functioning of Government: the Dynamics of the Political Process
    • 5.4.4 International Relations: Peace and War
  • 5.5 Law
    • 5.5.1 Philosophies and Systems of Law; the Practice of Law
    • 5.5.2 Branches of Public Law, Substantive and Procedural
    • 5.5.3 Branches of Private Law, Substantive and Procedural
  • 5.6 Education
    • 5.6.1 Aims and Organization of Education
    • 5.6.2 Education Around the World

6. Art

The lead author was Mark Van Doren, who wrote the introduction "The World of Art".

7. Technology

The lead author was Lord Peter Ritchie-Calder, who wrote the introduction "Knowing How and Knowing Why".

  • 7.1 Nature & Development of Technology
    • 7.1.1 Technology: Its Scope and History
    • 7.1.2 The Organization of Human Work
  • 7.2 Elements of Technology
    • 7.2.1 Technology of Energy Conversion and Utilization
    • 7.2.2 Technology of Tools and Machines
    • 7.2.3 Technology of Measurement, Observation, and Control
    • 7.2.4 Extraction and Conversion of Industrial Raw Materials
    • 7.2.5 Technology of Industrial Production Processes
  • 7.3 Fields of Technology

8. Religion

The lead author was Wilfred Cantwell Smith, who wrote the introduction "Religion as Symbolism".

9. History

The lead author was Jacques Barzun, who wrote the introduction "The Point and Pleasure of Reading History".

  • 9.1 Ancient Southwest Asia, North Africa, and Europe
    • 9.1.1 Ancient Southwest Asia and Egypt, the Aegean, and North Africa
    • 9.1.2 Ancient Europe and Classical Civilizations of the Mediterranean to AD 395
  • 9.2 Medieval Southwest Asia, North Africa, and Europe
    • 9.2.1 The Byzantine Empire and Europe from AD 395–1050
    • 9.2.2 The Formative Period in Islamic History, AD 622–1055
    • 9.2.3 Western Christendom in the High and Later Middle Ages 1050–1500
    • 9.2.4 The Crusades, the Islamic States, and Eastern Christendom 1050–1480
  • 9.3 East, Central, South, and Southeast Asia
    • 9.3.1 China to the Beginning of the Late T'ang AD 755
    • 9.3.2 China from the Late T'ang to the Late Ch'ing AD 755–1839
    • 9.3.3 Central and Northeast Asia to 1750
    • 9.3.4 Japan to the Meiji Restoration 1868, Korea to 1910
    • 9.3.5 The Indian Subcontinent and Ceylon to AD 1200
    • 9.3.6 The Indian Subcontinent 1200–1761, Ceylon 1200–1505
    • 9.3.7 Southeast Asia to 1600
  • 9.4 Sub-Saharan Africa to 1885
    • 9.4.1 West Africa to 1885
    • 9.4.2 The Nilotic Sudan and Ethiopia AD 550–1885
    • 9.4.3 East Africa and Madagascar to 1885
    • 9.4.4 Central Africa to 1885
    • 9.4.5 Southern Africa to 1885
  • 9.5 Pre-Columbian America
    • 9.5.1 Andean Civilization to AD 1540
    • 9.5.2 Meso-American Civilization to AD 1540
  • 9.6 The Modern World to 1920
    • 9.6.1 Western Europe 1500–1789
    • 9.6.2 Eastern Europe, Southwest Asia, and North Africa 1480–1800
    • 9.6.3 Europe 1789–1920
    • 9.6.4 European Colonies in the Americas 1492–1790
    • 9.6.5 United States and Canada 1763–1920
    • 9.6.6 Latin-America and Caribbean to 1920
    • 9.6.7 Australia and Oceania to 1920
    • 9.6.8 South Asia Under European Imperialism 1500–1920
    • 9.6.9 Southeast Asia Under European Imperialism 1600–1920
    • 9.6.10 China until Revolution 1839–1911, Japan from Meiji Restoration to 1910
    • 9.6.11 Southwest Asia, North Africa 1800–1920, Sub-Saharan Africa 1885–1920: Under European Imperialism
  • 9.7 The World Since 1920
    • 9.7.1 International Movements, Diplomacy and War Since 1920
    • 9.7.2 Europe Since 1920
    • 9.7.3 The United States and Canada Since 1920
    • 9.7.4 Latin American and Caribbean Nations Since 1920
    • 9.7.5 China in Revolution, Japanese Hegemony
    • 9.7.6 South and Southeast Asia: the Late Colonial Period and Nations Since 1920
    • 9.7.7 Australia and Oceania Since 1920
    • 9.7.8 Southwest Asia and Africa: the Late Colonial Period and Nations since 1920

10. Branches of Knowledge

The lead author was Mortimer J. Adler, who wrote the introduction "Knowledge Become Self-conscious".

Contributors to the Outline of Knowledge

Section 4.2.1 uses transparencies of organ systems originally commissioned by Parke-Davis. Similar in design to the three-dimensional Visible Man and Visible Woman dolls designed by sculptor Marcel Jovine, successive plastic sheets reveal different layers of human anatomy.

See also

References

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Uses material from the Wikipedia article Propædia, released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.