Classifying Philosophy at the Library of the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, Italy), Part A
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Knowl. Org. 36(2009)No.2/No.3 141
R. Giampietro. Classifying Philosophy at the Library of the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, Italy), Part A
Classifying Philosophy at the
Library of the Scuola Normale Superiore
(Pisa, Italy), Part A*
Raffaele Giampietro
The Library of the Scuola Normale di Pisa, Palazzo della Carovana,
Piazza dei Cavalieri, 7 Palazzo del Capitano, Piazza del Castelletto, 6/18/20,
I-56126 Pisa, Italy
Born in Foggia (Italy) in 1945, he is the Special Collections General Coordinator at the Library of the
Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa) and coeditor of the “Bollettino bibliografico” of the Italian philoso-
phy journal Studi Kantiani. Graduated in philosophy, he has published reviews and essays in librarian-
ship, philosophy and literature. His most recently published work is “Semerari vivant”, in: La certezza
incerta. Scritti su Giuseppe Semerari, edited by F. Semerari (Milan, 2008, pp. 237-245).
Giampietro, Raffaele. Classifying Philosophy at the Library of the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, It-
aly), Part A . Knowledge Organization, 36(2/3), 141-145. 7 references.
* Lengthened version of the talk given at the conference Classifying the Human Sciences. The case of Philosophy (Padua, Febru-
ary 2, 2007).
1. Introduction tions, chronological tables et similia—strictly by the
Dewey decimal system might have been unthinkable.
In the late seventies, I was asked to work on classify- A second requirement was to designate a main loca-
ing our Philosophy (and Psychology) collections, tion to the large collection of the often “complete
which were still located partly in the stacks and works” of the philosophical Tradition. This way, the
partly in the so-called Seminars—a traditional didac- ideal Reader, foreseen to linger for hours in the newly
tic and research structure of our School—where the restored library building of the Palazzo della Gherard-
books were mostly ordered by format or collection esca, could easily access the reservoir of the great
title. As often happens, my task was not completely texts, which were to be followed on the shelves by the
free of restrictions: the general “new policy” of the secondary literature ad auctorem. All in all, the im-
entire Library was oriented toward accomplishing an plicit message to our students and scholars was to be
open-shelf decimal classification, and the first step the virtuous necessity of finding, ready on the shelves,
was to avoid an overly complicated schema, as this the substantial core of the textual Tradition.
would probably have rendered more difficult the Arranged only in alphabetic order without any
task of the end users, that is, our students but mainly chronological partition (with the Cutter numbers as
our teaching staff. additional support), the Authors were meant to con-
At the Scuola Normale Superiore, where histori- stitute (and actually are) the main section of our
cism has always had an illustrious though somewhat Philosophy collection. However, there was a further,
cumbersome tradition (I quote only two philosophers even more challenging exception: the Greek and
and/or historians of Philosophy: Giovanni Gentile Latin Classics had to be “attracted” by the underly-
and Eugenio Garin), ordering the Philosophy collec- ing Philology Seminar, where a formidable collection
tion—with its divisions, topics, geographical nota- that is constantly enriched by donors and former
https://doi.org/10.5771/0943-7444-2009-2-3-141
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R. Giampietro. Classifying Philosophy at the Library of the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, Italy), Part A
professors of the Scuola Normale, from Giorgio 103. Miscellanea. Festschriften.
Pasquali to Arnaldo Momigliano, had to embody the 104. Interdisciplinary essays.
Ancient Philosophy as a tribute to the German tradi- 105. Anthologies.
tional unity of the Antike. 109. History of Philosophy.
Therefore, in our library, medieval philosophy is 110. Metaphysics. Logic. Dialectics.
arranged as a new Beginning, perhaps in consolatory 111. Aesthetics.
and coherent balance with the spectacular structure 150. Psychology.
of the town, which can be admired from the win- 150.195 Psychoanalysis.
dows of the magnificent building where we are 170. Ethics. Moral theories.
housed, including Count Ugolino’s tower! 190. AUTHORS.
My task was to reorganize, redefine and implement
The Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (SNS), a univer-
this new schema.
sity center for teaching and research, was founded by
After having easily solved the not-too-difficult
Napoleon in 1810 as a branch of the Ecole Normale Su-
problem of the “formal” subclasses 101, 102, 103 and
perieure Paris. It has been educating students and carry-
105, which could be easily replaced at the initial
ing out research for nearly two centuries.
points of the new schema, I was compelled to recog-
Professors, researchers and students all work to-
nize the isolation of Philosophy of science, 100.5,
gether as one, teaching and studying, in classrooms as in
which sounded somewhat unorthodox in the histori-
laboratories, developing cultural activities and experi-
cist context mentioned earlier and yet too isolated,
mental initiatives.
for example, from Logic. Moreover, if the latter could
coexist, however uneasily, in those still predomi-
The academic work at the Scuola Normale is tradition-
nantly Marxist (and/or Marxological) years with Dia-
ally grouped into two divisions, the Faculty of Arts and
lectics, surely it could not cohabit with Metaphysics
the Faculty of Sciences. Students can work towards an
in division 110: as this would no longer be allowed by
undergraduate diploma, finishing with a 2nd-level hon-
the contemporary philosophical status of Logic, a de-
ors degree, or as graduate students, completing a course
finitively formal discipline. Still other relevant candi-
of study which grants a diploma equivalent to the PhD.
dates remained unquestioned. For example, wasn’t
The lessons, seminars and research activities are carried
Philosophy of Language entitled its own location, es-
out by professors from within the Scuola Normale and
pecially at a time when the works of the Chomskyan
by Italian and foreign scholars invited there.
and structuralist waves dominated the shelves? Of
course, no place was foreseen for History of Science
The greatest resource of the Scuola Normale is the
(Dewey 509)—the beloved discipline of many “con-
quality of the students who come there. Selected on a
verted” philosophers (and scientists)—or for Phi-
merit basis through an exam competition, once admit-
losophy of Religion, which would have clearly been
ted they live and study in a completely free residential
incorrect to confuse with Metaphysics.
system.
Moreover, in a classification schema in which our
Philosophy collection risked being thrown off bal-
(Text excerpted from the SNS Homepage )
and the attendant secondary literature on the one
hand, and a casual assortment of philosophical sub-
2. A first draft of a scheme classes on the other, it seemed necessary to further
ask whether the ontological status of Philosophy (Is
The first draft of a catalogue scheme vaguely similar a librarian allowed to put such questions?) was
to the Dewey decimal system introduced some pre- suitably and wholly represented by the historically
liminary divisions, as follows: documented classical Thinkers, and whether the lack
of a broad representation of the so–called Philoso-
100. Philosophy. phy in progress was justifiable. The true question
100.5 Philosophy of science. wasn’t, of course, to do justice to the absent (or to
101. Handbooks. Outlines. relocate the present) Thinkers: the deeper problem
102. Dictionaries. Encyclopaedias. Biblio- was—and always has been—about the conceptual na-
graphies. ture of Author in itself. That is, what is a classic Phi-
https://doi.org/10.5771/0943-7444-2009-2-3-141
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R. Giampietro. Classifying Philosophy at the Library of the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, Italy), Part A
losopher? On the other hand, maintaining a living derlying crossroad of all the disciplines, each of whose
philosophy library—to adapt the celebrated P. A. region is passed through by its intentional ray.
Schilpp’s collection title—entails maintaining con-
stant and careful attention to the contemporary phi- 3. Representing the transcendental
losophical debate, and that even before posing any
relocation problem. All of which is, one could ironi- The next step in my task was now somewhat clearer,
cally say, History’s necessary, perhaps listig (in the although not easy: how to represent (or at least al-
Hegelian sense) revenge. On the very concept of lude to) this transcendental (or phenomenological,
“classical,” a thorough analysis is in Settis (2004). or metalinguistic, if you prefer) status of Philosophy
For the interesting evolution of a prestigious, not in my mandatory, traditional decimal classification
generalist classification scheme, which turned out to scheme? Without any pretence to deeply exhaustive
be so exciting for no less a philosopher than Ernst or highly technical organization, it would have per-
Cassirer, see also S. Settis (1996). haps been possible to develop the intentional knots
In other words, if the historical legacy of Philoso- of the regional ontologies (in the phenomenological
phy had to have its rightful place, what was the right sense), which are semantically “embodied” through
place for theoretical, “ongoing” philosophical reflec- the noematic equivalent of the philosophical subdis-
tion? Is it only by chance that most university ar- ciplines. The complex problem of regional ontolo-
rangements of Philosophy Faculties distinguish be- gies cannot be discussed here adequately; it is men-
tween historical and theoretical orientation? tioned only because it is relevant to preliminary re-
A pedantic transcription of the academic disci- flection on the role of an “applied” phenomenology
plines and subdisciplines in the new classification in matters of bibliographic classifications. For a first,
schema perhaps would have been too unwieldy or classic definition see Husserl (1950 and 2002). I am
too casual. Yet, the implicit core of the question was somewhat suspicious, moreover, of some recent on-
probably another, namely, that there are ontological tological-realistic approaches, which are mainly in-
grounds in Philosophy “in sich selbst” (that is, Phi- terested in describing ontologies as static—Husserl
losophy as a structural subjective attitude, not as the would have said “katastematic” realities (Husserl
metaphysical store of the so-called everlasting phi- 1952). This could be accomplished by arranging a
losophical problems. For a comprehensive analysis of consistent and hopefully comprehensive set of loca-
the relations between theoretical and historical atti- tion points, all without giving up the notational
tude in Philosophy, see Semerari 1991) for the pro- value of the sections of the decimally ordered classi-
liferating growth and the frequent historical appear- fication tree, but instead by recoding them.
ance (and disappearance) of philosophical currents.
If we consider that philosophical research is a 101 Handbooks. Guidelines. Treatises.
“normal” discipline only in a historical and sociocul- 102 Encyclopaedias. Dictionaries.
tural sense, we will more readily see that, while un- 102.1 Bibliographies.
veiling the historical “garb of ideas” (Husserl’s 102.2 Anthologies.
Ideenkleid), its true essential meaning lies at the core 103 Miscellanea. Festschriften. Workshops. Con-
of accurately and genetically describing all the dimen- gresses. Seminars.
sions of the experienced world as well as those of the 104.1 Subjectivity. Interpretation. Perception. Her-
intentional structures of the experiencing Subject. meneutics.
In other, more general terms, we have to recognize 104.2 Metaphysics. Ontology.
that the aim of Philosophical research is a critical in-
104.2.1 Religion. Myth. Cosmology.
vestigation into the foundational sense of intention-
104.3 Civilization. Society. Praxis.
ally oriented operations, which concern the World
104.4 Language. Communication.
only as experienced by Subjectivity in the World. In-
deed, philosophy is not directly and immediately in- 104.5 Science. Knowledge. Logic.
terested in increasing the knowledge of the World, 104.6 Ethics. Behaviour. Values.
unlike the other disciplines; it makes no direct experi- 104.7 Argumentation. Dialectics. Ideology.
ence of Nature, tells no stories, heals no illness and in- 104.8 Aesthetics.
vents no mathematical theories or technical devices. 104.9 Philosophy of History.
Therefore, philosophy, as experience of the experi- 104.[...].9 n.9, if postposed to the subclasses, which begin
ence, is a transcendental activity that plays at the un- with 104, means: History of the related subject.
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R. Giampietro. Classifying Philosophy at the Library of the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, Italy), Part A
History of philosophy conditioned but emendable compromise between the
dialectically oriented works and, for example, Chaim
109 History of philosophy (General works).
Perelman’s argumentative neorhetorics, both of
109.1: History of ancient philosophy: classify in Antiq-
which were regarded as study areas for a Philosophy
deleted uity Seminar.
number of technical tools of “disputation” (according to class
700). Philosophy of Science could finally escape its
109.2 History of medieval philosophy.
singular isolation in the scheme, inserting itself as
109.3 History of modern and contemporary phi-
losophy.
104.5 between the other subclasses, so happily joining
the number 5 pertaining to the large family of scien-
109.9 Methodology and history of the philosophical
historiography. tific disciplines (class 500). As a further benefit, His-
tory of Science—often the academic twin of Philoso-
150 Psychology.
phy of Science in curricula—could also become con-
150.1 Encyclopaedias. Handbooks. Dictionaries.
tiguous with that parent discipline, only by assuming
150.9 History of psychology.
the “history” code of 9 from the general Classifica-
151 Experimental Psychology and Psychophysio- tion scheme (class 900). This last simple, surely unor-
logy.
thodox classification device granted the end user not
152 Psychoanalysis. only the advantage of finding epistemological works
153 Psychology of cognition. in comfortable proximity to the historical studies on
154 Clinical psychology and psychopathology. Sciences, but also made it possible to locate the his-
155 Social psychology. tory of the “philosophical reflections” on each disci-
190 AUTHORS (Works and Essays). plinary region in the corresponding section of the re-
gion within the 104 division by merely adding the
Table 1. Philosophy classification scheme.
history coding number .9 (in homage to our histori-
The 104 subclass of the scheme (denoting Interdis- cist tradition). Therefore, Philosophy of History
ciplinary studies—a probable home for a repository could finally be coded, with the usual History code,
of chaotically located essays) was first recoded and as 104.9 (Psychology gained a slightly better articula-
articulated as a relevant division number that was to tion in the local schema by only distinguishing some
be transcendentally, that is, intentionally connected few disciplinary or methodological orientations (or
with the philosophically equivalent “regions” per- adding, for instance, the just then increasing Cogni-
taining to the disciplines of the Universal Decimal tive studies).
Scheme. Melvil Dewey’s 10 subdivisions could there-
fore be seen as the reservoir a parte objecti, that is, 4. Genus-species hierarchy
the ontological areas that the philosophical work in
progress thematises (thematisiert, in phenomenol- Upon evaluating this attempt, it is not likely that
ogical jargon). someone would automatically say, “All's well that
The result of this intentional reorientation was ends well.” I am not so naïve as to ignore that the
that, if class 100 designates the Philosophy class, the key principle of each decimal classification is a hier-
104.1 division (or subclass) could host works on Phi- archical one, that in the genus-species structure of its
losophy of Subjectivity in itself (Analysis of pure Porphyrian tree lies the foundational part-whole-
Subjectivity, Hermeneutics, etc.). If class 200 is de- oriented logic of the arrangement, and that notation
voted to Religion in the General Scheme, its philoso- rules are binding requirements. On the other hand, it
phical pendant, Philosophy of Religion, could obvi- is probably not so paradoxically an open question
ously be found in the 104.2 subclass, just as Social that the classic hierarchical models of arranging Phi-
Philosophy had its natural place in 104.3, correspond- losophy on the shelves are widely deficient.
ing to class 300 (Social Sciences). Linguistics (class Faced with so many influential and authoritative
400) obtained its philosophical counterpart in frameworks, I hope that my archaic arrangement
104.4—Philosophy of language. The Behavioural and might be tolerated only as a minimal effort at getting
Moral sciences were in place with code 6 of the class to the bottom (to the arché) of that paradoxical
600, which was also possible (despite a little forcing question. Even if positively accepted by the end us-
in the parallelism with the class 800) for 104.8, Phi- ers, it is still only a rudimentary, homemade device.
losophy of Art and Literature. The 104.7 division was What is more, in the matter of library classifications,
“Solomonically” adapted to Dialectics: a historically the relocations phantom always waits in ambush on
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R. Giampietro. Classifying Philosophy at the Library of the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, Italy), Part A
the shelves. That is why an attentive librarian always —. 1952. Ideen zu einer reinen Phaenomenologie und
has to watch for the inner developments of the dis- phaenomenologischen Philosophie,III, hrsg. von M.
ciplines. But, perhaps the transcendental mode of Biemel. Haag: Nijhoff, Beil. I, § 6, p. 129.
Philosophy—a discipline at the same time equal and —. 2002. Natur und Geist. Vorlesungen—
different from the others—had worked out an at- Sommersemester 1919, hrsgb. von M. Weiler. Klu-
tempt which, even if disrespectful of the canonic wer: Dordrecht-Boston-London, pp. 143-149.
tradition and probably irreverent to the scientific Li- Semerari, G. 1991. Filosofia. Lezioni preliminari. Mi-
brarianship, was aiming at least to pursue, just in or- lano: Guerini.
dering a Philosophy library, the idea itself of Phi- Settis, S. 1996. Warburg continuatus. Description
losophy as a rigorous science (Husserl 1910-11). d'une bibliothèque. In Baratin, M., Jacob, C. eds.,
Le pouvoir des bibliothèques. La mémoire des livres
References en Occident. Paris : Albin Michel, pp. 122-73.
Settis, S. 2004. The future of the “classical.” Cam-
Husserl, Edmund. 1910-11. Philosophie als strenge bridge: Polity Press.
Wissenschaft, in Logos, I, pp. 298-314.
—. 1950. Ideen zu einer reinen Phaenomenologie und
phaenomenologischen Philosophie, I, hrsgb. von W.
Biemel. Haag: Nijhoff, §§ 10-17, pp. 26-39.
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