Philosophical Ancestry

by

Joseph Z. Nitecki

c. 1997 Volume 3 of The Nitecki Trilogy.
Also available as ERIC 406 977

ABSTRACT

This is a supplement to the compilation of essays in the philosophy of the American librarianship, Philosophical Aspects of Library Information Science (Nitecki, 1995), Volume 2 of The Nitecki Trilogy. Each philosopher mentioned in that compilation is discussed separately in Part II of this essay, with brief description of the viewpoints, comments about the philosophers and the relevance of their philosophy to librarianship. The impact of the listed philosophers on the philosophy of librarianship is inferred from the statements made about them by persons citing them. Each selected statement is abbreviated with its first word considered a key word for the subject addressed. Various relationships between the philosophers, their views, key words and levels of their interpretations are described in the appendixes to this study.

CONTENTS

Part I. Analysis 1. Introduction 2. Methodology 3. Perceived Heritage a. Profiles of Philosophers b. Major Philosophical Systems c. Philosophical Issues d. Key words as Indicators of Philosophical subjects e. Most Frequently Cited Data f. Significance of Most Frequently Cited Data 4. Bibliographical Distribution 5. The Nature of Emerging Pattern 6. Major Characteristics of Library Information Science Philosophical Tradition.

Part II. The Progenitors

Part III. Appendixes

Part IV. Bibliography

Author Notes :
1. Since 1990, all my ERIC essays were written under severe time constraints, created by my serious at that time, illness. Risking the loss of accumulated documentation, I have decided to publish my rough, preliminary studies, begging the readers' forgiveness for any oversights and uncorrected errors in the submitted manuscripts.
2. An interesting essay of Budd (1995) published after the basic data for this study were compiled, provides references to some philosophers reviewed here. Budd's argument that modern library and information science were dominated by philosophy of Positivism seems to apply more to the epistemological aspects of the science of the discipline and its practice than to its philosophy. In his long essay Budd refers to the positivist such as Comte and Carnap, but also to non-positivist Kant and Kaplan; he reviews ontological viewpoints but without direct references to the philosophy of librarianship. However, his recommendation to replace 'unworkable' positivism by hermeneutical phenomenology is itself a good example of a continually expanding interest in the philosophical aspects of Library Information Science.
Citation:
Nitecki, Joseph Z. 1997. Philosophical Aspects of American Library Information Science. Volume 3 of The Nitecki Trilogy .Also available as ERIC ED 406 977.

Philosophical Ancestry of American Library Information Science

is the third volume in the Nitecki Trilogy, which also includes:

Volume 1
Metalibrarianship
A Model for Intellectual Foundations
of Library Information Science, 1993.

Volume 2
Philosophical Aspects
Of Library Information Science
in Retrospect, 1995.

Permission to format and publish this original work online has been granted by the author exclusively to
The School of Library and Information Studies
Texas Woman's University, Denton, Texas.

Exclusive authority to serve these files has been granted to The Mary Evelyn Blagg Huey Library of Texas Woman's University.

Contents copyright 1993, 1995, 1997 by Joseph Z. Nitecki. All rights reserved.
Form and Format copyright joanne twining williams, Publishing Librarian.
Address comments, mirror rights, and inquiries to: twining@intertwining.org