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Philosophy

Guide to basic sources in Philosophy

LC Classification for Philosophy

The Library of Congress Classification is the system used to organize books in Campbell Library. It is used by most but not all colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, as well as a few other countries. The other popular system in America, generally used in school and public libraries is of course the Dewey Decimal system.  These are only two of many classification systems in used around the world.

The LC Classification system always begins with a letter. Subjects can be one, two, or sometimes three letters. These are followed by numbers which more specifically identify a topic. Using this system ensures that all like books are kept together on the library shelves. 

Class B includes Philosophy, Psychology, and Religions. As you can imagine this is generally a big section in most academic libraries. Following is a breakdown of the LC Class subsets.

Subset B GENERAL PHILOSOPHY

B1-5802 Philosophy (General)

B69-99 General works

B108-5802 By period  Including individual philosophers and schools of philosophy

B108-708 Ancient

B720-765 Medieval

B770-785 Renaissance

B790-5802 Modern

B808-849 Special topics and schools of philosophy

B850-5739 By region or country

B5800-5802 By religion

Subclass BC LOGIC

BC1-199 Logic

BC11-39 History

BC25-39 By period

BC60-99 General works

BC171-199 Special topics

Subclass BD SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY

BD10-701 Speculative philosophy

BD10-41 General philosophical works

BD95-131 Metaphysics

BD143-237 Epistemology. Theory of knowledge

BD240-260 Methodology

BD300-450 Ontology Including being, the soul, life, death

BD493-701 Cosmology Including teleology, space and time, structure of matter, plurality of worlds

Subclass BH AESTHETICS

BH1-301 Aesthetics

BH81-208 History

BH301 Special topics

Subclass BJ  ETHICS

BJ1-1725 Ethics

BJ71-1185 History and general works Including individual ethical philosophers

BJ1188-1295 Religious ethics

BJ1298-1335 Evolutionary and genetic ethics

BJ1365-1385 Positivist ethics

BJ1388 Socialist ethics

BJ1390-1390.5 Communist ethics

BJ1392 Totalitarian ethics

BJ1395 Feminist ethics

BJ1518-1697 Individual ethics. Character. Virtue Including practical and applied ethics, conduct of life, vices, success, ethics for children

BJ1725 Ethics of social groups, classes, etc. Professional ethics

Philosophy and Science

B67 Philosophy in relation to science   

Q174-175.3 Science. Philosophy of

QC5.56-QC6.4 Physics. Philosophy of 

QD6 Chemistry. Philosophy of  

QH14.3 Natural History. Philosophy of

QH331 Biology. Philosophy of.