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.[1] [2]
Like the Britannica as a whole, the Outline has three types of goals:[3]
to provide a systematic, hierarchical categorization of all human knowledge, a 20th-century analog of the Great Chain of Being and Francis Bacon's outline in Instauratio magna.
According to Mortimer J. Adler, the designer of the Propaedia, all articles in the full Britannica were designed to fit into the Outline of Knowledge.[3]
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.
The lead author was Nigel Calder, who wrote the introduction "The Universe of the Physicist, the Chemist, and the Astronomer".
The lead author was Peter John Wyllie, who wrote the introduction "The Great Globe Itself".
The lead author was René Dubos, who wrote the introduction "The Mysteries of Life".
The lead author was Loren Eiseley, who wrote the introduction "The Cosmic Orphan".
The lead author was Harold D. Lasswell, who wrote the introduction "Man the Social Animal".
The lead author was Mark Van Doren, who wrote the introduction "The World of Art".
The lead author was Lord Peter Ritchie-Calder, who wrote the introduction "Knowing How and Knowing Why".
The lead author was Wilfred Cantwell Smith, who wrote the introduction "Religion as Symbolism".
The lead author was Jacques Barzun, who wrote the introduction "The Point and Pleasure of Reading History".
The lead author was Mortimer J. Adler, who wrote the introduction "Knowledge Become Self-conscious".
| Mortimer J. Adler | 1902 | 2001 | All Parts | Editor | 1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charles Van Doren | 1926 | 2019 | All Parts | Associate editor; Editorial Vice President of Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. (1973–1982) | 2 | |
| William J. Gorman | 1982 | All Parts | Associate editor; Senior Fellow of the Institute for Philosophical Research | 3 | ||
| A. G. W. Cameron | 1925 | 2005 | Matter and Energy | 4 | ||
| Farrington Daniels | 1889 | 1972 | Matter and Energy | Professor of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison | 5 | |
| Morton Hamermesh | 1915 | 2003 | Matter and Energy | Professor of Physics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (1975–1986) | 6 | |
| Vincent E. Parker | Matter and Energy | Emeritus Professor of Physics, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; Dean, School of Science (1967–1977) | 7 | |||
| Richard J. Chorley | 1927 | 2002 | The Earth | Professor of Geography, University of Cambridge; Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge | 8 | |
| William Stelling von Arx | The Earth | Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (1968–1978) | 9 | |||
| Peter John Wyllie | 1930 | The Earth | 10 | |||
| N. J. Berrill | 1903 | 1996 | Life on Earth | Strathcone Professor of Zoology, McGill University (1946–1965) | 11 | |
| Vincent Dethier | 1915 | 1993 | Life on Earth | Gilbert L. Woodside Professor of Zoology, University of Massachusetts Amherst (1975–1993) | 12 | |
| Louis S. Goodman | 1906 | 2000 | Life on Earth | Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City | 13 | |
| Garrett Hardin | 1915 | 2003 | Life on Earth | Emeritus Professor of Human Ecology, University of California, Santa Barbara | 14 | |
| Ernst Walter Mayr | 1904 | 2005 | Life on Earth | Alexander Agassiz Professor Emeritus of Zoology, Harvard University | 15 | |
| John Alexander Moore | 1915 | 2002 | Life on Earth | Emeritus Professor of Biology, University of California, Riverside | 16 | |
| Theodore T. Puck | 1916 | 2005 | Life on Earth | Professor of Biology, Biophysics and Genetics; Distinguished Professor of Medicine, University of Colorado, Health Sciences Center; Director, Eleanor Roosevelt Institute for Cancer Research | 17 | |
| Birgit Vennesland | 1913 | 2001 | Life on Earth | Head, Vennesland Research Laboratory, Max Planck Society (1970–1981); Director, Max Planck Institute for Cell Physiology, Berlin (1968–1970) | 18 | |
| Paul B. Weisz | 1919 | 2012 | Life on Earth | 19 | ||
| Ralph H. Wetmore | 1892 | 1989 | Life on Earth | Emeritus Professor of Botany, Harvard University | 20 | |
| Emil H. White | Life on Earth | 21 | ||||
| Wilfrid Edward Le Gros Clark | 1895 | 1971 | Human Life | Professor of Anatomy, University of Oxford | 22 | |
| Russell S. Fisher | 1985 | Human Life | 23 | |||
| F. Clark Howell | 1925 | 2007 | Human Life | Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley | 24 | |
| Gregory A. Kimble | 1917 | 2006 | Human Life | 25 | ||
| Erich Klinghammer | 1930 | 2011 | Human Life | 26 | ||
| Warren Sturgis McCulloch | 1899 | 1969 | Human Life | Staff member, Research Laboratory of Electronics, MIT (1952–1969) | 27 | |
| William J. McGuire | 1925 | 2012 | Human Life | 28 | ||
| Peter Medawar | 1915 | 1987 | Human Life | Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, 1960; Jodrell Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, University College London (1951–1962); Director, National Institute, Mill Hill, London (1962–1971); Scientific staff member, Medical Research Council, England (1971–1984) | 29 | |
| William J. Baumol | 1922 | 2017 | Human Society | 30 | ||
| Daniel Bell | 1919 | 2011 | Human Society | Henry Ford II Professor Emeritus of Social Science, Harvard University | 31 | |
| Guiliano H. Bonfante | Human Society | 32 | ||||
| Kenneth E. Boulding | 1910 | 1993 | Human Society | Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of Colorado, Boulder | 33 | |
| Lewis A. Coser | 1913 | 2003 | Human Society | Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology, SUNY, Stony Brook | 34 | |
| Sigmund Diamond | 1920 | 1999 | Human Society | 35 | ||
| Carl J. Friedrich | 1901 | 1984 | Human Society | Eaton Professor of the Science of Government, Harvard University (1955–1971) | 36 | |
| Paul Mundy | Human Society | 37 | ||||
| Kenyon E. Poole | 1909 | 1988 | Human Society | 38 | ||
| C. Herman Pritchett | Human Society | 39 | ||||
| Sol Tax | 1907 | 1995 | Human Society | 40 | ||
| Charles Raymond Whittlesey | 1900 | 1979 | Human Society | 41 | ||
| Rudolf Arnheim | 1904 | 2007 | Art | Emeritus professor of Psychology of Art, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University | 42 | |
| Robert Jesse Charleston | 1916 | 1994 | Art | Keeper, Department of Ceramics, Victoria and Albert Museum (1963–1976) | 43 | |
| Clifton Fadiman | 1904 | 1999 | Art | Member, Board of Editors, Encyclopædia Britannica | 44 | |
| Francis Fergusson | 1904 | 1986 | Art | Professor of Comparative Literature, Rutgers University (1953–1969); Professor of Comparative Literature, Princeton University (1973–1981) | 45 | |
| John Gloag | 1896 | 1981 | Art | Novelist and writer on architecture and industrial design | 46 | |
| Richard Griffith | 1912 | 1969 | Art | Curator, Museum of Modern Art Film Library (1951–1965); Lecturer on Motion Pictures, Wesleyan University (1967–1969) | 47 | |
| Richard Hoggart | 1918 | 2014 | Art | Professor of English, University of Birmingham (1962–1973); Warden, Goldsmiths' College, University of London (1976–1984) | 48 | |
| Edward Lockspeiser | 1905 | 1973 | Art | Officier d'Académie, Paris; Writer and broadcaster on music. | 49 | |
| Roy McMullen | 1984 | Art | Author, critic, and art historian | 50 | ||
| Leonard B. Meyer | 1918 | 2007 | Art | Benjamin Franklin Professor of Music and Humanities, University of Pennsylvania | 51 | |
| Michael Morrow | 1929 | 1994 | Art | 52 | ||
| Beaumont Newhall | 1908 | 1993 | Art | Director, Eastman Kodak House (1958–1971); Visiting Professor of Art, University of New Mexico (1971–1984) | 53 | |
| Herbert Read | 1893 | 1968 | Art | Watson Gordon Professor of Fine Art, University of Edinburgh (1931–1933); editor, The Burlington Magazine (1933–1939); Charles Eliot Norton professor of Poetry, Harvard University (1953–1954) | 54 | |
| Richard Roud | 1929 | 1989 | Art | Program Director, London (1959–1963) and New York (1963–1987) Film Festivals; Film critic, The Guardian (1963–1969) | 55 | |
| George Savage | 1982 | Art | Art consultant; author of Porcelain Through the Ages, Pottery Through the Ages, and other works | 56 | ||
| Wolfgang Stechow | 1896 | 1974 | Art | Professor of Fine Arts, Oberlin College (1940–1963) | 57 | |
| Joshua C. Taylor | 1981 | Art | William Rainey Harper Professor of Humanities and Professor of Art, University of Chicago (1963–1974); Director, National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution | 58 | ||
| Everard M. Upjohn | 1903 | 1978 | Art | Professor of Fine Arts, Columbia University (1951–1970) | 59 | |
| Pierre Verlet | 1908 | 1987 | Art | Chief Curator, Cluny Museum (1945–1965); Chief Curator, National Museum of Sèvres Porcelain (1945–1965); Chief Curator of Art Objects from the Middle Ages to the Modern Period, Louvre Museum (1945–1965) | 60 | |
| René Wellek | 1903 | 1995 | Art | Sterling Professor of Comparative Literature, Yale University (1952–1972) | 61 | |
| Glynne William Gladstone Wickham | 1922 | 2004 | Art | Emeritus Professor of Drama, University of Bristol; Dean, Faculty of Arts (1970–1972) | 62 | |
| Raymond (Henry) Williams | 1921 | 1988 | Art | Professor of Drama, University of Cambridge (1974–1983); Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge (1961–1988) | 63 | |
| Paul S. Wingert | 1900 | 1974 | Art | Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University | 64 | |
| Bruno Zevi | 1918 | 2000 | Art | Professor of Architectural History, University of Rome (1963–1979) | 65 | |
| Konstantinos Apostolos Doxiadis | 1914 | 1975 | Technology | Chairman, Doxiadis Associates International; Chairman, Board of Directors, Doxiadis Associates, Inc.; Washington D.C. Chairman, Board of Directors, Athens Technological Organization; President, Athens Center of Ekistics | 66 | |
| Eugene S. Ferguson | 1916 | 2004 | Technology | Emeritus Professor of History, University of Delaware; Curator of Technology, Hagley Museum, Greenville Delaware | 67 | |
| Melvin Kranzberg | 1917 | 1995 | Technology | Callaway Professor of the History of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology (1972–1988) | 68 | |
| Harvey G. Mehlhouse | Technology | Vice President, Western Electric Company, New York City (1965–1969); President (1969–1971); Chairman of the Board (1971–1972) | 69 | |||
| Robert Smith Woodbury | 1983 | Technology | 70 | |||
| Arthur Llewellyn Basham | 1914 | 1986 | Religion | 71 | ||
| James T. Burtchaell | 1934 | 2015 | Religion | Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame; Provost (1970–1977) | 72 | |
| J. V. Langmead Casserley | 1909 | 1978 | Religion | 73 | ||
| Ichiro Hori | 1974 | Religion | 74 | |||
| Jaroslav Jan Pelikan | 1923 | 2006 | Religion | Sterling Professor of History, Yale University; President, American Academy of Arts and Sciences | 75 | |
| Jakob Josef Petuchowski | 1925 | 1991 | Religion | Sol and Arlene Bronstein Professor of Judeo-Christian Studies, Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati (1981–1991) | 76 | |
| Jacques Barzun | 1907 | 2012 | The History of Mankind | University Professor Emeritus, Columbia University; Dean of Faculties and Provost (1958–1967) | 77 | |
| Otto Allen Bird | 1914 | 2009 | The Branches of Knowledge | Emeritus Professor of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame | 78 | |
| Wing-Tsit Chan | 1901 | 1994 | The Branches of Knowledge | Professor of Chinese Philosophy and Culture, Dartmouth College (1942–1966); Anna R. D. Gillespie Professor of Philosophy, Chatham University (1966–1982) | 79 | |
| William Herbert Dray | 1921 | 2009 | The Branches of Knowledge | 80 | ||
| Norwood Hanson | 1924 | 1967 | The Branches of Knowledge | Professor of Philosophy, Yale University (1963–1967) | 81 | |
| J. H. Hexter | 1910 | 1996 | The Branches of Knowledge | Charles L. Stillé Professor of History, Yale University, (1967–1978); Distinguished Historian in residence, Washington University in St. Louis (1978–1986) | 82 | |
| Ernan V. McMullin | 1924 | 2011 | The Branches of Knowledge | Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame | 83 | |
| Karl Menger | 1902 | 1985 | The Branches of Knowledge | Professor of Mathematics, Illinois Institute of Technology (1946–1971) | 84 | |
| Arthur Norman Prior | 1914 | 1969 | The Branches of Knowledge | Fellow, Balliol College, University of Oxford; Professor of Philosophy, Manchester University (1959–1966) | 85 | |
| Nicholas Rescher | 1928 | 2024 | The Branches of Knowledge | University Professor of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh; editor, American Philosophical Quarterly | 86 | |
| Seymour Schuster | 1926 | 2020 | The Branches of Knowledge | 87 |
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.