The Role of Classification Structures in Reflecting and Building Theory

Abstract

In general, we can say that the role of a classification scheme is to provide a descriptive and explanatory framework for ideas and a structure for the relationships among the ideas. We create classificatory schemes to organize our knowledge of the world in such a way as to be useful in communicating and using this knowledge. It follows then, that a felicitous classification scheme has embedded within its content and structure a great deal of information - not only about the entities themselves (representing individual phenomena and concepts) but also about the relationships among these phenomena and concepts, that is, how these things go with respect to each other. As such, classifications are really very much like theories. Like theories, classification schemes can provide an explanatory shell for looking at the world from a contextually determined perspective. Classification schemes not only reflect knowledge by being based on theory and displaying it in a useful way (as, for example, in the phylogenetic tree based on Darwinian theory), but also classifications in themselves function as theories do and serve a similar role in inquiry: that is, the role of explanation, parsimonious and elegant description, and the generation of new knowledge. In this paper I examine the strong relationship of theories and 'classification schemes. Two classification schemes: The DSM Classification (for mental disorders) and the Periodic Table of Elements are offered as two examples of this relationship. Next, I examine three classification structures and their properties: hierarchies, trees, and faceted classifications as examples of how classificatory structure and theory interact.