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Note on 3/14/06: This outline is in the middle of a substantial revision.

This is an outline of one possible way to organize Core Topics from most general to more specific.

One use of this organization by level is to identify to level of articles (such as most general) that are in need of work, such as being in stub/start status. Another use is to see if any very general and important subjects need to be included as core topics.

Core Topics Level 1.0: Most general categories

Note: Mind, Nature, and Society seem to me to be start-level articles.

About these top level categories: One of the most basic ways to understand how we understand is to differentiate between these types of knowing: objective, inter-subjective, and subjective. In the above, we can see nature as all of the objective world, society and humans (people) as all of the inter-subjective world, and mind as the subjective world (in part). In actuality, these aspects are all inter-woven. I was thinking these categories -- objective, inter-subjective, and subjective -- could be in our basic core topics list, but objective and subjective are disambiguation lists and inter-subjective doesn't exist yet so more thought needs to go into how to characterize these basic aspects of the world.

See core topic levels qaud for an alternate organization to this top level.

Core Topics Level 1.1: General "domain" categories

(mostly top level subject categories of Wikipedia and other encyclopedias)

Nature:

Society:

  • add: Social structures or systems (economy, politics, family, etc.)
  • add: Material culture (clothing, crafts, housing, tools, techology, etc.)
  • Culture^^, symbolic or expressive (art, language, religion, science, etc.)

Mind:

^ Space is a disambiguation page, which, at some point, should be probably turned into a unique article about aspects of space and re-included in core topics. ^^In some views, society and culture are similar, even co-extensive. In this outline, I am focusing on the more structural aspect of society, hence (conveniently enough) the focus on social structure.

I propose we include these subjects at this level: Nature:

About this level: This level now has a more abstract level of organization. Originally, this was organized such that 1.0 and 1.1 combined included most of the English Wikipedia top subject portals (categories/lists/ect.). Most of these are now at level 1.2 below. Some parts of 1.1 & 1.2 are now similar to the top level of Encyclopedia Britannica's Propaedia organization of all knowledge topics, see Encyclopedia Subject Categories.

Note: Outer space is a start-level article.

Core Topics Level 1.2: Basic natural, social & mental categories

Basic aspects of nature & society and some general knowledge categories

Note: there are more categories in this level because reality quickly diversifies after the top level. This list can be arbitrarily divided for processing. I am subdividing the list by main category (nature, society, knowledge). This might assist in organizing the editing of articles in batches (or across batches).

Nature:

Society and people:

Social systems:

Material cultures:

Symbolic cultures:

Culture, general aspects:

Mind:

  • To add: (see mind section below)

Proposed additions to the Core Topics list, for level 1.2:

Nature:

Society and people:

Mind: (To add -- much of this)

About this level: This level bridges from general to specific topics. If there is another very general topic, it can be fit into or replace the above or here. Probably there will be some more fitting in...

Core Topics Level 1.3

1.31. Nature (see below for suggested additions):

1.32. Society and people:

Social structures:

Economic sectors:

Cultures:

Knowledge Disciplines and Areas:

Exact sciences:

Knowledge, aspects:

1.33. Mind: (To add -- much of this)

Proposed additions to the Core Topics list, for level 1.3:

Nature:

Society and people: Social systems:

Cultures:

Knowledge:

About this level: This is in between general and specific. Topics get more specific at this level. Reality quickly diversifies after generalities. This is one reason there are more proposed basic topic subjects at this level. This level and below could be arbitrarily sub-divided for managing work on articles.

Core Topics Level 1.4

NOTE: levels 1.4 and 1.5 need some more sorting out

These are important subjects but many are specific instances of more general categories above.

Nature: Continents/regions:

Society and people:

Social systems:

Cultures:

Arts:

Languages:

Religions:

Basic tools and technology:

Transportation:

Mathematical disciplines and concepts:

Mind:

Proposed Basic Topic additions to 1.4 level:

Nature:

Planets and moons:

Society and people:

Social systems:

Principles (perhpas down to 1.5) of social systems:

History of development of modernity:

Knowledge:

Core Topics Level 1.5

Here are some specific Core Topics that could be viewed as sub-categories of the above:

Society:

Arts, sub-genres:

Technology and applied sciences:

Knowledge Sub-disciplines and inter-disciplinary fields:

Knowledge, aspects:

Perhaps some of the 1.4 articles can go into 1.5 (and vice-versa). Or, perhaps some or all of 1.4 and 1.5 can go in the list of 1000 articles here: Wikipedia:List of featured articles English Wikipedia should have.

On the other hand, I don't see any reason why we couldn't go over 200 topics for Core topics, especially in using a level system to organize work.

Possible additions to Core Topics

There may be other general topics that emerge to be added to the above, especially after reviewing various Wikipedia work group and discipline lists for general content.

Here are the top level categories of the above 1000 article page, linked above. To do: check these against the above:

1 Biography 1.1 Composers and musicians 1.2 Explorers 1.3 Inventors and scientists 1.4 Writers and thinkers 1.5 Politicians and leaders 2 History 3 Foodstuffs 3.1 Beverages 4 Geography 4.1 Continents and regions 4.2 Countries 4.3 Bodies of water 4.4 Mountains, valleys and deserts 4.5 Cities 4.6 Disasters 5 Philosophy 6 Religion 6.1 Religious philosophies 7 Society and Social Sciences 7.1 Economics 7.1.1 Currency 7.2 International organizations 7.3 Politics 7.4 Social issues and principles 7.5 Social sciences 8 Culture 8.1 Architecture 8.2 Literature 8.3 Music 9 Science 10 Language 11 Mathematics 12 Anatomy 13 Games and sport 14 Technology 15 Colors

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