Propædia

The one-volume Propædia is the first of three parts of the 15th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica, the other two being the 12-volume Micropædia and the 17-volume Macropædia. The Propædia is intended as a topical organization of the Britannica's contents, complementary to the alphabetical organization of the other two parts. 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.

In March 2012, Britannica's president, Jorge Cauz, announced that it would not produce any new print editions of the encyclopaedia, with the 2010 15th edition being the last. This was announced as a move by the company to adapt to the times and focus on its future using digital distribution.

Analogous to the Britannica itself, the Outline has three types of goals: epistemological, educational, and organizational. In the epistemological arena, it seeks to provide a systematic, strictly hierarchical categorization of all possible human knowledge, a 20th-century analog of the Great Chain of Being and Francis Bacon's outline in Instauratio magna. In the educational arena, the Propædia lays out a course of study for each major discipline, a "roadmap" for a student who wishes to learn a field in its entirety. Finally, the Propædia serves as an expanded Table of Contents for the Micropædia and Macropædia; according to its designer, Mortimer J. Adler, all the articles of the Britannica were commissioned based on the Outline of Knowledge.

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