Global Knowledge in the Global City According to Paul Otlet’s Twin Utopias

Abstract

This paper discusses some of the philosophical tenets underlying Paul Otlet’s work before and after World War I. A Belgian internationalist and documentalist, he anticipated the hyperlinked structure of today’s world wide web and designed a universal documentation system to integrate all branches of knowlege. This comprehensive structure was meant to be the central focus to rule a world city representing a new world polity, which would in turn order international relations around a “scientific goverment”.