The Order of Things

1. Resemblance as a Foundation of Knowledge (and its Demise)

Up to the end of the sixteenth century, resemblance played a constructive role in the knowledge of Western culture.

The Power of Similitude. Before the 17th century, knowledge was structured around resemblance. This wasn't just about seeing similar things; it was a deep-seated belief that the universe was interconnected through hidden likenesses. This guided interpretation of texts, organized symbols, and even controlled how things were represented. The world was seen as a series of echoes, with the earth mirroring the sky, and plants holding secrets useful to man.

Four Forms of Resemblance:

• Convenientia: Things are similar because they are close in space, sharing properties and influences.
• Aemulatio: Things imitate each other from a distance, like reflections in a mirror, creating a cosmic twinship.
• Analogy: Resemblances of relations, not just things, allowing connections across diverse realms.
• Sympathy: A free-flowing force that draws things together, balanced by antipathy, which keeps them apart.

The Need for Signatures. Resemblances were not enough; they needed visible marks or "signatures" to be recognized. These signatures were themselves resemblances, creating a complex system where signs pointed to other signs, all ultimately revealing the hidden likenesses of the world. This system intertwined hermeneutics (interpretation) and semiology (the study of signs).

2. The Rise of Order: Identity, Difference, and Measurement

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, during the period that has been termed, rightly or wrongly, the Baroque, thought ceases to move in the element of resemblance.

The Rejection of Resemblance. The 17th century marked a turning point. Resemblance, once the cornerstone of knowledge, was now seen as a source of error and confusion. Thought shifted towards a focus on identity, difference, measurement, and order. This wasn't a rejection of comparison, but a demand for a more rigorous form of it.

Two Forms of Comparison:

• Measurement: Analyzing things into units to establish relations of equality and inequality.
• Order: Arranging things in a series from the simplest to the most complex, revealing differences as degrees of complexity.

The Mathesis and the Empirical. This new emphasis on order led to a link with the mathesis, a universal science of measurement and order. This didn't mean all knowledge became mathematical, but that all knowledge was now seen as a system of order. This shift also gave rise to new empirical fields like general grammar, natural history, and the analysis of wealth.

3. Representation: The New Framework for Signs

From the seventeenth century onward, the whole domain of the sign is divided between the certain and the probable: that is to say, there can no longer be an unknown sign, a mute mark.

Signs as Tools of Analysis. In the Classical age, signs were no longer seen as inherent parts of the world, but as tools of representation. They were defined by three variables: certainty (how sure the sign is), type of relation (whether the sign is part of what it signifies), and origin (whether the sign is natural or conventional).

The Binary Nature of Signs. The sign was now understood as a connection between a signifier and a signified, a binary relationship. This meant that the sign had to represent not only the thing it signified, but also its own representative power. This led to a focus on how signs function within knowledge.

The Primacy of Conventional Signs. Conventional signs, created by humans, were seen as superior to natural signs. They were more flexible, precise, and capable of being combined and analyzed. This emphasis on conventional signs reflected a shift towards a more human-centered view of knowledge.

4. Language as a Tool of Analysis, Not a Reflection of the World

In its raw, historical sixteenth-century being, language is not an arbitrary system; it has been set down in the world and forms a part of it.

Language as a System of Order. Language was no longer seen as a mirror of the world, but as a tool for analyzing and ordering thought. Words were not inherently meaningful; they gained their value through their relationships with other words and their place in a system. Grammar was not about discovering the original meanings of words, but about understanding the properties of letters, syllables, and words and how they combine.

The Loss of Original Transparency. The idea that language was once a perfect reflection of the world was abandoned. Languages were seen as having lost their original transparency, becoming opaque and fragmented. The focus shifted from the search for a lost, perfect language to the analysis of how existing languages function.

The Primacy of Writing. Writing was given a privileged position over speech, seen as the active, "male" principle of language. The written word was considered more stable and reliable than the spoken word, which was seen as transitory and precarious. This emphasis on writing reflected a shift towards a more analytical and less mystical view of language.

5. The Emergence of New Empirical Fields: Natural History, General Grammar, and Analysis of Wealth

In this way, analysis has been able to show the coherence that existed, throughout the Classical age, between the theory of representation and the theories of language, of the natural orders, and of wealth and value.

Three New Sciences of Order. The Classical age saw the emergence of three new empirical fields: natural history (the study of living beings), general grammar (the study of language), and the analysis of wealth (the study of economics). These fields were all based on the idea of order and the use of signs to analyze and classify their objects.

Natural History: Focused on describing and classifying living beings based on their visible structures. It sought to create a table of all living things, organized by their identities and differences.
General Grammar: Analyzed language as a system of signs, focusing on the rules of syntax and the representative values of words. It sought to understand how language orders thought.
Analysis of Wealth: Examined the circulation of money and goods, seeking to understand the laws of exchange and the nature of value. It sought to create a system of equivalences between different forms of wealth.

The Interconnectedness of Knowledge. These three fields were not isolated from each other. They were all linked by a common epistemological framework, based on the idea of representation and the use of signs to analyze and order the world.

6. The Shift from Tabulation to History: Time as a Constitutive Force

From the nineteenth century onward, the theory of representation disappears as the universal foundation of all possible orders; language as the spontaneous tabula, the primary grid of things, as an indispensable link between representation and things, is eclipsed in its turn; a profound historicity penetrates into the heart of things.

The Dissolution of the Table. The Classical emphasis on order and tabulation began to give way to a new focus on history and time. The idea of a static, unchanging world was replaced by a sense of constant change and development. This shift was reflected in all areas of knowledge.

The Rise of Historicity. The new sciences of the 19th century were characterized by a focus on the historical development of their objects. Philology became the study of the historical evolution of languages, biology became the study of the historical evolution of species, and economics became the study of the historical evolution of production and exchange.

Time as an Internal Force. Time was no longer seen as an external framework for organizing knowledge, but as an internal force that shapes the very being of things. This shift marked a move away from a static, spatial view of the world towards a dynamic, temporal one.

7. The Birth of Man: Finitude, the Unthought, and the Limits of Knowledge

Strangely enough, man - the study of whom is supposed by the naive to be the oldest investigation since Socrates - is probably no more than a kind of rift in the order of things, or, in any case, a configuration whose outlines are determined by the new position he has so recently taken up in the field of knowledge.

Man as an Empirical and Transcendental Doublet. The emergence of the human sciences was accompanied by a new understanding of man as a being who is both an object of knowledge and a subject who knows. This created a tension between the empirical study of man and the transcendental conditions that make such study possible.

The Unthought and the Limits of Knowledge. The focus on man's finitude led to a recognition of the limits of human knowledge. The unthought, that which lies beyond the grasp of consciousness, became a central theme in modern thought. This recognition of the limits of knowledge was a departure from the Classical emphasis on the power of reason.

The End of Metaphysics. The new focus on man's finitude led to a questioning of traditional metaphysics. The search for a universal order was replaced by a focus on the concrete conditions of human existence. This shift marked a move away from a purely theoretical approach to knowledge towards a more practical and engaged one.

8. The Modern Episteme: A New Relationship Between Knowledge and Being

In attempting to uncover the deepest strata of Western culture, I am restoring to our silent and apparently immobile soil its rifts, its instability, its flaws; and it is the same ground that is once more stirring under our feet.

The Dissolution of Classical Order. The Classical episteme, based on representation and order, was replaced by a new framework that emphasized history, finitude, and the unthought. This shift marked a fundamental change in the way Western culture understood knowledge and being.

The Rise of New Disciplines. The new episteme gave rise to new disciplines like philology, biology, and economics, which focused on the historical development of their objects. These disciplines were characterized by a focus on the internal structures and processes of their objects, rather than their external relations.

The End of Representation. The new episteme marked the end of representation as the primary mode of knowledge. Language, life, and labor were no longer seen as mere reflections of an underlying reality, but as autonomous forces that shape our understanding of the world.

The Modern Condition. The modern condition is characterized by a tension between the desire for knowledge and the recognition of its limits. This tension is reflected in the ongoing dialogue between science, philosophy, and literature.

Last updated: January 26, 2025