The Category of the Individual Essay -- Sociology Sociological Papers

The Category of the IndividualIn The Order of Things, Michel Foucault argues that there is a keen experience of order and its modes of being (Foucault xxi), that order exists and that it is necessary. Foucault is concerned with manner of speaking because it is a mode by which we maintain order in the world, and correspond to his argument, what we should concern are heterotopias, which undermine language, make it impossible to name this and that, shatter or tangle common names, and destroy syntax in advance (Foucault xviii). When Foucault refers to syntax, he is non just talking about our method of constructing sentences but also that less(prenominal) apparent syntax which causes words and things (next to and also opposite one other) to hold together (Foucault xviii). In other words, there is need for us to take into account how the things in our world are related to each other. One of the ways in which we do this is through the method of categorization, which allows us to organ ize our world according to similarities and differences. However, Foucault stresses us to be cautious, to realize that we shall never succeed in delineate a stable relation of contained to container between each of these categories and that which includes them all (Foucault xvii). An encompassing category does not exist it cannot exist. Foucault insists on the need to pay worry to what is present in the empty space, the interstitial blanks separating all these entities from one another (Foucault xvi). It is not that language is inadequate it is just that we must be conscious of not only what is stated but also what is not today stated, what is contained inside language and what is outside language. When we organize the things in the world in... ...gle words. I dont believe in sadness, joy, or regret. Maybe the best proof that language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling (Eugenides 217). We must realize that the only figure that exists is what is normal to the se parate, to us. Our categories do not define us we define ourselves. Through our experiences, we construct identities that are unique to us, and we, as others, must learn to value our individual experiences because that is where the answer is, where it always has been. Works CitedEugenides, Jeffrey. Middlesex. New York Picador, 2002. Foucault, Michel. The Order of Things An Archaeology of the gentle Sciences. NewYork Vintage Books. Moraga, Cherre. The Breakdown of the Bicultural Mind. Names We Call Home history on Racial Identity. Eds. Becky Thompson and Sangeeta Tyagi.New York Routledge.