Searching and Classifying. Universal Taxonomy of Carolus Linnaeus and Mathesis Universalis of Leibniz are the Ground of Michel Foucault's Conception of 'Episteme' VASIL PENCHEV Bulgarian Academy of Sciences TeKCTbT o6cb)f(J1a flii1Heeeara K1lacii1¢111KaL\1110HHa cxeMa 111 111,QeRTa 3a YHII1eepcanHo 1113'-lii1CileHII1e Ha flai/16HII1L\ B OCHOBaTa Ha nOHRTII1eTO ,enii1CTeMa" Ha ¢peHCKII1R ¢111IlOCO¢ M111we11 ¢yKO, KaKTO 111 Bpb3KaTa Ha npe,QCTaBaTa 3a YHII1BepcaneH pe,Q c Bb3f1le.QII1 Ha ,[leKapr (,npae111na 3a pbKOBO.QCTBO Ha yMa") 111 KaHT (,Kp111r111Ka Ha '-lii1CTII1R pa3yM", ,Kp111TII1Ka Ha cnoco6Hocna 3a Cb)I(J1eHII1e"). 'Episteme' designates the accepted mode of creating and ordering knowledge in a given period (e.g. 18th century). Several discourses can coalesce into such an episteme, which assure some their coherence within an underlying structure of hidden principles about what is knowledge in the considered period. The term has been coined by the French philosopher Michel Foucault, Les mots et /es choses1• Foucault attempted to show that and how an episteme based on resemblances and analogies had superseded in the 17th century by a new episteme of identities and distinctions. The 19th century instituted a further episteme of historical evolution. He disputed Leibhiz' idea of 'mathesis universal is' and 'characteristica universal is'a project of a general science of order, a theory of sign analyzing the way for anything to be represented. All the Chapter 5, ,Classifying" of Les Mots et les chases is based on two main papers of Carolus Linnaeus: Systema natura&, and especially Philosophie botanique3• Thereby roughly, the extensive network of empirical knowledge was outlined: that of non-quantitative orderings. Maybe a distant, but persistent unity of a universal taxonomy would be prominent for the entire clearness after Linnaeus, when he suggested that he would bring to light one and the same distribution, one and the same order in any concrete domains of nature and society. 1 Paris. Gallimard, 1966 (English translation: The Order of Things; Bulgarian edi- tion: ,.QyMII1Te 111 Helljara", ,HayKa 111 1113Kycrso", Co¢>w1 1990). 2 http://www .fh-augsburg.de/% 7Eharsch/Chronologia/Lspost18/Linne/lin_sysn. html. 3 http://botanicallatin.org/philbot/pblect.html. 20 A paragraph, ,« Mathesis" et ,taxinomia"" of that chapter, is devoted to a eral science of the order': Science generale de l'ordre a ures simples Representations complexes t Mathesis Taxinomia t t Algebre Signes Table 1.4 MCe qui rend possible !'ensemble de l'episteme classique, c'est d'abord "3.3port a une connaisance de l'ordre. Lorsqu'il s'agit d'ordonner les --_ -es simples, on a recours a une mathesis dont Ia methode universale est ;e:lre."5 Lorsqu'il s'agit de mettre en ordre des natures complexes (les =- �:sentations en general, telles qu'elles sont donnees dans !'experience), -�-: constituer une taxinomia et pour ce faire instaurer un systeme de *nnaeus is credited with setting up the hierarchical structure of 5S cation based upon observable characteristics. While the underlying s concerning what are reckoned to be scientifically relevant as visible or -as* observable signs or features has changed with developing cognition, __ amental principles continue to be solid. In Systema naturae (1735) he ��*ed his classification of plants, animals, and minerals, and in Genera -= m7 (1737) he explained his system for classifying plants largely on the - :;• the number of stamens and pistils in the flower. His classification has :: -ed the basis of modern taxonomy: botanists acceded in 1905 to establish . Foucault. Les mots et les choses. Paris: Gallimard, 1966, p. 87 . . Foucault. Les mots et les choses. Paris: Gallimard, 1966, p. 86. ,What -- -�e totality of the Classical episteme possible is primarily the relation to a -:-=,.e of order. When dealing with the ordering of simple natures, one has re- � • a mathesis, of which the universal method is algebra" (Foucault, M. The =<!lings. An Archaeology of the Human sciences. Vintage Books Edition. New - !?94, p. 71, http:// www.illogicaloperation.com/textz/foucault_michel_the_or- -_-gs.htm) . . Foucault. Les mots et les choses. Paris: Gallimard, 1966, p. 86. ,When the ordering of complex natures (representations in general, as they are experience), one has to constitute a taxinomia, and to do that one has to =a system of signs. These signs are to the order of composite natures what _ s to the order of simple natures." (Foucault, M. The Order of Things. An y of the Human sciences. Vintage Books Edition. New York, 1994, p. 71, illogicaloperation.com/textz/foucault_michel_the_order_of_things.htm). Genera plantarum, eorumque characteres naturales secundum numerum, figu- & proportionem omnium fructificationis partium. 2 his ,Species plantarum"8 (2 vols., 1753) and zoologists the tenth edition of his ,Systema naturae" (1758) as the official starting points for scientific names of plants and animals. The main principle of Linneaus taxonomy and classification called Binomial Nomenclature is following. The species of plant and animal had a genus name ensued by a specific name. Michel Foucault is famous as well by his idea of ,the disappearing figure of man": ,l'homme n'est qu'une invention recente, une figure qui n'a pas deux si£3cles, un simple pli dans notre savoir, et qu'il disparaTtra des que celui-ci aura trouve une forme nouvelle" (p. 15)9• Generalizing Kant's a priori as an already ,historical a prion" was another leading for him conception: "A partir de que/ a priori historique a-t-il ete possible de definir /e grand damier des identites distinctes qui s'etablit sur /e fond brouille, indefini, sans visage et comme indifferent, des differences?" (p. 15)10. His book starts by a detailed explanation of Velaskez' ,Las Meninas" (1656), serving as an original ,painting motto" of ,Les mots et les choses", but I would like to suggest another interpretation of that so famous beginning: The painter representing ,/es mots et /es choses", or ,the words and the things", and their connection, namely ,the order of things", was as the hidden, invisible as the real focus of the canvas, and what is more, he had depicted himself, the depicter, the hidden focus ... just as a leaving person, formally in the background, but the true light center of the painting. Scholia: The representing, depicting, classifying, creating the dictionary of ,les mots et les choses", in our case -Linnaeus, was who hid himself . . . into his creation. By analogia entis, we after Linnaeus might suggest, that the Creator of Nature has hidden Himself in some natural things in such a way to have ordered the living beings as Their Real Focus (and hopefully, to have allowed for His Creation to be classified by us, people). The Creator of Nature (and in particular, of organisms) was ,natural" to have hidden Himself in the ,creative", i.e. reproductive organs, and by which to permit for Linnaeus to classify all the plants. Tracing the basic idea of a universal science of order after Descartes, Leibniz, and Kant is very instructive: 8 Species plantarum, exhibentes plantas rite cognitas, ad genera relatas, cumdif- ferentiis specificis, nominibus trivialibus, synonymis selectis, locis natalibus, secundum systema sexualedigestas 9 , ... man is only a recent invention, a figure not yet two centuries old, a new wrinkle in our knowledge, and that he will disappear again as soon as that knowledge has discov- ered a new form" (p. xxii). http://www.illogicaloperation.com/textz/foucault_michel_the_or- der_of_things.htm 10 ,What historical a priori provided the starting-point from which it was possible to define the great checkerboard of distinct identities established against the confused, undefined, faceless, and, as it were, indifferent background of differences?" (p. xxiii).http:// www.illogicaloperation.com/textz/foucault_michel_the_order_of_things.htm 22 Regulce ad directionem ingenii of Descartes (in the penultimate paragraph of Rule IV) says: ,ac proinde genera/em quandam esse debere scientiam, quae id omne explicet, quod circa ordinem et mensuram nulli speciali materiae addictas quaeri potest, eandemque, non ascititio vocabulo, sed jam veterato atque usu recepto, Mathesim universalem nominari, quoniam in hac continetur il/ud omne, propter quod aliae scientiae et Mathematicae partes appellantur. "11 Th$3 idea of a universal science of order might be met in many papers of Leibniz. Let us remember only the famous appeal: Calculemus! (Let us calculate for it to dispute!): "ltaque profertur hie calculus quidam novus et mirificus, qui in omnibus nostris ratiocinationibus locum habet, et qui non minus accurate procedit, quam Arithmetica aut Algebra. Quo adhibito semper terminari possunt controversiae quantum ex datis eas determinari possibi/e est, manu tantum ad ca/amum admota; ut sufficiat duos disputantes omissis verborum concertationibus sibi invicem dicere: c a I c u I e m u s." 12 Leibniz wrote as well of initia scientiae generalis (principles of universal science), among which is universal mathematics: INITIA SCIENTIAE GENERALIS. CONSPECTUS SPECIMINUM "/. Mathematica Generalis, de Magnitudine sive Quantitate, et Similitudine 15 sive qualitate, determinandis, qua Numerorum tam certorum quos Arithmetica tradit, quam incertorum quibus Algebra occupatur, calculus omnis navis artibus perficitur, abso/vunturque quae hactenus visa non sunt in potestate. "13 Eternal Truth, Art of Discovery, and an Encyclopedia of all the human knowledge, or an accession book for it to be classified, are the consecutive books of his basic idea: "Pars I . lnitia Scientiae Generalis 11 http://pedagogie.ac-toulouse.fr/philosophie/descregulae.htm: ,.there must be some general science to explain everything which can be asked concerning measure and order not predicated of any special subject matter. This, I perceived, was called ,.Universal Mathematics", not a far fetched designation, but one of long standing which has passed into current use, because in this science is contained everything on account of which others are called parts of mathematics."Cit. in, and more about Mathesis Universa/is after Descartes in: John A. Schuster. Descartes' Mathesis Universalis: 16 19-28. In: Descartes: Philosophy, Mathematics and Physics, The Harvester Press. Sussex Burnes & Noble books. New Jersey, 1980, pp. 41-96. 12 Synopsis libri cui titulus er it:lnitia et Specimina Scientiae novae Generalis pro lnstauratione et Augmentis Scientiarum ad publicam felicitatem (http://www.uni-muenster. de/Leibniz BandVI4 TeilbandA: Seite 1509, S. 443.) ,.There is delivered a certain new and wonderful calculation, which has relation to all our reflections and which is proceeded not less accurate than Arithmetic and Algebra. * As applied to controversions, they can terminate always as they are soluble on data just by putting pen to paper; it is sufficient for two disputers omitting verbal pleadings to say each other: let us c a I c u I a t e." 13 (http://www.uni-muenster.de/Leibniz BandVI4 TeilbandA: Seite 1509, S. 362.) Elements of Universal Science. An approximate view: ,.I. Universal mathematics for magnitudes, or quantities, and similarities, or qualities, to be determined: all the calcu- lations realize by new methods by numbers as fixed, which arithmetic studies, as indefi- nite, which algebra studies, and by which what seems hitherto impossible resolves." 23 Lib. I. Elementa Veritatis aeternae , seu de forma argumentandi qua permodum calculi omnes controversiae demonstrative tollantur . . . Lib. II. De Arte lnveniendi . . . Lib. Ill. Consilium de Encyclopaedia condenda, velut lnventario cognitionis humanae condendo . . . ,14• "Keime" and ,Anlage" after Kant {Ph. Sloan about ,the biological roots of Kant's a priori")15• According to Ph. Sloan, ,the terms Keime, commonly rendered in English translations as ,seed", but which I consider best rendered within its historical context by term ,germ", and Anlage, usually translated as ,disposition", ,predisposition", ,aptitude", or ,capacity". I have settled on the term ,predisposition" as the best contextualized rendition."16 The connection between Keime and Anlage that biological metaphor, which we may find as after Kant as after Foucault, in the ground of a priori is watched in Kant's Kritik der reinen Vernunft: , Wir werden also die reinen Begriffe bis zu ihren ersten Keimen und Anlagen im mensch lichen Verstande verfolgen, in denen sie vorbereitet liegen, bis sie endlich bei Gelegenheit der Erfahrung entwickelt und durch ebendenselben Verstand, von den ihnen anhangenden empirischen Bedingungen befreit, in ihrer Lauterkeit dargestellt werden. "17 Kant spoke as well of an ,epigenesis" of pure reason: "Folglich bleibt nur das zweite Db rig {gleichsam ein System der Epigenesis der reinen Vernunft): daB namlich die Kategorien von seiten des Verstandes die Grande der Moglichkeit aller Erfahrung uberhaupt enthalten. "18 According to Kant's Kritik der Urteilskraft, the theory of epigenesis considered nature not only as developing, but also as self-generative nature: "Wenn man dagegen an dem Verteidiger der Epigenesis den graBen Vorzug, den er in Ansehung der Erfahrungsgrunde zum Beweise seiner Theorie vor dem ersteren hat, gleich nicht kennete: so wurde die Vernunft doch schon zum voraus tar seine Er-klarungsart mit vorzuglicher Gunst eingenommen sein, wei/ sie die Natur in Ansehung der Dinge, welche man ursprunglich nur nach der Kausalitat der Zwecke 14 (http://www.uni-muenster.de/Leibniz BandVI4Teilband A: Seite 1509, S. 359360.) ,Part I. Principles of Universal Science. Book 1. The elements of eternal verity ... all the controversions settle by means of calculations ... Book 2. The art of discovery ... Book 3. A plan for Encyclopedia, for an accession book of human knowledge to be created ... " 15 Dimitrov, I. Imagination and Cognition (Kant's Heuristics). Univ. Diss., Sofia, 2003, pp. 182185. 16 Sloan, Ph. Preforming the Categories: Eighteenth-Century Generation. Theory and Biological Roots of Kant's A Priori. In: Journal of the History of Philosophy, vol. 40 (2002), No.2, pp. 229-253: p. 232. 17 (http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/academic/digitexts/kant/pure_reason/pure_reason. txt, translated by J. M. D. Meiklejohn:) ,We shall therefore follow up the pure conceptions even to their germs and beginnings in the human understanding, in which they lie, until they are developed on occasions presented by experience, and, freed by the same understand- ing from the empirical conditions attaching to them, are set forth in their unalloyed purity." 18 (http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/academic/digitexts/kant/pure_reason/pure_reason.txt, translated by J. M. D. Meiklejohn) ,Consequently, nothing remains but to adopt the second alternative (which presents us with a system, as it were, of the epigenesis of pure reason), namely, that on the part of the understanding the categories do contain the grounds of the possibility of all experience." 24 � aJs moglich vorstellen kann doch wenigstens, was die Fortpflanzung betrifft, als hervor-bringend, nicht bloB als entwickelnd, betrachtet . . . "19 In Kant's Kritik der reinen Vernunft, the following significant passage is (transl. by Ph. Sloan): "The foundations [Grande] which lie in the nature of organic body _ a...,. or animal) for a determinate unfolding [bestimten Auswickelung] are :d germs [Keime] when this unfolding affects specific parts. But when it :-c*s only the size or the relations of the parts to one another, I call them :::*JaJ predipositions [natarliche Anlagen] . . . . In birds of the same species, � happen to live in different climates, lie germs for the unfolding of a new = =* of features, if they live in cold climates, which will be surprised when -. reside in temperature [climates] ... Chance or general mechanical laws - ;-e'Tleine mechanische Gesetze] cannot bring being forth such adaptations. --.ere by we must consider such opportunistic unfolding [Auswickelungen] as =" rmed [vorgebildet]. Even then, where nothing purposive is displayed, the -=capacity [vermogen] to propagate its special acquired character is already stration enough that a particular germ or natural predisposition [Keime =* r"Jatarliche Anlagen] for it has been discovered in organic creation."20 Conclusion: The 181h century, the century of Linnaeus, passed under the sign of cation. It was sanctioned by a leaving His Creation Creator, however yet - "ing the focus of things, the order of thing as a specific part of the world g for people to classify all the plants and animals ... Two centuries later, Michel Foucault attempted to classify analogically e KJ1owledge not by its correspondence to things, but by its coherence with e hidden focus of his notion of ,episterna", of that coherence of words ..,emselves, turned out Linnaeus' principle of classification ... BACV1n nEHYEB, ,Q-p (1995), ,QOI..IeHT (2003), A<t>H (2009), pa6on, B IIIHCT�- � :;a o13Cne,QBaHe Ha o6Ll.lecrsara � 3HaH�ero 6AH; Hay4H� 6norose, Cb.Qbp>Kall.l� - :-o MY Hay4H� ny6n�Kal..l�� � MOHorpa<t>��: http://www.scribd.com/vasil?penchev; ast ?penchev.wordpress.com/ � ,Qp. (4pe3 ryrbn). VASIL PENCHEV, PhD ( 1995), assoc. prof. (2003), DSc (2009), works at the " 'or the Study of Societies and Knowledge at BAS; science blogs posting the _• is monographs and publications: http://www.scribd.com/vasil?penchev, http:// -;Je chev.wordpress.com/ , etc. (by Google). asildinev@gmail.com *�.If, on the contrary, man would not recognize the essential advantage of the de- • epigenesis, which he has over the first in relation to the empirical foundations of :-:: • of his theory, reason would favour to his way of explanation yet preliminary, since = s considered by this theory at least as to reproduction on account of things, which ::a. represent initially as possible only in according to the causality of purposes, _ as a self-generative than only as a developing nature ... " z Kant, I. Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Hamburg: Meiner, 1980, S. 433435 (editor: erman). Cit. in: Sloan, Ph. Preforming the Categories: Eighteenth-Century :-a * . Theory and Biological Roots of Kant's A Priori. In: Journal of the History of y, vol. 40 (2002), No. 2, pp. 229-253: p. 2 40.