Eidetic Grammar

I present here a project which is a part of the project about the technologies of order that I am working with. This project is based on my previous project on Broken Technologies and is a step in the direction of the development of a phenomenological anthropology which I have named "the humanist as engineer".

Research leader

Fernando Flores, Division of History of Ideas and Sciences

Status: Completed (2011–2012)
Subjects: History of Ideas and Sciences
Department: Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences

Main project

• Technologies of Order. The Humanist as engineer II

Project description

The first problem I was confronted with when trying to figure out the forms of order, was that it was not possible to consider order without imaging it. Textures, patterns, surfaces, rooms, areas, arrangements, configurations, alignments, etc., cannot become a mental content without imgagination. So it became clear that I needed to try to clarify the relationship between order and imagery.

The first reference available is Michel Foucault; especially his books, "The Order of Things", and "The Archaeology of Knowledge". I thought initially that at least some part of Foucault's work could be considered to belong to the phenomenological tradition but a closer reading revealed, unfortunately for me, that Foucault studied order as signs belonging to a system of signs. Foucault's research on orders belongs instead to the semiotic tradition and therefore could not be of much help for my research.

I had then to start from scratch and chose to ask imagery the fundamental questions about being, namely, What, Which, Where, When, Who, Why and How. I could quickly see that each question denote a family of presentations which in their turn correspond to a family of orders.

• Eidetic Grammar (PDF - New window)

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