Michel Foucalt opens his study of the human sciences by citing a taxonomy that Borges found in an old Chinese encyclopaedia, which divided all animals into the following categories: (a) belonging to the Emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d) sucking pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present classification, (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a very fine camel hair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) having just broken the water pitcher, (n) those that from a long way off look like flies.
All taxonomies have an inherent and self-evident validity to those who subscribe to them, and the Chinese encyclopaedist is no exception.
‘Social Science and the challenge of global environmental change’ International Social Science Journal: Global Environmental Change 130 November 1991 p. 609—617.
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