A binary two-camp model of society supplanted ternary and pyramidal descriptions
Evidence
The great pyramidal description that the Middle Ages or philosophico-political theories gave of the social body, the great image of the organism or the human body painted by Hobbes, or even the ternary organization (the three orders) that prevailed in France (and to a certain extent a number of other countries in Europe) and which continued to articulate a certain number of discourses, or in any case most institutions, 1s being challenged by a binary conception of society. This had happened before, but this is the first time the binary conception has been articulated with a specific history. There are two groups, two categories of individuals, or two armies, and they are opposed to each other. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 1647
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- DEFINE: This defines Foucault’s core heredito-political binary structure of society as opposed to ternary order — a key carry-forward concept.
- XREF: Binary versus ternary social description connects to Said’s Orientalism and its friend/enemy constructions of the Other.