Borrow Authority From Scarcity

Quietly Increase Value

rarity

is a critical perspective concerned with stressing the distinctiveness of a particular historical ontology in contrast to more traditional studies that highlight the difference between truth and ideology.

The second reversal replaces the focus on 'deficit' by an interest in 'rarity.' According to Foucault, critique does not refer to a lack of knowledge but to the limits truth regimes impose on autonomy and equality. It does not rely on the difference between truth and ideology, but follows the principle of rarity by stressing the distinctiveness of a particular historical ontology. This critical perspective generates a series of questions: Given the present ontological order, how do I have to be in order to be' Wha t conditions do I have to meet in order to be recognized' Or to put it simply: 'what, therefore, am I'' (1997: 46)

is a critical perspective grounded in the idea that human phenomena are exceptional: They are not ensconced in the plenitude of reason... there is empty space around them for other phenomena that we in our wisdom do not grasp... what is could be otherwise.

5. See Paul Veyne's comments on 'rarity': 'The term for Foucault's initial intuition is not structure, or break, or discourse: it is exceptionality, rarity, in the Latin sense of the word. Human phenomena are exceptional: they are not ensconced in the plenitude of reason... there is empty space around them for other phenomena that we in our wisdom do not grasp... what is could be otherwise' (1997: 147)

is a critical perspective that concerns itself with how the following questions were answered at different historical moments: 'How do I have to be in order to be'' 'What conditions do I have to meet in order to be recognized''.

The second reversal replaces the focus on 'deficit' by an interest in 'rarity.' According to Foucault, critique does not refer to a lack of knowledge but to the limits truth regimes impose on autonomy and equality. It does not rely on the difference between truth and ideology, but follows the principle of rarity by stressing the distinctiveness of a particular historical ontology. This critical perspective generates a series of questions: Given the present ontological order, how do I have to be in order to be' What conditions do I have to meet in order to be recognized' Or to put it simply: 'what, therefore, am I'' (1997: 46)

is not a defining attribute of the statement.

Foucault himself emphasizes in The Archaeology of Knowledge that rarity is not a contingent but a defining attribute of the statement. It is precisely this which distinguishes the Foucaldian concept of the statement from that of the sentence or proposition.

is valued for being rare. What is seldom is tasty.

is prized --- the nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat

The nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat

is certain to bring value --- the sweetest water is in deepest wells.

is enjoyable --- It is the rare pleasures that especially delight us.

It is the rare pleasures that especially delight us. EPICTETUS: Encheiridion, c. 110

rarity, n.All

rarity