List of animals (Borges)
Encyclopedia
Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge's Taxonomy is a bizarre and seemingly fictitious classification system
described by the writer Jorge Luis Borges
in his 1942 essay "The Analytical Language of John Wilkins" (El idioma analítico de John Wilkins). Wilkins
was proposing a universal language
based on a classification system that would encode a description of the thing a word describes into the word itself -- for example, Zi identifies the genus beasts; Zit denotes the "difference" rapacious beasts of the dog kind; and finally Zitα specifies dog. Borges' essay in response included this example of a supposed alternate taxonomy to expolore the arbitrariness (and cultural specificity) of any attempt to categorize the world.
The list divides all animals into one of 14 categories:
Borges claims that the list appears in an ancient Chinese encyclopaedia entitled Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge, and was "discovered" by the translator Franz Kuhn
.
Michel Foucault
begins his preface to The Order of Things,
Foucault then quotes Borges' passage.
Louis Sass has suggested, in response to Borges' list, that such "Chinese" thinking shows signs of typical schizophrenic thought processes. By contrast, the prominent linguist George Lakoff
has pointed out that Borges' list is similar to many categorizations of objects found in nonwestern cultures.
Keith Windschuttle
, an Australian historian, cited alleged acceptance of the authenticity of the list among many academics as a sign of the degeneration of the Western academy.
Borges himself questions the veracity of the quote in his essay, referring to "the unknown (or false) Chinese encyclopaedia writer".
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
described by the writer Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
in his 1942 essay "The Analytical Language of John Wilkins" (El idioma analítico de John Wilkins). Wilkins
John Wilkins
John Wilkins FRS was an English clergyman, natural philosopher and author, as well as a founder of the Invisible College and one of the founders of the Royal Society, and Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death....
was proposing a universal language
Universal language
Universal language may refer to a hypothetical or historical language spoken and understood by all or most of the world's population. In some circles, it is a language said to be understood by all living things, beings, and objects alike. It may be the ideal of an international auxiliary language...
based on a classification system that would encode a description of the thing a word describes into the word itself -- for example, Zi identifies the genus beasts; Zit denotes the "difference" rapacious beasts of the dog kind; and finally Zitα specifies dog. Borges' essay in response included this example of a supposed alternate taxonomy to expolore the arbitrariness (and cultural specificity) of any attempt to categorize the world.
The list divides all animals into one of 14 categories:
- Those that belong to the emperor
- EmbalmedEmbalmingEmbalming, in most modern cultures, is the art and science of temporarily preserving human remains to forestall decomposition and to make them suitable for public display at a funeral. The three goals of embalming are thus sanitization, presentation and preservation of a corpse to achieve this...
ones - Those that are trained
- Suckling pigs
- Mermaids (or SirenSirenIn Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous mermaid like creatures, portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on an island called Sirenum scopuli...
s) - Fabulous ones
- Stray dogs
- Those that are included in this classification
- Those that tremble as if they were mad
- Innumerable ones
- Those drawn with a very fine camel hair brush
- Et ceteraEt ceteraEt cetera is a Latin expression that means "and other things", or "and so forth". It is taken directly from the Latin expression which literally means "and the rest " and is a loan-translation of the Greek "καὶ τὰ ἕτερα"...
- Those that have just broken the flower vase
- Those that, at a distance, resemble flies
Borges claims that the list appears in an ancient Chinese encyclopaedia entitled Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge, and was "discovered" by the translator Franz Kuhn
Franz Kuhn
Franz W. Kuhn was a lawyer and a translator chiefly remembered for translating many Chinese novels into German, most famously the Dream of the Red Chamber.- Biography :...
.
Influences of the list
This list, whose "discovery" Borges attributes to Franz Kuhn, has stirred considerable philosophical and literary commentary.Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
begins his preface to The Order of Things,
This book first arose out of a passage in Borges, out of the laughter that shattered, as I read the passage, all the familiar landmarks of thought—our thought, the thought that bears the stamp of our age and our geography—breaking up all the ordered surfaces and all the planes with which we are accustomed to tame the wild profusion of existing things and continuing long afterwards to disturb and threaten with collapse our age-old definitions between the Same and the Other.
Foucault then quotes Borges' passage.
Louis Sass has suggested, in response to Borges' list, that such "Chinese" thinking shows signs of typical schizophrenic thought processes. By contrast, the prominent linguist George Lakoff
George Lakoff
George P. Lakoff is an American cognitive linguist and professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1972...
has pointed out that Borges' list is similar to many categorizations of objects found in nonwestern cultures.
Keith Windschuttle
Keith Windschuttle
Keith Windschuttle is an Australian writer, historian, and ABC board member, who has authored several books from the 1970s onwards. These include Unemployment, , which analysed the economic causes and social consequences of unemployment in Australia and advocated a socialist response; The Media: a...
, an Australian historian, cited alleged acceptance of the authenticity of the list among many academics as a sign of the degeneration of the Western academy.
Attribution
Scholars have questioned whether the attribution of the list to Franz Kuhn is genuine. While Kuhn did indeed translate Chinese literature, Borges' works often feature many pseudo-learned references resulting in a mix of facts and fiction. To date, no evidence for the existence of such a list has been found.Borges himself questions the veracity of the quote in his essay, referring to "the unknown (or false) Chinese encyclopaedia writer".
See also
- Book of Imaginary BeingsBook of Imaginary BeingsJorge Luis Borges wrote and edited the Book of Imaginary Beings in 1957 as the original Spanish Manual de zoología fantástica, or Handbook of Fantastic Zoology, expanding it in 1967 and 1969 to the final El libro de los seres imaginarios...
, Borges' bestiaryBestiaryA bestiary, or Bestiarum vocabulum is a compendium of beasts. Bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals, birds and even rocks. The natural history and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson...
, a catalog of fantastic animals - An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical LanguageAn Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical LanguageAn Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language is the best-remembered of the numerous works of John Wilkins, in which he expounds a new universal language, meant primarily to facilitate international communication among scholars, but envisioned for use by diplomats, travelers, and...
, the 1668 work of philosopher John WilkinsJohn WilkinsJohn Wilkins FRS was an English clergyman, natural philosopher and author, as well as a founder of the Invisible College and one of the founders of the Royal Society, and Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death....
that was the subject of Borges' essay