Essay Questions

Expound the import of resemblance in the 'Western culture.'

Foucault explains, “Up to the end of the sixteenth century, resemblance played a constructive role in the knowledge of Western culture. It was resemblance that largely guided exegesis and the interpretation of texts; it was resemblance that organized the play of symbols, made possible knowledge of things visible and invisible, and controlled the art of representing them.” Resemblance advanced the expansion of symbolism; similar symbols are utilized in expounding various concepts. Symbolism is a major attribute in art; hence, it invites audiences to find meanings of different works by looking at the manifest symbols that are used in constructing the artworks.

How does analogy contribute to “The Prose of the World”?

Foucault elucidates, “An old concept already familiar to Greek science and medieval thought, but one whose use has probably become different now. In this analogy, convenientia and aemulatio are superimposed. Like the latter, it makes possible the marvellous confrontation of resemblances across space; but it also speaks, like the former, of adjacencies, of bonds and joints.” Analogy is utilized in facilitating convenience and emulations in the universe. Identifying resemblances between various realities results in an impeccable order in the universe that discerns cause-effect connections that are useful in streamlining the universe. Using analogy to compare realties underscores the inherent similarities among concepts which may be deemed dissimilar.

Deconstruct Crollius’s explanation of stars and plants.

Crollius expounds, “The stars are the matrix of all the plants and every star in the sky is only the spiritual prefiguration of a plant, such that it represents that plant, and just as each herb or plant is a terrestrial star looking up at the sky, so also each star is a celestial plant in spiritual form, which differs from the terrestrial plants in matter alone." According to Crollius' the star emulates land by harboring numerous stars that correspond to the individual plants thriving on the land. The emulation results in a continuous sequence from the universe to the sky. The emulation indicates that land and sky are not different. The sky photocopies land and vice versa.