Introduction to the Anatomy of Value

Over the course of the 20^th century, particularly since the publishing of Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals and the works of Foucault generally, the topic of social construction has become more and more essential to how life is thought of and lived. Facts increasingly become disputed opinions. Long-held convictions become bucked as mere enforcements of power structures. Certainty becomes chipped away as it is revealed that you never had any freely acquired knowledge to begin with. Teaching, speaking, learning, philosophizing, every act involving knowledge involves power, social construction and control. But this is not a challenge I will confront in this particular work. Rather, I would like to arrive to it first through an analysis of how exactly this construction works; how we come to and perpetuate this social battle over what is considered true. This will constitute not just an analysis, but even a set of habits of the mind and behaviors of values themselves. These can be further made into tools for resistance and reflection.

Part I