Order is the planning of
time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
and organizing of
resource
''Resource'' refers to all the materials available in our environment which are Technology, technologically accessible, Economics, economically feasible and Culture, culturally Sustainability, sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and want ...
s, as well as of society.
Although orderliness is rarely discussed as a virtue in contemporary society, order is central to improving
efficiency
Efficiency is the often measurable ability to avoid making mistakes or wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time while performing a task. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without waste.
...
, and is at the heart of
time management
Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities—especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency and productivity.
Time management involves demands relating to work, social ...
strategies such as David Allen's ''
Getting Things Done''.
Emergence
The valorisation of order in the early stages of commercialization and industrialisation was linked by
R. H. Tawney to Puritan concerns for system and method in 17th-century England. The same period saw English prose developing the qualities
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold (academic), Tom Arnold, literary professor, and Willi ...
described as "regularity, uniformity, precision, balance".
"Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time" is a saying attributed to
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...
in 1730, while he was 20 years old. It was one of his 13
virtue
A virtue () is a trait of excellence, including traits that may be morality, moral, social, or intellectual. The cultivation and refinement of virtue is held to be the "good of humanity" and thus is Value (ethics), valued as an Telos, end purpos ...
s.
A darker view of the early modern internalisation of order and discipline was taken by
Michel Foucault
Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...
in ''The Order of Things'' and ''Discipline and Punish''; but for
Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher ('' philosophe''), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects ...
love of order both in nature and in the harmonious psyche of the natural man was one of the tap-roots of moral conscience.
Romantic reaction
The
Romantic reaction against reason, industry, and the sober virtues led to a downgrading of order as well. In art, spontaneity took precedence over method and craft; in life, the
Bohemian call of wildness and disorder eclipsed the appeal of ordered sobriety – as with the cultivated disorganization of the 1960s
hippie
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...
.
"Latter-day attempts such as those of
Deidre McCloskey to reclaim the bourgeois virtues like order may be met in some quarters only by laughter."
Sociology
Sociologists—while noting that praise of order is generally associated with a conservative stance – one that can be traced back through
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke (; 12 January ew Style, NS1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Anglo-Irish Politician, statesman, journalist, writer, literary critic, philosopher, and parliamentary orator who is regarded as the founder of the Social philosophy, soc ...
and
Richard Hooker
Richard Hooker (25 March 1554 – 2 November 1600) was an English priest in the Church of England and an influential theologian.''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'' by F. L. Cross (Editor), E. A. Livingstone (Editor) Oxford Univer ...
to
Aristotle
Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
—point out that many taken-for-granted aspects of
social order
The term social order can be used in two senses: In the first sense, it refers to a particular system of social structures and institutions. Examples are the ancient, the feudal, and the capitalist social order. In the second sense, social orde ...
(such as which side of the road to drive on) produce substantial and equitable advantages for individuals at very little personal cost. Conversely, breakdowns in
public order reveal everyone's daily dependence upon the smooth functioning of the wider society.
Durkheim saw
anomie
In sociology, anomie or anomy () is a social condition defined by an uprooting or breakdown of any moral values, standards or guidance for individuals to follow. Anomie is believed to possibly evolve from conflict of belief systems and causes b ...
as the existential reaction to the ordered disorder of modern society.
Psychology
Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of over 20 books, illustrator, and correspondent, Jung was a c ...
ians considered orderliness (along with restraint and responsibility) as one of the virtues attributable to the
senex or old man—as opposed to the spontaneous openness of the
puer or eternal youth.
Freud saw the positive traits of orderliness and conscientiousness as rooted in
anal eroticism.
20th-century examples
Freud himself was a highly organised personality, ordering his life – at work and play – with the regularity of a timetable.
William Osler
Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet, (; July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919) was a Canadian physician and one of the "Big Four" founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Osler created the first Residency (medicine), residency program for speci ...
was another highly successful physician who built his life on a highly organised basis.
Culture
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...
wrote of the "blessed rage for order" in ''Ideas of Order'' (1936).
See also
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References
Further reading
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{{Virtues
Virtue