Editing Hierarchy (section)

== Criticisms ==
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2024}}
In the work of diverse theorists such as [[William James]] (1842 to 1910), [[Michel Foucault]] (1926 to 1984) and [[Hayden White]] (1928 to 2018), important critiques of hierarchical [[epistemology]] are advanced. James famously asserts in his work [[Radical Empiricism]] that clear distinctions of type and category are a constant but unwritten goal of scientific reasoning, so that when they are discovered, success is declared. But if aspects of the world are organized differently, involving inherent and intractable ambiguities, then scientific questions are often considered unresolved.

[[Feminists]], [[Marxists]], [[anarchists]], [[communists]], [[critical theorists]] and others, all of whom have multiple interpretations, criticize the hierarchies commonly found within human society, especially in social relationships. Hierarchies are present in all parts of society: in businesses, schools, families, etc. These relationships are often viewed as necessary. Entities that stand in hierarchical arrangements are animals, humans, plants, etc.

===Ethics, behavioral psychology, philosophies of identity===
[[File:Hierarchy Of Purposes.jpg|thumb|right|alt=|Career-oriented purposes can be diagrammed using a hierarchy describing how less important actions support a larger goal.]]
In [[ethics]], various [[virtues]] are enumerated and sometimes organized hierarchically according to certain brands of [[virtue theory]].

In some of these random examples, there is an asymmetry of 'compositional' significance between levels of structure, so that small parts of the whole hierarchical array depend, for their meaning, on their membership in larger parts. There is a hierarchy of activities in human life: productive activity serves or is guided by the moral life; the moral life is guided by practical reason; practical reason (used in moral and political life) serves contemplative reason (whereby we contemplate God). Practical reason sets aside time and resources for contemplative reason.