Optical Illusion of James Scott

Abstract

The article deals with the problematic of «optics of the state» and tries to clarify whether a state possesses its own cognitive instruments. The book «Seeing like a state» by American anthropologist James Scott has become an «optics of the state» textbook. Still, a closer look at the con- cept and Scott’s argumentation shows that such optics and logic of state simplifications are characteritics of all institutions of modernity.