Episode #149 ... On Media pt. 2 - Marshall McLuhan
Philosophize This!
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Written Language as Technology
- Technology, including media, profoundly shapes human perception and our understanding of what it means to be human.
- McLuhan considers written language and the phonetic alphabet as technologies invented long ago with a significant impact on thinking.
- Written language enables the externalization of ideas from the mind onto paper through symbols, allowing for linear communication and shared understanding.
- Language extends our inner consciousness, granting ideas autonomy unlike oral traditions where knowledge is shared through spoken stories and experiences passed down through generations.
- Literacy has become central to human development in recent millennia.
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