[MD] words/time

[MarshaV]

Hi Ron,

On Dec 9, 2012, at 12:21 PM, X Acto <xacto at rocketmail.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> 
>> There! 
>> 
>> "Writing separates the knower from the known and thus sets up conditions for 'objectivity', in the sense of personal disengagement or distancing." 
>> 
>>      (Ong, Walter J., 'Orality and Literacy', p. 45)
> 
> "It sets up the conditions"  seems a far cry from the idea that SOM IS Intellect. I dont think there is much
> of an arguement about the tendancy to reify concepts because it has also been asserted that reification
> extends to any concept formed, which muddies the water concerning any hard defined intellectual level.
> I think the trap is in trying to define the intellectual level in terms of historical evolution, when it is
> probably best defined as an aspect of experience a type of value. I then think it can be understood
> historically as a cultural value that gained promenance during the rise of the ancient Greek Hellenic empire.
> SOM then is best understood as a cultural value rather than an evolutionary level. 
> 
> 
> ..Trying to mend the gap is a nobel gesture but the consequences of holding one vs the other is so great
> as to almost being direct opposites in meaning.


If you are stuck in an either-or, us-against-them frame of mind, then obviously there are no other alternatives.  It's a good book presenting some interesting ideas concerning the shift from an oral tradition to a written tradition.  I thought you, and possibly Arlo, might find it valuable.  But read it, don't read, that would be up to you. 
 
 
Marsha