This page contains materials intended
to facilitate class discussion (excerpts from readings,
outlines of issues, links to resources, etc.). The
materials are not necessarily the same as the instructor's
teaching notes and are not designed to represent
a full exposition or argument. This page is subject
to revision as the instructor finalizes preparation.
(Last revised
1/14/02
)
Albert Borgmann, Holding On to Reality: The
Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium
(Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1999), on the
"ancestral environment" of information:
"Information
about reality exhibits its pristine form in
a natural setting. An expanse of smooth gravel
is a sign that you are close to a river. Cottonwoods
tell you where the river bank is. An assembly
of twigs in a tree points to ospreys.
The presence of ospreys shows that there are
trout in the river. In the original economy
of signs, one thing refers to another in a
settled order of reference and presence. A
gravel bar seen from a distance refers you
to the river. It is a sign. When you have
reached and begun to walk on the smooth and
colored stones, the gravel has become present
in its own right. It is a thing. And so with
the trees, the nest, the raptors, and the
fish." (p. 1)
"The
ancestral environment is the ground state
of information and reality. Human beings evolved
in it, and so did their ability to read its
signs." (p. 24)
Question 2: How Influential
is Media?
How convincing is McLuhan and Ong's argument
that media is not just an instrumental means but
a way of consciousness and a way of life?
McLuhan: "The effects of technology
do not occur at the level of opinions or
concepts, but alter sense ratios or patterns
of perception steadily and without resistance"
(p. 18)
Ong: "Technologies are not
mere exterior aids but also interior transformations
of consciousness, and never more than when
they affect the word." (p. 82)
How far would you go in saying that media
determines consciousness and way of life?
McLuhan:
(p. 9): "the medium shapes and
controls the scale and form of human association
and action."
(p. 15) "For any medium has the
power of imposing its own assumption on
the unwary."
(end of essay, p. 21, quotation from
Jung): "Every Roman was surrounded
by slaves. The slave and his psychology
flooded ancient Italy, and every Roman
became inwardly, and of course unwittingly,
a slave. Because living constantly in
the atmosphere of slaves, he became infected
through the unconscious with their psychology.
No one can shield himself from such an
influence."
An
episode at 