The Plato and Socrates Arguments for Written Word - Essay Example

Name Professor Title Date The Written word The Plato Socrates Arguments Literacy expresses its supremacy to people by acting as a way of human expression and thought more so in areas with a culture regards technological expansion. The Failure for literacy is a form of deviance or lack of mere mechanical skill (David, 19). Literacy is as important as the obligatory learning to drive and tie shoe laces. Learning entails writing for purposes of comprehension of oral and oral-aural consciousness and a noetic economy of people. Orality can be primary (cultural without knowledge of writing) or secondary (incorporating the electronic devices such as radio and television). The primary morality is social and psychological in nature (Ong, 23). Chirographical writers assert that writing does not influence peoples' thoughts. Writers only emphasize on technology to the extent of not noticing inseparability with it and influence and presence. The literate's thoughts are about the letters, the handwriting and print that a word has at a particular moment of mentioning and otherwise is non-compliance. The people with only oral background do not have the problem of associating letters and other things but think about the sound that the word has. The sounded words do not exist spontaneously just as written words deceptively assert (Bauman 23). Sound appears when the word approaches the end of the existence according to the writing approach. By the time of saying the last part of the name, the first part has already disappeared in the Witten context. Writing makes words appear as objects by creating a view of forgetfulness whereas with the verbal scenario, remembrance of a word is similar to the music, melodies a sequence in time. The oral world is challenging to the learned because the only require pinning down of wants and ideas whereas it is impossible to pin down an event (Bauman 26). The minds that emphasize oral culture associate sounds, events, and evanescence’s. There are associations of life, personalizing of abstract and concrete things and storage of knowledge in narratives. There is knowledge of the essence of exploration, but no desire to perform the act. There is a continual repetition and transmission of what is historical and cultural inherent truth Studies of writing opponents assert that the concept of writing is an intrusion to the world just as electronic devices are. Plato condemnation of writing in Phaedrus and the seventh letter faces criticism of all circles. Plato claims that writing is inhuman and brings what is supposed to exist inside the mind outside. Writing is an object that is subject to manipulation, manmade and manufactured. The similar complaints arise about computers; that they are manmade contrivances that intrude into human life (Ong 27). Plato and Socrates claim written words are unresponsive. Users of words cannot explain themselves and responses from electronic gadgets are wrong or predetermined. Computers' word features such as ‘garbage in garbage out' are evidence. What a book calls a truth cannot change irrespective increment in copies of the same book. The duos also claim that writing is destructive to memory. The individuals that depend on books forget often and refer to external sources because they lack internal sources. Calculators use rather than multiplication tables weakens the mind such that it becomes hard for the users to calculate from their memories. The innovation such as the Einstein cannot happen with weakened minds (Ong 28). The two anti-writing proponents argue that the written or printed word can not sufficiently defend itself as the spoken word can do. Speech and thought can exist in the context of the struggle while writing cannot and it exists in unreal and unnatural world. Physical damage of a computer does not command a direct response but the programmed one. Arguments for Written word There is the contradiction that Plato and other anti-print proponents used writing to express the grievances the misgiving and copies of their work exists on computer terminals. The Greek opponents of printing such as Hieronymus squarciafico that promote printing also argue that printing is a memory destroyer and mind weakening. It is a form of downgrading when human mind is relieved in favour of a calculator (Ong, 28). Criticism of a technologized word requires application of the same technology. Writing printing and computer storage are the ways of technologizing words. Writing appears too long-winded in Plato's time that he can even understand how it enhances broadcasting and bringing his critique into existence. The critique that Plato's uses only encompasses the effect of writing on the mental processes of people. People from Plato's Socrates age, however intelligent they might be cannot give the described protracted and intensive linear analysis (David. R, 265). Eric Havelock (as cited by Ong, 29) argues that Plato's epistemology is an involuntary rejection of the ancient pre-literate world of reasoning and communication. Plato's republic does not accommodate the poets. They argue that poets' work disrupts the calm analytic process as a result of incorporating writing. The words in writing are unsubstantiated, personally non-interactive and cold and existing above human world. Research shows that the word idea' as used by Plato implies 'visible' form. Platonic ideas emphasize on visual information rather than sound knowledge because of the increased shallowness of visual intelligence than audio intelligence (Ong 29) Plato is unaware of forces that work in the mind to bring about a particular literacy in reaction of his orality (David. R, 263) He submits to the threats of shallowness in his idea by giving his thought a poetic throw and vowing that the facts of truth avoid writing and oral articulation. Plato also downgrades writing by claiming that similar to the computer that has a perception of being alien, so is writing. Writing is a technology similar to printing and computer because it requires equipment whose origin is simple and is going through sophistication with age in different parts of the world (Ong, 31) Andison’s presentations show how humans temporarily co-exist ranging from playfulness the thought. Orbiting and the resultant changes can result from movement but they differ in size and origin. There is continuity in the human focus of forward movement of time. A keen observer can feel the rate of the effects of the revolution of the earth. In 2000 disasters, moderate anxieties swirl in the bell jar as the viewer approaches. Each paper entails real and perceived catastrophe but the conventional nature echoes the purpose. The wordplay (sharing such as moonlight and sunlight and sequential positioning such as sundress and moonless making dress less) enhances Andison to clarify human freedom and innumerable alternatives, thus creating complicated and imaginative spaces. The self-possessed protagonist can encounter distinct uninvited comments from onlookers. Her motion and wisdom encourage the cyclist from the innuendos that are directed to her and demobilise the sources. Candle, lamp and moon wordplay creates new spaces for the subject and predicate to interact and establish natural and technological passage of time. The words; moon, candle and light can be arranged to show different moments of contemplation. The clamour that once written in books, words become frozen and dead is paradoxical because the removal from the world and rigid visual fixicity is an assurance o f resurrection in different contexts to a limitless number of readers (Smith, 9). The spoken word dies and never rises. The complementary paradox is that despite permanence, the written word has no meaning other than the relationship it has with the spoken word. Conversion to verbal to the external world or auditory imagination is essential for it to be intelligible (Ong, 31). The assertion that writing is manmade whereas the spoken word is natural is untrue Naturality in spoken word is due to the classical knowledge that the unimpaired must learn to speak as they grow. Speaking implements societal consciousness and articulates grammatical structures to different dialects around the world. The writing proponents argue that writers must follow predetermined procedures in their work consciously. The conscience follows rules of transposing sound into visual code. Lois argues the world is full of reality of motion experience of emotions. Humans encounter complicated, multilayered, continuously flexible and dynamic events. Personification of lifeless objects occurs and attacks of spatial and formal boundaries are regular. Machines can subjugate their demands to humans. According to Andison, letters in the Word ‘heartbreaking' can be combined to give 91 meanings of breaking down. Similar is the word ‘starlight' that has fourteen words to the right and the same number of words to the left. An illustration of the camera's dilemma that entails three television screens attached to one another in a triangular shape clarifies the same. The viewer can move around the screens without determining the entirety. One moves around with an imagination of trying to catch up with the topic. Calling a written word artificial is not a condemnation but praise (Ong, 32). Several manmade things add the value and so is writing for it enhances full realization of internal potentials. Technologies transform the interior consciousness. Distancing thoughts enhances alienating them from the original habitat hence causing evolution that leads to a much satisfactory life (Bauman 32).The artificiality of technology enhances better life rather than the degrading it similar to a piano that must be touched by regularly trained people to give a reputable sound. The piano music is a psychological construct of humans. Little people cannot attach meaning to a tool unless the master it as they grow up. The introduction of writing enhances their intellectual ascendancy due to the objectivity that is the mother to the modern science (Peter-Paul 114). Writing means only mark with attached meaning and has grown through years (Ong, 34). The semiotic attachment. There is a coded system whereby the writer knows the exact words that the reader will generate from a particular text without ambiguities and increased clarification. Writing does not develop suddenly but grows. Writing occurs in different ages hence there is no strictness in attaching the same development in all cultures. Interactions of different writings enhance its development. There is an observance of distanciation in writing. On the side of time and events, Andison says that words such as sunlight and sunset elaborate the trimodal mood of a leader and follower everyday interactions reflect on the temporal area in which they happen the space involves human interaction and identity. Pictorial representation in books enhances information sharing and discussions that lead to linguistic development. Separation of the knowledge from the knower acts as a way of generating the next knowledge even if the knower is dead. Knowledge is intangible thus not transferable from one person to another. Writing promotes exactness in relationship between data and its interpretation, a feature unpopular to spoken words (Fletcher &Ellaine, 68). The separation of the written word from the sound is not entirety or permanent because every text reading involves restoration to voice, sound or thoughts. The distance between the writer and reader entails time and space. Distancing in written communication arises because the involved parties might be far apart, mentally or physically (Ong, 37). Similarly, the origin of the message might be long-ago dead in terms of nonexistence, the immediate context of spoken words is subject-object relationships whereas the one for written in other words. Weight and contextualization of spoken words depend on subject –object interrelationships whereas the written word must depend on other words create a context and convey meaning. Separation of the past with the present is appreciable because there is a realization of the current meaning of words rather than making reference to the unimaginable past or with meaningless words to the current humankind. Writing enhances separation of logic from rhetoric (Jane 108). Reasoning encompasses use of voice and analysis, and its origin is origin writings from the ancient Greeks. Writing increases actual transfer of organized abstract thoughts to the future generation unlike oral transmission that disintegrates with time. Writing divides the society by enhancing a diglossia of a complex language of writing and a simple spoken language. The ‘high' language is written and sex-linked, formal and spoken only by males. Technological advancements lead to changes in social structure and women move from the informal chores of managing households to pursuance of academics that lead to the demise of the former diglossia. The situation is evident from the non-involvement of women up 18th century in literature (Ong, 41) On the point of gender bias, Andison asserts that gender is a sign of subordination for women during discussions of a look. The women are similar to objects whose beauty requires admiration similar to flowers to the beholders. However, according to Andison, the notion is problematic and convenes visual harassment. The video ‘What is a Name' studies the dimensions of ordinary social relations. The camera shows different videos of the same woman riding a bike through a residential neighbourhood with a basket of lilies, roses and morning glories. The flowers show a female character. The bike and flowers are visual elements that clarify the role of gaze in day-to-day lives. The bike moves through the urban area with a particular route, and the rider encounters various aspects of onlooker's gaze. Elements thus testify that motion through space and time can dictate the future moment. However, the factors emerge from the projected future's reflection of the past. The camera issue presents the stereotypes, innuendo and clichés that feminine identity entails. She asserts that randomness meets order while nature and culture make it. Another example is the guided roller-skating where three skaters are required to use a marked space one at a time. One of the skaters, Alyson has an aerial camera shooting. Her shyness hardly allows making an eye-contact with the camera despite her natural and artificial beauty of tattoos. Caitlin can confidently face the camera. The cameraman records the sound of skating as they compete. The sound is edited for viewers to have the notion that the skater is responsible for the production of the sound. There is circumscribing of motion of the skaters by the possibility of their skating. The same idea applies when machines emulate human activities. The experiment shows that the gallery can become active and obtain a personality under human manipulation; protagonists design the room and get explored by the same room. Andison asserts that catastrophes only exist when the perceiver exists Works Cited Andison, Lois. “DMG Audio Guide: lois andison, heartbreaking 91”, 2009 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqWxB_8s2aA&index=3&list=PLf2StKEv9ITUCYCJ3UYRn_tWq51G_5r89) Andison, Lois. “MG Audio Guide: lois andison, 1,000 catastrophes”, 2009 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?index=4&v=erMg8dzfe58&list=UUBBNrAuzsPcYmIXE-TlHRxQPcYmIXE-TlHRxQ&app=desktop) Fletcher, Kathryn L., and Elaine Reese. "Picture book reading with young children: A conceptual framework." Developmental review 25.1 (2005): 64-103. Hindman, Jane E. "Writing an Important Body of Scholarship: Rhetoric of Professional Practice proposal." JAC (2002): 93-118. .Olson, David R. "From utterance to text: The bias of language in speech and writing." Harvard educational review 47.3 (1977): 257-281. Ong, W. J. (2012). Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. Routledge. Smith, Consultant Vascular Surgeon Frank, and Frank Smith. Writing and the writer. Routledge, 2013. Verbeek, Peter-Paul. "25 Plessner and Technology." Plessner's philosophical anthropology: Plessner's Philosophical Anthropology (2014): 443 Vincent, David, ed. Literacy and popular culture: England 1750-1914. No. 19. Cambridge University Press, 1993. Read More