Associational reasoning - Essay Example

The main issue that we are concerned is whether associational reasoning is good or bad for the society as a whole. Associational reasoning can be described as way of thinking where one associates or connects events and phenomena, which no one else had even noticed before. Marshall Mcluhan, Walter Ong, Innis and many other scholars have been associated with this type of reasoning. Ong has written a book Orality and Literacy where he redefined the works of Marshall in a more precise form. Ong has clearly supported Mcluhan’s way of thinking and he himself used associational reasoning to explain his theories. Associational reasoning is definitely a good way of discovering things which had never been thought of before but at the same time it might tend to become hyperbolic and pushing together of too many ideas. For instance, Marshall views about the media was apolitical and challenged many conventional views of the society which was not accepted by the high authorities concerned. Associational reasoning tends to get misunderstood and taken in the wrong context by critics. There has always been mixed response to Mcluhan’s way of thinking. In the book Orality and Literacy, Ong says that Marshall’s thinking was very pre-modern as he had already predicted technologies which have been invented today and could not have been imagined during that time (Ong). For example, in his book The Gutenberg Galaxy, Mcluhan had anticipitated the internet when he says that instead of storing books in the Alexandrian Library the world itself will become a computer from which books and texts could be sought. He had indirectly spoken about the internet at a time it was unknown to the world (Mcluhan). Even Ong’s works has also been similar to Mcluhan’s, drawing the relations between media and the society in unconventional ways. Ong’s ideas had been successfully used to analyze feminist languages. His theories have been used to understand urban graffiti as well. Although both Marshall and Ong has been appraised a lot for their work, their work have also been labeled as technological determinists. In other words, critics claim that their way of thinking that is, through associational reasoning, mainly states that changes in technology only brings about the social, cultural and psychological changes. Their work has been criticized of being generalized, that is, both Marshal and Ong have explained an entire historical period or a social event in a small paragraph. It is argued that Mcluhan’s theories were merely a convergence of too many ideas pushed together and not at all spoke of the modern discoveries like the internet (Ferell). The conclusion is that association reasoning is definitely an extraordinary way of thinking and can lead to many discoveries and inventions as Mcluhan and Ong did. People like Marshal Mcluhan and Walter Ong are responsible for modernizing the thinking of the society and thus gained a big name for themselves. Thus, we see associational reasoning has always done well to the society provided it doesnot have a tendency of hyperbolism and conflation. Work cited Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. New Accents. Ed. Terence Hawkes. New York: Methuen, 1988. Print. Mcluhan, Marshall. The Gutenberg Galaxy:The Making Of The Typographic Man.Canada:University of Toronto press, 1962. Print Ferell,Thomas. Mcluhan Galaxy, 11 January 2011. Web 06 June 2011. Top of Form Read More