Rationality and the Literate Mind

Rationality and the Literate Mind

Author: Roy Harris

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2009-01-13

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 1135838763

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This book re-examines the old debate about the relationship between rationality and literacy. Does writing "restructure consciousness?" Do preliterate societies have a different "mind-set" from literate societies? Is reason "built in" to the way we think? How is literacy related to numeracy? Is the "logical form" that Western philosophers recognize anything more than an extrapolation from the structure of the written sentence? Is logic, as developed formally in Western education, intrinsically beyond the reach of the preliterate mind? What light, if any, do the findings of contemporary neuroscience throw on such issues? Roy Harris challenges the received mainstream opinion that reason is an intrinsic property of the human mind, and argues that the whole Western conception of rational thought, from Classical Greece down to modern symbolic logic, is a by-product of the way literacy developed in European cultures.


The Literate Mind

The Literate Mind

Author: Andy Wells

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-09-16

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0230368786

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Literacy is about 5,000 years old. Since it was invented it has transformed human societies and knowledge fundamentally. Indeed, civilisation is built on literacy. What is it about the process of making marks on paper or other surfaces that gives literacy this remarkable power? 'The Literate Mind: A Study of Its Scope and Limitations' proposes that the evolved, pre-literate qualities of the human mind combined with the representational capacities of alphabets and other symbol systems provide uniquely powerful means for the generation and storage of knowledge. The creation, storage and sharing of texts augment the social and cognitive capacities of human minds and allow us to develop social institutions within which further new knowledge can be deployed and used. Taking an approach that is equally applicable to print and digital media, the book draws on evolutionary theory and the theory of computation to explain the remarkable power of literacy and its transformational effects on human society and knowledge. It demonstrates that the universe of possible texts is infinite in extent, and proposes that the combination of a reader and a text can be treated as an ecosystem of unlimited scope.


The Mind on Paper

The Mind on Paper

Author: David R. Olson

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-11-07

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1107162890

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Shows why reading and writing are essential to developing a consciousness of language that, in turn, lies at the core of rationality.


Rationality and Decision Making

Rationality and Decision Making

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-02-08

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 9004359478

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Rationality and Decision Making: From Normative Rules to Heuristics offers a broad overview of both classic and very recent discussions concerning rationality and strategies of individual and group decision making. They are considered from a methodological, ethical, sociological, historical, cultural as well as an evolutionary perspective. Decision making, both rational and irrational, is treated in its complexity as an algorithmic, heuristic and intuitive process. The volume analyzes the theoretical and practical aspects of decision making in individual intentional endeavors and group or institutionalized undertakings. The analyses are mostly theoretical but they also appeal to empirical studies, proposed by philosophers and cognitive scientists who have studied logical, cognitive, biological, social and evolutionary aspects of human rationality. Contributors include María José Frápolli, Marek Hetmański, Jan F. Jacko, Artur Koterski, Agnieszka Lekka-Kowalik, Sofia Miguens, Ángeles J. Perona, Manueal de Pinedo, João Alberto Pinto, Krzysztof Polit, Marcin Rządeczka, Rui Sampaio da Silva, Joanna Sokołowska, Barbara Trybulec, Marcin Trybulec, Neftalí Villanueva, Monika Walczak, Jan Winkowski, Anna Wójtowicz, Jesús Zamora-Bonilla, and António Zilhão.


Writing Science before the Greeks

Writing Science before the Greeks

Author: Rita Watson

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2011-03-21

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 9004202315

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The beginnings of written science have long been associated with classical Greece. Yet in ancient Mesopotamia, highly-sophisticated scientific works in cuneiform script were in active use while Greek civilization flourished in the West. The subject of this volume is the astronomical series MUL.APIN, which can be dated to the seventh century BCE and which represents the crowning achievement of traditional Mesopotamian observational astronomy. Writing Science before the Greeks explores this early text from the perspective of modern cognitive science in an effort to articulate the processes underlying its composition. The analysis suggests that writing itself, through the cumulative recording of observations, played a role in the evolution of scientific thought. "All in all, the authors should be congratulated for this groundbreaking study. Apart from significant new insights into MUL.APIN it has opened up a new avenue for research on ancient scientific texts that is likely to yield further interesting results, particularly if the cognitive analysis is combined with other approaches." Mathieu Ossendrijver, Humboldt University


Signs in Activities

Signs in Activities

Author: Dorthe Duncker

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-03-27

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1003853781

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This book is a collective volume bringing together scholars who share an interest in linguistics from an integrational point of view and in developing new directions for future scholarship. Integrational linguistics invites us to rethink the theoretical and methodological premises of general linguistics by drawing on a different conception of the sign and by recognizing the creativity that human communication requires. Some chapters are concerned with concepts like the sign, contextualization, activity, and integration. Although being core concepts developed by the founder of integrational linguistics, Roy Harris, they have arguably remained underdeveloped in Harris’ writings and thus call for further clarification and investigation. Other chapters are concerned with the notions of the self and the social, experience and interaction, with questions about individual agency and will, and human sociality and social organization, which all occupy a central position in integrational theory. Finally, remaining chapters focus on how scriptism and the language myth have influenced our way of thinking about communication in a broad sense. This edited collection will be of interest to a multidisciplinary readership comprising those engaged in study, teaching, and research in the humanities and social sciences, including anthropology, the arts, education, linguistics, literary studies, philosophy, psychology, and semiotics.


Re-theorizing Literacy Practices

Re-theorizing Literacy Practices

Author: David Bloome

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-12-07

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 1351254200

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Moving beyond current theories on literacy practices, this edited collection sheds new light on the complexities inherent to the social, cultural, and ideological contexts in which literacy practices are realized. Building on Brian V. Street’s scholarship, contributors discuss literacy as intrinsically social and ideological, and examine how the theorizing of literacy practices has evolved in recognition of the diverse contexts in which written language is used. Breaking new intellectual and theoretical ground, this book brings together leading literacy scholars to re-examine how educational and sociocultural contexts frame and define literacy events and practices. Drawing from the richness of Brian V. Street’s work, this volume offers insights into fractures, tensions, and developments in literacy for scholars, students, and researchers.


Handbook of Communication Disorders

Handbook of Communication Disorders

Author: Amalia Bar-On

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2018-04-23

Total Pages: 970

ISBN-13: 1614514909

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The domain of Communication Disorders has grown exponentially in the last two decades and has come to encompass much more than audiology, speech impediments and early language impairment. The realization that most developmental and learning disorders are language-based or language-related has brought insights from theoretical and empirical linguistics and its clinical applications to the forefront of Communication Disorders science. The current handbook takes an integrated psycholinguistic, neurolinguistic, and sociolinguistic perspective on Communication Disorders by targeting the interface between language and cognition as the context for understanding disrupted abilities and behaviors and providing solutions for treatment and therapy. Researchers and practitioners will be able to find in this handbook state-of-the-art information on typical and atypical development of language and communication (dis)abilities across the human lifespan from infancy to the aging brain, covering all major clinical disorders and conditions in various social and communicative contexts, such as spoken and written language and discourse, literacy issues, bilingualism, and socio-economic status.


Eurasia at the Dawn of History

Eurasia at the Dawn of History

Author: Manuel Fernández-Götz

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-01-16

Total Pages: 439

ISBN-13: 1316943178

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Our current world is characterized by life in cities, the existence of social inequalities, and increasing individualization. When and how did these phenomena arise? What was the social and economic background for the development of hierarchies and the first cities? The authors of this volume analyze the processes of centralization, cultural interaction, and social differentiation that led to the development of the first urban centres and early state formations of ancient Eurasia, from the Atlantic coasts to China. The chronological framework spans a period from the Neolithic to the Late Iron Age, with a special focus on the early first millennium BC. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach structured around the concepts of identity and materiality, this book addresses the appearance of a range of key phenomena that continue to shape our world.


The Educated Mind

The Educated Mind

Author: Kieran Egan

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2007-12-01

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 0226190404

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The Educated Mind offers a bold and revitalizing new vision for today's uncertain educational system. Kieran Egan reconceives education, taking into account how we learn. He proposes the use of particular "intellectual tools"—such as language or literacy—that shape how we make sense of the world. These mediating tools generate successive kinds of understanding: somatic, mythic, romantic, philosophical, and ironic. Egan's account concludes with practical proposals for how teaching and curriculum can be changed to reflect the way children learn. "A carefully argued and readable book. . . . Egan proposes a radical change of approach for the whole process of education. . . . There is much in this book to interest and excite those who discuss, research or deliver education."—Ann Fullick, New Scientist "A compelling vision for today's uncertain educational system."—Library Journal "Almost anyone involved at any level or in any part of the education system will find this a fascinating book to read."—Dr. Richard Fox, British Journal of Educational Psychology "A fascinating and provocative study of cultural and linguistic history, and of how various kinds of understanding that can be distinguished in that history are recapitulated in the developing minds of children."—Jonty Driver, New York Times Book Review