Rationality and the Literate Mind (Routledge Advances in Communication and Linguistic Theory) [Hardcover]

Roy Harris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0415999014 | ISBN-13: 978-0415999014 | Edition: 1

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.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Roy Harris is Emeritus Professor of General Linguistics in the University of Oxford and an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund Hall.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 206 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (January 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415999014
• ISBN-13: 978-0415999014
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,422,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Truly Amazing, August 2, 2011

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This review is from: Rationality and the Literate Mind (Routledge Advances in Communication and Linguistic Theory) (Hardcover)

Never have I read a book that so succinctly defined and chronicled the evolution of and relationship between rationality and literacy. Not only does this book define rationality in a historical perspective, it engenders the inseparability of written, spoken and reasoned words. I can't honestly do it justice but I do know that it's worth reading. That is, if you can stomach defining rationality in terms of simple characters and their organization on a page, or lack thereof. Only wish I could afford to buy it instead of repeatedly renting it from the local library!