I See a Voice: Deafness, Language and the Senses--A Philosophical History [Hardcover]

Jonathan Rée (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 1999

A groundbreaking study of deafness, by a philosopher who combines the scientific erudition of Oliver Sacks with the historical flair of Simon Schama.

There is nothing more personal than the human voice, traditionally considered the expression of the innermost self. But what of those who have no voice of their own and cannot hear the voices of others?

In this tour de force of historical narrative, Jonathan Rée tells the astonishing story of the deaf, from the sixteenth century to the present. Rée explores the great debates about deafness between those who believed the deaf should be made to speak and those who advocated non-oral communication. He traces the botched attempts to make language visible, through such exotic methods as picture writing, manual spellings, and vocal photography. And he charts the tortuous progress and final recognition of sign systems as natural languages in their own right.

I See a Voice escorts us on a vast and eventful intellectual journey,taking in voice machines and musical scales, shorthand and phonetics, Egyptian hieroglyphs, talking parrots, and silent films. A fascinating tale of goodwill subverted by bad science, I See a Voice is as learned and informative as it is delightful to read.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It has long been understood that the communicative gestures used by non-hearing people constitute more than a languageAthere is, in fact, a deaf culture, rich in evocation, style, meaning. R?e (professor of philosophy at the University of Middlesex and editor of Radical Philosophy) brings us a stunning account of deafness from the 16th century to the present. His compelling chapters draw upon metaphysics, science, history and philosophy as they touch upon such areas as grammar, sound and the uncanny resonances of inarticulate human sounds; time, syntax and the language of nature; signs and primitive culture; and space, time and the aesthetic theory of art, among much else. Graphics from a variety of eras and cultures enrich this exceptionally comprehensive volume. R?e (who is not deaf) uses everyday experiences to buttress what might be abstract points. He is equally adept at exploring the science of deaf culture: "The mere fact that signers can make different linguistic signs simultaneously with each hand, and possibly with other parts of the body as well, means that any Sign Language script will have to be written in more than one string of charactersAmore like polyphony than a single vocal line." Mixing the erudite with the experiential, R?e gives the reader a new understanding of deafness as possibility. Though densely written, this is a book that rewards patient attention: it is both useful in the classroom and a passionate experience for the intellectual, curious reader. Illus. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Scientific American

Rée, who teaches philosophy at Middlesex University in England, presents a book that is both philosophy and science. In the two mainly philosophical parts, he considers how people have viewed the five human senses over the centuries. In the mainly scientific part, he focuses on one of the senses, hearing, and its close connection with speech, by way of examining the experience of people who lack the sense--who are deaf. "Ever since the sixteenth century," he notes, "they have been attended by troops of priests, doctors, teachers and philanthropists dedicated to releasing them from their silent world (or perhaps expelling them from it against their will), by devising ways of making them understand language, despite their inability to hear it." Rée bolsters his history of those efforts with a number of unusual pictures, among them a French "voice machine" of 1908 that synthesized vowel sounds by pumping air past rotating perforated disks and then through rubber replicas of human mouths.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Metropolitan Books; 1st edition (November 2, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805062548
• ISBN-13: 978-0805062540
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,606,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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