Laws of Media: The New Science

by Marshall McLuhan (Author), Eric McLuhan (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0802077158

ISBN-10: 0802077153

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Marshall McLuhan has been described as Canada's most exciting and original thinker, a member of the small company of intellectual geniuses this country has produced. Works such as The Gutenberg Galaxy, The Mechanical Bride , From Cliche to Archetype , and Understanding Media have established his reputation throughout the world and have profoundly influenced our understanding of contemporary communication. In his later years McLuhan was working on a 'unified field' theory of human culture, an effort in which he collaborated with and was assisted by his son, Eric McLuhan. This book is the result of that collaboration.
The McLuhans are retrieving another way of understanding our world, a way known to some ancient Greeks (but not Aristotle), to medieval thinkers, to Francis Bacon and Giambattista Vico, and to T.S. Eliot and James Joyce in this century. It is based on the use of words and the conseuqent power of the 'logos' to shape all the elements of culture - media - with which we surround ourselves.
The authors explain how the invention of the alphabet led to the dominance of visual-space conceptualizations over those of acoustic space and its creative words (and word-plays). They consider the differences between the left- and right-hand sides of our brains, and use Gestalt theories of figure and ground to explore the underlying principles that define media.
'Media,' the word so closely connected with Marshall McLuhan's thought, is here explored in its broadest meaning, encompassing all that has been created by humans: artefacts, information, ideas - every example of human innovation, from computer program to a tea cup, from musical arrangement to the formula for a cold remedy, from an X-ray machine to the sentence you're reading right now. All these are media to whcih can be applied the laws the McLuhans have developed.
The laws are based on a set of four questions - a tetrad - that can be applied to any artefact or idea:
What does it enhance or intensify?
What does it render obsolete or displace?
What does it retrieve that was previoulsy obsolesced?
What does it produce or become when pressed to an extreme?
Inherent in every human innovation is an answer to each of the questions of this tetrad; anything that does not contain answers to these four questions is not the product of human creation.
The laws identified by the McLuhans consitute a new scientific basis for media studies, testable, and able to allow for prediction. It takes in all human activities and speech; it breaks down barriers and reconsiders them as mere intervals. In the McLuhan tradition, this New Science offers a while new understanding of human creation, and a vision that could reshape our future.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

'FIlled with interesting, charming, bewildering, and challenging McLuhanisms.' -- R. Cathart ― Choice

'Eric McLuhan's collaborations with his father gives a rich treatment of the tetrads, and one true to the elder's written and cognitive style.' -- Paul Levinson ― Journal of Communication

'A surprising posthumous gift from Canada's greatest cultural theorist. The collaboration with his son Eric has produced not only the most stimulating intellectual formulations but also the most welcome concessions to the norms of scholarship and argument since The Gutenberg Galaxy and Understanding Media' -- John Fekete ― Letters in Canada

'The tetrad's eloquence and the universality of its application will surely have a profound effect on any further study of media.' -- Timothy Buell ― The Toronto Star

From the Back Cover

Before you have gone very far in this book, you will have found many familiar themes and topics. Be assured: this is not just a rehashing of old fare dished up between new covers, but a genuinely new food for thought and meditation.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Toronto Press (September 16, 1992)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 252 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802077153
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802077158
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #586,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #282 in Media Studies (Books)
- #356 in Communications
- #926 in Communication Reference (Books)

Customer Reviews:
19 ratings

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Mark

excellent book

Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2019

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Good service. Valuable book.

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Joshua Leeger

Essential reading for human beings

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2016

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Critical reading. Read "The Classical Trivium" first, then "Media and Formal Cause," and this book last.

8 people found this helpful

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oobi

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2014

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relevant and important book by Professor McLuhan

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Thaise

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2015

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Very great!

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John G Goodman

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2015

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o.k book

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Jesper Tække

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 1, 2018

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both interesting and confusing

Lior Lerman

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 7, 2018

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As yet unequalled.

James Hobson

Classic McLuhan

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2013

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For anyone working with technology and media, this is a must-have book, bringing Marshall McLuhan's unique perspective to bear in ways that are still relevant in the digital age.

Bob

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on June 6, 2018

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Excellent!

黒猫

マクルーハン理論最終バージョン

Reviewed in Japan on August 18, 2017

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マーシャル・マクルーハン「メディアの法則」を読みました。
マクルーハン旋風が起こって世界的なブームになったのは60年代でした。
マクルーハンは、人間の機能が拡張されたあらゆるテクノロジーをメディアと呼び、新しいメディアは、人間の感覚を変化させ、社会を変化させる、と説きました。
刺激的で魅力的な「メディアはマッサージである」「ホットメディアとクールメディア」「グローバル・ヴィレッジ（地球村）」などのコピーがマスコミを飛び交いました。
話題が先行し、その後、マクルーハンの著書が多く翻訳されましたが、難解なこともあり本格的な論評が加えられ学術的な価値と位置づけは、随分と後のことでした。

マクルーハン見直しは、69歳で亡くなった1980年で、日本では遅れて2000年代になってからです。
この本は、マクルーハンの最後の著作で息子のエリック・マクルーハンとの共著となっています。
マクルーハンは一世を風靡した自身のメディア論と新たな構想による方法論を、この本で展開しています。
息子さんがマクルーハンの構想を完成させたのでしょう。

マクルーハンが考察したのは50年代のアメリカの社会、文化でした。
テレビの影響の大きさを指摘し、それまでの活字印刷・出版時代と比べ、時代、社会、文化の変化を豊富な写真やイラストで詳述しました。
正鵠を得たマクルーハンの時代を透徹した目は、預言者の如くでした。
実際、読んでみるとまるでインターネット時代到来の予言のような文章が目につきます。

この本は、従来のマクルーハン理論について述べ、更に新しい方法論を提言しています。
この方法論は、この世に存在するあらゆる人工物について、いつでも必ず当てはまるという普遍的な方法を探っています。
それは4つの法則で構成され「テトラッド」と名付けました。
1.　～を強化する
2.　～に反転する
3.　～を回復する
4.　～を衰退する
本の後半は、この理論的根拠と実例です。
すこぶる刺激的で面白い例が掲げられています。
タバコ、記号論、冷蔵庫、群衆、高層建築、象徴詩、薬、ラジオ、遺伝学、飛行機、運動の第三法則、、都市などなどです。
いずれも素晴らしい考察と展開で脱帽でした。
若干の興奮を押えられません。

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Laws of Media: The New Science

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