Socrates and Literacy

I am presenting my field research next Tuesday at the World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies in Barcelona. While I put together the PowerPoint presentation and re-read my research so far, I am reminded of a clip I presented this idea--it hadn't yet become my dissertation topic. Dr. Fish, an incredibly supportive professor at ODU, encouraged me to take the idea farther. Anyhow, the first 45 seconds of this clip sum up my approach to knowledge and knowledge construction. Enjoy!




Illustrated Books And Newspapers

Discourse was deemed Man's noblest attribute,
And written words the glory of his hand;
Then followed Printing with enlarged command
For thought -- dominion vast and absolute
For spreading truth, and making love expand.
Now prose and verse sunk into disrepute
Must lackey a dumb Art that best can suit
The taste of this once-intellectual Land.
A backward movement surely have we here,
From manhood, -- back to childhood; for the age --
Back towards caverned life's first rude career.
Avaunt this vile abuse of pictured page!
Must eyes be all in all, the tongue and ear
Nothing? Heaven keep us from a lower stage!

By William Wordsworth, 1846