minerva

Grand theory.

What does Innis do?

Road map of academic argument

Minerva’s owl departs when the civilization is in decline

And just before the owl leaves scholars produce their best

Innis takes a wide look at history and asksWhat is the effect of media technology on learning.

Framed another way his question is: what is the impact of media on learning. And such questions are common in media effects research as well as educational research.

He posits his theories:

THEORY:If the technology is complex- i.e Sanskritthen its costs are high and

Monopolies and hierarchies are created.

Flexible languages can adapt to vernaculars

But if not flexible then

Monopolies and hierarchies are born

Reading is different from writingIt implies passive recognition of power

When a new technology appears

A realignment occurs in monopoly of knowledge and hierarchy.

Bangalore

Church vs Lutherans

A technology that denies access to vernacularWill be broken down by forceCavalry example

i.e paper and printing technologiesbroke the power of the church.

andThe masses always have more power/force/strengththan the ruling class

So rulers have to use public opinion to stay in power

Therefore monopolies of powerHave relations withOrganized force.

Interest in learning requires stability

Powerful organized force for protection

Concentrated learning requires

written tradition

Rigidity and lack of contact

with vernacular

A great institution is The tomb of the founder

As this rigidity increases the relations betweenThe vernacular and organized force collapse

And while this is happening a new technology Comes in from the fringes of society.

i.e Church banned printing press in FranceBooks were smuggled in from elsewhere.

In the meantime scholars produce their best work.

Move to more secure

Areas and cause

Flowering there

i.e Ionians.

Organized force will be successful when

Oral tradition

vernacular

technology

combine

Nationalistic Narratives andIdeologies Are examples Of this

When art reaches a state of perfectionIt will decline

Perfection imported will have a stifling effect

New technologies for Innis

Transport

Script

Cunieform

Papyrus

Parchment

Paper

Radio

etc

Cunieform = old technology controlled by priests

Horse = new technology enabled formation of city state unions

Political organization evolved

Village city union of cities Pharoanic empire system

More flexible writing technology gave rise to more accessible Hebrew bible, allowed escape from temple ---- is this true?

writing Refutes mythsRoman gods die

Allows poetry and shades of meaning

Rigid systems of law

Abstract thought- philosophy

History is born

But in the Roman era the oral was still important

Plato ----- Oral + written tradition

Aristotle--- reading not oral instruction

Allows flexibility , open ended immortal inconclusiveness

Monarchy of mind Love for collections- dilettantes, taste, respect

Scholars now concerned with conservation, clarification, past

Books became

powerful meant

for those who

read all books

Literature became divorced from real life

Ivory tower

Libraries became powerhouses to offset power of Priests and temple

With the decline of the oral traditionpower of expression and creation and groovesthat determine channels of thoughtdeclined too.

Literature, poetry , theatre died

Jurisprudence and gladiator

spectacles flourished

Hebrew

Ordinary people speak Armaic

Hebrew can’t absorb vernacular so

Christianity escapes lower status by

Deploying new fresh vernacular language.

New technology parchment replaces papyrus

Durable/ compact/ easier to use

Allows silent reading to self

cumbersome/ not durable

Kept in scrollsRarely consultedRead aloud to group

China

Buddhism

Printing

Paper

Paper’s appearance

in Muslim Empire

Coincides with the most

splendid period.

Minerva’s Owl

From Ionians to Athens to Greece to RomeTo Europe. When Muslims take Egypt parchmentstops Europe stagnatesThen Arabs introduce Greek ideas to the West

The churchVsPrinting and translation of bible

inquisition

The development of printing

The classicsPamphletsBooksMagazines

JOURNALISM and newspapers develop

The influence of cable

Effects of discovery of printing press

-savage religious wars 16 and 17th C- consolidation of vernaculars- rise of nationalism- revolutions

-Latin declines

-Oral tradition dies

-Scholarship wanes