Juan Monroy — Week 2, Writing

Sign
- Ferdinand de Saussure
- every sign has a signifier and a signified
- can work through any of the senses
Signifier
- form of the sign
- “shape” of the word
- arbitrary
- learned
- ephemeral
Signified
- meaning of the sign
- concept or object that appears in our mind
- referent exists in nature
  - does it exist if it is unnamed?
  - what is our relationship to something that we cannot
    communicate?
Lingusitic Cultures
- oral
- chirographic
- typographic
Orality
- Walter Ong
- there are no facts but only events
- sounds are ephemeral, evanescent
thought processes
- you can only know what you can recall
- aides-mémories cannot be too complex
- complex (non-formulaic, non-patterned) thoughts could never be
  retrieved
- think memorable thoughts
mnemonics: think memorable thoughts
- rhythmic
- balanced patterns
- reptitions
- antitheses
- alliterations
- standard thematic settings
oral cultural forms
- proverbs
- condensed wisdoms
- epic poetry
- cultural heroes
interiority of orality
- subjective: interior to me is not to you
- immediate: we cannot perceive where we are not
- the cosmos is ongoing event with man at its center
exteriority of literacy
- objective: perspective can be shared
- permanent: we can record our thoughts
- man is a mere part of the cosmos
literate cultural forms
- records
- tagging
- knowledge
- reason
Logograms
- Chinese and Japanese
- Japanese added sounds
- semantic symbols
  - glyphs represent words
  - many more symbols
Alphabets
- fifty-two alphabetic symbols
- phonographic
- Latin: Europeans and Americans
Ideograms
- Modern Hieroglyphs
- phone
- food
- bottles
- washing care instructions
Power of the Church
- feudal society
- clergy would administer affairs of the crown
- oral confessions would keep anything from becoming hidden from
  the Church
Islamic influence since the seventh century
- Nestorians
  - Constaninople
  - heretics
  - rationalists
- Alexandrine Museion
  - Alexandrian Library
  - ancient library in Egypt
  - largest library of the ancient world
  - 3rd Century BC – Roman Conquest in 30 AD
- Classical Greek predecessors
  - religious subjects
  - subjects to be used in the service of religion
  - secular sciences
Western Christianity
- humankind was separate from natural things
- animals and plants did not have souls
- work to improve (civilize) on nature
- monks tied work to prayer
  - productive mines
  - factories
  - developed agricultural techniques
- timekeeping
Philosophical Reforms
- Thirteenth century
- break distinctions
  - theology
  - philosophy
- Robert Grosseteste
  - experimentum
  - experiments
Thomas Aquinas
- Summa Theologica
- philosophy in light of reason
- theology in light of the revelation
- realized the gift of rationalism into secular hands
Roger Bacon
- b. 1241, d. 1294
- celebrated the work of Peter of Maricourt because he was a
  “master of experiments”
- philosophy was a divine gift
- theology did not oppress the sciences but put them to work
- innovations
  - optics: magnifying glass
  - calendar: refuted the Julian calendar
  - gun powder
Scientific Revolution
- reason and knowledge
- replaced religion, superstition, and fear
- Copernicus
- heliocentrism
- Newton
- gravitational forces