From: clyder@GN.APC.ORG
Date: Sat Nov 25 2006 - 06:48:00 EST
Quoting Rakesh Bhandari <bhandari@BERKELEY.EDU>: > By the way, do you agree with the implication of Paul C's argument that > since the passing on of written arguments is the key to human uniqueness, > preliterate cultures must therefore be not yet fully human. > > I did not say that, firstly since I am not working in a humanist framework, I thus do not use the category human in the way you do. I am not saying that the pre-literate cultures were not human cultures, as they were obviously populated by people. What I am saying is that the pre-literate cultures had not reached the stage of development in the technology of handling information that allowed them to achieve universality in labouring capacity. Unless individual workers have access to materialised records containing information produced by others, then the level of development that is possible in the productive forces when these become available. My argument is that our rise to dominant species on the planet has rested upon these developments in the productive forces that required as a precondition a technology of record, including for example, the ability to do calculations. I dont think that there is a unique human essence, we are just a species whose information handling capacity has allowed us to accrete extra-individual information, thereby vastly enhancing our ability to change reality. ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu Nov 30 2006 - 00:00:06 EST