The Alphabet Effect Re-Visited, McLuhan Reversals and Complexity Theory

Robert Logan

doi:10.3390/philosophies2010002

Abstract

The alphabet effect that showed that codified law, alphabetic writing, monotheism, abstract science and deductive logic are interlinked, first proposed by McLuhan and Logan (1977), is revisited. Marshall and Eric McLuhan’s (1988) insight that alphabetic writing led to the separation of figure and ground and their interplay, as well as the emergence of visual space, are reviewed and shown to be two additional effects of the alphabet. We then identify more additional new components of the alphabet effect by demonstrating that alphabetic writing also gave rise to (1) Duality, and (2) reductionism or the linear sequential relationship of causes followed by effects. We then review McLuhan’s (1962) claim that electrically configured information reversed the dominance of visual space over acoustic space and led to the reversals of (1) cause and effect, and (2) figure and ground. We then demonstrate that General System Theory first formulated by Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1968), which also includes chaos theory, complexity theory and emergence (aka emergent dynamics) and Jakob von Uexküll’s (1926) notion of umwelt also entail the reversal of many aspects of the alphabet effect such as the reversals of (1) cause and effect, and (2) figure and ground.

Highlights

Origin of the Alphabet EffectMcLuhan and Logan (1977) [1] in a paper entitled Alphabet, Mother of Invention suggested that the alphabet explains why Western thought patterns are highly abstract, compared with Eastern thought
The alphabet effect that showed that codified law, alphabetic writing, monotheism, abstract science and deductive logic are interlinked, first proposed by McLuhan and Logan (1977), is revisited
Parmenides argument used a form of duality that entails a binary either or division but he uses deductive logic to conclude that nothing changes and laid the ground work for the emergence of substance/essence dualism, a form of constitutional dualism formulated by Plato

Summary

Origin of the Alphabet Effect

McLuhan and Logan (1977) [1] in a paper entitled Alphabet, Mother of Invention suggested that the alphabet explains why Western thought patterns are highly abstract, compared with Eastern thought. Parmenides argument used a form of duality that entails a binary either or division but he uses deductive logic to conclude that nothing changes and laid the ground work for the emergence of substance/essence dualism, a form of constitutional dualism formulated by Plato. Like Parmenides who wanted to have an unchanging element in his worldview, Descartes divided the ever changing material world from the spiritual world of Mind, Soul and God and this contributed to the mind-body problem that persists to this day Another effect of alphabetic writing and deductive logic is the notion of the linear chain of cause and effect and reductionism, whereby all phenomena can be reduced to a simpler or more basic one implying that the whole is merely the sum of its parts just as the alphabet reduces all words to their basic phonemes

The Reversal of the Alphabet Effects

The Reversal of the Alphabet Effects in the Sciences

A Third Window

Conclusions