Lecture 2: The Largest Step is now available for review on Blackboard in the Content Folder
Due to issues with BLOGGER not posting this page Comments will be accepted until Thursday night, January 21st.
A note on writing quality: Your written answers to the questions at the end of each lecture should demonstrate that you have read, understood, and reflected upon the course material, that you have thought about its implications, and drawn a meaningful response from them.
Answers which reflect a cohesive well written effort, which engage the course material, or which extend the conversation will be noted, and credited
Stay tuned to email, blackboard, and Jellospace Blog for the upcoming post on Lecture 3, and our first Discussion Forum: Emergencies, Disasters and Rebuilding the City - details to follow in a specific Jellospace posting
Due to issues with BLOGGER not posting this page Comments will be accepted until Thursday night, January 21st.
For this lecture in addition to your own comments, you will be responsible to read and write a critique, support, debate, or defense of an earlier position or observation made by a classmate.
A note on writing quality: Your written answers to the questions at the end of each lecture should demonstrate that you have read, understood, and reflected upon the course material, that you have thought about its implications, and drawn a meaningful response from them.
Answers which reflect a cohesive well written effort, which engage the course material, or which extend the conversation will be noted, and credited
Stay tuned to email, blackboard, and Jellospace Blog for the upcoming post on Lecture 3, and our first Discussion Forum: Emergencies, Disasters and Rebuilding the City - details to follow in a specific Jellospace posting
15 comments:
Literacy is the most powerful tool of persuasion because complex concepts can be introduced. The example given in lecture 1 is of a simple invitation for a party opposed to a letter explaining the pythagorean theorem. A literate society can allow people to communicate topics that are complex and not obviously apparent.
In a pre-literate society, persuasion would not really exist. The man with food or shelter will have control over everyone who needs it. In a literate world, the citizens can reason with leaders and come to new conclusions, which is the goal of persuasion.
Woojae H.
Literacy can be the most powerful too of persuasion, because, one can express oneself fully through literacy. He or she can express herself or himself fully through literacy. It is still possible orally; however, if one uses literacy as a medium, one can target multiple individuals to persuade and one can simply write alone in her or his own time. It only takes time once to write down everything one needs to say on the paper, and it is going to be used to be illustrated to others. One cannot persuade multiple individuals orally one by one. Literacy is easy and very powerful because one can express oneself fully through literacy. One is also allowed to express to the society if she or he writes. It is different than talking to others to persuade them. Writing what one needs to say is easier, and one can think in one's own time spending enough time oneself what should be said on the paper. Furthermore, one can go in deep in the topic with complex ideas allowing people to read it and brainstorm in their own time. Literacy can be a very powerful medium of communication due to those reasons stated above.
Joe R
Literacy is considered and has always been considered one of, if not the most powerful tools in society for a number of reasons. Literacy gives individuals and on a more grand scale, society as a whole the power to produce and pass on knowledge more easily amongst individuals. This includes as Craig stated complex concepts or ideas or simple opinions over certain topics. In earlier times, literacy led to knowledge production about certain notions which allowed individuals to persuade and gain power over other individuals. Literacy also gives literate individuals the power to teach other individuals who aren't as literate. When individuals teach and learn more, society as a whole grows and expands. When individuals are literate or more intelligent it gives them the ability to reason with the leadership and previously debunk theories therefore altering society.
As things explained in the article, people only have time to think is after they get enough food supply or even surplus, and not everyone will think about their life. Literacy is a kind of upper lever of people needs and only happened after basic needs is satisfied. Without thinking, people’s mind stays at a very simple stage and only focus on survive. If someone stand out and say something to simple-minded people, those simple-minded people will agree about everything when they feel benefits to them. Nobody wants a bad life. For example, among the war history of old ancient China, many different small countries fight for the land. Most of the time, those countries with enough food were always the winners. Food supply shows how rich the country is. Literacy made people’s mind become complex and discover different desires of people. Good negotiator always use opposite side people’s desires to get his purpose. Literacy separate people into different groups.
Philip S.
I would agree with Joe R., in that literacy as a tool to spread ideas and beliefs is extremely powerful. I would also agree with Craig W., in that the introduction of literacy to a society has the potential to upset the citizen/ruler dynamic that was so apparent in feudalistic villages. Linking literacy as a tool of persuasion with the lever as a tool of labor; the written word could be used by the villagers as leverage against feudal lords and the literate elite in the fight for more food and supplies.
Literacy is a powerful tool because it allows for information to be stored and traded. Without literacy many staples of the today(World Wide Web, Social Media, and WorldStar) would become obsolete. It is through literacy that we gain access to information experienced by others. When we build upon that information we find new inventions, theories, and understandings. Throughout history, literacy has been manipulated to oppress and manipulate the perceived "lesser." Craig W. and their point on literacy as a persuasive tool is something I agree with. Information brings validity, and validity helps us persuade others. When we build upon that information through literacy we can forge a more persuasive and progressive world.
I agree with Joe R. that literacy and the ability to learn and teach others, helps a society expand and provides new ideas and innovations, as well as an understanding of reasonable leadership. Literacy establishes a sense of sophistication to a culture and society, and creates opportunities to thrive and further development in agriculture and urbanization.
As stated by other classmates, literacy is a powerful tool of persuasion because it can be used to spread ideas and show reliability to persuade individuals.
A number of reasons can be advanced to justify the rationale behind viewing literacy as a powerful tool of persuasion. Firstly, literacy offers individuals and the entire society the inherent capability in producing and passing on knowledge, simple opinions or ideas amongst individuals. Usually, literate people have basic ability in grasping complex concepts, and explaining the derived knowledge to others using simplified perspectives. The resulting understanding makes it possible to share knowledge, thus persuading individuals or influencing others. During earlier times, the literate contributed significantly towards knowledge production on certain notions, and subsequently allowed individuals exercise power to train or teach other individuals. This enabled sharing of certain beliefs and ideas.
Secondly, literacy empowers the literate persons to gain control over individuals, and thus their ideas are highly valued and considered by the illiterate. Historically, literate individuals like scholars gained elite treatment, as their social class in the community was higher compared to ordinary people. Thus, these literate individuals used their intelligent as the inherent competency to lead others and persuade them towards adoption of a common objective. Further, throughout history, literacy plays an indispensable role in manipulating and oppressing the perceived ‘lesser’ individuals in the society. In the article, feudalistic village existed because the powerfully literate individuals acting as feudal lords used their elite status in fighting for more supplies and food.
Finally, literacy proves a powerful tool of persuasion because it shapes the path for storing and trading information. Modern communication tools like Social Media have proven useful because people are literate enough to use such platforms to share and store valuable learning, new information, and experiences. When individuals build upon such information, the outcome is more understandings, theories, and new inventions. The resulting information brings validity, and reliability which helps the literate to persuade others to accept new inventions or understandings.
In the modern world we live in there are many different types of civilizations around the world that have different customs than we are accustomed to, but there is also some similarities. This similarity can be seen in professional practices however the most important is the development of a literary technique. In order to survive and grow in the environments faced today we must communicate with one another so that we can accomplish tasks more efficiently. In becoming literate in your countries language you can begin to build and grow off of others knowledge because there is now a form of communicating. These cultures no longer require all tasks to be taught to younger generations because these generations can learn them from texts, which frees up time. Time is amongst the many aspects of life many take for granted until it is too late, but with this free time people were able to think of something other than providing food. This was an important checkpoint in the development of cities because focus could be put towards aspects that had not existed before. The transition from nomad cultures to settlements came out of luck and understanding of new sources of food that could be harvested on site. They no longer had to roam after herds in order to find food and could focus time toward the development of society. Literacy is by far the most important quality to developing a society because it is the only way to free up the mind to wander and create new techniques and technologies. Thus allowing the society to grow and prosper.
Literacy had the ability to become the most powerful tool of persuasion mainly because it allows man to spread ideas on a vast scale, much larger than any idea can be spread by word of mouth, for just as nomadic cultures remained primitive because of the impermanence of their settlements, spoken word is impermanent as well. Before the advent of literacy, stories and beliefs had to be passed on between individuals. Written texts allowed an idea to remain present and observable without the aid of a speaker. Furthermore, a written text that only an elite group can read holds some type of significance over vernacular speech. Therefore, the controlling elite could use their knowledge about a particular text to their advantage by sharing it with the illiterate, propagating persuasion.
I agree with Craig W. in that persuasion would not exist in a pre-literate world. In such a culture, man would have to fend for himself, his only value residing in his physical strength and material goods. In the permanent, agricultural, and literate villages that followed, the literate, controlling elite transcend such measurements of value by persuading their followers to bestow gifts to them for no reason other than persuasion.
Daniel Knee had a great point about the power of the elite. Literacy became a powerful skill that only certain people could possess, so those people were now even further from those who were still illiterate. Widespread literacy didn't really come to fruition until the introduction of the printing press, so there was definitely a rift between those who could read and write and those who could only listen and respond.
Another topic that has not really been addressed directly is the capability for growth in a literate society. Alex S. covered this topic well when discussing time, and how free time was invented once discoveries could be recorded. Every new generation could lean on the advancements that were recorded by the previous one. Now there is time to grow and build on a society. The inventions themselves are usually associated with a society's advancement, but it is the introduction of recorded history, literacy, that is the true impetus.
There is a reason many say knowledge is power. Literacy in these Pre-Industrial cities allowed those who could communicate their ideas effectively to hold more power in their early communities. For example the first man to harvest wheat bread was then able to teach others how to do so, and was then able to innovate further and lead others to follow. Much like David G. said it is through literacy we are able to access new information and share those ideas and expand upon them further. Literacy became and remains the most powerful tool of persuasion because it was in using this literacy that class distinctions and other social concepts form. In a simpler sense literacy was so essential because it was used to teach and share learned experiences so people could build upon these ideas and innovate further developing societies. It is because of literacy we see such developments in the complexities of cities both physically and socially over time.
Literacy is among the most important advancements in human history because it gives people the ability to develop ideas and communicate those ideas to others. In the case of early humans just beginning to congregate into early cities, the development of literacy allowed people to develop ideas on issues such as agriculture and communicate these ideas to those living in their immediate city. When types of wheat that were able to multiply without human intervention began to disappear, and newer types of wheat, types that needed help from people to propagate, began to take over, people needed to stop and settle in order to farm land and feed themselves. With agriculture came the production of a surplus of food, and thus people were able to take a break from farming and take time to think about issues in their societies. Perhaps some of those issues were how to make farming and food production easier. With the added free time thanks to the surplus of food, people would have been able to reflect on ways to more easily make more food. People may have come up with ideas for tools, techniques, and methods that furthered the practice of agriculture. In order for these advancements to be put into effect, those who thought them up needed to be able to communicate them to the rest of society in a clear and precise way. Literacy allowed this communication. Literacy allowed people to persuade others that their methods and techniques were capable of transforming society for the better.
Aleandra R
I liked how Craig brought up an example from Lecture 1: an invitation to a party vs. a letter explaining the Pythagorean Theory. This example shows how much of a difference literacy can make when it comes to the power of persuasion. When we're trying to persuade someone to buy into what we say, one of the most important aspects is the data to support our ideas. For example, a plan for a new building would never be presented without thorough research done. An invitation for a party simply tells you where and when to be somewhere, while the Pythagorean Theory is a complex idea that can be used for various things. Like Craig stated, a person with food/water/shelter/etc. controls everyone in a pre-literate society. This forms the 'elite' group of people that are able to keep others in line because illiterate people are unable to present an argument.
Literacy was clearly the most important aspect in the development of nomadic societies. Lecture 1 stressed the idea that nomadic societies really only focused on survival. Lecture 2 supported our thoughts that with literacy comes many other improvements within a society. Literacy allowed people to come up with ideas and inventions that made survival a lot easier. Once survival was no longer the main focus, people were able to come up with ideas and inventions that were a lot more progressive.
"To succeed, you will soon learn, as I did, the importance of a solid foundation in the basics of education - literacy, both verbal and numerical, and communication skills." Alan Greenspan. Literacy is the basic building-block for a properly formed society. A society should be able to work as a well-oiled machine. Literacy gives the ability for people to communicate with each other to get different ideas and points of views. This allows for the spread of information and knowledge, especially for a newly-formed society. People could exchange animals for barter or find new ways to mix grains into making a new type of bread. By being literate, people could form opinions about who was in charge and progress to the age of a more democratic society. People could begin to record information for future generations whether the recordings were recipes or death certificates, and cities could prosper just as the Pre-Industrial societies had. Not only in this way but the development of literacy allows people to teach others important things that they have learned and then develop this even more into a learning society that takes what old generations new and push them forward into a smarter society. Which then continued into the society we know today.
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