This book is a consequence of the suggestion that a major key to ward understanding cognition in any advanced culture is to be found in the relationships between processing orthographies, lan guage, and thought. In this book, the contributors attempt to take only the first step, namely to ascertain that there are reliable con stancies among the interactions between a given type of writing and specific brain processes. And, among the possible brain processes that could be investigated, only one apparently simple issue is being explored: namely, whether the lateralization of reading and writing to the right in fully phonemic alphabets is the result of formalized but essentially random occurrences, or whether some physiological determinants are at play. The original project was much more complicated. It began with Derrick de Kerckhove's attempt to establish a connection between the rise of the alphabetic culture in Athens and the development of a theatrical tradition in that city from around the end of the 6th century B. c. to the Roman conquest. The underlying assumption, first proposed in a conversation with Marshall McLuhan, was that the Greek alphabet was responsible for a fundamental change in the psychology of the Athenians and that the creation of the great tragedies of Greek theatre was a kind of cultural response to a con dition of deep psychological crisis.

Klappentext

The psychology and historiography of writing has generally received less attention than reading, speech and language acquisition. This book tries to redress that imbalance and is the fruit of the continual collaboration between a humanist and a neuroscientist who share an interest in the role of biology and brain-related factors in cultural evolution. It brings together a wide selection of scientists from the fields of neuroscience, psychology, linguistics and philology in an interdisciplinary discussion of the nature of the alphabetic system of Western writing and the forces affecting its evolution. The goal of the book is to present the background to a new model that demonstrates what factors shaped our alphabet and how the alphabet shapes us. This model develops from de Kerckhove's causal model of literacy and psychosocial development and extends to implications about the large-scale structure of human history. The chapters are especially designed so as to bring the reader up to date with each topic before giving the narrower focus. This valuable feature makes the book easily accessible to a wide audience from a variety of related fields.

Inhalt
General Introduction.- 1 Biological Foundations.- 1 Gene-Culture Coevolution: Culture and Biology in Darwinian Perspective.- 2 Learning and Selection in the Nervous System.- 3 Neuronal Group Selection: A Basis for Categorization by the Nervous System.- 2 The Evolution of Writing Systems.- 4 Writing: The Invention and the Dream.- 5 The Origin of the Greek Alphabet.- 6 Relationships Between Speech and Writing Systems in Ancient Alphabets and Syllabaries.- 7 Graphic Systems, Phonic Systems, and Linguistic Representations.- 3 Writing Right and Left.- 8 Canons of Alphabetic Change.- 9 Logical Principles Underlying the Layout of Greek Orthography.- 10 The Material Conditions of the Lateralization of the Ductus.- 11 Psychology of Literacy: East and West.- 4 Neuropsychological Considerations.- 12 The Biology of Writing.- 13 Language Processing: A Neuroanatomical Primer.- 14 Orthography, Reading, and Cerebral Functions.- 15 Literacy and the Brain.- 16 The Processing of Japanese Kana and Kanji Characters.- 5 Brain, Lateralization and Writing: Initial Models.- 17 The Bilateral Cooperative Model of Reading.- 18 Right Hemisphere Literacy in the Ancient World.- 19 The Role of Vowels in Alphabetic Writing.- 20 Critical Brain Processes Involved in Deciphering the Greek Alphabet.- 21 Mind, Media, and Memory: The Archival and Epistemic Functions of Written Text.- General Conclusion.