A Bridge to the 18th Century
Building a Bridge to the Eighteenth Century By: Neil
Postman
Neil Postman identifies himself as a "neo-Luddite".
What bothers Postman most is the fact that the great innovators of this time have no frame of reference other than their own experience, and that experience is only that of the 20th century. Advocates of trends such as information superhighways and economic globalization appear to know nothing of history, philosophy and culture; they live digitally in the hollow present. Postman assesses different ideas in each chapter: Chaper One: A Bridge to the Eighteenth Century Postman heralds the accomplishments of personalities of the 18th Century, including Goethe, Voltaire,
Rousseau, Diderot, Kant, Hume, Gibbon, Paine,
Jefferson, Franklin, Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and
Haydn, among many others.
Chapter Two: Progress Postman summarizes, "The idea of progress is a product of the Enlightenment. The eighteenth century invented it but it also criticized and doubted it and its limitations and pitfalls. Reason, when unaided and untempered by poetic insight and human feeling, turns ugly and dangerous.
Chapter Three: Technology When assessing various technological advancements,
Postman encourages the reader to be question, "What is the problem to which this technology is a solution?" "Whose problem is it?" "Which people and institutions might be most seriously harmed by a technological solution?" and finally, "What new problems may be created because we have solved this problem?" Chapter Four: Language Postman stresses that the "medium is the message" in this chapter. He examines the perspectives which our language forces us to view situations from and alerts the reader that our language creates an invisible bias in our thinking.
Chapter Five: Information "Information" is a relatively modern noun, and
Postman argues that if one searches hundreds of eighteenth century indexes for the term he will not
find
Postman
Neil Postman identifies himself as a "neo-Luddite".
What bothers Postman most is the fact that the great innovators of this time have no frame of reference other than their own experience, and that experience is only that of the 20th century. Advocates of trends such as information superhighways and economic globalization appear to know nothing of history, philosophy and culture; they live digitally in the hollow present. Postman assesses different ideas in each chapter: Chaper One: A Bridge to the Eighteenth Century Postman heralds the accomplishments of personalities of the 18th Century, including Goethe, Voltaire,
Rousseau, Diderot, Kant, Hume, Gibbon, Paine,
Jefferson, Franklin, Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and
Haydn, among many others.
Chapter Two: Progress Postman summarizes, "The idea of progress is a product of the Enlightenment. The eighteenth century invented it but it also criticized and doubted it and its limitations and pitfalls. Reason, when unaided and untempered by poetic insight and human feeling, turns ugly and dangerous.
Chapter Three: Technology When assessing various technological advancements,
Postman encourages the reader to be question, "What is the problem to which this technology is a solution?" "Whose problem is it?" "Which people and institutions might be most seriously harmed by a technological solution?" and finally, "What new problems may be created because we have solved this problem?" Chapter Four: Language Postman stresses that the "medium is the message" in this chapter. He examines the perspectives which our language forces us to view situations from and alerts the reader that our language creates an invisible bias in our thinking.
Chapter Five: Information "Information" is a relatively modern noun, and
Postman argues that if one searches hundreds of eighteenth century indexes for the term he will not
find