This article draws on the issue of digital sovereignty as a probe to explore the media scholarshi... more This article draws on the issue of digital sovereignty as a probe to explore the media scholarship of Marshall McLuhan as it relates to human sovereignty. Taking seriously McLuhan’s characterization of himself as a follower of Thomas Aquinas, the article argues that McLuhan’s application of gestalt psychology to culture and technology is analogical to Aquinas’s existential development of the figure–ground polarity central to Aristotelian hylomorphism. This structural equivalence allows us to understand McLuhan’s notion of ground in two primary senses – as acoustic material potency and as tactile existential actuality. I contend that conflating the existential Ground of human artefacts with the material ground of human artefacts obsolesces the figural structure of human perception, leading to a posthuman metaphysics that is at odds both with McLuhan’s humanistic message and with efforts to promote human sovereignty in the digital world.
This paper explores the perceptual implications of video games, and gamification in general, by d... more This paper explores the perceptual implications of video games, and gamification in general, by drawing on a number of concepts from the media theory of Marshall McLuhan: primarily his discussion of games as anti-environments and of technologies as extensions of human senses and faculties. Understanding video games in terms of the cultural and psychological significance of play, I argue that video games as a product of the gamification of culture substantially alter the traditional function of play through their diminished capacity to serve as anti-environments. Finally, I offer a brief reflection on the opportunities for awareness and understanding in relation to contemporary gamification.
The tradition of faculty psychology is brought to bear on contemporary online discourses purveyin... more The tradition of faculty psychology is brought to bear on contemporary online discourses purveying the sense of a "meaning crisis" in western consciousness. Taking the social media outreach and scholarly research of psychology professors Jordan Peterson and John Vervaeke as some of the most influential commentary on what Vervaeke has popularly labeled the "meaning crisis," this paper offers the media scholarship of Marshall McLuhan and the psychological theory of Magda Arnold as more compelling sources both for defining the so-called "meaning crisis" and for addressing it. Explicating Arnold's retrieval of Thomas Aquinas' discussion of the "cogitative sense" in her psychology of the emotions, this paper uses Arnold's work to shed light on McLuhan's theory of media environments in order to contextualize the "meaning crisis" in relation to the psychic attitudes correlative to electric and digital technologies.
New Explorations: Studies in Culture and Communication, 2020
This paper examines the psychic effects of digital environments by re-evaluating the work of Walt... more This paper examines the psychic effects of digital environments by re-evaluating the work of Walter Ong and, especially, Marshall McLuhan in the context of Aristotelian and Thomist psychology. The paper argues that, due to the high-definition logical stress of computer technologies, the digital environment obsolesces the psychic attitudes implicated in what McLuhan described as the electronic retrieval of “acoustic space.” In contrast to, what Walter Ong termed, the “secondary orality” of radio and television, I argue that digital technology constitutes an environment of “secondary literacy,” a term that Ong introduced in his later years but did not develop. In order to understand the new sensory and psychological ratio constituted by digital environments, I examine McLuhan’s interpretation of the “primary literacy” of the medieval scribal environment as grounded in the doctrine of the common sense or “sensus communis.” Through evaluating Aristotle’s and Aquinas’ association of the common sense with tactility, I argue that the “secondary literacy” of the digital environment extends the medieval sense of “inner tactility” – or the manner in which experience is generated based on the interface between sensory perception and intellectual judgment. Finally, by arguing that the digital environment simulates a multiplicity of “lifeworlds” or “object-environments” based on ratios of “inner tactility,” I examine some fundamental ways in which the hermeneutic methods of Ong and McLuhan presage the phenomenology of secondary literacy.
The provocative nature of both the form and content, “medium” and “message,” of Marshall McLuhan’... more The provocative nature of both the form and content, “medium” and “message,” of Marshall McLuhan’s scholarship on technological culture has attracted a wide array of McLuhan interpreters of diverse intentions. It is well known, however, that McLuhan considered himself a follower of the thirteenth century scholastic Thomas Aquinas; as he wrote to his friend Fr. John Mole, “I am a Thomist for whom the sensory order resonates with the divine Logos.” While McLuhan’s intellectual corpus provides enough evidence to justify taking him at his word, it is also clear that McLuhan was a very unusual Thomist, and intentionally so. As early as 1947, at the time of McLuhan’s strategic shift from literary scholar to media exegete, McLuhan was confident enough in his knowledge of the medieval trivium to contend that the “true Thomist” was not the person who “contemplates” Aquinas’ “already achieved intellectual synthesis,” but rather the person who “sustained by that synthesis, plunges into the heart of the chaos” of contemporary “mechanistic society.” This article will explore the ramifications of that belief for McLuhan’s thought as a whole.
This dissertation re-examines the methods of existential phenomenology and media ecology by situa... more This dissertation re-examines the methods of existential phenomenology and media ecology by situating both within the aesthetics of “digital modernism,” which, following the media scholar Marshall McLuhan, I employ as an “anti-environment” to reveal the psychic and sensory attitudes engendered by the digital media environment. Drawing on McLuhan’s reading of the cultural environment constituted by electric media as – what the media ecologist Walter Ong famously labeled – “secondary orality,” I argue that the environment constituted by digital media is more profitably understood as “secondary literacy,” a term that Ong employed but did not develop. In contrast to the “secondary orality” of the electric environment, which, according to both Ong and McLuhan, retrieves the psychic attitudes associated with pre-literate tribalism, I characterize the “secondary literacy” of the digital environment as retrieving the psychic attitudes associated with ancient Greek and medieval manuscript literacy. Through contextualizing the interpretive attitudes of Husserl’s phenomenology and McLuhan’s media ecology within the primary literacy of medieval manuscript culture, I argue that both may function as important theoretical lenses, through which the attitudes of digital secondary literacy can be uncovered. On the basis of this theoretical integration, through which I analyze the artistic work of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Paul Klee, Christopher Alexander, and Anton Webern, I re-evaluate McLuhan’s use of modernist aesthetics as an anti-environment to the electric environment so as to position modernist aesthetics as an anti-environment to the digital environment.
While systems thinking continues to be a mounting influence in the theoretical and applied scienc... more While systems thinking continues to be a mounting influence in the theoretical and applied sciences, the systems approach has also made significant, even if underappreciated, headway in the humanities. In this paper, I highlight the unique contributions to systems thinking made by the media scholar Marshall McLuhan. I propose a perceptual approach to systems thinking, inspired by McLuhan's innovative method of experimental poiesis, which led him to create the exploratory tool of the Tetrad. As both an analytical and perceptual interface, the Tetrad foregrounds the sensory "ratios" in rationality itself-that is, the specific equilibrium of experiential forces that are the condition of possibility for situated meaning-making. I argue that the tetrad is a fruitful example of the direction that humanities-oriented systems thinking might follow-one that approaches complexity not only through theoretical compression, but also through direct apprehension of the emergent interplay of spatial, temporal, and cognitive modalities, which structure the complex but holistic fields of dynamic experience.
This article draws on the issue of digital sovereignty as a probe to explore the media scholarshi... more This article draws on the issue of digital sovereignty as a probe to explore the media scholarship of Marshall McLuhan as it relates to human sovereignty. Taking seriously McLuhan’s characterization of himself as a follower of Thomas Aquinas, the article argues that McLuhan’s application of gestalt psychology to culture and technology is analogical to Aquinas’s existential development of the figure–ground polarity central to Aristotelian hylomorphism. This structural equivalence allows us to understand McLuhan’s notion of ground in two primary senses – as acoustic material potency and as tactile existential actuality. I contend that conflating the existential Ground of human artefacts with the material ground of human artefacts obsolesces the figural structure of human perception, leading to a posthuman metaphysics that is at odds both with McLuhan’s humanistic message and with efforts to promote human sovereignty in the digital world.
This paper explores the perceptual implications of video games, and gamification in general, by d... more This paper explores the perceptual implications of video games, and gamification in general, by drawing on a number of concepts from the media theory of Marshall McLuhan: primarily his discussion of games as anti-environments and of technologies as extensions of human senses and faculties. Understanding video games in terms of the cultural and psychological significance of play, I argue that video games as a product of the gamification of culture substantially alter the traditional function of play through their diminished capacity to serve as anti-environments. Finally, I offer a brief reflection on the opportunities for awareness and understanding in relation to contemporary gamification.
The tradition of faculty psychology is brought to bear on contemporary online discourses purveyin... more The tradition of faculty psychology is brought to bear on contemporary online discourses purveying the sense of a "meaning crisis" in western consciousness. Taking the social media outreach and scholarly research of psychology professors Jordan Peterson and John Vervaeke as some of the most influential commentary on what Vervaeke has popularly labeled the "meaning crisis," this paper offers the media scholarship of Marshall McLuhan and the psychological theory of Magda Arnold as more compelling sources both for defining the so-called "meaning crisis" and for addressing it. Explicating Arnold's retrieval of Thomas Aquinas' discussion of the "cogitative sense" in her psychology of the emotions, this paper uses Arnold's work to shed light on McLuhan's theory of media environments in order to contextualize the "meaning crisis" in relation to the psychic attitudes correlative to electric and digital technologies.
New Explorations: Studies in Culture and Communication, 2020
This paper examines the psychic effects of digital environments by re-evaluating the work of Walt... more This paper examines the psychic effects of digital environments by re-evaluating the work of Walter Ong and, especially, Marshall McLuhan in the context of Aristotelian and Thomist psychology. The paper argues that, due to the high-definition logical stress of computer technologies, the digital environment obsolesces the psychic attitudes implicated in what McLuhan described as the electronic retrieval of “acoustic space.” In contrast to, what Walter Ong termed, the “secondary orality” of radio and television, I argue that digital technology constitutes an environment of “secondary literacy,” a term that Ong introduced in his later years but did not develop. In order to understand the new sensory and psychological ratio constituted by digital environments, I examine McLuhan’s interpretation of the “primary literacy” of the medieval scribal environment as grounded in the doctrine of the common sense or “sensus communis.” Through evaluating Aristotle’s and Aquinas’ association of the common sense with tactility, I argue that the “secondary literacy” of the digital environment extends the medieval sense of “inner tactility” – or the manner in which experience is generated based on the interface between sensory perception and intellectual judgment. Finally, by arguing that the digital environment simulates a multiplicity of “lifeworlds” or “object-environments” based on ratios of “inner tactility,” I examine some fundamental ways in which the hermeneutic methods of Ong and McLuhan presage the phenomenology of secondary literacy.
The provocative nature of both the form and content, “medium” and “message,” of Marshall McLuhan’... more The provocative nature of both the form and content, “medium” and “message,” of Marshall McLuhan’s scholarship on technological culture has attracted a wide array of McLuhan interpreters of diverse intentions. It is well known, however, that McLuhan considered himself a follower of the thirteenth century scholastic Thomas Aquinas; as he wrote to his friend Fr. John Mole, “I am a Thomist for whom the sensory order resonates with the divine Logos.” While McLuhan’s intellectual corpus provides enough evidence to justify taking him at his word, it is also clear that McLuhan was a very unusual Thomist, and intentionally so. As early as 1947, at the time of McLuhan’s strategic shift from literary scholar to media exegete, McLuhan was confident enough in his knowledge of the medieval trivium to contend that the “true Thomist” was not the person who “contemplates” Aquinas’ “already achieved intellectual synthesis,” but rather the person who “sustained by that synthesis, plunges into the heart of the chaos” of contemporary “mechanistic society.” This article will explore the ramifications of that belief for McLuhan’s thought as a whole.
This dissertation re-examines the methods of existential phenomenology and media ecology by situa... more This dissertation re-examines the methods of existential phenomenology and media ecology by situating both within the aesthetics of “digital modernism,” which, following the media scholar Marshall McLuhan, I employ as an “anti-environment” to reveal the psychic and sensory attitudes engendered by the digital media environment. Drawing on McLuhan’s reading of the cultural environment constituted by electric media as – what the media ecologist Walter Ong famously labeled – “secondary orality,” I argue that the environment constituted by digital media is more profitably understood as “secondary literacy,” a term that Ong employed but did not develop. In contrast to the “secondary orality” of the electric environment, which, according to both Ong and McLuhan, retrieves the psychic attitudes associated with pre-literate tribalism, I characterize the “secondary literacy” of the digital environment as retrieving the psychic attitudes associated with ancient Greek and medieval manuscript literacy. Through contextualizing the interpretive attitudes of Husserl’s phenomenology and McLuhan’s media ecology within the primary literacy of medieval manuscript culture, I argue that both may function as important theoretical lenses, through which the attitudes of digital secondary literacy can be uncovered. On the basis of this theoretical integration, through which I analyze the artistic work of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Paul Klee, Christopher Alexander, and Anton Webern, I re-evaluate McLuhan’s use of modernist aesthetics as an anti-environment to the electric environment so as to position modernist aesthetics as an anti-environment to the digital environment.
While systems thinking continues to be a mounting influence in the theoretical and applied scienc... more While systems thinking continues to be a mounting influence in the theoretical and applied sciences, the systems approach has also made significant, even if underappreciated, headway in the humanities. In this paper, I highlight the unique contributions to systems thinking made by the media scholar Marshall McLuhan. I propose a perceptual approach to systems thinking, inspired by McLuhan's innovative method of experimental poiesis, which led him to create the exploratory tool of the Tetrad. As both an analytical and perceptual interface, the Tetrad foregrounds the sensory "ratios" in rationality itself-that is, the specific equilibrium of experiential forces that are the condition of possibility for situated meaning-making. I argue that the tetrad is a fruitful example of the direction that humanities-oriented systems thinking might follow-one that approaches complexity not only through theoretical compression, but also through direct apprehension of the emergent interplay of spatial, temporal, and cognitive modalities, which structure the complex but holistic fields of dynamic experience.
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