Understanding McLuhan/Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso/pc/mcluhan.dxr/06690_Field_TCUM T255.txt

Text File | 1996-04-10 | 1KB | 16 lines

     To turn again briefly to the question of number in its
more limited manifestation, Dantzig, having made clear that
the idea of homogeneity had to come before primitive numbers
could be advanced to the level of mathematics, points to
another literate and visual factor in the older mathematics.
“Correspondence and succession, the two principles which
permeate all mathematics—nay, all realms of exact thought—
are woven into the very fabric of our number system,” he
observes. So, indeed, are they woven into the very fabric of
Western logic and philosophy. We have already seen how the
phonetic technology fostered visual continuity and individual
point of view, and how these contributed to the rise of uniform
Euclidean space. Dantzig says that it is the idea of
correspondence which gives us cardinal numbers. Both of these
spatial ideas—lineality and point of view—come with writing,
especially with phonetic writing; but neither is necessary in our