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Understanding McLuhan
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Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso
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08260_Field_TCGG T25.txt
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1996-04-10
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910b
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16 lines
But if I go further and seek among these
characteristics the principal one, which includes almost all
the rest, I discover that in most of the operations of the
mind each American appeals only to the individual effort
of his own understanding.
America is therefore one of the countries where the
precepts of Descartes are least studied and are best
applied. . . . Everyone shuts himself tightly up within
himself and insists upon judging the world from there. (5)
His skill in creating interplay between the written and oral
modes of perceptual structure enabled de Tocqueville to
achieve “scientific” insights into psychology and politics. By this
interplay of two modes of perception he achieved prophetic
understanding while other observers were merely expressing
their private viewpoints. De Tocqueville knew well that