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08746_Field_TCGG T511.txt
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1996-04-10
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880b
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contexts always accompany the printed word. But if print
discourages minute verbal play, it strongly works for uniformity
of spelling and uniformity of meaning, since both of these are
immediate practical concerns of the printer and his public.
In the same way, a written philosophy, and especially a
printed one, will naturally make “certitude” the primary object
of knowledge, just as the scholar in a print culture can have
acceptance for his accuracy even though he has nothing to
say. But the paradox of the passion for certitude in print
culture is that it must proceed by the method of doubt. We
shall find abundance of such paradoxes in the new technology
that made each book reader the centre of the universe and also
enabled Copernicus to toss man to the periphery of the
heavens, dislodging him from the centre of the physical world.