PHILOSOPHICAL SOURCES OF MARSHALL MCLUHAN’S LAWS OF MEDIA: CICERO, FRANCIS BACON AND GIAMBATTISTA VICO

Bartłomiej KNOSALA¹, Aleksandra KUZIOR²

Media

Publication language: English

Journal article

Transformations No. 3-4 (90-91) 2016,  Publication date: 20 November 2016

Article No. 20161120120059406

Keywords: Marshall McLuhan, interconnections of language, senses and cognition, Bacon, Vico, common ground of art, science and technology

Abstract The main aim of this article is to point out the philosophical roots of Marshal McLuhan’s thought. The starting point is McLuhan’s last posthumous book entitled Laws of Media. In this book, McLuhan openly points to the intellectual tradition, which he feels part of and which he creatively develops. This tradition is connected with an ancient dispute between dialectics and rhetoric, in which Socrates and Cicero played prominent roles, but also with the philosophical teachings of Francis Bacon and Giambattista Vico.

1. Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, Faculty of Organization and Management, Department of Applied Social Sciences

   E-mail: bartlomiej.knosala@polsl.pl

2. Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, Faculty of Organization and Management, Department of Applied Social Sciences

   E-mail: aleksandra.kuzior@polsl.pl

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