But we may wonder why Ong stopped criticizing modern philosophy, as many other Roman Catholics continued to criticize modern philosophy. Perhaps he had worked the spirit to criticize modern philosophy out of his system. So perhaps he saw no point in beating a dead horse any further.
But it is also possible that the trajectory of Ong's own philosophical thought continued to emerge and develop in such a way that his own emerging philosophical thought stopped him from pursuing his criticism of modern philosophy further.
You see, in his book THE PRESENCE OF THE WORD: SOME PROLEGOMENA FOR CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS HISTORY (1967), the expanded version of Ong's 1964 Terry Lectures at Yale's Divinity School, Ong expresses hope about the positive potential of the impact and influence of our contemporary communications media that accentuate sound.
In the lingo of baseball announcers, the communications media that accentuate sound represent a whole new ball game in Western culture. Because modern philosophy can be seen as a byproduct of the print culture that emerged in Western culture after the Gutenberg printing press emerged in the 1450s, it follows that the contemporary communications media in Western culture will most likely serves as a tempering countervailing force against modern philosophy.
After Ong had expressed his hope about the positive potential of the impact and influence of our contemporary communication media that accentuate sound, towards the end of THE PRESENCE OF THE WORD (1967), he did not turn back to the history of philosophy that he had investigated so deeply in RAMUS, METHOD, AND THE DECAY OF DIALOGUE (1958), nor to religious history that he had mentioned in the subtitle of THE PRESENCE OF THE WORD.
Instead, he turned mostly to cultural history. But he meandered into philosophy again in FIGHTING FOR LIFE: CONTEST, SEXUALITY, AND CONSCIOUSNESS (1981), mentioned above.
Because the Mississippi River flows through St. Louis, Missouri, where Ong studied and taught at Saint Louis University, I would liken the flow of the course of Ong's life to the meandering flow of the Mississippi.
For further discussion of Ong's philosophical thought, see my essay "Understanding Ong's Philosophical Thought":
d-commons.d.umn.edu:8443/handle/10792/2696
Now, in footnote 53 in his eco-encyclical, Pope Francis refers positively to the thought of the French Jesuit paleontologist and spiritual writer Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955). This is the first time that Teilhard has been mentioned in an official church document. During Teilhard's lifetime, Vatican officials blocked the publication of his works about evolutionary theory. However, after his death, his works were published posthumously -- and they electrified people. Ong was one of the first American Catholics to call Teilhard's thought to the attention of his fellow American Catholics -- in a 1952 journal article. Thereafter Ong never tired of referring to Teilhard's thought.
Ong also never tired of referring to I-thou communication. In the pope's eco-encyclical, Pope Francis also repeatedly refers to I-thou communication.
In my course on Literacy, Technology, and Society, the required reading also included two accessible books by Neil Postman:
(1) AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH: PUBLIC DISCOURSE IN THE AGE OF SHOW BUSINESS (1985);
(2) TECHNOPOLY: THE SURRENDER OF CULTURE TO TECHNOLOGY (1992).
In TECHNOPOLY, Postman sounds like a catastrophizing technophobe. In Pope Francis' eco-encyclical, he often sounds like a catastrophizing technophobe. (Albert Ellis helped popularize the term "catastrophize.")
But Ong is not a technophobe, nor am I.
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