As this semester has gone on, my ideas about knowledge have
constantly been changing. Each new unit, blog post, and in class discussion
gave me new insights on the topic, and standing at the end of our journey I
have come to a conclusion. The ability to express our thoughts through spoken
word is the most significant advance in the communication of knowledge in human
history, and this oral knowledge is the basis of knowledge in all of its other
forms.
Folk knowledge, or the teaching of a skill by demonstration,
almost always involves some element of “orality” in its teaching, or at least
it is more effective that way. Some may argue that folk knowledge such as
cultural traditions or societal norms are not taught explicitly through oral
knowledge; however, they do encompass many elements of it, whether it’s
learning how to speak, your parents telling you how to act in public, or how to
perform a certain skill. Folk knowledge is primarily the transfer of how to do
something, which relies heavily on the ability to speak to augment one’s
example.
Another thing that is important to note is how we as humans
think. I make no claims to be an expert in how the human mind works, but I
think we can generally agree that in generating thoughts, we don’t generally
think in terms of a written or printed source, or of a physical action, rather
we think in an oral sense. We often may have to recall seeing a printed or
written source when taking a test, or replaying how someone performed a
physical folk knowledge type task in order to do it ourselves, but when
generating ideas and organizing how we might communicate them, or even drawing
knowledge from another source, we are “speaking” in our minds (just like I am
while typing this). I’m curious as to how humans thought before they developed
a form of oral communication (or even babies before they can speak), which is a
type of knowledge that cannot be communicated to us because we can’t yet go
inside their minds to hear their thoughts. There is also the auditory and visual
aspect of oral knowledge. Even those with certain limitations that hinder their
ability to speak or hear, such as my brother who has Downsyndrome or someone
who is deaf, experience oral knowledge either through hearing it or reading
someone’s lips. I know from experience that they are often frustrated with
expressing themselves because of their inability to communicate orally, and
there are other forms of knowledge that are better suited to their situation.
However, this is the exception rather than the rule. When we think, we think
orally, and what is knowledge besides a collection of thoughts, ideas, and
truths that we store in our brains?
Written and printed knowledge sources are really a
projection of our oral knowledge. There is a reason why you’ve never heard of a
civilization developing a complex writing system (not cave drawings) without
basing it on a spoken tongue, it’s because writing and printing both were
developed as a way to preserve and spread oral knowledge. When we look back at
some of the institutions and forms that developed with oral communication such
as university lectures, religious sermons, or political orations that we
discussed this morning, we find that they continue to exist today while being
augmented by the new medium. It is
certainly true that both the advent of writing and print revolutionized how we
spread and preserve our knowledge, but at their cores they are projections of our
oral knowledge. No matter how the way we communicate knowledge is changed in
the future, it will always at its core be oral in nature because that is the
primary way we communicate as humans.
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