uote about the evils of writing or technology

April 29, 2011 2:25 PM

Looking for an ancient greek quote about the evils of writing or technology.

I recall being told a quote about the evils of writing - or writing instruments - attributed to either Plato or Socrates. It was told to me in the context of fearing technology in education.

My search has only come up with this:

If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks. What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder. And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only its semblance, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing, and as men filled, not with wisdom but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows.

Are there any others?

posted by turtlefu to Writing & Language (5 answers total)

Oh, there's a whole section on this in Proust and the Squid. The quote was attributed to Socrate and written down by Plato, if I remember correctly.

You can find the whole dialogue in Phaedrus.
posted by chatongriffes at 2:35 PM on April 29, 2011

There's this dialogue, also in Plato's Phaedrus:

"writing shares a strange feature with painting. The offsprings of painting stand there as if they are alive, but if anyone asks them anything, they remain most solemnly silent. The same is true of written words. You’d think they were speaking as if they had some understanding, but if you question anything that has been said because you want to learn more, it continues to signify just that very same thing forever. When it has once been written down, every discourse roams about everywhere, reaching indiscriminately those with understanding no less than those who have no business with it, and it doesn’t know to whom it should speak and to whom it should not. And when it is faulted and attacked unfairly, it always needs its father’s support; alone, it can neither defend itself nor come to its own support."

posted by Paragon at 2:35 PM on April 29, 2011

This idea came up a lot with the "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" article by Nicholas Carr in the Atlantic. It was the go-to idea for people who got to debate or interview him.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 3:33 PM on April 29, 2011

This very question was asked before - what Greek philosopher hated writing? It's a very memorable idea, obviously!
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:18 PM on April 29, 2011

As others have pointed out, Plato's Phaedrus is the locus classicus for this idea (so to speak). It's worth noting, though, that Plato expressed this idea in a written work, and had he not done so, it would have been lost to posterity....
posted by brianogilvie at 7:17 AM on April 30, 2011