Literacy, rationality, and logic: The historical and developmental origins of logical discourse

This paper examines the claim that writing turns the implicit properties of spoken language into visible objects suited to reflection and analysis. It examines this hypothesis through an analysis of relational terms including ‘and’, ‘or’, and ‘not’, their meanings and uses in ordinary conversational contexts, and the changes that occur when these terms are recruited for systematic logical thinking. Keywords: literate rationality; literacy hypothesis; written register; relational term; logical thinking; logical discourse; metalinguistic judgement