LITERACY AS A FACTOR IN THE EMERGENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF CIVILIZATION: A HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL DIMENSION

Abstract

Through the prism of historical-philosophical and semiotic analysis, the role of literacy as a fundamental factor in the formation and development of civilization is explored. Radical changes in various directions of society's development are, in one way or another, related to information. The history of human society is the history of information revolutions, as a result of which not only the methods of information processing, but also the method of production, lifestyle, and value systems radically changed. The transition from pre-literate societies to written ones is analyzed, which was accompanied by radical changes in cognitive structures, forms of institutionalization of power, and methods of constructing historical memory. The invention of literacy is called the second information revolution (the first is associated with the emergence of language). There was a real breakthrough in the productivity and quality of information fixation, as well as its movement, storage, access, analytical processing. Literacy makes it possible to transmit information and knowledge using text, without direct translation. This fundamentally changed the nature of communication. The invention of literacy testified to the birth of a new mentality. The transition of humanity from a primary oral to a written culture is not only a historical milestone, but also a profound philosophical and cognitive transformation. Abstract thinking, reflection, and philosophy as such became possible due to the ability of a person to externalize their thoughts in the form of a fixed text. Literacy became the first large-scale technology for externalizing (bringing out) human experience. It opened the biological boundaries of human memory, creating an autonomous communicative environment in which civilization develops. The invention of literacy laid the foundation for all subsequent technological leaps – up to the modern digital infosphere. Modern society remains structurally a product of that fundamental transformation of consciousness that occurred with the invention of literacy. Literacy, printing, and mass reading are technologies that not only store information but also actively shape human consciousness and social structures. Understanding their negative consequences – the alienation of knowledge, the standardization of thinking, the blurring of epistemic responsibility – is critically important. A historical analysis of these media transformations provides the necessary conceptual framework for understanding contemporary challenges.