The McLuhans' 2011 Book Media and Formal Cause, and Walter J. Ong's Thought
2022-02
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The McLuhans' 2011 Book Media and Formal Cause, and Walter J. Ong's Thought
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2022-02
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The Canadian Renaissance specialist and media theorist Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980; Ph.D. in English, Cambridge University, 1943) converted to Catholicism in the spring of 1937, when the Roman Catholic Church officially favored Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy (and also Aristotelian-Thomistic theology). But the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) officially demoted Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy from its status as the church's officially favored philosophy. However, as a Thomist philosopher, Marshall McLuhan had learned about Aristotle's four causes: (1) material cause, (2) efficient cause, (3) final cause, and (4) formal cause. Marshall McLuhan was most intrigued with formal cause, and so was his eldest son Eric McLuhan (1942-2018; Ph.D. in English, University of Dallas, 1982). The 2011 book Media and Formal Cause includes three selections by Marshall McLuhan (originally published in 1966, 1973, and 1976) and two by Eric McLuhan (originally published in 2011 and 2005). Now, the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and media theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) studied both Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy and Aristotelian-Thomistic theology as part of his lengthy Jesuit formation. However, Ong characterized his mature work from the early 1950s onward as phenomenological and personalist in cast -- in plain English, not Thomist philosophy (or theology). Consequently, Ong's thought represents a counterpoint over against the Thomist thought advanced by the McLuhans in their 2011 book.
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Farrell, Thomas. (2022). The McLuhans' 2011 Book Media and Formal Cause, and Walter J. Ong's Thought. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/226510.
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