Map–territory relation: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:12, 7 October 2023

Revision as of 05:55, 16 October 2023

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In ''[[The Medium Is the Message|Understanding Media]]'', [[Marshall McLuhan]] expanded this argument to electronic media with his introduction of the phrase "[[The medium is the message|The Medium is the Message]]" (and later in the book titled [[The Medium Is the Massage|''The Medium is the Massage'']]). Media representations, especially on screens, are abstractions, or virtual "extensions" of what our sensory channels, bodies, thinking and feeling do for us in real life.

This concept occurs in the discussion of exoteric and esoteric [[religion]]s. ''[[Exoteric]]'' concepts are conceptsthose which can be fully conveyed using [[Epithet|descriptors]] and [[language]] constructs, such as [[mathematics]]. [[''Esoteric]]'' concepts are conceptsthose which cannot be fully conveyed except by direct experience.{{citation needed|date=October 2023|reason=These technical/philosophy sense of "esoteric" and "exoteric" need a citation, preferrably something online that our readers can easily use.}} For example, a person who has never tasted an [[apple]] will never fully understand through language what the taste of an apple is without actually eating an apple.

[[Lewis Carroll]], in ''[[Sylvie and Bruno Concluded]]'' (1893), made the point humorously with his description of a fictional map that had "the scale of a mile to the mile". A character notes some practical difficulties with such a map and states that "we now use the [[country]] itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well."