Orality to literacy: effects on nursing knowledge

Background Around the time of Plato and Aristotle, writing was introduced into the Western world and caused an epistemological revolution. Academics describe this change from pre-literacy to literacy as the alphabetization of a society. If societies have no written alphabet or words, knowledge transmission is oral. Words and ideas are fluid because they are always particularized to specific situations, rather than being written and available for scrutiny. With alphabetization, people record events, experiences and exchanges. Meanings no longer change slightly with each telling because writing solidifies knowledge as people attach increasingly limited meanings to words. Nursing experienced a similar revolution from orality to literacy with the proliferation of nursing journals beginning in the 1970ʹs. Consequently, nurses and nurse educators also experienced an epistemological revolution resulting in knowledge from literacy usually being automatically valued higher than knowledge from orality. Purpose I critically examine changes to knowledge that nurse educators value as a result of an alphabetized discipline. Discussion By comparing epistemological changes resulting from alphabetization in ancient Greece with similar changes in nursing education, I discuss three important dynamics: the sedimentation of words, the growth of criticism, and the new rationality. Conclusion Some epistemological changes resulting from literacy are positive for nursing (eg, the growth of criticism) while some changes are negative (eg, devaluing sensorial and experiential knowledge).