Logocentrism
Alex Scott succinctly describes: "According to Derrida, 'logocentrism' is the attitude that logos (the Greek term for speech, thought, law, or reason) is the central principle of language and philosophy.[1] This deeply rooted Western belief system has perpetuated the idea that language equates with speech within the hierarchical structure. As some philosophers describe how language reflects human perception of reality, the daily mentality can be discerned throughout literature of the past two millennia in the following examples of logocentric views in quotes:
sign language is regarded as a "substitute" or alternative of speech language.
Speech language and sign language are independent.
"In some circumstances, indeed, when speech is unavailable whether for environmental, ritual or physiological reasons, gesture can become a form of language all by itself."[2]
Aristotle proclaimed that "Deaf cannot reason without hearing." [3]
Language is not solely related to speech or hearing as evidence shows in neuroscientific studies that cognitive activities show similar results (e.g. language activities in the left brain) in both manual-visual speakers and vocal-auditory speakers.
"Hearing, of course, is unique among senses in that its medium is also the medium of language." [4]
Sight is unmistakably the medium of language among visual-manual speakers.
Language is located in the left cerebral hemisphere, where speech is located.
Studies in neuroscience show that language in visual-manual modality also occurs in the left brain.
"You shouldn't speak your language Dene because it is not God's language. You must learn English and French." [6]
In addition, the terms written language, sign language, hieroglyphs (with the absence of the term language), etc. are implicated in the metaphysically hierarchal structure.
Ptolemy of Language
The section below is excerpted from tha paper
Jolanta Lapiak. Ptolemy of Language, 2006.
In the image Ptolemy of Language, earth in the mouth serves as the Ptolemaic worldview, which dominated medieval thought, that positioned earth at the centre of the universe in the same way I relate it to logocentrism that positioned aural-orality at the centre of discourse on language.
The sun in one eye, like Greek lumen, represents the ancient Greek logos (speech, thought, reason, truth, etc.) which establishes its center, whereas the other eye in its blind spot pushes other languages to the margins.
Blindness and deafness in relation to language are strangely interrelated. This shows the relationship between vision and blind in language over the period of history, in which it privileges the metaphor of blind (a metonym for word) over deafness (a metonym for visual). This has been a logocentric blind spot in language.
In a parable, the Zen master poured tea in a cup. The guest exclaimed, "you are overflowing it." The master replied, "how can I teach you if your mind is not emptied first?" Logocentrism has been continously flowing till the works of Derrida dismantled the age-old philosophies, paving away logos.
References
Lapiak, Jolanta. "Logocentrism." and/or. MFA Thesis in conjunction with MFA exhibition, 2007.
Endnotes
[1] Jim Powell, Derrida for Beginners, (New York: Writers and Readers Publishing, 1997), p 33 cited
in Alex Scott.
[2] Kendon, Adam. Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance. U.K.: Cambridge University Press. 2004
p.3.
[3] 384-322 B.C. – Aristotle’s philosophy concerning deafness: "Deaf people could not be educated
without hearing, people could not learn. ‘Greek was the perfect language; all people who did not
speak Greek were considered Barbarians. Deaf equals barbarian.’" – http://www.aslinfo.com/trivial.cfm
[4] "Words of sense: Chapter 3", p 55. This statement is contradictory, when it comes to sight as
the primary medium of language in signed language.
[5] "Aural Space as Equivalent to Quantum Reality" p 52.
[6] A personal remark (2008) from Lance Cazon of Edmonton, Dene (Native Indian in the northern regions of Canada), that the priest told him in the 1970s in Northwest Territories, Canada.