Outfits of Symbolism

“However far we go back in recorded history, we are within the period of high grade functioning of mankind, far removed from mere animal savagery. Also, within that period it would be difficult to demonstrate that mankind has improved upon its inborn mental capacity. Yet there can be no doubt that there has been an immense expansion of the outfit which the environment provides for the service of thought. This outfit can be summarized under the headings, modes of communication, physical and mental, writing, preservation of documents, variety of modes of literature, critical thought, systematic thought, constructive thought, history, comparison of diverse languages, mathematical symbolism, improved technology providing physical ease, This last list is obviously composed of many partially redundant and overlapping items. But it serves to remind us of the various ways in which we have at our service facilities for thought and suggestions for thought, far beyond those at hand for our predecessors who lived anywhere from two to five thousand years ago. Indeed the last two hundred years has added to this outfit in a way which may create a new epoch unless mankind degenerates, Of course, a large share of this outfit had already accumulated between two and three thousand years ago, It is the brilliant use which the leading men of that millennium made of their opportunities which makes us doubt of any improvement in the native intelligence of mankind.” (p. 55) - Whitehead, A.N., 1933. Adventures of Ideas, MacMillan., p. 55, quoted in Winchester, I., 1985. Atlantans, Centaurians, and the litron bomb: some personal and social implications of literacy. In Literacy, Language, and Learning. Cambridge University Press, pp. 34–49.