The idea of literacy

In this paper I show that literacy is not, as is often thought, a necessary condition for civilisation; argue that it was not, as often thought, the c rucial factor in enabling the modern world to emerge from earlier civilisat ions; report the disadvantages of literacy as expressed by Plato's characte r Socrates and Milne's character Piglet, and look at the relation of litera cy, to reasoning and to philosophy, trace the role of the idea of literacy in the nineteenth century protocol for creating national cultures, and spec ulate on further developments in the same line; and then discuss its role i n the modern economy and in the future.