This was published in January of last year, but I've just run across a reference to it for the first time in recent days.
REFLECTIONS ON THE DAWN OF CONSCIOUSNESS: JULIAN JAYNES'S BICAMERAL MIND THEORY REVISITED.
Fortunately, this is one of the books at amazon with the neat "search inside" feature, so you can see the table of contents without further ado.
I've got lots of other things on my "to do" list, so buying, or even library borrowing, this book can't get any very high place.
It would be interesting to learn what they say in reply to some of the objections that have been posed to their Master's theories over the years though.
Showing posts with label bicameralism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bicameralism. Show all posts
11 May 2008
28 June 2007
Speaker of the House
Why is the presiding officer in the House of Representatives called the Speaker? and not (as in the Senate) the President or President pro tem, or (as in committees on both sides) the chairman, chairwoman, or chair?
Why "Speaker"?
I've heard that this is the case throughout the English-speaking world. Countries that used to be England's colonies have bicameral assemblies. One of those chambers is more "popular" than the other -- more frequent elections and all that. The popular assembly is presided over, in each case, by a Speaker. Why?
I half-believe that the practice dates to -- or at least was cemented by -- an event in 1642. Tensions were rising between the high-Church King and the low-Church House of Commons. Charles I and armed servants of his entered the House of Commons in hopes of arresting some MPs that he considered especially incendiary.
In those days, there weren't any cable news shows, and Charles didn't necessarily know what a particular MP looked like. He was the guy who had signed such-and-such a pamphlet, that was all. So the King walked up to the presiding officer, William Lenthall, and asked that Lenthall point out the perps he wanted.
Lenthall replied,: "May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here."
Soon, England was at war with itself, and in due course, Parliament had King Charles executed.
This story explains why no subsequent monarch has set foot in the House of Commons.
But does it also really explain why people with the same function as Lenthall are called the Speaker? What title did Lenthall himself, or his precursors, have?
I'd love further explication from some wise reader of this humble blog.
Why "Speaker"?
I've heard that this is the case throughout the English-speaking world. Countries that used to be England's colonies have bicameral assemblies. One of those chambers is more "popular" than the other -- more frequent elections and all that. The popular assembly is presided over, in each case, by a Speaker. Why?
I half-believe that the practice dates to -- or at least was cemented by -- an event in 1642. Tensions were rising between the high-Church King and the low-Church House of Commons. Charles I and armed servants of his entered the House of Commons in hopes of arresting some MPs that he considered especially incendiary.
In those days, there weren't any cable news shows, and Charles didn't necessarily know what a particular MP looked like. He was the guy who had signed such-and-such a pamphlet, that was all. So the King walked up to the presiding officer, William Lenthall, and asked that Lenthall point out the perps he wanted.
Lenthall replied,: "May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here."
Soon, England was at war with itself, and in due course, Parliament had King Charles executed.
This story explains why no subsequent monarch has set foot in the House of Commons.
But does it also really explain why people with the same function as Lenthall are called the Speaker? What title did Lenthall himself, or his precursors, have?
I'd love further explication from some wise reader of this humble blog.
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