Literacy Literacy

Abstract

The term literacy has recently been extended into a number of different fields, the best known probably being ‘computer literacy.’ A consideration of the different historical senses of the term suggests why it was chosen for generalization, and detailed discussion of three cases—scientific literacy, visual literacy, and cultural literacy—indicates the semantic aspects of the term that are most important in the process of extension. In all three cases, despite the authors’ attempts to use literacy in what I call its descriptive sense, as an indication of the ability to read and write, the evaluative sense of the term—the mastery of a body of (often traditional) knowledge—is the operative one.