Philosophical Profiles in the Theory of Communication

Jason Hannan completed his PhD in communication studies at Carleton University. He is currently a visiting scholar in the Program in Rhetoric and Public Culture at Northwestern University.

Philosophical Profiles in the Theory of Communication is the first book to draw systematic attention to the theme of communication in twentieth-century academic philosophy. It covers a broad range of philosophical perspectives on communication, including those from analytic philosophy, pragmatism, critical theory, phenomenology, hermeneutics, feminism, psychoanalysis, systems theory, and more. What emerges is a vital, long-neglected story about the theme of communication in late modern academic philosophy. Each chapter features a «profile» of a particular philosophical figure, with a brief intellectual biography, an overview of that figure's contribution to communication theory, and a critical assessment of the significance of that contribution. The clear and accessible organization of the volume makes it ideal for courses in both philosophy and communication studies.

Philosophical Profiles in the Theory of Communication is the first book to draw systematic attention to the theme of communication in twentieth-century academic philosophy. It covers a broad range of philosophical perspectives on communication, including those from analytic philosophy, pragmatism, critical theory, phenomenology, hermeneutics, feminism, psychoanalysis, systems theory, and more.

Contents: Jason Hannan: Hannah Arendt: Public Action, Sociality, and Permanence in the World - Stuart Poyntz: Seyla Benhabib: Foundations for Critical Communication Theory and Praxis - Andrew R. Smith: Richard J. Bernstein: Engaged Pluralist and Dialogical Exemplar - Vincent Colapietro: Robert Brandom: Inference and Meaning - Kevin Scharp: Martin Buber: Bearing Witness to an Experience - Rob Anderson/Kenneth N. Cissna: Ernst Cassirer: Communication, Rhetoric, and Symbolic Form - Thomas A. Discenna: Donald Davidson: The Interpretational Constitution of Meaning - Eli Dresner: Gilles Deleuze: Communicating Sense - Alexander Kozin: Daniel C. Dennett: Communication, Evolution, and Self - David L. Thompson: Hans-Georg Gadamer: Philosophical Hermeneutics and the Interplay of Understanding and Meaning - Ronald C. Arnett: Sandra Harding: The Less False Accounts of Feminist Standpoint Epistemology - Linda Steiner: William James: Among the Machines - Chris Russill: Jacques Lacan: Psychoanalysis With(in) Communication - Christian Lundberg: Emmanuel Levinas: Contact and Interruption - Amit Pinchevski: Niklas Luhmann: Society as a System of Communication - Hans-Georg Moeller: Alasdair MacIntyre: Tradition and Disagreement - Jason Hannan: Charles S. Peirce: Signs of Inquiry - Mats Bergman: Paul Ricoeur: A Philosophy of Communicative Praxis - Fadoua Loudiy: Ludwig Wittgenstein: From Language to Forms of Life.