Course : Philosophy of Communication

Effective Period : September 2015

Introduction
Session 1
 Acknowledgement

These slides have been adapted from:

Claude Mangion. (2011). Philosophical Approaches To

Communication. Intellect: Uk/Chicago. ISBN: 978-1-
84150-429-2.

Chang, Briankle G. and Butchart, Garnet C. (2012).

Philosophy of Communication. The MIT Press:
Englad. ISBN: 978-0-262-51697-6
 Learning Objectives
• LO1: Students are able to understand the various concepts,
theories and aspects of philosophy through a number of
theorist’s ideas
• To Philosophize is to communicate philosophically, and to
communicate philosophically is to impart the wisdom of which
philosophy speaks and which is spoken at the same time

• From its inception, philosophy communicate forcefully. It begins

by speaking against myths, incantatory poetry, oracular
announcements, and received opinion (doxa), against, that is,
storytellers, poets, seers, and, above all, the sophists

• The philosophy and communication have belonged together

from the beginning, that the former comes into its own and
solidifies its stance through the latter, makes it logical – indeed
philosophically proper – that we subject communication to he
philosophical investigation
• Communication takes place always under its own shadow, moving
forward only insofar as it also speaks back to what it leaves
behind. And thereby, in this speaking back, it keeps a degree of
what is left behind.

• From this derives our sense of the reality of communication, our

sense of its continuity, of our being in communication, even across
silence, over noises, or through what are called mis-
communications or communication breakdowns

• It is through this continuity that we communicate, and it is through

this continuity to that “communication” can be turned into a topic in
our communication

• For in saying “one cannot not communicate”, one affirms and

confirms that one is communicating, not only by stating that one
cannot but do what one is doing, but also by admitting that one
cannot not do what is being done while doing it
• The current interest in communication studies is understandable
given the proliferation of communication technologies that are
part and parcel of today’s world

• However, while this interest tends to focus on the media

applications of communication technologies, the concept of
communication that underlies these technologies remains
unexamined

• The purpose of this text is to provide an overview of the different

aspects that are entailed by the concept of communication
• The early theories of communication adopted a relatively
simple model to explain the process of communication.
Known as the process or linear model of communication, it
assumed a sender who transmitted message to a receiver

• In slightly more complex version of this model, the sender

encoded a message that was transmitted to the receiver who
in turn decoded it to understand the message. Understanding
the message entailed that the receiver would be able to
understand what the speaker intended to mean when he/she
communicated his/her message. Although popular, this model
of communication is too simple as it fails to take into account
the situation in which communication takes place

• Communication is not an abstract activity dissociated from the

context of conventions, rules or a way of life
• The goal of this lecturing is to highlight the role of the context
in the process of communication
• Although the study of communication includes the domain of
non-verbal communication (kinesics, paralanguage,
proxemics, chronemics and haptics), it’s focusing mainly on
linguistic communication
• In the case of Charles Sander Pierce and Umberto Eco, it will
outline their accounts of perception insofar as these provide
tha basis for understanding their semiolgical theories