Philosophies and Philosophic Issues in Communication, 1995–2004

Abstract

The term philosophy of communication is a doubly articulated concept that refers both to the undergirding tenets and system of beliefs that justify a set of professional and pragmatic practices and to the study of those tenets and beliefs. Given the over 100 divisions and interest groups of our four major associations (ICA, NCA, AEJMC, BEA 1 ), one can say without irony that communication is philosophically rich. One could also say that, like the storied Platte River, we are a mile wide and an inch deep with no center channel.As a field of study, philosophy of communication asks the questions that are prior to and foundational for any topical or disciplinary issue. As the parent organization of this journal puts it: "Philosophy of Communication is broadly concerned with theoretical, analytical, and political issues that cut across the various boundaries that are often taken for granted within the study of communication." 2 Definitions of this sort create fields of endeavor without visible boundaries and literature reviews that could include nearly everything. Clearly, no matter how much space is allocated, any effort to write "the state of philosophy of communication" is doomed to the banal "there's a lot of it" or a careful examination of some small part of it. We've chosen the latter. Philosophy of Communication Review: Part 1-Philosophies of the DisciplineTo direct that examination we opted to use the traditional, encompassing set of four issues-existence, knowledge, knowledge practices, and value, or, more technically, ontology, epistemology, praxeology, and axiology-adopted by a number of communication theorists

Theory in a Transdisciplinary Mode: the Rhetoric of Inquiry and Digital Humanities

“…But the implications of comparing these two projects go further. Curiously, the metatheoretical considerations of epistemology, ontology, and methodology that I've identified in both RoI and DH are almost exactly the same considerations that James Anderson has influentially identified as the fundamental types of metatheoretical assumptions undergirding all theories of communication (Anderson, 1996;Anderson and Baym, 2004) 10 . In this light, it is conceivable to imagine that transdisciplinary theories are inherently also tacit theories of communication.…”

Communication studies, disciplination and the ontological stakes of interdisciplinarity: a critical review

“…In contrast, a number of other scholars aim to avoid the symmetric pitfall 20 that is the fragmentation of communication studies (Hofkirchner, 2009). Following from this, must we then distance ourselves from a "foundational" epistemology and propose a communicational one in its place (Anderson & Baym, 2004)? Or, as Shepherd (1993) has noted, should we instead consider that without its own proper ontology, communication is doomed to instrumentalization by the other disciplines?…”

“…Or, as Shepherd (1993) has noted, should we instead consider that without its own proper ontology, communication is doomed to instrumentalization by the other disciplines? What are the implications of this line of questioning regarding interdisciplinarity for a "discipline of communities" (Anderson & Baym, 2004: 609) such as ours?…”

“…14 Those who, consciously or not, work according to this category, tend to have an instrumental conception of communication as something that simply delivers a content preexisting in the natural or social world. 15 The evolution of advocacies with respect to axiology can well be seen in the opposition between the modern rationalist claim to an objectivity considered not only to be attainable but also desirable, and a postmodern orientation that considers that objectivity may appear to be supportable to some but that it is, in fact, illusory and unobtainable (Anderson & Baym, 2004). Some disciplines or branches of knowledge thus have long played the role of "service disciplines", "auxiliary disciplines", or "ancillary disciplines" in scientific practice.…”

Framing the Game: An Architectonic Analogue for Meta-Theorizing Academic Activities

“…In an effort to reveal the heuristic potential of the theoretical analogy, these threads are traced across a broad array of humanistic and scientific theories and scholarship, including connections among Wittgenstein, Popper, Kuhn, Feyerabend, Goffman, Foucault, Bourdieu and Lyotard. The field of Communication, and its many affiliated and cognate disciplines have been charted by a wide variety of paradigm maps (e.g., Altman & Rogoff, 1987;Anderson & Baym, 2004;Craig, 1999;Smith, 1988). There is little doubt that the communication discipline is fragmented, multi-faceted and complex (Barnett, Huh, Kim, & Park, 2011, p. 467).…”