Book

Peters, John Durham.

Speaking into the air : a history of the idea of communication / John Durham Peters.

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1999.

x, 293 pages ; 24 cm

"In contemporary debates, communication is variously invoked as a panacea for the problems of both democracy and love, as a dream of a new information society brought about by new technologies, and as a wistful ideal of human relations. How, and why, did communication come to shoulder the load it currently carries? Speaking into the Air, a broad history of communication, illuminates our expectations of it as both historically specific and a fundamental knot in Western thought." "In John Durham Peters's work, the teachings of Socrates and Jesus, the theology of Saint Augustine, philosophy in the wake of Hegel, and the American tradition from Emerson through William James all become relevant for understanding communication in our age."--Jacket.

Communication -- Philosophy -- History.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : the problem of communication. The historicity of communication -- The varied senses of "communication" -- Sorting theoretical debates in (and via) the 1920s -- Technical and therapeutic discourses after World War II. 1. Dialogue and dissemination. Dialogue and eros in the Phaedrus -- Dissemination in the synoptic gospels. 2. History of an error : the spiritualist tradition. Christian sources -- From matter to mind : "communication" in the seventeenth century -- Nineteenth-century spiritualism. 3. Toward a more robust vision of spirit : Hegel, Marx, and Kierkegaard. Hegel on recognition -- Marx (versus Locke) on money -- Kierkegaard's incognitos.

4. Phantasms of the living, dialogues with the dead. Recording and transmission -- Hermeneutics as communication with the dead -- Dead letters. 5. The quest for authentic connection, or bridging the chasm. The interpersonal walls of idealism -- Fraud or contact? : James on psychical research -- Reach out and touch someone : the telephonic uncanny -- Radio : broadcasting as dissemination (and dialogue). 6. Machines, animals, and aliens : horizons of incommunicability. The Turing test and the insuperability of eros -- Animals and empathy with the inhuman -- Communication with aliens. Conclusion : a squeeze of the hand. The gaps of which communication is made -- The privilege of the receiver -- The dark side of communication -- The irreducibility of touch and time.

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Publisher description

98050308

0226662764

9780226662763

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9780226662770

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302.2 Peters