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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Peters, John Durham.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communication--Philosophy--History.

Communication.

Communication--Philosophy.

History.

Communication--History.

Mass media--Social aspects.

Communication--Social aspects.

Communication--Technological innovations--Social aspects.

Local Subjects:

Communication--History.

Communication--Philosophy.

Mass media--Social aspects.

Communication--Social aspects.

Communication--Technological innovations--Social aspects.

Physical Description:

x, 293 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Summary:

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 marvelously engaging and broad history of communication, illuminates our expectations of it as both historically specific and a fundamental knot in Western thought.

Contents:

Introduction: The Problem of Communication 1

The Historicity of Communication 3

The Varied Senses of "Communication" 6

Sorting Theoretical Debates in (and via) the 1920s 10

Technical and Therapeutic Discourses after World War II 22

1 Dialogue and Dissemination 33

Dialogue and Eros in the Phaedrus 36

Dissemination in the Synoptic Gospels 51

2 History of an Error: The Spiritualist Tradition 63

Christian Sources 66

From Matter to Mind: "Communication" in the Seventeenth Century 77

Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism 89

3 Toward a More Robust Vision of spirit: Hegel, Marx, and Kierkegaard 109

Hegel on Recognition 109

Marx (versus Locke) on Money 119

Kierkegaard's Incognitos 127

4 Phantasms of the Living, Dialogues with the Dead 137

Recording and Transmission 137

Hermeneutics as Communication with the Dead 147

Dead Letters 165

5 The Quest for Authentic Connection, or Bridging the Chasm 177

The Interpersonal Walls of Idealism 180

Fraud or Contact? James on Psychical Research 188

Reach Out and Touch Someone: The Telephonic Uncanny 195

Radio: Broadcasting as Dissemination (and Dialogue) 206

6 Machines, Animals, and Aliens: Horizons of Incommunicability 227

The Turing Test and the Insuperability of Eros 233

Animals and Empathy with the Inhuman 241

Communication with Aliens 246

Conclusion: A Squeeze of the Hand 263

The Gaps of Which Communication Is Made 263

The Privilege of the Receiver 265

The Dark Side of Communication 267

The Irreducibility of Touch and Time 269

Appendix Extracts (Supplied by a Sub-sublibrarian) 273.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0226662764

9780226662770

0226662772

OCLC:

40452957