Strona:Dwa aspekty komunikacji.pdf/275

TWO ASPECTS OF COMMUNICATION

FOUNDATIONS OF COMMUNICATION HISTORY

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Summary

In this book, I demonstrate the conditions under which we can examine the past communication phenomena. Therefore, it consists of considerations within the scope of the methodology of humanities and philosophy of communication. This means that the subject of my research is both communication itself as well as how it is analysed. I wrote about two aspects of “the same” communication, i.e., about the media and about our collective representations. So, I describe how it is possible to write the history of ways of thinking about communication. My analysis results in a catalogue of assumptions, i.e. philosophical conditions for communication history.
 Every author must answer the question who the recipient of his works is, and who the potential Reader is. In my opinion, this book will be of interest not only to philosophers but also to all communication and culture theorists and historians who acknowledge that the philosopher might have something interesting to say about how to study past social phenomena.
 I would also like to emphasize that although this work is on the history of communication, it is not on the history of the media. Therefore, I do not discuss how we can examine the communication technologies, from smoke signals, through radio, television, to the Internet. I am interested in something else. Namely, how we can examine our ways of “communicating about communication” and what the reason for the changes in these ways of thinking is.
 The premise underlying my considerations is the historicity of communication itself. When writing this book, I have been referring to the current ongoing debate on the reflexive historicising of communication. So, in this work I demonstrate which assumptions must be accepted in order to claim that the communicative activities and practices have a historical dimension.

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