Towards a Meaning-Centered Philosophy of Communication

Philosophical counseling is a dialogical practice which aims to explore and elucidate issues that do not fall into the pathological sphere, focusing on: common situations you may experience in daily life, moral dilemmas, existential crises due to lack of meaning or purpose of life, ethical conflicts in the workplace, reconciling present experiences with previous thoughts and painstakingly careful inquiries. Sandu Frunză reminds us that philosophical practices should not be understood as a way to satisfy the counseled person or applying painstakingly careful inquiries by finding a viable solution to the problem that worries them, but rather offers them an opportunity to broaden their horizons of knowledge by confronting ideas and beliefs different from his own. In the light of these statements, it would not be to bold to reassure that one of the main purposes of philosophical counseling could only be the search for and acquisition of wisdom. Practicing counsellors as well as scholars and advanced students of philosophy, communication, counseling, and educational and ethical guidance will find the volume Philosophy and everyday life: Books might change your life of particular importance.

The theory of interpersonal communication in S. Kierkegaard and the modern understanding of the problem of the philosophy of communication

The article deals with the problems of the origin of the theory of communication in the philosophy of S. Kierkegaard and reveals a modern understanding of the problem of the philosophy of communication. The first part of the article shows the philosophical foundations of interpersonal communication, analyzes the theory of communication of S. Kierkegaard and the practice of media criticism. The second part of the article is devoted to the explication of the basic concepts of social media research (new media, network society, philosophy of social networks). The third part of the article presents the results of a survey of students regarding their attitude to modern communication practices. The influence of social networks on the everyday communicative behavior of young people is revealed. A survey of 40 Russian students found that while students are aware of the impact of social media on their daily communication patterns, they perceive them as a new natural medium of communication. The main conclusion is that although young people are aware of the impact of social media on their everyday communication patterns, they perceive them as a new natural environment for communication.

Vor, mit und nach Jaspers – ein Beitrag zur Öko-Philosophie

The main topic of the paper is the philosophical anthropology, connected with the philosophy of communication. The aim is to define the man as a conscious part of the environment unity. First one will mention and criticize the meth- od of Kant as duplication of “man” and “world”. Then one will describe the romantic unification of the universum (Schelling and the followers). Between both conceptions lies the philosophy of Jaspers. He speaks about the necessity of communication as a way to unification and repair of the social existence. On the end one show the conceptions of today, connected with the “man-in-the- world” (Heidegger, Gadamer, Andrzejewski).

Image, power and peripheries: Current perspectives on Latin American studies

This is an introduction to the Special Issue of Empedocles European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication focused on Latin American studies. The articles collected here were meticulously selected in light of previous discussions and conferences about Latin America that took place over the past year. The contributors transversally analyse several issues in current Latin American studies, particularly those related to philosophy, art, literature and visual studies. They propose alternative readings of Latin America taking into account its singularity and the way in which traditional categories such as representation, power, modernity or gender, among others, are implicitly and explicitly used and criticized.

Imagen, poder y periferia(s): Perspectivas actuales sobre Latinoamérica

Esta es una introducción al volumen especial de Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication enfocada en estudios latinoamericanos. Los trabajos que a continuación se presentan forman parte de una selección minuciosa llevada a cabo a propósito de varias conversaciones sobre Latinoamérica llevadas a cabo durante el último año. Los artículos en cuestión recorren transversalmente diversas áreas del pensamiento latinoamericano en la actualidad, particularmente las relacionadas con la filosofía, el arte, la literatura y los estudios visuales. Del mismo modo, proponen lecturas alternativas de la realidad latinoamericana atendiendo a su autenticidad, su contexto y a la forma en la cual se interpretan y critican, implícita y explícitamente, categorías tradicionales como representación, poder, modernidad o género entre otras.

The Cognitive Philosophy of Communication

Numerous species use different forms of communication in order to successfully interact in their respective environment. This article seeks to elucidate limitations of the classical conduit metaphor by investigating communication from the perspectives of biology and artificial neural networks. First, communication is a biological natural phenomenon, found to be fruitfully grounded in an organism’s embodied structures and memory system, where specific abilities are tied to procedural, semantic, and episodic long-term memory as well as to working memory. Second, the account explicates differences between non-verbal and verbal communication and shows how artificial neural networks can communicate by means of ontologically non-committal modelling. This approach enables new perspectives of communication to emerge regarding both sender and receiver. It is further shown that communication features gradient properties that are plausibly divided into a reflexive and a reflective form, parallel to knowledge and reflection.

A letter to the editors: Introducing The Examination and The Letter

Irish-Australian philosopher William Lyons is the author of the short films The Examination and The Letter. These are cinematographic manifestations of the author’s enterprise in communicating philosophical ideas beyond the formal conventions of professional philosophy. The present entry consists of an endearing and informative letter that Lyons enclosed with the films when he sent them to the editors of Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication upon their request. It is reproduced here verbatim as a preamble to the discussion about them that follows in this same issue.

Doing the write thing: Teaching public relations writing through philosophy of communication and media ecology

This article approaches the reflection on excellence in writing both philosophically and practically, through philosophy of communication and media ecology. It argues that the way to excellence in writing is through, first, learning and acquiring knowledge about the art and forms of good writing and appropriate media. The next stage is to perform the act of writing using appropriate forms and channels of dissemination. If done wisely, with care and reflection, the understanding and use of theoria and praxis can result in producing excellence in writing, or poiesis. Philosophical reflection on theoria, praxis, and poiesis, thus, enables one to understand a deeper sense of the why and how of the art and craft of writing. The specific form of writing considered in this article is public relations writing in a classroom setting; however, understanding the philosophical and media ecological underpinnings of rhetoric can also be useful in other forms of writing and communication.

Peirce’s philosophy of communication and language communication

In the vein of Peirce’s communication philosophy, language communication inevitably suffers from its vagueness and uncertainty. Paradoxically, what enables this vagueness and uncertainty to be solved, and the condition of communication to be sufficiently met, is not language itself, but “collateral experience” communicators may weave, exchange, and share in communication. Collateral experience is forceful in penetrating the “universe,” in which communicators may be engaged, and in helping them in the wake of communication to acquire knowledge current in the community. Consequently, generality for a communicative act becomes established as the final goal of communication. Generality overcomes the vagueness and uncertainty arising from local and partial contingencies of context, and transcends beyond it. Due to communication, people become capable of finally resolving puzzlement, and of establishing their beliefs, with a guidance for their action.