Communicology for the Human Sciences

“Voices across three generations celebrate the work of Richard L. Lanigan, a giant in scholarship, service and humanity. In dialogue with American pragmatism and continental philosophy, Lanigan the philosopher and communicologist investigates the phenomenological foundations of communication inspiring new pathways in research as represented by the authors in this volume. An extraordinary enterprise marking the overwhelming importance of communication today with its singular responsibilities for theorists and practitioners alike, in the face of its pervasiveness and consequence not only for humankind but for life overall.” —Susan Petrilli, Professor of Philosophy and Theory of Languages, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide, Australia
“We are in a world where scholars increasingly define themselves away from all other realms of thought except some cramped field of expertise whose walls relentlessly move in like some torture-room dreamt by Edgar Alan Poe. In the face of this, Richard L. Lanigan’s commitment is to think phenomenologically to give us the open-air insight that communication is by human consciousnesses, to others, about matters whose truth is in our mutual world. In this book we have so much evidence of the wide, breathing fruitfulness of this effort of communicology.” —Peter Ashworth, Emeritus Professor Department of Psychology Sociology and Politics, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, England
“A wonderful commemorative volume to honor Richard L. Lanigan, one of the most important American semiotic phenomenologists. This superb volume demonstrates the range of Lanigan’s influence, from communicology to ethics, through phenomenology and semiotics. A must-read for whoever is interested in philosophy of communication at its best.” —François Cooren, Professor, Université de Montréal, Canada, Past ICA President (2010-2011), ICA Fellow
“For 50 years, Richard L. Lanigan has been developing a communicology for the human sciences, an approach to communication studies grounded in phenomenology. This Festschrift adds an amazing collection of original articles to his approach, written by his mentors, students, and friends. It leads the reader through a surprising diversity of topics that communicology invites, discussing its philosophical roots and relating it to semiotics, linguistics, ethics, mental health, the future of communicability, and more, all the way to the coding of qualitative data.” —Klaus Krippendorff, Gregory Bateson Professor Emeritus for Cybernetics, Language and Culture, The Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
“Inspired by Richard L. Lanigan—a philosopher, scholar, teacher, mentor, and friend to many—the contributors of this volume take us in diverse and thought-provoking directions: from epistemological foundations to formative logics, from embodied practice to ethical comportment. As a result, communicology emerges as a coherent and innovative discipline vital for the human sciences. In today’s fragmented and fractured world, reading this book is a heuristic and healing experience.” —Galina Sinekopova, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Communication, Eastern Washington University
“This Festschrift in honor of Richard L. Lanigan’s 50-year legacy offers contributions by his colleagues and students to disciplines he has advanced, being a perpetual beginner himself, who merges communicology as a science of human discourse with semiotic phenomenology. It is a journey to the (inter)subjectivity of the intentional self which paves the way to a helical model of man’s reasoning and becoming. Every researcher in anthropological philosophy, cognitive sciences, and linguistics should read this volume.” —Zdzisław Wąsik, Professor in Linguistic Semiotics and Communicology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland