Concerning Communication: Epic Quests and Lyrical Excursions Within the Human Lifeworld is a collection of essays that range across a variety of topics, including models of communication, language and symbolic communication, sense perception, the self, disability and autism, listening, reading, science, media literacy, ethics, innovation, systems theory, information, communication history, isolation, solipsism, technology, education, media ecology, and general semantics. Lance Strate's unifying theme throughout this volume is the centrality of communication, as a phenomenon, to human life, and the importance of communication, as a field of study, to understanding ourselves and our place in the universe.

Preface

Introduction: Defining and Modeling Communication

Chapter 1: Something from Nothing

Material Matters

Form and Substance

Change

Form and Transformation

Communication and Science

Communication and Media

Echo and Narcissus

Narcissism and Echolalia

The Enigma of Autism

The Struggle for a Sense of Self

Theory of Mind

Evolutionary Perspectives

Ongoing Concerns

Chapter 2: Sounding Off About Listening

Many Varieties of Listenings

Hearing, Listening, Mediating

Metaphoric Usage

Orality and Hearing

Eye vs . Ear

Acoustic Space

Listening and the Electronic Media Environment

Conclusion

Chapter 3: The New Grammarians

The War Within the Trivium

The Origin of Modern Science

Grammar and Schooling

Language, Culture, and Media

Ecology and Systems

Chapter 4: Media Literacy and General Semantics

Chapter 5: Communication and Innovation

Chapter 6: Communication and Social Systems

Chapter 7: Information in the Context of Communication and Mediation

Information as News

Information as Control

Information and Mediation

Information as a Variable

Implications for "The Information Age"

Chapter 8: Communication and Isolation

Communication and Solipsism

Media, Journalism, and the Culture of Solipsism

Hyperreality and Media Solipsism

Chapter 9: Human Communication and Human Technology

Human Communication

Human Technology

Higher Education

Chapter 10: My Lambda Pi Eta Address

About the Author

About the Artist

References

Index