Philosophy of Communication

The philosophy of communication inquires into fundamental questions that arise within human communication research and expands the scope of scholarly inquiry and professional application in communication studies. Where researchers grounded in the social sciences look to quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to explain how human communication “works,” philosophers of communication draw from a variety of theoretical perspectives to understand what communication “is,” with diverse implications for rhetorical studies, media ecology, communication law and ethics, and several other theoretical and applied areas. Thus, the philosophy of communication offers an essential complement to the other research methodologies and approaches described in this encyclopedia.

This entry offers an overview of the philosophy of communication as an area of study and discusses its potential relevance to communication research methods. Working ...