The Chattering Mind
A Conceptual History of Everyday Talk
Seiten
2020
University of Chicago Press (Verlag)
978-0-226-67777-4 (ISBN)
University of Chicago Press (Verlag)
978-0-226-67777-4 (ISBN)
From Plato's contempt for "the madness of the multitude" to Kant's lament for "the great unthinking mass," the history of Western thought is riddled with disdain for ordinary collective life. But it was not until Kierkegaard developed the term "chatter" that this disdain began to focus on the ordinary communicative practiceswhich sustain this form of human togetherness.
The Chattering Mind explores the intellectual tradition inaugurated by Kierkegaard's work, tracing the conceptual history of everyday talk from his formative account of chatter to Heidegger's recuperative discussion of "idle talk" to Lacan's culminating treatment of "empty speech"--and ultimately into our digital present, where small talk on various social media platforms now yields big data for tech-savvy entrepreneurs.
In this sense, The Chattering Mind is less a history of ideas than a book in search of a usable past. It is a study of how the modern world became anxious about everyday talk, figured in terms of the intellectual elites who piqued this anxiety, and written with an eye toward recent dilemmas of digital communication and culture. By explaining how a quintessentially unproblematic form of human communication became a communication problem in itself, McCormick shows how its conceptual history is essential to our understanding of media and communication today.
The Chattering Mind explores the intellectual tradition inaugurated by Kierkegaard's work, tracing the conceptual history of everyday talk from his formative account of chatter to Heidegger's recuperative discussion of "idle talk" to Lacan's culminating treatment of "empty speech"--and ultimately into our digital present, where small talk on various social media platforms now yields big data for tech-savvy entrepreneurs.
In this sense, The Chattering Mind is less a history of ideas than a book in search of a usable past. It is a study of how the modern world became anxious about everyday talk, figured in terms of the intellectual elites who piqued this anxiety, and written with an eye toward recent dilemmas of digital communication and culture. By explaining how a quintessentially unproblematic form of human communication became a communication problem in itself, McCormick shows how its conceptual history is essential to our understanding of media and communication today.
Samuel McCormick is associate professor of communication studies at San Francisco State University.
Erscheinungsdatum | 26.03.2020 |
---|---|
Sprache | englisch |
Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Sprachphilosophie |
Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie | |
ISBN-10 | 0-226-67777-X / 022667777X |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-226-67777-4 / 9780226677774 |
Zustand | Neuware |
Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
Mehr entdecken
aus dem Bereich
aus dem Bereich
Macht und Legitimität politischer Sprache im Prozess der europäischen …
Buch | Softcover (2023)
Nomos (Verlag)
CHF 103,60
Wie die Menschheit zu ihrer größten Erfindung kam
Buch | Softcover (2022)
C.H.Beck (Verlag)
CHF 25,20