Worlds of Communication ― Interdisciplinary Transitions

This collection of 12 essays on philosophy of language, literary and media studies, linguistics and communication theory brings together some of the interdisciplinary and otherwise disparate work of Sigfried Schmidt that was written in English. Spanning almost 40 years between 1968 and 2006, the essays reflect an academic career as chairs of linguistics, philosophy, communication theory and literary studies at U. of Bielefeld, Karlsruhe, Munster. Written in an abstract, if straight-forward, academic argot, Schmidt advances a concern for the socio-pragmatic context of communicative activity while making very few references to concrete particulars. After he traces the linguistic turn in 20th Century Western philosophy to little known German philosophers of language in the 19th, and outlines an empirical science of literature grounded in a radical constructivist epistemology, he ends up making an argument against the idea that advertising is a form of art. The index lacks names and could generally be more robust, and the bibliography appearing at the end has no legend for connecting it with particular essays. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Siegfried J. Schmidt held chairs in philosophy, linguistics, literary studies and communication theory at the Universities of Karlsruhe, Bielefeld, Siegen and Munster from 1968 until 2006. He has worked as guest professor at a number of universities in Europe, Canada, the USA, Japan and Australia. During his academic career he published more than 750 books and articles in 21 languages.