A Philosophical Understanding of Communication As Testimony Jessica Nicole Sturgess Purdue University
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Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Open Access Dissertations Theses and Dissertations January 2016 Saying the World Anew: A Philosophical Understanding of Communication as Testimony Jessica Nicole Sturgess Purdue University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations Recommended Citation Sturgess, Jessica Nicole, "Saying the World Anew: A Philosophical Understanding of Communication as Testimony" (2016). Open Access Dissertations. 1276. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/1276 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. Graduate School Form 30 Updated 12/26/2015 PURDUE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL Thesis/Dissertation Acceptance This is to certify that the thesis/dissertation prepared By Jessica N. Sturgess Entitled SAYING THE WORLD ANEW: A PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERSTANDING OF COMMUNICATION AS TESTIMONY For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Is approved by the final examining committee: Dr. Patrice Buzzanell Dr. Ramsey Eric Ramsey Co-chair Dr. Daniel W. Smith Co-chair Dr. Stacey Connaughton Dr. Calvin O. Schrag To the best of my knowledge and as understood by the student in the Thesis/Dissertation Agreement, Publication Delay, and Certification Disclaimer (Graduate School Form 32), this thesis/dissertation adheres to the provisions of Purdue University’s “Policy of Integrity in Research” and the use of copyright material. Approved by Major Professor(s): Dr. Patrice Buzzanell and Dr. Daniel W. Smith Dr. Marifran Mattson 4/11/2016 Approved by: Head of the Departmental Graduate Program Date i SAYING THE WORLD ANEW: A PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERSTANDING OF COMMUNICATION AS TESTIMONY A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by Jessica N. Sturgess In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2016 Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana ii In memory of my mother, these words and all the others. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A work is never written by one person alone. This work in particular is indebted to many who have offered insights, encouragement, and a willingness to listen. It would be impossible to thank each person individually, both out of sheer number as well as ultimate unknowability. I am grateful for all who, whether I knew it or not, made possible the space for me to study. Nevertheless, I shall try to name a few: A very special thank you must go to my father, whose fantastical stories during my childhood without doubt led me to my love of words, and to my mother who taught me the value of determination that made this accomplishment possible. I have been very fortunate to work with excellent faculty during my time at Purdue University. My committee—Professors Patrice Buzzanell, Daniel Smith, Stacey Connaughton, Calvin Schrag, and Ramsey Eric Ramsey—were challenging and supportive in equal measure, as only great teachers can be. I can only hope to shoulder the debts of their lessons by treating my own students with the same degree of dignity and enthusiasm. I would be remiss not to mention as well my time at Barrett, the Honors College where so much of this began and where I discovered the joy in talking about good books with cool people iv I could not have done this without the support of my friends, both near and far. Indeed, I remain perplexed as to how I am worthy such a magnanimous group of individuals. Your confidence in my pursuits and endless encouragement has made all of this possible and worthwhile. I could never finish an account of all you have done, but I am hopeful you know. From the Midwest, a special thank you to Ashton Mouton whose friendship kept everything in the proper perspective. And from the desert: Katie Kitchen and Nicole Quezada, who have been with me since the beginning and never once wavered in their support. Finally, endless thanks to my partner, Donovan Irven, to whom I have far too much to say and without whom this adventure would not be nearly as much fun. v Finale. – The only philosophy which can be responsibly practiced in the face of despair is the attempt to contemplate all things as they would present themselves from the standpoint of redemption. Knowledge has no light but that shed on the world by redemption: all else is reconstruction, mere technique. Perspectives must be fashioned that displace and estrange the world…The more passionately thought denies its conditionality for the sake of the unconditional, the more unconsciously, and so calamitously, it is delivered up to the world. Even its own impossibility must at last comprehend for the sake of the possible. But beside the demand thus placed on thought, the question of the reality or the unreality of redemption itself hardly matters. Adorno, Minima Moralia vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1. OPENING .....................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2. A CRISIS OF DIRECTIONALITY ...........................................................20 2.1 In the Wake of Disaster .........................................................................................20 2.2 From Fundamental Ontology to the Ontology of Actuality ..................................34 2.3 Narrowed Horizons ...............................................................................................39 2.3.1 Fundamentalism ..............................................................................................39 2.3.2 Cynicism ..........................................................................................................48 2.4 Finding Our Way ...................................................................................................58 CHAPTER 3. THE MEASURE OF BEING .....................................................................63 3.1 Being and Communication ....................................................................................63 3.2 Communication as Disclosure: Martin Heidegger ................................................68 3.3 Communication as Loving Struggle: Karl Jaspers ................................................80 3.4 Communication as Being that Can Be Understood: Hans-Georg Gadamer ..........88 3.5 A Circle Has Many Turns .....................................................................................98 CHAPTER 4. SPEAKING OF SERIOUS THINGS .......................................................111 4.1 Reading Between the Lines .................................................................................111 4.2 Figuring Speech ...................................................................................................115 vii Page 4.3 The Epistemic Function of Hyperbole: Plato’s Mythologies ..............................125 4.4 The Ethical and Communicative Function of Hyperbole: Nietzsche’s Excesses 133 4.5 The Ontological Function of Hyperbole: Heidegger’s Dasein ............................143 4.6 We Are as Openness ............................................................................................154 CHAPTER 5. UTOPIAN THINKING IN A NARROWED WORLD ..........................160 5.1 Setting Sail ..........................................................................................................160 5.2 Taking a Hint, or Emerson on Understanding .....................................................171 5.3 Living Without Bounds, or Thoreau on Hermeneutic Dwelling ........................187 5.4 Still to Come, or Whitman on Democracy ..........................................................200 CHAPTER 6. CLOSING, OR OPENING ONCE MORE ..............................................211 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................218 VITA ................................................................................................................................226 viii ABSTRACT Sturgess, Jessica N. Ph.D., Purdue University, August 2016. Saying the World Anew: A Philosophical Understanding of Communication as Testimony. Major Professors: Patrice M. Buzzanell and Daniel W. Smith. This study develops a philosophy of communication by investigating the crisis of directionality that follows from the dissolution of foundationalist metaphysics. Drawing from fundamental ontology and philosophical hermeneutics, this project suggests we shift our understanding of communication as a process of information exchange toward communication as an enactment of testimony. This leads to an examination of the rhetorical figure of hyperbole. It is argued that hyperbole offers unique insight into the ground of communication as all communicative acts are, in their ontological structure, hyperbolic. Moreover, this hyperbolic characterization of communication highlights the role of excess, inexpressibility, risk, and extravagance central to communicative praxis. To illustrate this, a reading of three figures in American Transcendentalism—Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman—is offered. By thinking communication as testimony, as a making sense in common, the relationship between communication and a radical democracy to come is brought into relief. 1 CHAPTER 1. OPENING In what follows I offer a philosophy of communication at the boundaries of disciplinarity. Philosophy and communication