The Evanescence of Ritual and Its Consequences: Reflections on the Phenomenology of Human Communication in the Rise of Cybernetic Culture

This paper addresses semiotic elements of ritual in human encounter. The notion of an essential ritual presence in the existential/communicative connection of persons has been established in the work of Langer, Gadamer, and Jakobson. Yet, as Richard Lanigan maintains, vital aspects of Jakobson’s mod...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophies (Basel) 2024-10, Vol.9 (5), p.149
Main Author: Macke, Frank J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
communal
Communication theory
Consciousness
contact
Cultural studies
Culture
Curricula
Cybernetics
Dialectics
encounter
Feedback
Human-machine systems
Information theory
Interpersonal communication
intimacy
Jakobson, Roman (1896-1982)
Methods
phatic
Phenomenological sociology
Phenomenology
Public speaking
Rhetoric
Rites and ceremonies
Ritual
Semiotics
Social aspects
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Summary:This paper addresses semiotic elements of ritual in human encounter. The notion of an essential ritual presence in the existential/communicative connection of persons has been established in the work of Langer, Gadamer, and Jakobson. Yet, as Richard Lanigan maintains, vital aspects of Jakobson’s model of communication are typically missed in the application of his work, a consequence of which is that social science no longer differentiates between “communication” and “information”. As such, everything perceived as meaningful is reducible to “message”, and thus, effective communication means merely “finding the right message”. The regression to our current cybernetic world, along with the intellectual paradigms enabling it, was never a foregone conclusion, but the entrenchment of social science in information theory makes it clear that an epistemological commitment to a semiotic phenomenology of communicative existence—and the visibility of ritual life—may well be our only way out.
ISSN:2409-9287
2409-9287
DOI:10.3390/philosophies9050149