Philosophy of the Medium

The Age of McLuhan in Question

John Lechte (Macquarie University, Sydney)

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Hardback

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English

Bloomsbury Academic
02 November 2023

Communication studies; Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge

Taking the principle of the ‘disappearance of the medium’ into new territory, this book questions the pervasive influence of the principle that the ‘medium is the message’. Bold and expansive, this book argues that we have for too long focused on the technical specificities of media, when we should have been focusing on what it is that mediums do, that is, on their ‘content’ rather than their formal and technical qualities.

With a re-reading of McLuhan, this volume offers a study of the conflicting views of technics as a medium in Bernard Stiegler’s work as well as an investigation into the extent to which Michel Serres’ work on communication sheds light on the nature of medium. Engaging also with the concept of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO), and the notion of probabilistic objects in quantum physics and climate change, he explores the way in which measurement is perceived to ‘create’ reality. Concluding with a fascinating study of the implications of consciousness as a medium, this book ultimately reconsiders and offers a deeper understanding of what we mean by the term ‘media’: it is that which comes ‘between’ and which facilitates the transmission of content, essentially a creator of possibilities, yet never present as such in the light of its success as a vehicle for meaning.

By: John Lechte (Macquarie University Sydney)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781350299184
ISBN 10: 1350299189
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 02 November 2023
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

John Lechte is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Macquarie University, Australia. He has published widely on French thought, particularly the work of Julia Kristeva. He is author of Genealogy and Ontology of the Western Image and its Digital Future (2013), which includes an analysis of Sartre’s philosophy of the image. His most recent book is The Human: Bare Life and Ways of Life (Bloomsbury, 2018).

Reviews for Philosophy of the Medium: The Age of McLuhan in Question

Philosophy of the Medium offers a lively and nuanced interrogation of the ongoing viability of the assumptions of medium theory, a leftover from the age of McLuhan, in terms of questions about a medium’s disappearance, transparency, digital dematerialization, objecthood, lack of concreteness and, ultimately, content. This is an important addition to media ontology. * Gary Genosko, Professor of Communication and Digital Media, Ontario Tech University, Canada * This is an important book that offers a formidable challenge to existing orthodoxies as Lechte takes on a range of thinkers and shows how they have misunderstood what a “medium” is, resulting in a need to change the ways we think about media, art, and the world as such. * Richard Rushton, Professor of Film Studies, Lancaster University, UK *