Deborah Eicher-Catt | The Pennsylvania State University (original) (raw)

Books by Deborah Eicher-Catt

Communication Theory, 2022

Recovering the Voice in Our Techno-Social World: On the Phone serves as an exemplar and timely wo... more Recovering the Voice in Our Techno-Social World: On the Phone serves as an exemplar and timely work that calls attention to several consequences of our techno-social world, most notably, the loss of voice. Eicher-Catt argues that the field of human communication study is largely preoccupied with the textual and visual realms of communication, and thereby neglects the vibrant medium of the voice. Upon review, Recovering the Voice proves to be an innovative and detailed call of attention to the auditory, sonorous voice in a world of technology, new media, and cyberspace. The book's clear and persuasive exigency points to a re-enchantment with the voice in a world that seems to be becoming more and more voiceless.

The European Journal of Communication, 2022

Deborah Eicher-Catt has written a richly textured book, highlighting the loss of human voice in i... more Deborah Eicher-Catt has written a richly textured book, highlighting the loss of human voice in its embodied materiality as a result of our absorption into the screens, and the costs of ignoring the felt-presence of others-costs that are too high that we cannot afford to ignore: Increased levels of anxiety and depression especially among young adults in America, fragmented relationships, a sense of overall disenchantment with the world, and the loss of the heart of our relationality as human beings.

Winner of the 2021 Erving Goffman Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Social Inte... more Winner of the 2021 Erving Goffman Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Social Interaction, Media Ecology Association, USA

Winner of the 2021 Outstanding Book Award, Philosophy Division, National Communication Association, USA

Papers by Deborah Eicher-Catt

The American Journal of Semiotics, 2021

This essay interrogates the aesthetic ground of Ponzio and Petrilli's 2003 concept "semioethics" ... more This essay interrogates the aesthetic ground of Ponzio and Petrilli's 2003 concept "semioethics" as activated by what they call a "logic of otherness". I take my lead from Charles S. Peirce's assertion that "Ethics, or the science of right and wrong, must appeal to Esthetics for aid in determining the summum bonum" (1903: CP 1.191). Given that Peirce's esthetics, depicted as the first of his normative sciences, "ought to repose on phenomenology" (ibid.: CP 1.191), I offer a communicological analysis (i.e., a phenomenological interpretation of the operative aesthetic sign actions of a semioethic). To accomplish this, I turn to fellow American philosopher and pragmatist John Dewey, whose experiential aesthetics offers insights into Peirce's claims. Dewey's understanding of the importance of semiotic "form" and existential or embodied "rhythm", when applied to dialogic relations, reveals phenomenological "felt qualities" and their reflexive semiotic relation to what I call "embodied intensities". We discover that, when mediated by emotional or energetic interpretants, felt qualities and embodied intensities provide both the necessary and sufficient conditions for a logic of otherness that makes an ethical stance even possible. I contend that our human relationality remains precarious in our global, digitalized environment as long as we disregard or fail to perceive, appreciate, and cultivate this aesthetic phenomenological ground of otherness.

Language and Semiotic Studies, 2021

The analysis argues for a revised classification of discourse within mainstream communication sch... more The analysis argues for a revised classification of discourse within mainstream communication scholarship that recognizes only content and relational elements. Using Posner's (1982) semiotic work on poetic communication and drawing from Peirce's trichotomy of signs, we see that an aesthetic dimension of a First subsists within all events of discourse. The significant effects/affects of Firstness transpire along a continuum depending upon the operative interpretants in a given context. Taking the voice of enunciation as a phonetic exemplar of an extra-linguistic aesthetic, I then examine the functions of poetic iconicity provided by Brandt's (2013) typology, discussing it in relation to Peirce's triadic structure and the art of conversation. Clarifying the semiotic and phenomenological affordances for each component of discourse provides a communicological perspective. Overall, such a treatment lends theoretical support for the commonsense assumption that conversation is an art form. Conversation potentializes aesthetic experience in Dewey's sense of the term.

Atlantic Journal of Communication, 2022

Review of Communication, 2012

This article reviews semiotics research in mainstream journals of communication. First, we offer ... more This article reviews semiotics research in mainstream journals of communication. First, we offer a quantitative analysis of the extent to which the journals recognize semiotics as a legitimate area of concern. Second, we conduct a qualitative assessment of the few substantive contributions to semiotics in the communication literature in order to comprehend how the research conceives semiotics. We discuss both strengths and weaknesses of this very limited attention afforded semiotics and its relevance to promoting insightful semiotic scholarship more broadly in the communication discipline. Third, we contextualize our findings by suggesting that both implicit and explicit theoretical commitments incrementally imposed in the field's history and culture formed a barrier to advancing semiotic scholarship. Given a resurgence of interest in pragmatism (fueled by theoreticians such as C.S. Peirce, Dewey, Mead, and James), we end with a discussion of the relevance of semiotics to a fuller understanding of pragmatism. Our overall objectives are to stimulate interest in a neglected area of communication research and draw attention to the systematic research in communication and semiotics that has been pursued inside and “outside” the mainstream disciplinary matrix.

Language and Semiotic Studies, 2021

China Media Research, 2021

This article is a response to social critics' growing concern that we are becoming a de-voiced so... more This article is a response to social critics' growing concern that we are becoming a de-voiced society because of our preferences for hyper-textual, image-based forms of electronic connectivity. Drawing from the writings of Walter Ong and other media theorists, the author argues for the importance of returning to the voice within human affairs. It is by way of our aesthetically-rich sonorous voices that we potentially invoke an interper-sónal resonance within relationality-a felt resonance that penetrates our very being. We find that this voice affords deeper, more satisfying experiences of self and other that can forestall the catastrophic rise of anxiety and depression in our electronic environment.

Pennsylvania Communication Annual, 2020

Language and Dialogue

This paper interrogates the phenomenological experience of enchantment as a sign process. I argue... more This paper interrogates the phenomenological experience of enchantment as a sign process. I argue that our ethical intentionality in the world is significantly enhanced when we understand how the aesthetics of enchantment conditions the very possibility of such an ethic as a semiotic phenomenological event of dialogue. First, I discuss a key problematic of contemporary life – our culture of distraction and its impact on our dialogic relations. Next, I outline my thematic – enchantment as consequence of sign actions, both in what I call its “inauthentic” and “authentic” forms. Third, I interpret each form and their impact on the ethics of dialogic relations. Finally, I contend that authentic enchantment, as a semiotic interpretant, signifies an “answering comprehension” or unique expression that resonates with the greater whole, the greater good – demonstrating what Susan Petrilli describes as a productive or pragmatic semioethic.

Pennsylvania Libraries: Research & Practice, 2016

These narratives chronicle the authors’ journeys to collaborate and discover the transformative i... more These narratives chronicle the authors’ journeys to collaborate and discover the transformative impact that stories have on library culture and library staff. This study describes a research collaboration between York County Libraries and Penn State York. In Phase I, we collected stories from library staff as the library system was being challenged to reimage public libraries for the future. The major themes and types of organizational stories identified in the initial narrative project were presented during a county-wide all-staff in-service training. The library District Consultant (first author) and the Penn State professor (second author) then facilitated a workshop designed to lead staff in their exploration of these topics and generate a written record of their storytelling/discussions. This data became the basis for Phase II of the project and allowed the system to strategically assess its evolving culture and identity.

The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy, 2016

Public Library Quarterly, 2016

Encyclopedia of Communication Ethics, 2018

Following the groundbreaking work of feminist and moral theorist Carol Gilligan in 1982, 1 Annett... more Following the groundbreaking work of feminist and moral theorist Carol Gilligan in 1982, 1 Annette Baier extended Gilligan's insights about gender distinctions and research on women's moral development. Drawing specifically from the work of British Enlightenment theorist David Hume, Baier argues that reason alone (cel-ebrated within a traditional male perspective) cannot decide moral action; rather, a "moral sentiment" (reflecting a feminine perspective) must also be acknowledged in matters pertaining to judgments of value. For Baier, this moral sentiment was best represented in the concept of trust. She contributed significantly to the evolving feminist "ethics of care" as a moral philosophy that grew out of this time period. Over the course of her thirty-year career, Baier became famous as a moral philosopher, a Hume scholar, and a feminist philosopher, publishing widely on topics relating to ethics, the psychology of mind, and the essential role of passions in moral thought and action. 2

International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy, 2016

Ontology, as one of the main branches of philosophy other than epistemology, axiology, and logic,... more Ontology, as one of the main branches of philosophy other than epistemology, axiology, and logic, is the philosophical stance we take toward the world when it comes to the nature of being and/or reality. The term ontology is Greek in origin: ontos (of being) and logos (study of or pursuit of knowledge about the nature of being and its essential properties). Ontology is intimately related to epistemology, which explores questions about how we come to know about the world. Thus, epistemology traverses the ground of ontology and vice versa in a constant reflexive pattern of thought. The word ontology designates "discourse about, or study of, being," and was originally introduced in its own right into the philosophical lexicon in the early 17th century by scholastic writers, although its historical roots can be traced back in antiquity to Aris-totle. In his Metaphysics 4.1, Aristotle used the term ontology as an equivalent for metaphysics or any inquiry that raises questions about reality that lie beyond or after (meta) those capable of being addressed by the methods of the physical sciences. Interested in exploring the definition and classification of entities and their essential relationships, Aristotle outlined the basis of this new science of thought. Given the magnitude of the fundamental questions that ontology raises, it is no surprise that throughout history we see a continuing philosophical struggle over whether we can ever know the "real existence" of being (as an empirical event) or merely as it "appears" to us through our sensual (or embodied) and cognitive experiences (that is, as an eidetic phenomenon). This ontological debate plays out most clearly in the distinction between positivism and postpositivism as major philosophical paradigms that undergird communication theory and research practices to this day (outlined in more detail below). Such arguments about the nature, scope, and functionality of ontology fueled ontol-ogy's theoretical development throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, culminating in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. By the strength of his arguments, Kant made it impossible to accept ontology as a deductive body of necessary truths. This philosophical move sets the stage for reconceptualizing ontology, a project taken up by phenomenologist Martin Heidegger. Following Kant's lead, Heidegger reformulated fundamental ontol-ogy in the 20th century, influencing subsequent philosophers to appreciate ontology as discursively constituted by the logic of abductive and inductive reasoning. Following phenomenologist Edmund Husserl's study of "appearances" and Kant's critique of pure reason, Heidegger theorized that it is only through being that we come to know the truth of Being and existence. As a consequence, any philosophical enterprise (such as ontological, epistemological, axiological, or logical pursuits) is best understood as a

This paper interrogates the phenomenological experience of enchantment as a sign process. I argue... more This paper interrogates the phenomenological experience of enchantment as a sign process. I argue that our ethical intentionality in the world is significantly enhanced when we understand how the aesthetics of enchantment conditions the very possibility of such an ethic as a semiotic phenomenological event of dialogue. First, I discuss a key problematic of contemporary life -our culture of distraction and its impact on our dialogic relations. Next, I outline my thematic -enchantment as consequence of sign actions, both in what I call its "inauthentic" and "authentic" forms. Third, I interpret each form and their impact on the ethics of dialogic relations. Finally, I contend that authentic enchantment, as a semiotic interpretant, signifies an "answering comprehension" or unique expression that resonates with the greater whole, the greater good -demonstrating what Susan Petrilli describes as a productive or pragmatic semioethic.

This paper contextualizes the topic of play as an essential aspect of homo ludens (Huizinga 1949,... more This paper contextualizes the topic of play as an essential aspect of homo ludens (Huizinga 1949, Homo ludens: A study of the play-element in culture. Abingdon: Routledge). I explore play as an abductive, semiotic process and phenomenological event according to Peirce's categories of experience known as Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness. We find that play is an integral aspect of human learning and, in some of its manifestations, can be linked to the sacred dimension of human existence. My method of analysis is to combine the theoretical insights of Charles S. Peirce (particularly his notion of musement as pure play) and communication theorist Gregory Bateson's ideas about serious play in social interactions. We learn to take play seriously given that it simultaneously brings us to the threshold of both ineffability and intelligibility. We also learn something new about the sacrality of human learning as a reflection of what Peirce calls the absolute mind (2010 [1892], The law of mind. In The Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A chronological edition, volume 8 [1890–1892], 135–157. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press). I advocate that play and learning are thus sacred or integral to human growth and evolution. This manuscript provides a preliminary integration of the ideas of communication theorist Gregory Bateson, semiotician Charles S. Peirce, and cultural historian John Huizinga on the topics of human play and learning. All three theorists not only view play as a significant enactment of human expression and perception , i. e., as a co-constructed communicative phenomenon, but also conceptualize play as an integral aspect of learning. My intent is to interpret play and learning as semiotic processes (unfolding within cultural sign relations) and embodied events of human existence. Such processes necessarily possibilize human development through important change processes that occur at all levels of human exchange, from the intrapersonal to the socio-cultural (Ruesch and

Communication Theory, 2022

The European Journal of Communication, 2022

Winner of the 2021 Outstanding Book Award, Philosophy Division, National Communication Association, USA

The American Journal of Semiotics, 2021

Language and Semiotic Studies, 2021

Atlantic Journal of Communication, 2022

Review of Communication, 2012

Language and Semiotic Studies, 2021

China Media Research, 2021

Pennsylvania Communication Annual, 2020

Language and Dialogue

Pennsylvania Libraries: Research & Practice, 2016

The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy, 2016

Public Library Quarterly, 2016

Encyclopedia of Communication Ethics, 2018

International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy, 2016

This paper interrogates the phenomenological experience of enchantment as a sign process. I argue... more This paper interrogates the phenomenological experience of enchantment as a sign process. I argue that our ethical intentionality in the world is significantly enhanced when we understand how the aesthetics of enchantment conditions the very possibility of such an ethic as a semiotic phenomenological event of dialogue. First, I discuss a key problematic of contemporary life -our culture of distraction and its impact on our dialogic relations. Next, I outline my thematic -enchantment as consequence of sign actions, both in what I call its "inauthentic" and "authentic" forms. Third, I interpret each form and their impact on the ethics of dialogic relations. Finally, I contend that authentic enchantment, as a semiotic interpretant, signifies an "answering comprehension" or unique expression that resonates with the greater whole, the greater good -demonstrating what Susan Petrilli describes as a productive or pragmatic semioethic.

Biosemiotics, 2008

... process), and the sacred are understood by way of Peirce's existential semiotic categori... more ... process), and the sacred are understood by way of Peirce's existential semiotic categories of Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness. Hence, we come to know sacred existence as a phe-nomenological sign action of human semiosis. As a result, Bateson's epistemology of the ...

Whatever one might say something "is," it is not. --Alfred Korzybski Oliver Burkeman, i... more Whatever one might say something "is," it is not. --Alfred Korzybski Oliver Burkeman, in his recent essay, "This Column Will Change Your Life: To Be or Not To Be ...," published in The Guardian (January 2010), honors general semantic (GS) principles by celebrating the forty-fifth anniversary of David Bourland's writing idea known as E-Prime. First introduced in 1965 in the General Semantics Bulletin (Bourland, 1965/1966), E-Prime continues to garner interest as a writing device for "attaining a kind of vigorous clarity" in our thinking (Bourland, 1989, p. 209). While E-Prime stirred controversy from the beginning, its popularity quickly made "it virtually impossible for the general semantics community at large to ignore" (Kellogg, 1992, p. 206). In 1992, an entire issue of Et Cetera devoted space to E-Prime's theoretical development and practical refinement. At a rudimentary level, we can say that E-Prime offers an additional extension...

This article reviews semiotics research in mainstream journals of communication. First, we offer ... more This article reviews semiotics research in mainstream journals of communication. First,
we offer a quantitative analysis of the extent to which the journals recognize semiotics as
a legitimate area of concern. Second, we conduct a qualitative assessment of the few
substantive contributions to semiotics in the communication literature in order to
comprehend how the research conceives semiotics. We discuss both strengths and
weaknesses of this very limited attention afforded semiotics and its relevance to
promoting insightful semiotic scholarship more broadly in the communication discipline.
Third, we contextualize our findings by suggesting that both implicit and explicit
theoretical commitments incrementally imposed in the field’s history and culture formed
a barrier to advancing semiotic scholarship. Given a resurgence of interest in pragmatism
(fueled by theoreticians such as C.S. Peirce, Dewey, Mead, and James), we end with a
discussion of the relevance of semiotics to a fuller understanding of pragmatism. Our
overall objectives are to stimulate interest in a neglected area of communication research
and draw attention to the systematic research in communication and semiotics that has
been pursued inside and ‘‘outside’’ the mainstream disciplinary matrix.