Communication, Cognition, and Community

There is a vast assortment of schools of thought concerning how it is possible to communicate.  Empiricism, romanticism, materialism, psychoanalysis, and cognitive psychology all have been used as rationale for, and to describe the genesis of, the simple and natural activity of communication.  How is it possible that we are able to communicate successfully?  Much scholarly work has been generated documenting our interpretation of written discourse in an attempt to describe how we successfully convey meaning from within to without.  Whether a theorist is an advocate of New Criticism, Reader Response, Phenomenology, Social Constructionism, rhetoric, or plain style, the basic question remains the same: How are we able to convey concepts successfully and accurately from one source to another?

Smith, David C. Orange Journal, The (2001). Articles>Communication>Community Building