On Analysis and its Role in Communication Theories

Abstract

This paper tries to show that framing a propedeutics for a given discipline necessarily presupposes some so-called analytical movements with which the conceptual frame of the discipline could be related to itself, and to other disciplines as well. The situation is the same with communication studies, where, as this paper proposes, many of the so-called axioms of human communication should have been analyzed. After explicating the main types of analysis, the discussion tries to apply its analytical methods on Watzlawick's first axiom of human communication, and tries to show, that the statement that 'one cannot not communicate' is either false or meaningless. Programme Since the role which analysis plays in the formal and the so-called hard (or natural) sciences is unquestionable long before, it's unsurprising that social sciences also developed their analytic methods in time. Maybe it's not odd to say that the state of a given discipline could be estimated through its analytical methods, but, of course, it's not obvious that an analytical method should be explicitly called analysis. The main concern of this paper is to estimate the possible role of analysis in communication inquiry which could be informative in connection with the state of the discipline. For this end this discussion starts with the analysis of 'analysis' itself, then it tries to apply the various analytical forms to pure communication inquiry. Finally, as an object-lesson, the discussion ends with the analysis of the eminently antinomic but much popular statement that 'one cannot not communicate'. Analyzing analysis