The Genealogy of Communication

Abstract

The following article asserts the claim that freedom of thought overrides the current meaning of communication as transmission or that which is said. This freedom introduces the concept that genealogy is a strategy of thought able to liberate us from its current meaning and return to the historical significance of the Latin word communicatio. The genealogy brings up various communication practices (both archaic and modern) and leads to obfuscation, modification, and consolidation of meaning. These various communication practices are revealed by the study and reflection on the Latin and Indo-European roots munus and mei, which form the semantic core of the word communicatio (cum + munus). The increase in technology that regulates the realm of human experience in the world is also analyzed as a fact that warns of the danger of instrumental communication and raises the need for genealogical investigation.