This work presents the first systemic account of the author's innovative theory of semiotic phenomenology and its place in the philosophy of communication and language. The creative and compelling project presented here spans more than fiifteen years of systematic eidetic and empirical research into questions of human communication. Using the thematics of Merleau-Ponty's existential phenomenology, the author explores the concepts and practices of the human sciences that are grounded in communication theory, information theory, language, logic, linguisitcs, and semioitcs. The hermeneutic discussion ranges over contemporary theories that include Roman Jakobson's phenomenological structuralism, the semiotics of Umberto Eco, Charles Pierce, and Alfred Schutz, the theory of speech acts offered by Jurgen Habermas and John Searle, and Michel Foucault's phenomenological rhetoric of discourse. In general, this highly developed study offers the reader a fresh account of the problematic issues in the philosophy of communication. It is a work that any scholar in communication, philosophy, linguistice, or social theory would welcome for its scope and sustained research.

Richard L. Lanigan is University Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Communicology (Emeritus) in the School of Communication, Department of Speech Communication, Southern Illinois University at the main campus in Carbondale, Illinois 62901, USA. He founded the International Communicology Institute (www.communicology.org) at SIU in July 2000. He is currently Executive Director and Fellow of the ICI with the executive office located in the Capitol Hill area of Washington, DC, USA. He is a past Vice President of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, and now serves on the IASS Executive Committee representing the USA. On request by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Cultural and Educational Affairs, he served as a Senior Fulbright Fellow (P.R. China 1996, Cross-Cultural Communication) at Sichuan Union University in Chengdu City, and again as a Senior Fulbright Program Specialist (Canada 2007, Intercultural Communication) at Brock University to assist the Vice President for Research and International Affairs with Chinese student instruction. He is an elected Fellow of the International Academy for Intercultural Research. In 2012, he was elected a Member of the Polish Academy of Science (Philology). He is a past President of the Semiotic Society of America and past Editor (10 years) of The American Journal of Semiotics. He was Guest Editor and contributed to Semiotica (Vol. 41: "Semiotics and Phenomenology", 1982); and, Schutzian Research (Vol. 3: "Phenomenology of the Human Sciences", 2011). He is an elected member of the American Philosophical Association. He was the founding Chair of the Philosophy of Communication Division (#9) of the International Communication Association (First World Congress on Communication Science, Berlin, Germany, 1977; re-elected Chair in 1978, 1979, 1980). His academic awards include: International Scholar Award in Philosophy of Communication 2011, Duquesne University, Phi Kappa Phi Outstanding Scholar Award 1999, National Communication Association (USA) Spotlight on Scholarship Award 1995, Delta Award for Scholarship 1988, Southern Illinois University. VITA material and PDF copies of publications at: siu.academia.edu/RichardLLanigan